001[Music] gonna call the meeting to order pursuant to the open public meetings after public notice of this meeting has been given by the board secretary in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the vortice township public schools administrative building on july 26 2021 august 24 2021 and december 3rd 2021. sending written notice to the courier post on july 26 2021 august 24th 2021 and december 3rd 2021. filing written notice with the clerk of warheads township on july 26 2021 august 24th 2021 and december 3rd 2021. posting on the voorhees township website on july 26 2021 august 24th 2021 and december 3rd 2021. please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the united states and to the republic for which it stands one nation [Music] good afternoon or evening i can't
002even tell what time of day it is anymore um thank you all for being here it's nice to finally see you a decent crowd um i'm happy to see all the support for the many the many interesting things that are on the agenda for today's discussion um but before we get started um i will actually have a roll call and then i'm going to ask miss vanakken to give an update on the superintendent search mr boyce mrs dr levy here mr schmooze here mrs stupler here mrs van aaken here mrs watson here sure um thank you mrs watson um because our goal is to keep the community up to date on the superintendent search i'd like to spend a few minutes um letting you know where we are in the process this search has taken
003place over a five month period beginning with a planning meeting on october 6 20 2021 and concluding with the conditional selection of a final candidate on january 29 2022 this election was followed by a third-party background investigation and contract negotiations this month tonight we will vote on the contract being sent to the camden county executive for review and approval each at each board member during this process and update has been provided as to the status and progress of the search and status updates are also provided on the district website after the election the one non-incumbent member elected to the board was brought up to date to fully participate in the process we chose hya as a partner due in part by their methodical data-driven and inclusive approach to their search process and as you all
004may remember the first phase of the search was the engagement phase the engagement phase consisted of designing and planning a process of engaging the board and all stakeholders through the through interviews online surveys and focus groups we appreciate the hya offered several interview times and multiple focus groups to accommodate residents schedules the information gathered gathered from these interactions assisted the board in developing a leadership profile and selection criterion that match the priorities of our community and that meet the unique needs of the students who are served through the vorhees township public schools this disciplined inclusive and research-based approach ensured that all stakeholders have an opportunity to be a part of the search process and provided valuable feedback about the school district that assisted the search firm and better understanding our district in the broader marketplace
005approximately 125 community residents participated in interviews online surveys and focus groups and a 502 community surveys were completed having hya's thoughtful gathering of this input was extremely important to the board and all input was included before the board adopted the desired characteristics standard the board believes that this extensive involvement of the community and staff in the leadership profile and desire characteristics ensured that the candidate was selected a candidate selected was representative of the community and the best fit for the district and the township there were 62 potential candidates that started the application process of which 44 had continued the process the process completed the process excuse me applicants uh represented eight different states across the country the search firm vetted and presented 11 potential candidates and after review of all the can all candidates the
006board considered 13 applicants the interviews took place over two eight hour saturdays in which each board members shared thoughts held healthy debates and collaborated it was long but rewarding i want to thank the community for participating during the engagement phase it was an imperative part of the process i also would like to thank hya for their partnership during what might be one of the most important decisions we make thank you thank you very much um i just wanted to let the public know that we will be going into a a relatively brief executive session we have a personnel matter that we need to discuss but we are also going to be discussing the board vacancy process um and when we return we will explain we will explain the process to the public and um and
007move forward with the interview process um we don't expect to be we don't expect to be long i'm not going to put a specific time frame on that um but i i don't imagine we're definitely not going to be more than 30 minutes but i don't even think it will be that long okay can i get a motion to adjourn to executive session it moved second [Music] i'm opening up for voting [Music] okay it's open for online voting to come back into open session anonymous go back into open session okay and um i apologize but we are going to go slightly out of order um very briefly to do a slight agenda item adjustment we're going to move to the superintendent report for one item for the former um board member recognition so that some
008of our attendees can thank you mrs yes tonight we want to recognize two former board members for their service to the community to our students and to our staff first we have mrs don wallace who was elected in 2017 until january of 2020 where she served as both the board president and on several different committees mr wallace was instrumental in bringing full-day kindergarten uh to our district so we would like to thank mr wallace what do you think and second we have uh dr scott faulk scott was appointed um on the board in september 2020 as a replacement for mrs dunleavy uh dr faulk also served on several different committees and he was certainly over the past year my go-to guy on the pandemic and any advice that i needed so doctor's fault we'd like
009to thank you lord would like to um congratulate and thank miss wallace and dr fox for their service and for serving our community thank you so much a couple of announcements um and i apologize that i will have to use my notes um a couple of things so uh we did during executive session deliberate on the process and i will say that under um historically we have conducted these interviews in um executive session mainly because it was at the request of the candidates and for the comfort of the candidates but we appreciate that the interviews can be stressful and unnerving and we were attempting to alleviate some of that unnecessary pressure that said we do recognize that there is a public interest in these interviews and how and why the board will select their preferred
010candidates i will ask however that the public remember that these individuals have all volunteered to serve our community please be respectful i've been personally disgusted by the tenor tone and inappropriate comments i've witnessed recently directed at the board and me personally on social media while healthy to debate and discussion on all topics is always welcome recent comments have been personal attacks and attempts to quote vilify board members and that will not be tolerated we live together we educate our children together we mourn and celebrate together i appreciate that we are all passionate about a lot of topics but do not allow your passion to cloud your judgment there is a way to have healthy discourse even on topics as controversial as masks curriculum and race it is our ability to engage in that healthy discourse
011that enables the board to make the best decisions but if we continue to be victimized and harassed the dialogue will shut down please be kind and respectful to all of these candidates remain silent throughout the entire interview process the community does not get to actively participate in the interviews the deliberations or the decisions themselves you will have an opportunity however during public comment to make any statements you so wish we will have five minutes to hear a statement from each board candidate um then we will have a 10 minute question section we have designated four board members to ask questions everybody will receive the same questions and all four candidates will be um taken off sequestered into another room so that nobody is disadvantaged and heard the questions earlier than the other candidates um at
012this time i'm going to ask all four candidates except for the first one which is miss desai to remain in the room so miss adele um dr fock and mr simkin can be trisha if you will take them down to the other room [Music] are we going to do it at the podium yeah i apologize but we will be i will be setting a timer before we begin can we make sure that the candidate has the speaker on the podium thank you all right bruce yeah marissa how's that that sound good yup that's great thank you okay so just again you'll have five minutes to do your presentation and then there will be four questions asked you'll have about 2.2 minutes to answer each question um i'll advise you to answer each question because we
013want to hear your answers to each of the four questions so please make sure that you stay on task for two minutes about two minutes each question um i will let you know when the two minutes is up okay okay and you ready okay go ahead hi my name is rocky desai um i live in the hermitage section of voorhees i have two young daughters in signal hill second and fifth grade i am here today to be considered for the open board seat i think i can bring um a new perspective a new voice to the board i think i represent a very large and growing community having two young children in the district um definitely helps keep the pulse of the day-to-day happenings which i think is also very beneficial um for the board
014i think the last couple years have been very trying for everybody including students teachers parents my hope is to if i was to be elected to the board you know bridge some of those gaps uh have a middle voice and just you know be able to hear um all sides of any any situation um if you have a background in education i used to teach elementary school i currently teach at the college level um my work background while colorful is very diverse but i do think that helps and lends to me being able to adapt to work with and talk to different types of personalities needs and wants which i do think will be beneficial for the board as well um i will leave it at you know i do think the perspective that i
015can bring to the board will be different and fresh and um i would love to be considered thanks thank you very much um mr schmitz thank you thank you mr scythe for being here tonight my question to you is as a board member what is your position on the use of social media if you were to um become a board member my personal use of social media okay um to be honest i don't use social media very much as it is so um it's not something that i would look i wouldn't use it as a platform um if it was something that was necessary that was going to benefit the district or the board or the children certainly i would participate in it but i don't believe in using social media as a platform for
016anything especially discourse about any serious topics thank you uh this is stupor thank you for being here um i have one question for you why didn't you run in the general election sure i had considered it um at the time my schedule did not allow for me to even think about you know just the running the campaigning i've had a significant schedule change since then and this opportunity presented itself so i just thought it was a good time to give it a try mr bryce thank you again for joining us to know what do you think the role of public education includes i think the role of public education is um just awareness and for the for our students for especially our younger students um of course academically um that you know they need to
017be brought up to speed especially right now with what's happened in the last couple of years but there's definitely a social aspect of public schools that is very important and it's i know we as a district we focus a lot on anti-bullying which is very important i think there's another aspect um another component to that which is awareness and understanding of differences and not just the basic differences that we've been used to but you know now you look deeper especially after the last couple years children that have suffered you know mental illness behavior issues you know we have a growing lgbtq community that needs attention so i think of course academics are very important um and i think as as a district we've always done a good job academically but there's a social aspect that
018needs to be incorporated into that as well dr levy thank you for joining us this evening and especially for putting yourself out there publicly to interview for this position could you please describe your position on dei diversity equity and inclusion including race and gender identity specifically yes of course i actually do things dei is um very important um it needs to be discussed much deeper and i actually think it also needs to be discussed and brought to attention probably at a much younger age than we even talk about now um i think it's something that's growing bigger and bigger and i think our children at a very young age need to be much more aware of what these differences are again as i was saying before having them aware only helps them to understand and
019accept um these situations from an early age thank you very much we we greatly appreciate you thank you and um and your participation in this process i appreciate it thank you danielle if you could get the next candidate uh mrs edell thank you [Music] um [Music] i just want to remind you you'll have five minutes to make your presentation and then we have four designated questions for you we've estimated that it should take about two minutes per question if you want to make sure that you get through each question in the designated 10-minute time frame um and i will be keeping time and i will let you know to the extent you need that you're not keeping track um but aside from that let me know when you are ready okay before i do anything
020do you need me to sign in here or just nope go okay all right okay thank you steven board members an interim superintendent michael redfearn in community i'm submitting my name as you know for the board of education as for replacement for mrs dawn wallace so i'm sure you all recall i was the november candidate i came within 16 votes being elected to the seat held by mrs van aiken who received three thousand four hundred ninety three votes at eighteen point six three percent to my three thousand four hundred and seventy seven votes at eighteen point five four percent of the total votes since mrs wallace's resignation occurred within ninety days of this election it seems like the most fair and democratic way to fill this position with the person who best represents the voice
021and will of the voorhees community further by doing so the board will demonstrate they will not allow personal politics to interfere with supporting the candidate before voorhees voters felt best advocated for the parents children and teachers of our school district as some of you may know i am a 21 year resident of voorhees residing with my husband of 20 years along with my 12 year old daughter aaron who is here with me tonight and she is a seventh grader at bms and my ten-year-old kira who is a fifth grader at creston elementary i'm a licensed social worker having a team my master's at rutgers university in camden along with a bachelor of science in psychology from drexel university in philadelphia i belong to the national association of social workers and have over 17 years clinical
022experience providing psychotherapeutic which is individual group and family therapy case management discharge planning services various mental health and substance abuse settings i work with children adolescents and adults of diverse backgrounds and all levels of care with special needs inmates in the med men's medium security correctional facility which demonstrates my commitment to assisting in well-being and success of others i've dealt with everything from suicide attempts and self-harm behavior eating disorders identity issues with everything from suicide attempts and self-harm behavior sexual assault substance abuse addiction issues behavioral problems medication refusal additionally i worked as a case manager for behavioral health insurer completing pre-search for mental health and substance abuse treatment utilizing medical necessity criteria and best practice guidelines demonstrating my knowledge and commitment to evidence-based treatment in july 2020 i had the pleasure of working on the
023road back to school plan committee with our previous superintendent dr david gentile an effort to get our children back in-person learning in the least restrictive and safest environment possible i'm pursuing a position on the board to be a voice for the parents children and teachers of this community i believe the primary role of education is to ensure our children provide it with an honest vision of what it means to be an engaged citizen of this wonderfully diverse country and community in order to achieve that our educators must promote the values and teach the skills of thinking leadership and teamwork so that they can become independent thinkers who are able to problem-solve on their own and promote liberty of thought speech and religion the focus of education should not be on what is culturally or politically
024relevant at the time but on basic skills of math science english and history the good and the bad in order for them to be successful and independent adults striving for a better future than our own when parents send their children to school they do so with the belief their rights as parents not end with their children walk through the school door that their morals values and beliefs that they instilled in their children are being valued and respected it's been a difficult time for parents and their children as well as our teachers throughout the coveted pandemic having to navigate uncharted territory i witnessed the negative impact school closures have had in our children especially those identified as special needs children's have fallen behind academically as many parents are unable to work from home or take time
025off to assist their children in navigating the challenges of virtual learning they were isolated from their friends at a time when social interaction is important in their social and cognitive development resulting in depression and anxiety-related disorders we have witnessed government mandates put into effect that were not based on science rather on politics these mandates encroached upon parental and student rights implementing questionable policies over very valid objective objections for many parents policies were enacted not based on science rather based on fear as such it's my intention to be an advocate for parental choice parental rights academic excellence physical responsibility transparency and accountability especially it pertains to personal issues and future curriculum changes in order to maintain learning consistency prevent bureaucratic overreach prevent any future closures and eruptions flexibility for local school districts early childhood learning and
026education after school programs and expanded learning especially for special needs at risk children as a parent with two children who have medical issues i am aware that nobody knows my children and their needs better than i do just as nobody knows your children better than you do i have learned this through my interactions with her doctors teachers extended family and people in this community that's why i feel it's important to ensure that parents have the final say in their children's medical and educational needs i expect that i when i speak about my children staff will listen and know what i know best as a member of the school board i would fully intend to listen to the parents of this community thank you thank you for uh my question to you is as a board
027member what is your position on the use of social media if you were to become a board member what would your position be on the why we need to follow the guidelines and policies of the board mm-hmm the general election mr he did so it's probably not yes i did one in the general election as you know came within 16 votes oh thank you uh mr bryce thank you for joining my business my question to you is what do you think the role of public education includes role of public education what it includes what do you think the role of public education includes well it includes many things it includes our you know our belief in terms of following our math science education in terms of our history involving parental uh i think parents should
028have a right to include what they feel should be followed in the guidelines not excluding them from participating in that and their children's educational needs uh i think we need to keep an open mind in terms of following also medical necessity and uh policy guidelines for ensuring our children get the best education that comes in their community i think we've done that i think voorhees is an awesome community which is why i came here i think we're doing an awesome uh job at educating our kids in this community i have never had any real doubts about the education my children are getting my only concern is making sure that parent rights are followed this has been a challenging time with cobit i witnessed unfortunately some kids who have fallen behind as a result their parents
029not being able to be home to work with their kids and that has been my main concern and why it was a big reason for me to pursue a position on the board i've had some kids in my own community i took them in my home during covid assisted them in terms of uh with their educational needs especially some kids who uh english or their second language her parents weren't able to assist them they had no idea how to uh you know navigate with them in terms of the internet was down so i think it takes a community to help our kids in terms of helping them with their public education sure dr levy thank you so much for joining us this evening i know this process can be a little bit nerve-wracking um my
030question for you is can you please describe your position on dei diversity equity and inclusion including race and gender identity specifically well in terms of that issue my my concern is making sure that parents have a right in terms of policy seven five six my concern with that is parents not having the right to consent or the knowledge of children being able to change their identity or their uh or their um name and i i'm a concern about that i think kids uh who are going through puberty going through a change in uh adolescence need their parents guidance as you i'm sure many of you know we use our family values our our religion our um uh our culture and helping us to navigate those issues it's not fair for our children who can't even
031who don't even have a driver's license they can't even get a driver's license at 16 but yet we're giving them the right to be able to change their gender and their name without parental consent i i have a problem with that especially as a as a clinician when i work with my with parents and with children is to ensure that we are able to work together and helping our children navigate that ensure parents have are together and helping their children navigate those difficult times and adolescence so that's where i stand on that issue making sure that parents are involved in that process thanks so much for your answer this is adele thank you so much for your time and for being a candidate for this vacancy um we appreciate it is that it all right
032thank you i appreciate your time danielle if you could get dr faulk please thank you you hi dr faulk i just want to remind you that you'll have five minutes to make a brief um speech and then we will have four individuals designated on the board to ask questions we are estimating about two minutes per question we're going to give you 10 minutes for that entire question section i will keep you on time to the extent you go off time um but let me know when you are ready and we will start the talk all right well i am ready great thank you so mr rudford and board members thank you for um honoring me and allowing me to come back and and apply for this position it's um you know it was a a
033tremendous honor to serve on the board before and i i learned a tremendous amount and and hoped that i was at least somewhat helpful as we we went through the the struggles of the last couple of years the um you know when when i saw this position come open i i i really i didn't take it um lightly i i thought hard about whether or not i wanted to come back onto the board and um and i struggled with it and for a number of reasons but but what it came down to is that that i really wanted to serve the community and make sure the children of the community had the um the best opportunities to succeed in the future it's quite the bug that's flying around there so so that was more important
034to me than than anything that was holding me back from from applying again the um you know i i think that you know some of the skills that i lend can be useful to the to the board i you know work a lot with the educational community and um and think that that the values that i bring are are important for for our community and also for the the success of our students in the future i am i'm really excited about having you know our new superintendent start um i'm not sure who it is but but i think that there's always opportunity whenever you have a new leadership team and i look forward to if i get to to work with them to help guide the district into the future and make sure that our
035children have the best opportunity for success um i want to spend just a couple of seconds talking about the things that i value in leadership so so i think um data-driven leadership is really important um making sure that we're making decisions based on data rather than emotions is sort of my mo at work i think that that was my mo when i was on the board before so so ensuring that we're making the right decisions again that that are going to lead to a successful future and lead to all of the outcomes that we want for our children which i think is to give them the opportunity to be the best that they can be and to be as successful as they can be when they graduate so so i know that that was brief
036but you know i've been told before that brevity is the soul of wit so good to see you again it's nice to see you too thank you for coming so my question to you is as a board member what is your position on the use of social media um it's really interesting because i tend to only use social media professionally so so the only social media that i'm actively engaged with is linkedin which is a professional account you know i i definitely work professionally with with them with others on that you know we exchange what's what i think is purely professional information about new findings in science and medicine but but i tend to stay out of other types of social media i think that it's more of a distraction than it's worth i am
037i did create an instagram account because my son told me i had to so i could see so i could see a live video that he was doing one time so so i logged on and saw his live video i have exactly i think one friend on instagram which is my son um i do have a facebook account which i haven't logged on to since i think it's 2012 or so so so again i think that you know our role as a as board members is to be able to to communicate effectively with our public and i know that social media can be one way to do that but i also think that there's there's a lot that goes on in social media that can be very distracting um and can be very emotionally roiling
038so so i'd rather not let that distract me and do things in a thoughtful and in a and data-driven way rather than being sucked into the emotional aspects of social media great thank you you're welcome why didn't you run in the general election it's a good question um so so i didn't get my paperwork in on time that's that's really it so yeah i i just i got distracted it was a really busy springtime um and i just didn't get my paperwork in on time wait yeah mr bryce what do you think the role of public education includes so so i think when i think about what our obligation is to our children it's to teach them how to think on their own to be successful on their own so so we need to give
039them the tools to be able to analyze the world around them to be able to integrate with the world around them to be able to be thoughtful about the world around them and to be able to work with those around them in a team-based way to be successful in their life and and i think that it's evolving so so public education you know it's it's changed from the days of rote memorization where we're saying this is the curriculum and these are all the facts that you have to know to to a standard where it's this is how you need to think about things and this is how we'd like you to think about things to analyze the problems on your own so you're able to make these own decisions because you're going to be an
040independent adult you know sooner than a lot of us would would hope and i can say that having a teenager that it's important for people to for our children to learn how to make those decisions and how to think on their own and how to analyze and and be really thoughtful citizens by themselves you're welcome dr levy thanks for joining us this evening dr faulk i know these interviews can be a little nerve-wracking so we appreciate you putting yourself out there my question for you is um can you please describe your position on dei diversity equity and inclusion including race and gender identity specifically yeah so so i think being inclusive is incredibly important making sure that all of our students feel like they're included so they can have the opportunity to have a tremendous
041education i think when we have exclusive policies policies where people don't feel comfortable they're not going to learn everything that they need to and they're not going to have the best opportunities for success that they need to um it's also important for us i think to recognize that that um you know our society is evolving as a whole and having an inclusive society where where everybody is strongly represented is is really important to have different voices at the table and make sure that voices that weren't at the table previously now have an opportunity to be at that table to have their voice heard and to become parts of our leadership thank you thank you thank you very much for your time um and thank you for your candidacy for the vacancy um we appreciate you
042being here thank you my excuse yes okay i know if you could bring mr simkin please uh mr simkin um you will have five minutes to provide a brief statement to the board um and then we have four individuals or designated individuals on behalf of the board that will have questions for you we're estimating about two minutes per question so a total of 10 minutes for the question period i will be keeping track of time to the extent that you go off track um but that is about the extent of it so you have any questions about the procedure no i'm good thank you great all right let me know when you're ready i'm ready start it up and you shall teach diligently to thy children speak with them sit with them to me that
043means values thank you to the residents of voorhees township board of education members administrators staff and guests for being here to hear why the applicants who aspire to fill the current board vacancy should receive the nomination it definitely has come abundantly clear to me that there is quite a gap between the views of what should be happening in our schools and what's happening amongst the community um and uh you know it's it's not meant to be that way but it's gotten that way so we'd like to try and fix it but according to new jersey title 18a 2012-24.1 the code of ethics for school board members i understand how a school board is to operate the responsibilities of a school board member are confined to policy making planning and appraisal it also states that policies
044are to be framed policies and plans to institute those policies only after the board has consulted with those who will be affected by them and in the case of most policies relevant to running the schools those who are affected by them are the members of the public and therefore in my opinion the board should make every effort possible to include members of the public in decisions and i just don't see how that's happening quite often in our township let me explain why i'm here today seeking the appointment of the board just a little about me both of my parents are retired public educate education administrators i grew up hearing all the stories one could imagine about the daily occurrences in the school district i learned to greatly respect our school system i learned how a
045school district should be run in the views of my family and i learned that my parents were accountable to the students in the community to ensure each child receives the highest level of education possible and that each child deserves so looking over you know some of the things on the new jersey school board association websites which seemed like interesting questions to be answered aside from the ones that you have tonight uh some of those were why do you want to serve on the on the school board my answer is i feel i can bring a different viewpoint on most of the debatable topics i'm well read and informed on both historical and current events i can provide factual information to the board so that when decisions are made at least there will be another source
046of facts rather than a potentially lopsided source next question i saw was do you understand the time commitment i mean i think everyone knows that on the board i've spent a lot of hours independently researching and making the public aware of my findings i am certain that time far exceeds any time requirement my board membership would entail but i would still complete my own due diligence on the issues as well and the last question was what perspectives will you bring to the table and as i mentioned my perspectives are based on factual information that i find while doing my research i understand that individuals or groups of individuals can have opposing view there may be large gaps in ideology but i'm committed to shortening those gaps by effectively communicating views and facts with the public
047and fellow board members my question to you is as a board member what is your position on the use of social media well that's a great question uh the simple answer is uh my view on is to follow the written policy that exists i think it's an excellent policy one should not um engage with the public about board business or school business and if that happens you refer to the board president um you should not express your personal views although you're allowed to just not on behalf of the school system or the school board i think that would clarify exactly how i feel about the social media policy thank you thank you that's a great question also i really considered it and i didn't feel that at the time that i had enough viable or
048factual information about the goings-on in voorhees township to be able to properly serve however i've been endeavoring and understanding that and i feel that at this point in time and in the future i'll continue to be able to be abreast of the situations that are affecting our community mr bryce i'm gonna answer that i gotta think for just one moment because you know those those definitions of what kind of the whole consensus of the public fuels those roles are have changed dramatically over decades really nothing recent but i believe that the role of the public schools is to give what's guaranteed to every student in any district and that is an education actually free education i know it's not really free because we're paying taxes but every student is entitled to an equal actually opportunity
049to enjoy the best education that any district can give those students it's preparing for life i understand that nowadays it's preparing for entering society my concerns are what part of society who's deciding what society is doing and what's acceptable to enter that society and i feel that um that's where i feel the public schools and this district could could could gain a better sense of that with more public interaction thank you thanks so much for joining us this evening i know this process is a little nerve-wracking so i appreciate you putting yourself up there my question for you is if you could please describe your position on eei diversity equity and inclusion including race and gender identity specifically well i definitely understand that community is diverse with the members that reside within it and i
050believe in accepting every member of the community um regardless of race age sex sexual orientation gender if i missed anything i apologize because i wasn't prepared to read the exact list um but uh i do believe that um inclusivity also needs to occur so that we're not excluding people i just fear that sometimes inclusion in smaller groups affects the greater group of young citizens and old like adults as well so what i don't like seeing is inclusion that starts to exclude others but if we can all you know find ways to to to encompass all those areas i think it's phenomenal and lastly with equity i would answer that by clarifying my views on what it means i believe that equality actually refers to opportunity and in some cases not all of course equity has
051been it's i'm sensing that it's starting to feel like it's uh it's almost like a an outcome situation where you really can't control all the outcomes um and i understand how the school system defines equity and and i i don't fully agree or disagree with all of it i could say that uh where i stand on it is i understand it's a par part of our education system and i would just like to make sure that everyone receives what they're entitled to which is the best possible education that a school district so much for your answer thank you for being here um this evening for being a candidate for this vacancy thank you for having me we appreciate your time thank you danielle's going to go and bring everybody back perfect you can um you
052can stay in here [Music] so thank you again to everyone for participating uh for putting your names in the hat for the vacancy position um it's wonderful to see so many people volunteering their time and energy i know this takes a lot of effort so we greatly appreciate everyone um everyone taking the time um now we will open uh it up for board vacancy nominations and discussion president i'd like to nominate dr scott paul i would like to nominate uh robbie decides any other nominations but i have a motion to close the nominations uh motion to close the nominations and we we vote in the order of the nomination so we will be voting on dr scott's fault for this time should i open the voting right now so this vote is to vote on
053the first nomination of dr scott faulk and then if if that's not a majority we move to the next one all right i'll open the voting okay i'm sorry okay i will read off the votes mr bryce yes mrs casenza yes miss galiano no dr levy yes mr schmooze yes mrs stupler no mrs van aaken yes mrs watson yes so it's a vote of six to two for dr falk so dr faulk wins the nomination congratulations [Music] yes can i get a motion to approve the minutes of the january 22nd 20 2022 meeting as shown on the attachment for the regular meeting executive session so moved second loading is open voting is unanimously yes i'm closing the voting can i get a motion to approve the minutes of the january 24th 2022 meeting as shown
054in the attachment for the regular meeting and executive session voting is open i have seven yeses and one abstention by ms galliano closing the voting i am motioned to approve the minutes of the january 29th 2022 meeting as shown in the attachment the regular meeting and the executive session so moved online voting is open the motion is unanimously passed i'm closing the voting i get a motion to approve the minutes of the special meeting on february 2nd 20 uh 2022 as shown on the attachment second online voting is open motion unanimously passes i'm closing the voting under information items you will see the bus evacuation drills as shown the attachments suspensions fire drills and safety drills the hib report and the enrollment as of february 15 2022 there are no items under communications board secretary
055report sure um there's many dates that we've listed on our agenda for our for the budget timeline some of them have been pushed back a little bit typically by law the governor makes the budget address on the last tuesday of february which would have been february 22nd and then state eight figures are released on the 24th um both those dates have been pushed back to march 8th and march 10th so we will get our state aid figures on march 10. the budget will be presented and voted upon for submission to the county on march 16th uh originally it was due at the county by the 21st of march that's also been pushed back by the 28th we're still shooting for submitting it on time though um then the last day for county for the county
056to approve the budget is april 20th we'll place the ad in the paper which is our advertised budget uh to advertise the budget and fall for the public hearing that that will be advertised approximately april 27th and our public hearing and final budget adoption will be at our may 4th meeting so that's the timeline another thing to talk about is right now all administrators and board members have received their um personal relative financial disclosure statement and that is due by the end of april so if you did you should have gotten an email with that so if you can complete that that would be great if you have any questions please reach out to trisha malidi these next two things are grant funded but we have this wellness grant through our state through our school's
057health insurance fund and it provides challenges for our staff one is called the tavi challenge one is prasada and it includes like walking challenges exercise challenges and again it's all grant funded it just mostly prevents promotes wellness and we have several winners that are listed what happens is when they reach certain milestones their names get drawn and they get a reward they get like 25 or 50 something along those lines so our winners of our tavi challenge are lisa bailey elaine banch ashley corcoran mary ellen fitzpatrick wendy koenig joyce lorella casey stevens kimberly stratton and russell winsett and then the prasada it was more of an online thing and there's like yoga in different classes and in october we had winners vicki hill and trish lancaster in november eileen adams and vicki hill december trish
058lancaster and allison francolino and in january eileen adams and melissa ruff so you can tell that some of these employees are very active and competitive and we congratulate them and we thank them for their participation and we're grateful to our shift for the grants that we've received in this area thank you that's all i have thank you to all of the uh to all the winners superintendent report uh thank you madam president a couple of things i'll be brief first i want to uh congratulate all of our bms winter sports they all had winning seasons this year uh and a special congratulations to our girls basketball team i had the opportunity to go watch them play in the championship game at beck uh and while they did not you know they did they came out
059on the short end of the game the girls played extremely hard and they should be very proud of themselves for what they've done our vms drama club is gearing up for their performance of once on this island that will be march 11th 12th and 13th at the vms theater and tickets are still available for all of those shows i just wanted to clarify uh i've got some questions about snow days and delayed openings i just want everybody to understand we don't make that call alone uh we do share buses with eastern so they'll pick up at easter and then they pick up at middle school then they pick up the elementary school so we have to coordinate any delays delayed openings with eastern high school um so we coordinate that together i know sometimes conditions
060seem that they're fine at nine o'clock but they may not have been fined at seven o'clock when the high school starts so we do coordinate that together i have an agreement we kind of have a little agreement with the sending districts and eastern that if the weather's questionable we all are up at four o'clock a.m and we come together and you know we're meeting watching the weather forecast and discussing what we should do so we do coordinate uh that together just to clarify that there is a new requirement and some of you may have been getting an email that whenever a school does a security drill the parents have to be contacted by the end of that day that's for security drills does not include fire drills or standard fire drills so if you started
061to get these emails um it's just the new law that has gone into effect so the parents know that these drills took place so when your child comes home and says we did a drill uh you'll know ahead of time that it was that it did take place and school was aware of it on february 10th uh 2022 mrs haley dr young and i we had our preliminary uh meeting with cusack and that is the quality single accountability continuum and every three years every public school system in new jersey has to be evaluated by the department of education uh so we literally have uploaded tens of thousands of document pages of documents to the department of ed and they will go through them it's everything from policy to procedures to curriculum to finances operations so
062that that was the start of it that was our first meeting with them we got some positive comments on that and then they will be coming through to take a tour of our buildings they have not told us when that will take place but they will take a physical uh tour of our facilities on friday we'll be doing our mid-year budget review with the county so they'll go over we'll sit down mrs haley and dr young will sit down with the county uh and they will take a look at our budget since we're halfway through the school year and we'll take a look at that and finally i designated february as teachers pet month so what i did was each teacher at the different schools they submitted a picture of their pet and i had
063some teachers at each school uh who were the lead people in that so i would like to thank ali farrell at hamilton tris salka at signal hill danielle danielle rachel osage jennifer brandt supported cress and sue donnelly did the administration building uh crystal love melanie do and the vms student council uh took care of the contest at that's at the bms school so the teachers submitted a picture of their pet the students voted to see which pet would win at that school so we have six each board member has a index card and a pen so we're going to show you the six winning pets um and then we're going to ask you to vote uh put you on the spot and see which one is the winner i'd like to say they will get
064a year supply of dog or cat food but that's not going to work when you see the pets okay mr taylor okay contestant number one is cash very cute number two is dexter oh my god we have leo and lola and we have pickles [Laughter] oh man and grizz hi and finally hudson okay so there we go we're members you're you're on the clock is it dash you just put a number on your card and then how long will be the keeper of the votes did you say i'm going to keep you safe then we'll put the winner up on our website and our facebook page thank you very much um miss galliano will you provide a policy committee report i think we skipped some i'm sorry committee reporter i'm sorry i was okay dana
065i'm sorry that's okay will you do the policy committee thanks the policy committee met this evening and we discussed policies for first reading and um thank you audience participation anyone wishing to address the board please approach the podium and write your name and address on the login sheet if you are attending via zoom please use the raise your hand feature to be acknowledged while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public relating to items on the agenda for this board meeting comments are limited to three minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of
066a later board meeting of any action the board does take i see no comments okay going once good okay board comments i'd like to thank uh mr redfern for all of his work uh over the past i don't know how long it's been at this point months um we've had a number of new and creative activities for the students to vote on um teacher morale has been um i think impacted by your leadership and i just want you to know i appreciate the way that you've stepped in uh for the township and um that it it doesn't go without notice really appreciate everything that you've done and and continue to do thank you thank you i second that yes i think we all feel we all feel that way you have been instrumental any other
067board comments yes um so i really appreciate that and that really shows a lot of dedication and support um i guess based on the agenda tonight i was under the impression that we were going to deliberate um on the candidates and my feeling was the vote should be based on the public just like any other board so i think choices should have been based more on the public um as we are serving the public in our homes any other comments um there are no items under transportation policy can i get a motion to approve all of the items under policy so moved online voting is open is unanimous i'm closing the voting can i get a motion to approve all of the items under personnel online voting is open all votes are yes with a
068note with a no by ms galliano closing the voting and saving it no actions under deferred action new business can i get a motion to approve all of the items under new business so moved a second online voting is open all votes are all votes are in and they're all yes voting is closing our next regular meeting will be at 7 pm on march 16 2022 at the administration building audience participation anyone wishing to address the board please approach the podium and write your name and address on the login sheet if you are attending via zoom please use the raise your hand feature to be acknowledged while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments
069from the public comments are limited to three minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take i'll start my timer until [Music] okay ready you want to state your name first michelle necita address if you want to come over 38 cents very dry okay go ahead come over call my employer whatever you want to do um i appreciate each candidate's willingness to be interviewed publicly honestly i do it's not an easy position to be in and it certainly will prepare you for the judgment that you're bound to face should you uh plan for now or join the board report in the future so not as they'll
070probably i'll tell you to navigate uh mrs steepler brought up an interesting point which is uh what the public wants so i just thought you know as a member of the public it would be good for you to hear at least from my vantage point what the public wants um we had a candidate that stated that the board should base their decision on what the public supported in their vote in november um this is an interesting point what does the public want we saw this evening a diverse group of candidates and opinions one of those candidates noted that parents should have the right to participate in their children's education i believe they do this opportunity exists through the elected members of our board one and attending public meetings one of the candidates also stated that
071you should select them because they came within 16 votes however there were other candidates here this evening that were not on the ballot that perhaps the public would have voted for were they on the ballot so that is an important point i think to remember another candidate stated something we want to fix it when referring to the views on the climate and public education i'm not sure who the we is that he was referring to however the we that i know and interact with and have for years in this community supports and welcomes the mindfulness and emotional intelligence that dr klopp and mrs desai slade so we in this community at large supports the current classroom experience which is why we wanted our board members to return our children to the classroom it's why we
072were so interested in the reopening plan and why we advocated full-day kindergarten it's why we want our children in school in the classrooms with the teachers that we love so much we're not afraid or opposed of what they're learning we appreciate it and we support it what i am learning through raising a teenager in this district is that oftentimes the educators see my child for who they are rather than for who i want them to be or think they should be this is demonstrated by my own teenager who still refers back to mrs farrell at hamilton and mrs zielinski at vms who she tells me all the time get her so i just want to say that that's my opinion of what i think the community wants so thank you thank you good evening julie
073cut over 9 fairway drive i stand with other vorhees residents who want our children not only to have a strong academic foundation but to also be taught critical and independent thinking skills i do not agree with parent choice which is a euphemism for total parental control in a system in which that is not only impractical and impossible but also totally at odds with the objectives that system was designed to achieve indoctrination of children with their parents views can be accomplished in homeschooling not in public school i'm a zealous advocate for my children and for your children but parent control as formulated in national discourse does not work in public schools and it is driving away many talented educators sometimes it sees it seems as though people who espouse these views actually want public schools to
074fail in public schools children should learn how to how to think for themselves they should learn compassion for others and how to function in community i support a well-rounded curriculum that ensures our youth grow up with the ability to develop their own views a curriculum that celebrates diversity teaches inclusion and strives for equity and justice i stand for the teaching of truthful history in an age-appropriate way even when that means delving into hard topics like racism and holocaust education open access to the books that explore these top topics and robust social and emotional learning that supports our kids to learn resilience and coping skills and to be agents of their own well-being public education is under attack and i wanted to be clear that parents united and their supporters do not speak for me and
075they do not have the interest of my children or of the public schools more generally in mind thank you um bless you hello my my name is trisha chadwick and i live at 101 blue ridge road and the green ridge section of voorhees and i stand in opposition to a growing and very vocal minority i stand united with other residents of voorhees in support of public education to let you know that i trust our elected representatives to make appropriate and well thought out decisions with the best interest of all of our children thank you for volunteering your time to ensure our schools remain excellent i trust teachers i trust them to make professional judgments and exercise their extensive education and training to teach our youth age-appropriate content in all areas including diversity equity and inclusion
076social emotional learning and an accurate and factual history and i just want to say i'm relieved and happy that your appointment appears to embody those ideals tonight thank you very much aaron brewton 62 woodstone drive thank you everybody i also stand united with other residents of 40s for our children to be taught critical thinking which to me involves considering alternatives to what we understand evaluating what are what is the actual evidence the one set of truth not seeking alternative truths that match our ideology but actually looking for what is factual on the ground i also support the teaching of diversity equity and inclusion my own professional life this has been absolutely critical not just to be welcoming to others but of course that's important but also seeking positions that would counter my uh encounter my
077own in order to be able to head off trouble or misunderstanding that i might have in the future to invite criticism of my own work or my own narrow understanding of things that involves seeking specifically people who have different backgrounds than my own age race uh orientation other types of differences and i would like that to be reflected in our education system so thank you for your time thank you for your choices and have a good night your license key authority [Music] hello joseph petataman 219 homer um i apologize i'm in between two zoo meetings one for the voorhees planning board and this one um i wanted to thank mr redfearn um as a colleague and as a parent um he's done a great job he's included everything the communication has been great and i
078feel we he's done a great job to keep us where we are and moving in the right direction so i wanted to thank him not only as a colleague but also as a parent thank you very much you want to see if carrick you want to try cara again [Music] i wish any other comments [Music] hi marcy rosenstein 26th down in lead um i just want to thank you for your service i've seen the attacks and um you know for volunteers and i appreciate you stepping up um thank you for listening to the candidates and really hearing what they have to say there's a vocal minority who are standing for many things that i don't think are the values of most workees and frankly we've a lot of us become too complacent by allowing them
079to hijack the conversation the thought of having curriculum guided by parents sounds good but it's illogical our role is to advocate for our children yes absolutely but to watch them grow into young adults with the confidence of their own beliefs public education is for all children all races all genders all religion all special needs all sexuality and that's what more he should sorry no you're fine uh trish saka nine pavilion road here in vorhees um i didn't wasn't going to speak tonight i didn't think i was going to need to but i after hearing the agenda and all the discussion about the superintendent search i got a little nervous that the decision has been finalized and i just didn't want to be completely voted on without speaking um on behalf of what's happened here i
080am a resident of where he's 26 years both of my daughters have gone through the school system graduated eastern high school uh pta president at crescent i'm also a 10-year employee at signaling so um mr redfern stepped in when this district was drowning he stepped in in a matter of hours i am getting the very uncertain feeling that this board has their candidate in front of them and they're not choosing him and that scares me as an employee it scares me as a parent it scares me as a resident we had mr brozle here for 30 plus years to build this district up from what that's why i moved here i moved here 26 years ago and mr redfern worked under mr burzel's administration and every position possible here in the district so i'm a
081little nervous that when we went outside of the district for our last candidates that we kind of saw what happened i'm a little nervous that we chose mr redfearn very quickly as the person to get us out of the trenches and i just am nervous that we're overlooking something that's right in front of us so i just wanted to say that and thank you so much for everything you've done the staff will be devastated if you're not here hi can you hear me yes okay i was trying before it was not working um okay thank you uh my name is kara thornton uh my pronouns are she and her i'm from 37th and rollingwood drive um i just wanted to say it and i'm hopefully speaking for i think most of the community here i
082stand united with other residents abortions for our children to be taught critical thinking and to have lifelong compassion for their friends family and community as such i believe and support the following public education and well-rounded curriculum to ensure our youth grow up with the ability to think for themselves dei the teaching of truthful history in an age-appropriate way even when that means explaining hard topics such as slavery and the holocaust open access to the books that teach these topics and sel i stand against racism homophobia transphobia anti-semitism and the attempted erasure of history through censorship censorship book bannings and personal vendettas waged against the board of education both here and across the country knowledge and education are we give people power not willful or ironically learned ignorance turn off fox news and go read the
083books you want to ban thank you [Music] um um oh all right so can you hear me now yeah that's better i guess i just have to speak up i just thought i was just talking about a list of book titles that were given to our media specialists um to be submitted to uh the district's attorney um and i think we're a little confused or concerned about what that entails and um i agree with you that there is apparently a list of books and from my understanding is some of the books have to do with diversity issues i'm not sure where this is going or what it's being used for but i just want to mention the word was aware that there are there was requests to be submitted thank you [Music] i don't know
084any other comments [Music] board comments i have one mr swanson actually my list has grown um first i want to thank all of you who have come out today um we have certainly um we certainly appreciate that there is a a good reflection of the community is is here today so we appreciate that um second i want to congratulate dr falk um the board is is very lucky to have you very lucky um and i also want to thank mr redfearn you have stepped in and done a tremendous job and obviously uh the culture that you created was exactly exactly what we needed so thank you for for your commitment i also want to um make an announcement that uh it is with mixed emotions uh i am announcing my resignation from the board of
085education effective tomorrow january 24th happily my family has decided to move closer to family out of state however it was my dedication to and service to this board that made this choice so very difficult it has been a challenging yet rewarding experience and an honor to serve the community the staff and the children of voorhees township public schools although i feel both admiration for and pride in this community i would be remiss if i didn't take this opportunity to challenge some of our community members to do better do better by offering more compassion more civility a better understanding of who it is we are all here to ultimately serve us and that is our students while last year two years has been a a challenge for everyone the behaviors from a small group of our
086community have made this volunteer role even more difficult and unnecessarily so members of this board have been subjected to numerous forms of abuse including faceless accusations and threats from a small but vocal group of people nonetheless i stand here with no doubt in my mind that every one of my colleagues on this board have our students at the heart of their decisions i wish my colleagues the best i wish you continued focus on making the decisions that are right for our students our staff and our community it has truly been an honor to serve you serve with you point of clarification you mean february 24th when when was i january january time travel hasn't quite caught up first i wanted to thank mr lanzalata and dr rossi they were both the wrestling coaches this year
087and i'm not sure unless you know my youngest child had special needs and they welcomed him on the wrestling team and they created an amazing environment for my son um we all talk about equity and inclusion you should have come and saw what i saw and how they made my son feel like an equal part of the team and he was included and he even got to participate and wrestle two matches did win but at least he felt like an equal member of the team um so i am so appreciative that we have teachers in our school district that really not just talk the talks but walk the walk so i'm so grateful and so thankful that my son was able to have an excellent opportunity and they really set an amazing example for the
088other young men on the school and to really show them what true inclusion really means and as i mentioned before i we did a in your party as a thank you to the team my family and everybody so generously participated mr redfern and this collaborative team showed their support so i'm truly truly grateful that my son can have these opportunities and be welcomed as a real you know feel equality and inclusion um so i'm so grateful that i live in that area that you know we can experience such a thing and i'm also grateful for everybody being here in our community speaking up and showing up and really taking a part in such an important topic which is our children so i'm grateful you know that we have such an engaged community um i just
089want to take the time to thank rachel for her time and dedication on the board it has not been an easy two years to say the least and uh i gotta go for sentiments and hope that the community will listen to what she's stating in regards to how hard it is to be up here because it's not easy so thank you rachel for your time and medication and good luck thank you i have two comments i can't tell if anyone else is uh in line though it's yours okay thank you um so first i'd like to thank uh mrs van aaken for her service um it is as i think that was uh ms scaliano saying it's not easy to be up there but um i will say one of the things i have appreciated
090um as mrs watson and mrs vannock and have run our board is transparent communication which has made sitting on the board much easier um and i think this is my seventh year on the board sometimes communication has been better sometimes it hasn't been but what you two have done is making a team of being president and vice president um seems to really work and i hope that's something that will continue as we have to now look for a new vice president i'm assuming at an upcoming board meeting as well as fill this vacancy so i wanted to let you know that i really appreciate your service um on the board and all of the areas of expertise that you brought to the board of ed i also want um to thank the teachers and the
091nurses um i'm thrilled that we have a board meeting that's not focused solely around um kovid but i also want to acknowledge that it's still out there and our teachers are still going above and beyond to include students who are quarantined in courses when it fits in terms of remote learning the nurses are still incorporating all the protocols from making sure kids are staying out when they need to making sure they can come back when they're safe to do so and i know that just because our numbers are going down it doesn't mean that they're zero there's still a lot of kids who are out for testing and for potential quarantine so i want all of the teachers and our staff to know that we we appreciate all of those efforts and even though it's
092quieter now uh in terms of hearing that publicly we still appreciate everything that you're doing and we know it's still happening and going on behind the scenes so thank you for all of that work yes i'd like to take a moment to um thank you mr man for just being welcome to me and um answering the questions that i may have had and welcomed me to the board um in addition to the wonderful staff and the teachers that we have i do have to make a um give a shout out that's myself to um a staff member i didn't catch her name i didn't mean to stop talking to speak but i observed them as i was waiting to make a left turn out of my neighborhood and that was the crossing guard and what
093she did i just thought it was a beautiful display of affection for the children not only in my community but also i'm sure the same thing that teachers and staff do in other parts of voice on valentine's day she made sure that she had little goodies for each child that was a walker now even though it took me about 10 minutes um she definitely is over there i think that's in the green ridge neighborhood i'm not sure but um i just thought that was wonderful that she did that for each and every walker and i just i don't know i just think that that that's that type of purpose-driven um perspective that one should have when dealing with children and working in education so so i um i'm gonna make it brief because i don't
094want to cry um i guess darn it um i guess five years ago we embarked on this journey together and i cannot imagine doing this without you you have you bring a calm and a poise and such a um [Music] such a bright but honest perspective uh you will be so greatly missed not just as my friend but as my colleague as my right hand person as my confidant um i i don't i quite honestly don't know how i will do it without you um i love you dearly and you will be so incredibly missed kelly don't make me cry anymore [Music] thank you okay anything anybody else all right on to finance i get a motion to approve all of the items under finance online voting is open almost all motions everyone voted yes
095on motion motion carries we will be going back into executive session be it resolve the pursuant to section 8 of the open public meeting act the public should be excluded from that portion of the meeting involving a discussion of a matter involving the purchase lease or acquisition of real property with public funds the setting of banking rates or investment of public funds where it could adversely affect the public interest if discussion of such matters were disclosed and personnel further resolved that the discussion of such matter in executive session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the board takes formal action further resolved that the board may be in executive session for more than 30 minutes action may be taken upon return to public sector can i get a motion to adjourn to
096executive session second i don't have an estimate of how long it will take i'm opening one morning okay thank you thank you again to everyone who is here and to those who would like to stay don't hey online voting [Music] are you going to say the motion you want oh sure okay all right it's a little bit slow still waiting for a doctor leaving and this is i bet you're waiting for me because i don't even have my want me to put it in i'm sure you're not retired yet uh motion is unanimous i'm closing online voting and saving it okay i will read the motion that we we talked about in executive session authorize the board i've actually authorized mrs watson to sign the planning board application and any related documents relating to the
097property that westrom is participating that one right okay so move second mr bryce this is casenza yeah eskeliano yes dr levy yes mr schmooze yes mrs stupler mrs van aaken yes mrs watson yes motion carries i get a motion to it during the meeting yes all those in favor you