01-27-22 Watchung Borough BOE Meeting

001[Music] i'd like to call to order a regular meeting of the wachong borough board of education on january 27 2022 at 7 pm may we please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome to a meeting of the board of education of the borough of wachong please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that the advance notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the board of education of the borough of wachong at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being conducted

002in person with an option to join remotely using communication technology instructions for joining the meeting remotely and participating in public comments have been posted on the district's website and sent to wachongboro and the wachong public library as well as to the school community through an email blast the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board members of the public also have been given the option to submit public comments in to the board secretary via email or written letter no later than 24 hours in advance of the meeting individuals submitting comments via email or written letter must state their names and addresses recording or photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents guardians whose

003children may be included in the image can we have a roll call please mr barbella here mr buccarelli here mrs harvey here mr and gracia here mr kraft mr mcdonald here mrs rod here mrs avani here this is sharp here we have eight board members present okay we're going to have a presentation of our annual audit for the 2020 to 2021 by valerie dolan welcome valerie and uh you can take it away great thank you hopefully all can hear you hear me loud and clear um just to introduce myself i am valerie dolan with nisavacia i am the district's auditors um sorry that i could not be there in person today i found myself quarantined due to my exposure and i'm trying to stay safe and do the right thing and stay home today um

004so i do want to go over the audit i know it's a little bit late in the game here delivering the audit but there were delays and various things that have held up the report beyond the district's control so we are here now presenting the audit um to give you a little bit of a refresher because not everybody i am a once a year kind of presentation um you have two reports that you get from us one is the comprehensive financial report which is the larger bigger file whether you have them electronically or the hard copy and then there's a smaller book which is the management's report that's my report to the district on all the things that i audit find and any findings we may have in the larger audit it's really broken into

005four main sections there's a small introductory section which talks a little bit about the district itself lists all your officials your consultants your advisors it's got an organizational chart obviously the largest section is the financial section and in in that financial section is my opinion on the report there's also a management's discussion and analysis which gives some budget history along with obviously the financial statements and the notes to the financial statements there is a j section which is actually a very informative section it's the statistical section that gives you 10 years comparative data and it also gives you 10 years comparative data of the district it gives you information about the county of somerset and it gives you information about the borough of wachong so there's a lot of good useful especially as a tool

006if you're trying to gain some um history on a little bit of information and then lastly there's a single audit section in that single audit section that's our review of all of your grant funding and all of the compliance associated with any granting agencies um that being said obviously it's a very lengthy report we always direct everybody probably to the main issue of the whole report which if you have your cafe and want to follow along it starts on page 82 and runs about 10 pages this 10 page report is pretty much the district's in a nutshell what it does is it gives you your budget it walks you through your budget each of the revenue line items where those revenues landed budget versus actual and it gives your expenses to the same it gives

007you all of your expenses any transfers adjustments that might have been made and it gets you to the end of the day how well did the district do when we finished our year that being said you land with what we refer to as fund balance um that fund balance is then broken down into various associated buckets as we call them for which sets things aside you have money set aside in a capital reserve that money is about a little over a million dollars it's a million 0.77 and 571. that's capital reserve money that's set aside to be used for any capital improvements within the district or for any kind of local match that you might have for any state additional awards on projects and that money can be set aside and can be either utilized

008by board resolution or brought through the budget cycle to be done um additionally this year there is an unemployment compensation reserve that is listed if you were here last year for my presentation i told you there was a new accounting standard and there'd be a new presentation previously unemployment was reported in a separate fund and under the new change it is now part of your general fund but earmarked that's money that's been collected and is held to pay future unemployment claims there's a little over fifty thousand in that account you have an additional hundred and seven thousand six hundred and thirty eight dollars of encumbrances that were spent from the budget and carried into the current year um you utilized two hundred and three thousand and thirty six dollars to support the budget that you're

009in currently and then that leaves you with your two biggest numbers that we refer to the first one is your undesignated fund balance which is the amount that the district is allowed to hold and anticipate as need be this year that amount is actually over a million dollars it's a million 0.42019 that's actually double as to what you've had in previous years and the reason is is there was legislation passed that for the next two years districts can hold four percent of their fund balance not two percent as previously in the third year it will revert back to the two percent and the reason the state passed that legislation is to give districts the ability to obviously deal with the pandemic and any unforeseen costs that may come in possibly opening closing as we see

010fit so that money is given a little cushion for the district when all is said and done that leaves you with what we call your excess surplus that's the money that you'll be required to utilize when building your budget you're currently working on now and that amount is hundred 456 seventy seven dollars so that's what you'll be required to use to build into the budget as you're building it um some additional financial highlights the district receives about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in grant accounting um in grant funds those are local federal state grants and they're detailed in your special revenue fund and then lastly you have you know a small milk fund so your milk fund has been is actually doing quite well it always has done well i think in

011the past we've been here telling you have too much money in your milk fund which is you know the bitter edge sword of things so that being said that's really your financials you're in very good shape you're poised to build your budget very well um i do have a small management report with his my review i'm happy to say that a large number of the recommendations that were in the report last year have been resolved and are no longer included in our report we do have two house recommendations that we will refer to as housekeeping they're not monumental however the corrective action is required and your it is on your agenda for the approval of the corrective action plan um those are in the area of an analysis of payroll that needs to be documented

012and some additional reporting um i believe you have that rich sent me a copy that you also have for travel in addition to those two small minor recommendations one of the things we like to do is look forward so i do include in the report suggestions to management areas that have either been problematic for other districts and or things that are future and going to affect this your district one of them is as the accounting standards are constantly evolving one of them is actually it'll be a new accounting standard and i will once again have to change things for next year um this standard is a little bit more complicated and a little more complex it's um gasby 87 and it's the accounting for leases we are going that is going to be effective and

013under that standard we are going to have to review every single lease in the district and analyze monthly um allocations of any payments that you made there's actually we are in the process of actually reviewing softwares because it's actually got to be done through like almost another outside agency to track all those leases so we're actually reviewing them as we speak now as they could be reported there could be potential reporting of leases um as you as you all know there's a large number of grant funds coming through to the districts into the forms of esr1 esser2 esther 3 which are all of the covid related grant funds um that is obviously as i've been telling a lot of people they're coming to do desks reviews rich shared with me that you're actually were selected

014and they are going to be looking at those our concern always with those grants is when i come in and i review we spend a lot of time in the district and talk about things as you're going when these outside agencies come in they come in they want the information and then they leave and they're either you're they're happy with your response at the first um bite at the apple and they go from there so what we've always told everybody is document document documents so that you have everything that you have for when they do come i know that's probably been a lot of rich's focus lately getting ready for them to come out and monitor and then the last pieces really comes down to it's not really hit on the school board side but

015we've seen it heavily in our municipal clients it comes back to the accrued compensated absences and leave one of those areas we always suggest make sure you review your contract have your labor attorneys review your contracts and make sure that your contract's in accordance with the state the state comptroller did go out to very various municipalities and review a lot of those payouts and deemed them beyond the beyond their law space so what they are there's a lot of problems so what we feel is it's always best to go back just do due diligence they're not looking at the schools right now but usually when they start doing one thing in one government entity they usually shift to the next one and start there it's really what i have to present tonight i'm available to

016answer any questions anyone might have but all in all you're getting it's in a good you're in good financial condition and a lot of cleanup has been taking place to get yourselves financially ready in a good place okay it doesn't seem like anyone has any questions okay well thank you valerie so much for um coming and giving uh the report for us uh we really appreciate all of your work on this thank you so much thank you very much and i appreciate the time working with the district thank you valerie have a great evening everyone you too thank you hey um can i have a motion to go into executive session so moved any discussion you need a second oh i'm sorry second oh second and uh all in favor say aye aye any oppose

017hey mr pepe can you please read the reason for us going into executive session absolutely first can you just clarify who the second was i missed that i think it was kevin okay whereas the open public beatings act njsa 10 permits the board of education to meet in closed session due to certain uh to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved the board of education adjourns to close session to discuss the matter rendered confidential by federal or state law student matters be it further resolved the minutes of this closed session will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists this closed session will be followed by an open session where action will be taken hey can all board members please log out of zoom uh and go on the separate link

018thank you i have a brief comment uh there's some items um i just want to say that i'll be abstaining on some of these votes and just to make it clear it's not from any uh reason other than uh just still getting up to speed here i don't think this will continue uh for too much longer but um certainly not for any uh reason other than to say that some of these the dates of meetings that i wasn't on the board yet some of its uh financials from times i wasn't on the board yet so there's obviously some things on here on the agenda that are pretty simple uh gift card for example but i just you know most of this uh i'll be abstaining and it's you know i hope that no one will

019take it as not being uh going on you know participating fully in the board's activities but it's just uh something as i'm coming up to speed here so thank you thank you are there any other board member comments i did want to recognize that today is international holocaust remembrance day which marks the 77th anniversary since the liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp in 1945 which commemorates the victims of the holocaust which resulted in the killing of 6 billion of europe's jewish population any other comments from board members okay we'll move on to superintendents remarks good evening everyone we have a few presentations this evening but before we begin i just want to give a brief covet update we're very pleased that the coveted numbers continue to decline statewide the cali report which was issued this

020afternoon places our region and much of the state back in the orange zone as we continue tracking our two week totals of new cases on our dashboard on our website we're encouraged to see the numbers go from 53 cases during the end of december to 40 during the first half of january to just 11 cases during the current two-week cycle which will end on sunday so that's great news obviously and as i've said before it's only possible through everyone's cooperation and we remain very grateful for the efforts of our school community a special thanks to our teachers and our families i also want to thank the watch on idea and target of watching for the generous donations that are listed on the agenda this evening as for the presentations we'll begin with the start strong

021results and we're just going to pull up a brief 10 slide presentation for the public that will be up momentarily here it comes okay so we begin our presentations each one with a copy of our vision statement on slide two just reaffirming our commitment as a district to inspiring learners our students and our adults to explore and inquire and collaborate on their joyful journey toward discovery independent thinking and creative problem solving we believe that our culture of acceptance and inclusion provides the foundation for learning and social emotional growth we also believe deeply in the importance of reflection and ethical decision-making as we continue to learn and grow embrace differences and prepare for increasingly complex ever-changing worlds and part of the uh importance of the safe foundation is related to our culture of inquiry because we

022want to encourage risk-taking as we've pointed out in our district goals uh the importance of a growth mindset where we encourage learners to learn from mistakes to take risks in the classroom and outside the classroom in their co-curricular activities and in their own lives and begin applying their learning in the classroom to the real world that kind of authentic experience that we aspire to provide for our students now just a word about start strong i'm going to give you in the next slide you'll see the uh just a brief outline to the three parts of this presentation let me give you a little context about start strong then we'll just we'll show you the results and then uh talk a little bit about you know what we've done with the data so we can move

023to the next slide and i put together these slides based on information provided by the state now perhaps everyone will remember last year we did not have the spring nj sla standardized assessment for our students and as part of the waiver process that the state had to get from the federal government it was decided that the state would do something in the fall and provide some type of assessment so they agreed uh that the state would provide uh sort of a mini assessment a way to provide data that school districts could use for internal purposes of informing instruction and enhancing the learning process they were designed to be administered quickly and efficiently in person not like the njsla which takes a significant amount of instructional time away from our teachers and students we were allowed

024to to administer this in the fall of 2021 pursuant to that agreement but this spring coming up in 2022 we will return to the njsla now with that being said start strong is not intended to replace anything we're doing locally with our standards based benchmark assessments in our district we use iready as you know it's also not intended to replace the spring 2022 njsla and it's not to be it's not intended to predict how students will do on the njsla it's also not intended to provide some form of comparison between districts or between grade levels or between different schools in the district next slide please so the state put together this uh assessment and it was based on a what they called a prioritized set of state learning standards and we have the new jersey

025student learning standards the nj sls and what they did was they prioritized a certain subset of those standards and they also uh used the standards from the previous year so for example here in grade five when the students were taking the english language arts assessment in early october those that assessment was aligned to the subset of the new jersey student learning standards for grade four and where the students would have been at the end of the year so again a tricky thing to do and also the reason you know it makes it hard to align the data or try to predict it or compare it in any sense they used release test questions from the njsla and these were administered in periods of 45 to 60 minutes so you can see it's really like we

026talked about state testing and high stakes testing being a snapshot this is really the epitome of a snapshot of a moment in time of where students were on that particular day when they took this very brief assessment now because of that narrow focus of the assessments and their intended use they should not be compared to the njsla results or any start strong data at the state or local level so i know i repeated that twice but it's important i think for everyone to consider on the next slide we have the data for bayberry now these assessments were given in grades four through eight so the only results we have for mayberry are um grade four and you'll see the different shades of purple here the darker shade is the one that indicates 57 of the

027students who took the ela assessment needed less support so we're not getting grades students are not getting grades in any way it's not like a number scale that goes up to 750 or something like that with the nj sla but it's just divided among three different categories to give students some feedback to give teachers feedback or where the students are so that we can meet them where they are in their instruction so 57 percent needed less support no 21 percent classes um they uh needed some support and then 22 needed more support you'll see a similar pattern in math 51 and 24 and 25 the next slide has data for bay very in the fourth grade and here you'll see the numbers of students that made up those percentages okay so 15 strong support may

028be needed 14 some support less support maybe 38 excuse me okay the next slide goes into valley view results and you'll see a similar graphic here the ela 62 needed less support in math the numbers were a little lower 36 and 33 and you'll see a larger section in the uh in the where students needed some support in the math again the numbers for strong support relatively low on the next slide you will see again the numbers that break down those percentages so you can see how many students you look over to the to the right side and you see for the ela it was over 150 students who needed less support and then you have those smaller graphics below which basically just breaks down the percentages again these are reports that we were able

029to generate from the data that the state provided us on the last slide just want to talk a little bit about the use of the data and like i said at the beginning of the presentation this data was intended for internal use um but we were also told afterwards that we must report the data as you know as a larger set of data to share with the board of education but you'll recall also for the families that we shared the individual start strong score reports when they became available from the state in december so we're using the start strong results we're using our typical school-based formative and summative assessments in the classroom whether that's a writing assignment or a unit test we're gauging the daily performance of students in school their participation their active engagement

030and we're using the i ready diagnostic data that we talked about a short time ago with the presentation and we'll have another one coming up because we will be doing the second round of diagnostic data at the end of um january beginning next week we'll do that for two weeks uh teachers are communicating with families about student progress and interventions uh whether it was through the bayberry conferences or whether it's through email or phone or in-person meetings uh and of course through uh report cards and also through our genesis database which has the parent portal which is available for parents to see student progress and we encourage parents if they have concerns to reach out to our teachers uh we also have our district-wide pursuit of excellence program uh that has been continued so that

031we can work on areas that have been identified as gaps either in instruction or learning we're just areas that are in need of reinforcement so those are the kinds of things we're doing with this data um and again it's a snapshot of where students work it helps us identify how we can assist students individually as we've talked about before our i-ready program has individualized learning paths that are used to help build skills to reinforce skills and to help students grow academically so principals are welcome to offer any additional information but perhaps i could just open it up to board members for any questions and then either principal or principal thank you um if i may so that number of 65 students in need of strong support over at valley view is it in math is

032it safe to assume that most of those children are enrolled in the math workshop so those students would be receiving extra support whether that is through an in-class support or an uh resource room or basic skills program which is the math workshop or the pursuit of excellence after school program but that those types of supports are the ones that we put in place for kids that we know require it so there's supports happening within the school day and outside of the school day thank you you're welcome any other questions okay thank you for your attention everyone i'm going to turn it over to um mr datoda she has two presentations first one on the english language learner's three-year plan and the hip self-assessment report as usual is the total is wearing many hats thank you

033mr alexis um i didn't hear the end of that but i will start with the english language learner three-year plan this plan will run from july 1st of 2021 through june 30th of 2024 uh presenting it now in the middle of the first year is absolutely the timeline that the state has given to us the bilingual education regulations require that school districts submit a three-year plan outlining the programs and services they are providing for english language learners that plan must include each of the following which i'll share with you briefly tonight the identification of students the program description the number of certified staff hired for the program bilingual and esl curriculum development evaluation design review process for exiting the program and a budget for the bilingual and esl program or english language services the information

034that follows is what we will report on our ell plan so the first section talks about the district a little bit and is called the an entity type so we would be considered a traditional school district in the county of somerset with the district name wachongboro the esl contact would be listed as me nicole datoda the chief school administrator as mr alexis and the anticipated date of board approval of this plan would be tonight the identification of english language learners begins at enrollment with the front office staff the building principal the classroom teachers the bilingual esl lead teacher the bilingual esl director who are all responsible for overseeing the identification process the home language survey is provided for parents to self-report and complete at home it could be completed via an in-person interview or phone

035interview if needed it is provided in english but can also be translated into a home language if needed the records review process is conducted by the general education teacher the general education administrator or building principal the bilingual esl teacher and or lead teacher and the bilingual esl director the district does not currently identify preschool students as english language learners person went to njsa 1887 f 46 the district board of education shall provide all kindergarten through 12th grade english language learners enrolled in the district with all required courses and support to prepare them to meet the new jersey student learning standards for high school graduation a language instruction educational program must be identified for our district that would be english as a second language procedures are in place for the selection of that program and procedures

036are in place for placing students into an appropriate language instruction education program the master schedules are reviewed in each school to ensure that all english english language learners have access to the full curriculum and all school-based extracurricular activities are open to our english language learners including those directed at academics sports arts and life skills there is no bilingual parent advisory committee at this time but based on our number of english language learners and type of language instructional education programs that is not required by code um our certified staff for the program um this is again just information the way that it's asked and the way that it will be reported our district total student size falls in the 500 to 2499 students the district english language learner size falls in the 10 to 99 students

037the total certified teachers in the district is 69 we have zero who are certified as bilingual by cultural and we have one esl certified teacher in the district that is serving the lieps all certified teachers are not required to be sheltered english instruction trained and less than 10 percent of our district teachers have completed training in that area 100 percent of our district teachers have received training in socio-emotional and or culturally responsive teaching and learning in the past three years our ell population has increased and we have um hired staff to match the the growth trends in that area uh scheduling classes for english language learners is prioritized at the building level when creating schedules and there is opportunities for common planning time for general education and bilingual esl teachers english language learners must be

038provided equitable educational opportunities school districts are required to implement lieps that assist ells in achieving english language proficiency while learning the challenging content state standards the next section gives a list of all of the liep options full-time bilingual dual language bilingual part-time bilingual resource bilingual tutorial high intensity esl sheltered english instruction english as a second language and english language services um the next set of information is um primarily on graduation and we will report a zero zero which is the code that the state gives to school districts that do not have high school and report high school graduation rates there is a process for developing the esl bilingual curriculum that is aligned to the wida english language development standards the district reviewed eligibility criteria for participation in advanced courses to ensure equitable access for ells

039and the district does not participate in the new jersey state seal of bi-literacy in evaluating the program design district teams must ensure that lieps are effective and appropriate a number of assessments and measures are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the liep which include class grades formative assessments summative assessments such as the access4ls the alternate access the model or the um this the njsla english language arts and math performance data and the start strong assessments um the district has evaluated the lieps and modified the liep in response to that available data the district will report did not meet the end size of 20 for the questions about academic achievement indicators and progress indicators because of the number of students in our district that are english language learners the district will report that in grades one

040to three four to five and six to eight l's need additional support in reading writing speaking and listening domains and the way to access for l's results are shared with the general education teachers um this is the average english language proficiency level from the last access for elle's administration which was the spring of 2021 the access was not one of the assessments that was not given last spring um in kindergarten we had no students that took it so we don't have a report for that um in grades one to three the average english language proficiency level was between a 3.0 and 3.9 in grades four and five it was between a 2.0 and 2.9 and then in 6 to 8 and 9 to 12 we have no data to report so additional supports are required

041based on the performance data for english language learners currently in grades 1-3 4-5 and six to eight there is a process for exiting english language learner programs and services so students must demonstrate readiness to exit based on the english language proficiency assessment which measures the language domains of listening speaking reading and writing and multiple criteria former english language learners must be monitored for two years after they exit l status to evaluate their academic process uh progress sorry the average amount of time the district l's remain in the liep is for three to four years one student has exited in the past three years zero students were re-identified as an l within two years due to lack of progress in english classes and one hundred percent of former ells met the ela achievement math achievement and

042chronic absenteeism indicators the district must use state and federal funds to support ls the federal funds supplement the state funds the district uses state funds to support salaries of teachers other salaries for instruction purchased professional educational services purchased technical services other purchased services general supplies other instructional program supplies other instructional program materials other instructional program purchase services the status of our federal title 3 allocation for the previous year was that funds were accepted and a consortium was joined no allocation was received in the last fiscal year for title iii immigrant um allocation and the district does not typically carry over funds to support else the other piece of information i need to share tonight is the new jersey department of education schools self-assessment for determining grades under the anti-bullying bill of rights act this self-assessment

043was completed by bayberry school and valley view school for the time period july 1st of 2020 through june 30th of 2021. there are eight core elements that this state includes in that self-assessment so core element number one hib programs approaches or other initiatives the school has annually established hib programs approaches or other initiatives implemented and documented hip programs approaches or initiatives and assessed those hib programs approaches or initiatives um these programs approaches and initiatives were designed to create school-wide conditions to prevent and address harassment intimidation and bullying the school safety school climate team identified patterns of hib and reviewed school climate and school policies for the prevention of hib core element two training on the board of ed approved hib policy and procedures um the school employees contracted service providers and volunteers were provided training

044on the hib policy the policy training included instruction on preventing hib on the basis of protected categories enumerated in the anti-bullying bill of rights and other distinguished characteristics that may incite incidents of discrimination or hit the hip policy was discussed with students in accordance with the district's process for these discussions core element 3 other staff instruction and training programs each staff each teaching staff member completed at least two hours of instruction in suicide prevention that included information on hib in each five-year professional development period each teaching staff member completed at least two hours of instruction on hip prevention in each five-year professional development period the school anti-bullying specialist was given time during the usual school schedule to participate in in-service training in preparation to act as the abs the members of the school safety school

045climate team were provided with professional development ineffective practices of successful school climate programs or approaches and school building leaders have received information on the prevention of harassment intimidation and bullying as part of their training on issues of school ethics school law and school governance core element four the curriculum and instruction on hib and related information and skills the school provided ongoing age-appropriate instruction on preventing hib in accordance with new jersey student learning standards the school observed the week of respect during the week beginning with the first monday in october of each year recognizing the importance of character education by providing age-appropriate instruction focusing on hip prevention core element five hib personnel the principal appointed a school anti-bullying specialist the anti-bullying specialist met at least two times per school year with the district anti-bullying coordinator the

046school safety school climate team met at least two times per school year to develop foster and maintain a positive school climate by focusing on the ongoing systemic process and practices in the school and to address school climate issues including hib core element six school level hib incident reporting procedures core elements six and seven have an ore in them the difference would be if a report of hib was made in that in that school year they would meet one part of it and not the other the school implemented the district's procedure for reporting hib that included all required elements or this school has a process for ensuring that staff are implementing the district's procedure for reporting hib that includes all required elements the school implemented the district's procedure for reporting new information on a prior hib

047report or the school fosters a positive school climate that encourages reports of all concerning behaviors including hib and implements effective prevention strategies which results in no incidents of hip court element seven hib investigation procedure this school followed the board of ed approved policy on hib investigation procedures which provided for notification to parents of alleged offenders and alleged victims in each reported hib incident or responsible staff are knowledgeable about the process to notify parents of alleged offenders and alleged victims in each report reported hib incident and how to implement the process completion of the investigation within 10 school days of the written incident report or the school has a process in place to ensure completion of each investigation within 10 school days of the written incident report preparation of a written report on the findings of

048each inhib investigation or the school has a process in place to prepare written report on the findings of each hib investigation results of the investigation reported to the chief school administrator within two school days of completion of the investigation or the school has a procedure for reporting the results of each investigation to the chief school administrator within two days of completion of the investigation and core element 8 hip reporting the school has a procedure for ensuring that staff member reports include the required information for all incidents of violence vandalism and hib the school the official grades received from njdoe for the self-assessment from the previous reporting period for the school and for the school district are posted on the home page of the school's website per the anti-bullying bullet bill of rights and the requirements

049of the new jersey doe and in conclusion the self-assessment for bayberry and valley view schools um each of those core element indicators on the self-assessment was rated for each school based on the criteria established by the department of ed to determine the school's self-assessment scores for the 2020-2021 school year each school scored 71 out of 78 possible points the official grades received from the new jersey department of ed from the previous reporting period are posted on the school websites and the results will be used to guide the work of the anti-bullying specialists and the school safety school climate teams in the areas of programs training and reporting thank you mr toto thank you does anyone have any questions board members okay next we have the principles reports and i understand we have our student council

050representatives waiting patiently on zoom to deliver uh this month's reports emily's going first hi um so the bayberry principal report is the bayberry championship spelling bee was held on january 20th congratulations to our winner fourth grader alec chowesky we are so proud of all of our students that competed and would also like to congratulate our class finalists on a job well done third grade finalists devin tattoo julian larson ethan lee and fourth grade finalist rohan patel and allison park in honor of martin luther king jr bayberry held their very own day of service on january 21st students and staff worked together to be helpful to the school community by shelving library books collecting garbage and recycling cleaning tables and desks and creating bookmarks for the library helping younger students create a craft creating positive posters

051of encouragement and creating and delivering notes of gratitude to staff it was a great day of service we launched the pickup patrol this week a new online system to manage bayberry dismissal parents receive their welcome email on monday to set up their account that allows them to enter default dismissal plans as well as daily plan changes for their child pick a patrol automatically notifies the office and classroom teachers of a student's dismissal plan ensuring a safe and efficient dismissal parents and guardians are reminded to set up their pickup patrol account by monday january 31st after school clubs are in full swing and students are participating in sports arts and crafts games robotics at coding and reading in addition our bayberry's pursuit of excellence started this week before school with students working hard with their teacher

052on reading and math skills finally we would like to welcome karen doss our new school nurse who started this month thank you emily chelsea's next um i wasn't even i don't have i thought i was supposed to do the um bayberry report i don't have the value report hold on one second chelsea chelsea can you check check your email it should be in there from principal kid okay take your time while we wait i just have one announcement for the recording i believe the video recording did not start when we came back from closed sessions i just want to put into the record that mrs scharf made the motion to re-enter into public session it was seconded by mr barbela and passed on a voice vote chelsea i'm gonna try to forward it to you

053okay okay it should be there should be another email just sharing it in the google drive sorry about all this delay we'd like chelsea to have the opportunity after waiting patiently to share this report he said it should be in google drive yes okay report for january 2022. good evening everybody my name is chelsea jenkins and i am valley views student council president i'm happy to present the valley views principal report for the month of january my view has held our school-wide spelling bee on january 13th we have three participants the validity spelling bee this year after forty rounds isaac awandi grade six was named our school she would represent in valley view at the sixth annual s-c-l-s-n-j spelton b spectacular on march 5th 2022. our second place winner was jude esquiano grade five and

054our third percenter was laila congratulations to all of our spelling bee participants our students celebrated dr dr martin luther king's birthday during the month of january students at valley view read about his life and discuss the impact of his words and actions the community outreach club has scheduled retirement labor sessions our first sessions with ryan and mrs stacks were a great treat fellow students book as a club over google meet to our first graders the first grade issue favorite parts of the book we look forward to scheduling more time with our friends at bayberry 8th grade parents were invited to washington hills regional high school on tuesday january 20th presentations were given by the men's department administration and content area supervisors a record of the presentation is available on watching hills regional high school website

055under eighth grade events looking ahead the valley view can meet at each club would like to bring together the families of raichu in a new and tasty way through traditional family recipes submitted recipes will be put together into a watch and community outreach cookbook available for purchase this spring if your family would like to participate please follow a link sent out in the community e-blast we look forward to sharing our culinary watch please note that all fees are due by february 11th our coding internet club is preparing for a statewide competition called teens on february 12th the competition consists of three components design and build a solution to an engineer challenge use math and science skills to solve real-world engineering challenges research and write an in-depth essay on a signed topic which is submitted it

056electronically prior to the competition date i'm sure it will be a challenging and exciting day the valley view winter concert was rescheduled for february 2nd at 7 pm the event will be live stream from the watchking regional hills high school performing arts center and the link will be posted on the valley view website under headlines as a fan reminder non-perishable food donations for the food bank are still being accepted for a full list of items please go to summersetfoodbank.org also i ready winter diagnostic testing begins on monday please make sure your child has a charge coming in his or hers backpack thank you and have a great night thank you very much chelsea and emily we appreciate it well done i can say from firsthand experience and silicon principal fichner that the community outreaches outreach

057clubs plan that they executed was wonderful having story time with bayberry sessions you could tell the bayberry kids really loved having the older kids read to them and they really enjoyed the stories that were selected we're also very excited about the um having the winter concert at the high school uh on february 2nd we look forward to that thank you again and then just uh the last thing is i need to uh the second to last things i need to just mention the biannual student safety data system report we're very fortunate trust me to have only two minor conduct incidents at valley view to report for this designated period uh the enrollment report stands at 636 which is 20 more than at the start of the school year and that'll do it for this section

058thank you everyone for your attention and your patience we're going to move on to committee reports kevin can you please give the human resources committee report yes uh thanks dory um the committee met um thursday uh january 20th 2022 at 6 00 pm um we met remotely uh the first topic we discussed were guidance hours at bayberry we discussed the current limitations of the part-time counseling hours at mayberry which are currently monday and wednesday 8 30 to 2 30 friday 8 30 to 2. we considered alternatives and we thought that it best to revisit the topic again in the context of the budget development for next year we also discussed current substitute pay rate some districts in the area have raised their pay to 120 or 125 dollars per day but most are still in

059slightly lower range where we are 100 to 105. um we're at 100. some districts are still in the 90s uh so we'll continue to ponder this and consult with the districts that have raised their pay to see whether it's improving their fill rates on the agenda today we have approval for an unpaid leave of absence and we're also pleased to recommend a new substitute who we have today as well that's it for the hr personnel committee thanks okay thank you kevin uh rich can you please give the operation finance committee report will do dory uh the operations finance committee met on january 19th uh the first order of business was discussed the uh referendum uh and how to gain support for the reference referendum for another referendum after the first referendum was unsuccessful the committee

060was in favor of creating an ad hoc committee to include various community stakeholders in the referendum planning process and we were also in favor of hiring an independent engineer with expertise in hvac to obtain an alternate expert recommendation for identifying and addressing the district's needs committee also discussed additional options for community engagement including surveys town hall meetings and mailers based upon input from additional experts and feedback from the ad hoc committee and other board members the operations finance committee will revisit the project's list to review the scope of work and cost estimates and make recommendations to the full board for changes if deemed appropriate mr pepe asked the committee for feedback on the idea of hiring drg to conduct a kitchen study to determine what it would take to be able to provide food services

061at each building the committee was in favor of hiring drg to do the study uh we discussed uh briefly the the full year 21 audit which i thought was beautifully presented by our auditor in plain language so i thank her for that mr pepe also with respect to the the fy 23 budget asked the committee for input on budget goals for the 2022-2023 school budget he explained that in addition to seeking to maintain staffing levels and looking for affordable ways to enhance instruction he was also working with the buildings and ground supervisor to identify any referendum projects that will be need to be completed before the board has an opportunity to bring a new referendum to the voters so two things on this um i i think it's incumbent on the entire board or i

062would like to invite the entire board to give their suggestions for what should be in the 23 budget and either email them to me or mr pepe for our next meeting which is on february 3rd i think that as an operations committee and finance committee we have a much narrower review than the whole entire board on what we need to do as far as budgeting for the next school year and also obviously since the referendum was not did not pass um it it's we should try to keep to a minimum any referendum projects that need to be completed before the board has the opportunity to bring a new referendum to the voters because you know at that point we're costing the taxpayers 100 of any uh of of those expenses instead of roughly two-thirds that

063we would have paid with a third coming from the state so that's not a very good economic model and we would like to avail ourselves of state funding if we can get a referendum passed otherwise taxpayers are watching are paying 100 of everything from now on um then lastly mr pepe informed the committee that the district had been selected for federal consolidated monitoring he explained that this process is similar to a federal grants audit except it takes place during the grant year rather than after the close of the grant year and i think the order explained this monitors will review our current grants and provide feedback regarding our compliance with grant regulations and allowable expenditures we did also have a uh another operations committee meeting today uh that included members of um that included members

064of the town council and um the towns business administrator and also the mayor and the subject was the uh the bridge at phillips field and applying for a fema grant in order to get federal aid approximately 75 uh if successful for uh repairing the damage that was caused during ida i guess we'll have a more fulsome report on that meeting uh next time that's all i have thank you thank you rich um adam do you want to give the curriculum committee report or do you want me to do it yeah i can do it okay thanks our last meeting was on thursday january 20th where we got a preview of tonight's start strong results presentation we discussed um the 2022-2023 calendar mr alexis proposed three three different options and the committee was in favor of

065adding an extra professional development day but wanted to think more about the decision on the religious holidays also the administration's meeting with the teachers association next week regarding the proposed calendars so we're going to revisit the that issue um at the next curriculum meeting um and then we will give a recommendation at the to the full board at our next board meeting the committee was in favor of homework free zones which would include holiday breaks on the calendar individual holidays identified in the survey and possibly long weekends during which teachers would not administer assessments or assign homework on those days or the day returning from a holiday or break the administration will get input from teachers and draft some guidelines for us for the current year we've used five emergency closing days and we only

066have three built into the calendar so the friday before memorial day weekend will now be a day of school as will friday april 22nd which is the last day of spring break we discussed challenges of possibly altering the current year calendar and ultimately recommended that the calendar remain the same further snow days or emergency closings will be made up during spring break beginning with the thursday april 21st and moving backwards we discussed remote instruction for quarantine students the administration reviewed the current practice of initiating remote synchronous instruction only when a student is directed to quarantine by the school nurse for covid purposes those students are marked present with a special code for remote participation the schools have been flexible when remote instruction already exists in a class allowing absent students to join a google meet

067but those students are still marked absent the state has made it clear that we are not allowed to offer remote instruction for reasons other than covet related quarantines or staff shortages we were informed of the mid-year diagnostics the ireti diagnostics will be administered during a window of january 31st through february 11th and the assessments generally take 45 to 60 minutes per subject the valley view concert was moved tentatively to february 2nd if we can't hold it at the high school because of lingering coveted concerns then we'll record it in the apr cautiously optimistic that we can go forward at the high school on the second and then special services update um mr toda discussed the ell three-year plan a bit so we heard an overview of the plan and its first purpose mr toda also

068responded to questions regarding the continuity of support by the in-class aides caused by statewide and national shortages of candidates as well as ongoing resonate resignations from the agencies that provide our aids she explains the ongoing efforts to recruit and retain additional staff which includes adding a number of agencies from which to pull candidates from so we're hopeful that we will have we will have less of an issue going forward um and then as for the five serve stem enrichment program that is slated to start in september uh there's another meeting scheduled with uh the fi serve team as well as the berkeley heights team uh for friday the fourth and we'll continue to update you right now there's there's just no update and that's it thank you adam uh joe can you please give the

069policy committee report for sure uh there were no new policies or regulations for for this month so the meeting was canceled this month thank you kevin uh can you please give us any updates of the legislative liaison uh yes story um just one brief update uh the legislature recently passed and the governor signed into law s-3685 uh which in certain circumstances permits retired teachers to return to the classroom while collecting a pension we actually um briefly discussed this in the hr committee and um we thought that this would perhaps be limited to some very specific circumstances but it's something to keep in mind that's a useful tool to have for thanks kevin jen any update from somerset county ed services commission amber any update from somerset county school boards association word association met on january

07020th and the topic of discussion was the board's role in curriculum they talked about just what is curriculum what are the standards 12 questions that board of ed members should ask uh walmart approved and uh they went on on policy and um professional development thank you amber i'm sorry you froze that's why i don't i don't know if we caught the last part i just that's the um that's what i guess they have a powerpoint i can send that to everyone else uh if they like but so the board's rolling curriculum and i think it'll be a great resource for everyone as well thank you that'd be great thanks amber um okay and i'll give the new jersey school words association update uh new jersey state law requires school or members and charter school trustees

071to attend training in the first second and third years of a first year uh term and in i'm sorry uh second and third years of a first year term and in the first year of a reelected or reappointed term njspa is uh the state designated provider of mandated training our business administrator has sent emails to all board members asking them to inform him when they can attend the mandated training if you haven't reached out to him i ask that you please do so for him to register you for your training the following mandated trading programs are required governance one new board members new board member orientation conference governance two first terms second year of service finance governance three first term third full year of service student achievement and governance for for reelected slash reappointed board

072members and the first year of any succeeding term legal update please make sure you check your email and password before the mandated training session to ensure uh you can log in if you are attending your training virtually as a reminder we will have our yearly ethics training and csa evaluation training during the march board meeting in case any board member is interested in attending some upcoming sessions offered by the njsba are as follows somerset county uh school board association hybrid meeting celebrations is on thursday may 12th between six and nine at the somerset county vo-tech high school the nj uh the nj sba's virtual workshop from 2021 is still available on demand until tomorrow on their website so you can watch it at your convenience and some upcoming webinars um are it all begins with

073an asset mindset wednesday february 2nd at 11 am cyber threats to k-12 complete protection is possible thursday february 10th at 1pm there are recent online events that are still available for you to review uh personnel issues during the pandemic facebook live event njsba i steam and sustainable lessons payments fraud and your vendor master the origin of the risk you can also find information on the njsba website if any board member participates in the board member academy you can begin individual certification and board certification programs all board members can find upcoming meetings podcasts webinars and facebook live events on the njsba website mainly under the training tab the njsba provides news and publications conducts research and offers resources to help board members parents and the general public advocate for our schools please check out the news

074and information tab on their website dory can i add one thing about the school boards training sure go ahead i just wanted to remind i think we sent an email out um because last year the governance one training which traditionally is a weekend long event uh last year they couldn't do that because of covid so they are offering a live version of that training to anyone who took the online version last year so if you took governance one last year you can sign up for both governance too and also the the live you know the in-person governance one this year just to remind you [Music] thank you rich okay now we're going to move to a community engagement for the pto mrs roberto ferrara is there any update with the pto good evening everyone since

075our last report we have met and we approved the 900 for the chess club for bay berry currently the pto is working on various events which include food sales third ordering session for march through april that will open up on february 1st on going to the 15th that'll be contingent on having enough food lunch volunteers we have our spirit wear that's constantly changing their designs the yearbook for bay berries are for sale our school store uh bayberry code is one six zero one three seven valley view is one six zero one three eight we have our birthday signs still going on amazon smiles we're looking for library volunteers and we have our 8th grade committee fundraisers which is known as the sip to end shop at 688 boutique from february 10th from 5 to 8.

076we want to thank all of our parent volunteers for all the time that they're helping our children in our schools and being that we're always looking for volunteers please visit our website at www.wachonpto.com our next meeting is going to be tuesday february 15th at 7 30 p.m via zoo hope to see everyone there thank you thank you um is there a web update this is kokuyata or anyone from west available to give an update okay a cpag update miss newsome is there a cpac update or anyone on from cpac okay we're going to move into comments from the public on agenda items we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second

077opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the meeting total time allotted for public comment is 30 minutes before you make your comment please state your name and address in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer may limit each statement made by a participant to three minutes duration comments submitted to the board secretary prior to the meeting will be read first our public forums are not structured as a question and answer session but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment new jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss personnel or hiring in public session the names of students should

078not be used mr pepe will you please read the statement due to reporting of this meeting members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments that they make to the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public hey seeing no comments we're going to move on to action items anthony can you please move administrative items hold on one second thank you make a motion to move administrative items a1 through a4 is there a second second any discussion roll call please mr barbella mr buccarelli yes mr ingrassia i abstain mr craft yes to one through three and abstain from four as i wasn't able

079to attend the meeting mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes this is advani i heard you say i heard you here but i didn't hear you on the microphone is your microphone on yes thank you and mrs scharf yes mrs harvey yes motions pass kevin can you please move personnel item yes i move personnel items b1 approve unpaid leave of absence b2 appointment of certified tenured staff advised and b3 appoint district substitute surprise is there a second second any discussion roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mr ingrassia i abstain mr kraft yes mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes mrs edvani yes mrs scharf yes mrs harvey yeah emotions rich can you please move operation items yes i move uh c1 approve payment of bills c2 approved transfer funds c3 accept financial reports c4

080accept audit and corrective action plan for the 2021 school year c5 accept gift card donation from target of wachong uh c6 uh appropriate revised state aid c7 approved service providers and ca approved professional travel and related expenses c9 accept donation of books from watching idea i believe there's a c10 debate yeah there's a c10 authorized waiver of requirements special education got i have a quick question um rich you had mentioned drg for the kitchen assessment is that on the agenda do you want me to respond to that sure sure okay uh it's not on the agenda we actually didn't need uh board approval for that we were just i just parted the operations because i wanted them to know that we were looking into this based on prior feedback from a public comment roll call

081please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mr ingrassia abstain mr kraft yes yes mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes mrs said yes mrs shark yes and mrs harvey yes motion's passed uh adam can you please move curriculum item yep and move d1 approve new jersey department of education english language learner three-year plan for school years 21-24 d2 approved valley view virtual field trip and d3 approved valley view winter music concert at the high school second discussion roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mr ingrassia abstain mr kraft yes yes mr mcdonald yes mrs mirage yes yes mr bonnie yes this is sharp yes yeah mrs harvey yeah okay we have nothing under policy so we'll move to board business uh we have under here create an ad hoc referendum committee so i'm opening

082that up for discussion since this was at the requested operations committee maybe they'd like to start off the discussion on this anthony you want to take this take this one sure thanks rick i think that an ad hoc committee would be very helpful to get involved early in the process of uh coming up with some ideas for uh the referendum and um there's a variety of ways i think it could benefit the effort we'll be able to uh invite the public to participate and so um take advantage of the expertise that's in town i think that there's uh people that will have some very good input could save us uh save the district quite a bit of money and hopefully improve uh the result so i think that there's uh people that will like to

083be a little bit more involved than maybe a open house or one night event such as that uh where a survey might uh allow for so you'll have that level of participation where they can be a little bit more ongoing and in offering and following up on ideas so i think it's a benefit that is worth opening up as soon as possible is there any other specific information about forming this committee well i think we are going to discuss that at our next operations committee meeting which is uh next week and we will put parameters on it there was discussion um it should be limited to you know not a huge amount of participants that should be limited in time so that we're not studying the the issues an extended period so i think that

084the that the idea is to uh get the most out of it that we can in a reasonable period of time and then move on with it whatever recommendations we have and then education of the public do i miss anything joe or anthony you're adam i i just think we discussed that there's not a specific number that there needs to be a cap or a limit to that if there is a tremendous turnout early on and some of the early meetings are more of you know listening sessions and seeing you know how some of these ideas are coming forward then uh i i think the more the merrier but um i guess we'll see um who's interested in you know being part of the committee over time and we do have some time constraints just

085um on the calendar that uh certain milestones need to be met to move forward for the next referendum but um i think the input can continue um coming forward all the way all the way through so i i just would hesitate to say that there's a hard limit on the number of participants or or really that it has to be a complete uh end point at a at an early stage it's just uh there are certain milestones that do have to be met to um reintroduce a referendum at it at a certain d the only thing i'd add uh as part of that discussion is the border world and mr alexis does have uh experience in setting up ad hoc's committee so in the past under different venues so we're happy to take that input

086if it helps produce the structure certainly as anthony mentioned we want participation and input however we also want it to be manageable we do want um some consistency in the participation um as we open it up to the public need some finality in terms of the input from the ad hoc committee as alluded to by anthony in order to work backwards from when we would have a next referendum we need to establish a milestone plan establish that community engagement timelines for the other things we're going to do continue to work with the engineers and other experts for purposes of estimates and then put together new plans and new proposals so there's critical links in that chain and we want to stay on track in terms of using reasonable timelines to put the referendum back up

087for the public to vote and not take too too long going into into next year if at all possible i definitely support the ad hoc but i definitely would want it would like to see that it be a manageable and productive process and that there was participation from the community um i would love to hear why people voted no i would love to hear why people voted yes um i would love to hear why people maybe didn't vote at all but for me living here now almost 20 years i would really like to have the participation and have the engagement with the community i mean we currently have one community member sitting here with us now and i think we're at 31 on the zoom with us and i think about half of those are

088staff members so i would absolutely love to have engagement with the community okay so we're looking for a motion then to create a ad hoc and the purposes of uh community engagement for the referendum so is there a motion i'll make that mission referendum is committee a second second any further discussion hey can we have a roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mr ingrassia yes mr kraft yes mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes ms said ronnie yes mrs scharf yes mrs harvey yeah okay motion passes okay um i would also like to make a motion to introduce a resolution in recognition of superintendent george alexis and in disapproval of board member amber maron whereas disparaging and offensive comments were made by board member amber morad during a recent board of education meeting

089regarding the administration's handling of povid19 protocols and whereas the remainder of the board members completely disavow the comments that were made by mrs murad and deplore her unfair and untrue characterization of how our superintendent has addressed the pandemic and communicated with our parents and whereas mrs murad has refused to apologize for having made these unwarranted comments at a public meeting whereas contrary to these comments the board fully supports the superintendent and appreciates the leadership he has shown in guiding the district through the many challenges posed by the pandemic not the least of which have been keeping on top of understanding and implementing the ever-changing rules guidelines and recommendations provided by the cdc the department of education and the department of health and whereas the superintendent has steadfastly pursued the goal of safeguarding our students teachers

090and other staff while on school grounds and has communicated all information apparent students and staff clearly honestly and transparently now therefore be it resolved the board has full confidence in this relaxes and hereby expresses appreciation for his service and commitment to our students and their families during these uncertain and trying times be it further resolved that the board does not in any way condone mrs murad's statements and hereby centers her for her actions in this regard is there a second second so to start off the discussion i would just like to start by saying that as a parent teacher and a board member it has been extremely confusing and frustrating at times when understanding the guidance given to the public by the cdc the njdoe and the local health officials when dealing with the kovid

09119 pandemic participating on the research ad hoc with rich jen and mr alexis it really gave me insight as to how difficult it was and continues to be for schools to provide communities staff students and parents with what is recommended in addition to it constantly changing i want to personally thank mr alexis and the rest of the administration for all their efforts and keeping the students and staff safe during this time this has been and continues to be such a difficult time but they are doing a great job in trying to make sure the students and staff are safe and the community is informed i understand that today mrs morad apologized to mr alexis and mr pepe privately and want to thank her for that but her comments were made in public so as a

092public apology is warranted in this situation in hindsight gaslighting was a charged word but i stand by my opinion and i had a very productive conversation today with superintendent alexis and um mitch pepe and i just echoed as a parent what the public comments have been in my opinion in a public session and just requesting clear guidelines as a parent my comments were to advocate for students and parents of watch on we are in this together so when i started my congress my comment it was that you know they've done a great job however like i said we are in this together and i'm grateful to the teachers that are staying up until midnight to update google classrooms because they have children who are learning virtually i'm thankful to nurse julie who has always worked

093with parents i'm thankful to administrator rich pepe superintendent george alexis principal kidd principal fickner and all of our staff members for doing everything they have done throughout the difficult and trying times but by passing this resolution are you centering me asking us as board members to never have a voice as a parent if yes you're taking away my right to speak we speak in public forms and in public comment to address any concerns we might have as a parent but are you taking this right away from us by passing this resolution is the question i have for you president harvey so the difference in what you did is that you're a board member mrs murad and according to our board attorney which was consulted on this matter you are not supposed to make evaluative comments

094of personnel in public session and you violated that and this is not the form to discuss it i think this is a personnel matter and it should be moved or in a future executive session if that's the case i mean the i felt i feel misled by the oscillating structure of our board and this is why i spoke up when i did i've inherited a structure that i was in no part of implementing where i cannot even sit down or speak or any of that with the superintendent or anyone without you or jen being present and if anything if it's not even an email it has to be cc and like i said i was not a part of that so that is why that has been part of a part of a board process

095way before even we were board members and if you uh please take the time to consult with the new jersey school board association representative glenn thornton she would be able to express that to you as well and i did i did and as an elected official i can because we all have the same rights you presiding over a board as a president is different but you don't have the authority to tell anyone what to do but all right you can move on to voting that's fine but is there any other discussion i just fully support everything you said dory um i thought it was pointed and accurate and i've been impressed with our administration and our staff throughout this pandemic it is extremely confusing at times and is extremely frustrating and difficult but um i've

096always seen plenty of communication are posted clearly on the website so i'm i'm fully in support of this resolution well certainly from a board process standpoint uh this is horrendous i would think um to um actually bring up word process when you've just uh violated some of the most basic concepts of board [Music] it's in the most basic uh manual the surprises on the table i would like to know who else has seen this resolution that's being put forward this wasn't a surprise mrs murad was emailed in advance to inform her that a resolution would be brought to the board meeting if a public apology was not made to the superintendent and again mr and gracia board council was consulted on this and this is the recommendation of the wachong board of education attorney which

097is here to protect the school district and the board well i find i find that uh bad advice quite frankly and i find it uh not on the agenda for one um are you actually things don't have to be on the agenda for them to be introduced this is board business and i made a motion all right that's part of the robert's rules and you've read a multi-page resolution and i'm asking who else has had the chance to see that resolution before voting on it myself and mrs sharp who was consulted by the attorney on this matter spent a good part of our time speaking with our board attorney about this subject and took her advice and so nothing was distributed to the rest of the board for their review before being asked to pass

098a resolution no that wasn't necessary to do mr andrasia all right well i would i read the resolution too would you like me to read it again i would certainly not want to hear that again because i i think that it was uh it was very poorly written um i think that uh i would just ask my fellow board members who haven't been privy to this resolution to do some real reflection and and real uh soul searching before casting a vote on this resolution i think that to have it uh to be to have it read without um having the board be able to see it and have some time to reflect on it and is very badly done very poor leadership i i bring back the point that i made at the last meeting

099about team players and accepting diverse viewpoints and that's certainly not present in this action mr gracia i'm all for diverse viewpoints but i'm also for being a board of education member and making sure that we follow the rules and do what we're supposed to as far as mr alexis goes i think the key to the right you were listening the key to the resolution last week right what was then just said and i think that the original statement was twisted after amber spoke that it was twisted into something that uh she did not convey it was uh and even if you want to read a dictionary definition of a term i i actually never commented on the term i don't use the term and i don't care to discuss it but i clearly heard what

100she said and i will just reiterate what i said at our last meeting as a board member my own personal beliefs you don't get to then get up out of this chair and go and make a statement and blow the doors off of the administration it's just it's not something that should be done and it actually put us in about very bad position as a board that you are now part of right we are advised that we are not to make any evaluative comments about personnel in public session and that took place and that leaves us open to legal liability and this is the advice of our board attorney which this was actually crafted by our board attorney so i'm i'm not sure where the disconnect is there we are not allowed to do what

101mrs murad did in public session and that leaves us open to a lawsuit do you understand that mr ingratial well i disagree with your characterization you can disagree but you are not our perfectly fine but we listen to our board counsel that's why we retain one and listen to them selectively i might add very selectively i might can we move on did anybody ask the board attorney to be here today we did yes we did she wasn't available to be here this evening but we did ask her to attend the season thank you so a board member shared an opinion possibly formed through parents coming to her with their concerns and like i said before i was interrupted a definition was read which the result was confusion that that can lead to confusion and so

102i think that that was really at the crux of what amber was saying that there's when there's confusion you don't want to have it be so that the person who's saying that they're confused is at fault and that's all that's the only way i took that original statement but it was amplified by other board members after amber's statement but uh like i said i think that anyone who hasn't had a chance to read that and reflect on that should really um think long and hard before you would you would vote yes on that it's it's something that was apparently two people out of this board had a chance to read it and that's uh you know to to put something forward that basically you're telling a board member uh that we're going to condemn you

103for speaking um about concerns that are maybe in the community and then you're going to uh have a chilling effect for on the public i think also when you do that so i just would um i i obviously am not in favor and i i think that um anyone who hasn't had a chance to see it would is uh being very unfair if they would just uh vote yes on something that they haven't even read after uh you know having it sprung on the uh the board table like it has been thank you so i clearly am in favor and i just i disagree and i'm allowed to disagree with you anthony and we can all have our own opinions and that's fair and um i think it was pretty clear i think it was

104actually more than clear as to what dory read um i listened i digested what she said it was two pretty clear concepts one mrs marat used evaluative comments in public to personnel and the administration has the full support of the board and the rest was eloquently written by our attorney so i mean if you need to see it in writing i'm sure mrs harvey would be happy to send it to you but i was able to follow along and and absorb those two concepts i would like that resolution in writing though thank you rita you need to just talk into the mic [Music] yep so mr and gracia i comment of being more thoughtful about what it is so i appreciate that i will say that the spirit of even today's meeting that if there's

105ever a personnel issue we went into an executive session so even even when the person's not here the rules of engagement dictate that we don't discuss personnel issues in open sessions so even in examples today we respected the rules of engagement so while i understand that we should be allowed to have an open forum there are rules of engagement where personnel are concerned so i think we've got to be very precise about how we use language and especially when personnel is concerned so while i appreciate the idea that we should be able to express when there are we disobey the rules of engagement where personnel is concerned that's not cool so i would support it too so if i may i would add so mr anderson i understand your interpretation i respect that but other

106people may have different interpretations and that's the crux of the problem if um reasonable minds may differ and as mentioned there are protocols in terms of discussions of personnel especially the superintendent that's the only employee of the board so there are ramifications to what we say in public as board members and we have to be careful about what we say um and we have to follow the protocols and as a board i think we should be unified in terms of that approach otherwise there's potentially issues in terms of not following our ethics and our agreed training as part of being a board member so you know i would i would support the resolution one last comment um when i spoke again i spoke i said i clearly identified that my concern was as a parent

107and not a board member and i did not point towards the superintendent or mr pepe i said they do a great job and i also held myself as a board member accountable that we and then at the end if you heard what i said it was parents feel that they are being gaslight um that it is not fair right so again probably a poor choice of word however there were just no clear guidelines provided at that time and that's my opinion mr bucharelli you can disagree to my opinion and that is fine but i did not point at anyone mr buckarelli did he said if you are it's a charged word and if you are pointing towards mr alexis he's done a great job if you're pointing towards this person he's done a great job

108i did not use anyone's name and i said thank you and my humble request is that clear guidelines be provided i have it in writing it's and recorded so it is what it is so like i said if there's any more comments please i don't think there's any ambiguity about who runs the school's amber so that's kind of a strange argument that's all i'll say i i've read every word i mean i heard every word of that i did not read it i did not get it beforehand i listened very carefully and heard every word of resolution and have you always practiced that rich that you haven't used evaluative language towards a superintendent anthony you know i don't i don't know where this board is headed but we had a we had a situation today

109that troubles me so there's apparently not a willingness to listen to advice of either a school board association or work work counsel to the board and i didn't want to bring this up but since you're at it so hard okay we had a meeting today of the operations committee you are on the board of directors of the watch on little league that gave the administration some discomfort with you participating in these discussions the administration asked for an opinion of counsel that i was not involved in asking about but they sent to me because i'm the chairman of the committee our council clearly said you have a conflict and clearly advised that you should recuse yourself i sent you that email i did not get a response from you i offered that you could call our

110counsel when today we had that meeting i said anthony we're about to discuss the watch on little league just so you understand that and there was no response from you i said anthony you want and you said yes am i and then you said correct me if i'm wrong if you're asking me to recuse myself i'm not going to i'm not going to vote on it but i'm not going to recuse myself now not voting on something is abstaining recusing yourself is not participating it because you continue to be present in the meeting and listen which is a person who has a conflict of interest listening to a discussion that he shouldn't be listening to i'm the chairman of the committee it makes me very very uncomfortable that you don't want to follow council's advice

111and put us and the board in an untenable position where now and this was in front of the mayor and a member of the town council in the business administration so if you're sitting here saying our board council is not worth listening to and i'm not going to listen to her then you know this is not going to be something that i think the rest of the board is going to be comfortable with well you're putting words in my mouth both at what i said on the call okay well just tell me what's going on and this and you did the same to amber rich and you've done the same uh i was on that call i think he's i think the one word words in people's mouths quite a bit but you're not interested

112from adam since he was i was on the i was on the meet i was on the call i think rich what he said was i won't comment but i'm going to stay on i won't take any action and i and i still pledge i planned before any email was sent to me that i won't be making any votes i won't be taking you know but to rich's point you didn't recuse you didn't take council's advice i did right i said i think that's an interpretation that's another interpretation maybe it's just it's not an interpretation it's actually very clear maybe you're just collecting from my question maybe i honestly i'd like to talk maybe it's because you haven't had ethics training yet but there's a difference between recusal and not saying anything or not or

113abstaining recusal means you're not involved you're not listening so you can go back to the place where you have a conflict and have that knowledge right that's what recusal means you went off the agenda rich the point was i was i was there to listen to a presentation of that was very focused on a particular issue involving potential what you said in the meeting earlier today a fema grant with the bridge you you can't just decide you're gonna jump to a side topic uh have me you know uh jump off the call at your whim and then jump back on when what you were gonna text me or something it was a two-minute comment mr and gracia just so you know from someone who has to recuse themselves from certain things because i am a

114part of the same teachers union as our teachers here that yes you can deviate from an agenda and if the topic comes up and you have a conflict with that because you are in the same organization that this board of education is negotiating something with then yes you need to recuse yourself from that situation otherwise you open up yourself and this board to public criticism and potential ethics violations you're doing a very good job of deflecting from mr can i please finish thank you um so as a teacher whenever there are discussions about negotiation myself and mrs shaw have to recuse ourselves from those and we gladly do because we support our teachers here and we want to make sure that they do get to negotiate a fair contract with this board and that is

115what we are supposed to do as professionals so when something comes up in a meeting [Music] and you're in a conflict because you're on the little league board and you're also on this board and we're negotiating a lease with the little league yes our community could perceive that as you having inside information for both boards that you're on and that's why even if it deviates from the agenda you have you our council has advised you to recuse yourself but i do want to bring this back to the original conversation that we had and i disagree with what you said to the resolution are there any other discussions regarding the resolution or can we move to a roll call i just have one brief statement um sure you know i've listened to the resolution i've listened

116to both sides i remember the comments that were made and uh i also remember reading the two echo sentinel articles that came out over the last couple weeks and you know i'd really like to see less of those articles in the future um i'm not looking to minimize any of the difficulties for parents students or the school staff i also don't necessarily vote to punish board member rod but i do think that the comments made are legally problematic for apparently what the board attorney expressed to you uh you know i think that it would have been helpful to have her here today to explain that but i understand that you know other things can keep people from they're conflicting obligations and you know it's part of life so uh i'll personally be voting for it

117pretty much just because i believe the board must legally distance thanks okay seeing as there's no more discussion can we have a roll call please mr barbella yes mr beccarelli yes mr gracia no [Music] mr kraft yes mr mcdonald yes mrs narad no ms sadbani yes this is sharp yes mrs harvey yes motion passes okay is there any other board business to discuss seeing that there's none we're going to move on to comments from the public please remember to state your name and address before speaking hi good evening kathleen purchau 45 rock avenue i want to oprah all of the board emails and texts in regards to this matter as it looks that only dory and jen were the orchestrators of censorship among our elected board representative amber myself as a teacher i am appalled

118by your actions dory to create a dictatorship among this board as i am requesting for your resignation as board president this evening thank you thank you so we have another hand raised hi this is francesca escalera parlin lane i just wanted to make a comment that i feel that parents may be confused and need additional support interpreting the state and cdc guidelines i do come from a public health background so it's easy for me to understand them and also understand all the confusion that they may cause and patience that everyone has to have in the process but it is the duty of the school district to provide clear guidelines which may mean interpreting those that are posted on the state's website so with that being said i would really appreciate if there could be additional

119transparency when it comes to the guidelines even if they may be updated more than twice in one day thanks and have a great evening thank you yes hi sonia woods johnson drive um i attended last month's meeting via zoom and i'd like to start my comments by stating that i'm speaking as a parent which is exactly what amber murad said when she started her comments last week she was speaking as a parent and it was clear i guess the roles of the board members not being allowed to say certain things only apply at certain times and to certain board members i can tell you that i've spoken to current board members in the past where they have specifically said to me i am speaking as a parent and not as a board member there is

120a reason why parents don't speak up at board of ed meetings and tonight's resolution is a clear example of why parents don't speak up your resolution tonight is silencing a parent's comment aren't board of ed meetings meant to give parents the opportunity to express their concerns or opinions about the school whether the board of ed members agree or disagree with the concerns or are these meetings only meant for parents to express their concerns or opinions that are aligned with the majority of the board members parents are not speaking up at these board of ed meetings because they fear the backlash that your comment that their comments will have on their children or on them given that this is a small town unfortunately in amber's case the backlash resulted in public humiliation and disgrace it's disgusting

121as i was listening to your resolution i was wondering if maybe i had a misconception of what the board of ed responsibilities are so while you were talking i googled what are the responsibilities of school boards it led me to the new jersey school boards association website which i believe one of you just mentioned and that website states the school board has a dual role first it's to represent the concerns of the citizens the taxpayers and parents to the school administration administrators and the second is to represent the needs of the students and the school district to the citizens taxpayers and parents of the community when speaking as a parent amber was expressing her concerns she wasn't disgracing anyone she should be allowed to speak as a parent why is that condemning when it is

122clearly your role as a school board to represent the concerns of a parent to the school administrators your actions tonight will further divide our community and it in no way shape or form helps our kids academic growth these actions are unnecessary please stop wasting your time on these petty resolutions and focus on the important factors here which are number one are students and number two the needs of our teachers thank you hi sonia martin 288 hill crestron i'm going to say by experience that i was confused with the cbdc guidelines and all the process that is behind that my kids got sick with coffee symptoms so i thought that my kids could go virtual and apparently two of my kids were allowed and one not because the teacher said that was not covered related so

123they were not quarantined how that is possible if the nurse called me say that my kids need to stay home with coveted symptoms in the meantime i called the school the secretary said no the teacher is wrong your kid can go to virtual i called the bayberry should let her know that my kid is going to still stay home and the secretary there say no your kids are not allowed to go virtual because it's not coffee related so even the school doesn't know the protocol how the parents should know and how amber it's going to be public humiliated when she's just voiced the concern of the parents thank you um just uh real quick mr ferrari i believe you had your hand raised and i accidentally lowered it you can re-raise it i'll let you

124speak now i apologize for that hi this is mark ferrara 45 rock avenue i have 24 years experience in government and seeing that board action from dory harvey is inexcusable and a public humiliation to amber i am appalled as a government employee i'm appalled as a resident i would never think that a person in the president's statute would carry on and do such a heinous action against the fellow board member over something so petty this is ridiculous and time for those type of people to move out of the board member seats and put people there that are worried about children not worried about petty grievances thank you thank you hello we can hear you hi jessica and gracia hi oaks drive um i hope this is rock bottom okay because this board has done a

125full 180 now from when my oldest child started school here in and i started seeing the decline of the district what i perceived to be the decline of the district in 2016-17 ran for the board in 2018 with what i interpreted as divisive and suppression tactics from the administrators at that time and a lot of board members i came onto the board to change that i served three years and quite honestly left disgusted with the leadership of this board of education you have taken the tactics of the board that i fought to turn over and the administration that i fought to turn over to turn the page on divisive toxic rhetoric petty personal agendas and above all a complete lack of focus on the core reason you are elected and i'm seeing two of your

126faces that are not elected you were appointed and for you to participate in something like this is really shameful you have done a 180 from where this board started to have a chance to change the climate and the culture of this district and you're right back to where you started even taking the tactics that the previous administration and board used and amped them up to the stratosphere to censure a mother of a school district child a volunteer in our town uh in the schools themselves and at the county level i'm not even sure why board council would give you legal advice to formally censure i was told by the new jersey school board's associations multiple times over the years that the only people that can censure a board member is the school ethics commission i

127would advise you to get a second opinion on that because i think that that is accurate school ethics commission will decide who needs to recuse themselves and who can be censured i don't think it's up to a board president and vice president who are seeking retribution for personal agendas or animosities there's no place for this focus on the kids focus on academic improvement achievement in the district but this sets a horrible precedent it reflects so poorly on the priorities of this board and if the administration is behind it i think it reflects very poorly as well it's a shame on the district and shame on you thank you we have a hand raised please make sure you state your name and address georgia glass your nails 4300 d long beach boulevard brand beach i'm sorry

128you are not a resident of wachong i do not need to be that is correct well then by all means mrs nels are you there okay seeing no other hands raised can i have a motion to is adjourn a second second any discussion all in favor say aye aye hi any opposed thank you for joining us this evening this meeting is adjourned