10-14-21 Watchung Borough BOE Meeting

001okay i'd like to call to order a regular meeting of the watchmen borough board of education on october 14 2021 at 6 00 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 seconds here we go uh 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

002taken this meeting is being conducted remotely using communication technology and an option to attend in person instructions for joining the meeting and participating in public comments have been posted on the district website and sent to the wachong borough 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 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

003the consent of parents guardians whose children may be included in the image can uh we have a roll call please mr barbella here mr buccarelli here mrs harvey here mrs ingrassia here mr kraft here mr mcdonald here mrs murad and mrs scharf here okay all present okay can we have a motion to go into executive session so moved second bridge any discussion all in favor say aye any oppose uh mr pepe can you please read the reason as to why we are going into executive session sure whereas the open public meetings act njsa 10 4-11 permits the board of education to meet in closed session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved board of education adjourns to close session to discuss material the disclosure of which constitutes an unwarranted invasion of individual privacy

004further be it further resolved the minutes of disclosed session will be made public when the need for confidential confidentiality no longer exists this closed session will be followed by an open session where action may be taken okay so board members are going to now leave the zoom meeting and go to the to the google meet for the interview um if the candidate is on at your time for the interview please make sure that you log out of the zoom meeting before you enter the executive session meeting room let's start uh so can i have a motion oh wait can i have a motion to come out of executive session don't move second second adam any discussion all in favor say aye any opposed okay um so right now uh at this time the the watch

005on board of education uh will nominate and appoint a new board member to fill the vacancy for a term that expires on december 31st 2023 and will serve through the uh reorganization meeting in january 2023. our excuse me that's a that's a typo dory i just know oh is it okay should be december 2022. gotcha gotcha gotcha no thank you for correcting it um are there any nominations i'd like to nominate uh rita sadvani in her interview i thought you know she's very impressive uh i think that she would bring a lot to the table in terms of her experience she spoke about education and um it's important to her and her family she has children that have been through the school system and i thought she had some really good points of view on

006how the schools can provide a personalized experience for students and i thought that was very compelling um so i would i would like to nominate her i'm sorry don't you second it or not i was gonna second i don't think a nominee requires a second okay the vote when we go to vote we'll need a motion in a second um are there any other nominations i'll nominate lewis you know i i like his background i you know i really appreciated what he put in his letter when he applied for the position um you know a lot of passion and he's seen firsthand some things that have been good that could be better and i think it'd be a great great asset okay is that it you need a second i'm sorry i think it's no

007um so i think those are all the nominations rich so are we going to do a roll call yes i'll do a roll call and i'd ask each board member when i say your name to either say nominee number one which is rita for nominee number two which is lewis and then um i just wanted to state too for all board members i believe when you vote um you should give just a brief explanation um maybe aside from those who were uh who nominated since they already gave an explanation as why they nominated that person but for the rest of us um as to why you're voting for that person okay we ready mr barbella so before casting a vote to dory's comments one i wanted to thank all of the candidates um i was

008very impressed uh of everyone's background and interest and passion for the school district i know there were only two nominees brought forth but i felt that they were very strong candidates across the board so i wanted to thank all of them so so thank you for that um i um for both canada number one you know i'm trying to be not so impersonal between ryan and peter i i believe both of them are very good and bring different backgrounds um you know it's a very close in my opinion but i uh i do like um readers background in in terms of her engineering um her uh children that have gone through the school system and some of her experiences um and um i i would cast my vote for for rita for candidate number one

009i guess thank you mr buccarelli uh-huh yeah also i think there are very strong candidates um i'm hoping some of them will run next time um yeah uh the two i think you know rita and louis if i can call them by their names instead of their numbers were very impressive um uh it's it's it's really hard to choose it's hard decision what i say i think really you know made the difference for me was what resonated with me with rita was the story about her daughter and um and her experience in the steam lab you know my company does a girls who code program i think it's been hugely effectual uh and i think that the uh that's that's really the future we we do need equity and inclusion and we do need technology

010and we do need i think she mentioned you know modernizing aging infrastructure so i think you know all of those things are on on my uh list of things that we can improve in the school along with the personalized education that she mentioned and with this uh with the thing that george uh announced the partnership the public private partnership we were going to have with berkeley heights and with private with the public corporation and with now the state of new jersey as you'll hear in my legislative update i think it would be a great asset to have rita on the board for for those reasons so i vote for number one thank you mrs ingrassia yeah um i don't want to reiterate but i do really feel it's important especially this time we had five

011great people come forward and um i think it's important to sort of pause and recognize that these past three years this is the end of my term i've been on the board for three years so i don't want to be heavy-handed in my decision-making i didn't really participate that much in the um you know question and answer and you know i guess i'll have a vote but really this is for the future um of the board of education and um we've had so many resignations in three years i think we've filled um like seven or feeds in three years which is basically the whole award and i don't think i remember seeing candidates of this caliber um before and five of them so i think that's really encouraging you know i thought um mr koren

012you know a 35 year experience lifetime educator was great i thought sonia um abi habib was terrific too um been involved in and out of schools for 15 years raised um her own very successful children in college and watch on hills um mr magyar you know just the enthusiasm to join a community and say how can i help i have skills i have financial and technological skills that you know i'd love to apply this is really um it makes me feel confident about lifting the community up and really achieving something great um and i liked that about sonia actually that she said you know take the schools from good to great which is like a great um book on uh management and planning uh that i read once and this impacted me a lot so

013you know there's just a lot to say about everyone and um you know i also think that both of them are very deserving candidates um certainly miss sadbani's career as an engineer i know that we're definitely focusing on stem and i i do agree that we have to have a personalized curated approach to education i like her use of that word um i also like um mr fig guerrero i have always uh i guess i'll just say i wanted a police uh someone with law enforcement experience on the border bed um i can remember being a parent thinking that would be very useful i as a board member i think safety and security has always been top of mind for a lot of parents and expertise in that field is a plus um and i

014also think that parents in the district right now um you know we're kind of again at that critical point where we need the district needs some improvements and people who are have their boots on the ground so to speak with their own children in the system um having lived in the community for however many years as he has he may just be slightly more game ready to dive in um [Music] and get some stuff done and accomplish some great things so although it's a very difficult decision for me and they would be equally wonderful i think i may cast a vote for luis number two thank you mr kraft uh everyone has said great things and deservedly so the candidates were great i love the fact that we've had so many out there were times

015when we've had openings and it was hard to find one person to step up and now we have five with great backgrounds everyone bringing diverse skill set um i think rita's fantastic i'd be thrilled to have her on the board i agree focusing on getting girls interested in stem is a great push they have a lot to offer and it's a shame that it does seem to be so male dominate so i i appreciate her take on things and her background and how she can help us there and you know to to mr buccarelli's point with the technology enrichment program uh starting up next year be an asset to have her um i did nominate lewis i think he i still think he'd be great i am in a cast i vote for candidate number

016two but i'd be thrilled to work with either of them thank you mrs murad just i wanted to say thank you to everyone who interviewed it was great hearing your reasons to run um rita rita's um reasoning for running and her experience with her daughter and then her son you know that's something that i think we as a board are working towards and should continue on working towards um you know implementing technology and everything into our curriculum um the one thing that really resonated with me was her experience with bringing uh female just girls getting them involved it's something that laura overdeck said and it's that you know females are usually it's stereotyped to not be um in the forefront of math or anything like that and then her being the only female in her

017engineering class that was amazing um [Music] lewis i i really like the fact that you know he does have a background in his background that will help us uh as far as policy making or moving forward with that and um the traffic medication if anything and i i at this point i think uh lewis my votes for louis and um i think i look forward to working with rita as well uh in any capacity i hope you know she's comes to these meetings and engages with us as well thank you mr mcdonald yes i just um like to reiterate some of the earlier comments about all the candidates i thought that you know it was great to hear from everybody and i would certainly encourage if they're still interested whoever is not selected definitely think

018about running and you know i i i could easily see working with uh with lewis on this on this board it would be great to have somebody with um a fairly unique background in law enforcement here i think that he would add a lot to the table uh but for the reasons that i said earlier i'm gonna vote for rita thank you mrs scharf i know come to the territory with going last i'm not going to repeat uh everything that everyone said uh but i will say again i think uh we've never had you know i mean we've we've had great candidates before but to have so many candidates this time i think was absolutely amazing both of these candidates luis and rita it's it's a tough one but i do think i am going

019to go for number one for rita uh just the way that she spoke about stem and really kind of getting the girls in there kind of resonated with me it's definitely things i've heard uh here in my home so my vote is for rita thank you mrs harvey um it was actually quite refreshing to see so many candidates who want to just be involved and and contribute um and give back to our community um so it was great to see so many people throw their hat in the ring um for this and just to see you know the backgrounds of teachers and and um law enforcement and techs i mean it's it's amazing um as always to see and hear about so so many people in our community i did really appreciate a lot of

020the things that um candidate one rita said about stem just like the other board members but there was also some other things that she said about trying to get the board involved with personalizing our school system so that we can get students to really buy in to their education because once they're hooked in then those are the experiences and memories that they're going to remember for a lifetime um and i'm sure i'm paraphrasing that but that's how i really took it from her um and then lewis was was fantastic with his background on law enforcement just like everyone else has said um and to have uh someone like that on the board of ed as well would be um extremely beneficial to our board members and the and the school district uh but i will

021i know we have to place a vote for one um so i am gonna place my vote for candidate one um for rita okay thank you that concludes the vote we have five votes for nominee number one and we have three votes for nominee number two which means rita is has been appointed to the board congratulations great congratulations um if you can rich if rita is on um if she raises her hands maybe we can have her uh just say a couple things before we move on in the meeting i think i saw her name but maybe she dropped off we can hear you yes first thank you so much for the vote of confidence it's just delightful to hear the focus on stem and making as much of a personalized experience for each child

022to me that was just validation of the fact that we're on a mission and it's going to be amazing so thank you so much i look forward to working with each one of you and um happy to hear the next steps okay great thank you so much rita congratulations um and and i believe uh rich pepe will be in touch with you shortly right rich um myself for connie and caskey we'll be in touch with next steps we have to do basic fingerprinting and things like that some paperwork so we'll be in touch tomorrow thank you thank you again have a nice evening thank you you too okay uh now we're gonna move to board member comments are there any comments from any of the board members i have a comment um i have to

023have to dig it up so at our last meeting some concerns were raised about academics how disenrollment or enrollment maybe into private schools or partially to blame for our 20-year low in enrollment one board member and to his credit that was rich buckarelli expressed um agreement or enthusiasm i guess to look into that data or willingness the rest of the board and the administrators who actually possess that data were silent and i didn't see any evidence of discussion in any of the minutes of committees um so i assume discussion did not take place or the data was not shared you know i just want to comment this isn't something that the district should be ignoring or covering up it's it's really okay to admit that this is a concern and and i wanted to just

024take a minute tonight to maybe reassure us as a board that it is part of a larger phenomenon parents all over the country are questioning whether public schools are still right for their kids that's not news to anyone at this point in fact it's all over the news and you know as i reflected on the comments from the last board meeting and the data or lack thereof so far you know i came across an article in forbes this week it was just on monday and it named this phenomenon or labeled it a new era of parent empowerment and there's some really good insights in the article so i just wanted to touch on some of them and that's why i'm reading from these notes the article says after a year in which students families and

025the general public have experienced firsthand the deficiencies of a big system attitudes toward public education and the way it's been managed throughout the pandemic are shifting so the piece goes on to theorize and i'm quoting again all of the shifts in education occasion by the pandemic out of all of the shifts in education occasioned by the pandemic perhaps the most significant and the one with the most far-reaching consequences is the greater involvement of parents in their children's schooling it continues that should have been clear to schools as they work to regain families trust and student enrollment so it's referencing exactly what we've been what what was presented to us in in our last meeting um and my fear is that here in wachong we return to a business as usual approach and perhaps are keeping

026parents more at bay than even previously so this is a final quote from the forbes article okay they say inside schools education is less than adequate to make up for the lack of instruction that occurred for over a year but make no mistake this failure has real world costs and it followed with tons of you know mckinsey and and uh think tanks research that justify those costs and how it's affected students but we as parents inherently understand this new schooling options have emerged for us home schooling online schooling educational pods parochial schools that used to have their own enrollment challenges now have waiting lists um watching schools need to face the fact that we're now competing with a myriad of options to retain motivated students and families and try not to lose them so i

027was beyond disappointed when i heard that our board president and perhaps some proxies reached out to some of those who spoke in the last meeting and asked them to stop making public comments that are unflattering to the district so i'm going to be gracious here and i'm just going to say that's counterproductive i was that parent three years ago three and a half four years ago i spoke out at board meetings about problems i experienced in our schools i received that pressure from the establishment to back a false narrative that there's nothing wrong with the schools it was wrong then and it's wrong now parents always have a fundamental right to advocate for their children's educational environment hearing their concerns strengthens our school district you know i earned my seat on the board here which

028is my term is almost up um in the most contested race for school board in wachong's memory six candidates ran for three seats i don't i hate to be immodest but i received the most votes out of all the candidates so i felt that that's a mandate that i should i cannot betray by staying silent on this so if we're back to deja vu all over again and parents are being pressured to not say bad things about the district i'm happy to use my voice on this board to convey their sentiments our community's concerns about academics are prevalent and valid i've never heard this many parents my peers complaining that they have to hire tutors for even the most basic instruction for their elementary aged kids children that are performing at grade level or above

029are often feeling forgotten the soar program as good of a concept as that is it's like the top triangle on the pyramids of needs and wants if it's useless without a solid foundation beneath it after school enrichment programs are great but they're after school there's a clear message coming through meet our students educational needs during the day in the core subjects before you can move on to special things you know i've never talked about my own kids during my whole time on the board but as i said my time here is almost up so i'm just going to put this out there i pulled my own children from this district because of these concerns one of my kids referred to for example was reading young adult level books for fun by the time he was

030in second grade there were no books at his level in his classroom at bayberry school he was told to sit on the rug and read any book or read with a buddy that needs help the teachers had their hands full the classroom dynamics were chaotic the mechanisms to provide differentiation were just not available to them so i was told to supplement outside of school but with three young children i couldn't contort our family's schedule to juggle after school tutors and enrichment classes that would compensate for the inaccuracies of a public school system in addition to all the other things my kids had to do like sports and religious commitments like all families have it just feels overwhelming you know i was told that the soar program will help what but an hour of pull-out enrichment

031doesn't compensate for daily learning loss of one-size-fits-all instruction and this was before covid which undeniably exacerbated these issues so i sought a learning environment for my kids that differentiated instruction in every core subject on a daily basis so that the material presented is the right level for them to keep them progressing towards meeting their potential and this was echoed in what our newest board member just said in our in our conversations um curating an individualized approach to education watch on kids need and deserve this from our public schools now more than ever so i'm going to close with this final thought i know i'm rambling on but i don't have much longer to do this in our august meeting we voted to approve action goals for the academic year they include social emotional learning stem

032steam diversity inclusion financial and facilities planning and as i said then i support those goals i support the action plans for them but the lack of basic academic goals was concerning especially considering all the covet disruptions my comment was at the time it's just become glaringly obvious that we have no academic goals for the year and that comment was met with complete silence neither the superintendent or any board member said one word well i'll tell you what parents are not silent on this topic i have never heard from so many parents as i did after that board meeting so there's a big disconnect here we have to be authentic in addressing academic concerns in a fundamental and systemic way not with tokens like soar or after school enrichment or even stem we have to address

033the basics before it's too late thank you for listening any other comments from board members um i just actually have a comment um recently a valley view student was injured during um after school hours by a moving vehicle and i wanted to thank the mayor uh president robinson and uh the business administrator and the police department for addressing the crossing light on sterling near valley view school um i also want to clarify some information that was stated at our last board meeting and correct the facts of a statement made by a member of the public that wachong is quote a laughingstock for not participating in the regionalization study and the fact is that none of the sending districts are participating in the study as of this past monday and i also wanted to say i

034also have attended many board meetings in my lifetime way before i became a board member and feel that listening and reaching out to parents is important to try and understand all of their concerns and i would just like to state that it is absolutely untrue that i told anyone to not voice their opinions and concerns at our uh board meeting so i would just like that to uh for everyone to understand that that is absolutely uh unfounded yeah i'll back you up on that if anything i've only ever heard you encourage people to speak at meetings i agree it's very important that we get feedback from our community granted we need data we can't just accept what people say as truth without data right and it's hard to say why if why people are choosing

035to send their children to private school right i have friends that did it last year specifically because of the pandemic they didn't know if their public school was going to have in person excuse me instruction and they were concerned about the disruption rightly so like we all were we wanted as much in-person instruction as possible but we had limitations that private schools didn't have so maybe that's part of the issue right it was just people moved into private schools last year and haven't come back you know it's tough to move kids back and forth from schools i know some that did but i also know some that didn't so i'd be careful making assumptions without with just one or two anecdotes are there any other board member comments i'd just like to make an official

036request for the actual data then so we aren't basing it on anecdotes as adam says i agree with that what what data specifically enrollment data which we have at every meeting when i first came on the board three years ago i think dory you saw it too we there was an attrition at that point and we asked the superintendent to share i mean when you just enroll you do have to tell the administration where you're going in normally their transcript sent so that's that's data the district has they had it three years ago i asked for it then and i received it but what what does that tell us other than where they're going does it tell us why they're leaving well i think that was a that was one of the very insightful comments

037that was made by a member of the public that you know do you provide exit interviews there was no answer to that i know that when i told my children out there was no exit interview and i don't think we've started to do them um but just having the numbers would help i mean there there's no data at all we saw a nutrition in momentum it's presumed um that people are pulling their children out because there was a spike in home sales um so that's why you just need the data i would be careful to get the data without reasoning behind it if it's just a number we're going to be making a lot of assumptions but i agree if we can get have some sort of exit interview and get a reason that to

038me is more helpful than just a number well the numbers would help too i mean those are the numbers i received three years ago and i mean they do tell a story what story can a number tell though people will go to private school for illuminating to me at the time so okay again i'm my personal opinion is a number is just that a number if we can get data from people who have left i would love to know their reasons absolutely we are always looking for feedback on how to improve i think our administration has done an admirable job i'm on the chair of the curriculum committee i have a very lengthy committee meetings report that i hope people will listen to and i'm proud of the work that we're doing uh if i

039could just add also that i started to look at the data and compile some we don't have exit interviews and that's something we can talk about but no one brought this topic up over the course of the last month we've had a lot of other things going on we also have had some challenges in trying to get the historical data because we changed from powerschool to genesis and we're trying to access that information so we can put together the data that's what the board would like but just from the initial look uh we really are not losing all of these students in fact i'm surprised we uh maintain the kind of enrollment we maintain during the pandemic and continue to maintain uh we had our largest class from students the 8th graders which i believe

040was like 78 students and we lost probably a net of 23 students over the course of the transition over the summer as the 8th graders moved up to the high school so we can look for the data that we have and compile it if that's what the board would like okay great thank you um if there's no other comments we i would like to move us into the architect presentation on the referendum um patrick so what see well i'm i apologize if i'm saying your name's wrong frank balbi and jessica grace from drg architects they are here to present um our presentation for the referendum after uh this we will have time for the community to engage um ask questions and and whatnot so i'll let you guys take it away dory rich is gonna

041yeah he's pulling up the presentation here uh i just have a bit of an introduction uh before i turn it over to some other folks to go through some of the more specific details of the referendum so welcome everyone tonight we're giving a presentation designed to educate the community on the referendum process and the proposed capital projects after i give a brief introduction to the presentation i'll invite mr barbella from the operations finance committee to talk about why the referendum is necessary and important and share highlights of the facility's projects he's worked closely with the committee the administration and the architects in preparing the proposed referendum we also have the boards architects engineer and engineer with us and we'll turn it over to them as mrs harvey said uh to give the details about the

042specific projects we'll then open it up to questions from the public it takes time and collaboration obviously to prepare a plan for the future in the next couple of slides acknowledge the board and administration as well as the board's architects and finance team so we also have mr salamini on and uh miss on uh the meeting today too so let's begin with the district vision never before has it been more evident that over the last and over the last 18 months that our vision for learning is relevant and vital to preparing students for the challenges of an uncertain future more than ever we must strengthen our culture of inquiry collaboration and equity and support innovative instruction design thinking and problem solving across the curriculum we must promote a growth mindset and ensure a culturally vibrant

043inclusive community that provides emotional security for all learners this is what our vision does this is what our district goals are designed to do this year this evening you'll hear about how the proposed improvements to our schools will facilitate the kinds of experiences that are aligned with this vision and prepare our students for an increasingly complex global community our students learn best when they are engaged physically and emotionally secure and excited to be in school and if we're serious about actualizing this vision and inspiring our learners to explore inquire and collaborate to solve problems creatively and to find joy in learning we must make sure that they are that we are providing physically safe fully functional environment at this point i'll invite mr barbella to speak about the referendum and the board's efforts to move

044our district forward thank you mr alexis i greatly appreciate it so um on the heels of our last board meeting what we thought would be helpful because um obviously there's a lot of discussion uh about the referendum and we get into some of the specifics and technicalities we thought it would be helpful for the community um in particular uh for those that may not attend each of the board meetings just a level set um and simplify what we're trying to do here what next steps are what a referendum is so at the last board meeting what we did was as a board uh vote uh to move forward with a referendum uh for purposes of the investment we wish to make uh as mentioned and with a lot of the um detail that uh everyone

045should have in in the packets uh provided publicly the the vote on simply means from the board perspective simply means that as a board we're bringing this forth to the community to vote on this referendum and what exactly is this referendum in the investment that we're making right so as discussed um a large part of what we're doing for this investment in the school system and the needs that we have for the school pertain largely to infrastructure that we'll go through in a bit of detail but also in large part to development and improvement uh of of the learning um environment for the children uh and for the educators right it's for them as well um a lot of people and i think we're all pulling in the same direction want to see wachong public

046schools um you know excel and and you can excel as mentioned in the last board meeting uh if you're not going to make the commitment to investment so what are some of the benefits of the referendum in terms of obtaining this capital um through a bond offering well um first thing to to keep in mind um which is not what is happening today where we pay for infrastructure through our capital fund um is that um a large portion 96 of the uh allocation of money that we're we're seeking through the referendum um are eligible uh for debt service aid through the state uh and um that amounts to roughly 34 percent of the cost so just simplifying it if we had to make a dollar investment in fixing the hvac system for the school because

047it broke um today our taxpayer dollars in wachong would fund 100 of that through our capital reserve and our maintenance budget right but when we ultimately have to replace that hvac unit we certainly wouldn't have the funds um in our savings at the moment so of that one dollar the state is reimbursing us 34 so for the entire roughly i'll use round numbers 15 million dollars slightly less for the referendum 34 of that will be subsidized by the state um if the referendum does not move forward and we don't obtain this investment then the citizens of wachong will be paying 100 of that hvac replacement or anything else that the school wants to do so um from that perspective it makes a lot of fiscal sense to be responsible and obtain the funding from the

048state that we all pay as taxpayers uh currently so so that's a a big consideration to think about as we move forward um next voters must uh vote and approve the referendum so there certainly is an opportunity and that's why we're having this educational session for voters to understand the process understand what's being put forth in terms of the investment and to vote in december and that referendum vote will be held on tuesday december 14th so um this is an opportunity the board is simply just putting it forward for the reasons we're stating tonight and we have in past board meetings but this is what it entails and what a referendum is in order to obtain the sufficient capital uh to really move the school system forward next slide um so as mr alexis mentioned

049um first and foremost we need to have a continued safe operation of our buildings grounds and to ensure that the students are safe you know that's the most fundamental thing as mentioned in the last board meeting nearly 50 percent of the the allocation for this referendum is for basic infrastructure so you know what i would equate that to is imagine in your own personal lives in your home if you didn't make sufficient investment in the maintenance of your house and the shingles start rotting and the baseboard starts rotting and you have problems with pipes little by little if you never made an investment there is going to come a time where something more meaningful and material from a cost perspective will happen um and that's because things find the end of their useful lives and

050that's the stage that we are now uh in our school system the last referendum was over a decade ago and that investment is long gone so the point of this is to replenish and yes we do have a capital reserve but i'll explain why that's not nearly enough um and why the necessary um amounts of capital for this project is required through the referendum next is again mentioning that half of it is basic infrastructure so that ceiling tiles are not leaking and that students have a healthy environment um is is the actual nourishment and growth of the students right um you don't feel particularly um resourceful or empowered um with a educational setting either for the educators of the students that's dilapidated um and that's not conducive to learning right you wouldn't be very impressed

051if you walked into school and it looks like you know you it was something out of the 80s so um if we truly want to reflect watchong as forward-looking you have to make the investment right this is an investment for for the children and you know for the environment they're going to be in so a lot of what you'll see as part of the architectural plans and the engineering here is the force of the environment within the schools and to create learning spaces so that they can develop um and then next um we mentioned again a large part of this cost will be funded by the state um so roughly a third um is paid for and subsidized by the state without that um hua chung will pay taxpayers will pay a hundred percent later

052on um if a referendum does not take place so i rather have the 34 cents from the state versus paying the full dollar which we'll have to do and not get any benefit even though we still pay state taxes so highlights of the referendum as mentioned first first of the basics as jessica mentioned foundation of a pyramid right build a pyramid on sand that's gonna sink we need to have proper infrastructure we need to have a healthy and well ventilated uh environment for the students particularly given coveted and everything else it's paramount next is you know the safety and the security of the students improvement of the security systems cameras the the kinds of needs um that you would expect that i would expect the schools to have for my children um in in the

053school system these are basics um this isn't something very fancy um next is the reduction of costs um that would come through natural efficiencies uh by upgrading things right if we don't make the investment then we're gonna pay more in maintenance you'll pay more in utility bills you'll pay more in constantly having to hire contractors or other individuals to make repairs which isn't a wise investment it's not an investment at all it's just basic maintenance so we'll continue to have the problem and it'll just fester and get worse um problems don't age well unless you address them and as mentioned obviously the improved security for for for the school systems okay next um you know what i liked about the process through the operating committee is you know really looking at the opportunities we had

054and you know being thoughtful about the workspaces for the faculty and staff but also with regard to the learning areas conjunctively with the students um they're bright they're um spacious uh they allow for um what i would call you know brainstorming activities and it's just more conducive to learning instead of a you know dimly lit not very impressive small classroom with older chairs and older equipment so um i i think a lot of the renderings you'll see in the drawings are quite impressive um and would make the the students want to learn next and and hugely paramount we've spent so much time at board meetings talking about this technology right we can't have technology that's decades old um and failing um we have a beautiful donated stem lab but if the surrounding technology you know

055barely survive y2k you know what do you think is going to happen right you're never going to get to that next level so we really do need to make that investment especially in a technological age where you know kids these days they're on an ipad at three years old that's not my generation um so we really need to foster that um and and invest in the technology uh to ensure we're just keeping pace this is um at a minimum in my opinion um and then lastly obviously um you know bringing the community the the the parents um others into the environment um to support and and prepare the students obviously for for going from bay berry um to valley view to middle school but also then to high school and college building that foundation having

056the students do well um really enabling students that have aptitudes um to explore that and expand upon that for for gifted students helping students that may need a little assistance or have unique skill sets this is an opportunity for them too so it really does benefit all of the students not just some of the students and i think for that reason this is the whole point of the referendum before we get into this slide just one a few last points george before i hand it back to you and and to the engineers and i'm sure there'll be questions at the end as well from from the community um first i wanted to express you know from an economic perspective why the referendum makes sense putting aside that we get a third subsidized from the state

057um as mentioned last time remember um we're in a unique situation where um interest rates are very low and we have an opportunity to finance this project at historically low rates and these rates will not stay low forever the amount of money as discussed at the last board meeting for average household in in won chung um for the referendum would wind up being less than 300 dollars per household comparatively to the last referendum because interest rates were much higher um and for um somewhat more money in terms of of the referendum at that time around 800 so um you know from a fiscal perspective the amount of cost for what we're receiving at this unique time to take advantage of both the interest rates and then of course the existing subsidy from the state is

058hugely beneficial and we should not lose it because time is of the essence and keep in mind all states are going through trying times in terms of their budgets so there's no guarantee in the future that the amount of subsidy from the state will stay that way uh over time they may not be able to support all the districts in the same way the the second thing i'd like to you know make people aware of and i didn't know until i joined the board and more so once i joined the operating committee you know you would think uh just simply as a parent as i am that the school system simply has a pot of money that's allocated based upon the taxpayers and then what happens in the operating committee is that simply decisions are

059made as to where that money is allocated and therefore why don't we just simply increase the capital budget uh and save more for capital projects and for maintenance um and that would make sense that seems logical right whether it would be a corporation or your household you would say i make a certain money a certain amount of of income and i choose where i want to pay my expenses unfortunately under the arcane rules of school budgeting it's not that simple the first thing is a large portion of taxpayer money that's currently provided to the school system is already allocated meaning 75 80 percent of the money that comes in the door is already going to fixed costs or variable costs that you know you're going to have such as utilities so automatically a good portion

060of our budget is spent day one of the discussion um during our operating committee as we put together the yearly budget and we don't have um endless uh money to therefore say okay hey we have so much left over let's fund every project and and you know increase the capital reserve uh and do everything else that we want to do um often we have to say no each year to to improvements or things that we want to do simply because there is no budget so um the money is not fungible it's allocated day one so that what that leaves you with is already a starting point of roughly you know 20 of the available tax money from there as part of our budget a large portion of that is already allocated for for logical things

061that may be variable costs but that we naturally want to do to support the school system so at the end of the day what you see and again it's not fungible money has to be allocated to certain accounts to certain activities you're not allowed to legally simply move money around and do what you want to do you're left with a small percentage that you could do anything with right and once you're left with that small amount of money and you have a million things on your to-do list um there's no plausible way where you're gonna say okay hey let's just throw a million dollars in the capital budget uh we think we need it um where when we are in these committee meetings we're literally talking about hundreds and thousands of dollars not hundreds of

062thousands of dollars hundreds of dollars and thousands of dollars that's how tight the budgets are that we're dealing with to figure out where we could spend the money and as mentioned our capital budget right now comparatively to the analysis that was done and discussed in the last meeting is a very small percentage of our total budget compared to our surrounding towns roughly eight percent uh compared to i believe was mentioned in the last meeting warren is somewhere in the ballpark of the low 20 so they have much more reserve and they have much more flexibility so um in summary without the ability to raise this capital to have this referendum um all we will be doing is paying more out of pocket um if it doesn't go through not make the investment not be able

063to replenish anything um and in a short period of time unfortunately there will be some cost or some investment that can't be made and will really never get to that next level that we're all seeking to do and to be um so you know i think it's hugely important i want people to understand why we're doing it i want people to know that we're being as responsible as possible we don't take it lightly to come to the community to ask for funds ultimately through this referendum in order to fund this but it's hugely important and one last thought other than obviously that you know all of this is for the kids um you know just keep in mind that and it was mentioned you know why why are kids um coming into the school system

064or leaving the school system how does watching compared to other school districts you know just keep in mind that people move into towns for the schools it's inextricably linked right your home property values are linked to the schools so even if you don't want to make the investment okay ultimately that has consequences right if the school systems don't do well the property values and the property prices will reflect that people will simply say why would i want to pay taxes and wan chung have an inferior school system when i can just go next door i'm happy to pay slightly more taxes and get a top-notch school and that's what i don't want to see i have two children in this in the school district um they've been in the school district their entire lives you

065know and i want to see this succeed so you know i implore everyone to think about it do your own research obviously read the materials and just understand the investment that we're making so i thank you and i give it back to you uh mr alexis for continuation of the presentation thanks mr barbella this is the part where we're going to turn it over to drg to add siwell and frank baldy and phil kokoza to talk about the actual capital projects and give some detail and illustrations um take us through that so thanks george i just i just want to make sure everybody can hear me yes we can hear you all right great um my name is pat snywell i'm coming to you a little more remote than i'm typically comfortable uh doing here

066so i'm going to do the best with the connection i have um with me here tonight is frank bolby project manager who helped build the uh long range plan uh phil kakos is also joining us from my office uh he's been a business partner of mine engineer for uh the past 20 years so one of the things i want to do also is commend this board of education you know as architects and engineers we do we do a lot of planning we do a lot of reports take a lot of pictures and deliver this information to the board of education the administration um but i once again i have to commend this the the finance committee and all the members of the board of education they actually took the time to visit these schools before

067making these tough decisions to to the point that mr barbella was making they took the time to visit each one of these schools we we toured the schools with them to show them the conditions that we identified in the long-range plan so they could make you know the educated and tough decisions uh when it comes to uh building uh what's in this referendum so um it was a great a cooperative effort collaborative effort and once again from a professional standpoint we appreciate that input uh so what is included in the referendum let's talk about what's happening at both schools and we're talking about uh the foundation we're talking about hvac replacements exterior door upgrades roof replacements upgrades to building security you know very very important some exterior walkways we have uh classroom casework that we

068would like to uh to to uh to rehab and replace and of course technology upgrades and site ada upgrades um ada americans with disabilities act that is upgrades that are dedicated to those with who who may have disabilities within your districts whether they're students or staff and then we'll get into some of the more unique um new unique projects for both bay berry and valley view middle school next slide so this is probably one of the more important slides of the presentation tonight on the left left-hand side as previously described we're looking at between hvac building interior security and building envelope that's almost 80 percent of the total of the total referendum which we're trying to uh which we're trying which we will be describing tonight uh the pie chart on the right hand side

069also very important as architects and engineers we have to submit each and every one of these projects in a new juror to new jersey department of education in an application form and we have to negotiate with them it's not a given we have to prove that um we have to prove that these these projects actually fall under life and safety and the health of your buildings so through that negotiation and through that application process we were able to get 96 percent of all the projects that we submitted to to the new jersey department of education um they're going to give you funding on 96 percent of it um i cannot remember the last time that we had such a great percentage which would be which would be dedicated to the 96 percent that you would

070be eligible for debt service aid on so uh we did very well in that uh in that application process and we were hoping that that the uh we're hoping that you're going to be able to take advantage of that next slide so pretty straightforward we're going to be replacing all the unit ventilators the remaining rtu's and chiller replacements all total between those three we're we're going to be touching at least 70 pieces of equipment in in addition to that there's going to be some exhaust fan replacements and most importantly is probably the building management system this is a system that's going to reach out and tie all of this equipment back to a centralized computer system which is going to allow the district to reduce energy costs and free up the buildings and grounds crew

071for for other things other other tasks they might have to do around the around your facilities next slide and of course you can't say enough about covet measures you know as we design if if we get to the point where we're uh where we're doing the specs and the drawings for uh for the install of this equipment uh we're gonna look at enhanced uh filtration a different merv rating of filter filters increased fresh air perhaps go beyond a go above ashrae standards in terms of fresh air changes and tested technologies we're talking about needlepoint bipolar ionization which which kind of charges the particles brings them together and you can actually catch these particles covered whether it be coveted dust or other viruses you'll be able to catch these particles in in much smaller filters so

072we we will be employing uh all three of these approaches as we design and uh the one take away from this slide is you know it's just not changing we're not just changing equipment we're actually we're actually doing this for for for the staff and the students as it has a direct correlation to um how they perform in the classroom test grades there's plenty of data out there that says you know an enhanced environment like this leads to better test scores so that is our goal i know that's the district's goal um and we look forward to helping you achieve that next slide bayberry and valley view there will be some building interior upgrades once again ada upgrades in terms of toilet rooms uh we have some ceiling work to do and there's some other

073plumbing systems in terms of flush valves and and sink faucets and things like that throughout the buildings that we're going to be upgrading next slide uh another cross-section is your security systems um we're talking about some front entrance upgrades uh uh in terms of a uh what i'll call a transaction window where you'll be able to validate visitors uh before you actually let them into the uh the main part of the building so it's very important for security we're gonna look at access controls we're going to expand add new cameras for a closed circuit tv system so you can monitor the entire perimeter and parts of the inside of the uh of your facilities and we'll also incorporate lockdown communications within the pa system um that figure on the left hand side that you see

074there is a is a product that we've been applying to schools for uh for the lower portion of the windows right now you have windows that are are made to break uh they're all tempered they're made to break into a thousand pieces which you know unfortunately would allow an intruder and easy access to these lower windows that you have at both bay berry and valley view so we're going to be looking at applying this film uh it it it doesn't prevent the piece of glass from being broken but it will certainly slow down and intrude or trying to uh trying to crawl through that uh that particular opening and we'll be applying that both the doors and windows next slide uh protecting your investment this is a no-brainer there there are a few roof sections

075that have to be taken care of at both schools um you have the pitch section at valley view and you have this section up front at bay berry um you do have a very good roof program your your district your administration has continued to do ongoing maintenance they work with a great uh roofing manufacturer to to not only maintain the roofs but come out and check them periodically but we identified these two areas and we will be looking at that we will also be taking care of some of your exterior doors and some of the corridors some of the vestibules you can actually see light the doors themselves are in pretty good shape but they just need some tlc with regard to weather stripping and weather brushes at the thresholds so we'll be taking a

076look at upgrading those next slide um electrical systems and technology can't say enough about technology i mean it it's uh education is very fast-paced um we experienced that uh during covid with uh with distance learning so there will be some upgrades to the servers firewalls and the infrastructure in the way fiber fiber runs throughout the buildings to deliver the information much faster and of course the electrical system upgrades they will include um exit sign a complete overall of the exit uh infrastructure exit signs throughout both buildings and upgrades to the pa system uh throughout both buildings next next slide uh bay berry unique to bay berry there will be some flooring uh replacements and abatement of v80 vinyl asbestos tile in favor of vct vinyl composition tile it's going to enhance the the classroom and

077it will also rid uh read the some of these areas of uh of the vat that i just spoke to interior wall repairs we did i identify nothing imminent but we did identify some structural issues with some block walls on the inside of bay berry we'll be addressing that and of course the media center carpet uh the carpet that's in there is a broad loom it was installed some uh some 20 years ago um it has seen better days and we're recommending uh a carpet tile for ease of maintenance and replacement uh for your for the future of the space next slide uh bay berry interior alterations case work okay we're looking at case work in and uh in in work sessions with mr alexis uh he remembers hanging his hanging his backpack and his

078coat in some of these areas what you have here is uh casework that's original to the building uh we're looking at folding accordion doors that are constantly calling uh coming off their tracks um but we're looking to enhance the entire uh workspace by replacing all of this um it's time it's it takes a lot of maintenance to to upkeep you know 50 year old uh casework work so you can see the image on the right hand side we're going to completely clean up the room and it does not only include case work we will be painting the feature wall and trimming out and doing any flooring replacements that may be required at the base of those cabinets that you see there next slide um once again this is a no-brainer you got to keep up

079with your sidewalks in and around both facilities these are tripping hazards the last thing a district needs is a is a lawsuit from from somebody you may accidentally fall there will also be exterior lighting upgrades and 80 ada upgrades these are the these are the detectable strips at the base of some of the walkway ramps and we'll be adding those to both schools next slide uh more building interior upgrades um the the acoustical upgrades for your music rooms both the coral and instrumental music rooms at valley view these rooms have i was very surprised i walked in they have common ceiling tiles and almost no acoustical treatments on the walls we're going to work very carefully and closely with um with the manufacturer called wenger uh what we what we'll do is we'll send them

080the volume of the room they'll actually model it uh through an acoustical analysis and they'll come back to us they'll tell us exactly how many uh diffuser panels and how many absorber panels uh would should be placed on the walls in order to maximize the acoustics uh in these spaces and uh and once again it's it's all about preparing your students for when they get to the high school level um you know you want them to be hearing their voice you want them to be hearing uh their instrument the way it's supposed to sound uh in the middle school setting uh so they are prepared for uh for the high school setting and some other upgrades you know uh once again ada uh upgrades to toilet rooms um and and these are we also identified

081uh handrails uh in the valley view school that were actually short at the top and the bottom they don't don't currently meet uh ada code and once again it's all about heading off any um any any form of a lawsuit and and classroom locker replacements also at the valley view school next slide okay this is where we get into the the educational pieces um uh once again we collaborated with the administration uh mr alexis had a lot of uh input so over the next few slides i'm gonna describe what the existing conditions are and how we're to reconfigure them and miss i'll let mr alexis speak to uh the benefits of of what we're going to do to the art room to the media center into this outdoor learning commons so let's start with the

082valley view orb um it's it's a it's really an inefficient use of space the the shape of this the classroom really doesn't lend itself to uh efficient instruction um when it was added on back in in the original referendum early 2000 you're you can't quite see it there in the picture on the right but the floor is kind of uneven there's actually a hump there where the tile meets the uh the dct that you see beyond and also adjacent to the space was a storage space which was dedicated for uh district storage um we want to take advantage of that space has some nice windows we want to take advantage of that space to expand the art room into that so let's go to the next slide uh on the left hand side uh in

083the upper upper left-hand quadrant you're going to see the storage space it's almost a thousand square feet and the art room is adjacent to that there's windows in the storage the door and the uh the two windows that you see there uh go directly outside and then the art room uh hatched in a 45 degree uh lines there that you see have a kiln room and a storage room out of that so on on the right hand side what we're going to do is we're going to pivot this storage now we're taking uh we're going from a thousand square feet we're going to pivot that to the lower corner we're still going to maintain some interior storage but we have to find a home for the rest of it and i will describe what we're

084going to be doing with that later on uh in the next few slides but you can see that the the art room you know grows to this nice 1700 square foot space um you know this is a this is a high-tech space uh we we're going to maintain the kiln we're going to have plenty of storage and this is going to be a great space for traditional as well as any digital arts that might want to be taught in here the kind of corridor that you see uh coming out from the bottom from the corridor that's going to act as a display space so as the students complete their projects we're going to do some nice lighting in there and and and students staff parents alike would be able to to view some of the

085nicer pieces that are coming out of the studio let's go to that i think i think this image really speaks uh to what the core concept is here and i i also i think you you spent a lot of time getting feedback from um art teachers here in the district and based on your experience in other districts and talking with our teachers but what's clear is that i shouldn't say it's clear from the picture is that the space next to the kill in the existing area is really kind of dead space it's not an instructional space basically the square at the bottom of the image on the left is where all of the instruction takes place uh it is you know i i wasn't here when this was designed as part of the referendum but

086it clearly wasn't the most efficient use of the space and what pat and what the succeeding slides will show is the kind of space we're looking to create a space consistent with this the stem lab that we have and we've talked a lot too just like the high school does moving towards a steam program where the arts and digital technologies merge together for a steam program so uh i think that's important to note here but i think the pictures that you can show of the proposed space are really terrific can we move on rich so so this is the vision um you know this this is a a flexible you know 21st century learning environment uh where the kids can flourish we're going to introduce new cabinetry this is actually looking uh from the storage

087area back toward what we talked about is the kiln and storage area next slide very similar to what we want to do with the media center turning that into a learning commons right and here you can't quite see it doesn't stand out as much but it will stand out in the physical location how important the windows are going to be to the lighting next slide here you can see we these are the windows that we're going to be taking care of or taking advantage of actually and it really opens up the space it's it's really going to be a it's really going to be a dynamic and a great flexible space uh for your art program next slide okay the uh the media center this is your existing media center which we we we're looking

088forward we we want to transform this space uh once again into a 21st century learning space um i worked very closely we worked very closely with mr alexis who comes from the high school uh wachong regional and um they have a fantastic media center so we drew some of the influences of that um and once again these spaces these bookcases are giving way to um to to you know wireless environments so you're going to see a lot more soft seating nooks you're going to see a lot more uh seminar spaces the image down there in the center there you know that was that was your your typical computer bank you know early 2000s uh design where you saw desktops um and and and monitors lined up uh in that area in a u-shape where the

089instructor would walk around behind them and and and kind of teach them now with with with the wireless technology with the you know this type of design is is has gone by the wayside so let's go to the next line and as part of the process um we took a trip to the high school once the learning commons was completed there last winter um frank bolby and i karen kidd our middle school principal and trisha keene our media center center specialist at valley view all went up to the high school to see the space and a lot of the elements were what inspired the design here but that's what we're going for as pat said uh collaborative space that's flexible and dynamic versatile with different zones for multiple varied uses where we can inspire collaboration

090and problem solving but we also have spaces reserved for quiet work um you know for students based on going and again arising out of that discussion about personalizing learning uh in the district this is a giant step towards that so the image on the left hand side is your existing media center library traditional setting with a charge desk book stacks rows and rows of book stacks and individual desks with that computer area that we spoke to so on the right hand side once again we're going to break it up into a dynamic space we're going to provide what we'll call a multi-use classroom in this classroom can you be used by by students it could also be used by staff for for seminar there's going to be another seminar area below that right within the

091space the charge desk will be centrally located for ease of observation and supervision throughout the space and off of that to the right we're going to have shared guidance in cst spaces office spaces uh more guidance and of course you're gonna need some storage uh this is where you know uh uh ipads and other electronic devices can be charged overnight um for the next uh for the next program day so let's go to some of the images in the top right corner they're also inspired next line we would call like an sel space or a uh you know a mental health space that can be used in conjunction with guidance whether it's or it's for group work or for uh individual students who need some time to decompress uh but it's all part of that

092design and as pat mentioned too this learning commons is not limited to students it also can work very well for professional learning for our adults too so this is an image uh a view from the charge desk uh looking back once again to that multi-use classroom in the seminar space uh we're gonna take a list this is not just a um this is not just carpet and furniture we're gonna take a long look at the hvac system above the ceiling to see what we can do about manipulating it to get it a little bit higher to make it look like a much more much more dynamic space right now the ceilings are very low and we believe there's a lot of space available above the ceiling so uh we will we'll be investigating that and

093um and we're going to make the best use we can out of it to get to get this dynamic look that we're looking for next slide once again plenty of soft seating for individual learning seminar spaces some some quieter reading areas next slide but it's also attractive to the students and that's the report that we get from the high school that the kids love going to the new learning commons and that's the kind of space we want for our kids too that they can use during flex time they can use before and after school really opens up a lot of opportunities next slide okay moving on okay valley view some sight alterations uh we there's a there's a an old softball field that's in need of repair um we we actually went through many many

094renditions trying to figure out uh you know what should we what what best use we can make out of this so um there's still a lot of flexibility we're still there still will be some ideas as we get into design there might be ideas that come out and make sense but in simplest form we're going to rehab uh the entire the entire field you also have an existing courtyard that holds a lot of parking and some old uh storage sheds um so we're gonna try to make better use of that um in the way of creating what we're calling an outdoor learning commons next slide so this is what we have in terms of site alterations um what you're looking at in the upper left-hand corner there are some some old uh sheds that were

095uh placed against the building um yeah i i you know really not much uh thought other than just store as much stuff as you can in there but in any event we're you know with the with the introduction of what we're calling a learning commons into this courtyard uh we have to find a new home for those um there's will also be some site upgrades in terms of sidewalks and ada but i can't stress enough um and we talked about the storage space that we're going to be losing at the art room or art suite we did pivot and we did give some back to the school but there was still another 700 feet that we we still have to account for so uh in the upper right there we're looking at a new storage

096building i i know that in past conversations you know why are we building another shed this is a bona fide building the building code will not allow us um to um to build a structure of this size without footings uh without power and without it being tied to the fire alarm system of the school so i just want everybody on the board everybody in the community understand this is a bona fide building and uh this the idea of this building once again is to relocate these sheds and to take up the storage that we're actually losing by expanding the educational space in terms of the art suite next slide so this is the courtyard that we that we're we're looking to um to re-envision and let's go to the next slide so this is ultimately

097what the site is going to look like this is rather small scale so i'm going to start in the lower uh left-hand little box there where it says lacrosse wall and i'm going to work clockwise so so uh you know with the input of the facilities committee and the administration we're looking at a a small lacrosse area with a wall that the kids can practice on it will be in a secured fenced area the b g building will be pulled out buildings and ground storage building will be pulled out in front of those four parking spaces that you see there this is typically where where the b g guys parked their trucks anyway so it seemed like a logical spot we'll be adding an additional eight parking spots and two uh two ada spots where

098the old basketball court was uh moving to the top right the courtyard will be developed uh into or transformed into an exterior learn uh learning commons um very exciting we're this is one uh uh you know as architects these are the kind of projects that we really get excited about and of course a courtyard extension of the walkway uh this will get the kids to and from the field we're going to relocate the basketball court that you see there and then the softball field will be removed and replaced and replenished with some natural turf next slide the idea being that this could be a multi-sport um multi-sport field and i think it's also good to point out that the lacrosse wall idea actually came from a community member um as a suggestion that the operations

099committee and the administration liked next slide uh so this is our vision for and and outdoor learning commons you know complete with next slide to be a dynamic space where kids and and the students uh the staff i mean they'll be attracted to this space you know we're looking at various hardscape hardscapes and softscapes um and you can see some of the um some of the structures there it's going to make for a very very interesting space where the kids are going to want to go out to and learn and with you know with what we're dealing with with covid it's would be refreshing to get the kids outside um on on the great days so you know depending on what the mandate is uh during that that year or that month you know the

100kids can go out there and and take their masks off and be able to to to have an enjoyable learning experience in this space next slide the core concept was to um extend basically extend the learning commons from the inside to the outside have wi-fi out here and make it again a flexible dynamic space that everyone's attracted to next slide there will be uh we are working on an animation that's going to be available for uh for for all of these spaces so we look forward to delivering that to the uh the administration for uh so they can get it on to the uh onto the website george i'm gonna i'm gonna send it back to you um once again thank you pat yeah typically you know this is pretty self-explanatory though rich pepe broke

101out the uh the projects list based on the types of upgrades that uh mr cywell just reviewed in the presentation uh and that's the breakdown for the total amount of the referendum at 14 978 it also lists the approximate state share uh that would be funded through debt service that mr barbella talked about and at the bottom mr barbella also talked a little bit about this about the tax impact of uh 267 a year whereas the previous referendum had been plus and i think that's we also created a uh referendum page uh on the district website and there is an email address if anyone has questions and wants to email that question to us and at this time i think it would be good to take any questions we have our finance team here we

102have our bond council and miss achimpora do we have any questions i was just gonna say george from the for the community they would just have to make sure to raise their hands so that we know to unmute them i think i need to stop sharing so i can see the participant list so we can pull this back up if we need to so if any community members have any questions or comments or please just make sure that you raise your hands so that uh we can call on you dory waiting for people to raise their hands can i make a comment or two sure yeah so uh i've been on the operations and finance committee for the three years that i've been on the board i've been the chair chairman for the last two

103we've worked really hard on this referendum but i just i just want the public to understand that the prior referendum expired four years ago you know it was 20 years ago that that referendum um was first launched so this equipment is old it's aging and as i've been in the operations committee we've re we've redone roofs we've replaced major rooftop units all of these are capital projects that would have been paid for a third by the state but the watch on taxpayers bore the whole brunt of it so instead of doing another referendum you know and basically going from an 800 a year for the average home down to less than 300 we the board decided not to put forth any referendum and what that did was put the burden entirely on the town and

104also not avail us of the money we paid in new jersey in taxes um and this you know i i talk about the mechanical and electrical you know there's been a lot of discussion about you know do people leave the school system well you know you got to have an environment on the on the educational side and on the learning side that attracts students and engages the students and the families but the last point i'll make is we didn't replace all the rooftop units that half of this referendum which is hvac and electrical you know comes out to about a little over seven million dollars right so half of this 15 million five of which would be paid by the state we only we have less than a million dollars in our capital reserve and

105this is the thing i worry about as being in you know in business and having to service clients and worried about business resiliency there is no plan b if these rooftop units go down that means that we might have to shut down one or two of the school one or both of the schools we just don't have enough money to replace it so the bottom line is and i don't want to sound too dramatic about this but we went too long without doing another referendum it's cost us as watch on taxpayers more money than it should have we didn't get our fair share of state aid and we've left ourselves with an infrastructure that is in imminent danger of failure which would be catastrophic for the operation of the schools and so i just while

106people are forming their questions i just wanted to make that point thank you hi my name is uh smitha saraswat i live in huachong 110 knightsbridge um i'm also a teacher in newark public schools and i teach in 110 year old building um we get a billion dollars every year being the largest school district but let me tell you uh our facilities are in such bad shape that i got brand new max three four years ago and we had such a big leak during thanksgiving that three machines were just damaged beyond repair and the whole section of the room was unusable it's heartbreaking when teachers have to deal with facilities that are not up to standards and children are extremely observant more observant than adults and they catch on everything and i understand that there

107are many parents here who choose to go to other school systems well they all take virtual tours they take physical tours and what i hear the most about parents who move their children to private schools is oh my god you should check out their building nobody can ever observe teaching but you can see the building in a minute teaching is hard to measure even for the observers for the administration but the facility is immediate it's immediate gratification and not for anything else but it really motivates everybody who gets in there to do what they need to do and it could be a child that's very talented it could be a child that's average it could be a child that's got some challenges um but it's the motivations for everyone so i applaud you guys for

108all this hard work and as a parent and as a teacher myself i do think facilities need a overhaul i mean look at everybody renovating in this town i see more contractors than people here i mean everybody wants good facilities right our homes are places that we go to schools are attended every single day thank you we have uh gina kokuyata hi dory can you hear me yes we can uh first i want to thank everybody for the presentation it was really very informative and you know i don't know i'm not really quite sure how to say this because as impressed i am about the courage that it takes to put forth a referendum to a community and environment not if you need to watch home right people don't want to pay more money for

109anything because everybody feels like everything's too expensive but as a parent and as somebody who's in business to look at our schools and see that they're in such sad state that we're sending our happy children to um and our great teachers who every day is really really disheartening and and i can't applaud you enough for taking on the courage to actually do this to me i don't even understand how it's an issue of debate i think we should be doing more frankly you know we're talking about 300 or less than 300 a year per taxpayer on average um and to see what we're getting for that is incredible um so george a bunch of times about you know some improvements that should be made to the school and completely recognize that our hands are tied

110because of funding issues you know what you guys have envisioned for valley view outside is incredible i'm sure hopefully it will evolve even into something better as more people hear about it and want to see where it goes i will tell you i have someone in valley view and constantly and being told that it's depressing to go outside there's literally nothing to do there is actually nothing to do and i would challenge anybody to tell me i mean don't even put chalk out there for the kids i mean how desperate can wachong be it is you know it's laughable but it's sad in reality um you know again another issue that cannot be debated is like schools increase home values people come to watch on for the schools yes there are plenty of people who

111live in wachong for a long time i grew up in war and i moved to wachong i didn't go very far but why do we come here and when we talk to our friends why did they move here you move here for the schools if we leave these schools in the current state and they continue to dilapidate people just simply will stop coming to watch on you won't have to worry about people withdrawing from the schools because there can be nobody to send to school to begin with um you know to have the ability to have a third of this funded by the state is another incredible opportunity that forget not being able to pass on but to richest point i really would like to understand what plan b is because god forbid the community

112doesn't support this i don't understand how we're not how we're going to replace hvac systems that cost six and a half million if we only have a million and they're at end of life i mean these are these are non-debatable issues um if we have one million and we're facing six and a half the school will shut down i mean parents were outraged that schools were shut or not kept open long enough you know during the day for covid and the academic loss that may have taken place over the year it's going to be shut down completely and for a very long time i mean i really would like to understand if you know how we're going to get to a plan b because as important as passing the referendum is you know i i

113think that it becomes all of us to be speaking to our neighbors and explaining them the importance of why this referendum is needed how it's you know truly non-debatable repairs if anybody's going to take issue with some of the aesthetic operations that are taking place i'm getting some feedback sorry um if everyone's going to take issue with some of the aesthetics talk to your children and talk to your neighbors children i mean i'm a happy person i will find optimism in anything my children are happy they will be happy regardless of what happens we are in a current environment where social emotional learning is at a critical breaking point we recognize it we're dealing with it in the schools we're dealing with it at our job i'm i'm supporting an hr department where i can

114we're taking hand over fists medical accommodation issues because people are hurting it's just not normal to isolate and we're in a very disastrous time in the world um and to be sending our children from bad to worse right they're living through a pandemic that they shouldn't have to see and we're sending them to a school that's in dire need of repair we're talking about security issues the doors don't shut our windows are not going to protect somebody forget a rock being thrown through the through any of the windows god forbid there is something that happens in town you know i know that some some glasses are placed in the entryway and everybody was very happy about that in case the bad guy walks through the front door well that guy usually doesn't walk through the

115front door but they're very well going to walk through the side doors that doesn't close all the way and it'd be very easy just to bust into one of those classrooms that are open to the parking lot um again i mean to get the opportunity from the state to get this money is nonsensical for anybody to dispute the need for this to say we have six and a half million in age facts that need to be repaired because our ends are replaced because they're at end of life and we only have one million our schools will shut nobody will move to watch on you will not be able to sell your house in wachong you'll be lucky to rent your house in watch on we have to invest in not only our kids but in

116our building in your own homes if you don't want your taxes to go up i get it nobody wants to pay more for anything but try to be practical about it it's only going to cost whatever it is 267 is the magic number you know pat you said earlier in your presentation you cannot remember the last time that you had such a high percentage of eligible uh repairs for debt servicing that's incredible right great go watch on that tells you how bad watchmen is too though so as great of an opportunity we have to recover those funds it also tells me how sad the state of affairs is in our schools and it has improved greatly over the past several years and i applaud you george and your team for getting us here and the

117board of ad for everything that you've been doing we are in a much much better place than we were three four years ago i think we really really need to not get to the next level i think we just need to kind of get above water i think anything we do is better you know i again i the fact that our hvac systems could go down is unimaginable to me because that will mean the school shuts for a very long time and it's inexcusable for anyone not to be advancing this referendum and to be speaking to people about the importance of the issues that are confronting the district thank you i think we have another hand raised thank you so much uh for this referendum so we only just um saw all these presentations but

118i'm sure that you all have done like tremendous hours that you have spent to do all these work so far so thank you so much this is amazing to say and it's very sad and the way she said like that when you walk to valley view school especially um this very depressing things and you from the starting point to at the end like there is no nothing to enjoy outside to walk out even to take off mass break or something like that so this is amazing thank you so much for all of you taking the so much effort to uh bring to this level so hope we can definitely bring up that solve this problem soon and then can start over the project all wish you all the best for everyone thank you um we

119have mr basic nano and rays there you go did he it looks like he lowered his hand mr vinzignano i didn't try to give you access there you are sorry about that no problem um to ask a question uh from approval to [Music] that beautiful outcome that you laid out what's the timeline on that and if you said it i apologize yeah pat you're muted sure yeah uh yeah so so um so we do have schematic uh approval that's that's where we actually generated these numbers from but we anticipate uh at least a two-year um a two-year window to get everything completed it's gonna take us once the referendum has passed it's gonna take our a e group uh some time to put the uh the the specs and the drawings together for uh for

120public bidding we do anticipate we're going to be able to do some projects for next summer uh only because the that design period will end up being much shorter so we we envision maybe perhaps some of the uh some of the ceiling work some of the flooring work some of the ada toilet and bathroom upgrades uh we'll be able to do that for next summer um but we um but but we're saving uh the i shouldn't say saving it it's it's due to the time or the timing of the referendum we're going to have to do the bulk of your hvac projects in the we'll start in the spring of and complete them by october 15th of the same year so the goal is over the next two years to complete all the projects that's

121good thank you um maybe a couple comments if i may is that okay uh two i know i asked a question but maybe a couple comments is that okay i don't wanna overuse my time sure um i i'd uh i'm sure but i did a lot of work and first of all um great job and um i think you know i made a comment in the town council meeting last week that three years ago there was change voted on both the school board and the town council uh and in my you know in looking at everything i think uh between the leadership of george and everyone here and uh this labor of love that you all have put in here uh i think you know we're in fabulous hands i was surprised that it wasn't

122an 8-0 vote but i'm not really sure that matters um so congratulations on your leadership from the superintendent to the board and thank you um i probably debate the 267 dollar increase i think it's actually lower if you think about what's been running through our operations expense and then the few million dollars of contributions made that was never in the operations expense uh so i i mean it's fine to say 267 but you know anybody who knows who you know i think that's probably the world's largest conservative view because it did not take into consideration the few million dollars of capital that was deployed and all the expenses we took on that had no benefit of state aid but i'd say more importantly um you know uh i'm i'm uh you know there's a big

123company moving into berkeley heights that announced uh 3 000 jobs there and the number one thing that people relocating or asking about are schools schools it's the number one thing and schools will you know you guys have done a good job and moving it forward and i think you've been a positive contribution to home values but if people's children are their most important thing probably their home other than their spouse is their second most and this project will have such a powerful effect if anybody does the research on the value creation on homes from a referendum you'd see a significant increase that outperforms areas around it um i do think uh as another woman said earlier the state-of-the-art nature of this will definitely enlighten and brighten everything and so you know i think uh first

124of all it's it takes courage to come up and talk about 267 on the other hand uh you can't lead without courage and what you're doing is providing leadership that this town needs an investment in infrastructure that this town needs and providing what children need and you know what it's it's not going to be my children because this is later on but this is i report it because every citizen every resident should want to be proud of its school system and so you know i think that uh you know it it doesn't matter if you have kids in the system or not if you want to be proud of the place you live have a set of set of facilities that you're proud of and those are state-of-the-art facilities and we deserve them and watch

125them and you know i i i can't imagine anyone not wanting this unless they don't care about their home value and don't care about children so that could be the only case and if so i think that's a very small minority maybe two percent of people thank you any other questions or comments from the public oh we have a hand raise kelly you can go ahead and mute good evening can you hear me yes yes we can okay so i just want to say good evening to everyone i just want to say this was such a great presentation tonight uh mr barbella did an excellent job explaining everything you know you guys really did your research and i'm just so excited that you all took the i guess the leap of faith to put this

126out there because you know you want your school to be great right because this is watch on and i'm just so grateful with everything you guys are doing to make certain that our kids you know have the best so they can be the best so i just want to say you guys did a phenomenal job and i am definitely for this this is phenomenal thank you any other questions or comments okay i don't see any hands raised um is there anything pat that or george that you wanted to kind of close up with or are we gonna move on to the next part uh i'm good unless there are any questions from board members for the finance team or anything of that nature otherwise we can let drg and finance professionals go it doesn't look

127like there is so thank you grg for coming on and presenting to us tonight we look forward to seeing you at many more events um to help inform our community uh we appreciate all of your hard work and and thank you for taking the time to come out tonight and uh inform all of us our pleasure dory thank you thank you thank you folks thanks everyone and just so everyone knows the uh the presentation will be on the main page of the will be a link on the main page of the district website and the presentation will be on the referendum page tomorrow okay so we're gonna move into uh superintendent remarks all righty uh first i want to congratulate miss sudvani and welcome her to the board of education and there are a few

128items i'd like to highlight on the agenda and just some general highlights in the district first i'm very pleased to report that we have found a school nurse for bayberry and we're very excited to have that appointment on the agenda this evening second at mentioned as mentioned last month's meeting we've been collaborating with the high school uh preparing a survey on holiday observances during the school year we've been working with the curriculum committee on this and we'll hear more from mr kraft during the committee update uh we hope to gather feedback from the families for planning future calendars and instructional events and we also are coordinating the timing of the survey with the high school and currently plan to send the survey out as soon as tomorrow afternoon we also are collaborating with the high

129school on instructional issues and our continuing articulation meetings during the pd days our art and music teachers attended sessions at the high school and we're in the process of scheduling regional articulation meetings for teachers and administrators principal kidd meets with the regional principals as i do with the superintendents on a regular basis and rich pepe is talking with tim sties the business administrator at the high school quite frequently in addition we're trying to coordinate having high school volunteers high school student volunteers participate in our after care program next i want to mention that under the administrative section of the agenda we have the emergency virtual or remote plan uh this is a state requirement by law chapter 27 we did this back in may of 2020 and now it looks like each year we're going

130to have to have a plan in place [Music] and has to be approved by the board and then approved by the commissioner of education and send that to him to her through the county executive superintendent and one thing to point out is that this is only for circumstances when the district is required uh or directed to close either by a state of emergency health emergency or by the local public health official but it has to be for a closure of three days currently we are not allowed like last year because last year we were under the state of emergency we were allowed to use the remote virtual days for snow days currently we're not allowed to do that that change would have to come from the legislature also as mentioned earlier fiserv has announced its

131intention to provide an after-school stem enrichment program for the students of berkeley heights where the company's office staff will be expanding significantly next year and for the students in wachongboro school district the plan is in its earliest stages but more information will follow as it becomes available the anticipated start date is tentatively september of 2022 we're very excited about this opportunity and very appreciative that our students will be the beneficiaries of phi serves generosity as a covet update i want to bring to everyone's attention that we've been advised of four positive test results in the last seven days it was very quiet until uh earlier this week now that makes ten positive test results for the year though many of those arose before school opened on september 1. the numbers in our region and across

132the state continue to stabilize and are predicted to trend downward in the coming months but the four recent cases concern us and i want to remind everyone of the importance of following the health and safety protocols with teachers convention coming soon i also want to remind families we continue to follow the cdc guidance on travel and are requiring unvaccinated students to quarantine i remain grateful for everyone's support and as we try to ensure the safety of the students and staff today we had an unfortunate incident with bus delays because of an accident on 78 that was out of the control of the bus company and any of the schools it affected the high school and us but despite that the bus transportation has improved since last month and i again want to thank mr pepe

133for his hard work resolving many of the issues i'll turn it over to mr tota at this point there she is thank you mr alexis it's been an exciting beginning of the school year for all of our special programs and services which include our district preschool our special education programs our speech therapy occupational therapy and physical therapy related services our english language instruction and services and our section 504 services and accommodations our child studies team case managers and our 504 case managers have been meeting with parents students and staff to facilitate a smooth start to the school year the department of special services will resume our monthly parent meetings in november these will continue to be held in conjunction with our cpag the meeting information will be posted on our district website and will be

134included in our weekly community announcements thank you to our cpag for continuing to collaborate with us to support our students and our families i also want to thank mr toda for finding a talented and experienced behaviorist who is on the agenda for appointment this evening so thank you again nicole and we'll go over to mrs fickner okay thank you good evening um i'm having some wi-fi issues so i hope i don't glitch out on you i'll do my best here um we had a pretty exciting uh october so far so the first week of october we celebrated the week of respect with spirit activities each day and daily announcements promoting respect throughout our school one of our spirit days was especially interesting respect and celebrate diversity day where students wore colors and clothing that reflected

135their culture and heritage so proud of their heritage as they shared with their teachers and friends about their clothing and how it was important to their culture we have also been celebrating nationals heritage month with a variety of activities important people interesting facts and music were shared during our morning announcements in the classrooms students have been exploring hispanic culture through read-alouds journaling writing activities crafts and guest readers our special area teachers have also been highlighting important hispanic people and events related to their discipline we had an exciting assembly um it was so nice to get back to an assembly we did that outside it was really nice with um fire safety week uh we had an assembly with firefighter chris who taught our students about the sounds of fire safety they also learned about the

136gear and the equipment that a firefighter wears to keep him safe and finally our kindergarten students were treated with a tour of the fire truck exciting stuff students have completed their i-ready diagnostic assessments and we are preparing the score reports to mail home as soon as possible and during our in-service our teachers worked hard collaborating on analyzing your i-ready data and additional pre-assessment data to plan for differentiated instruction and setting learning goals and finally um on september 24th we celebrated duchene awareness day and honored jalen a fourth grade student at bayberry with duchenne's the whole school were read and participated in a 0.1 k walk in front of the school and our walk ended with everyone chanting and cheering in support of jalen due to the generosity of our families and staff we raised over

137150 dollars to help end duchenne's thank you everyone for your donations thank you thanks fickner it really was a nice event and all the other things going on at bayberry it just uh very clear you're making progress towards uh that uh inclusive community that we all want for our schools so i'll move over to mrs kidd now good evening everyone um we were able to finish our i ready diagnostics and our start strong um assessments to begin the year um again like mrs fichner said we are preparing those parent reports so we can get those scores out to you we are having a busy and productive month so far promoting bullying prevention month throughout october we plan to celebrate the week of respect which was last week school violence prevention week which is next week

138and red ribbon week these programs raise awareness and provide education and action around harassment intimidation and bullying we began the month with our very first spirit week of the school year each day was celebrated by a theme to support respect kindness and anti-bullying to enhance our school spirit this year spirit points are being tallied for each grade level's participation including our staff for the entire year the winning grade level will earn a special celebration at the end of the year in june i was happy to say we had record numbers for participants in all of our spirit week activities and i'm hoping to that trend continues all students also participated in social emotional learning lessons focused on self-respect and integrity students created a word wall of encouragement for staff and students containing messages of positivity

139and inspiration anyone walking down our hallways can stop and read a few to brighten their day and we will end the month by celebrating red ribbon week as we will hang red ribbons in and around the school grounds and have conversations that encourage our students to adopt a healthy drug-free lifestyle and focus on making healthy choices our fire prevention week assembly was held on october 6th members of the wachonboro fire department have visited our school to remind students about the important safety devices in our home especially carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors what they sound like what they're used for and what students should do in case they hear them so if any students start nagging their parents about changing the batteries that is the reason why our in-service days were held on october 11th

140and 12th the staff was trained on topics such as the design thinking process using data to hold data chats with students and we looked at data from iready and start strong as well as in-class assessments social emotional health and creating smart goals with their plc members i'm happy to report that our student video announcements began this month it's wonderful seeing our students working together as a production team both on and off the camera additionally our school celebrated hispanic heritage month which ran from september 15th to october 15th our world culture club explored artists and movements in multiple hispanic countries in art and music students discuss different works of art and art movements some examples are cubism or surrealism our video production crew is working on interviews with students and staff of hispanic descent to share

141and include in our morning announcements and all of our students in all grade levels have been working for weeks on a school-wide hispanic heritage door decorating project classrooms were assigned countries to research and then asked to collaborate to create a display that showcases individuals and their contributions from that aside country that have impacted our lives here in the united states doors will be judged on friday the october 15th that is the final day of hispanic heritage month and spirit points will be awarded to all of the winning doors they're being graded on a rubric so that way uh there's different uh items that we're looking for and then finally halloween halloween will be celebrated on friday october 29th at valley view our valley view students are invited to celebrate the day by dressing in costume

142we are looking forward to having a spooktacular time have a good evening everyone thanks mrs kid that sounds wonderful the last item on the agenda is something that was already touched on the enrollment reports you have the numbers there and the enrollment is maintaining a steady count at 617 which again is is higher than it was at the start of last school year thank you mrs harvey and the board for your attention thank you george we're going to move to committee reports uh human resources kevin can you please give an update yes thanks dory um well as uh mr alexis has stated uh we are thrilled that we have a candidate for a full-time school nurse for bayberry uh we know something that's something that um a lot of parents had had some concern about

143so um we're happy that we were finally able to fill that long time vacancy and not through any lack of effort that it lingered for so long we're also thrilled that we've found a district behaviorist as mr alexis has stated and we discussed nursing generally in health services as well we also discussed professional development days which were october 11th and october 12th um i think mr lex has touched on that already but it seems that those are very productive for the staff at both baybury and valley view so it's great to hear about that next we talked about the next mark online training program which is a sel based training and it's designed to deepen the staff's understanding of different challenges students experience with autism adhd and mental health i believe that there is an

144agenda item for this as well and it's essentially an online training course with six modules it's an hour and a half to two hours each for per module once it's purchased the district will have access to the online platform for one full calendar year and the idea is to encourage as many teachers as possible to get through that program to further the district goals that we've previously discussed next we talked about high school volunteers and i think mr alexis actually spoke about that as well we're still waiting on some more information to see if that's feasible and how that would work we have some revised co-curricular appointments at valley view this is just a minor adjustment we're adding two new pursuit of excellence instructors we continue the discussion on instructional aids and staffing levels for

145for those aides uh we also have a custodian candidate that's on the agenda as well so that would fill one of our two custodial vacancies and we also discuss co-curricular appointments at bay berry um the committee was in favor of the recommended appointments um and we expect a high demand for clubs it may vary based on past experiences um so that's that's something that we were excited about as well i think that's all that i have for today thanks kevin uh rich can you please give the operations finance committee report uh sure we had a busy month in the uh in the committee we had three meetings on september 28th september 30th in october 6th mostly all of the meetings had to do with getting the team together and putting together the presentation on the

146referendum and i wanted to thank you know the the administration [Music] our our bond council and uh especially the engineering architects team and finance council for that i think it was a lot of work and we appreciate we appreciate their effort and the other big issue that we discussed with the administration our superintendent and our business administrator was what they were doing to improve the the bus situation and you've all gotten updates on that thank you okay thanks rich uh adam can you give us the curriculum committee report sir we met last thursday and we discussed the survey regarding the religious holidays that mr alexis mentioned we were in favor of sending it out and also asked to include juneteenth as an additional option as mr alexis mentioned it could go out as early as

147tomorrow afternoon just waiting to coordinate that with the high school the principles mentioned the testing both star trunk and i ready diagnostic assessments have been done um there were concerns expressed about communicating with parents in advance of letters going home with recommendations for basic skills or for cst evaluations this was based on historical issues and the recent basic skills letters being sent home without teachers having a conversation with parents the principals listened to the concerns they understood they addressed the feedback explaining that improved communication and family engagement are goals for this year we discussed national hispanic heritage month as the principles mentioned i was really impressed with how they integrated it the staff was able to integrate it throughout the month and throughout the different way different classes i wasn't just a single presentation it

148was just throughout all the classes throughout the month which was great math classes at valley view the assessments are both online and through traditional paper and pencil we just discussed the the online tests and the appropriate balance to be struck mr alexis explains the internal process of determining the need for quarantines and notifying families teacher conferences bayberry will have in-person meetings with virtual options there will be afternoon and evening conferences parents will be able to sign up through genesis valley view will have full days without traditional conferences instead in person and virtual meetings have been taking place already and will continue throughout the year and the goal is for at least one meeting for every student as for gift and talented screening process the principles met with the soar teachers to determine whether the selection

149criteria should change teachers were in favor of keeping the existing indicators in place for now but are mindful of the number of tests students are asked to take one recommended change for next year is to administer the cognitive assessment test to all second graders there also is interest in a science slash stem fair the principal's overall goal is to articulate the program among grade levels and differentiate instruction for students we had an update on diversity equity and inclusion texts mrs fichner is working with staff to determine grade level appropriate selections and will be drafting a request for a grant request for texts that teachers would like to include in classroom libraries uh mr lexis mentions the chapter 27 emergency virtual or remote instruction program um we got the updates from mrs datoda tonight on special

150ed um we'll get more from her at the next curriculum meeting and then we just discuss the board goal on shared vision and really just understanding that the vision that we have that mr alexis has created is really the joint vision for both you know the administration and the board um talked around maybe coming up with a shorter motto but um you know for now that's our that's our vision which i wholeheartedly support i also wanted to just talk briefly about the tech enrichment program mrs harvey attended a meeting that included the berkeley heights board of ed president and superintendent and so just give you a few notes from that uh so if i serve as we talked as we've heard already is creating a free a free after school technology program focused on k

151through eight for both wachong and berkeley heights public school students some areas that are going to be offered or how to build a computer girls who code and the importance of technology the start date is going to be september of next year fiserv has created programs like this in other districts so they have experience advisor would also like to build a program around the needs of both public schools so there will be communication between the curriculum committee and fiserv um it will the program will be held at their facilities at the connell development in berkeley heights transportation will be will be worked out um again meetings regularly with the curriculum committees of both schools the superintendents and technology representatives throughout the year um and also fiserv has partnered with rutgers newark on the program and

152we'll have them write the curriculum which we love to hear because we have enough on our plates um so that's great you know we'll provide the the input make sure it aligns with the curriculum in our schools and then they will actually do the writing for us and creating the collaboration between school districts and students supports diversity and inclusion so we're really excited about it is going to be a tremendous program at a state-of-the-art facility for a fortune 500 company it is an opportunity that very few have and it is amazing that our students will have that opportunity and that is all i have hey thank you adam uh joe can you please give the policy committee report sure thank you corey um so the policy committee met this past monday the 11th on the

153agenda for this evening we have one second read which is a policy for school employee vaccination requirements that was state mandated that we spoke about at the last meeting and then we have two new first reads for one policy and one policy regulation the first is a policy related to the emergency virtual remote instruction program in essence mr alexis touched on that earlier in his comments with regard to um during covert in the emergency situation in which snow days um could be done virtually and and count um that is no longer the case um and this policy has you know basically implications related to that to to codify it and then separately also another mandatory policy and regulation has to do with revisions to the regulation pursuant to sexual harassment of students in essence the

154required revisions have to do with creating which i think is a good thing a more prescriptive process uh by which such claims are addressed um and dispositioned um so i wanted to just hand it over for a moment to to mr alexis if he wanted to comment on it at all but um i do think um you know it sets forth uh you know greater detail than um than the previous policy and regulation in terms of um what's expected in the event of of such sexual harassment claims yeah thanks mr barbelli it basically arises out of the new federal title ix regulations which revise the definition of sexual harassment of students and create very detailed and and correct very prescriptive procedures uh and a bit cumbersome i have to say for how public schools must

155respond to allegations of sexual harassment uh this is separate from the hib law and the state head law and what i'm hearing and reading about it about these title ix regulations is that they weren't really designed for elementary and middle school it was really a post-secondary uh kind of set of regulations but it is regardless we are required to follow them and and we will and i guess the only thing i really want to point out for the public is that this is a policy required by law it's not one that's being adopted because it's some type of problem or issue we're experiencing our district thank you mr lux and that's it for the policy committee okay thank you joe and george uh we're going to move on to board liaison reports rich is there

156anything as a legislative liaison yes there are a few things the first is there was a law passed that was a grant to enable school districts to apply for funding and resources to implement annual depression screening programs to identify students in grades 7 through 12 who are at risk of depression it's a million dollar grant the thing that's a note on this bill is that it was originally right up until it was passed it was going to require all school boards to ensure that every student in grades 7 through 12 receive an annual screening for depression and at the last minute it was changed into a one million dollar grant program that uh that schools can take advantage of the second law that passed was um enhancement to food insecurity in new jersey schools providing

157for additional funding for breakfast and summer school food programs and the last one which is incredibly uh you know opportunistic and uh time timely is that the the governor signed a bill for stem opportunities for young women and minorities aims to increase representation of young women and minorities in science technology engineering and math degree programs and careers it directs the new jersey department of education in consultation with the federal office of the secretary of higher education and the commission on science innovation and technology to develop and administer an outreach program to encourage young women and minorities to pursue post-secondary degrees and careers in stem fields they want to provide an outreach program for elementary and secondary school students especially young women and minorities with opportunities to increase their exposure to the stem fields they will

158also establish a stem monitor mentoring program and create programs to increase the recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty in stem focus areas so i think this is especially timely with the announcement of the pfi server rutgers berkeley heights watchong partnership on on stem and technology education that will begin next year and i know that um that the proper committees will work with the new jersey doe and the federal office of secretary of higher education and the commission on science because we already have a you know a great head start on this so i'm really excited about that thank you thanks rich adam amber anything for community engagement amber anything i just want to go over the meeting we had with um idea committee asking yeah exactly that's all yep that's what i was going to

159mention we had a great meeting with tanisha from the idea committee a lot of great energy she has shared she shared with us the different groups where she shares job postings we want to make sure we have a diverse candidate pool the administration's done a great job sending out and soliciting candidates from diverse backgrounds but always great to have more help tanisha is great there the idea committee is great there um still helping with techs and what else did we talk about two big ones uh presentations possibly for a parent um just uh training if needed with different organizations and a lot of their information is available on their website or instagram page are you guys done yeah okay all right thank you both uh kevin is there anything from the somerset county educational services

160commission i don't have anything for this meeting dory thanks okay thanks kevin jessica anything for somerset county school boards association yeah so unfortunately their first um return to in-person meeting is tonight um it's a hybrid so there will be a tape which i'll watch and report back at our next meeting okay thank you jessica amber anything from new jersey school boards association yes um they met on october 1st and uh just talked about regular board business and going back into session and um a couple of things where the workshop of 2021 which is in two weeks the programs will address topics such as social emotional health equity and data security the other thing is they will return to their headquarters on october 4th and all the staff will return to the njsba headquarters in trenton

161they will operate on a hybrid schedule with all employees in the building monday through wednesday for collaboration days and then mostly working remotely on thursday and fridays so if anyone wants to head down to trenton just keep that in mind and that that's it stay thank you amber uh we're gonna move to the community engagement mrs roberto ferrara is there any update from the pto good evening everyone um currently uh the events that we have going on with the pto is spirit ware we still have food truck friday so come visit us there we have the fall fundraiser information was all sent home to the families we have the yearbook for baby bay very going on the school store we need parents to sign up using the code 160136 we have amazon smiles going on

162birthday signs and our next meeting is going to be this coming tuesday october 19th at 7 30 p.m and as always we're always looking for volunteers especially the valley view and our lunch shifts so if you're interested please visit our website at www.watchonpto.com and sign up that is all thank you thank you so much uh mrs coquiata is there an update for wef or is there anyone on for web rich i think uh hold on can you guys hear me yeah now we can okay great um just want to give you guys a heads up one of my favorite events that are going on in town is in less than two weeks or i guess just about two weeks trunk or treat october 29th four to six jen i see you smiling i know you

163want to host the trunk this year i asked every year and she comes to support you know and i want to thank you because a lot of the faces that i'm seeing right now are ones that do come out year after year and i appreciate that so trunk or tweet if you don't know what it is is um a bunch of parents and dedicated community members and some of our council members even they host trunks along the lower parking lot and they decorate them in themes or however they wish and children go around and trick or treat the cars multiple times last year on the cover there we actually made it a drive-through which even though it sounded like it may not have been a great success when we were going in was wildly successful

164so i'm counting on this year being even better west typically raises around 2 400 from the events and really it's just nice to see everyone in town smiling so it is a great great event if you buy your wristband pre-sales you also get a lucky chance to win a raffle to dinner so that's something you were doing this year in addition for candy collections we're doing a contest at baybury school the classroom that collects the most candy donations will get an ice cream party so i hope that you guys can join us on october 29th and you don't have to wear a costume if you're an adult but the kids all do so feel free to participate thank you so much uh miss newsome um or is anyone on from cpag for a cpac update

165uh rich i think it's yeah the one with the hand oh you're on mute rich i don't know if you're trying to talk to us sorry about that yeah i see two people that look like they're looking uh one is named francesca one is uh saraswat um do you know if either of those are i think uh sarah swat okay yeah i think uh friend uh francesca the hand is lowered down so okay hi everybody um uh um back again i'm smith saraswat i'm a vice president of cpag um first of all congratulations to our newest board member ms sedwani um this will be a great addition to our already great team um cpac is very excited this year um like everybody else we are loving the comeback um of course it's got its hiccups

166but nothing better than you know what we had last year this is so good um cpag met with miss datoda today and very pleased with some of this new stuff that we're planning um events uh one of them is the november 15th 7 p.m a special ed and watching cpac presenting online basic rights and special education workshop and uh on december 6th we're going to be doing the 7 p.m at 7 p.m the iep and 504 basic training workshop so we're going to have all those notices sent out we have a fundraiser currently in place which was super successful last year it's our thanksgiving pie sale so please do support us the allstate farms produce the best pies and i'm sure people will be hosting or you know going around this year so please um

167support us and uh we're gonna have another fundraiser in december with the kendra scott jewelry where there's gonna be um on december 2nd they'll be like happy hour at their store in short hills mall with refreshments and a sip and shop and online options as well so very excited to do a whole array of things to sort of make this year very exciting um and we're very happy to work closely with the district especially especially miss datoda it's been a pleasure and i i hope uh you know everything goes well for all of us and uh thank you okay thank you so much um mrs williams or mrs simms is there um any update from the wachong idea committee i don't think i see them on so i'm just going to move on uh so

168this is 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 opportunity 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 a 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

169the 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 names of students should not be used mr pepe can 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 the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public i think we have bruce ruff hi bruce rock 13 lakeview avenue i did not and i apologize i missed some of the comment that was

170made about the depression screening i just want to make one comment about it i know in some of the press it's got negative review but i urge the school the parents and everybody to really go ahead and do any depression screening that can be done to these kids not just one time a year but mo but throughout the year as many of you know i'm the managing director of the state poison center and i am devastated by the number of children between the ages of 11 and 14 15 that we are seeing trying to harm themselves on a daily basis i have multiple kids that we're consulted on across the state i'm not saying watch i'm not saying woman i'm not saying it's a county i'm saying across the state and i would really hate

171any of these kids to become a statistic and it is really something and it's not just covid it started before coving that i really urge the board and the parents to participate in anything possible like that thank you thank you we have a another [Music] uh jennen q hi can you hear me yes we can okay um so good evening to everyone i wanted to make a comment about and hopefully get some clarification on the upcoming uh diversity survey that's going to be taking place and the clarification i i think that the community needs is to what are you going to be doing with the data that is gathered from this survey um is a survey anonymous i don't think i was hoping tonight to hear more about the details of the survey i think

172that this is can be very intrusive i want the community to be aware that this survey was born out of a petition by the muslim hindu and jewish coalition of wachong hills and this petition garnered over 600 signatures from the community and was submitted to the wachong board of education you have to realize this petition was asking for school holidays for religious minority students specifically the muslim students and hindu students requesting eden diwali off i believe one of the community members that spoke up tonight about the referendum smita who's an educator and a and a uh resident of wachong and i'm sorry i didn't identify i do live in wachong i live on dear run sorry about that um she said that kids are ultra sensitive and i couldn't agree more so here you have

173a mandate for diversity inclusion and equity that has been put forth not only by wachong hills but by you guys as well and now the most vulnerable of the vulnerable students have come forth with a petition and have spoken up and said we don't want to be seen as invisible anymore now what is our response as a community is our response well we need to think about this we're not sure that you deserve diversity and equity i know a lot of people talk today about the impact of infrastructure on our property values and how our community gets seen i'd like to everybody to think about how does our community get seen when we deny students diversity equity and inclusion and i'm talking about meaningful equity and inclusion i ask all of you who come from

174a majority faith what it would feel like for your child not to be able to celebrate their holiday or to feel in some way disadvantaged this community is already vulnerable and i think that this survey is very dangerous and for that reason the community has spoken up and is boycotting the survey that's not to say that you won't get some community members that will participate but the the idea of the survey is antiquated other schools may have done this in the past but that's exactly it it's in the past i'm confused as to why juneteenth is included on this survey when it's a federal holiday so i'd like some clarification i hope that the board responds to these comments because it's really important that we all know more about this thank you so much uh

175thank you i i did want to stress just from the curriculum committee that the um survey is uh all the information that's going to be collected is um not going to be made available the names or anything like that to anyone so um i did want to stress that i didn't know if mr alexis had anything to add to to this or uh am i moving on to the next well i just said yes any survey responses would remain confidential uh it was the decision and recommendation of the committee uh to gather this feedback so that we could make sure we're meeting the needs of the community i understand um the perspective expressed uh but this was this decision to move forward and align it and we've also over the last few years aligned our

176calendar with the high school calendar and um so we are collaborating in this uh survey and then the timing of it um and we're going to gather the feedback for future planning purposes to see whether or not the board would like to add these holidays add some work for all of them to the school calendar thank you uh thank you mr alexis i don't see any other hands raised or maybe i don't know there we okay there's one hand raised hey this uh kelly newsome 15-102 diamond court um quick question do you remember when was the last time we actually had a full-time nurse prior to this nurse that you guys are bringing in tonight do you recall it was like over two years ago right um from what i can i want to say

177it was about a year and a half am i right mr alexis all right miss matrunic retired on september 30th last year right mr tunic right okay so the reason why i was asking was so was two years ago um my son had got injured right and um he had to get staples and when they called me they said there was not a nurse um in the building that they was calling over the valley view to you know get you know i guess uh pre-arrival instructions i guess before i got there so when i tell you i'm so grateful to hear that you guys you know is bringing this nursing they're gonna have their own nurse um i'm just so grateful for what you guys are doing even with all the people you're bringing aboard

178you know this before and aftercare let me tell you something this this is big for me you know because not everybody has a mom and a dad or two moms or two dads in the house you know there's some people that's doing it by themselves and i just appreciate the thought that you all are putting into this community that everybody is not in a dual home you know so when i tell you i'm so grateful for what you guys are doing you guys have made so many changes i mean this particular this current administration have made so many changes since i've been in this town which is over 11 years so i just want to say thank you and just keep up the good work and i'm so so proud of you guys and what

179you're doing for our children thank you mrs newsome thank you um i don't think i see any other hands raised i just want to wait a second because oh there we go nope nope i don't know no i don't think so okay uh so unless something pops up real fast i'm gonna move on to action items uh for administrative items jen can you please move the administrative items yes imove a1 approved minutes of previous meeting a2 approved chapter 27 emergency virtual or remote instruction programs is there a second second adam any discussion okay roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mrs gracia i'm sorry yes mr kraft yes mr mcdonald yes mrs murad all right look at this if mrs murad are you on mute yeah she's on new i don't know if

180she can hear you yeah me i said yes thank you i'm sorry you're from mrs scharf yes and mrs harvey yes motions passed uh kevin can you please move personnel items yes i move personnel item b1 appoint elementary school nurse b2 or point district behaviorist b3 appoint bayberry custodian second shift b4 a point before and after care staff revised b5 the point valley view co-curricular revised b6 a point bayberry co-curricular and b7 a point district substitute is there a second second rich any discussions roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mrs gracia yes mr kraft yes mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes mrs scharf yes and mrs harvey yes motions pass and uh rich can you please move operations items sure i move uh item c1 approved payment of bills item c2 approved

181transfer funds c3 accept financial reports c4 approve agreement for bond council services c5 approved special education services agreement with search learning and c6 approved contract with next mark is there a second second joe is there any discussion okay uh roll call please mr barbella yes mr buckarelli yes mrs gracia yes mr kraft mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes mrs scharf yes mrs harvey yes motion's best okay uh joe can you please move policy items sure um so movie one approved policy for second reading and adoption i need to approve policy for first reading for first reading the two numerator policies and regulations is there a second second any discussion roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mrs gracia yes mr kraft yes mr mcdonald yes mrs murad yes this is post oh geez

182sorry about that the wrong list i apologize mrs yes and mrs harvey yes did i miss anybody no good motions pass hey is there any uh board business to discuss i do have something and i'm sorry i know this is a long meeting it's quick but there are two um kind of procedural virtual procedural uh items that i think are just unresolved the first and it's been mentioned several times it was mentioned i think in public comment in our last meeting by one of our former board members who served several terms on the watchon board of ed in addition to a lot of people tell me that our meetings i mean as a i'm a panelist and i can see the attendees the the rest of the public cannot is that correct yes that's correct

183that's how the webinar is set up yeah so i guess that's just becoming a a source of concern right because it it can potentially have a chilling effect on participation or public comment if you are like speaking into a black hole you have no idea who else is on you don't know if there's five people or 500 people um so i just feel like for a little more transparency and um consideration for members of the public particularly in a sensitive time when we're heading into a referendum um vote that we want to educate people on i think it would really be best to look into a way kind of like our town council does where you can just log in and plainly see who's on that's the first one and then sort of related to

184that um i had called about uh and i talked to connie who's always wonderful um the videos of our archived meetings which used to be so easy to access just right next to the attachments and the agendas some things changed and you it's very difficult to access the videos of previous meetings um for example today just to check to make sure you know it was still an issue you can see the last meeting you can't see the second to last or the third to last but somehow you can see the fourth it's coming up as a limited youtube um link but then it says 20 out of 22 videos are not available so i'm just putting it out there i think you you do have to have those um back functioning it's been at least

185over a month now since i noticed it and you know again in a time when we're asking for public engagement on a crucial vote you people do want to go back and review things at times and then they need to be made available i just want to comment and say i was able to i recently went on our website and i was able to access all the videos that are there for everyone and and see everything so um i i don't know just to make sure i'm not completely mistaken they're in a completely different format as they had been in the past and they now open up a youtube link except for one that's right there as of today then that was the last meeting i mean it changed substances so it's kind of confusing

186the way it looks they are basically we've migrated all of the videos to youtube because the way we were doing it wasn't sustainable and we were going to run out of space this is a a mechanism that's used to make sure that we can continue to archive and not lose the old ones the way that it works is when you see that one video on the front it's actually a playlist and there's a drop down menu there which will drop you down to all of the videos in that playlist and what i've asked um aaron to do is to set him up so that each playlist is a year's worth so when you're in the [Music] 2018-2019 year well actually that's a bad one because we didn't have videos when you're in the 2020 2021

187year you would see all the videos from that year in one playlist but you'd have to click the drop down and then scroll to select the year yeah understood thank you i just want you to know that when i go into the drop down menu and you pull them down some percent a large percentage 20 out of 20 something are not available so you see that they must be loaded or i'm not that technical so you but they don't play that they're not there for me we'll look into that all right thanks rich okay um we're gonna move into comments from the public sorry sorry real quick to talk jessica's other point is it possible to show the participants to the participants so the way webinar works no what we would have to do is

188stop using the webinar feature and go back to a traditional zoom meeting the reason we're using webinar is we had a concern about there were two major features of the webinar that made it advantageous one is the ease of which we can have people mutant unmute when you're in a meeting you either mute everyone or you don't and so in order to mute the public we have to also mute the board members and then they can't unmute themselves and we have to you know every time a board member wants to speak aaron would have to well at the time it was manny would have to unmute them the second thing is the limit so with the traditional meeting with our service we only had a maximum of 100 and we had two meetings where we

189exceeded 100 participants and we were concerned about not allowing that to happen again and with the webinar feature we are we have a maximum of 500 so those are the reasons we're using this feature unfortunately as far as i know we'll look into this but as far as i know it's webinar is designed so that you can't see attendees that's how zoom designed to this program but we'll look and see if there is a way to to you know change the settings so that you can um one thing i did want to also point out is that the number of participants is listed in the minutes i know that doesn't help during the meeting but just sort of wins knows when you do check the minutes it does tell you how many members of the

190public were there yeah and i i recall us having that practice for years that is that required by law um is part of like the sunshine laws or something because we did always do that putting the number of meetings recording it in the minutes oh i think that's still done i thought richard i i just was trying to confirm that's required for us to do i actually don't know if it's required i've never been anywhere where they didn't so i'm going to assume it probably yes i will look into that okay thanks and if i may add rich i thank you for explaining that the way you did and i do remember it was very difficult for all of us when we had to ask to be unmuted uh being home being in loud homes

191with children it's i like it this way that we have control of it i don't know if it's something we could look into of announcing how many people are on um but i like the way that this is run i've been on other ones where anyone can come off mute at any time and turn their camera on and i don't know if that's the best way to run an efficient meeting all right uh so we're going to go into comments from the public this can be on any item uh please make sure to remember to state your name and address and also make sure your hand is raised what is that sound telltale heart i know we have one anthony and gracia good evening can you hear me yes and good evening hi anthony gracia

19240 hi oaks drive i would first like to correct an untrue statement that dory made in her opening board comments i believe that she intentionally misquoted me i never said that watchung was a laughing stock and this can be easily checked by going to the two-hour mark of the video of the last board meeting on september 23rd i think this is another example of inappropriate and unprofessional conduct from dory as board president as was her attempt at the beginning of this meeting to defend her failure of leadership as the wachong boe continually refuses to engage in any shared services or regionalization discussion with wachong hills and the boards of education of the other three sending districts it really was twisting the facts there and made it sound like uh things have been in lockstep with

193descending districts and watch on fully participating and that is definitely not the case and it was wrong to present it that way while also misquoting me but the the other three districts were far more engaged all along and are still considering participating they likely have not fully and formally committed because as the echo sentinel pointed out the final new jersey legislation on the subject as just recently published contained language that caused some concern and hesitation watchong has by far participated the least and showed zero leadership or interest in working with the other towns on this endeavor to study ways to benefit the children and the taxpayers to me this is an embarrassment to our town that is increased by refusing to engage with wachong hills when our current superintendent was last employed by the as

194the principal of watchon hills i mentioned during the september 23rd meeting that i have for months been reading the iaco sentinel articles going back to the spring on may 28 2001 the echo sentinel reported that during the may 24th virtual meeting hosted by wachong hills several members of the long hill board expressed willingness to participate in the state-funded study while the warren board voted to form an ad hoc committee to consider the matter and during that virtual meeting dory did not say one word there are ongoing echo sentinel articles that repeat this pattern i would encourage anyone interested in reviewing the discussion on this potentially very helpful study that was reported for months to be cost-free and completely non-binding in addition to the shared services related webinars presented by wachong hills and also the state

195of new jersey i found the echo echo sentinel articles dated july 15 august 18 september 17 october 3rd and october 4th to be informative and also sad to see how uninvolved we were as a as a town a school board so i i just wanted to uh since you know dory made those comments i wanted to uh just repeat where i was coming from with some additional information from last meeting and um i just think that you know if the schools are going to be uh you know achieving great results there has to be a very high level of trust between the community the school board and the administration transparency is key people in the community lose trust when issues or actions are done in secret and you know i could i don't want to

196go much longer but i i would just say as a couple of examples um i think the school board president should explain how and why she convinced for over a year now our superintendent to refuse to take a phone call from any other member of the school board elected members of the school board not one phone call is allowed for over a year only dory can make that phone call and similarly no dually elected board member may send an email to mr alexis without copying dory harvey this goes against how every superintendent has interacted for decades with the school board so if there's a reason for it and how it occurred it should be discussed openly and with transparency when we're changing decades of practice in this town maybe changes at times uh are are

197very worthwhile but it should be transparent and discussed openly similarly with phillips field uh we can go back to meetings with people that have been in this town longer than i have such as the mobis family their concerns that uh the town always had this uh relationship with phillips field and people can complain as is their right about how things were managed different times but to break that relationship off completely and keep instead sending these absurd lease agreements to a group of volunteer parents and watch on little league to manage a public park and all the activities that would occur on it when we have a paid wreck director in the town it's just the lack of transparency in examples like this will never allow us to have a great a really truly great school

198district that's achieving and ranked highly amongst our peers so i just um thank you for your time and that concludes my comments for this meeting thank you madam president i respond and then i would like to after as well sure so you know i'm very disappointed that a member of the public you know anthony it's clear that you're running for the board of education this is a public comment session where the board is not supposed to respond you've mentioned another candidate's name our president dory harvey who's also a candidate and it's obviously a campaign speech and i think that it's really really unfair for you to come on make statements use her name make a basically a campaign speech during a public comment section of the board where she has a hand tied behind her

199back and can't respond to you so my suggestion is if you really want to debate why don't you call for a debate where people can talk and also answer you as instead of cloaking your campaign speeches as a public comment thank you i would also like to add that i find it absolutely wildly inappropriate that it's a campaign speech during our board of ed meeting particularly when your wife is still sitting on this board and secondly i have absolutely no problem contacting mr alexis and cc'ing the president of this board of education i don't have a problem with that either i'm perfectly happy with the way that this board is communicating no problems with communication and transparency here i'm available if you have any questions jessica about the curriculum that you so you criticized earlier

200anthony email me anyone from the public can email us i'm the head of curriculum you have a question about curriculum you let me know i would agree on that point the board is as transparent as possible um i don't have a problem i corresponded with mr alexis today via email when we need to so on that point i i do disagree we were pretty open and never had problems i'm sure mr alexis doesn't want to speak to each of us because his job is difficult enough but we've never had a problem with regard to transparency on that note uh we are anthony and gracias raised his hand again hi can you hear me yeah anthony anthony gracia 40 hi oaks drive and i would just uh respond to rich by saying i i could say

201the same for uh dory misquoting me at the beginning of this meeting that uh you know we can say it's uh you know something for a campaign but that you know the merits of the discussion are what they are and uh you know i'm certainly not cloaking anything i'm concerned that there were just two examples that i've given just now that of things that are being cloaked and not transparent and while it's fine for adam craft to come into town more recently or dory or others and think that it's fine that decades of precedent are uh torn up basically i one i would suggest maybe going and talking to pass board members people that served on this board decades ago or more than i used to live in of superintendents speaking on phone calls with

202members of the board of education those that were elected and not appointed those that were elected and not running unopposed i would say that it to former board members and see if they find that to be a concern and you might see that they might actually be very disturbed by that change and that's and i'm and all i'm saying is if there's a reason for that change and why it was agreed to by the superintendent then be transparent and have this have a discussion about it that's all i'm glad everyone's happy i wouldn't be able to send emails but you should be able to make phone calls as well sorry sorry i didn't clarify i i feel free to call anyone i'd like i don't need to um i apologize for interrupting you earlier i

203shouldn't have done that um but i who's to say what's best i'm everyone's entitled to their opinion what works best for that administration and that board works best for them what works best for us might be something different and good bad otherwise it's what it is and i don't hear mr alexis complaining he has a lot on his plate as you and your wife have pointed out we are so terrible so let's let him focus on his job and will communicate amongst the board right so that if there is something that needs to bubble up to him it will but if not and we have the answers among ourselves it's much more efficiently done that way and that's what we're going for efficiency if mr alexis wants us to contact him directly i am happy

204to do so he's a wonderful person he's always taken my call my email he cares about this school as much as you possibly can we are fortunate to have him and i will let him do as he sees fit okay are there any other hands raised uh anthony gracia has his hand raised again anthony incredible adam's president point of order this is turning into a debate this is not what public comment is for mr ingratia with all due respect you are debating with the entire board you are a candidate for the board of education i would suggest that we cut this public comments often now my only comment was that i am not no one said everyone everyone's so terrible rich excuse me no one said anymore to me for interrupting didn't you i remember

205that you interrupted me can you please mute thank you uh the next hand raises mariam nagdari i i didn't mean rich buckarelli i meant rich pepe if you could please mute so i apologize good evening everybody um i just wanted to speak as one of those people that's in the community i really don't appreciate this back and forth drama that's not the reason i spent two hours watching the board of education meeting is to understand what's going on in my kids schools so if that could just stop i mean it's late we all have jobs and lives i would really appreciate it and this is mary mcdary on ridge road just to make sure i live and watch on thank you you uh and mr bisignano has his hand raised yeah i'd like to come

206back to where you started i know there's a lot of back and forth here but i'm not really sure what any of that's about um i think you guys did a fabulous job on the referendum and notwithstanding you know unique situations that are going back and forth here we should keep our eye on the prize is a great school district and i think that referendum was a fabulous teamwork and it's kind of a shame to hear all the back and forth but i understand why that happens um you know but i i would say like for the town's benefit for the children's benefit for the advancement of everyone what we have to focus on is how to build those environments that were so appetizing that we heard so much compliment on and i would hope

207that you all could hold hands and do the right thing by staying tight on getting referendum done for this town it will be good for the kids and good for the home values and put the other stuff aside because i see it on the town council it doesn't get results you guys have gotten tremendous results and it'd be a shame to have this type of uh behavior when you have done such a great job on a referendum so i'd like to delete everything i just heard and get back to those beautiful buildings and those wonderful kids and have them thrive and i i'm just you know and i've been here like everybody else for a few hours it's not the way to end the meeting the way to end the meeting is on the good

208work that's been done by everybody hey thank you i don't see any other hands raised so can i have a motion to adjourn any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed thank you for joining us this evening this meeting is adjourned nice thank you everyone