001at 7 30 pm may we please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag united states of america [Music] 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 notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the board of education of the borough of wachong at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being conducted remotely using communication technology instructions for joining the meeting and participating in public comments have been posted on the district website and sent to the watchon borough and watchon public library as well as to the school community through an email
002blast the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown in the agenda or are you just first i think she froze here's the notice rich all right um i can continue reading as well as 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 recording or photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents and guardians which children may included be included in the image oh sorry i didn't realize i was frozen all right we finished i read it for you all right thanks i appreciate it how can we have a roll call please mr barbella i do not see mr buckle crowley here mrs harvey
003here mrs ingrassia here mr craft here mr mattiasi here mrs morales here mrs o'donnell do you hear us mrs o'donnell maybe she's on mute she's trying to talk she's not mute i'm looking at her screen and we'll come back um she might be stepped away and mrs scharf yes here okay we have seven confirmed present one believed to be present in one absent um are there any board member comments i have a couple uh the first one is i attended the modified graduation last week as several other board members did i thought it was a very nice time i think the kids enjoyed it and it was actually one of the since that was my sixth one i thought that was one of the best ones because it was outside it was relatively cool and
004nice and i would uh ask the administration to consider that going forward to try to do that outside next year uh even if you had a tenth and so forth is much better than being inside the gym where this is really no air conditioning to get quite hot that's my my first comment and then my second comment is uh some of you may know that i'm in a process of moving to warren as a result of the move i can't be on the board and live in another town so i'll be resigning from the board effective tonight i've enjoyed most of my five and a half years on the board serving the community to the best of my abilities over that time i've seen a lot of change mostly for the better i have i
005have chaired and served in various committees which i took a lot of pride on being on listening to both sides of discussions and voting in the best direction for the community in my time on the board i've seen a lot of new board members all willing to hit the road running i am proud to be part of the hiring of a full-time superintendent mr alexa several interim ba's but recently a full-time one mr pepe both gentlemen really had to start to address various issues on day one of their employment and i enjoyed working with each one of you the community is fortunate to have them to my fellow board members each of you bring a unique skill set to the board and i believe it is stronger for that being a board member or volunteering
006your time is often a thankless job since you will never appease everyone the goal is to always respect one another's opinions and do the best for the entire community just not for one grade or for one school i wish you all the best and i can always provide some guidance if needed since i'm really not that far away thank you thank you joe i'm sorry hear you go and it has been a pleasure working with you same here dory thank you mr matiasi i'm gonna miss this you sharp i'm not that far [Laughter] hey uh it's rich joe uh um i'm sad to hear that uh you have to resign and uh i just want to give a special thank you to you because um we've been on the operations committee since i started as
007a board member and you taught me a lot of the ropes i always value your opinion and your approach to things and um sorry to see that resource go and uh i just want to thank you for everything you've done for me personally and for the board thank you rich i enjoy working with you and i think that the uh the board and the district there's really good compliment hands with you you really have a goal and a straight set and you you get the job done i'm happy we work together any other comments [Music] i think gail is raising her hand [Music] well i see gayle is talking but it's not working i would like to add to joe that you'll be really missed on the board you know you were you showed a
008lot of character weathering various storms um you kept a level head the entire time um there were a lot of um ups and downs and i respect you a lot for staying on the board and always having a great positive attitude and treating everyone fairly and with a lot of respect so thank you for your service to the district and good luck in warren thank you jessica i enjoyed being with you and so forth and you know you've been the president last year you saw you know how difficult could be and so forth and dory being the president also but you guys did a a very good job you should that shouldn't be lost because being the president and being a vice president there's so many hours as everyone knows that it takes and this
009is voluntary but you know i thank you for being stepping up thank you a lot of noise when you talk dory okay i'm gonna try and fix that is that a little better anyway gail's having issues with her speaker she's saying it's not working i'm wondering gail can you call in from your cell phone on a zoom call because you might be able to do that like disconnect from this and then just call back in from your from your cell phone and just give me a second i'm going to try and resolve the noise yeah um i lost it is that better yes yes okay i understand you guys just want my air conditioner off that's right i was hoping i'd be able to get it but that's okay uh so rich are you working
010with gail on trying to dial back in or you want me to wait for her or would you just keep going i'm not working with her but i believe she did leave and i'm assuming she's trying to call in so if you want to give her a minute okay actually i still now she might just need to be unmuted rich what's that she might just need to be unmuted now because now yeah now that's because we've been playing with it we kept muting and unmuting that would help it didn't work okay um it's just on muting here yeah we're uh manny's working on it right now we're trying one more thing [Applause] if you can hear me try hitting on me one more time oh wait okay uh gail you're showing unmuted can you speak
011can we hear you i'm not hearing anything oh okay okay gail called me and she wants me she wants me to put her on speaker but i'm afraid there's going to be a lot of feedback i have manny looking into getting me the phone number so she can call in she said that would be great he's working on it now we should always have a backup phone number for this i think sorry we might want to move on the superintendent's remarks and come back and give gail a chance after sounds good um any announcements from the superintendent yes thank you mrs harvey uh first mr mariasi i also am very sad to see you resign but happy for you as you'll earn your life i want to thank you for your service to the students
012staff families and the community i enjoyed working with you i'm sorry we didn't have more time together we all will miss your knowledgeable and reasonable approach to issues i also have to say you have quite a memory for the institutional history of the district which was a help to all of us all the best to you and your family thank you mr alex i really enjoyed working with you and and then and i meant it that this trick is in good hands with you thank you very much uh well we officially and here's a good segue because we officially closed out the 2019-20 school year with a lovely ceremony for our eighth graders last tuesday evening i want to thank all the parents who attended for respecting the health and safety protocols we had in
013place that's what wishes to our students as they move on to high school as i told them at the ceremony their class will leave a lasting legacy in their hometown thank you to the board for supporting this ceremony and to the individual members who are able to attend to support the students i also want to thank of course principal kidd the administrative team and the custodial staff who helped make the ceremony one to remember and in fact mr maddie asked this uh principal kid and i were talking that evening about possibly moving the uh ceremonies outside because it really was a great venue on behalf of the board i want to extend this sincere thank you to the pto for the end of year gifts we've been discussing the addition of touchless water filling stations
014for quite some time and now with the advice from our school physician that we should close down the existing water fountains because of the pandemic the pto's generosity could not come at a better time thank you very much i'm also very pleased to let you know that mrs fichner will officially begin her role as the bayberry principal on august 1 in the meantime parents and anyone with questions and or who need assistance uh should continue to email mrs joyce whose email is on the main page of the baybury website as for the planning process for the reopening of schools we've established a restore committee with 31 members who represent the board administration staff parents local health officials borough representatives and medical professionals including the school physician the committee meets every tuesday we also establish four
015subcommittees which include medical response social and emotional learning special programs and instructional resources committees have been researching issues collaborating and designing protocols and procedures that comply with the state guidance the work is ongoing and reported regularly to the restored committee i shared the parent and staff survey results regarding the return to school in the fall and friday's message to the community that message is on the district website thank you to everyone who responded to the survey we respect your concerns we're certainly taking them into consideration as we continue our planning process as expected the results vary but when taken as a whole there's very clear support for the proposed health and safety protocols and that's our top priority and as much as we would like to have the students return to school full-time we currently
016don't see a return to traditional personal instruction every day as a safe option or one that would fully comply with the state guidance and social distancing so as i mentioned on friday the current plan therefore is to limit physical occupancy during in-person instruction and we're looking at the four-day hybrid schedule with two cohorts a and b cohorts would be created alphabetically to keep siblings on the same in-person schedule cohort a would attend in-person instruction on mondays and tuesdays cohort b person instruction on thursdays and fridays in-person instruction would be complemented by distance learning on the days when students are not physically in school wednesdays currently would be reserved for remote instruction and professional collaboration and learning we found out today students and families will have an all virtual option and that guidance will be coming
017this week previously as i mentioned on friday that was an issue that needed to be clarified one of the major challenges we have is trying to provide distance learning while also providing in-person instruction we do not believe that all day synchronous learning where students are in front of their screens for six hours as a healthy or instructionally sound model or even a realistic one we're working together with input from a wide range of stakeholders to find the right balance and work out the logistics with this we also are looking into ways for making sure that students with special needs are being accommodated including the possibility of additional days of in-person instruction as far as the hybrid models go many districts are using half days for in-person instruction we hope to avoid that but we still
018have logistical details to address we're drafting a policy the template for which is being used widely by districts around the state in order to prepare the plan for approval it will include our local protocols for help and safety including procedures for social distancing screenings facilities cleaning transportation meals and for the hybrid model of in-person instruction staffing concerns virtual instruction programs for sel and other supports among others our plan of course could change based on further guidance or directives from the state based on the changing conditions with the virus nonetheless we do need to determine our staffing and scheduling needs so we will be sending you a follow-up survey which we will need every family to answer for each child that should be ready this week please look for that coming out in email an important
019part of any in-person instruction as i mentioned on friday and my message is to require mass wearing so again please consider having your children practice wearing masks over the next six weeks building a child's stamina in terms of tolerance for mass wearing will be very important to protect everyone's health and safety we really appreciate your understanding and patience as we try to navigate these extraordinary circumstances we'll continue working diligently with the board and the committees we intend to let parents know the approved plan four weeks in advance of the first day of school is required by the state guidance thank you mr alexis um we'll move to committee reports i'm gonna go back to human resources because i don't think gail's on yet right right rich rich pepe is scale on yet or no how
020rich is muted all right so i'm going to skip um hi sorry i was i was muted because i was trying to do something and it just took me a minute to unmute me yes that's correct she's not about gone yet okay so i'm just gonna move up i can always go back for gail um operations and finance committee uh rich can you please give us an update in operations yeah um i'd i'll ask rich pepe to do that i just want to correct the minutes on restart committee progress i don't think it accurately reflects what the meeting what occurred in the meeting it says here that the idea is to write the plan using the strauss estimate policy packet that was released late this afternoon the discussion that occurred just so we're clear in
021the first 20 minutes give or take of that committee meeting was how we were going to get our work done and i'm on the restart committee and we've discussed this few times in the committee with really little traction but as the chairman of the operations committee and finance i wanted a more structured way to get our work done because there's no facilities subcommittee etc in the um in the in the large restart committee and i suggested you know a very basic structured approach of writing down the issues putting next to that what risks were involved next to that making a decision which you know i hear a lot of things but i don't really think any decisions have been formally made so we would track decision making as a body and then an action plan
022to get to that decision and that procedure was not embraced by the administration and i just want the record to reflect that instead of saying that the idea is to write the plan using the strauss estimate policy because that's um that wasn't my idea so rich if you want to give the rest of the meeting minutes which i didn't think were as important as how we get our work done to restart i'd appreciate it thank you can you hear me okay all right after the restart committee the discussion was on a settlement agreement there's a [Music] a win-win situation there the district would be saving some money while the parent is getting a good situation for their child for the summer on the agenda we discussed the designation of the payments or claim approver this
023is a procedural thing we discussed in the committee and it basically it's on the agenda for tonight and basically says that in between board meetings we can pay our bills and report the board the bills as paid which is a different process than we currently have where we don't pay the bills until after the board approves the bills list and i discussed with the committee the um rationale behind it and so that's on the agenda for tonight um we discussed the pto gifts and as mr alexis already mentioned tonight we're very appreciative and it's very uh timely that this pto is writing to the schools to help us with the plans we have um we discussed a revised professional service contract that's also on the agenda tonight and that's just to add a new a
024additional service that's an additional place we can go should we need the services of an a substitute nurse so we currently already had two approved and a new one came to me and was at the same pricing level as the others we decided to add that as another option when we needed and we also had a discussion about the reopening of the playground at bay berry and what the pros and cons are as far as whether it's safe to allow the public to have access to the playground while schools are still closed thanks bridge can you hear me yes okay so if you could please revise the minutes and resubmit them i'd appreciate it and i'll also ask the board and the president um since we did get the opinion of council on the reopening
025of playground the playground at baybury are we going to have we need to have a vote to open the playground uh i guess that's a question for uh george and rich pepe i don't think you need a formal vote does the board want to have a discussion why don't uh why don't we hear the superintendent of you in light of the advice of council yeah yes i put that in the uh the message here when i shared the opinion of the attorney with the pros and cons um i still think it's probably safest to not reopen them at this time but i leave that up to the board my opinion hasn't changed do you want to summarize the council's opinion for for the board for the public or the board well there were a couple
026of concerns one that the playground is not supervised or monitored over the summer it won't be disinfected regularly um but there was a concern that risk whether you put a sign up because that was the discussion in the operations community a sign up would reduce or limit liability uh and the opinion of council was that under premises liability it would help but it doesn't preclude someone from suing if someone does contract the virus uh and also that we needed to check with the insurance carrier to make sure there was no pandemic exclusion we did follow up with the insurance broker and we were told that there was no exclusion so there would be coverage but she also pointed out that there would be a deductible possibility we had to have coverage just a question on
027our agenda for tonight didn't it was my understanding that we were having an exact session with council after this meeting that's correct and this would be a topic for discussion during not to reveal the agenda but was that the premise part of the reason we had that was scheduled it's an opportunity for the board to get advice uh from legal counsel on matters of attorney clinton privilege i have no idea what the uh i don't i have no idea what the executive session um purpose is on one of those nine check boxes so i'm questioning whether our discussion with the attorney has to be an executive session but if she's on we can talk about it if not we can talk about it when she gets on because i don't talk about it when she
028gets on mrs harvey and i discussed that and the advice from the attorney was that matters of uh legal advice are matters of privileged communication under the attorney-client privilege you can explain that well good i look forward to that explanation so we're saying we're not gonna we're gonna table a discussion of the bayberry playground and not have a public vote on it but we're gonna do it in an executive session even though we just discussed all of the so as i understand it the legal opinion comes down to the following everything is the same as it was before because it's unsupervised et cetera et cetera et cetera and the question was because of covid19 is is there any uh additional exposure then we wouldn't have anymore any any that we don't have now like so
029then the playground is unsupervised if somebody falls god forbid and gets hurt right that that's a risk we've taken until now and i guess the only risk is additional spreading of the virus is and that's that's the issue i just want to understand what the recommendation is against opening just so we under so we have the facts yeah and i'll see i'll repeat it the reason i'm suggesting that you keep it close i believe that's the safest option at this point in time because of the spread of the virus potentially okay um is there any discussion from any other board member about the playground does anybody want to make a motion in order for there to be a vote i i'm not i'm sure that this is a matter for a board vote i mean
030i think that i was under the impression that we received a detailed memorandum on it and there was to be a follow-up discussion with the board attorney who's not on um i think you know that sounded fine um but i i'm not sure this is a matter for a board to vote on i i just i just have to say i didn't i was not under the impression that we were going to discuss the bayberry playground reopening or not opening an executive session just so you know that's probably because none of us know what we're going to discuss in executive session i don't know why somebody i don't know why mrs ingrassi got the impression we were going to discuss that in executive session was never mentioned to me or the operations committee so forgive
031me for that no i maybe it's my fault flawed assumption but based on an email that announced we were having one and mentioning that it was the board attorney and we had just received a memorandum from them on the same topic i assumed that was the subject i could be wrong and the reason and the reason why i bring up if anybody wants to make a motion is because it was brought up by rich and i just want to say that it's probably best to get if that's what we're looking for to get the consensus of the board on this i always find it best to get a roll call so that no one's going back saying that they didn't agree to something listen i don't want to start any procedural problems but i just
032thought that we weren't allowed to take action in executive session yeah that's correct rich we don't take action in executive but if you guys want to wait and take action afterwards that would be you know up to you but that people feel more comfortable with that so again if there's no motion on the table uh then we can move on and then uh have the next update and then we can always come back back to this later all right so seeing that there's no motion i'm going to move on to jen can you please oh wait is gail on yet oh yeah oh geez okay uh jen can you please give the curriculum committee report sure can you hear me yes the curriculum committee met on july 13th as a committee we identified some areas
033we want to look at moving forward with diversity the district is currently aligned with the state standards but we're looking to blend an authentic uh to have authentic discussions through literature activities guest speakers or performances we want to work to create a school climate that recognizes the uniqueness and individuality of each student you know this is really about exposure that will prepare our students to become well-rounded compassionate members of a global society the curriculum committee will create these goals and actionable items and the deadlines in conjunction with superintendent alexis to achieve the aforementioned thank you i know joe barbella is not on the call jessica would you be willing to go over the committee notes for policy sure let me just pull them up um i know that they're mostly the result of policy alerts
034the ones that are on for first read changes in new jersey statute that required us to amend um policies to be more lined with statute and then we have second read of policies that we already did a first read for at our last meeting so i don't know if you want me to go into detail about every policy there's quite a long list of them i mean i think it would just be if people have reviewed the policies that were in the packet it's um you know if you had some nuance where you could opt you know how you can opt for a certain language and make decisions but for the most part um they were mostly updates that were if not required by law where you see the m they're mandatory because of updates
035to law but in i think of just a very few cases they were just recommended that we update to be more in line with statute okay thank you anybody has any questions on certain ones before we get into it we can do that during discussion i think when we arrive at that point of the agenda sounds good um gail asked me to go over the hr committee reports was her speaker still not working um we did get an update about the restart committee progress uh but since a lot of the same members are on the curriculum committee it kind of just you know went through into that discussion um in you know just getting updates on on a potential hybrid model and any types of um related challenges um that were raised by the state
036state guidance and social distancing any type of health and safety protocols and the need for enhancing the remote learning plan or the distance learning plan transportation's finances we also um had a topic of diversity equity and inclusion um and we we discussed the board's commitment um into looking into ways to broaden our pool of candidates um the chair of the department or the committee i'm sorry gail proposed a plan for reaching out to universities for student teachers and trying to cultivate a process that would attract more diverse candidates while also serving uh the profession by training undergraduate teachers and supporting the profession uh we went over new hires the behaviorist description and then um summer scheduling and then let's see so for board uh liaison reports uh rich is there any update on the as
037a legislative liaison no i guess we'll wait for our council okay uh jen scharf is there any report in regards to the town council uh no um gail's not on oh so jessica any report for somerset county school boards association no unfortunately there would they don't meet it monthly so there hasn't been a meeting since last month and the new date for the next meeting is august 3rd which is also our board meeting date so i guess we'll have to review that one and get back to the board rather than attend in person or virtually uh mallory any report from new jersey school boards yeah so there was um the delegate assembly meeting on june 27th um they discussed many of the online resources available um via their website webinars virtual meetings facebook and twitter
038as well as other videos on youtube um they discuss the reopening plan which is um where everyone kind of shared like how they're working on clear and universal health standards um to be implemented in each of their reopening plans um they had two resolutions um one was on having proportional representation including um voting privileges on receiving district boards of ed um where the representation should be determined by the percentage of enrollment that the students from sending districts comprise there's a lengthy discussion on that with several edits i haven't seen the fully revised notes on that yet and the other one was related to vacancy membership on the border this was a discussion around allowing the vacancy to be filled by a majority vote of the board member of the board of education of the district
039represented by the former board member that was it can you hear me now can you guys hear me now yeah okay um community engagement borough council daryl eisenberg connecting any report i don't know if she's on i think she's raising her hand rich yep annie's on it hi thank you um so the watching borough council had a meeting last thursday july 16th um the mayor and council will be resuming our office hours so every monday from 6 to 8 pm uh either two borough council members or the mayor will be available to meet with residents no appointment necessary uh the second monday of every month will always be the office hours for the mayor and all the other mondays will be a rotation of two different uh borough council members uh we've extended our temporary
040resolution to allow outdoor dining within wacho mobis field mobis playground and the restrooms are now open as well as the wachon library which is open with limited capacity our mayor has created a diversity and inclusion ad hoc committee this committee is going to host a series of informal listening sessions for our borough residents those sessions will be held on wednesday july 29th thursday august 6th and wednesdays august 12th 19th and 26th observing social distancing practices more specific information about those listening sessions will be available within the next week uh the next meeting of the watching borough council will be a special meeting on july 30th thank you uh since you're on daryl for the pto do you want to give a report we actually have a different executive board member who's going to give the
041pto report today okay gotcha thank you thanks uh wes any reports from wes i don't know if anybody's on just raise your hand so that rich pepe can see you i did not see gina on the call and i don't see any hands being raised okay so we're going to move on to cpag any report from cpag just raise your hand so we know that you're there do not see kelly on the call and just wait a second see if anyone else raises their hand but no one's raising their hand yet okay then we're gonna move on to the pto any report from the pto actually i don't see sonya on the call either pinky is coming there we go thank you if you can hear us you have the microphone oh looks like she's
042off again what happened hello i'm here sorry i was just trying to unmute myself there we go yes hello everybody this is uh pinky malhotra and i'm gonna represent the watching pto so um so we really look forward to having a really safe fun and very creative year this year um we will start with uh the friday food truck the first event will take place august 7th at bayberry we have three food trucks from 4 to 8 p.m and we hope that the community comes out and really enjoys the amazing food we would like to thank the school administration for all the help as well as the borough for providing us with the signage for the advertisement um also we would like to um we would like the parents to know that we have a
043lot of opportunities for them this year um you know in this wonderful school district and we would really hope that they would join us and make a difference in the lives of our students um please take a moment to look over for the open positions um the 2021 pto annual membership is 30 per household and the membership includes paperless pto family directory food sales wording voting at the pto meetings and it helps financially support some of our events or programs which have been approved for the school year to purchase or renew the membership uh you can log in to our website at www and select for sale and then elect the membership 2021 and um last but not least we would love to have the input of all our parents so with the help of
044the superintendent we have sent out a survey um please if you can complete it by thursday it's that's the last day july 23rd and the results will be compiled and shared um yeah that is it so much um can you guys hear me yes all right so 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 the meeting may exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer may
045limit each statement made by a participant to three minutes duration our public forums are not structured as a question an answer session but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment new jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss personnel or hiring in public session names of students should not be used mr pepe will you please read the statement due to recording 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
046comments made by members of the public at this time we have a couple of people who've raised their hands i just wanted to remind everyone that the on the screen you can see a document that shows you where to raise your hand and then where to unraise your hand if you want to lower it this is in the participants if you click on the participants button at the bottom of your screen at the bottom of that panel you'll see a raise hand button so we'll go through in order that we see the hands raised we'll mute you as soon as you're finished speaking well um well i'm sorry we'll unmute people one at a time as soon as you finish speaking we'll remute you and then if you had something else to say to come
047back you would have to just raise your hand again okay um manny you can add me michelle hussain the first one on the list hi good evening michelle posting 151 johnson drive extension i'd just like to comment on the teacher resignation that's on the agenda for this evening for mrs wall mrs wall was my daughter's teacher a couple of years ago and when i saw that on tonight's agenda i was truly saddened mrs wall was one of the best teachers we've had in our time at bay berry she was kind and caring and it's truly a loss for our school district to lose a teacher of her caliber obviously we wish her the best but we really are saddened to see her leave that to give you an example of the type of teacher she
048was or is um we received a letter from mrs wall during uh the um distance learning period and mrs wall hasn't been my daughter's teacher for two years and she sent to my daughter a nice letter um with an item that she found of my daughter's from the time she was in first grade and my daughter wrote her back and um you know commented to me about how much she missed mrs wall and how much she had wished she was able to say goodbye to her this year it's truly sad that she won't have that opportunity to see mrs wall again so i just wanted to acknowledge that that's the type of teacher that we are losing in mrs wall and i wish her the best thank you mr saying um manny if you can
049add me to bruce who's next do you have the floor yeah hi bruce rock 13 lake view avenue watch them obviously uh well i don't have children in bay berry or valley view anymore at this point just one comment about the park being closed at the school for legal reasons i would suggest that really be relooked at and revisited along maybe somebody needs to reach out if they have not maybe they have i don't know to the town's health officer for guidance on opening that park for health you know it's health is the issue i think you know i heard something about uh you know the park being able to be clean because it's summer but who who would who would clean that park on the weekends uh if the school does open and they
050start to use that park is the cleaning crew going to be there on the weekend so it's no different you know now versus then and also the uh the wachong park is open so i think by keeping one close and one open it's a really uh it's a mixed message that i don't think is necessary so that's one comment the other comment was i just want you to consider what happened at the start of this meeting i logged in and i heard many people having trouble from the board standpoint logging in being heard noise in the background i really urge the school district to look at teaching from the classroom no matter whether the students are live or not the equipment in the classroom hopefully has been updated this summer for complete wiring of high-speed
051internet in all the classrooms so even if a teach if the class isn't there at least the teacher can come in and teach with high-speed internet and appropriate equipment and not have to worry about what they have at home uh because i just heard a lot of problems with the uh board logging in and the other thing is if we are bringing kids back to school whether we are or not i think and again i don't know i'm not a parent of a child anymore but i would hope that the board would meet in live session in the school and uh show the parents uh what it would look like that may be a big help and comfort to them that's all i have thank you this time there are no other hands raised are
052there any other members of the public who would like to speak okay we'll move on to action items um adam can you please move administrative items sure move administrative a1 approval of minutes of previous meeting a2 approval of minutes of previous meeting three approval of special education esli placement settlement a4 approval of final payment of accumulated benefits and a5 approval of districts and board goals 2020 2021 and then discussion uh yeah for mr pepe the final payment of accumulated benefits that's uh just right out of the contract like a lot of days i just want to make sure it was no mistake yeah we've reviewed it multiple times okay thank you another discussion roll call please mr buccarelli yes mrs ingrassia yes mr kraft yes mr mattiasi yes mrs morales yes mrs has voted yes
053mrs sharp yes yes and mrs harvey yes okay uh motion passes just so everyone knows i asked mrs o'donnell to text me her vote since she's having trouble with her um my phone so she sent me a text and said yes for her vote um for personnel uh malory would you since gail can't talk would can you please move personnel items for one second shhh i can do it if i'm just trying to find where it is um but if someone is available to do it dory you want me to do it yeah uh i'm of b1 appointment of bayberry special education teacher autism program b2 appointment of district school psychologist b3 approval of summer hours for valley view counselor b4 adoption of behavior specialist job description b5 acceptance of resignation get a second second
054any discussion i would also like to um acknowledge our regret in accepting mrs judy um resignation i i think uh as miss hossein said she touched the lives of a lot of people not just at bay berry school but in wachong where she's from and um she's a she was a wonderful teacher and a really wonderful person and i wish her well um and do feel regret over this resignation i'd also like to comment on b5 uh two of my three children had the pleasure of having mrs wall mrs thompson uh and she was a very very very special teacher special part of bayberry and my girls always enjoyed getting letters from her in the mail during the summer time she will be missed can i have a roll call please mr baccarelli yes this
055is in gracia yes mr craft yes mr madiosti yes mrs morales yes mrs o'donnell said yes mrs scharf yes mrs hardy yes motion's passed um rich can you please move operation items sure i move uh operation c1 approval of payment of the bill c2 approval of transfer of funds c3 acceptance of financial reports c4 donation of payment of claims approver c5 acceptance of pto end-of-year grants c6 revised professional services contract awards and c7 approval of travel expenses get a second i would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to uh for the grant really uh really needed from the pto end of your gift so thank you from the finance committee and the town and the district i would also like to say thank you to the pto uh before i became a board member
056i think i was uh begging to get these water fountains installed for about four years so i am absolutely thrilled that the schools will have these water fountains thank you pto you have a roll call please mr buccarelli yes mrs ingrassia yes mr kraft yes mr maddiosi yes mrs morales yes mrs o'donnell then yes mrs scharf yes mrs harvey yes motions pass um jessica can you please move policy items yes i'd like to move e1 approve policies for first reading and e2 approve policies for second reading and adoption second any discussion can we have a roll call please mr buccarelli yes mrs gracia yes mr craft yes mr mattiasi yes mrs morales yes mrs o'donnell yes mrs scharf yes and mrs harvey yes motions passed um before we move on to board business i just
057wanted to check is our council logged in i believe so okay um under board business we will have a presentation from the wachong idea committee on diversity equity and inclusion uh the board will have time to discuss and ask questions after the presentation and our board council will be present um as well so if um anyone is here from the on idea committee can you please raise your hand so mr pepe knows to unmute you and it looks like we have rio williams can you unmute her please um did riya raise her hand yes okay i'm sorry so we now have kimberly brown yeah before kimberly and kimberly if you're speaking we cannot hear you has raised your hand again so um kimberly yeah we're going to mute kimberly if you do want to speak
058again kimberly raise your hand again for now manny if you're gonna hi can you all hear me now yes yes excellent thank you um good evening president harvey and board education members my name is ria williams and i am co-representative for the wachong idea committee after tanisha sims also co-representative of the idea committee expressed her own personal experience with racism in our town at the june 4th council meeting and the overwhelming response she received her experience raised awareness and started conversations regarding inclusion diversity equality and advancement in our town which leads me to introduce the watching idea committee it stands for inclusion diversity equity and advancement committee this committee is a watch is a group of wachong residents who are devoted to raising awareness and steering and supporting the actions around these ideals in our
059town as a committee we are looking to partner with the leadership of our governing bodies and organizations in the borough to ensure these ideals are put into action our mission is to better help our community by bringing awareness and action towards the bias and unconscious bias specifically regarding inclusion diversity and equality in wachong with the current state of affairs in the us this is the time to ensure things are working well for all or take steps towards improvement where needed our committee developed a commitment statement and that's what we're looking to discuss today this was developed by the community and interested members from wachong organizations it is an effort to document the dedication to inclusion diversity equality and advancement of those not in the majority specifically the commons the commitment statement works to ensure leadership
060in our borough organizations partner with the wachong idea committee and we all hold their organizations accountable to the tenants of inclusion diversity equity and advancement we also work towards documenting inclusion diversity and equality training programs and that they occur annually that the commitment statement works to ensure hiring practices are fair for all and that there is outreach to recruit hire and retain diverse talent in our borough that there's also diverse representation of suppliers and that is part of the procurement process the statement also looks to ensure commitment to acknowledgements uh of all of those who make up this great town and ensuring respect for those who are different from ourselves now unfortunately tanisha sims was not able to attend today but kim brown will now discuss what we envision our partnership what the board of
061education looks like and the next steps forward thank you manny you can leave riya unmuted and unmute kim for now were you able to hear me i'm sorry now we can okay good evening president harvey and members of the board my name is kimberly brown and i am also a co-representative of the idea committee and i'm here tonight to talk about our next step forwards and and partnering with you all um through moving forward we are again discussing and discussing inclusion diversity equality and advancement and these are the ways in which we see ourselves moving forward inclusion we would like to facilitate facilitate community outreach work with the board of ed to engage the community at large and to seek diverse representation of ethnicities that exist in wachongboro this can actively be achieved by sharing
062information we see we receive on our website or by a survey in town diversity to assist with celebrating all cultures and races in town a calendar of holidays specific to a particular race or culture is planned for our website and it can assist in keeping the board of ed informed of up-and-coming notable events our members are part of or have relationships with several notable organizations and can assist with providing access organizations such as the naacp the national action network new jersey legislators etc we could also facilitate speaking forms in towns equality we could assist with implementing a survey of our community members and lastly we have advancement to have equality there must be or to have advancement there has to be equality and there must be access so transparency across the board regarding opportunities that
063exist in the borough and school districts should be widely advertised we can also provide contacts from our networks that can extend visibility of potential opportunities we're also in contact with the new jersey diversity officer again naacp and other notable organizations signature of the statement is being requested from organizations within wachong to bring awareness and begin the partnership towards inclusion diversity equity and advancement thank you um are there any is there any discussion amongst board members do we want to hear from our board council first okay i love the idea and i've i got involved uh when they asked for volunteers early on and i appreciated the conversation that i was and i think this is great i think it's exactly what we need and that's my full support what else i just want to say
064thank you to dr brown and mrs williams for joining us tonight and i look forward to working with you i would like to um also here from is there any um recommendations from our board council on the document that was provided i know we gave you the original one and there was an updated version but i don't i don't think we got uh any recommendations back am i am i wrong or no that's right this is harvey it was uh it was fine but the changes that you incorporated okay so is there anything is the updated version in the agenda i don't believe it's in the packet it was sent separately separately previously yeah in july 16th 11 30 a.m is when the email was sent if you if that helped you find it thank
065you i remember reading it but i don't have it in front of me right now so i'd like to reread them thank you want us to give you a minute rich nope i got it thank you okay um is there anything any other discussion from board members is there anything preventing us from signing uh this document um i had i had a point to make it says through hiring the board of education pledges to seek a diverse slate of candidates for our administration including the board superintendent our principals our teachers and our staff at all levels we must broaden outreach and looking to recruit higher and return diverse talent at all levels and watch them i just want to note that um we as the board and i tried if you guys remember to get
066this in as a board goal about diversity and inclusion and equity there wasn't um but we don't we don't have the authority [Music] to um tell them tell the administration um who to interview um while they're making their recommendations to us and i just want to point that out i think a little bit of a hole in the sort of the chain of command or the authority we're asked to to give here i am 100 supportive of this effort um that's probably you know it probably goes back to the meeting before the last one in which i suggested that the board at least get reports on the demographics of the student body as well as the demographics of the administration and so i just wanted to make that point i don't know if it's an
067important one but we have limited ability to um to seek a diverse slate of candidates other than for the superintendent who is the only candidate we are charged with hiring i don't know if council has any reaction this is rhea williams i just want to clarify what that is attending to address if that's okay sure um that is just really attending to address as we said with our partnerships um a diverse slate uh meaning that there's uh attempts to send out and recruit from a larger network of other than just only within wachong that's really just a commitment to do those effects it's definitely not a drive to to determine hiring because that of course is a factor of many different um facets that go into the actual determination process but it's just to show
068um concerted effort to um diversify and have further outreach than has been done today let me be you know mine is more like a technical thing i tried to get this into the goals um for the district but um but it wasn't it wasn't accepted so i don't know that you know we have we cannot tell the administration who or where to go for candidates for spots that they i'm perfectly fine with signing this i just want the town and the district to understand that it's actually not the way it works and i really wish council [Music] can you hear me can everyone hear me yeah yes okay um so i i can't tell you you're wrong because you are correct you hire specifically only one employee and then all of your hiring is done
069through the recommendation of your chief school administrator your superintendent of schools so while you do not have the direct uh authority select your candidates the board certainly has the right to set goals to set policies that general overarching directives um for the superintendent to follow so i read this to be more of a of a goal that the board not your specific board goal but your overarching intent as a board is to um broaden your um ability to receive a diverse slate of candidates that your superintendent would then evaluate and examine and make recommendations from that broader slate so i'm perfectly comfortable with the way that that is written and the aspirational goal it's basically setting for your superintendent um okay i appreciate that um i will note that it is not in the district
070goals i try to get it in the district goals but it's not in the district goals um it is in the uh board goals to engage in professional development as a board to work towards the elimination of inherent bias promote equity and inclusion to ensure our school climate world all students can succeed but i will just echo what you said i think is that it could be in the district goals but it's not so we might want to take a re-look at the district goals if it's not too late and also kerry mentioned using policy to drive that behavior too right that's basically the board can so might want to take that up in the policy committee okay great thanks for clarifying that um carrie i had a question i know at the bottom of
071the document it just has down for uh the word president to sign it but um is there any advice on you know each board member signing um and then also maybe including the superintendent or is it just sufficient enough for the board president to sign it for the whole district what is your recommendation if the board approves you entering into this pact or pledge uh this commitment i'm perfectly fine that only the board president signs it but certainly if you want the superintendent to sign it um he could do so but this is really the way it's written it's really looks as though it is the um the aspirational goals of the board so i'm very comfortable that if the board approves it that the board president can sign it and that's sufficient you can
072have the entire board sign it but i without having taken a vote i don't know yet whether the vote is unanimous so i i think you're perfectly fine so long as you have a majority that approves it that just the board president and i guess that leads us to somebody making a motion well i have another comment oh okay go ahead if the superintendent uh according to our attorney can sign it i would love for that to be the case also that way there's less of that gap i just spoke about yeah i agree with you on that yeah not sure what that was but does anybody have any other comments or discussion about this okay so does any board member like to make a motion for us to uh vote on signing this document
073so moved second is there a second second i'm sorry who is the second adam thank you adam have a roll call please you um would normally go to discussion or you just had discussion but just in case anyone had any last thing to say sure is there any further discussion okay can we have a roll call please okay mr buccarelli yes mrs ingrassia yes mr kraft yes mr mattiasi yes and mrs harvey um yes okay motion to sign the document as presented by the idea has passed um and i just wanted to say before um we go on any further um gail texted me and it's just a good point to make too since the board does change every year i'm thinking that that her recommendation is that the committee comes back to us again
074so that we can do this on a yearly basis since there's usually um you know it could be three new members or just or maybe not so um i think that's her recommendation am i right gail just give me a thumbs up yes okay so that would be we would certainly do that thank you very much we think we thank the board for its um cooperation in this and we look forward to the partnership and by all means um more than just on an annual basis we look to partnering and working with the board more often than that absolutely that's that's a wonderful suggestion thank you so much um thank you both for presenting to us tonight let ms sims know as well um thank you for all of your hard work um we appreciate
075everything you guys gave to us um and we look forward to working with the wachong idea committee so thank you so much thank you for your thank you thank you okay so we're gonna move on to uh public comments um and this is for any item or any any comment the public would like to make please make sure you just raise your hand so mr pepe knows who you are and please make sure to state your name and address so if there's any comments from the public on any item now would be the time to raise your hand [Music] there you go stacy you have the mic i think you have the mic uh stacey and bimbo raised her hand i saw her unmuted but now she's muted he can stay see if there you
076go oh there we go hi sorry guys um i couldn't find that button for a second and i started to panic um so um there's a couple things i just did want to mention tonight um and i apologize i am going to read from a couple of notes because i didn't want to forget anything um so um i would like to just speak i guess for a couple of moments um oh by the way teacher and union co-president i don't know if i snuck that in um i did have a couple of things that i wanted to mention tonight um on behalf of the wbea um primarily regarding the reopening of schools which is obviously um you know a very difficult you know situation that we're all dealing with right now um so i first
077wanted to acknowledge both mr alexis and mr pepe for being truly available morning noon and night to discuss reopening questions concerns and suggestions um regarding the staff and the children while also still collaborating with both john primo and myself on standard staff matter um we are incredibly grateful for the professionalism and dedication of both mr alexis and mr pepe the rapport that we have built over time has been invaluable when discussing the monumental task of reopening the schools as a teacher and a member of the reopening committee i can't stress enough how hard the teachers administration board members and parents are working to ensure that schools reopen safely and that our students continue to receive the level of education they deserve one of the biggest difficulties is keeping up with the ever-changing announcements by the
078governor for example as mr alexis mentioned earlier just today we found out another uh important piece of information that will no doubt result in further discussions and altering of current plans the staff is extremely grateful for a very well-rounded reopening committee that loves all perspectives we are thankful that the staff has been considered for representation on these committees the perspective of board members parents and administration on the committee as i said has been invaluable we also wanted to acknowledge mrs kidd at the middle school during the transition uh from full turnovers mrs k was gracious enough to include both john primo and myself on her emails to the staff which allowed us to stay in communication and know what was going on during time we also do want to acknowledge the new principal miss denise
079fitchner who although she hasn't currently technically started in district yet she has already met with john and myself on several occasions as well as teachers on the subcommittee for the reopening of schools and i do also want to acknowledge um the parents um in situation i'm a parent obviously myself and um we know that no scenario that we propose is going to be 100 um you know liked and uh well received but it can attest that the model that has been proposed um has been something that we feel is the most safe and appropriate um you know model um for right now um and lastly um i just want to also thank the teachers who um you know this has been a been a very different summer for everyone and they have been available um
080also every day for questions and concerns and perspectives and um i really can say this seems to be a very very collaborative with the community and with the administration and the teachers and um we're all doing everything that we can to you know get these kids back in the building safely and um receiving the education that we know they deserve thank you any other comments this is our way i did not see any other hands raised at this time okay um so even though this isn't um wasn't on the agenda um i'm going to ask for a motion to go into executive session question to go on executive session is there a second second there are discussion yeah i'd like to uh ask a few questions and make a few points uh we didn't get
081a notice of this so you know there's nine reasons why you would go into an executive session under the open public meetings act which of these nine are what are we what are we going to discuss with respect in other words what would we have checked off because it's a mystery to me i would ask yeah i would ask for a second maybe george can you address that um man you have to unmute kerry right george why don't you tell us the topic first and then she can address that because it's got to be in one of these exceptions yes the topic is matters of attorney-client privilege and on the advice of counsel uh this is the proper procedure okay let's hear from council because i don't see that in the open public meetings act
082so boards of education and any public entity are permitted to go into executive session to get legal advice so if the board has specific questions for legal counsel that's the appropriate venue for you to be able to get that advice well you know i'm looking at the open public meetings act here and there's nine ex nine reasons to go in one of we're probably familiar with them but uh the the there's no mention of attorney-client privilege or advice of counsel except in number seven which is pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation other than subsection b4 herein in which the public body is or may become a party to matters falling within the attorney-client privilege to the extent that confidentiality is required in order for the attorney to exercise sorry it says his ethical duties
083as a lawyer now to me that means you know you're you're in litigation or you're in a contract negotiation and you want to keep something with attorney-client privilege um but it doesn't there's no general matter that anytime we ask an attorney anything we have to go into executive session and i'll go further the i looked and i got curious about that so i looked up if there's any cases on and there's this case mcgovern versus rutgers from which specifically says that you know if you're going to discuss policy recommendations or comments involving the need for rules to be implemented that that is no exception and should have been conducted in public for what i understand we're going to ask you questions which i have no reason to think are confidential about what's what are our
084options with respect to opening up schools now every day we turn on the newspaper and there's discussions by all kinds of people lawyers best lawyers in the country the best doctors in the country talking about the issues with respect to opening up schools and it's there for the public why can't we have this discussion in front of our community why would it be much more appropriate in this time when we have this committee of 31 people for everybody to hear what questions we have and to hear your answers if the board wants to do that publicly that the board certainly can ask me those questions as a majority of the board um however the board is also entitled to have their legal questions answered by legal counsel the topic that you're going to be discussing
085it can absolutely um tell you would fall into that exception for anticipated litigation every single district is potentially facing litigation with the reopening my understanding is the questions that the board have has fall into personnel issues related to possible litigation when they're opening up school so it's up to the board whether you want to have this discussion in public my general process and my recommendation is that if you want to have these conversations maintained under the attorney-client privilege you're permitted to do so i had no idea that we were talking to you about potential claims and we were worried about getting food for the opening of the schools i guess you can get sued for anything so almost anything could be an executive session because you could say theoretically anybody can sue you for doing
086anything you do as a board member so um i don't see an exception i don't agree with it as a matter of law and uh so i'll stop talking now i i just wanted to um recommends that you know in my discussions with george i definitely had the same concern just to make sure that we weren't having an executive session that we weren't allowed to have um i was under the impression that you know we wanted to kind of open a discussion up to the board as to any questions board members might have about the reopening i am not opposed to having that in public um i felt that if board members asked questions that weren't um appropriate to be answered by council in public you would definitely not have a problem letting us know
087that um because that has happened before where you know you let us know that it's not you can't comment um and i really don't know what board members are gonna ask but i definitely don't have a problem with us talking in public and let me just add this is harvey that when we talked uh yes this arose out of some questions that came forward mrs harvey was asked or at least told that uh you know legal advice was requested by at least one board member i got a request today about asking about whether or not the board attorney is working with us on these matters and the committee meetings last week certain legal issues arose so in order to have access for everyone we decided to invite council to the meeting we put it on
088for executive session because that was the advice of the attorney uh based on her practice uh our extensive practice and and that's how we came to this so it's up to the board how you want to proceed so uh shall we do an all in favor say aye type of situation as to discussing this publicly well there's a motion on the table to go into executive session right let's vote on it let's vote on right now it's true unless there's more discussion is there any other discussion i don't want to cut off any board members i mean if i'm maybe i could just clarify i guess the the core issue questions arose which i i'm not privy to but a board member or various board members asked questions that on the advice of council it
089was recommended to discuss those questions and perhaps others in executive session is that correct i haven't received questions from i don't know i as the board president i have not received questions from um board members that i know of um that deals with any type of legal concerns or um you know there i didn't get anything specific like that a specific question from a board member um i know i have questions i mean some were about uh personnel but george was able to provide me with an answer to that so i don't necessarily have to answer ask that question in public i have just general questions that i don't think for myself that personally don't fit under an executive session but i i don't know what other board members intentions are unless they speak up
090at this point i would remark that it would be odd to have a whole restart committee without legal representation if members of the restart committee that aren't board members have questions about the legalities of the actions that we're recommending as a restart committee but then the board goes and talks about it in private it doesn't make any sense to me i do have gail texting me that she was concerned but i don't i'm asking her to explain a little bit more because i don't know um [Music] i don't know what it is so i don't know if any other board members want to discuss anything while i'm waiting to hear from gail okay i'm thinking she stopped texting so so um so if there's no other discussion let's have a roll call about whether we
091go in executive session to discuss this or have the discussion in public so the motion on the table is to go into executive session can we have a roll call please mr buccarelli no mrs ingrassia yes mr kraft no mr maddyasi yes mrs morales yes mrs o'donnell mr donald's yes mrs scharf yes mrs harvey no motion passes uh five to three okay so [Music] we can dial into the executive session and then um after that i i don't believe there's any action that's going to be taking place um but i believe mr pepe we will come back into the public session to adjourn correct wait are we going to vote on the playground oh and after executive right if there's a if there's a potential that we could go come back then i think we
092just announced to the public that we may come back into open session or voting okay so we may come back after executive session to vote on the playground if a motion is brought to the table right i do need to read the motion language for the executive session okay whereas the open public meetings act njsa104-11 permits the board of education to meet in closed session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved the board of education adjourns to close session to discuss pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and or matters of attorney client privilege and be it further resolved the minutes of this closed session will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists the closed session may be followed by an open session where action may be taken hey
093i'll see you guys in the executive session uh next rich can you hear me yes very faint though do we have a quorum rich yeah it looks like we're short one person he's not here who's that is um joey joe's here hold on i'm only counting seven people that was uh is not in tonight adam i'm here here okay yes we're all back okay dory uh dory we can't hear you now now okay uh can i have a motion to come out of executive session so moved a second second any discussion all in favor say aye aye any opposed um and i believe that we have come back to also have a discussion about the the bayberry playground opening so um [Music] i know a lot of comments were made should we just go around
094the uh rich should we just go around to each board member so we can get a consensus on whether board members are in favor or or not of it opening so a yes would be in favor of opening the playground um and i thought we were having a discussion about this and carrie was gonna weren't we just uncomfortable having it this isn't really an executive session topic but she never really did say what the there was no comment on this and exactly about the illegalities of opening the playground i thought she said this more administrative aspect than a board vote right because because it isn't a board vote but is she gonna tell us what the legal problem would be with opening it we just asked her that that and people said we don't need
095her in this session and i think you have an email that says what the legalities are okay that's okay so i think what we understood was that we're trying to get a consensus of board members whether they're in support of um opening the playground or not am i not correct all right so but it's still an administrative decision right this is just getting a consensus for for our administration to know what the board would be in favor of or not in favor of i guess yeah just to be just to be clear on procedure this is not a vote of the board this is more of a public straw poll just so that you're getting consensus that that is right we are just getting a consensus as to whether or not board members are in
096favor by saying yes to opening the playground or no not in favor so that our administration understands what the consensus of the board would be is that understood yes understood yes just i'm just trying to get to it guys i'm sorry but um so can we go around rich to just get that consensus i would like to hear from every board member so that we we all know okay so if you could just say yes or no so i can record that as yes you're in favor of opening the playground or no you are not in favor of opening okay mr buccarelli yes mrs ingrassia i mean i'm stating my consensus okay i have no problem with opening i think it philosophically i think it should be i just think if we're recording our consensus
097i would like it recorded that we have been advised by board council that you know if we want to proceed cautiously she would not recommend opening and if we just don't think that's true to open it well i'm reading from her email that's it says in okay let's read the whole email i'll read the sentence overall there is risk with opening them up to the public including payment of your insurance deductible in the event of a claim if you have coverage so if you want to proceed cautiously i would not recommend opening them if you decide not to open them you should post a sign um that advises the due to covet i personally you know i understand there's risk in everything so i don't really have a problem with them being open my kids
098have been playing on public playgrounds for at least weeks if not you know over a month my daughter practices on a on the warren um baseball fields and there's a playground and my boys are on it three nights a week so um i don't have a problem with it i just think it in in an honest discussion um instead of silencing our board council or you know other opinions i you know it is worth noting that there is some risk in opening it it's not going to be cleaned it's not going to be monitored and you know you would hate for someone to do contact tracing and find that they were at a play our playground and that that seems to have been the issue and what i think we were all supposed to be
099considering like i said uh i haven't been averse to my own uh children playing on playgrounds and so i think it would be hypocritical of me to say that this one should remain closed so i'm in favor of opening it but i do think it would be remiss if someone on this board didn't at least acknowledge the legal advice that we were given and say that we had you know considered it i don't think our board has ignored the attorney's advice we just didn't you know it's a discussion so i you know if nobody else wants to discuss it that's okay but i i have the i'm entitled to do so myself as i'm just taking issue with the fact that we silenced our board attorney she wrote us an opinion and our superintendent just
100told her she didn't have to be on this call so if anybody's silencing the board attorney it's not anybody on this board dory dory also said the same thing rich so i don't know that he pointed to me as the proper thing to do there okay hey guys i i think all of this was discussed even before executive session her statement was read before we went into executive session i think you know right now it only seems as if one board member feels as if we are silencing our board attorney i'm not sure anybody else feels that way i definitely don't i feel that we've considered her her what she wrote to us as advice and no no one is trying to take that away so can you know jessica thank you for your comments
101can we is is it a yes or no and can we move on to the next person i have given my consensus this is we're not taking a vote so it's i've given no [Music] we're getting a consensus can we please move on to the next person then mr craft yes mr maddie yes morales yes mrs o'donnell you can hear if you want to send me a text i'll come back to you oh wait there it is got it she said yes uh mrs charf yes this is harvey yes the board has a consensus of opening the playground unless there's any other board business to discuss does anyone have any other board business can i have a motion to adjourn so moved can i have a second all in favor say aye any opposed okay
102thank you for joining us this evening this meeting is adjourned hey everybody everybody