Cedar Grove Board of Education Meeting 07-20-21

001i call this meeting to order will everybody please rise to 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 the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the cedar grove board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be advertised by having the date time and place thereof posted on bulletin boards in the district published and or transmitted to the verona cedar grove times and star ledger newspapers tap

002into online news filed with the township clerk and posted on the district's website roll call please mrs dechara here mrs miga here mr pandoria president mr schoener present mrs dye here the meeting is open to the public for comments on items on the agenda nobody signed up for that portion so we're going to move on on to committee reports so good evening everybody how's everybody doing in this fine summer evening nice and warm it is it's lovely but it's nice in here right yes exactly uh anybody been anywhere done anything it's been a little on the quiet side no meetings no committees all right no meetings no meaning fantastic um we don't even have any presentations do we we don't wow all right then um i guess we're going to go to you now and

003for superintendent update okay fantastic make this brief so it's summertime this is a time where we usually go and uh prepare for the coming school year so i'll just give you kind of a brief rundown of some of the things that we're working on in the curriculum and instruction department the um the department has been um revamped and now we have our our k through five uh supervisor and we have our six through 12 supervisor and through those through that department there is curriculum writing going on there is professional development that is being planned for the upcoming school year as well as looking at data and assessments that have been taken over the course of this past year this information will help to guide the um the instruction as we move into the coming school

004year and part of that is is that you know one of the concerns that we at a district level and i know that families have concerns as well is you know how much loss was there was there a significant amount of loss due to covid and due to the abbreviated schedule i think there is also a piece of you know how how are we going how are we going to move forward and how we will we support our students so um this is all being taken under consideration as well as developed and planned for um i think when we look at that in general we really will start to see where we truly are as we get into the uh the first quarter of the school year because we'll have students coming back that have

005been on virtual since march of 2020 so the curriculum instruction department is working on that as well as developing new courses and there are a lot of new courses that are being developed especially at the high school level to help support students but also to help provide them with new opportunities at this at the level of special services uh the extended school year program is underway and has been running since the 28th of june and that will conclude at the end of this month the department is also they've been working on this past school year and they will continue to work on over the summer with the development of the progressions program and the program the progressions program is really our community based instruction program for our 18 to 21 year old students uh that

006will be introduced in september i know i've spoken a little bit about that earlier in the uh in the school year this this is exciting for us because we normally what we have done is we've normally outsourced our students to out of district placements for our 18 to 21 year old students and now we're bringing our students back and i think that is extremely important for the simple fact that uh there are 18 to 21 year olds with special needs they are part of this community and what better way to serve them than within their own community rather than serving them outside so that's something that we're working on as well as the preparation for grants and that's grants for both special needs and also for uh in our curriculum instruction department grants to help

007provide new opportunities for our students on the human resource department over the summer we are working on hiring um new staff it's a pretty common it's pretty common for our staff to move on and find other opportunities or to have new positions open so we are in the process of hiring and processing those individuals and a new teacher orientation will take place in august in the business office of mr davida we're working on grants we're working on one of the biggest things that we're working on is the food service uh next year we are in the national school lunch program so that takes a lot of work and a lot of organization uh this will be provided for all children from the uh elementary level all the way to the high school level so these

008are exciting uh pieces for us and as far as as for the buildings and grounds uh department this is the busiest time of year uh this is when uh the floors are stripped this is when um the furniture is moved out the heavy-duty cleaning uh continues to happen uh things that we wouldn't normally be able to do during the school year happens during this time so they're hard at work as well as keeping up our grounds uh and preparing for the upcoming school year um some of the some of the interesting pieces to to note is that when i talked about the curriculum instruction department one of the things that we are working on with the um the high school are our labs and this is something that mr bay had shared about is towards

009the tail end of the year those labs are math and ela labs for our incoming freshmen these will be mandatory this is a huge step on the transition from middle school to high school that is usually a very difficult time for for some students but it's also the academic um need and how and we look at the recovery pieces of that as well so those are some pieces that are going to be put into place at the high school as well as the exploration of a drop-in center uh is very familiar to um not quite how a college runs a drop-in center but similar where there could be an opportunity for students to utilize during their lunch periods and doing perhaps during a period that they would have available to work in and start to

010develop some support skills there is also the college and career readiness courses that we're working on and in the middle and the elementary schools we're looking at scheduling as well as we now have our um our reading specialist and we are looking at uh revamping our inrs or intervention referral service process of how we can identify students and how we can provide direct need and instruction for the for the students and this is this is uh this is for general education students um and how we can kind of move forward with that so uh there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes for the preparation of a new school year uh we're in the thick of it right now so we're we're mid mid july um and uh we've got another month and a

011half to go and we're excited about some of the new opportunities especially for the new opportunities for our um from all of our k through 12 students as well as our staff uh that we're planning on uh sharing out in september so um everybody's moving along and it's exciting thank you um one thing i was hoping you you know might be able to talk about just briefly and i you know i didn't give you a heads up on this um but you know i'm sure you know the answer um about the whole concept of you know learning loss i know we're not the only district that is obviously contending with this everybody's contending with it so i'm sure everybody is coming up with a plan on how we tackle this i know we've talked about

012new staff members and things like that but how specifically is cedar grove handling that so that is a major concern for every school district um i think it's not unique just to us it's not unique just in new jersey it's unique to this country and um so the first piece of this is we to to be able to identify what the law says because we could sit here and we can assume and say well because we weren't in school full day that there's a loss um when speaking to some of the the staff members and we were just having this conversation today with the curriculum instruction department where some of the staff members said you know what it actually worked out well for for particular courses or classes because there weren't interruptions of assemblies and

013there were interruptions of having to move in and out so it was it certainly was not a perfect um marriage of instruction and attendance for the past year year and a half but what we need to do is we need to really be able to identify what the law says we can't say that there's just a blanketed loss we don't know what there's a loss in is there a loss in math is there a loss in in language arts and specifically what in language arts was there a lawsuit specifically what in math because certain skills may have been heightened due to the fact that um you know there was there are different outlets of of instructional delivery i think that uh when we were have when we were having a conversation today with curriculum instruction

014department we talked about uh definitely develop developing a clear-cut assessment um calendar uh we are now we we've so we talked a little bit about linkit and i guess it wasn't this past year but the year before it was it was lincoln is it link it as a data warehouse um software it also provides assessment software as well it's an excellent piece of of of material and tools to help drive instruction but that prior year it was introduced and then we went out and covered so we really couldn't capture the essence of what that was last year we really heavily focused in on that at the elementary level uh more so than the year past and we started to dabble with it in in the in the middle school and as we move into this

015coming school year all grade levels k through 12 will utilize that one of the biggest pieces is and what's helpful for staff is is that if you know truly where your child your children are your students are and even though the curriculum tells you x y and z if you can identify and differentiate that instruction i know those your buzzwords say well you know but it's true it's it's a roadmap to help guide the teacher as to how do you truly uh aid and guide those students so what our goal is is through through the direction in the very early stages of the school year in the first quarter of the school year is to be to be able to assess our students uh to find out where they are um based on that information

016we probably will definitely see uh students that are that are that are accelerated and did very well um and then we'll see students that are in need of support uh in various areas we need to itemize really where are they what kind of support are we going to be able to provide that for them and then institute a support program for them now that's the one thing that we've been working on over the summer is what kind of programs are there that can be there can be pushing programs there can be pull out programs there can be modeling programs there can be tiered programs uh ultimately when you go when we look at the inrs process which is the intervention referral process really what happens is that if if i say okay this student is

017in need of support we look at that student and we say okay what is it and how we going to accomplish the the the needs for that student based on that that's how we develop a particular program so um we you know with the creation of you know i'm going to use the high school as an example because i talked a lot about that just previously when you look at those english labs and you look at those math labs when you come in here to the high school every single freshman will be able to be identified as what what skills they're going to need to move on to the next level of math and or the next required level of language arts or english language arts and based on that then we start to collect

018a real great database to help guide us with okay is our curriculum rigorous enough um are we um providing enough supports are we providing the correct supports one of the biggest mistakes i'm going on about this but one of the biggest mistakes that we look at in a lot of districts is that that we look at at a blanketed covering of support for students and that's not going to do anything uh it might hit a couple kids here and there but we are really focusing on the real true essence of how we can help the students that's when you're going to see the progress for kids and that's when you could i i also i reference it a lot to kindergarten we always see our kids coming in some of our kids come into kindergarten

019with preschool experience and some of them come into school pre uh into kindergarten without preschool experience but we call it the january jump and you start to see how students make an immense amount of progress with their phonemic awareness and uh their sight words and it's a it's a it's an amazing piece and with the right supports that's what you see you see the progression of how how we support children so there's a lot of pieces but the first step in anything that we do as we go into september is we need to identify where children truly are because we cannot say well we had a loss of time so that equate that equates to a loss of math skills well for some yeah but not for everybody so we have to really truly find

020out what it is that we need to address and then address them on an individual basis or in clusters and then move on got it thank you i appreciate that all right we're gonna move on on the agenda from the office of the business administrator and board secretary under minutes can i have a motion for b1 through b5 so moved second b1 is a motion to approve the public in executive minutes of june 15 2021 b2 is a motion to prove the budgetary transfers to the month of june 2021 b3 is a motion to approve the treasurer's report for the month of may b4 is a motion to approve the board secretary report for the month of may and b5 is a motion to approve the board secretary's certification to the cedargo board of education

021pursuant to the code that no line item account has encompasses and expenditures which in total exceed the line item appropriation in violation of the code any discussion no no no roll call please mrs de yes mrs miga yes mr pandoria mr schoener aye mrs dye yes under bills can i have a motion for b6 so moved second b6 is a motion to pay the following list of bills that were in our packet this evening uh any discussion no no no roll call please mrs de chara yes mrs miga yes mr spandoria aye mr schoener aye mr dai yes under business can i have a motion for b7 through b18 so moved second b7 is a motion to retroactively approve the location agreement with divorce diaries llc and the cedar grove board of education b8 is

022a motion to set the price for a half pint of milk at 85 cents for the 2021-22 school year b9 is a motion to retroactively approve the location agreement with smartypants and the cedargo board of education b10 is a motion to approve the following parent transportation contract for the 21-22 school year the 11 is a motion to approve the following parent transportation contract for the 21-22 school year b-12 is a motion to approve the following parent transportation contract for the 21-22 school year b-13 is a motion to approve the proposal of lincoln landscaping in the amount listed b-14 is a motion to approve the location agreement with frb studio and film works llc and the cedar grove board of education b15 is a motion to approve the below listed transportation routes for the renewal of

023transportation contracts with nw transport llc for the 2122 school year b16 is a motion to approve the below listed transportation routes for renewal of transportation contracts with alden transportation inc for the 21-22 school year b-17 is a motion to retroactively approve the location agreement with r ga and the cedar grove board of education and b18 is a motion to approve the proposals from ame inc for the purchase of upgrading hvac controls at north end school south end school and cedar grove high school any discussion no no roll call please mr de chara yes mrs miga yes mr pandoria aye mr schoener aye ms dye yes uh one second under from the office of the superintendent of schools under personnel can i have a motion for s1 through there's a lot of motions bear with me

024a lot of pages um it looks like s29 so moved second okay s1 is a motion to rescind motion s17 for employment for catherine farley paraprofessional s2 is a motion to approve vincent fazio boys jv soccer coach s3 is a motion to approve barbara blondie district coordinator of mental health anti-bullying coordinator s4 is a motion to retroactively approve barbara balondi district coordinator of mental health anti-bullying coordinate coordinator um so that sorry s3 was for her um for september 2021 through june 30th to 2022 s4 is to work 15 days same person to work 15 days intermittently from july 1st to august 30th s5 is a motion to retroactively approve aaron valenzano esy program s6 is a motion to approve aaron valenza valenzano high school progressions program special education teacher s7 is a motion to retroactively

025approve joseph lombardi as summer custodian slash maintenance s8 is a motion to approve robin cali head nurse position s9 is a motion to appoint the following staff in accordance with the state emergent hiring start date procedures s10 is a motion to approve the employee coordinator job description s11 is a motion to approve the behavioral job descript behavioralist job description for the 2122 school year s12 is a motion to approve re-assigning fr ray francios retroactively on july 19 2021. s 13 is a motion to approve reassigning howie munch retroactively on july 19 s14 is a motion to accept the resignation of alexa miller north end school nurse s15 is a motion to accept the resignation of thomas mugen high school math teacher s 16 is a motion to accept the resignation of michael mousab mms physical

026education teacher s 17 is a motion to accept the resignation of michael konopka high school social studies teacher s 18 is a motion to accept the resignation of pinali oh i'm sorry chu chowski paraprofessional s19 is a motion to rescind and approve i'm sorry to rescind an approved salary for julia mms nurse s20 is a motion to prove theresa ardo maternity leave speech language therapist specialist sorry s21 is a motion to re-employ and set salaries for the following members of the cedar grove school administrative unit s22 is a motion to re-employ and set the salaries for the following members of the cedar grove schools non-bargaining unit s 23 is a motion to re-employ and set the salaries of the following hourly secretarial staff for the 21-22 school year s24 is a motion to re-employ and

027set the salaries for the following hourly slash sub-custodial staff for the 21-22 school year s25 is a motion to re-employ and set the salary for michael devita business administrator board secretary s-26 is a motion to approve the following stipends for the 21-22 school year s27 is a motion to authorize attendance at the following events s28 is a motion to approve the following pilot program and volunteer advisors for the 2122 school year and then s29 do we need to read the policies is that what we're doing this evening okay so why don't we do this why don't we just um we'll we'll vote on through s28 and then you can read us 29 and we'll vote on that separately all right uh any discussion no no no no roll call please mrs de chara yes miss

028amiga yes mr spandoria aye mr schoener aye mrs dai yes okay so then mr david you're going to read the summaries of the the policies yes okay uh this is from policy alert um 223 that we received last month uh for approval tonight uh policy 131 is regarding our bylaws and this policy gives an option for the board to abolish a bylaw policy or regulation at one meeting policy 1521 for educational improvement plans this is a policy for special needs school districts and is no longer required and is being abolished policy 1643 is the federal family's first coronavirus response act uh this law expired on december 31st 2020 so it is being abolished policy 2421 is career and technical education this policy requires a school district to determine the career and technical education programs offered

029to their students 2421 is for vocational technical education this regulation is being abolished as the details are not required anymore policy 3134 is for the assignment of extra duties this policy is updated to clearly define the board's right to assign extra duties consistent with the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement policy regulation 3142 is for the non-renewal of non-tenure teaching staff members this policy and regulation have been updated with some minor language changes that provide greater detail uh the next group of policies um policy regulation 3221 is for evaluation of teachers policy and regulation 3222 is for the evaluation of teaching staff members excluding teachers and administrators policy regulation 3223 is for the evaluation of administrators excluding principals vice principals and assistant principals policy and regulation 3224 is for the evaluation of principles vice principles

030and assistance principles and all of these policies and regulations have been revised because of code changes with the evaluation procedures school districts are required to implement and they're all mandated policy regulation 4146 is for the non-renewal of non-tenured support staff members this policy and regulation are being revised to indicate the contract date renewal date for non-tenured support staff members shall be in accordance with the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement individual contract or any other agreement between the parties policy in regulation 5460 is the bridger pilot program as a new policy is being developed to address the requirements of the bridger pilot program which is to provide students in the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022 the opportunity to offset disruptions to learning opportunities and participation in extracurricular activities that might have resulted from

031the closure of schools in spring 2020 due to the covert 19 policy and regulation 6471 is for school district travel these are being revised to provide the rewritten details that are included in a new code the board may establish an annual maximum amount per employee for regular business travel not requiring board approval and the board may exclude from prior approval travel that is in an existing employment contract and the board must designate a final approval authority for travel the remaining policies um policy 8500 is for food service policy 8505 is for local wellness policy uh nutrient standards for meal meals and other foods policy 8507 is the breakfast offer versus serve policy 8508 is the lunch offer versus serve policy 85.50 is for unpaid meal charges and outstanding food service charges and policy 8561 is

032for the procurement procedures for school nutrition programs and all these policies are being adopted because the district is re-entering the national school launch program for next school year and that concludes thank you thank you and special thanks to the policy committee who sat through all of this and uh and spent a lot of time on it greatly appreciated can i have a motion then for s29 so moved second s29 is a motion to approve the first reading of the policies that mr davida just reviewed with us any discussion no no no roll call please mrs dechara yes mrs miga yes mrs fondoria aye mr schoener aye mrs dyed yes under curriculum can i have a motion for s 30 through s 33 it's almost second s 30 is a motion to approve the following employees

033to write curriculum for the following courses not to exceed 20 hours for the 21 22 school year s 31 is a motion to approve the following revised curriculum s 32 is a motion to approve the following curriculum writing s 30 and s 33 is a motion to approve irina shatowski to write curriculum for ap environmental science any discussion no no no roll call please mrs dichara yes mrs miga yes mr spandoria aye mr schoener aye mrs dye yes under contracts can i have a motion for s-34 so moved second s-34 is a motion to approve the following contracts for special education students as recommended by the director of special special services for the 21-22 school year any discussion no no no roll call please mrs de charro yes mrs mika yes mr spondoria hi mr

034schoener aye mr dye yes chris before you open this up to the uh public can i can i say a little something i forgot to do it before go right ahead with me hi sorry people i forgot earlier it's fine [Music] i'm a big one to thank people so i just want to say i thanked everyone back in april when it was national volunteer week and i would like to take a moment to say thank you again as we wrap up the school year i want to give a big thank you to the students the staff the parents the grandparents and everyone that made this school year possible for our students to go through this school year would not would have been much harder on the students if it if all your forces did not

035join together the common goal was to educate the children while keeping them healthy i would also like to thank my own family and friends as well because i needed support at time too not gonna lie now believe me i know it was a challenge i do not have anyone in the school district i have my college age they struggled as well i've spoken to many parents with kids k to 12 though and i know it was not easy i've spoken to many teachers and administrators i know it was not easy the common theme is that it was not easy for anyone and by pulling together we made the best of it was it perfect of course not was it normal no it was far from it but i hope we can move on and have

036a much better situation going forward over this past year i've seen so many organizations from within the school and outside the school thinking outside the box to do what we can do for our school for our children and our community we have looked to keep safety protocols in place yet found a way to still provide outlets and a little normalcy hopefully this summer you are able to join are able to enjoy the town pool maybe some town camps or other camps and perhaps get on that vacation destination you didn't make last year again i just wanted to say thank you to all that got involved and get involved for the students this school year and hopefully going forward thank you well said thank you glad you didn't forget to say that i did forget to

037say thank you but thank you everybody i do appreciate everything that you've done for the students thank you thank you michelle thank you very well said and thank you for all of your time okay at this time the board of education offers members of the public an opportunity to address issues regarding the operation of the cedar grove public schools in this section we allow public comment on all school related matters our regulations allot 40 minutes for these communications each person shall be limited to three minutes there will be a countdown timer and at the end of the three minutes the microphone will be shut off and the speaker will be interrupted speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard issues raised by members of

038the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate this portion of the meeting is meant to hear the public comment not to have a dialogue between the board and the person speaking the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students district employees and members of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board the public is reminded that students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in

039light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments all statements will be directed to me as the presiding officer and no one may address board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy abusive obscene or defamatory you may be interrupted warned or your participation may be terminated please also be reminded that if any person does not observe reasonable decorum is disorderly or disrupts the meeting you will be asked to leave the meeting the board reminds those individuals who take this opportunity to speak to identify themselves by name address and group affiliation if applicable every time you address the board and to limit their comments to items directly related to the operation of the school

040district because of the high number of people that have signed up to speak people are people are we ask that all your questions we ask all of your questions at once or make comments and then return to your seat answers if any will be given at the end of the public comment and due to the fact that we have a number of people and we want everybody to be able to speak we're not going to stop at the 40 minutes we'll stop when i get to the end of the list okay so the first person i have is patricia montana mr devito you ready with the clock just going to help you out there [Music] is this on patricia montana five emory court cedar grove new jersey the district administered an equity and diversity survey

041and what seems to be a clear violation of district policy as well as state and federal laws that require prior written informed consent since the last board of ed meeting nearly 100 parents wrote a joint letter to the new jersey commissioner of education and others have filed complaints with the u.s and new jersey departments of education to be clear parents can object to the survey and at the same time support diversity and inclusion mr grosso and the board of ed's insistence that it's one or the other sets up what they know to be a false choice thus exposing that they are acting entirely in bad faith while parents support and welcome the inclusion of all children and community members in all aspects of cedar grove's vibrant school district they do not believe that inclusion and

042positive change can be achieved by violating students privacy blocking parent access to information and condemning and dismissing differing viewpoints this conduct excludes rather than includes parents from participating fully in decisions affecting the education and well-being of their children mr grosso and the board of ed's arrogance and handling community concerns is appalling particularly their decision at the last board of ed meeting to share selected survey responses taken out of context and stemming from an illegitimate survey add to that their willfulness and refusing to still answer a single parent concern violating the district's own public relations policy which requires that the superintendent work with others in a manner conducive to high morale and meriting the respect of the community the incompetence is shocking too mr grosso's lengthy reading of an executive order to prove that he could

043not relax masking showcase showcased his total ineptness he had the authority as governor murphy and the county superintendent confirmed if not incompetence then he knowingly presented misinformation to trick the community into believing that his hands were tied which is nothing less than deceptive lastly the board of ed especially president christine dye has a history and pattern of questionable ethics per the district's ethics code the board of ed must uphold and enforce all laws and refuse to surrender their independent judgment to special interest groups administering a survey and contravention of a state statute at the direction of edac which must be a special interest group as their names are still secret is just one way they seem to have violated the ethics code in some our leadership is compromised at a time when they should have

044been prioritizing our children's learning loss they have instead played games with their privacy rights for the board members who have remained silent their silence is acquiescence to this misconduct in some we need to install new leadership turn over the board and return the district to the parents that's why i'm supporting board of ed candidates don doro and lou marzullo and insist again on the resignation of superintendent grosso and board of ed president christine dye thank you for your opinion miss montana athena can you please speak to the the fact about the survey please if you don't mind uh certainly and i understand that there's going to be numerous comments with regard to the survey this evening which is certainly your prerogative the board's obviously not going to comment on any pending matter and will agree

045to disagree in terms of the nature of the comments from ms montana and anyone else who is going to share those it's certainly your prerogative to come to the microphone and share your views and address any issues that you're interested in it's not your prerogative to berate and otherwise attack personally folks who may not share your view so please feel free to come to the microphone and again provided with an uninterrupted three minutes we expect the same to be given to others who speak thank you thank you very much appreciate it next i have a romney baquette hello my name is romani beckett cedar grove new jersey so today i would like to add about the survey um survey adag curriculum which is all based on the survey in accounting we say control control control

046i see a pattern here we're breaking controls we're breaking state federal laws and school owned district it's it's amazing at subalan i know there is a member at least on the seating board that happened to be a cba and understand controls i'm not mentioning names but you know damn well that control are very important and should be adhered there is laws regulation there is guidance there are policies to be adhered to not to compensate and not to go by bass just to set your own personal agenda let's talk about the survey in accounting we use the term garbage and garbage out what that mean is garbage in when you come and ask a third grader what's the religion ethnicity uh background um and so on and so on that's garbage because that child doesn't know

047the proper answer okay um that's first second your safety return back to school you broke the own guidance provided by the state you were supposed to post it 624 you posted earlier with a forward date and you were supposed to you were told and instructed by the state to follow certain guidance and get the feedback question and feel back from the appearance which you did not do thank you for your comment is not an answer given our comment and just have it on youtube for a memory and archiving is not an answer we need an answer your own policy 5841 let's talk about edac secret societies which state the bo boe affirmed the legislative prohibition public organization with close membership practices as hostile to the democratic ideals of public education how is that edac coming

048to play here absolutely secret society secret organization um the last paragraph if your own policy said a pupil who seeks to form or is a member of a fraternity sorority excuse my english or other secret organization form in the whole or in part pupil enrolled in this district may be disciplined by this port the board's reserves the right to require that any pupil attest as to her her membership in a secret organization so garbage in garbage out people idak was formed in secret it's a secret society it should not be relied on uh curriculum should not be built on privilege this privilege that should not be built on you want to do it do it the right way you have three seconds thank you for your comment next i call up marcela crossman [Applause] marcela

049crossman 328 crestmont road as a member of the community i'm surprised by the lack of transparency regarding the edac diversity community committee as a parent i would like to have the option to send my children to the local public school but i'm not sure that it is the right option given your treatment of privacy issues diversity initiatives and even making reopening and addressing the loss of learning a priority for our children i ask you the board and administration are the children of cedar grove your priority when the concerned parents request for transparency mr grosso with all due respect your responses to quote rules regulations as opposed to illustrating a plan in detail to remediate the loss of learning you spent more than an hour in last month's presentation to talk about this edac but just

050now a few minutes loosely explaining your goals on loss of learning measures you use the system against us not for us as parents and that includes going against our children the board of education should apply their energies in bettering our children's education so that they may gain competitive edge amongst their peers instead you thrive on creating a divide inside a peaceful community we are all humans irrespective of color parents as americans it is our responsibility to come together and stop this divisive focus and race and instruction and instruct the board of education to provide transparency on the decisions they are making on behalf of our children's education and it's a kind it's an instant reminder that we're all humans as i mentioned earlier whatever color we are whatever we believe whatever um sexual preference you

051have religious background political affiliations all that goes away there are children who need to learn how to read who need to learn how to add one plus one and for the past few months it's been a focus on diversity and inclusion which has nothing to do with the core basis of why you found and with that i respectfully request your resignation as the board of education president mr thank you for your comment next i have agnes norman please good evening agnes norman 28 bargain drive during the april boe meeting mr van der horn delivered a board presentation on the holocaust genocide and modern humanity course curriculum during the june boe meeting ms sloda and mr meisner delivered a board presentation on deca and what that program will entail presentations that i truly enjoyed and i

052look forward to having our cedar grove kids participate in but in addition i would like to see a presentation on two core issues that i have been advocating for which are how is the district going to address the learning loss during the last academic year and i appreciate you mentioning it at today's meeting but that's not enough and what will 2022-23 school year look like you have not committingly said that you intend to offer full-time in-person school instruction including lunch with making masks optional but will masks be optional in aftercare if i travel out of state will my child have to quarantine will lunches be staggered outside will there will there be cohorts will kids still be expected to social distance will the use of lock or use of lockers be permitted or do i

053have to go out and buy a rolling suitcase for my fifth grader when will that presentation take place because as a parent i need to prepare instead of opening schools full time and addressing these core issues you decided it would be a good idea to throw the edac survey into the mix when our kids were not even in school full time getting the education that they i are entitled to and deserve i ask you what are your priorities if you're wondering why you are met with so much frustration and anger it is because you created this environment of hostility dismissiveness and disrespect so much so that many parents including myself have called for your and ms dye's resignation and since you're still here and ms dai publicly said she has no intentions on resigning my

054question to you is how are you planning to bridge that gap between you and the parents of the children that you are here to serve [Applause] [Music] thank you for your comment next i have agnes norman oh i'm sorry thomas perry i apologize that's why i check things off so tom perry 52 cedar grove parkway cedar grove as always you hit the nail on the head when you said trish that the idea that we objected to the edac survey doesn't necessarily mean that we object to the idea of diversity and inclusion in our community so and i read the diversity curriculum and at a high level and by and large honestly i had no real issues with it personally heard some colorful stuff that may have been i may have missed along the way but

055overall something i agree with um not so sure about julian as a mermaid for eight-year-olds but you know okay i get it these are important concepts that must be taught full historical context of racism gender struggles but very very sensitive topics very complex they would need to be taught with due professional care we don't want these kids especially the younger ones going home and feeling personally responsible for this there is no reason for anyone to point their finger at my son and tell him he's personally responsible for any of this second generation in this country i am convinced that this district's leadership from the teachers union to the superintendent to the board itself is not capable of exercising due care [Applause] we've completely lost faith in this board someone thought it was a good idea

056to send the edac survey to third and fourth graders why would anyone be comfortable with this district leadership or the oversight provided by this board thank you thank you for your comment next i have michelle moriello [Applause] michelle moriello 51 bennett avenue cedar grove first the last board of ed meeting was nothing but sad i was given a sex ed lesson by minor children who were victimized by adults that are in charge the audience was accused of being racist and then was accused of not giving support to the cause these children were trying to garner support for as i stated in the last meeting these children are the most vulnerable group of students being represented by a teacher who exhibits violence within his classroom and is hypocritical in his ability to serve all students within

057cedar grove he paraded a student up here who called the audience racist but what the public is not aware of is that that same student was all over social media name-calling children within this town using racist names this was obviously overlooked and once again members of our border bed support this student and her plate but refused to acknowledge the students who were victims of her racism excuse me excuse me ms moriello please don't refer to students in your in your statement not referring to anybody individually you're referring to students and you're referring to the last board meeting please please exclude those from your comments thank you excuse me do not interrupt can you please reset the clock okay i have some questions i have some questions excuse me we are not resetting the clock because

058you said something you shouldn't have said which i pointed out in the beginning so we're not resetting the clock so please continue okay i have some questions and i would hope i could get some answers i want to know how the students responses from this survey are maintained are they part of the student records on your website of cultural awareness black lives matter's white privilege and everything is reference who developed this curriculum i want to know if there's an option to opt my children out of this material which referenced this what is the role of the social emotional counselors who took over for the media specialist do they follow a curriculum who decides who attends how will learning loss be addressed are the edac committee meetings open to the public and when is the next

059edac meeting and i want to know why weren't parents made aware that a teacher a science teacher at the middle school was gone for five weeks and there was no leave replacement the the students were required to do independent learning okay talk about learning loss that's learning loss talk about transparency that's non-transparent okay your website outlines um district policy 3233 political activities which are prohibited number one is the posting of a political um circular or petition on a bulletin board well i want to really examine this because we have a teacher in our district who puts political figures with duct tape over their mouth okay i want to know if he wrote this policy and were these rules manipulated to benefit himself okay and on page 20 in the curricular awareness website the recommendation is

060to use books to teach lgbqt things such as julian is a mermaid and pink is for boys it further goes on to state that gender is constructed through intergenerational experiences and social norms and once we're aware of these we could deconstruct the gender the gender dichotomy and rebuild thank you for your comment ms mariello thank you moving on i have david grant please david grande 21 timber rock court uh i mean i share the same concerns and have the same questions that the uh you know the previous speakers before me uh i shared but with regards to today's meeting i have just one comment um you know i i thought that the question on learning loss was uh was really a good one earlier i was not satisfied however with the with the response um

061i'm concerned that we don't have a a sense at this time as to really where our pockets of learning loss are i would think that our teachers collectively should be able to articulate at least as a starting point now you know where to focus our efforts instead of using instead of continuing to use valuable class time uh to to come up with a baseline assessment um honestly you know being in in the in the trenches our teachers should be able to provide that information understanding that it is a it will be an iterative process and that there are individual needs that need to be addressed as well thank you thank you for your comment next i have edith fusco edith fusco 75 bordik road i stand here today to say how saddened and confused i

062am by what transpired at the last board of ed meeting in february i came together with several other parents to form a coalition with one goal in mind to get our children to return to in-person full-time instruction we stood before the board of ed to voice our concerns regarding learning loss and the negative impact on social and emotional well-being and sadly we were not heard nor were we respected at the most recent meeting in june i along with others expressed our concerns regarding the mass mandate during extreme heat and the handling of the edac survey again our concerns were not heard or answered what is disturbing is that real issues like learning loss were completely swept under the rug and the narrative turned into portraying cedar grove residents like myself and my children to be

063racist and non-inclusive for those who share their stories of being treated unfairly i understand i empathize my brother who is nine years younger whom i practically raised is gay and i have experienced hardships with him i know that people are not always nice open and accepting i also grew up in irvington and currently work in inner cities such as east orange paterson and newark and have witnessed inequalities in my lifetime so i teach my children to be kind and to love others history has taught me to rise above the morals that took place decades or centuries ago you should always be good to others we are all human but how am i supposed to feel when at the last meeting i was indirectly accused of being close-minded racist and ignorant and because my children are

064students of the current cedar grove district they will now carry a stigma and be retaliated against for being white males do i agree with the way the survey was handled or the way that some of the edac questions were worded no when reading some of the questions it was clear that the questions were implying that there is an issue before the answers were even submitted and since everyone is speaking on inclusivity i want you all to know a fact 65 percent of inner city kids are not proficient by the time they reach adulthood if you care about these children to have future equal opportunities you should have fought the state much harder to get these children back into school children who are underserved and oppressed deserve a fundamental education and a safe safe in a

065safe space so they can be set up for success this allows for equal opportunities i will remind you again of the quote i read last time by nelson mandela thank you for your comment moving on to the next person is pierre acuman [Applause] pierre acuman and i'm sorry if i didn't pronounce that correctly i apologize pierre aquamano i apologize [Music] can you hear me with this like this absolutely okay i want to make sure i face you mrs dye people who happen to live in america and identify as super duper progressive elitists are having an identity crisis they forget that it was their party that hated blacks and did everything they could to make sure they never succeeded or had any true independence today they want you to believe that up is down two and

066two equals five and now take their guidance from animal farm brave new world and 1984. dr martin luther king a true hero whose name you hardly hear anymore lost his life preaching that his dream for his children was that they would be identified by the content of their character and not the color of their skin i am sure some people just roll their eyes at that quote because in this brave new world it is just stupid rhetoric and far below the intelligence of today's super duper progressive elitist today's intelligent super duper progressive elitist talk about ignoring character and that the only thing that matters is how you identify in several dimensions not just height length or width but color and sexual preference not to mention 11 types of sexualities and 52 genders and today's super

067duper progressive elitists throw words around using the ups down down as of dictionary they like using the word diversity what's new about that when i was in the business world we had diversity training twice a year and guess what no hate was taught how about racism here's my uncomfortable racism story when i was growing up in the bronx and attending evander childs high school i was continuously beaten and robbed by groups of black girls and god forbid i was using the stairwell between classes there was inevitably a group of black boys who would throw and hold me up against the wall one of them sticking their hands between my legs and several coping fields of my breasts and anything else they could touch all while calling me a white when my friend and i wanted

068to experience joining cheerleaders we were confronted by the cheer the all-black cheerleading squad captain to tell us we were not allowed to be there they did not want white in their group yet i never saw myself as a victim nor that i tried to start a program to destroy and minimalize all black people i'm going to skip the rest of it because i want you teachers educators to save the children stop being marxist useful idiots and thank you for your comment moving on i have carolyn maxwell i hi we are speaking as a collective of concerned parents residents alumni and students over the past year we have worked towards creating a more culturally inclusive education working on creating more culturally inclusive education updates in our school district ms maxwell i hate to interrupt can you

069just state your name please so sorry that's okay carolyn maxwell 67 elmwood thank you um we work in addition to these curriculum changes to secure a school environment that accepts and respects all students regardless of their racial identity religious beliefs sexual and gender identity or disability we support the equity and diversity counts advisory council also known as edac because it provides a central structure that can make recommendations towards policy and curriculum this helps the superintendent building principals and teachers to create a better environment for student for students of all backgrounds while some of us were not satisfied with every step of edax formation we are elated to see the board of education working towards inclusivity today i want to speak on behalf of myself i am here as an ally and i am standing with

070a group of strong people who i admire adamantly they have much more to say and you will hear all of it but i want to everyone to know that as a student of cedar grove schools i missed out on a culturally inclusive education i missed out on so much history so much literature from different narratives and i want other students who are coming up in the school to experience that i want everybody's cultures to be celebrated and that is something that edac can start to provide as a structure so i think that it's a great step to be taken and regardless of talking about minorities or underrepresented groups it's diversity in all cultures there's a blanketness that comes with teaching today and the creation of it's it's just heartbreaking to see the whitewashing of culture

071and i i'm really i want to see change and i feel like this board of education is starting off with a clean slate and is able to make that change so i really appreciate all the work that you've been doing thank you thank you miss maxwell next i have myra medina hi myra medina hold on okay 76 old ultra court pronouns are she and her i am here to speak as to why education reform is necessary we know that there are three main points of oppositions against culturally inclusive education reform many people argue that our school should stick to the basics math science english and american history and parents can handle life to quote president biden we can't choose to learn what we know and not what we should know we should know the good

072the bad everything that's what great nations do they come to terms with their dark side inclusive education and knowing the basics are not mutually exclusive we want a curriculum that tells the holistic narrative in order to better prepare students for the world additionally what many consider what many people consider the basics of education no longer fulfills the requirements of a modern public education a multitude of mandates like the amistad act and assembly bill number 4454 require schools to teach these subjects they are part of the basic education your child is required to receive new jersey passed these laws because children who do not learn these concepts face a disadvantage when compared to peers who received a comprehensive education places of higher education and workplaces want members to have a culturally inclusive education who can apply

073that education to work with diverse teams and company clients while the law mandates these changes to the curriculum we hope that the board of ed and eda can give students a quality education and not the bare minimum required to meet student standards and as you all know i've been part of these board of end meetings for the past year and one of the things that i've always spoken about is representation representation from my daughter literature staff teachers things like things that they could actually come and feel that they are represented and being part of the school it's hard to come in into a school into a community that is predominantly white and unfortunately school is also part of like that and not have being able to actually identify with someone there so for me as

074you all know i've always been on big on that and i'm very grateful for the culture and that national observations guide that you have posted on the board the school website because it one of the things that i've always mentioned as well is why hispanic heritage month isn't mentioned why aren't other important factors that are celebrated in other districts not being part of it so i thank you for that as well thank you very much next i have just a first name here elena good evening my name is elena gutierrez and i live at 55 sherman ave here in cedar grove and i am proud new homeowner i'm purchasing here in town in november while the law mandates these changes to the curriculum we hope that the board of education and edac can give students

075a quality education and not the bare minimum required to meet these standards there may be some people in cedar grove who believe that their children are too young to be learning these things and that these standards overstep children are exposed to many things through conversations with other children television radio and the internet many times without the knowledge of their parents it is best that children learn about topics in an environment where they can ask questions and don't have to be afraid to openly discuss these topics thank you thank you very much [Applause] next i have chloe perez hi um so my name is chloe perez five clover court cedar grove new jersey um so alternatively children who are affected by these issues do not have the privilege of not learning these topics parents raising children

076of color have conversations about navigating the world as people of color at a young age children who are lgbtq plus know early that they don't fit into heterosexual norms children with disabilities understand every day that our society was built for able bodies and neurotypical and not for them these children have to learn these concepts and they have no choice but by not teaching these topics to a wild wider population the disparities between these children only grows we recognize that these topics are very complex and that they should be taught in an age-appropriate manner starting early builds a strong foundation so that students can create and defend their own informed opinions i graduated two years ago and i played tennis all throughout high school and that includes changing in a girls locker room i was known

077for being out as pansexual and non-binary and i didn't think it was a big deal but it came to my attention that around sophomore year there were girls in the locker room who felt uncomfortable changing in front of me they looked at me as a danger because of my sexuality and this information led me to begin changing in the bathroom stalls because i didn't want people to see me with ill intention obviously i wasn't a nuisance and i wasn't watching other people change but these girls sure thought so and were probably driven by ignorance this is just one of my many experiences but i saw how similar ignorance impacted those around me i was in one class with one hispanic student and they bumped into a caucasian student that caucasian student turned around looked to

078see who it was and said of course it's the filthy mexican who jumped the border illegally yesterday first of all that individual was colombian and secondly that is an absolutely disgusting and troubling response and i truly cannot wrap my head around that mindset on another occasion i witnessed a completely different group of students hum the oriental riff every time they saw this chinese student pass them in class it was also incredibly uncalled for and demonstrates a mindset of cedar grove that needs to be changed drastically i knew this meeting today created opportunities for others who went to cedar grove public schools to speak and i asked a a handful of alumni to speak today and their responses were notable and honestly really saddening one response was i can't speak because it puts a target on

079my brother sadly one was i can't speak because it puts a target on me one was i would love to speak but number one my family and number two a bunch of townies or clients at my job and if co-workers found out i'm pretty sure i would be fired on the spot another was i have plenty to share in terms about stuff and how heavily i was impacted i wasn't even out also being neurodivergent really didn't help ableism was not a good time and a lot i got a lot of the broadhead of stuff thank you very much for your comment next i have sam almandovar i'm sorry samuel another argument people make states that this type of discrimination we're addressing doesn't happen in our town if the discrimination isn't happening why are so many

080people spending their personal time and energy to call for change it may be ignored or may be so common that people overlook it as it happens just this year in our own community temple shalom was defaced with anti-semitic symbols children in school reported feeling unsafe on the basis of race gender and sexuality on a survey disseminated by the school undeniable hate exists among some in this town but this isn't an accusation we know that many people have good intentions and want the best for their children but even a little bit of hate or discrimination can have lasting consequences for students and their families during my time within the school district my peers would make racist comments call me a border hopper and slurs these against the latinos in elementary school my teacher told me it

081was un-american of my family to not have taken me to see the statue of liberty in middle school the music teacher made fun of me for not listening to rock or other mainstream music i was told i told him that we mostly listened to spanish music at home and he laughed one incident that i could never forget was when the classmate mentioned that sometimes people confuse him for being a latino a high school history teacher then replied well if all indians wore jeans in a sombrero i think they're mexican too the same teacher that was constantly rude and snarky to me and other students that same teacher made a terrorist joke to a muslim student who was visibly uncomfortable and then dismissed her feelings afterwards that same teacher told me that latino history was not

082important enough to learn and while we were learning the civil rights movement um that same teacher gave the student attitude when he asked why we didn't learn about the stonewall riots or the lgbtq liberation movement i didn't report these issues at the time because i was scared of retaliation by teachers i didn't feel supported and i saw how other students treated those that reported their favorite teacher even those that did report to the teachers the administration diminished dismissed their feelings and nothing happened to either the students or the faculty involved my experiences aren't unique and there's a lot more that i didn't share however listening every negative experience isn't going to change the past i do believe that properly represented being properly represented within the curriculum and having protocols in a space to educate the

083ignorant can be a first step in making our school a better place to learn students shouldn't have to argue with teachers about why their existence matters and why their history shouldn't be erased i hope that edoc the board of education and the community can engage in difficult conversations and make the necessary changes thank you thank you [Applause] next i have marlena connor hi i'm marlena connor i live at 18 woodstone drive i'm here to express my support for diversity and inclusion initiatives in cedar grove schools we spend a lot of time here talking about kindness since we moved here three years ago it's been a constant in the curriculum and the kids are always talking about all the projects that they're doing it's truly admirable however i think there is a great opportunity to ensure

084our children are not only focused on acts of kindness for people in need or people who are sick but learning more about the diversity of the student body and even about people who are beyond the walls of cedar grove the town of cedar grove so that they can see and hear diverse perspectives and widen their world by doing this we can make sure that all of our children feel welcomed and included at school even children like my oldest who happens to be gender non-conforming and may need support in the future in the past few years we've seen real progress being made in cedar grove with steps taken to make the town and our schools more welcoming to people of color and the lgbtq plus community recently the high school added an asian fusion club the

085gender sexuality alliance club was created to provide a safe space for students something that's crucial for teenagers who may be struggling with their identity finally last month the board of ed and the township hosted their first pride flag raising ceremonies i was extremely happy to see the summer reading list this year with representing a diverse group of authors and themes and representing a broad range of cultures while all of these changes are great there's still a lot of work to be done to be more inclusive in the past year some cedar grove alumni many of you heard from today have made suggestions and recommendations to the board of ed to make our district even more welcoming and accepting to everyone i was very happy to see the board of ed create the diversity the equity

086and diversity committee and in doing so actively taking positive steps towards recognizing and honoring the cultural differences within our schools and making them more welcoming for everyone i believe that we were when we are truly inclusive we are indeed practicing kindness in its purest form um and i just want to say i'd rather not be talking about this either but it's become a hot button and i felt like i had to come and share my thoughts on this but i agree this should be just part of what we do this shouldn't be something special we need to debate it should be integrated into how we talk to our kids at school every day thank you for listening thank you next i have um alfie lampty good evening i'm matthew lampte i live at 40 pine

087drive cedar grove new jersey [Music] today i'm here to speak on behalf of myself the group behind me and countless of other people who have shared concerns to us about how they feel about edac and some of the things that are going on in the school district we hope that edac will continue the necessary work to support students who may experience discrimination and will continue to focus on improv improving the harsh at times learning environment that many students and alumni have experienced we have heard some of these stories today i have also been approached by students as well talking about experiences that they have had in the school district we do understand that that doesn't affect everyone but it does affect many students and that is extremely concerning to myself as a parent we want

088to emphasize that even if one member of our community feels discriminated against or feels unsafe within our town or school system that's one too many as appreciative as we are to our community members who were brave and share their personal experiences going to school in cedar grove we know that there are many more voices that have gone unheard due to fear of judgment and being targeted we hope that the future changes to policy curriculum and training for teachers and staff can help make cedar grove a more diverse and inclusive place for all children to learn and to live it's not about one child or one group of children is about all of our children if one child is hurting that means that we should all be concerned although it may not affect you at home

089it doesn't mean that it hasn't taken place please listen to these voices they're sharing their experiences with us we need to listen as parents we have to learn how to agree and disagree just to say a little bit about myself i am an educator i'm a public school educator for over 20 years in a predominantly white school district i am one of the few african-american teachers in that town i have been teaching there for 19 years prior to that i told east orange prior to that i was taught in a school for children with autism i am a master teacher okay i'm a master's in education and so when thank you mr lampty i appreciate your comment next i have eric martinez eric martinez 52 overlook road cedar grove first off i want to welcome

090superintendent grosso i want to thank you the board and especially the teachers for all the hard work you've put in the last year you've all had to operate under extraordinarily difficult conditions and make decisions on challenges with no clear-cut right or wrong answer i also want to show support for continuing to develop and roll out initiatives tied to inclusion diversity i believe the public education system should not only teach our children the basics of history math literature and science but also prepare them to be productive members of society and the workforce however these goals can only be achieved as students feel they are in a safe welcoming environment to learn but these initiatives are not only important for those who may be considered minorities or quote unquote diverse numerous studies have proven that diverse teams

091outperform and are more successful than those comprised of more similar members likewise large corporations with diverse leadership have been more profitable than those without these aren't just theories or flavor of the month talking points i've spent the last 10 years in town acquisition work with some of the largest international corporations in the world unequivocally these topics will only grow in importance when making hiring decisions i've interviewed hundreds of people across the country this year alone and can tell you that people who don't understand topics such as unconscious bias have been eliminated from hiring contention to be clear we aren't looking for textbook definitions on these things the lack of understanding comes through in their answers and examples used in behavioral questioning our students will need to be able to work in a multicultural setting hand

092in hand with those very different than themselves if they're going to thrive in the workforce regardless of their race to that point i'd also like to see a more diverse staff in cedar grove school system the company that i work for operates in an industry dominated by males and more specifically white males due to historical hiring practices based more on who you know than what you know it's unionized there's also a big family element involved but regardless of that in the past two years we've been able to hire record numbers of diverse employees without the use of quotas metrics or anything else the only thing that we changed was that for every hire and every offer that went out at least one diverse candidate had to be interviewed before the offer was made at the

093end of the day the best candidate always received the job offer however what we realized was that if you don't give diverse candidates the opportunity to even interview they are guaranteed not to get the job before they even apply i would urge the board and superintendent grosso to consider a similar hiring practice thank you thank you [Applause] next i have nicholas mendora uh superintendent grosso members of the board of education and fellow community members my name is nick blandore i live at rose terrace i graduated here in 2019 and when is here then my passion for history and government was nurtured i had two amazing history teachers and i went on to actually work in history at my college's history center getting the opportunity to create educational materials using oral histories of americans who lived

094through world war ii and most recently helping to preserve black history on the eastern shore of maryland i love american history i believe american history is special and unique because it is our shared story it is the story of who we are as a people and everyone from the newest citizen to someone who can trace their lineage back to the colonial era has acclaimed that story when we teach our story to our students it is vital that the history we teach is reflective of who we are today and who contributed to our history african-americans women indigenous peoples asian americans latino americans lgbtq folks and members of countless other demographic and social groups have contributed in great ways to our story but we often leave them out this issue of representation matters who we include in

095our history curriculum is a statement of who we think bears the title american when we do not make an effort to diversify a curriculum we tell a narrow story that excludes students but when we tell a story of american history that includes the contributions of all peoples we tell a rich and dynamic story that students of all genders sexualities and races can relate to more importantly we tell students who come from backgrounds that have been historically excluded from the american narrative that they belong moving on to the elephant in the room there has been a raging national debate that our community has been thrown into national politicians and partisan groups who seek to defund education have pitted communities against themselves trying to control what teachers say and soak fear to prevent our students from getting

096an education that will help them build the more perfect union that each generation of americans has strived for teaching accurate history matters it matters because history is our guide and we look to that helps us make sense of the present if we exclude all the sinful moments of america's past we do our students a grave disservice if we are not honest about our history we hurt the country we all claim to love in the words of american historian dr joanne freeman the only way to truly know and love a nation is to embrace it in all its complexity including its sins as well as its virtues and work for a better future it's impossible to understand ourselves as a nation and to reckon with the roots and implications of our current moment if we deny

097the uncomfortable parts of america's past i want to say i unequivocally support and respect the board of education for what they've been doing to promote diversity and equity in our schools i urge them to go forward to push on through all of this and to make this school a safe space for all students and to teach american history that's accurate it matters because our we want our students to be leaders in our country and our state and it's the right thing to do thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment next i have jaclyn woolster hi jacqueline wolfster in 70 budavista road um last meeting critical race theory was brought to the surface during the deca presentation when the teacher could not even answer excuse me he was instructed by board of ed member not

098to answer the question between the correlation between social emotional learning and crt i'm sure the board of ed is familiar with castle collaborative for academic social emotional learning the leading organization for pushing sel in grades k-12 nationwide their website states sel entails instruction regarding white elites racial oppression and oppressors whiteness and privilege this sounds eerily similar to what the crt strategy is which is to divide people into groups specifically the oppressed and the oppressors and to instill into the oppressors that they are inherently and irredeemably racist solely based on the color of their skin are you still going to tell me that crt is not in the curriculum even though you've already implemented sel teaching children to disregard someone's character and to solely measure a person based on their skin color sex or other variable

099is not a healthy environment for children to grow into good decent citizens i'm not up here saying that racism does not exist and that our children should not be taught that racism is inherently wrong or that history should not be taught the good and the bad what i am saying is that crt teaches it wrong scl is the latest cure-all in the progressive education reforms to hide the fact that our children are failing academically in your schools this is a covert attempt to indoctrinate and categorize kids i had a conversation last night with my five-year-old son and i asked him do you judge any kids by their color do you play do you play with everyone he said yes he looked at me like i was crazy then i asked him if he would appreciate

100anyone judging him by his color and he was appalled by that and said no then i said do you just play with kids who are nice no matter what they look like and he's like of course mom if my five-year-old gets it why should i send him to a school where he's going to be taught that he's an oppressor sel which we now know is crt in disguise infringes on our parental rights to encourage the beliefs values and attitudes that we believe our kids should have not what the board of ed or the njea thinks they should have by the way are there any plans on updating the curriculum on the district website since you've been the in going into your second year as a superintendent i'm still being directed to the curriculum that featherman

101put out in 2019 kind of looks like there's something to be hidden i do want to thank mrs diquiera for being the only one to respond to a few emails that i sent out recently so i appreciate that still waiting on the rest of them um and i i am very upset that one of the board of members who says that he preaches inclusiveness but has his wife all over social media laughing at people's views especially ones that are talking about uh children with special needs um it's disgusting to me you should resign along with superintendent and mrs uh thank you for your comment [Applause] next i have catherine avila hi my name is katerine avila and i'm an alumni and former ga gsa member at cghs to be honest i never imagined coming back

102to my high school to speak again about the importance of acknowledging accepting and respecting the lgbtq community people of color and women last time i got up and spoke about this was in a church in montclair it was 2018 i was a senior and our and rgsa decided to conduct our own survey to compare it to the 2016 glsen statistics to those who don't know glsen is our national school climate survey and i implore every one of you to check it out after this meeting we used this service as a basis for our research we worked our we worked with our school statistics teachers to make sure our data was valid we journal everything we heard and saw in our school and when it was finally finished we presented to our principal at the time

103to make a long story short we were denied the opportunity to present and share this information to our peers the then principal and vice president likely didn't want to cause any more conflict in the school so we decided to do it outside of school premises and we presented to whoever was willing to listen we personally invited parents teachers and other students to attend like i said earlier we did it in a church we got dressed up and it was the time it was our time to do our presentation and only eight people showed up i can say it was difficult getting our voice heard when our own faculty what we as students have to look up to denied us from spreading our own research it's been three years since i walked the halls of cjhs

104and i can say that i'm proud of how far gsa and our community has come so far to have a pride flag hung up was nothing short of a momentous moment for our town but it doesn't mean that all issues are resolved the flag is only a stepping stone towards real progress i remember being called a a wet back a beamer at this school while my female's friends were being insulted and disrespected by sexes and rape jokes i remember my lgbtq friends hiding their identity in fear of being harassed by our peers resulting in many not coming out until after graduation it also didn't help that my high school years were in a period of a high political tension where disagreements on issues often turn into harassment i'm not saying that this town is racist

105homophobic or sexist but there are obviously still issues that students are being are facing i applaud each and every one of you for coming for your children and your community but it is always a side that the parents don't know especially regarding lgbtq people of color and women issues thank you for your comment next i have nat harris hi everybody i'm nat harris i live at 238 ridge road i'm a super duper liberal elitist uh which is fun anyway uh let's talk about diversity and inclusion uh so today i don't know if you've read this but the texas senate passed a bill eliminating a requirement that public schools teach that the ku klux klan is morally wrong it's actually happened today that same bill dropped studying martin luther king jr's i have a dream speech

106as part of the curriculum so it's fun we're both quoting martin luther king i think in different ways but uh he said i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal so all men are created equal it's a declaration of independence right so what does this law have to do with cedar grove well it shines a spotlight on the fact that diversity and inclusion are under constant attack and it's why i feel like it's very important to stand up for it for our kids in our community so a curriculum that teaches diversity and inclusion about people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures allows for the experiences of everyone to

107be recognized to feel included to feel like they deserve to be there it becomes a more comprehensive education everyone is made up of their own experiences their perspectives are built out of those experiences so by including a diverse set of experiences in your curriculum everybody wins all ships rise so in the last meeting a couple things people say they're going to teach their kids at home i would say start by teaching your kids empathy at home it's very important someone said that their child came home embarrassed to be white because they're exposed to the fact that the world isn't all rainbows and butterflies i would say use that as a teachable moment because sometimes learning things can be hard and scary but it's worth it because knowledge is power all right the other one is

108model good behaviors your children how anybody can stand when the the kids the lgbtq kids who are here last time and the parents adults were heckling these high school kids was beyond the pale i i couldn't stand it uh [Applause] there was a parent at the last meeting he was a dad who said that cedar grove is changing maybe faster than some people are ready for but i welcome it i love diversity and experiences and perspectives and i feel like it makes the world a better place i'm going to end with a mr rogers quote there are three ways to success the first is to be kind the second is to be kind the third is be kind thank you very much for your comment next i i have stacy k [Applause] stacey k that's

109my teacher hi there i'm the ack and my cedar grove address is uh 90 rugby road i'm sorry i'm kind of tall so i have to put this up um i want to thank you all for for what turned out to be a better than what i expected school year this time last year i was apprehensive about coming back but i felt quite safe in the building and we were in the school building longer than many other people i know who teach in other in other parts of the state and in other parts of the country to those of you on the board and in the audience that have children in the district i thank you for the children that you sent to my classroom they're kind funny and have brought me joy during my

11016 years in the district i want to share my support for the state mandated initiatives whether they be the amistad and the holocaust curricula or the inclusion of the lgbtq community and those with disabilities as a teacher of english i find the purpose behind these mandates to be invaluable to understand the characters in a short story by flannery o'connor students should know how she was crippled by lupus and was a devout catholic to understand the themes in frankenstein students should know the scientific breakthroughs made during mary shelley's lifetime as well as how she dealt with the losses of her loved ones and to grasp at the purpose behind james baldwin's rock pile students should learn how the author was poor black gay and the stepson of an evangelical preacher i'm unclear as to why a

111few parents have the idea that the schools are shaming or indoctrinating children the content we teach is often complex and giving students context not only helps them academically but stirs empathy promotes critical thinking and validates students of all backgrounds and identities all at the same time thank you for your time thank you for your comment next i have don dora i'm not so tall all right good evening my name is dawn dora and i reside at 56 union street tonight we have heard many community members speak about many different concerns regarding our children and the direction of our school district i too am concerned about many of these issues brought about tonight but i continue to bring up the one issue that seems to be placed on the back burner of discussions at least until

112tonight my concern continues to be on how we're going to address the learning loss that occurred over the past 15 plus months i don't have to tell you or you that many of our children struggled with the hybrid approach that was utilized during this pandemic i am not here to criticize or to speak about what has already occurred regarding this issue but rather choose to focus on moving us forward i asked the board at the last meeting about how we were planning on addressing the learning laws and how we would be supporting our most impacted students although i did not get a response or an answer until tonight i did read on the updated return to school plan and you spoke about it tonight thank you that the district is planning on utilizing testing that

113will be administered in september and october to assess and compare the student performance against the student's performance at this time last year in an effort to gain a better understanding of the level of learning loss that has occurred with this approach does that now mean that the students who do require remediation will have to wait until these rent results are rendered that's just more lost time why didn't the district take a more proactive approach and conduct these assessments and start the remediation prior that we all know the students will need prior to the return to school in september is there a plan to provide teachers with direction as to how to approach the new school year when potentially students are not entering with the required prerequisites to be successful our children's future depends on what

114happens in the next few months it is imperative that the district begins to take a more proactive collaborative approach to a address this critical issue i would be the first step needs to include answering the community's questions because without the community's support our district will continue to suffer as an educator for 26 years a fellow administrator who has endured the same pandemic challenges that you all have endured this past year i would be more than willing to assist with this endeavor but you wouldn't know that because the parents are continuously not included in the discussions and ultimately the solutions thank you thank you for your comment next i have set sal minieri [Music] salmoneri 26 suite would drive i don't see a problem here the problem in order to resolve a problem you have to

115identify the problem every one of these people that came up here i don't think there's anyone in this group that does not respect somebody's individual right it may not be what we want but that's what they want that's what makes them as long as their rights don't interfere with my rights and that's what we're talking about diversity okay when you have to have a problem identify with the problem the problem with diversity is the people that violate diversity and what these people are telling you especially the parents is you want unity in order and one of your educators said that he says in order for education to be effective you have to have unity for everyone involved in the education at the top of that chain is the parent the parent is sending their child

116here to be educated you cannot eliminate the parent from the pope process what i heard is a violation of rules and regulations as leaders you have the responsibility to abide by your rules and regulations a legitimate question was asked have you have you proposed these changes according to rules and regulations i have not seen anybody address that and why are we continuing this discussion when the problem is are you implementing the process in accordance to rules and regulations and i would ask you do you believe that you are implementing your pro these programs according to rules and regulations can i get everyone to at least address that have you if you have violated your rules and regulations whether purposely or unintentionally then you have to resign okay and let people who have administered and i'm

117not saying it's you i respect everybody that volunteers their time for this purpose forward but the question was presented are you administering these programs in accordance with your rules and regulations and not violating the rights of others [Music] thank you for your comment and on behalf of the board yes that's exactly what we're doing we're not violating any laws lastly i have laura marinelli please laura marinelli 112 sherman avenue [Music] last month i attended the board meeting because i wanted to come and support the football team i wanted to make sure that the football trip was approved so i was here with with for the boys for the coach however what i experienced at the board meeting was appalling to me i sat where you sit right now for six years um i was on

118the board of education um i did a lot of great things when we were on the board we passed two referendums that was coming off of a time when our community didn't even pass the school budget we passed two to school reference and one of which is for this auditorium that you're all sitting in up there watching us um tonight and how we did that was through collaboration and trust and dialogue and conversation what i saw last month was the farthest thing from that you listen to parents beg and plead with you for answers and they ask questions and not one of you entertained any of your parents here i heard the superintendent stand up on on his on his pulpit here and lecture our community about for over an hour yet i did not

119see you engage in dialogue or any constructive dialogue with any one of the people that you work for chrissy died what happened to you we used to have conversations at our board meetings and i've been here for 16 years so i mean we had we had board meetings where we were talking and answering questions i mean for god's sakes we used to have to pull frank mandela of the microphone away from him because he would he would have conversations and answer questions with the community members and for my second board meeting and i haven't been here for for years um to board meetings but i have not seen one of you answer a question or respect a parent enough to entertain any of their issues [Applause] so i don't think that there's a question with

120any of the people here that we believe in in diversity and inclusion however there is a way to do it not only have i been a board member and i sit where you're sitting right there um i'm a parent i'm a community member but i'm also a high school principal so i understand the mandates the board might not understand them because i'm in the trenches trying to uphold them every day in my building there's a way to go about doing it there's a way to go about doing that's respectful that's inclusive and that's transparent however i haven't seen very much of that i don't know how a third and fourth grade survey asking a student about their religion or their ethnicity has anything to do with what thank you for your comment to answer your

121question miss marinelli in terms of what happened in the past this isn't dialogue no this is just right no no to answer this is my closing statement to answer what happened i want to be better we want to be better as a district you heard from alumni that we weren't better years ago that there are things that need to change and there's plenty of ways that we can be better and we do have the community support we have an overwhelming community support some people are actually afraid to stand up here and say anything but the number of emails we've gotten and calls and the people who are willing to come up here is cedar grove a great place absolutely it is i wouldn't have been here for the last almost 17 years and raised my

122family if it wasn't but you know what it's not great for absolutely everyone and until it's great for absolutely everyone we need to keep trying and that's what we're going to do so thank you i'm not that's and as a reminder that part of the meeting is not meant to be a dialogue it's a meant to be a public comment it's that's the miss marinelli please sit down can i have my stream meeting is over no you may not no i just know three minutes i trust me two minutes just please uh we sit up here and we listen we get emails we get text messages we get called out on facebook okay we are human we are parents we live in this community with you we chose to live in this community in cedar

123grove for the exact reasons you chose to live here it's a great town it's a wonderful town is there room for improvement yes everywhere there's room for improvement and that's my point the one thing that i've heard from everyone and i'm sure you've heard it too is the sadness we're all sad we're all very sad about what is happening i'm not i'm i let me have my minute please do not interrupt mr chair and nobody interrupted you everybody else i never speak okay i never speak let me speak i've gone out and i've reached out to people on facebook and i've been shut down and told what a horrible person i am no not you but it's happened it has happened and it's unfair and it's cruel and we're not modeling good behavior for our

124children this is about the kids this is about our children all of our children who play football together who play lacrosse together and they all love each other and we need to start modeling better behavior for them please we all want the same thing for our children we all love our children fiercely there's not one person in here who doesn't love their child fiercely and wouldn't walk to the end of the earth for them not one hold on just one second i'm sorry to interrupt you need to stop interrupting nobody interrupted you when you got up here and said your piece this is the last warning for you please stop i i am not shaming i am not shaming anybody we are all here for the right reasons we are here for our kids we

125are here for our community we are all upset we are all saddened we all are feeling these emotions we have to find a middle ground together together we need to figure out a way to get there together as the wonderful community we are and make it better let's make it even better we can can you please stop interrupting and with that part thank you for your time i closed that part of the meeting announcement of future meetings no you may not i've closed that portion of the meeting you may not say anything else no please have a seat please please have a seat announcement of future meetings august 17th september 14th can can i have a motion to adjourn so moved second second roll call please mrs have a good night this meeting is over

126good night