001I call this meeting to order will everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] the New Jersey open Public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advance 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 are transmitted to the Verona Cedar Grove times in Star-Ledger newspapers tap
002into online news filed with the Township Clerk and posted on the district's website roll call please Mrs dicara here Mrs Miga here the meeting is open to the public for comments on items on the agenda but no one signed up for that so I'm going to move past that and I'm going to go to committee reports good evening everyone how's everybody doing good very good fantastic uh does anybody have any reports well the one report I had is that I we we had talked about it is that I was able to secure money for next year for uh scholarships for the visual arts and so one of the things one of the issues that we've been trying to do is we were talking to Erica slowed who's going to be coming up here next year
003is increasing our scholarship and the amount of money we give out to people so I was able to secure money specifically that's going to be earmarked for the visual arts which does not give out any sort of scholarship and then I also got a donation for the art Club so they can actually do some activities next year that are funded through private money that's fantastic thank you thank you anyone else I didn't attend anything no other than all the wonderful ceremonies we've been having the award ceremonies the scholarship ceremonies this is always a highlight of mine of the end of the year because we get to acknowledge and congratulate our wonderful students who will be leaving our district and who have made their Mark in Cedar Grove and you forget about the play that was
004also the play was amazing play was fantastic it was really good I had the pleasure of doing photography for the play at the dress rehearsal and these students are fantastic Jen Jetson Just Hits it out of the park every every year they get better I don't know how they do it but I did did a fantastic job they did uh and Mr Schoener and I attended a facilities meeting last week and that's why we have our our architect here this evening to sort of talk about that and what our future plans are so thank you very much for attending and we'll get to you shortly um so there's lots of lots to talk about so I think we're just going to get started with our board presentations oh actually you know what we should do
005first is uh we have our high school representative here miss Catalano somewhere to give that they're sorry yep you can go right up there that's totally fine hi I'm the president here at the high school and as this year comes to a close I just want to say thank you to everyone who has in some way contributed to the student council or to the class of 2021 in general and I just want to say your dedication to us does not go unnoticed uh back on June 3rd we had our senior prom at the Manor in West Orange personally I had a lot of fun um more importantly on June on June 3rd our GSA Club was the first group of students to raise the pride flag at both lrp and the high school which I
006think is amazing um and I'm very proud of them for taking steps in the right direction to make this place more inclusive uh June 8th was induction night for the National Honor Society in which we uh inducted 24 new members June 8th was also Spanish Italian math science business Honor Society induction June 10th was our annual scholarship night in which members of the senior class were awarded with over thousands of dollars that they can use towards College next year June 11th and 13th We performed our spring Musical Legally Blonde it was a huge success and I want to say thank you to everyone who came it was a really good show also last night was the music Department's annual spring concert and also our senior send-off Tony Awards uh this Thursday we're having our first
007ever senior sunrise on the football field in which the seniors are going to gather and watch the sunrise together kind of sentimental it's cute this Friday our performing arts class and drama class are oh my God I just closed something okay never mind it's back um sorry um our performing arts class and drama class are having a showcase we're just showing everyone all the monologues and songs and performances we've worked on over this year it's at 6 30. please come it's gonna be good um finally June 21st the seniors are receiving our caps our gowns our yearbooks uh chords stuff like that at our first ever senior barbecue and then sadly June 23rd is my last day here uh don't worry the president next year is more than qualified to take over and once again
008I just want to thank everyone for supporting us this year and I'll miss this place that's it I wanted to say that this year in scholarships we gave over 85 000 to scholarships thank you for being our high school liaison this year we appreciate it obviously it was uh it was not necessarily a normal year but we we appreciate everything you've done and we wish you the best of luck on your next adventure absolutely so we're going to move on to our board presentations and are we going in order of okay and and then you are gonna give yours after the okay all right and do we stay up here for all of them or do we move for all of them okay all right downstairs so we have a series of presentations and the
009first one is going to be from one of our teachers at the high school Mr Brian Meisner all right good evening everybody I'm Brian Meisner I'm the I'm a first year business teacher here um first I want to thank the board for allowing Erica and myself to present tonight uh to say that joining Cedar Grove was the best decision of my life as an understatement I've been in the business world I was in the business world for six seven years um wasn't happy came here and changed my life so super super appreciative thank you for the opportunity to present tonight um so Deca without Deca I probably wouldn't be standing here so Deca stands for distributive education Clubs Of America it's basically the Shark Tank of high school so it fueled my passion for business
010to not-for-profit student organization 150 000 members in all 50 states I believe it's International at this point it's all encompassing in terms of grade level so everyone here your children can absolutely be included in there prepares emerging leaders like I said it's a shark tank of High School entrepreneurship and it covers a bunch of Industries a bunch of topics so marketing Finance hospitality and management are the main tenants Industries cover anywhere from sport management to restaurant to hospitality it really covers the entire gamut um we'll talk about our one interior Visions at the end of the presentation but the ultimate goal here is to make Deca a cultural phenomenon at Cedar Grove High School so when I was in high school I went to Northern Highlands Regional High School in Bergen County um if you
011weren't in deca you were missing out that's that was just the feeling and I'll show you some pictures from from uh way back one in a little bit too so again this isn't we don't want this to just be a club we want this to be a program and I'll get a little bit further into that later about incorporating it into the curriculum as well uh so this is a mission statement or their deca's motto for this year the 2021-2022 DECA uh fiscal year so I just wanted to read this for you guys Deca members are the driving force of the future when you join Deca you're part of something greater you're part of an Unstoppable force of nearly 150 000 members around the globe Unleash Your Potential by stepping into a leadership position selecting
012your competitive event or participating in a conference then watch your momentum build as you grow your chapters membership advance to higher levels of competition and amplify your impact in your school community and Beyond the success you achieve in Deca is the initial boost that will launch you into the real world and give you a competitive Advantage starting day one as an emerging leader an entrepreneur you'll gain the skills and experience needed to overcome any challenge as you Propel yourself from the classroom to the boardroom take your Deca membership to the fullest and get ready to maximize your momentum so you know straight from the horse's mouth I couldn't have said it better myself we're going to talk about personal experiences a little actually I'm going ahead of myself here so let's talk about deck of
013competitions what exactly can you do when you participate in this club so we have competitive events by Career Cluster again that's sport management Financial stock market virtual business challenges one of the things that I participated in was called virtual business challenge in particular for sports and what I did was I ran a football franchise making decisions such as ticket sales paying employees promotions licensing deals to name the stadium I mean this is this is real world stuff and you're you're analyzing your top and bottom lines and your revenue and your expenses and everything like that um one of the main ones or the main one is going to be the individual or team decision making where you role play so you're given a 30 minute time frame to prep they give you a prompt you
014have 30 minutes to read it prep uh your business plan your operations in 30 minutes and then you're going in front of a judge and you're basically pitching like on Shark Tank and hoping that they invest in you and not your competition so it's it's super competitive it's it's a lot of fun most events also have a written exam component I know this past year because it was virtual they actually shifted exams to wherever your school was so you just took it in your school and then you would go to the regional portion of the competition to do your role play um that being said I'm going to shift over to Erica here she's going to go over the social emotional learning aspect good evening for those of you don't know me I'm Erica sloda
015I am currently the counselor at Memorial Middle School and I will be the counselor at Cedar Grove High School next or one of the counselors of Cedar Grove High School next year and the way this came to fruition with even talking about Deca was I was meeting with Janine Janine Barboza or math supervisor and we were talking about the high school and different programs that they had and I said do you guys have Deca because I had such an amazing experience with this when I was in high school a few years ago and um I don't know why everyone's laughing um and it was just a really really really great experience I really enjoyed it and she said to me you know there's this new teacher Brian Meisner and he said the same exact thing
016about his experience we're just a couple years apart and um everyone's laughing again um and so when we discussed it we just both had a passion for this and we really wanted to um you know give the students and Cedar Grove an opportunity to take part in something that we really enjoyed um and when you take a look at social emotional learning skills I mean these are um and interpersonal skills these are things that we need to reinforce in our world especially at this at this time we've had a lot of students who are you know some who have been completely virtual some who were hybrid however it may work we want to make sure that we reinforce the skills that they need to succeed whether they go into business or whether they go into
017teaching whether they go into um any field that they need you're going to need these skills so first and foremost just to go over some things um Deca really gives students an opportunity to work on their self-awareness that means are you aware of your strengths and are you aware of your weaknesses and what can you do from that point on when you learn about your strengths build upon them and when you learn about your weaknesses they might be hurdles but what can you do to turn those around to make your experiences much better self-management is an also is another really important social emotional learning skill um setting goals for yourselves having deadlines for things making sure that you're not waiting until the last minute to try and reach those goals these are all really important
018things to do responsible decision making so when you're in Deca you're given an opportunity like Brian said you're given um a prompt and you have to say okay am I going to do this or am I going to do that and you kind of have to think ahead as to well what are the repercussions for going this route versus that route um and if you take a look at just simple things that high school students middle school students have to go through on a daily basis they have to make choices they have to think ahead they have to think about their behavior and they have to think about the impacts that that might have have on them later on when you talk about social awareness do we have an understanding of others so when Brian
019was in his competition I'm sure that he was thinking a lot about um you know what are the implications of the decisions I'm making and if I do this with ticket sales how will that impact everybody so these are all skills that we try to work on at a local level but this program kind of infuses it in a more interesting way and last but certainly not least we talk about relationship skills um it's really important for the students to be a part of deca because they get to work on their team building skills if you work with a partner there are going to be times when you have different ideas well how can you work on that together to come up with a better opportunity to come up with a a plan how do
020we overcome this um and it's a good way to build relationships um what I've noticed when you go to the high school level especially from the middle school I went to scholarship night the other night and I was looking at the senior class and I saw a kid sitting next to each other who when they were in the middle school didn't get along at all and I was like what happened you know how did this all happen and I think that's super important because as students figure out what they're interested in such as a club like this you know you kind of have a good way to relate to one another based on your interests so Deca to me is a really good opportunity for students to build upon these skills as well as learning
021a lot about business and in talking a little bit more about the actual interpersonal skills themselves communication teamwork problem solving decision making and assertiveness you know we can go on and on about how important it is to work and to be part of a team not all students play on sports teams so does that mean that they shouldn't have an opportunity to build some kind of uh Team Dynamic no this is a great opportunity for them to do so they can get their points across effectively it's okay to have different ideas but let's talk together let's figure out what we need to do and let's reach our goals students are able to form and maintain social bonds I remember when I was in high school and I worked when I was a part of deca
022I worked with a partner that I wasn't friends with and now to this day when we see each other we talk about Deca hey do you remember when we went to County College of Morris and we sat together and we did this and so you really get to form bonds with people that you wouldn't normally necessarily be friends with and when you talk about the lifelong impact that this has on students we're talking about interpersonal skills that last for the rest of your life we're talking about interviewing skills we're talking about not just high school but we're talking about college how are you going to utilize these skills once you get to the college level and I can tell you from experience and I'm sure Brian can say the same thing that my experience and
023his experience with the DECA program definitely followed us through in at the college level and it was something that helped us with so many different things socially I mean you're given situational types of things that you have to you have to be on you know you have to really think about what your answer is going to be and and what the implications are so um it really keeps you on your toes for many different situations and in terms of your career I didn't go into business but I can tell you that every single thing that Deca helped me to focus on helps me in my everyday activities when it comes to interviewing students or helping students to find the jobs that they might want once they get to the high school level when it gets
024when we get to talking to families who trust me with certain things that they're going through it really helps me to focus in and help them to kind of guide their children so I can say that the skills that you learn by being a part of deca are things that will follow you through for the rest of your life okay so we just want to share our personal experiences a little bit so I participate in Deca in 0809 and 2009 2010 I'll talk about my senior year a little bit so you're not just restricted to one particular competition so I actually was a part of three competitions so I did the team decision making that's where we had the role play I did the virtual business challenge where I was the football franchise owner and
025then uh my personal favorite one was the internet marketing plan and so this was and this is really really interesting because with Deca you can incorporate what you're learning in that in the club into the classroom and so that's one of our goals and and part of our vision is to basically make this club twofold where if you're in one of the classes that is eligible to participate in deca you're not only doing work for Deca but you're doing work for school um and so the question is why not join Deca because you're doing the work anyway right so the internet marketing plan was a partner project I'll give you a very very brief story about it it's called fame or fantasy all media entertainment so if you can't tell I was a big Sports
026guy and my friend and I came up with a an app idea for the phone keep in mind apps were in its infancy back in 08 or 2009 and so it's basically this Hub to keep all your fantasy sports teams in one place you had a fantasy sports team here and there and there you kept it in one place we ended up not following through in real life and making it which we should have because we'd be millionaires by now because it all exists at this point but we came in first and see in New Jersey 10th in the nation and I got to tell you the the feeling that you get even if you don't Place feeling that you get just being at the conference and being with your friends and like Erica said
027it's just being with people and that team Dynamic and the camaraderie and all that inner social and interpersonal skills uh that make all the difference and that's what I want to get to with my number one talking point during college interviews was Deca so I just did a whole unit in my classes across all my classes a Career Unit where every student had to make a resume cover letter A thank you letter um we talked about networking and Linkedin the only thing that people or college interview interviewers wanted to talk about was Deca on my resume it's what got me into college the College of my choice which got me my degree which got me my jobs which led me here to be a business teacher so again the reason why I'm standing here is
028because of deca it builds confidence oral skills thinking on your feet um it's just I could go on and on about it but I don't want to keep here all night so so my experience was a little bit earlier on and um we did not do anything with apps in fact I still had a beeper um and um that's the truth there were no apps um but I also got involved with v sports and entertainment management and um we qualify for Nationals we did pretty well I worked collaboratively with my friend Jeff we did a really good job and um you know we had a scenario based um on there was a new field that was being opened and they wanted to Market to students they wanted children to come and they wanted to have
029a children's night so what can we do you know what can you guys come up with as a pair to come up with some kind of way to get some tickets uh sold to the kids and their families what can we do about family nights to get more people in and we really had to sit there and think about what would we do right it's kind of like empathy you put yourself in someone else's position okay if I'm a child what would I want how would this look and it really was a wonderful opportunity for us to work together and to collaborate to come up with some ideas um I also use this as a talking point I've never interviewed for a business position but what I can say is that the skills I utilized
030by and I've built by being a part of this program are all things that have helped me on every any any and every interview I've ever been on and it also helps me when I am talking to people you know you sit down you listen you have to listen get all the information and then come up with a good plan Converse figure out what what steps are important to take um so I would definitely uh suggests any students who are interested in this program really look into it and and think about what the benefits can be um short-term and long term so we're going to take a trip down memory lane here and check out some pictures so um this is a picture of my senior year we went to Louisville Kentucky for Nationals this
031is my vision for Cedar Grove High School in the next five years I want to say I want to have at least 40 40 to 50 students qualify for Nationals it is not easy to do Northern Highlands is a Powerhouse and again that's that's what I want to make Cedar Grove and there I am Again Babyface on the right my internet marketing plan partner was on the left and that was my um business teacher a second from the left and I just had a phone conversation with her the other day to help me prep this presentation so the connections and and the you know the networking that happens through this program is that's probably the most priceless asset to this program okay so let's get into a little bit of the logistics and the cost
032of how it is structured so membership cost an initial fee of about thirty dollars I think we're from twenty five to thirty dollars um both student and advisor would pay that uh it encompasses membership dues chartered association dues and then Regional competition Transportation costs um I'm not too familiar with what the District covers so please don't ask me that question competitions take place at the regional level um so well there's three levels first at the regional level we're in the North Atlantic division so we're going to be heading over to Rambo College this is everybody qualifies for this you prep for this competition if you're in Deca so costs involved with that is just one day Transportation take the bus over um if you make it out of regional you qualify for State at this
033point the students would be responsible for payment this takes place in Atlantic City is a two-night stay and it's about two hundred dollars per student okay lastly National level again students responsible for payment the dates for this for 2022 is going to be April 23rd to 26th and this year upcoming year is going to be in Atlanta Georgia so the two years I went to Nationals it was in Anaheim and then it was in Louisville um besides Deca you do a lot of team building and things with everyone who qualifies for Nationals it's a lot of fun God bless you uh and again that varies by year and that's about 800 per student and so I know what you're thinking a thousand dollars if my kid qualifies for Nationals and I will tell you it
034is worth every single penny um and actually I actually have never told anyone this but I uh paid my parents back for Deca once I had my first job because I it was the most valuable experience it made me understand the value of a dollar what business is um and so I paid my parents back uh the thousand dollars that they paid for me to participate um so I think it just instills at least in me it instilled some good principles in my life so there's someone lifting up the trophy at at Nationals okay lastly uh the vision so again long-term Vision want to become a Powerhouse right uh we can't bite off more than we can chew so the first year we're thinking of a localized rollout by local I just mean within a
035couple of my classes individually and then we can expand to this to you know school-wide rollout um so year one to ensure that smooth rollout and focused approach I think we're just going to focus on my marketing and management classes I teach a couple other classes we're just going to focus on those two so it's social media marketing and Sport management students to start so this is 10 through 12th grade students and the reasoning behind wanting to do that is because I'm going to scroll down here to year two what I'm envisioning is establishing a Deca Mentor program for freshmen and then anyone new to the program afterwards um so our 10th and 11th graders that do it the first year will become 11th and 12th and become mentors for the subsequent students who want
036to join um as I mentioned before we want to incorporate into the curriculum and then fundraising efforts I think you know being able to raise money have the students create an op and operate these fundraisers uh you know there's t-shirts there's you know we can help fund some of the transportation all that kind of stuff so they can kind of see the the fruits of their hard work um okay that's the end of deca but I have one extra plug here for a finance stock market Club it's one slide very brief so for 2021 2022 I'd like to start a finance stock market Club two main pillars um so many lessons on frequently asked questions in finance uh when we have some lacks time and some of my class at the end of periods we
037are always talking about investments in Dogecoin and all that kind of stuff I'm sure you guys have heard about that by now cryptocurrency so in my previous uh life career I was a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch and so I think I bring some value to the table in um bring some important knowledge that I think high school students should definitely have in their repertoire so some examples of of many lessons would be portfolio management how to open a brokerage account what's a custodial account how do I get an account under the age of 18 time Horizons dollar cost averaging just all these little things that we talk about on a bi-weekly basis and the second portion of this is a stock market simulation where students will create their own portfolios do their own asset
038allocation and then we'll do weekly or bi-weekly analysis of performance of their portfolios and hold you know marking period competitions or yearly competitions um so that's it for that so here's our contact info if you have any questions feel free to email us we'll try to answer to the best of our ability but we can answer any questions now if you have if we don't know the answer we will certainly get back to you when we retrieve those answers okay good question so the deadline for membership dues is mid-november so we're going to have time to really uh educate the students on what Deca is incorporate the material into our curriculum have them prep for it I believe this the regional competitions take place in December or January state is then within the next couple
039months and then Nationals takes place in April yes it spans the whole year yep thank you in all in all honesty the social emotional learning um components that that we're involved in it throughout I mean I guess you guys one of the counselors in the district and I can tell you that we we go to the core Foundation of just what it means to be a good person a good individual um we talk a lot about especially through Deca we talk a lot about like I said responsible decision making we talk a lot about what it means to feel empathy to be kind um and that's really what what this is all about we really want people to be able to work collaboratively to work as a pair and even if you are working individually
040to be able to just you know be able so the way this works is that there's someone on the other end who kind of gives a scenario and we want the students to be able to work out that scenario and be able to express it to that person just in a meaningful way so that's definitely what the focus would be on will be on the business components and just making sure that we work hard to learn those interpersonal skills that they would need for interviewing and such later on so Deca uh like I mentioned before it's just going to be incorporated into curriculum so it's just going to be part of the school uh you know classwork and if they have homework it's not going to be Deca and homework it's just going to be
041that if you're working on your Deca project that's your homework totally optional yep but well if it's if it's included in the curriculum so it's going to be twofold what oh no no the main folk so that's that's just gravy on top right so okay this was actually solely through the uh it's a business program solely you know so any student who no this program is brand new it's solely business you know and um we're really we're really excited about it I know we don't have a lot of time to cover everything in terms of answering uh specific questions regarding the program because we're still it's still in the works but we would our email addresses are here so if you have more questions regarding the program itself we're more than happy to answer any
042of them I mean we really love for this to be a program that we consider because our students are um we're trying so hard to bring new opportunities for them when it comes to scholarship opportunities when it comes to students being able to learn about what majors they can take part in when they're in college and this is a great great step for that so if you have any questions please please feel free to email us thank you guys so much for your time [Applause] Nick can you turn that off because I have to log in foreign thank you okay Nick folks members of my GSA you'll let them introduce themselves [Applause] um okay hello everybody good evening thank you for coming um my name is Ali and Sophia Shayna and I are leaders at
043the Cedar Grove High School GSA today we'll be we will be giving you a brief presentation on the history of Pride and the importance and the importance of celebrating Pride today we hope that this presentation will educate you on the progress of the movement as well as my actions such as flying Pride Flags around town are so important so in this presentation we will try to go as in depth as possible for the history of pride month and its Origins we will be going over the first major event in the movement for LGBT civil rights the snowball riots we will also be discussing the AIDS crisis of the 80s and the progress made for rights in the 21st century however before we fully begin our presentation I would like to take a moment to discuss
044some common terms used by the lgbtq Plus community so these terms will also be further used in the presentation so we'd like to discuss them now so that you know exactly what we're talking about so the L stands for lesbian who is a woman attracted to another woman uh the G stands for gay which man attracts you to another man uh the b stands for bisexual which is when a person is attracted to two or more genders or sometimes all genders um the T stands for transgender which is when someone does not identify with the gender they were assigned at Birth um that's an umbrella term and it includes other terms like gender non-conforming genderqueer or non or non-binary um the I stands for oh the Q stands for queer or questioning the I stands
045for intersex which is when someone is born with any of the several variations and sex characteristics including chromosomes gonads sex hormones or genitals that according to the office of the United States United Nations High Commissioner for human rights do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies the a stands for asexual which is the lack of sexual attraction to anyone lastly the pluses used to represent other sexualities and genders not previously included within the acronym so pride is a month-long celebration of the lgbtq plus Community overcoming oppression and so and celebrating exactly who they are for years this community has fought back against police oppression and hate crimes this month May mean many different things to different people all around the world but we can all come together and celebrate Pride within us
046the purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian gay bisexual and transgender individuals have had on History locally nationally and internationally because we have been around for centuries since the LGBT Civil Rights Movement started in 1969 29 countries have legalized same-sex marriage it is important to note that there have been previous although smaller movements for LGBT civil rights before 1969 before Stonewall there was a riot in Los Angeles at Cooper donuts and in San Francisco at Compton's cafeteria but Stonewall is definitely the best known and led to the creation of what we know is pride today in this visual you can see the slow yet study progress that the United States has made in terms of civil rights for lgbtq plus folks hi my name is Sophia laforja I'm a member
047of the GSA thank you [Music] um so the key moment in turning point in the Civil Rights Movement for lgbtqia plus folks is recognized to be at the Stonewall and gay bar located in Greenwich Village in New York City on the evening of June 28 1969 a group of police officers raided the gate raided the bar and arrested customers but a nearby crowd grew restless and angry and eventually someone there's debate over who started whipping onlookers and I apologize started working onlookers into fighting back they pelted the police forcing homophobic cops to retreat in aggressive Street confrontations continued over the next few nights although there had been other protests by gay groups The Stonewall incident was perhaps the first time lesbian gays and transgender people saw the value and uniting behind a common cause just
048a few weeks after the Stonewall riots LGBT people gathered for a gay power rally in Washington Square Park it was clear that there was an interest in holding more events like it and over the following year local activists proposed a larger annual March modeled on a quieter protest that had been happening for years in Philadelphia the new annual protest was to be called Christopher Street Liberation day and were organized by represent by representatives from groups like the medicines Society gay activists Alliance and the Gay Liberation Front first parade in New York City occurred on June 28 1970 and attracted thousands of Marchers carrying banners in science [Applause] several people attended the Stonewall riots went on to be well-known lgbtqia plus rights and activists some notable people included Marcia P Johnson who is an African-American transgender
049activist and drag queen she was rumored to throw the first brick at Stonewall Marshall resisted arrests but in the following days led a series of protests and riots demanding rights for gay people much like the recent black lives matter marches in the United States news of these protests spread around the world inspiring others to join in protest and write groups to fight for equality another person was Sylvia Rivera she was a transgender and gay rights activist who was also at Stonewall even though the Stonewall riots kick-started this wave of support for the LGBT community there was still a lot of discrimination against them it was common for young gay and trans people to be kicked out of their family homes by their parents Marsha and silver Sylvia Rivera founded star Street transgender active revolutionaries an
050organ I'm sorry an organization to support gay and trans individuals who had been left homeless storm de Levine was also an important activist at Stonewall she was a jazz singer and drag King as well as a black Butch lesbian she's rumored to have thrown the first punch at Stonewall and she's most well known for demanding of the crowd why don't you do something as she fought the police at the riot she protected the younger attendees and she continued her work as a street patroller protecting the queer Community until she died now this is a quote by Marsha P Johnson previously mentioned in the earlier slide I feel like this quote is very relevant to tonight it says how many years has it taken people to realize that we're all brothers and sisters and human beings
051in this human race I think it's important to realize that we are all human beings and we are all in the same boat and that we all just need to love and respect each other that means so much thank you so much moving on to the AIDS crisis a few a few years later the AIDS Crisis began ravaging thousands of people worldwide the outbreak of AIDS in the United States dominated the struggle for gay rights in the 1980s and early 1990s in 1981 the Centers for Disease Control and prevention published a report about five previously healthy homosexual men becoming infected with a rare type of pneumonia the government's lack of protection for LGBT folk helped further the spread of HIV slash AIDS the h.i the HIV epidemic killed almost an entire generation of queer people
052most people contracted AIDS in the 1980s and American soldiers died in Vietnam War to put that in perspective at its 100 000 people versus 58 209 people well AIDS is less prevalent in the US now about 35 000 people become infected every year the disease is very much more prevalent in developing nations particularly in African countries where treatments and safety are limited today pride is a celebration of how far we've come in the fight for queer rights in 2015 which was only six years ago the case of obergefeld versus Hodges protected the right to same-sex marriage all across the country last year the Supreme Court has held that employees who discriminate against employees due to their sexual orientation or gender identity violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. on the fourth day
053of his presidency President Biden used an executive order to reverse a trump-era ban on transgender individuals serving in the military which has been in effect since 2019. these are huge gains in the fight for our rights and we need to keep going thank you [Applause] however the fight is far from over this year a record a record number of anti-trans laws have been proposed in 36 States in efforts to regulate and restrict the lives of transgender people transgender people people's rights to Medicare participation in Social Athletics and access to correct gender markers on identification is under attack 2021 also saw the murders of 28 transgender women so far 2020 saw a record of 44 most of these victims were black and Latino trans women in addition lgbtq plus rights are under threat worldwide the United
054States is one of a small minority of countries that have legalized gay marriage and and have some Protections in place for lgbtq plus people 29 out of 195 countries recognized by the United United Nations have legalized same-sex marriage on 71 countries criminalize lgbtq people particularly acts of homosexuality despite the problems the community faces here other countries punish gay and trans people with death or life imprisonment as punishment for living authentically we have such a long way to go globally for lgbtq plus rights but the fight are on the globe for the most basic of rides can should co-exist with the continuing fight in the United States um to conclude really fast we're going to share some of our personal experiences here at the high school and within the district um I just want to say
055there are so many more gay and trans kids in this District than you realize that there are there are so many more of us who do not feel safe being here who do not feel safe joining the GSA there's there's so many more of us than you realize we are a small minority of the kids in this District because we feel safe enough the fact that that is a rarity here is awful we this is why we have pride we need to continue to have pride we need to continue to celebrate Pride publicly and loudly and joyfully and protectively until every kid in this District feels safe enough to be out until every kid in this District feels safe enough to speak in front of this crowd safety should not be a rarity safety is
056the minimum as a freshman I would not feel comfortable speaking here it is only as a junior and as an upperclassman with the support of my friends and my family that I am comfortable speaking here every child in this District every person here should feel safe enough to speak we need to do better we need to continue to celebrate Pride we need to continue flying the flag we need to continue teaching in the curriculum so until every kid feels safe and then once we have safe which is the bare minimum then we can move forward [Applause] thank you I have like a particularly interesting experience at cghs and we'll talk about intersectionality because who I am a member of the lgbtq community I'm also black and that intersects in many ways especially in this District
057or I've been through a lot of things and I don't know I feel like the GSA is one of the only places where I could like comfortably talk about my experiences and it's kind of sad because I feel like there should be more places in this school teacher teachers should be more understanding Administration while past administration should be better to uh I can express my feelings in a productive manner to where I feel safe in this in this District not only am I afraid because I'm a part of the lgbtq community I'm afraid because I'm black and it's very hard being black in this District because a lot of people are racist to be completely honest and that and that intersects because yes I'm speaking I'm speaking [Applause] [Music] [Applause] um anyways Blackwell is saying
058that intersects because it is hard not only being black but being gay in this in this um in this town and there are a lot of outlets to talk to people in this school now that I'm a junior I feel more comfortable saying that I'm I am pansexual and I can openly say that because I thank you foreign so for the person who asked what pansexual is it's very similar to being bisexual so pansexual is saying that you are romantically and sexually attracted to both in all and any genders so that's a very brief explanation I'm sure if you go on Google there are plenty of fantastic websites you can look at unfortunately we don't have time to go into depth we're just here to give our presentation and go thank you okay so I
059just want to say that this presentation is very necessary to show that there are students in this school who are part of the lgbtq community and we need like Open Spaces to be able to talk about this and we need to fix the climate and not only the school but in the district for the elementary school in the middle school so that once they get up here into the high school they feel better about coming to teachers coming to Administration and they just like have a safer environment in the school thank you for your time [Applause] thank you foreign [Applause] could you come down and help set this up please thank you okay my name is Dan dressel I'm the district's architect and thank you to the board for having me and giving me this
060opportunity boys asked me to kind of begin to assess uh the potential for lrp to come back online to serve as a district school as enrollment numbers are looking like they're increasing especially based on projections uh developed by The demographer Who who assess the impacts of the developments uh currently under constructed construction excuse me in the town so I'm here basically to highlight some of the deficiencies at lrp but to also talk about the potentials there because there's a lot of good elements to the building and so here we go if I can do this here we go okay so as as most of you know Leonard R Park School is at 520 Pompton Avenue and it is um uh here here's basically the quote the subject of the of the presentation this excerpt is
061taken directly from the demographer's report where essentially uh he talks about the growth in the town and as you get to the last sentence I won't read it all for you you can just kind of students in grades four and five uh let's see the second set instead we are recommending that the district consider a reorganization plan that would remove one grade from the elementary schools and one from the middle school students in grades four and five would be moved to what is now used as the district office the Leonard R Park School building this would require an analysis of the space in that building and to take whatever steps are needed to make it ready to accommodate these students and that was uh taken from the demographers report that was prepared in April of
062this year um these are projections from his uh his report and as you can see in the lower grades uh over the years over the earlier years of first and second the numbers are fairly high and when you look at the the next slide which talks about the Housing Development particularly you can look at the first row of the bottom bracket there with 2021-22 you're seeing 157 students in the second grade 132 and 2023 22 23 jumping up to 165 in the third grade so this idea would be to bring in lrp back online in 23 24 to accommodate that growth that influx of students coming through essentially this objective is basically to identify the facility needs the improve the Improvement objectives and the cost for the potential transition and Recon recommissioning of the lrp
063school buildings um so the nice thing about lrp is it's centrally located housing the fourth and fifth grade classes it's you know you're not going to get much more Central than where it is now as a facility opposite the police station very near the high school um this is a site plan that was prepared in 1991 and it's going to just highlight here what the this this actually shape right here that was the original site and at some point uh we we don't have an exact title survey yet search yet at some point the the town the Board of Education acquired this piece of property and so this accounts for about six or seven acres of land and this is currently where they're improving the multi-purpose field this is original site plan just a little
064history on the building it was built in 1961 and it was essentially built in two phases the first phase was the two-story section uh here that that runs East West and the administration section with uh there's the principal's office reset uh reception area and the nurse's office boiler plant what have you shortly there after the multi-purpose was was built and um the north south Wing was conceived essentially as a two-story section But ultimately built as a one-story section uh the building you know is it has a nice nice uh it presents nicely on the street it's a nice building it does it is it is showing signs of age and we'll get into those those issues but in general it it's a nice facility that uh um would be very nice to bring the children
065back to um currently it's it's rented out to the Essex Junior Academy and here is basically a floor plan of the building this entrance this entrance if you'll if everybody can see down at the bottom that's Pompton Avenue there are essentially 15 General classrooms two classrooms that are approximately 1200 1150 square feet they were originally used as kindergartens in comparison this first floor of the building is 32 300 square feet 32 370 square feet excuse me and in comparison to North End North End is about 35 000 and South End is about 38 371 square feet so as a footprint on the first story it's a little smaller but it's only uh intended now at this point to house two grades there's 15 General classrooms two larger classrooms and about actually Four sgis it says
066five that's an error on the slide this is the second floor which was designed as basically eight classrooms and it's currently used as the board offices here's a photograph of the gym which is in very good shape um it has a stage which is a very nice offering you know the two other elementary schools don't have a stage it's a beautiful multi-purpose room um perhaps some curtains at some point maybe some backstops but it's it presents very well and um it it Nestles nicely between the elementary schools of north and south end and the Middle School in terms of in terms of its amenities there's another view looking the other way in the gym here's a general classroom again in good shape and you'll see I'm going to run through a few slides just showing
067generally the classrooms are very clean um and and a sufficient size uh compared to the the other schools as well to house both grades just running through here we'll talk about lighting we'll talk about chalkboards or white boards and windows um just again just running through the general feel of the spaces that you have currently this is a small SGI room the color is a little you know the ceiling needs a little work the colors you know once it once it gets a fresh fresh paint job uh it it'll be a nice small group instruction space same thing here small group instruction uh here's for examples you know some areas of finishes that need Improvement this is a set of closets at the end of a classroom the doors are basically delaminating and uh you
068know whether they're replaced they're removed or or you know we're still in discussion on what the best fix is to begin to upgrade those types of conditions uh ceiling ceiling tiles peeling in some areas which need to be repaired here's here's a situation where we have a few different ceiling tile types here's a situation where you see some of the Cabinetry beginning to you know obviously show its excuse me show its signs of age window sills popping in a few instances in some instances you have what they we call ACP or asbestos composition tile it's not uncommon in schools that are used routinely you know you have a hear a consultant who who assesses that and and uh you know it's all in good shape at this point over time the district hasn't has been
069implementing replacement of act in classrooms budgeting it year by year to slowly remove that but the tile is in good shape it's very common you have it in the North End you have it in south end I think there are some areas of the high school here that still have it as well um so in general it's in good condition but again I just showed you some some areas that you know are beginning to show its signs of of of age and some of the components are beginning to reach the end of their serviceable lives um and so we'll show you some of that now here's the boiler plant Again original to 1961. um it's definitely you need a replacement it's it's pretty much on its last leg at this point excuse me and this
070is a photograph of a recent boiler replacement that happened at North End similar to South End that was replaced at a door as part of a previous referendum project much more High efficient uh um in terms of energy use and uh and obviously they take up a lot less space this is the hot the water expansion tank which you know I've seen better days that's the water heater here's an example of what heater that was used to be uh installed at North End as well as as a comparison unit ventilators um they are all original to the building at this point it would be recommended that you replace them bring in the proper fresh air get the proper air changes especially in light of what we've gone through over the last year and a half
071it would definitely definitely enhance the space and and make it a lot healthier to be in uh building entrances many of the building entrances fall short of ADA compliance uh the good news is to renovate them or to replace those doors there's not a lot of structural changes that need to happen because a lot of them have Sidelines so while these doors are less than three feet wide as a door replacement project they could become 36 inch wide doors easily have the proper hardware and the proper safety glazing that's a shot of the interior uh the same set of doors this is a set of excuse me I want to go back to that one great job this is a set of doors on the south parking lot at the gymnasium section uh South entrance
072of the gymnasium and as you can see at this point you can pretty much pull those doors open unless they're secured by a broom there so or a chain I guess after hours um so they they definitely aren't in Thai it's you know if we're going to bring this building back online it's definitely time to replace all of the exterior doors uh not only from an ada standpoint but also from a security standpoint that's the inside shot uh Ada entrances again you have accessibility here but the railings fall short of current code standards and if you look at this stair a little more closely you can see the Treads and risers are beginning to show uh disrepair and so essentially that would need to be replaced as well here's the entrance at the West End
073of the north parking lot and you know it's a storage facility that has the snow blowers and what have you but we'd have to rethink what happens with that equipment as this would be a major a main entrance for the space or main exit and also some you know we have handicap accessibility issues at these doors along with door width undersized doors in terms of the ADA requirements for door width it's a close-up of the same set of doors another close-up just obviously showing it's there 60 years old you know it's basically time if the building's coming back online it's time to replace them here's an example of steps this is Two Shots kind of side by side just the chip landing and the and the holes and there's over time snow and ice and
074salt time to bring them back this is a door sill y and that would all be replaced as part of the door replacement project which essentially is what you've done at North End and south end and here actually uh all those all the doors have been replaced they're all ADA Compliant well I shouldn't say all of them but they are all made the main entrances are ADA Compliant and the um and all the doors have the appropriate Social Security hardware for card access and essentially you would need to do that at all of the doors here at ello at lrp here's a the door bucks are beginning to rust it's just time to to change them this is an entrance at the on Vreeland Lane uh this is the south side of the building there
075are some security issues here uh basically the concern about being able to hop on the roof there's a railing issue here that we should have some sort of guard rail that you know prevents someone from falling down into the wheel the door well yeah that's a close-up shot of that and we've we've talked a little bit about the possibility of converting this into an exit that runs out towards the back of the property with a ramp so ad accessibility would be uh achieved there and also provide a good place a safe place for students in an event of an emergency to Stage towards the back of the building as opposed to reeling Avenue or extremely real in Place Lane interior doors and hardware again both schools North End and South End have recently had all
076the doors were played in high school here as well had all the doors replaced with card access as part of the part of the security projects here's an interior door that's in pretty decent condition actually but then you see in a few other doors the beginning of the signs of of age and just use um again so it would be recommended that you replace these doors and basically bring the facility back on par with the balance of the elementary schools in the district there's a situation where the door hardware is coming off this is the section of the building that's on the uh the newer section was built in 1963-ish it's not as old they installed metal doors there they're in pretty good shape but as a comprehensive project you would want to kind of
077just bring everything back on back to the same level of aesthetic and security and so it would be recommended that all the doors in the building be replaced as one comprehensive project that's a that's an example of the door that was recently installed at north end with the card access readers for access the bathrooms again the bathrooms are original to the building um again you look at this picture it's dated it doesn't look that bad uh in terms of uh in terms of how how it's held up the colors are obviously showing their their their their age but as you begin to get closer uh looking at them and the spaces you'll begin to see we have a couple of issues here this was a crack that I believe occurred when prior to the roof
078being with the roof the roof being replaced and so I think water entered the chase the shaft here and began to crack as a result of free free store cycles and so that would be something that definitely needs to be replaced because of not only is it a structural concern but it is also a hazard for uh for anybody for that matter because ceramic Pilots cracked is definitely uh not a safe thing to be around uh here's another example of the crack this is uh the girls room I think on the far end of the building but as you look at it again the partitions are beginning to show their signs of age and this is the boys room that basically have reached a point of uh disrepair some some rusting so this in terms
079of that you know the idea here would be essentially to um again give the bathrooms a complete gut uh similar to what you've had at North End and south end and here at the high school to bring the finishes back is another crack another crack this is the bathroom these are the bathrooms this is the sole handicap accessible bathroom in the in the in the building and and it's it's in need of uh freshening up another faculty toilet missing tile these are individual toilets within the classrooms at some point you know many of the classes were used as kindergartens so they had the toilets in them they could essentially be removed you would not have to go through the expense of refinishing every bathroom in every classroom you can make them closets or storage closets
080water fountains as you see through this school of course you have the bubblers with the with the bottle fillers the hands-free they're definitely in need of of replacement this is a Carter looking I think yeah looking East West and so um again if the finishes are in good condition recently at North End and South End you did ceilings and Lighting or is that just at North End excuse me I was not a yeah all the Carters are finished with ceramic tile but the lighting is dated and you know LED lighting definitely would change the LED lighting and and ceilings would definitely change the overall feel of the space improve it another look at one of the main corridors the cabinet heaters in the ceilings again as part of the unit ventilator and Boiler Room replacement
081project will be recommended that we replace those that's the main entrance by the gym there's a crack in the tile along that could pretty easily be repaired with some tile replacement Corner tile that that got beat up here's an example of of North End the repair at North End how how essentially that that would look which is a neat job that I was not an exact match but it gets the job done this is an example of North End as well where the lighting has been replaced and the ceilings have been replaced windows so it's on this section of building it's what we call a curtain wall system it's all aluminum frame single glazed these greenish gray panels here are actually transite so as a window replacement project they have to be removed by a
082by an asbestos abatement contractor or has this material contractor um many of the many of the rooms or that's that's the main offices on the second floor have the air conditionings through through the windows panels down here they have the air conditioners right through the the windows and you'll show some close-ups of that is uh that's the uh that's the west side of the building towards the ball field same same side that's the south parking lots and you begin to see the variations in the glazing and whether there was film whether there was a repair they're all single pain they're all uninsulated um they're all non-tempered glass so when they break they shatter and not that safe more pictures of the exterior just showing its signs of age door single glaze glazing gasketing being repaired
083or not you know in some instances falling out and being repaired at some point there's an example of the glass that's not safety glass so when that breaks and goes it's obviously a hazard there's another windowsill variations in glazing so so bringing providing new windows would also provide a nice uniform aesthetic there's there's a frame actually pulling apart there's a window AC unit so the idea here would be again to replace all of this with new windows in in kind this is where there were some leaks at some point window blinds or issues but again once they're replaced they did a beautiful job here at North End and south end and here at the high school with with very nice windows that that overall completely changed the the look and feel of the building and
084space from within fire alarm emergency alert systems would need to be upgraded these are all original to the building the electrical service would need to be upgraded if we're especially for considering uh air conditioning Administration spaces multi-purpose rooms clock systems and Pa obviously obviously they are original to the building and and we have newer and better systems these days and on the exterior of the building although it's solid there are issues where again the building's 60 years old basically 60 this year since 1961. um where there's repointing that's that's necessary to to just tighten up the envelope the building there are some cracks that are happening this is a stair hole this crack is not as critical as actually actually as the crack I showed you in the bathroom this is just a thermal crack
085that can be repaired just a result of some change in temperature dynamic between outside and inside but it's not a structural concern as is the one in the in the bathrooms I showed you earlier exterior lighting needs to be improved and changed this is the south parking lot so there are issues like this guard rail where we really don't want to have that where students can kind of catch their anybody for that matter can catch their legs or or anything on on on the metal guard rails there's a close-up of it that's uh that's the Boiler Room entrance but it definitely need of some upgrade these are the basketball courts actually the hooks are in good shape maybe some Nets um this is the parking lot parking lot definitely needs to be upgraded we have
086one of the major issues here is the curbing or the lack of uh so so the parking lot would need to be repaved and milled and repaved this is an overall shot of the a Google satellite shot of the building the ball field in the back and the red dots basically showing the main building entrances so there are logistic issues that were Logistics issues that we're looking at in terms of we had children on a staged in the event of an emergency you know the lot is tight over here there's a parking lot there so we are looking at what could happen in the event of the emerge of an emergency where students could be staged and taken to to get away from the building and the last major issue is site access uh Pompton
087Avenue is pretty busy it's gotten busier since the building uh was was stopped being used by the district so one of the thoughts is at the head end of the at the at the west side of the parking lot to create an access drive that takes you from uh Bradford Avenue along the back here into the parking lot so that it alleviates the traffic burden on popton Avenue and we're looking into those issues uh and this is just a symbolic uh photograph showing that we do have some obstacles to overcome but we can that rock is right there but we can work around it and so so that's the idea there and um lastly but not least again this is a a piece of artwork that was actually taken from one of the classrooms to
088me it was inspiring it's why we're here uh trying to do the best for this the children of Cedar Grove and I just thought that this was a very nice image it was done by I don't know the artist it was probably the teacher in room seven of lrp but I thought it was a nice note to end on given the overall uh images that we just previously presented [Applause] thank you foreign good evening everybody um before we begin a presentation tonight I wanted just to mention a few few items I want to thank all of our presenters tonight uh extremely informative and um it's it's a it's a example of some of the things that we that some of the work that we have to do here and with Dan just talking about lrp
089um it's a major project we talked about when we had um Ross Haber and Associates do our demographic study he talked a lot about how uh with the new developments coming in town up on Hilltop and with um the Cliffside Avenue projects this is definitely going to bring more members into our community and therefore when more members come into our community more children come into into our community and we have to serve our children and looking at lrp is one of our Solutions as Ross had said previously in February and how we can um number one keep our class sizes down but also help to provide space for even within Memorial Middle School North End and South End I also wanted to share that this weekend I had the pleasure of watching uh Legally Blonde
090and I just want to just just publicly say that the students who participated in that did an absolutely outstanding job I brought my daughter with me we had a wonderful time the show was fantastic because Justin did a wonderful job all of the staff and all the students who participated in it was fantastic what I'd like to do right now yeah it definitely you could give a round of applause for everybody who who did that um what I'd like to do uh for for the next period of time that we are here together I'd like to talk about two uh topics and the obviously the first topic that I'm going to talk about is masking and it's become a topic uh more recently it's been it's been a topic this entire year but more recently
091it's been a topic based on just some recent events that have taken place so my goal tonight my goal tonight is to provide you not a personal agenda not a political agenda but a factual set of circumstances that I would like to help educate the public on based on first and foremost masking it all started last week last Monday with this tweet that came out by the governor the governor sent on July on June 7th and said reminder school officials are empowered to relax masking among students and staff in their buildings given extreme weather conditions and then in this graphic Governor Murphy shares in school masking requirements include exceptions for extreme heat school officials are empowered to make the best decision for their buildings and communities that was all any superintendent or any public member
092got about what was going on at that time that simple tweet caused confusion it caused people to to feel a particular way about masks that they've already felt well my goal tonight is to share with you what that tweet actually means I'm going to walk you through I'm going to walk you through the process and how and what governor Murphy had shared in that tweet this tweet stems exclusively from executive order 175. now executive order 175 came into order on August 13th of last year if we can go back this was a period of time when schools were trying to manage how they were going to bring students back into buildings because as of March middle of March schools went on a Hiatus into a virtual mode and there was a direct order from the
093Governor from the governor's office to bring children back into the buildings this order executive order 175 specifically talks about the return to school if we recall that we had conversations our plan had was available every school district had to do that so when you look at this we break this down I'm going to start off with paragraph 2b2 8. and it talks about when the individual is exposed to extreme heat Outdoors when a student is participating in high intensity physical activities during a physical education class in a well-ventilated location and able to maintain a physical distance of six feet from all other individuals that is what was put into place on August 13th executive order 175. we still To This Day June 15th 2021 work off of executive order 175. if we go up a
094bit we talk about paragraph 2A and that says at least six feet of distance between individuals in all settings to the greatest extent practicable or social distancing modifications such as a physical barrier or turning desk to face the same direction at that moment in time we were not spacing our children three feet apart as we currently are this is a fact taken directly from the executive order it further goes on to talk about 2b3 when the individual has trouble breathing is unconscious incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove a face covering without assistance this is when a face mask could be removed according to executive order 175. so I'm going to share something with you I'm going to ask you this very simply we will be here much longer than you might want to be here
095so and I and I encourage that what I encourage also is is for respectful for a respectful audience and let's move forward so after having conversations it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay after having conversations we go on to when did we collapse are six feet to three feet here in Cedar Grove well High School on February 17th that is that is when we collapse our cohorts so we have been in school regularly from September 29th until now we have not been out unless there was a coveted case we have not had to go all virtual unless there was a covet case we collapsed our a b cohorts at the high school continuously since February 17th moving down the line Elementary School collapsed it from April 26th and the Middle School shortly after collapsed
096it from May 4th these are the dates when we went from six feet distancing to three feet this District never provided barriers because it was very clear that barriers did not prevent covid covet doesn't stay at this level or any pathogen for that matter any pathogen it can go up down sideways and the reason why I bring this up the reason why I bring this up is because I have been shared with other districts who have participated in this and felt that they were able to move their or remove masks from children because of barriers there's nothing nothing in executive order 175 that says that provides the exception to remove masks executive order 241 May 17th of this year Philip Governor Murphy shares That by The Virtue of the authority invested in him that he
097orders and directs all school districts as well as businesses and people like ourselves to follow what the next steps were of reducing masking individuals in outdoor public spaces this is number one on this order are not required to wear masks regardless of their ability to maintain six feet of distance from other individuals or groups and regardless of their vaccination status that's a headline but wait if any of us in this room have ever read the Choose Your Own Adventure books where you got to choose your own ending look at paragraph number two in addition for purposes of paragraph one of this order outdoor public spaces do not include Child Care Centers Etc Elementary and secondary schools so when this came out there was confusion we as superintendents we as administrators we as teachers were perplexed
098as to the fact well what does that mean what does one mean and does two work or do we have to x that out and in essence what that means is when we are in full instruction during a school day that being in an outdoor public space at this particular Moment In Time you had to wear your mask because we are in elementary and a secondary School June 4th to executive order 244. talks about how the CDC highlights that certain settings and more importantly settings of schools and health care facilities had to have mitigation factors or protocols so we were not exempt from as a school we were not exempt from what businesses may be exempt from what Target may be exempt from or what TGI Fridays may be exempt from included in this because
099as I've shared in the past we do not or not only directed or guided through as a school district through executive orders we are also guided through the department the New Jersey Department of Health so if you recall it was a Friday when the news broke out that the CDC shared that we could move from six feet to three feet and everybody was jumping for joy because what this meant was we could collapse our cohorts but we in New Jersey were waiting for guidance from the New Jersey Department of Health because the New Jersey Department of Health then shares down to the local agencies of what to do at your local level March 23rd it talks about how schools should establish policies for implementing structural interventions to promote physical distancing but this was the the
100six to three feet but this could only happen it didn't it didn't apply to elementary schools because immediately we can go into effect with the elementary school but at a high school and a middle school you had to wait for that remember that Cali reading I know everybody loved my Monday night phone calls when I called into your home and talked to you about the daily weekly Cali rates and the orange level and the yellow level but that's what that all meant every week every Thursday we would receive this and that would determine what we were going to do next within our community and unfortunately we were uh Essex County was grouped with Union and uh Bergen County and you're talking about three of the most highly populated counties in the state so when you
101saw things happening at Cumberland County in Cape May County and we wondered why isn't happening for us well the reason why is is because we're lumped into that that that Regional risk Zone but we got through it we did it we were able to make that happen I showed you dates earlier when we were able to make that happen then the news came out again and it talked about Hey listen masking can come off you can travel wherever you want to go but not for schools and I shared it with everybody in our Communications it talked about minimum masking on May 19th and social distancing standards for outdoor extracurricular activities and outdoor events on school properties including outdoor graduation ceremonies and other end of the year school events held Outdoors are governed by paragraph one
102do you remember paragraph one there it is now for the extracurricular activities we can abide by paragraph one so therefore you would notice that at the National Honor Society events or at the play or at the um the senior awards ceremony you will see a room very similarly to what we're doing right now or outside because we were governed by paragraph one for that it is truly connected the dots but then the Department of Education helped guide us with what to do at the end of the year school events and graduation ceremonies so as effective on June 4th there is no longer a numerical limit on indoor Gatherings regardless of the size of the venue and there's also currently no limit on outdoor Gatherings so any any limits that we had within those previous executive
103orders we would be able to not be restricted by them due to the fact that we were working off of guidance from the Department of Education indoor venues regardless of size May operate at full capacity starting on June 4th and outdoors also would be permitted to do the same that caused a lot of confusion about what we were going to do for high school graduation and Middle School graduation but according to this on June 4th that's why things were lifted and and the restrictions were taken away effective Friday May 28th individuals in indoor public spaces are not required to wear masks however leas which are local education agencies are strongly encouraged to continue to implement health and safety protocols and again for CDC guidelines individuals who are not fully vaccinated to find us two weeks
104after receiving the second shot are strongly encouraged to continue masking and social distancing all of that started with that tweet now whether you believe in this or not that is a true steps of what we at a school level are following we are obligated to follow that this isn't political for a school listen to what I'm saying this isn't political for a school and nor is it personal for a school now the next step that I want to share with you is is that I've received a lot of a lot of emails and messages from individuals in the community sharing that other school districts are doing it why aren't you okay I'm going to answer that you bet I'll answer that the reason why we are not doing that is because we are held by
105law by an executive order to follow this now let me share this with you this this may not be this may not be important to you but the reality of it is is that somebody wrote me an email and shared and said well who's going to really know who's going to know are there are there executive order police out there and the reality of it all is is that do you see how everybody just reacted right now about this there are plenty of other people that feel the direct opposite of what some of you in this room feel and I'm going to share this with you I'm going to share this with you I'm gonna I'm going to share this with you well I'm going to share with you I'm going well listen options are
106great but in this instance I will share with you at this moment in time options are not an option so therefore ma'am I'm going to ask you very politely would you please allow me to continue excuse me this is not a question and answer session right now I'm doing a presentation so therefore what I'm going to share is this I'm going to wait okay so what I'm going to what I'm going to share is is that the next piece of this is people are wondering I feel that this is the Crux of it all people are wondering what is go what what am I going to do next year when our kids have to come to school in September well I'm going to share this with you we are fully prepared in this District to
107move our students back to a full day schedule we are fully prepared to move our students back to in-school lunch and in fact we have invested time and efforts and money into a point of service system for our lunches where children will not have to carry cash on them or touch uh cash where they can instantly get their lunches working in coordinate in cooperation with pomptonian Food Services as well as our as well as our administrators who have worked tirelessly to create schedules that will be conducive to environments that we may have to work under or may not so therefore the administrators in this District have created multiple schedules without quite honestly knowing if something would be flipped at the last minute but we're fully prepared the next piece that I want to share with
108you is there's five days left very simple we could go back to we're not wearing masks if we go back to cohorts I don't think anybody wants to do that for the last five days of school the next piece that I want to share with you is is that if Governor Murphy listen carefully listen carefully if Governor Murphy shares with all school districts that we have the option of wearing masks we will move forward and not use the option of wearing masks I will share with you this as well if anybody wants to continue wearing masks at that point if that is what comes down from the government level they're more than welcome to do that as well I will share some real statistic information with you I've had a conversation with our district doctor
109and the rates of transmission in Cedar Grove and around us are the lowest they've ever been so therefore we are moving in a correct direction and the reason why we're moving in that direction is because we have followed protocols and in fact this District in fact this District participated in a vaccination program for our staff and they took advantage of it so I will tell you this again I'm not asking you to agree with me I'm not asking you to like what I'm saying but what I'm sharing with you is is that these are facts this is not opinion these are pure facts and that is my goal to share with you tonight now the second thing I want to talk to you about because I'm not on Facebook and Facebook seems to be the
110place for sources so I'm going to share with you factual information directly from the source which is myself so what I'm what I'm going to share with you right now is that is edac now [Applause] there's been a my goal here right now is to walk you through exactly what this is why this is in existence and how this will continue in Cedar Grove edac ion Equity diversity advisory Council that mission is that Cedar Grove Public Schools is committed to maintaining cultivating and preserving a safe place for all students staff and caregivers regardless of their race gender identity ethnicity religion physical ability age political affiliations background and sexual preference this mission was created solely by the people on that Council now I'm going to talk a little bit about those people on that Council in
111a minute but we are going and I will answer those questions but first let's stick to the facts this is the mission of the edac this wasn't borrowed from a website this wasn't borrowed from a book this was solely created based on the people that make up this Council the edac also has a vision and that vision is that with the objective to promote academic achievement and Preserve an environment of care and cultural competency our vision is to encourage productive dialogue and promote direct action to benefit the educational experience of all members of Cedar Grove Public School Community this was created by the members of edac now you may say to yourself because I I've I've heard this what is this what is edac I never heard this before well actually you have heard of
112it I'm gonna share where you've heard this before and actually the Inception of edac started uh in June of 2020 around this time last year and the first edac meeting actually happened on December 7th of last year and subsequent meetings happened the First on uh the 19th of January the 23rd of February the 23rd of March the 23rd of of April and the 18th of May continually month after month the edac has met and talked about various items which I will talk to you about what they've talked about as well so was the edac discussed in public absolutely was it was discussed at the board meetings on February 9th February 23rd April 20th May 4th and May 19th right here on this stage the edac was talked about was it ever discussed in public well
113absolutely was too was discussed in the in the district update that the district place is out as well as archives so you're more than welcome to go on the website and see what this was about it was put in the January the February the March and the April edition of the district update I see a lot of you shaking heads but the reality of this all is is that this is fact now who makes up the edac you have three teachers on the edac one at the elementary level one at the middle and one at the high school level you also have a nurse you have three administrators two board members and five parents and caregivers and on this edac since it is the equity diversity and advisory Council it is made up of a
114diverse group of people diverse from gender from ethnicity from religious backgrounds from academic backgrounds from political backgrounds so therefore you can't have an equity and diversity advisory Council if you have all the same people because because our community is not I'm gonna ask you this right now please I'm respectful I have to share this with you I want you to Imagine This is this how you would want your children to act in class foreign [Applause] so [Music] um so I'm going to continue I'm going to continue so the E DAC is made up of subcommittees would you give would you please be patient give me a moment please uh the edac is made up of subcommittees and those subcommittees do specific work those subcommittees are Elementary Middle High School curriculum-based and policy based members on
115those subcommittees look at specific needs at those individual levels they look at specific needs in the policy and they also look at what is being taught in the curriculum now somebody asked a question before as I was speaking and they were speaking over me was that how how are these people selected well when we put the information out to the school administrators and had a conversation and said listen this this kind of work is for specific people that want to engage in this type of work it's not for everybody and I can tell you that right now this kind of work is not for everybody and everybody does not necessarily believe in this work no sir that's not how that goes I'm going to continue what happens is is that after having conversations with principals
116in their buildings who know their parent bodies or their caregiver bodies and know based on relationships what teachers do you think would be interested in doing this what parents do you think would be interested in doing this and therefore well obviously it's not some of you in this room I I'm very clear with that uh so I'm going to share this what items what items have been discussed at edac I'm gonna wait okay so what kind of items have been discussed at the E what kind of items have been discussed at the edac well the mission division goals goals for the district for inclusion uh professional development for staff that's an important piece professional development for the staff not every person is equipped to support this kind of work and so we've discussed how can
117we help staff be able to support all children we also talked about grants and Partnerships when you're looking at inclusion work it doesn't it doesn't always happen with in-house so you have to go outside and we did this year we actually we looked at Kane University Montclair State University actually and then you look at events that took place at Cedar Grove High School here this year there were some um racial and religiously biased events that took place here and we can't escape the fact that they actually happened so in this committee we discussed why did this happen is this an isolated incident is this something that has been happening before or do we want things like this to continue for all of our children in in our Public Schools we also looked at monthly committee
118reports and those are the subcommittee reports we talked about women's History Month we talked about again Kane University and Kane University was is a partner with us with the Holocaust curriculum we looked at the 2021-22 cultural and National observance and celebrations resource and planning guide prepared by our uh curriculum and instruction Department which is available to you as a parent resource on the on the parent the panther parent guide on our website that's the parent version to help families discuss issues with their children based on literature based on possibly um conversation starters the staff also received this but they received it in a more instructional manner to help guide them as to how and to when to guide their instructional practices we talked about how April is Autism Awareness Month we talked about teacher PD
119again which is professional development we talked about creating an edac web page that's also what we talked about with our selkers our social emotional learning uh committee as well of creating a website where if there's resources that we can help provide you with that is what our goal would be and we look at having that in in place by next year we talked about graduation at the middle in the high school we also talked about how may was Asian Pacific American heritage month and the needs assessment update as well as June as pride month which you've heard the students come up here today I'd rather tonight and talk about so what policies have we discussed here on the edac well we have policies already put into effect here currently and if we look at this
120diversity touches upon Community organizations uh this is on top of it sorry public relations inter-district public school choice affirmative action programs reporting violence and vandalism uh co-curricular activities unsafe school choice option harassment intimidation and bullying uh Equity is in our affirmative action as well as our comprehensive Equity plan which is mandated for us to do by the state um equity and educational programs and services we look at affirmative action programs we look at harassment sexual harassment harassment intimidation bullying again sexual harassment for staff we look at student discipline in the code of conduct and Reporting violence where there's also a policy on transgender students I'm going to get to all of that uh we look at uh management we look at so the use of social though it is all of our it is our
121problems it is our problem we look at the use of social networking well I'm gonna wait I'm gonna wait [Applause] then we go on to vandalism and we look at school closings as well as thank you guidance counseling and then there's also policy directly related to lgbtq and transgender now foreign now what curriculum this is this is very important what curriculum has and will be discussed [Applause] if you would stop talking and being rude to me I'll get to that but you're being very rude are we ready I'm very serious Holocaust Education the Holocaust Education 1994. that was the first Inception of Holocaust Education and a mandate from the New Jersey from the state of New Jersey as well as the New Jersey Department of Education the Amistad curriculum Amistad curriculum in 2002 that was
122mandated by all school districts in the state of New Jersey to include the history of African Americans in their social studies courses as well as other events and activities in buildings 2019 the lgbtq and disabilities curriculum it was presented earlier this year at one of our first meetings in September in 2019 as well as Bill 4454 it is the the diversity and inclusion in health and physical physical education in 2020 and that bill was mandated by the um by the the state government to include diversity within physical education and health education and then there's New Jersey ac6a7 and that is managing for equality and equity in education and I'm going to spay pay special attention to this because this is adopted by the State Board of Education and it is mandated by all school districts
123in this state that are public not private public schools to follow this 6A 7 1.7 equality in school and classroom practices this is what this shares and I think this is very important for us to have a clear understanding about the facts each District Board of Education shall provide all students with equal and bias free access to all school facilities courses programs activities and services regardless of race Creed color national origin ancestry age marital status affectional or sexual orientation gender religion disability or social economic status B talks about how each District Board of Education shall ensure that the school district's curriculum and instruction are aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards The District Board of Education also shall ensure its curriculum and instruction address the elimination of discrimination by narrowing the achievement Gap by
124providing equity in educational programs and by providing opportunities for students to interact positively with others regardless of race Creed color national origin ancestry age marital status affectional or sexual orientation gender religion disability or socioeconomic status how does this happen well reducing or preventing the underrepresentation of minority female or male students in classes or programs ensuring schools demonstrate the inclusion of Multicultural curriculum in its instructional content in its materials and methods in ensuring students understand the basic tenets of multiculturalism ensuring African-American history as well as the history of other cultures is infused into the curriculum and tart and taught as part of the U.S history and ensuring instruction of the Holocaust and other acts of genocide is included in the curriculum of all elementary and secondary schools as developmentally appropriate now this is the part where
125I want to share with you how we as a school district are accountable for adhering to what I've just shared with you The District Board of education's obligation to be accountable for the chapter's requirements is not precluded or alleviated by any rule or regulation or any organization Club Athletic Association or other league or group what that means is is that nobody can procla preclude us as a public school to not teach that no athletic association club organization Grassroots group no no group can share and say you cannot teach this to children in public school because it is a mandate by the New Jersey School Board Association each School District shall complete a comprehensive Equity plan that includes a cohesive set of policies programs practices that ensure high expectations positive achievement patterns and equal access to
126education opportunities for all Learners including teachers and students a comprehensive Equity plan shall include the following an assessment of the schools listen very carefully because I think a lot of you have some questions I want to share this with you an assessment of the schools districts needs for achieving equity in educational programs listen carefully listen carefully again an assessment of the schools districts needs for achieving equity and educational programs this assessment shall include Staffing practices quality of program data stakeholder satisfaction data and student assessment and behavioral data disaggregated by gender race ethnicity a comprehensive Equity plan shall include the following annual targets that address School District needs in equity in school and classroom practices and are aligned to professional development targets now let's talk about the edac needs assessment now I just read to you
127just moments ago about the me the need for an assessment mandated by school boards I'll go back I'll go if you're if you're if you're not clear I can go back to that so let's talk about that needs assessment when was the needs assessment discussed publicly the board meeting on 5 4 and 519 in fact on 519 this is exactly what was said to the public on June 9th the edac will share a survey with our families staff and students about their needs and understanding in the areas of equity and diversity this survey will be available to all to help guide The District in a direction that will enable progress and address address specific needs within our community this this survey will be available through an email invitation what is the purpose of the what
128is the purpose of the needs assessment is to explore diversity inclusion in Cedar Grove Public Schools and seeks to eliminate bias and enhance diversity in all schools diversity is considered race as race ethnicity gender LBD lgbtq status and disability status this survey seeks to explore previous and present bias to provide tangible solutions for all stakeholders who was surveyed grades three through twelve staff pre-k through 12. staff pre-k through 12. families and caregivers how was the survey administered it was administered through an email invitation was the survey mandatory no where no it wasn't were all the questions the same no they were not all the same because questions were crafted per the participant taking the survey Elementary what were some of those sample questions some of those sample questions were gender identity race ethnicity do you
129feel school is a safe place gender identity race ethnicity do you feel Memorial Middle School is a safe place for your particular racial ethnic group in the Middle School High School gender identity race ethnicity can you provide any examples of racial gender-based or religious discrimination you have experience in the Cedar Grove Public Schools so I'm going to share with you I'm going to share with you right now I pulled I pulled the data directly from the survey these are directly so when you so listen listen carefully when you see these when you see these examples up on the on the board or up on the screen you will notice things aren't done they're not grammatically correct or they are not um spelled correctly it's because it was pulled directly from the survey these are taken
130directly from students now I'm going to share this with you I know this because these these surveys came directly from students now these students are not identified these two I'm gonna wait I'm gonna wait [Music] it is anonymous because you cannot you cannot attach who gave what answer you can certainly share what elementary level Middle School level and you can share what high school level because they were specifically designed for those grades so I'll continue Elementary students they shared no bullying of other people I would like everyone to respect people for who they are I wish there was no judgment I hope people can feel comfortable wearing what they want kids not laughing if someone gets a problem wrong the change I would like to see happen at my school is people not to fight
131and finally at the elementary level I'm making friends class let's talk about the Middle School the middle school question was can you provide any examples of racial or gender-based discrimination you have experienced in Cedar Grove Public Schools well obviously tonight if you don't if you don't want to believe what's up on the screen of this survey that's your prerogative but you heard firsthand from students mouths here tonight how do you argue how do you you're right absolutely yeah I want to share this with you absolutely there are people who felt think there were no issues because that was your personal preference but I'm going to continue I have heard this is all this is all done I have heard others say things about eating dogs but I know they are joking and they do not
132mean any harm however I feel that there could be a situation where someone else of Asian race does not find it a joke it could be seriously hurt by it I was discriminated against for wearing an outfit that I felt was more than modest and that I felt more comfortable and because of my gender comments like go back to your country and people mocking accents I was told that I was going in the wrong bathroom after I had explained I was a non-binary person I feel people aren't as open to let people who do not who don't look like them into their friend group or work group are very close-minded there is one kid who in particular who acts differently to the girls in a rude way than to the boys it's kind of obvious
133he feels the need to show that males are better I'll move over yes I am going to do that I I apologize I'll go back that males are better than females in a sense that we females are less knowledgeable I know that many people were upset when the pride flag was put up outside some people in the grade were complaining about it and I overheard since it's the month of June or pride month lots of people were putting on their story that queer people don't deserve the month veterans do it is an excuse to be homophobic and a lot of people in the school are homophobic to bring up I've heard some boys say the r slur as well and they aren't neurodivergent or qualified to say it I've heard people talk about some people
134and the grades as well for being a boy with long hair and dyed blue or for a girl having short hair and wearing clothes apparently for boys I think they should be educated or told something I can't even list the names because it's almost everyone high school you'll get the public account will get there in in when this is finished how at the high school how can can you provide an example of racial or gender-based discrimination you have experienced at Cedar Grove Public School so pride month and there isn't any questions about lgbtq discriminations I'm gay and I don't feel remotely safe in this school system I'm currently closeted because I know how it goes to those who come out to the school I shouldn't have to stay closeted for the rest of high school
135because I can't trust the school will probably take action against I feel like there needs to be some sort of consequence to those who see racial slurs and other inappropriate terms that discriminate offend other communities it is disappointing that there are a lot of people in this school that will say it freely and will never face consequences for their actions or caught certain students in my school I have heard say the n-word and other slurs people should not be called by Immature boys for wearing leggings and sweatshirt just because of a female's body which she cannot control limitations on girls clothing is unfair and restrictive they call me Mexican even though they don't realize my real race racial slurs against Islam also people would cover their hair or faces and call themselves terrorists people have
136often made comments about what they think my sexuality is and make fun of me for who I hang out with in my interests people are homophobic extremely racist and right slurs and isolate people and minorities I see a lot of hate towards religious religions especially Jewish people I take this seriously since people I consider family in this town and school are Jewish and any hate towards people in this school I find unacceptable people are careless with people now the reason why the reason why I put up there that people are careless with people as for the simple fact the simple fact that whether you believe this or not this is actual comments from students who go and a ton attend our Public Schools now I'm going to share this with you if we don't think
137that this is real we don't think that this is real is it invalid to validate these children's feelings is it you can't be you can't be comfortable with uncomfortable now the reality of it all is is that we had students come up here tonight we had students come up here tonight and share their feelings about how uncomfortable they have been and how uncomfortable they are and whether you believe that or not we cannot be comfortable with uncomfortable we have an obligation to make it better we as a school district have an obligation to make it better and part of that obligation is is that we are number one mandated to do that and number two these are all our children when you send your children to Cedar Grove Public Schools when you send your children
138to Cedar Grove Public Schools they are all our children excuse me can you place it down [Applause] if if you can't be inclusive in school where can you be inclusive it is Our obligation yeah I'm not it is Our obligation it is Our obligation as a school district to be inclusive it is mandated that we be inclusive obligation to be exclusive sir I'm going to ask you one moment [Applause] if we're going to make a difference here you have to be part of the solution and not the problem and the reality of that all is if you would like to be part of the edac the equity and diversity advisory Council please feel free you can't be part of deca because Deca is a student organization uh but if you would like to be part
139of edac please feel free to email me I will definitely share with you the next dates and for you to be part of that ladies and gentlemen I just leave you with this ladies and gentlemen I leave you with this [Music] we're going to move forward but I leave you with this is related what I've shared with you tonight despite what you may believe personally is nothing to do with a personal political agenda has everything to do with children has everything to do with the children that your children are friends with that your own children I just share with you that I hope that you can be open-minded enough to watch what these children had come up here tonight and talked about and how they open their hearts and themselves to you when you talk
140like that you talk about somebody else's child and that is sinful IES [Applause] [Music] oh yeah this is a board meeting we conduct business here we do it in a respectful manner if you're not going to be respectful then you're going to have to leave I'm quite respectful [Music] [Applause] well thank you for that wonderful presentation we appreciate it we're going to move on the board agenda now yeah from the office of the business administrator and board secretary under minutes can I have a motion for B1 through B3 so moved thank you second B1 is a motion to approve the public and executive minutes of May 19th B2 is a motion to approve the budgetary transfers for the month of May B3 is a motion to approve the board secretary's certification to the Cedar Grove
141Board of Education pursuant to the code that no line item account has encumbrances and expenditures which in total exceed the line item appropriation and violation of the code any discussion no no roll call please Mrs dicara yes Mrs Amiga yes Mr splendoria aye Mr Schoener aye Mrs dye yes under bills can I have a motion for B4 so move second B4 is a motion to pay the following list of bills that were in our packet this evening any discussion no roll call please Mrs the Chara yes Mrs Miga yes Mrs pandoria aye Mr Schoener aye Mrs dye yes under business can I have a motion for B5 through there's a lot of bees we'll just go for now we'll go to b40. so moved B5 is a motion to approve chapter 192 1983 services for
142the 21-22 school year B6 is a motion to approve the contract with Union County Educational Services Commission to administer the district's non-public school individuals with disabilities education B7 is a motion to approve the non-public nursing services for the 2122 school year B8 is a motion to approve the Emergency Food Services management contract for the 21-22 school year B9 is a motion to approve the following scholarship award winners B10 is a motion to approve the purchase of a 16-passenger bus from Alliance bus Group than the amount listed b11 is a motion to approve the quote from AME Inc for the purchase of upgrading existing HVAC equipment at Memorial Middle School B12 is a motion to approve the following tax requisition schedule for the 21-22 school year B13 is a motion to approve the annual agreement with
143Genesis Educational Services for the 2122 school year b14 is a motion to approve a hero Consultants to provide the following for the 21-22 school year B15 is a motion to approve Rulo and Juliet Associates Inc to provide environmental consultant Professional Services for the 21-22 school year B16 is a motion to approve handy Lift Service Company Inc to provide planned maintenance for the lift at Cedar Grove High School for the 21-22 school year B-17 is a motion to approve Birds beware and geese 2 B18 is a motion to approve k12usa.com for the 2122 school year b19 is a motion to approve stress SMA Associates Lop school policy and regulations Consultants annual contracted support agreement for the 21-22 school year B20 is a motion to approve the 2122 professional service contract with Vanguard Medical Group in the
144amount listed B-21 is a motion to approve Alliance Pest Services b-22 is a motion to appoint boilinger Specialty Group as insurance carriers for student and athletic accent insurance coverage b-23 is a motion to approve Bollinger Specialty Group to offer voluntary student coverage B-24 is a motion to approve the 2122 annual service agreement with Frontline Technologies Group B25 is a motion to approve the purchase of two 2022 Ford F-350 pickup trucks B-26 is a motion to approve Phoenix advisors for the 2122 school year B27 is a motion to approve the following tax sheltered annuity companies b-28 is a motion to adopt the uniform minimum chart of accounts B-29 is a motion to authorize the business administrator board secretary to release warrants B30 is a motion to approve that the Cedar Grove Board of Education in compliance
145with njac 6363a acknowledges the following language on Student Records in policy b31 is a motion to approve the curriculum and textbooks for the 2122 school year b32 is a motion to approve am Consultants Pine Brook New Jersey to conduct the annual fixed asset inventory b-33 is a motion to approve Morris County elevator b-34 is a motion to approve the 2122 tuition rates for out-of-district students b-35 is a motion to approve AME Inc for the 2122 school year B-36 is a motion to approve Hague Service Corporation b-37 is a motion to approve Metro Fire and safety equipment company b38 is a motion to approve SMS security systems b-39 is a motion true proof Hague Service Corporation and b40 is a motion to approve benefit analysis Inc as the Cedarburg Cedar Grove Board of educations cobra any
146discussion no no no roll call please Mrs dichara yes Mrs Amiga yes Mr spondoria aye Mr schoner aye Mrs dye yes but I abstained um from b38 continuing on can I have a motion for b41 through B65 so moved second b41 is a motion to approve level data Inc for the 2122 school year b42 is a motion to approve e-rate Consulting for the 21-22 school year b43 is a motion to approve logic 54 for the 21-22 school year B44 is a motion to approve Butler water Corrections b45 is a motion to approve sport care b46 is a motion to improve Acme Fire door testing Corporation b47 is a motion to approve cintus fire protection b48 is a motion to approve iMac Insurance Agency b49 is a motion to approve Lincoln b50 is a motion to
147approve Naviance b-51 is a motion to approve seven mindsets B-52 is a motion to approve transfer into the capital reserve account b-53 is a motion to approve transfer into the maintenance Reserve account b-54 is a motion to approve transfer into into emergency Reserve fund our emergency Reserve account b-55 pursuant to PL 2015 chapter 47 the Cedar Grove Board of Education intends to renew award or permit to expire the following contracts previously awarded by the Board of Education b-56 is a motion to approve the 2122 workers compensation assessment in the amount listed B-57 is a motion to approve the submission for the FY 2022 idea Grant b-58 is a motion to retroactively approve the location agreement with LFR Productions b-59 is a motion to accept a grant from the New York Jets foundation in the amount
148listed b60 is a motion to set the price of paid lunches for the 21-22 school year b61 is a motion to approve entering into an agreement with sourcewell b62 is a motion to approve the purchase of eventrac 4500 tractor b63 is a motion to approve the annual contract support agreement with computer solutions for the 2122 school year b64 is a motion to approve the submission of the FY 2022 esea Grant and B65 is a motion to approve entering into a Consortium with the Caldwell West Caldwell Board of Education any discussion no no roll call please Mrs dichara yes Mrs Amiga yes Mr spondoria aye Mr Schoener aye Mrs dye yes from the office of the superintendent of schools under Personnel can I have a motion for S1 through s23 so moved second S1 is a
149motion to approve the sidebar agreement for the following positions S2 is a motion to approve the district Head Nurse job descriptions S3 is a motion to retroactively accept the resignation of Jim Scolari buildings and grounds custodium S4 is a motion to approve Julie Jacoby as a cghs assistant cheerleader coach S5 is a motion to appoint the following returnees for summer custodial maintenance work S6 is a motion to appoint the following staff for summer custodial maintenance work S7 is a motion to rescind the sea very Cho paraprofessional Personnel for the extended school year program 2021 S8 is a motion to approve the following teaching Personnel for the extended school year program S9 is a motion to approve Heather Donnelly to provide supplemental insurance instructions sorry S10 is a motion to approve the additional Merit pay to
150be added to the base salaries of the following S11 is a motion to amend the salaries to the following custodians S12 is a motion to amend the salaries for the following staff members s13 is a motion to approve the memorandum of agreement with the Cedar Grove administrators Association S14 is a motion to verify accomplishment of two qualitative Merit goals in accordance with the employment contract of Mr Michael Devita business administrator S-15 is a motion to amend the salary for Dana spelino regarding the inclusion of longevity s16 is a motion to amend the salary for Daniel McLaughlin as 17 is a motion to amend resolution S14 from from the agenda from May 19th Forte Infante s 18 is a motion to authorize attendance at the following events s19 is a motion to approve the following leaves
151of absence s20 is a motion to approve the following students for classroom observation S21 is a motion to approve on first reading the 2021 KSA kickoff classic in Orlando Florida trip for returning cdhs football players s-22 is a motion to approve the state statement of assurance for the comprehensive Equity plan for the 21-22 school year and s23 is a motion to rescind Mary de nuzio from the literary magazine stipend any discussion no no roll call please Mrs dejara yes Mrs Mega yes Mr splendoria aye Mr Schoener aye Mrs dye yes under curriculum can I have a motion for s24 and s25 . so move second s24 is a motion to approve the following courses for the 21-22 school year and s25 is a motion to approve the following employees to write curriculum for the following
152courses not to exceed 20 hours any discussion no no no no roll call please Mrs dicara yes Mrs Miga yes Mr splendoria aye Mr Schoener aye Mrs dye yes under contracts can I have a motion for s26 so moved second any discussion no no no roll call please Mrs dicara yes Mrs Mega yes Mr spondoria aye Mr Schoener aye Mrs dye yes Board of Education to the public an opportunity to address issues regarding the operation of the Cedar Grove Public Schools in this section we'll we allow public comments on school-related matters normally our regulations allot 40 minutes for these communications but since there's many people who want to speak tonight we're going to let everybody who signed up speak but everybody is still limited to the three minutes again each person shall be limited to
153the three minutes there will be a countdown timer and at the end of 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 the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a responsible beforethcoming if and when appropriate this portion of the meeting is meant to hear public comment not to have a dialogue between the board and the person speaking the board asks that the 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
154by 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 light 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 as I stated earlier as as I State all statements shall 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
155decorum is disorderly or disrupts the meaning you will be asked to leave the meeting the board reminds those individuals who take this opportunity to speak 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 district because of the high number of people that have signed up to speak people are to ask all of you people you're all asked to ask 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 if appropriate there was a sign up sheet before the board meeting started and I'm going to go in order of the people who who signed up
156the first person I have is Patricia Montana [Applause] is this on Patricia Montana 5 Emery Court Cedar Grove New Jersey excuse me Montana Miss Montana I hate to interrupt but Mr DaVita the clock's not running [Music] I'm sorry okay I'm here today to not only demand that the district unmask our children but also to unmask the incompetence and failures of our superintendent and Board of Ed the edac wants to know the gender identity of my ten-year-old I still don't know the identity of the edac members and the survey asks for my group affiliation well I belong to a nonpartisan group of diverse parents with different backgrounds and experiences who United over four months ago only after we realized our voices on full-time in-person learning were not being heard and the survey wants to know whether
157I feel that the school is a quote-unquote safe space no not when my children are being forced to wear masks in extreme heat when the guidance explicitly provides otherwise are excluded from attending full-time in person and are compelled to answer questions about their race gender identity and religious affiliation in class without my knowledge or consent for those who don't know the district gave the survey to third and fourth graders to complete in class without informing parents and getting their permission first as such the survey was not voluntary nor Anonymous if students had to ask clarifying questions when completing it this violates their right to privacy and District policy 2415.05 and the survey asks whether I feel Cedar Grove leadership is supportive of diversity not when you just assumed that someone like me would not want
158to be part of the council or when you just cherry-picked answers from an anonymous survey to prove your own agenda and lastly it asks what change I would like to see happen I'd like Mr Grosso and missed I to resign and the edac council to be dismantled immediately for acting illegitimately in addition to the health and privacy violations and the failure to get our children back into school full-time in person this year there's been no school whatsoever on Friday afternoons parents have been treated disrespectfully and dismissively and met with hostility when speaking at these public meetings there's been a total lack of transparency and clear Communications with families on all issues including graduation the superintendent has utterly failed to respond to emails phone calls and answer questions and oftentimes disseminate confusing incomplete and misleading information
159like how St Catharines must not be following the rules before my formal written complaint to this board and others the Board of Ed applied the three-minute comment rule arbitrarily and discriminatorily parents were rudely cut off mid-thought yet the union president was afforded over 10 minutes of uninterrupted speaking time I and parents have repeatedly tried to work with this District but we have been mocked and ignored and our views rebuffed this is evident of the superintendent and Board of Ed president's clear intention to wrestle away power from parents and misappropriate it for themselves the time has come for them to resign [Applause] foreign thank you for your comment s [Applause] the next person I have is uh Romney Beckett [Music] [Applause] hello my name is Romani Beckett I live in Cedar Grove since 2009 and this
160is you can't see I'm dark skinned I speak with an accent I lived in Jersey City as well as in West Orange very Diversified town you would say however I lived here since 2009. I was welcome here more than I was welcome since I I came to USA back in 1995. for 26 years you don't come here and have a cup of coffee as a superintendent and you call this town racist not on my watch [Applause] your survey is bias you have political and Personal Agenda when I came here last time to speak I defended our teachers and I stood up for them against your policy today I'm telling them to watch I'm telling them to stop and only teach I raise my children unless you willing to pay their food their way their shelter
161and mortgage until you base their insurance and until you come at home and watch them when they're sick at one o'clock in the morning otherwise just teach teach science don't worry about how I raise my family I raise my family not you [Applause] and to the board of ed you have lost our trust there is no transparency the last pandemic you use that to leverage to Your Personal Agenda you're going for Glory your positions are volunteer if you cannot fail them and do them to the best of your ability please please I beg you submit your resignation let's have let's fresh Blood come in with different set of eyes do the job for you if you cannot do it to set up comedies and and group and hiding during pandemic in 2020 and the peak
162of covid-19 so you get your own agenda completed this is not acceptable there is no trust you lacked trust no fiduciary duties your survey is you did not show us the status you did not show us the positive you only show us the negative today so what is the positive you've been here what a few months and you come in and telling the whole town were racist don't generalize do not do not ever generalize this is rude I am Christian Orthodox for you who doesn't know me I come from Egypt which is very oppressed against religion you talk about my next door Jewish neighbor came with a dozen of bagel when I moved to West to Cedar Grove my Italian family came over and helped me shovel the snow I don't need a 10 more
163seconds have it [Applause] thank you for your comment next on the list is Heather Rosetto deleva hi my name is Heather and I work in healthcare implementing medical policies and clinical studies my son Anthony is in the fourth grade at South Bend Anthony has several medical conditions which are listed in his IEP that contribute to the fact that he cannot safely wear a mask he has been and continues to be a virtual student the school staff is well aware that Anthony cannot wear a mask and according to Federal exemptions an executive order 175 section 2 article b i Anthony will not be wearing a mask at graduation on Thursday morning but I am not here to just discuss Anthony I'm here to discuss all the elementary school children in Cedar Grove a recent study published
164in the Journal of American Medical Association states that young children not only are at low risk for developing covid-19 but also don't play a significant role in the spread of SARS Cove 2 while attending school according to Dr Timothy strange at Staten Island University Hospital young children have not shown have shown not only in this study but observationally over the last year of the pandemic that this group has little to do with the spread of covet younger children do not need to wear masks and social distancing of three feet is fine he says another clinical study discusses the correlation of heat and humidity referring to the higher the temperature of humidity the shorter the lifespan of the virus is dropping from 28 days of life to less than six hours of life so the virus
165is not surviving in these hot humid days that we just had lastly I would like to know why the relaxation of masks is not implemented in Cedar Grove all of this time the Board of Ed has been diligent in following the governor's guidelines but now it wants to start making its own rules the Board of Ed needs to lift the mass mandate now and make sure it is optional come September as well since virtual will no longer be an option thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment next I have Edith Fusco [Applause] Edith Fusco 75 bordec Road by the way my son my fourth grader he answered that the change he would like to see is lunch and no masks so there is another side um but you know a noble piece a Noble
166Peace Prize recipient an honorable figure once said education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world that honorable figure is Nelson Mandela Mr Grosso Board of Ed members Mr Canela you have failed our children of their well-deserved 2021 school year education education helps us grow and develop it illuminates a child's mind and thinking it leads to Opportunities Independence morals self-confidence and helps shape a better Society you have cheated the Cedar Grove children of this I am disappointed in the weak leadership by all of you our children should have been given the opportunity a full-time in-person instruction we want to see our children progress not regress virtual learning is not effective learning we have stood here before you sent countless emails shared our concerns instead we were dismissed belittled and bullied
167for what we want best for our children what effort have you put forth to the teachers union and to Governor Murphy that time was of the essence rather you hid behind his executive orders and made claims that your goal was to keep our children safe Mr Grosso really I find it incredibly insulting that you assume that parents would put their child in an unsafe environment I promise you that there is not one parent in here today that does not care more about their child and their safety than the parents themselves according to New Jersey Health assessment when looking at the deaths that occurred to covid from January 2020 to May 2021 for school-aged children 5 to 18. there were three coveted deaths there were 37 due to Suicide that's 12 times more than covid science
168has proven that children have a low transmission rate science has proven that schools are not the cause of the spread of the virus Cedar Grove has a vaccination rate of 85 percent that is the third highest in the state yet our children are not in school full-time and they're forced to wear medical devices on their face in 95 degree weather it is obvious that the teachers union and Governor Murphy's agendas come first and our children's education comes last a Tibetan proverb reads a child without education is Like a Bird Without Wings you have clipped our children's Wings by taking away their education and and their well-being and for that reason I call for the resignation of superintendent Mr Grosso and president of Board of Ed Christine dye for failing our children thank you for your
169comment next on the list I have press Preston and I apologize I can't see the name um scavira [Applause] hello my name is Preston ceriva and I'm a sophomore here at Cedar Grove High School I am before you tonight to ask about two very serious questions masks and the survey that went out in reality I'm a young adult that has been exposed to very adult issues especially this past year this builds my character and diversifies me for the real world but I never expected that attending a public school I would be asked such invasive questions to such serious topics I am asking you here tonight why does it matter my gender race or religion I've been a victim of discrimination in this town to wish I have filed a Hib and it was unfounded which
170made me feel even more uncomfortable and intimidated I want to know who is an advocate for a kid like me I was only offered counseling through the guidance Department I want to ask why I was denied such resources yet other students were given a committee leadership by Educators and support from you the board from what I understand no committee was there for me when I was discriminated against isn't this it self-discrimination furthermore I am here to speak I am here to see I am here before you to seek answers to why we still need to wear masks in school why is it that I could go into a packed restaurant or even a nightclub for that matter shoulder to shoulder with no masks but yet safe setting like school I have to wear a face
171covering I can see how it might be easy to enforce a mask mandate from an air-conditioned office but I can tell you firsthand that it is not enjoyable wearing a mask in 80 to 95 degree weather especially in a district where 85 percent of teachers are vaccinated yes we are given two mask breaks but isn't that taking away from even more than what I've already lost in the classroom lastly I hope you can give me answers that I'm seeking this is why is there picking and choosing who is advocated for why wasn't my answer to the survey on your presentation why wasn't why wasn't the Evac behind me when I was discriminated against in your system in your system [Applause] and finally how can I begin extending school with no mask I would appreciate some
172guidance on these important issues thank you Preston Survivor thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment next I have Michelle moriello hello [Applause] Michelle moriello 51 Bennett Ave Cedar Grove I sent an email asking for questions as to why a survey was sent out last week without my consent I never got a response from the board so I decided to address you all publicly this survey was disturbing divisive and agenda driven as a board which is fueled by tax dollars I asked why there was no transparency the survey was created by the Evac committee a committee that Mr Grosso you told me was hand-picked based upon a group of individuals who have faced diversity and discriminatory acts I have a huge problem with not so much the questions but the backhanded selection of this group
173members the non-transparent way parents were told it was voluntary and confidential yet it was anything but I gave no consent to you to ask my minor children such difficult questions I would like answers why are you seeking answers to grown-up issue issues such as race diversity religion and equality from minors is your Evac group in tune with all demographics within Cedar Grove sorry is your Evac group aware and in tune to a violent discriminatory doll a teacher at the high school head of a sitting president [Applause] I am speaking before you the Cedar Grove Board of Ed who allowed this yet how diverse are all of you I have watched my son fail math if I didn't advocate for him I would have never known due to the lack of communication he lost the full
174year of math yet his gender and the God he worships is the priority for the in men in the school board I want to know how will you advocate for his learning loss when my children go for a job interview you know what will not matter the very same question your committee is asking race gender religious and sexual affiliation what will matter after they complete their education as if they're kind academically proficient and can compete in a Workforce based on the education they received I asked how you will advocate for all children in this town this includes incorporating all ethnicities all flag worthy raising holidays such as the teaching of the prisoner of war flag and D-Day and eliminating critical race Theory who represents and is the leader of groups screaming the most for equality
175cannot and should not be someone who openly shares their disdain violence and hatred for a sitting president this is bias and hypocritical representation of equality I am calling for the removal of Mr Christopher Canela from oral diversity groups he is part of them within Cedar Grove Public Schools I am outraged that this is who leads our Educators and influences the diversity plight it is a one-sided representation backhanded and misuse of power tax dollars and lack of representation of all children within our district I parent my children I do not parent them with you the schools nor the government I choose what my children are exposed to taught and asked and the great thank you very much Miss Maria mariello I appreciate it next up I have I have Mr Robbie Vargo is next on the
176list thank you thank you [Applause] thank you Robbie Vargo 30 patent Terrace so I had something written but in response to today I had to change everything Preston I want to say thank you for your comments and I want to say thank you for your questions I'm gonna actually try to answer your question because we know that we're not getting answers today specifically with regard to masks right we heard the history lesson up here going executive orders dating back to August right we heard March May August but what you did not read and you conveniently glossed over today and in your email was that the directive is an exception to the rule an exception to the rule not the rule it's intended to be different than the rule we should be following the exception now
177you might just ask I'm just reading this right but no this is not my opinion unlike Mr Grosso here decides just to give us his opinion this is not my opinion I did research what we did not hear today was what research that was done to come to this conclusion about masks all we heard today was Mr Grosso telling us what the executive orders read in his opinion see I don't just stop there right I make phone calls I called the Department of Education right so did you Trish right I called and spoke to the county superintendent right what did they say the county superintendent specifically said not only does our superintendent have the discretion to remove masks at this time he's authorized to do so it is an exception to 175. it is an
178exception to all of the executive orders so what I don't want to hear anymore are roadblocks I want to hear Solutions every time we have a concern here all we hear are 27 reasons why there's why we can't do it we never hear a solution we always hear those school districts you don't want they're not compliant in my opinion they're not compliant but guess what how many of them have been cited so far zero so Mr grosser we thank you for your opinion on this we truly value your opinion but the facts dictate otherwise and we would hope for some common sense guidance on this issue now and going forward thank you [Applause] foreign thank you for your comment next I have Agnes Norman [Applause] good evening my name is Agnes Norman I live at
17928 Bergen drive I'm here to express my utter disappointment in your lack of leadership in bringing our kids to school full-time including lunch I have previously showed up asking you to open our schools and let our children get the education that they deserve and you have failed for that reason I'm asking you Mr Grosso and Miss Dai to resign as you have failed my children and all the other children in Cedar Grove as of May 10th over 330 public school districts in the state of New Jersey have offered full-time in-person instruction to their students you did nothing to this day our school district never reinstated Friday afternoon instruction particularly knowing that the educational loss of students especially those with special needs and iaps has been devastating you could have used that time for teachers to
180keep those kids that are struggling in school on Friday even for an extra hour so they could help those that fell behind but again you did nothing you continue to make decisions for my children and all the children in Cedar Grove that are not in their best interest which is exemplified by you continuing to force our children to wear masks in extreme weather classrooms while you're outside and while in gym you have made no effort to compromise with the parents that want masks to be optional not even for the torch run or my son's fourth grade graduation in fact today I attended my son's fourth grade graduation and the children talked about on their time caps of video about masks and stress Mr Grosso missed I they're talking about stress little ten-year-old kids if you
181think that you have help them no you failed them you sent out the equity equity and diversity of edex whatever the edac survey to parents for the review and completion which I was happy to do however once again you have failed to communicate to the parents that you are going to instruct the students of all the Cedar Grove schools to complete a similar survey that was clearly not Anonymous and involuntary since they had to do it in school in fact you violated District policy 2415.05 by not gaining my consent you and the boa don't make Boe don't make that decision for me I do I gave birth to those children you mentioned race and gender identity but my ten-year-old thank you for your comment Miss Norman I appreciate it next up I have Mr John
182Martinelli [Applause] excuse me John Martinelli 30 Hillside Avenue Cedar Grove uh my affiliation I'm a Democrat and I'm also have a biracial family so you can't attack me I guess uh from Every Which Way right from what I'm about to say okay you have to bear in mind now I want everybody to think and think hard I have a third grader a daughter at North End School I have a fourth grade son at North End School my kids did not know race until they went to North them okay that's number one number two they look at my wife now as the Asian mother and I'm the white father and I'm gonna tell you what okay tell you why first off I can get to the uh okay first I would like to know who is
183on the edac board and how they are appointed first off this survey to me is very intrusive and bizarre why do you need to know my race religious affiliation gender identity safe place or safe place for people who look like you if the school is fair dealing with people like you very bizarre you would think you're in Cedar Grove is a war zone I mean really okay and what is the purpose and how will you use this information will this information be sold how dare you use religious affiliation in your survey I thought this was a separation between church and state okay a dear friend of mine wanted me to read a survey because he's a lot more eloquent in his speaking than I do but I totally agree of what he said and I'm
184going to read it for you now we believe that continuously pointing out differences between race and gender the school district is not only going to cause more diversiveness divisiveness among the children and burden it with unnecessary with political propaganda that only serves to their power and continues to make other children see differences rather than simply another peer our children never even thought along these lines until the elementary school started teaching this to them with Cedar Grove middle school and high school performing so poorly in academic areas and dropping in state rankings severely over the last 10 years maybe parents should be getting surveys on improving the delivery of academics instead of social justice okay and lastly respectfully overwhelming majority of people are sick and tired of having to deal with wokeness and change always being
185shoved down their throats along with indoctrination of children my son from the from before he started six and a half months until then and I have to admit I have to give Mr Grosso props and I appreciate what he did heard nothing but discrimination of people of color racism that my son came home to me and said he was ashamed he was white okay and that's not a lie my like I said thank you Mr Martinelli next I have Mark and Diana ruthman hello Mark ruthman 125 Cedar Grove Parkway um just going to read a statement which I prepared earlier which is we I just want everyone to know that my wife and I we support equity and diversity in our schools however we do not support the solicitation of our children myself via a
186survey to extract personal and confidential information from us with the apparent intent to fuel a political and social agenda within our schools oh [Applause] you know one of the things when I saw the survey um one of the things that was apparent to me was was the lack of controls in place where I could send that survey to anybody that I wanted to and one of the things that I that I also realized was that the results would be presented back to the board but we weren't able to validate who that those surveys were coming from um tonight we had asked a lot of questions to Mr Grosso uh recently we didn't get a response but he did say to come to the board of ed meeting tonight and that maybe he would be able
187to help us so when he stood up there and presented the survey um information um I was disappointed with with what he told us um and I actually have to give him credit because he was very smart because what he did was what I was trying to prevent him from doing was present was uh showing results of a survey that's invalid I mean it's possible some of these children responded to it but it's possible some other kids from other towns or parents or somebody else responded we don't know that that came from Cedar Grove students and where is the survey now I I don't does anybody have it it's gone okay and and you you actually presented results in front of the camera in front of everybody here that they're invalid I'm going to consider
188them invalid I mean you you admitted that you don't know who filled out the survey so yeah it was shut down so I don't know why it was shut down but anyway um yeah so in closing what what we'd like to say is you're not going to use our children to promote a political agenda we support equity and inclusion in our school but we do not uh let's see uh but this is not the correct approach to take we're not aligned with this this was a very sneaky way of pushing an alternate agenda this is a very deceptive misleading and disheartening process thank you [Applause] Mr ruthman Stringer okay Leo stronger for Highview Terrace okay I've been in um I've had kids in Cedar Grove School since for 15 years now Cedar Grove has never
189been and is not now a racist or sexist Community where that you make it out to be so you go to school system has always been about supporting all students with respect equally regardless of race or gender it's past year to CG Boe in conjunction with the GSA and edac Council has used covid-19 lockdowns as an opportunity to implement radical liberal policy changes with no parent or Community involvement it's not nice to laugh you don't like when we right these so-called social justice Equity equip which is racism like you run out and lgbtq which is sexism mandates are designed to divide the community and students which it's doing in a recent June 1st North jersey.com interview GSA leaders called CG Cedar Grove a conservative leaning town this is a quote and believe that has led
190to homophobia and transphobia whereas that get where are they getting that from within the community GSA leader also quoted referring Cedar Grove Community as openly homophobic this is absolutely uncalled for on June 9th you live in this town on June 9th parents and students were surprised at edac needs assessment was emailed to grades three to twelve and paged parents during morning classes as Anonymous assignment the surgery was disabled on June 11th obviously it's not Anonymous it's used on School devices in a school network obviously you can trace every survey don't tell me you can't it's a technical limitation it's technical the parent survey is also traceable because there are also links don't tell me you can't trace it because that's ridiculous we're not stupid what is the purpose of the needs attendance why was this
191not disclosed to parents beforehand previous administrations have always disclosed things before sending them to our kids we never parents okay so how many parents and students completed the survey before it was closed we'll never know that we just know the Cherry Picked answered that Mr Grosso chose to show us how did the parent student teacher surveys differ where teachers surveyed was Administration surveyed voluntary it's not a voluntary it's called assignment by some parents are calling it teachers who called it assignments and help the students answer the questions of course in third and fourth grade now I can answer these questions on themselves because so any questions on gender identity for students they don't have a gender identity they're male or female ridiculous race ethnicity eight choices eight choices including other and multiple categories white with
192less what is a multiple category of race does not go against the concept of equity okay as far as being safe we spent two three million dollars two and a half years ago on security in this in this school district what are you asking about thank you for your comment next I have Tom Perry [Applause] Tom Perry Cedar Grove Parkway I have four questions the first is the district has decided not to follow the exceptions and Governor Murphy's executive order 175 for extreme heat and situations which may inhibit health this is despite Governor Murphy's assurances that school officials that's you by the way are empowered to make those decisions and that the McClure Department of Health is also saying it's permissible I understood that the rationale had to do with a lack of clarity around
193executive order 175 sections 2A and 2B but as Robbie Vargo asked what action did the district take to gain better Clarity on 2A versus 2B did anyone contact the governor's office ask for the opinion of the district's legal counsel or reach out to other districts who did successfully suspend masks two the district has demonstrated a belief that it is safe for children to be engaging in physical activity in gym classes indoors while wearing masks during a heat wave the district requires children to be matched while outdoor is engaging in physical activity and Heat question is has the district considered a potential liability for harm or injury sustained by children or staff forced to wear masks Outdoors or indoors in extreme heat as one could persuasively argue that causation and negligence in a lawsuit would be
194present I think that question's for you in the back corner third there are numerous peer-reviewed studies which conclude the following vaccines are extremely effective in preventing severe covid further the likelihood of transmission from prior from one vaccinated person to another is less than remote two natural immunity from prior infections is effective and long lasting children are up to three times less likely to be infected with covid and pose a low risk of transmission to unvaccinated persons when children do become infected the majority are asymptomatic that's formerly known as not sick [Applause] given the staff has had ample time to be vaccinated in the vaccination rate in Cedar Grove is 85 percent and kids are at a low risk for severe covid why does the district continue to take the risk of requiring masks fourth students
195as young as third and fourth grade are being lectured about complex and sensitive issues such as racial inequity when I inquired about this at North End I was assured that the intent of the lessons was to be a very high level introduction into racial issues and to be strictly from a positive Viewpoint we should all treat each other well regardless of our race gender religion Etc based on that very reasonable explanation I was comfortable for the time being now I've come to know that a very inappropriate survey on such complex topics was sent to children as early or rather as young as nine and ten years old you guys sent a survey 10 9 and 10 year olds thank you for yours thank you for your comment next I call Mr David Grant [Applause] David
196Grande 21 Timber Rock Court [Music] so putting aside the the absolutely just poor communication strategy associated with the uh the need survey including the the biased nature of the email blast that went out to all parents the survey questions themselves and the lack of specificity as to what exactly the assessment is going to be used for and putting aside the overall process including no mention of a baseline assessment of our current diversity infrastructure the ask coming from the The edac Advisory Council which you know I'm still not much smarter about despite the prepared remarks today and the survey being sent to students as as young as as third grade and in many cases received by students prior to parents actually even knowing about it putting all that aside I'm standing here kind of just you
197know scratching my head as to why in the world you're focusing your efforts on on that right now I mean in my mind your top priorities need to be on really three things and there should not be a surprise first releasing the The Mask mandate which I still don't haven't heard a a rational reason why the Mandate is still needed in our schools two committing to reopening the schools for 100 in-person learning in the fall and three are probably the most challenging of all and something that no one really seems to be talking about very much is assessing any any real learning gaps because of the pandemic and how we're going to get our students back on track if that's the case so those should be the primary things you're focused on right now and
198it's it's just it's really pretty unbelievable to me that the school board has been spending time on the survey and this initiative but what's what's even further irritating is that you have you know some of our kids using their their valuable limited in-person school time filling out the service in my world if a board got that far off track from their key objectives you know they would lose credibility in a heartbeat and I think you're starting to see that and it would eventually lead to their removal now I didn't come here to you know to publicly look for resignations but I can't say that I disagree with with the ass that have been that we've we've heard so far um looks like I have 40 seconds left so but not part of my prepared remarks
199though like I understand that the current board has served in that capacity for you know a number of years five plus years and if if some of you know what the survey response Mr Grosso that you put up on the border true that's really a referendum on on you guys you yeah that happened under your watch yeah that's not a referendum necessarily on what's going on and that's just assuming that what what you guys put up there is is true so you guys should be embarrassed about that thank you thank you for your comment next I call up Nicole Fisk [Music] [Applause] I'm at Nicole Fisk apparently some of you already know that 34 Elmwood Road on June 9th parents received an email and a subsequent survey was distributed almost simultaneously to our third and
200fourth graders at the elementary school it was stated that the reasoning for the survey was to better understand and serve our student and family community despite the fact that our children were given this questionnaire while at school unbeknownst to us without prior knowledge or consent questions asked of both ourselves as well as our children included how we identify in terms of gender and gender how our religious affiliation and race would be classified if teachers treat people who do or do not look like us fairly and what kinds of change we would like to see first and foremost we would like to see an end to useless discriminatory surveys such as this one it is absolutely absurd to think that in eight or nine-year-old identifies as anything other than a child aside from the fact that
201most of them didn't understand what the term gender meant had to ask their teacher how they should respond they don't see differences like religion or race either they see other kids what would be the biggest request for change based upon most of the children I've spoken to a full day of massless instruction complete with lunch and recess would be a great start some of them may even have responded that their favorite activity at school was Media Center which evidently no longer exists in Cedar Grove because we've eliminated our Specialists with counselors and for what so we can push even more discriminatory ideology it is my understanding that critical race Theory and black lives matter studies are already in the works for next year's curriculum I would like to know if we plan to address equity
202and inclusion by teaching our children that some ethnic groups are victims and others are privileged oppressors how are we educating our children which in fact is supposed to be the priority of these teachers when we're taking time away from math reading science the most important factual history for this nonsense we've already experienced 14 months of school time which was literally a virtual waste for many now we are going to take time from our studies so that we can indoctrinate children into believing that the nation where they live which they should love and respect is inherently racist and somehow a particular group of these children are responsible for it based upon the color of their skin ironically the survey went on to ask if the children felt safe no one should feel safe in this environment
203because there is a very dangerous reality when such a push for Marxist agendas on the horizon you are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist amongst these poor children and their families the problem lies with the administrators in a select group of Educators who are in favor of this brainwashing and are pointing out differences amongst us Among Us that our children would not otherwise see in the real the real root of this division in our community it's not us it's our Educators and it's our administrators we should be able to teach acceptance and tolerance for all without isolating any one particular group most importantly I ask who's going to lead us in the Quest for equality and acceptance might it be the high school history teacher who incites violence and hatred by displaying a
204figure of a U.S president with a noose around his neck or will be the principler or the superintendent which stands by and does nothing about it the reality speaks of volumes on the topic of our current staff's openness for other standpoints and political views thank you for your comment next I have Marcella Crossman hi uh Marcella Crossman 328 Crestmont Road former Marine [Applause] I'm I'm also an immigrant legal actually obviously I was born in Ecuador came here in 1983 lived in Jersey City was uh bullied all the time but it seems that that obviously didn't get in the way of My Success I also don't Advocate bullying [Applause] um my husband is white he's you know the blonde hair blue eyes my children are the mix color and so when my biggest challenge is to
205hear that it's not okay for him to be Spanish because growing up I was made fun of her having dark hair and now he's going to be made fun of as well because he's white so what should we do to him how what are we going to tell him right how am I gonna explain that the education system is saying that you're not supposed to be white you actually are privileged when his mother sacrificed half her life to give you the freedom right got activated in 9 11. I was part of so why don't we teach that instead of the fact that he's white pink yellow brown but that's that's a whole nother thing the point of all this is freedom that's what I meant to start with a freedom right being a marine by
206default makes me a freedom fighter and after I finished my service I didn't know how to continue to fight which is why now I'm here the the masking or unmasking we should have a choice not being forced to do so they gave us that choice and now you're still forcing us why can't I sometimes want to wear a mask when I don't feel well why do we have to force and take away the freedom of choice what happened to dare I say my body my choice okay [Applause] and with the last 30 that I have it seems that you have failed to facilitate a setting for free exchange of ideas you fail to represent the entire community and then you've failed to basically run a productive Board of Ed meeting so with all due respect
207we'd like your resignation Mr President thank you for your comment next up I have Jacqueline wolfster [Applause] hello I'm Jacqueline wolfster and I live on Buena Vista on the south end I have three young children who I've not sent to school this past year because I refuse to put them in Mass um we have seen that mass do not work we have seen that children have not been affected by covid and but it does affect them physically and psychologically so the masks need to be done with um Mansfield and Warren County had already made Mass optional in September so it is possible to do so and you need to do that uh moving on I want to move on to Mr Canela who says that he teaches everyone to be inclusive and welcoming in other
208people but he posts on Facebook that he wants people from other towns to come tonight knowing that there's a big group of us coming that want to express how we feel that does not seem inclusive or welcoming and not you don't welcome other ideas and that is what you are teaching our children [Applause] that is not the education that I want my kids to be receiving you need to not be an educator at all I have gr I am Asian I have raised my kids to be Asian they do not see race they don't see color they don't see anything except whether you are a good person or not a good person you are putting you are teaching these kids how to be racist and that is not okay they do not see that they
209go to a playground and they see a fun kid that they want to play with and they make a friend doesn't matter what they are who they are they just see a good person that they want to have fun with so you are instilling these children to be racist with your education and that needs to be stopped foreign both of your resignations and Mr Canela needs to not be an educator in this town anymore thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment next up I have Lindsay oruski I sorry about that [Applause] hi my name is Lindsay orighi I live at 39 David Road in Cedar Grove I have lived in Cedar Grove my whole life and I have never experienced this kind of disgusting disgusting behavior in my life I've never felt or experienced
210any like anything like this anything I'm still waiting for an email response back from him from November okay from November if I at my company if I did not respond to an email that was sent to me in November I would be fired okay that is unacceptable okay on to the masking of our kids I would like to ask everybody a question if you had a dog would you allow your dog to stay in a car with a window cracked in 90 degree weather no that is what they're doing to our children they're treating them like dogs putting them in cars in 90 degree weather and not letting them be able to breathe okay where's the science for that okay we are in an auditorium right now we had the option to wear masks and
211not wear masks why can our children not have the option okay and lastly I'd just like to say there is no reason why I should know of a teacher's sexual background okay I should not know who he's married to I should not know if he's not interested in being married to that person anymore for a particular reason I should not know that when I grew up in this town I did not know if my teacher was married I didn't know if my teacher was gay a lesbian I didn't know I didn't care okay this is ridiculous and I am so glad I've been so stressed out this week but from this week I've met so many great people in this town that I didn't know so unfortunately you just made this town closer and you
212made us come together more and I am asking for the resignation of Mr Grasso Miss dye and Mr Canelo thank you [Music] [Applause] sorry next I have Richard Ricky Richard riggy 39 David Road first of all I want to thank all the parents tonight now give yourselves a round of applause you guys are great with without this kind of activism this wouldn't be exposed nobody would know okay the town's asleep they don't know what's going on they have no idea they don't know about these activists that are in our school now they're not Educators they are social engineers and political activists they're not interested in education they're not it's obvious it's obvious to see they have agendas and and and that agenda is not for the betterment of our kids okay so wake up wake
213up your neighbors and tell them to get down here thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you for your comment next I have Chris Canela foreign your time will start when everybody gives you the respect okay please go ahead um first I want to thank all of the people that came here tonight to participate in the Democratic process because that's that's enormously important um apparently I'm very popular here tonight it's a bit unsettling but it is what it is um so I I really didn't come here with anything prepared to say because I didn't I don't know what to say but a question was asked a question was asked and that question is why am I out why am I open why is that important right why is that important I'm going to read something to you
214from a former student that sent the message to me and the student's actually here tonight and the student lives in this community a student went to the school and the student has friends that went to school and probably going to put this probably put it is putting their students through the school system I'm not sure you're aware but you coming out was kind of a big deal in high school when my friends who were very closet at the time found out it gave them a great deal of confidence and made them feel much more at home in a school with an openly gay teacher I don't know if anybody's ever told you that but you made a big difference in the lives of the people at the time by simply learning that they weren't alone
215kudos to you for embracing your true self and sharing it with others well here's the here's the part about it though here's the part about it is that I actually wasn't out at the time I didn't come out I was outed by somebody who who was on the coaching staff with me and then I found myself that I was no longer coaching here anymore Okay so you ask why why this is important because of the stories that those students that those students told today because of the fear that they have is this the worst place I'm going to be honest it's not I love teaching here I love teaching here this is part of my life excuse me sir I sat there for over an hour and heard you people screaming at these people hold
216you heard you screaming at him and you're you're going to interrupt and I sat there quietly I ask everybody just to please show respect who's ever speaking regardless of who it is or who what you think about them to show them respect I apologize for that Outburst but the issue of equality and diversity is important excuse me the the the tasks and what this group has done I'm enormously proud as the president and as a representative of the teachers we stand behind what you did and we appreciate it and we look forward to continuing the work thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment next I have Jamie day Geiger are you still here okay I'm going to move on to Jameel Freeman please time to race me anxious and I haven't talked in a
217while so forget my voice thank you all for staying out this late to listen and discuss these matters I hate also reading but here we go my name is Jamil Freeman I live 22 Hickory Court here in Cedar Grove identify as African-American and you see him in his pronouns my wife identifies as Caucasian and we are parents to two children who we believe I'm sorry who we know are biracial I hope they are although I have some very serious questions asked my wife sorry honey um I feel it's important to begin with formal events any formal event with these with my pronouns not only for my own affirmation but also to create space for others who may feel hesitant to share their identities in an effort to feel comfortable included and seen I may be
218the minority here and I know these efforts have unsettled the community but I personally feel this can be a positive step to forward towards for our children the faculty and for us as parents it is my hope that over time many families will see these efforts are not only immensely beneficial for the educational and psychological development of our children I currently serve as an administrator in an independent school in New York City prior to that I've been an administrator of Princeton University Johns Hopkins University Bentley University and my alma mater the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill well I'm far from being an expert on Dei matters I would like to believe that I have a firm understanding of how these curriculum and co-curricular programs work particularly pertaining to Childhood Adolescent and adult education I've
219seen these efforts in many schools across the country I've studied the data and it's beginning to be a requirement at many colleges and universities including the ones that I've worked at di efforts are wonderful ways to begin the process of allowing our children to embrace their identifiers develop fundamental levels of cultural competence and most importantly help those who may feel invisible be seen nothing about indoctrination or critical race Theory I'm not discussing anything about that nature just about our children and who they are I hope that many parents who initially met these efforts with anger confusion and confusion May understand that this is never the intent for any Dei efforts The Narrative that these efforts promote guilt or assign labels of racism or racist to any individuals who identify as Caucasian is simply not true
220my own children shared this identifier as being Caucasian half Caucasian and I would find it very offensive and I would never support a cultural pedagogy that inherently labels my children's racist these efforts are hopefully designed to make our children Feel Again included and insane and hopefully with much cooperation from our community we can have positive conversations going forward Cedar Grove is changing it may be faster than some of us would prefer chains can be scary and these efforts ask us to perform a self-assessment of our individual social identifiers some people may not understand how to approach these topics it's a difficult conversation to have and it's perfectly okay to have a little apprehension this is what we're here for that's why we're adults as a parent I see our leadership trying to provide the necessary
221resources for our children to be culturally competent and to embrace the diversity of their identifiers if you can't support these efforts at least do if that your children will be prepared for the world that they will enter for the workforce for colleges should your children should decide to go to college they will be required to have some form of proficiency with the basic terms and Concepts that will be presented next I have Melissa elting hello okay I would like to briefly address two concerns the continuation of the unethical masking of our children in schools as the rest of the population is permitted to go unmasked and the quiet implementation of a curriculum consisting of critical race Theory and explicit gender studies first our governor gave the green light to ease mask restrictions some districts jumped
222All Over It While others continue to uphold the now relaxed mandate in an effort to offer some perspective this past Sunday I attended my daughter's dance recital where the audience was completely unmasked yet the dancers were forced to wear them some breathing so heavily I thought they were going to suck the mask right down their throat smaller children had masks filled with moisture likely mucus every ever tried to keep your four-year-old from wiping their snot with their hands near impossible imagine what you spread around with a germ-filled diaper on your face I watched in horror and felt it was nothing short of abuse and humiliation yet we scream follow the science my point is that there are too many variations of the so-called science that we continue to follow this is not a children's disease
223teachers and staff have all been given the opportunity to be vaccinated and the chance of getting infected once vaccinated is now 0.03 percent if we don't drop the masks immediately we will have no data to back up our fight when they try to force them on us yet again come September quick word on CRT and gender studies our Educators play an important role in the lives of our children I respect and admire them for all the challenges they face with dignity when it comes to wrangling the youth especially with all of the extra hurdles that come with growing up in such turbulent times however the parenting of our children should be left to the parents the equity and diversity survey was sent out without our knowledge during the school day and parents were only notified
224after hours after the children received it we don't even know who sits on this committee as long as I have lived here it's been public knowledge as to who sits on what group committee panel or otherwise I'm guessing it's being kept secret Because deep down you know it was wrong and quite possibly illegal so I ask will you do what's best for our children by making masks optional effective immediately and will you stand up against and an overreach in curriculum that supports indoctrination as opposed to education thank you for your comment next I have Nicholas slendoria hi I'm Nick splendori and Rose Harris I'm reading on behalf of Nina Lazar 310 Holly Lane she's a community activist for the group um or she was a community activist for the group NJ 11th for change versus
225nonpartisan organization dear friends members of the board and administration I've been a resident of Cedar Grove since 2004 though none of my children were educated in this town they are now parents and I even have a two-year-old Grand a great granddaughter schools attended by my kids and grandkids are in Teaneck and Montclair though I am not a person of color I felt it was very important to raise my children in communities which Embrace Multicultural multi-ethnic and multi-religious populations I have never regretted that I should also mention that I have been an educator since 1966. I have made the decision to teach in Teaneck New Jersey after beginning my teaching career in the New York City school system in East Harlem as a child in the Bronx I attended PS 93 and saw Time After Time
226how children of color were not treated with the same regard as white children I knew that then that I wanted to teach and ensure that every child that was in my charge we treated with respect I promised myself that all students would learn in my classes with the same set of rules and privileges I love children I love teaching I may have even taught some of your children when I substituted in Cedar Grove Elementary Schools before covid in retrospect I see how many errors were made by our teachers when I attended school and imparting the history of our country the so much was eliminated from the curriculum so it's to keep our country story pure but it isn't untarnished and history and her story should be honest and accurate and I am so very sad
227to see that all over our country communities are trying to erase what is real and Trust we are all of the same Human family we were born with different shades of skin but other than that we have been created equal so says our constitution but really we don't even need a written document to know this truth do we whatever color one skin is whatever his or her religion or sexual orientation please remember that we are all one know that all in our country and the world are watching the deterioration of our country's founding values and each of us has the responsibility to ensure that children are taught the truth in an inclusive environment no whitewashing and denying our Real History let's do this as a community for all the beautiful children in our town thank
228you [Applause] I have Danielle Jacob good evening Mr Grosso Miss Dai members of the Board of Education and those in attendance this evening I wanted to speak tonight about a recent survey sent out by the equity and diversity advisory Council about diversity and equity in our schools Cedar Grove is very much like that quiet little stream that runs through many of our own backyards everyone knows each other and we go along day after day calmly floating by in our little sleepy town the recent survey sent out by the edac committee has for some reason created a tidal wave in our little stream as a teacher a lifelong resident and a parent in this town I have the unique opportunity to see things from a different perspective and yet I'm having a hard time seeing what
229is so terribly wrong with starting a discussion among our children to understand their perspectives the survey asked for anonymous opinions about diversity and equality in different grade levels to use as a starting point for this committee to open up a dialogue so we can create an environment that is safe and welcoming for all children the members of this committee which include Administration staff and parents came up with questions to gather data about gender ethnicity diversity and equality so they can determine an appropriate course of action in making our schools fair and Equitable for everyone the intention of this committee is to include all opinions on the subject so what are we teaching our children if we as parents fight against inclusivity what if your child was the one who feared going to school every day
230what if your child was the one that cried because no one understood them if students are the priority shouldn't we find out how they feel if they don't feel comfortable then we need to have those difficult discussions to see how we can change that eventually our children are going to leave this little stream and how to head out into the ocean it's our job as parents and teachers to prepare them for that and to show them that they will meet people from all different walks of life I've heard the words lawsuits underhanded sneaky atrocious outrageous hidden agenda being thrown around tonight and it saddens me that these words do nothing but put up the exact barriers that the edac committee is trying to break down children emulate what they see from adults if we yell
231and fight every time we don't like something we're only showing our children that having a difference of opinion is wrong that being different is bad and that the only thing we will accomplish by doing this is to create a culture of secrecy rather than opening the door to speak freely without reprimand thank you for your comment Miss Jacob [Applause] next I have Kristen resinello [Applause] okay hi Mr Grasso you and I have spoke this week you called me after I sent an email I felt it appropriate just to read my email that I wrote to Mr gross so this week I put my glasses on first my name is Kristen rasinella my daughter Talia is a junior um at the high school um Tony because you said I could address you as that we've had
232a conversation about this last week it is important to reiterate my email this is the headline from new jersey.com on Monday June 7th schools in New Jersey will have the discretion to let students go without wearing masks during the extreme heat that is descended on the state this week Governor Phil Murphy never said anything about this e0175 going back to whatever month you said it you said that we're outraged obviously you can see from all of our feedback here we are deeply concerned that you and the Board of Education are endangering the health and well-being of our children as you have heard from many parents tonight the following districts have lifted their mandates through the rest of the year with little or no consequence and the list of this of the list is rapidly growing
233Fairfield Wayne Cranford Roxbury Belmar Toms River Roselle West Orange Paramus Hazlet Middletown Colts Neck Ramapo Indian Hills Roxbury and recently Homedale why not Cedar Grove why not it appears that you and your board's decision and mandates are a personal preference versus the policy from the governor and the state boards of the education you are ignoring the guidance and the trend invoking your personal ideology this is about control no you nor the board members will negotiate with the majority of the community that want this mask lifted we are asking that must be made optional through the end of the year make masks optional make masks optional be leaders be leaders that we elected you to be thank you thank you for your comment next I have Lou marzullo [Applause] good evening Mr Grasso and the Board
234of Education my name is Lou marzullo I reside at nine First Ave I'm a 37-year resident of Cedar Grove I recall the days when we were United school system that people here tonight are unable to relate to at this moment we are currently a school system that appears to be in divide over the past school year Cedar Grove has faced many issues ranging from graduation Mass policies and sensitive survey topics I am not here tonight to speak to you about any of those in particular however I stand in front of you to reflect on what could have eased the turmoil I've learned one thing through my life experiences I use this philosophy in my teaching and my personal business career people get upset and outrage when they don't understand why if the Board of Education
235can be transparent and have open dialogue to provide explanation and informing our stakeholders of what and why decisions are being made they will be more understanding of the why and more inclined to side with you working in education for the past 20 years I do understand some things cannot be disclosed because of the procedures and legalities I am not 100 sure we have the procedures or the proper procedures at least in place that Define the effect of flow of communication between the Board of Education and our community we as a community and the school board need to come together for the betterment of our children and our society together we can begin this immediately by changing and providing informed decisions the best we can decisions such as why graduation had to be moved during the
236daytime while people are working decisions on why they still have to wear masks decisions on why they have to partake in a survey that some might feel sensitive if you took the time to explain why to our parents that sit here before you tonight they may have been eased a little bit more I think we all deserve that thank you [Applause] Don Dora [Applause] good evening my name is Dawn Dora and I reside at 56 Union Street in Cedar Grove over the course of this school year you have continually heard our community members come forward with questions and concerns pertaining to our schools they have reached out via email phone calls attendant board meetings and yes posted on Facebook on social media it's been unfortunate that our questions and concerns have often gone unheard and
237unanswered the success of our school Community relies heavily on the relationships it Fosters with its stakeholders that relationship should be built on trust and confidence that our children are being provided with the best instruction by the best teachers with their best interest in mind school and Community relationships require communication transparency and ongoing collaboration these are are all of our children it is in my opinion and I assume the opinion of many of the people sitting here tonight and those watching from home that the relationship between the Cedar Grove School District and the members of the Cedar Grove Community has been broken there continues to be no clear communication regarding the issues you've heard about tonight and many other nights the issue of masks the issues of graduation times the issue of the return to school
238plan and most recently the issue of the sensitive matter pushed out in the student survey I ask why is there no communication why does it appear that the administration and the school board is hesitant or resistant or even outright refusing to communicate with the families of the children they are supposed to be working for I do not have an answer to this we do not have an answer to this question we're tired of wasting valuable time and energy fighting and pleading for information it is time that the Cedar Grove Board of Ed and the administrative team hear what the Cedar Grove committee Community is asking for we're asking for transparency we're asking for more communication we're asking for honesty and collaboration so we can begin to focus on what matters most our children and how
239we are going to address the learning loss that has occurred over the past year and a half so my question tonight is simple what type of input are you going to seek from the community in developing a plan to address the learning loss that has occurred thank you very much thank you for your comment next I have Ken Horowitz Ken Horowitz okay we'll move on I have Melissa South is next Melissa South all right I have oh I can't really read the last name Carolyn begins with an M I apologize I'm sorry about that hi my name is Carolyn Maxwell and um I live at 67 Elmwood Road so hello Board of Education Mr Grosso and all attendees nearly a year ago I first spoke at a Board of Education meeting on behalf of the
240Cedar Grove education Reform Group as a Cedar Grove schools alumni we had created a petition to the Board of Education asking for inclusive education reform on topics such as race disability and the lgbtq plus Community within the curriculum I was skeptical if anything would actually be done but I stand corrected we had seven points we wanted to achieve the three that I can affirm have been completed are the formation of a diversity committee the hiring of a superintendent committed to anti-racism and take-home resources for parents and the community members I have met with Mr Grosso and personally saw his commitment to pushing the school district towards being a more inclusive and welcoming environment to all these achievements would also not be possible without the Board of Education support although it has taken some time to
241implement these changes in Cedar Grove I know that Mr Grosso the Board of Education and I are pushing towards the same goals I do not want the board or the equity diversity advisory Council to be disheartened by the pushback by some of the community members are exhibiting rather I want you to think of the student who previously felt unsafe unheard and unrepresented and still due to this day and know that you are being beginning to foster a safer environment for their education and I want to thank you for that foreign next I have Justin Lemley and I apologize if I didn't say the last name correct oh um my name is Justin Lemley uh I'm more nervous than I thought I would be I'm actually currently a teacher in another school district thanks to the
242education I got here I'm an alumni from 2007. this is my mother Kathy she probably sold gowns at the bridal shop to half the room um um I also babysat one of the student alumni over there back in the day anyway so um I just want to say thank you because I was the kid who wasn't heard in school I was the kid hiding in the band room and in my math teacher's classroom because I I couldn't be those Brave kids staying in front of us today I'm transgender I knew it was different when I was four years old I'm 32. I think I got it figured out but it took some time and it took loving Educators like my math teacher like my music teachers who cared and my mother said to me when
243we were sitting over there Justin I'm afraid to come up there with you because I'm afraid they're going to Heckle you I I just wanted a good education I learned how to play the trombone pretty good and now I teach a hundred kids how to play Band instruments how to sing I'm not that good a singer but I try Miss Justin is a is is a saint for listening to me saying for all those years but at the end of the day I I walked away from school despite those safe places I had within the corners literally the corners of the school thinking that people like me didn't belong in school I left this High School I was in the school district and from second grade to 12th grade every year playing the trombone but
244deep down I was just a kid who wanted to play soccer who wanted to not be on Pompton Avenue with seven boys surrounding me throwing my hat in the street or having someone throw a water bottle at my head in the middle of gym class and telling me I was I apologize for my language the biggest effing in high school I was a teenage girl for all anyone new including myself but I was also just someone who needed to be heard and seen my mother's now trying not to cry cry in it's way past my bedtime I have to be a CL I have to teach at 7 50 A.M with kids who just want to sing at their graduation and I'd like to help them thank you very much for your comment [Applause] next
245I have Janet disano Janet disano all right moving on uh I have Jeanette wilfling I'm moving right along I have um Michelle oh gosh uh Michelle marici okay we're gonna move along even more I have a Tony Ann Mattia mathia all right and then I have Kristen mckelling McKillip sorry Christian right oh I'm so sorry I apologize I went to school here it's par for the course uh hi my name is Christian mckillop 113 Montclair Avenue and uh I'm coming to you not as a parent at all but as a student alumni of Cedar Grove High School 2002 I'm an oldie I guess um a little bit about myself I actually um was born and raised in Queens New York um and the little little Nook Queens two houses a little park across the street
246Cemetery where Harry Houdini was buried two houses and an upholstery factory so it wasn't much but then my dad started his own business we did really well and we was Cedar Grove came here my family's been here for 25 years I came here when I was in fifth grade uh I'm half Dominican half Irish I as a child in Queens played with all sorts of kids from different walks of life I mean that's what it's about right that's what it is out there and uh I came to Cedar Grove and you know this is 20 years ago and I came to the school had what 54 kids I think I'm being generous actually 48 kids in my graduating class and I was the only Latino Kid at all um and it's okay I'm half Irish
247I don't even speak Spanish um but it really didn't matter it was kind of this thing that that went along where like it was okay to bad mouth um Hispanic kids or Latino kids but it didn't matter because I I didn't count so we constantly get these different uh these different battering moments or like look at this you know racial slur look at this thing oh don't worry about it you don't count you don't count well yeah I count you know I know how to hide in plain sight that's fine but I do count and so I wish that at my time there was there was a way for me to say something or to outlet something because even though I had a wonderful education thoroughly enjoyed it I do wonder what it would be
248like if I was allowed to you know showcase the music that I really enjoy or not have to conform to the different levels of life because still to this day I do have a slight identity crisis I think to myself you know there's there's you know there's Irish Christian and then there's Dominican Christian and either side really likes that version of them either so it's not just one-sided either because quite frankly really quickly um there was racism from the Spanish side as well so it really isn't a white or brown or anything issue it's just a human issue and the fact matter is is that these kids are the future they are so you can try to fight it as much as you want but they're basically just waiting for us to go away so
249they can continue this on so so get with the program and and realize that it is about love that's really what it's about they just want love and the fact that we can fight love is just ridiculous in my eyes thank you for your comment I appreciate it Mr Grosso that was the last one on the list do you have any comments or anything okay um then I close that portion of the meeting I have actually a comment I would like to make I'm tired that's the subject of an email I received from a high school student almost exactly a year ago this student sent an email to the entire student body Administration and teachers letting people know that she was tired she was tired of being picked on and bullied and told to go
250back to where she came from because she had a different belief because she had different beliefs than what other classmates had the Board of Ed got the email and it was a wake-up call we needed to start having conversations about equity and diversity there were issues and we needed to address them we needed to do better we needed to start to have a conversation about making sure students were being treated equally and that everyone felt safe and included we hired a superintendent who would help us with this we created the equity in the diversity committee we started a conversation and most recently we raised the pride flag we've made a lot of progress but clearly by what we've heard tonight we aren't done yet and we need to keep having conversations the fact that someone
251said this tonight about a student who was feeling not safe that they just needed to figure it out shows that we're not done not everyone feels safe we heard that tonight students are bullied they're picked on for what they believe and how they look and and what and working and we're working to make them feel safe and included and by doing that that doesn't take away from any other student it just doesn't at the end of the day I want to be on the side of right and making sure that we focus on the needs of everyone is right thank you [Applause] and by the way I have no intention of resigning because I'm not done doing this work at all [Applause] announcement of future meetings the next one July 20th um same place same
252time and the one after that August 17th everybody have a safe and healthy summer can I have a uh I call roll call please or I'm sorry first a motion to adjourn roll call please Mrs dichara yes Mrs Amiga yes Mrs pandoria hi Mr Schoener Mrs dye yes the meeting is over everybody have a good night