001thank you mine was sleeping at the house you know what my mother and I call her every day thank you and if there are days of my dad every day I called my mom every day I never understand like I don't understand and my brother my brother every day okay good evening I'd like to call the meeting to order please ah the executive session of the Wayne Board of Education regular meeting of September 22nd 2022 was convened in the conference room of the Wayne Board of Education 50 Nellis Drive Wayne New Jersey 07470 the statement of compliance setting forth time date and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings Act and the roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened we're going to do
002the flag salute followed by a moment of silence please one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you roll call Mr Moffett Mr Bubba Mr Duffy yes Mrs Kazan here Mr pavlak here Mr prosacos President Mrs put up here and Mrs Winton here okay uh Dr tobac superintendent's report thank you good evening everybody I wanted to take a moment to thank all of our parents and all of our staff members for creating a wonderful environment for back to school night the attendance of each event has been amazing now that we're moving past the pandemic I think each feels like a reunion free school community so thanks also to the PTO at each of our schools for having a strong Presence at each of these events um earlier this week I shared
003a letter with the parent community that included information needed to up their children out of the lessons that we shared with the community related to the new health and PE standards we're approaching the end of the first week since the opt-out letter was distributed while we had an initial push we now have a handful of additional requests each day but as of this afternoon we have a total of 307 students whose parents have opted them out of these lessons those students come from a total of 251 families keep in mind that the total number of students based on the grade levels where the content would be delivered in one two four five and eight numbers 2823 this means that 10.8 percent of the students enrolled at grade levels were the health and lessons would be
004delivered will not be participating um interestingly with the distribution at the middle school level there are only 21 students who have been opted out all the rest are Elementary School opt-outs this week we received some complaints or concerns from parents that they're not given a receipt to keep as evidence that their child were opted out of the health and PE lessons at their grade level so keep in mind as we've been doing for the past few months we're following a process at this point we're gathering information in the central office about who would like to opt out once we know more the district will send a letter to each parent who opted their child out of health and PE lessons that'll actually come from the principal because then it becomes a building level activity and
005at that point the principal will also include information about what will be happening while other students are in the health and PE lesson so that way parents know where their child will be placed during the time period where other students are taking the health and PE lessons um so this past spring the Board of Education transitioned to the new New Jersey School employee health benefits program that's for all of our employees due to the significant savings I asked Mr Moffett to take a few moments to share the latest information we have with the Board of Education and the community since the recent announcement that there was going to be an increase beyond what was expected yes in the news there was a recent meeting with the school employees health benefit commission they approved renewal rates
006effective January 1 2023 uh based on the commission's broker aeon they approved the rate increase that will affect our plans again I'll go into a little bit in a minute but the rates that will affect us will be 15.6 percent for medical benefits and a 7.8 percent increase in the RX Card unfortunately the district does not have specific information at this time we'll have to wait for actual rates to be provided and we anticipate those in November when the New Jersey to pensions and benefits department will publish them and they're taking into consideration it changes in our open enrollment period and then again they'll publish those updated rates uh the district has taken actions to cover the expected increase in the cost of employee benefit insurance and will continue to monitor situation and obviously any
007information that's shared for this year meaning the end of our fiscal year will also be carried into our budget planning process for the future year thank U.S Muffet so just a few things about item R1 under urgent I'm sorry under emergent administrative items are one you'll find a virtual remote instructional plan so I just wanted to take a moment to talk about that because it may be a cause for alarm for some people because it brings back some uncomfortable memories from the pandemic and it includes a number of covid-19 mitigation strategies this is a New Jersey Department of Education requirement and it represents a basic plan that we would follow only if we were required by the state or the health department to make a shift to remote learning so it is required it's a
008plan but it is not something we hope we'll ever have to take and put it in action I stated my letter to the community approximately two weeks ago the New Jersey Department of Education required school districts to ensure students take a benchmark assessment at the onset of the new school year in order to collect data on potential learning loss provide teachers with early intervention data and to also provide parents with timely information about their child's current progress and potential learning needs I'm happy to report that as of this evening the majority of the start strong testing is complete in our schools with minimal Interruption to our instructional time it's important to note that these tests were only 45 to 60 minutes per subject and took a brief snapshot of student learning based on last year's
009academic standards for students in grades 4 to 10 in math and Ela and grades 6 9 and 12 in science to provide information about potential support that's needed these assessments were not used in any promotion or grade level requirements now that the assessments have been completed the schools will have data to review to focus support directly to our students who may benefit from Intervention parents will also receive a score report on this assessment when the Department of Education provides the hard copies later this fall at this point there are no HIV cases to report we do have a presentation about the new Hab laws with Mr Burkholder thank you Mr burkhola good evening to the members of the board and Canadian good evening to the educational Community it is nice to be here on a
010night when we do not have any HIV to report there have been some changes to the HIV law that we wanted to bring to the attention of the public and we wanted to specifically speak to the impact here in Wayne foreign of this year there was some changes to the HIV law but they just went into in fact for the beginning of this school year we are very happy to report that the impact Queen will be minimal Wayne Township Public Schools have consistently exceeded the expectations of the state we've gone past the requirements of the state of New Jersey for quite some time now in some states excuse me in some districts in this state there is principles discretion of deciding whether or not there's HIV cases in Wayne Township we do not do that
011any student that brings a concern we look into it we investigate it we believe that that family and that child deserves an opportunity to hear how we're going to help them resolve that situation because of that we were in very good position for the changes in the law all this information is available on our website on the district website there's an HIV Tab and all this information is included including parent information directly for your families if you have any questions about the law or any provisions within the law that document from the state is a little outdated but we're hoping for a new document from the njdoe any day now so the first provision that has changed is that we are now required to ensure that our code of conduct or the consequences are included
012as part of the HIV policy we have always implemented code of conduct various counselings and other supports for our students we've always treated these cases holistically to help our students the difference being now that they have to be embedded with the HIV policy and that will come before the Board of Education to review and vote for the other provision being that if there are accumulated HIV cases of three or more then we need to design an intervention plan to help those students to prevent further bullying we have always designed plans to support students in the event of repetitive bullying the difference here being that this would be a template provided by the New Jersey Department of Education we would be able to offer the parents teachers child study team if applicable and other people that
013come together to talk about how to help that student so this provision minimal impact to Wayne because we've always collected information from those individuals but in this particular case we'll have a template that we can share with parents there is a new provision in the law again minimal impact to Wayne that we have to document the communication when we open an HIV case for the parents we have always notified parents on day one of every single case to let them know that there is an HIV allegation or your child has potentially been impacted by bullying and we've always looked into it the main difference being now that we are being asked to the state by documenting that so we've created some internal templates to ensure that we're able to track that and be able to
014make sure that we can prove to the state of New Jersey that all of those notifications have been made but again minimal impact because our principles have always done this this is probably the biggest change to the new law previously Wayne has had one template one form for all individuals to report a bullying case the state of New Jersey wanted to standardize that across the entire state so therefore they've created two separate forms one for a caregiver parent Guardian Etc and another one for our staff members the change here is minimal because there's a new form we have always launched bullying cases and this will not stop us even if we do not receive the form if there's a verbal report if a kid's upset coming back from the playground if a parent emails in
015any one of those things can launch a case because at the end of the day we would like to launch a anti-bullying case to figure out how we can help that student a form is not going to stop that but the form is required so if this family can fill that out in a timely manner it gives us enough information to thoroughly investigate the case we can ensure that everything the parent is concerned about is looked into documented and reported back to them in the case of the parent not filling out that form our school staff would take over and fill out that form to ensure that there's documentation to start that case these are the new forms the staff form is four pages the parent and caregiver is three pages it's just simply collecting
016any information from the families or from our staff that can ensure that when we begin that investigation we can talk to any potential Witnesses any kids in the classroom basically try to solve that situation as quick as possible to help those students and make sure that they feel comfortable in our schools on page three of the parent Forum there's a little confusion because it asks did the principal use discretion and again we do not have principles discretion on Wayne so any parent that reports any concern regarding bullying that's on a protected class that is affecting a student will be investigated so the third form is yes we are going to investigate and we will take care of your children this next provision really only applies to the board of education and it simply says that
017if there is an appeal if a parent disagrees with the finding or non-finding of an HIV case then we are going to provide a redacted copy to the board of education so that they can see the entire investigation to make sure that they know what the rationale was for the finding they understand the witnesses information is collected Etc the important thing to note about this particular provision is redacted case means that no privacy will be violated if your child is not the one that is appealing or not the one that's being discussed that night their private information will be removed so it's really just to ensure that the family that has concerns about the bullying case all the information is provided to the board of education and they can answer their questions thoroughly regular Precision
018there is no impact to Wayne um language was added clarifying that the 10-day window we have 10 full days to investigate an HIV case 10 school days and they're clarifying that this new form kicks off the 10 days that's no impact to Wayne because we have always immediately launched a bullying case if there's a potential of bullying because we are not going to wait for a form we're going to launch the case even if the staff have to fill out the form because as we know with social media and so many other things that can occur we do not want a situation where things get worse while we're waiting for our form not going to happen so that has no impact to our bullying investigations in Wayne and finally there's simply a provision in the
019new law that suggests that we have to pull uh post what I shared with you on the first slide there's a guidance document from the state of New Jersey for parents that explains the HIV law uh various remediations and supports for parents and again that's on our website it's been on our website so there has been no impact to Wayne um so to summarize each and every one of these changes had very little impact to Wayne because we have always taken a proactive response to immediately investigating any concerns because at the end of the day we want to make sure each and every case is looked into if a student or their family was upset enough to say that they wanted to have this looked into they deserve an answer to that and quite frankly
020on the other side of it a lot of times behaviors are a symptom and if that student on the target side or the aggressor side needs assistance we want to help our students we want to use this as a holistic way to teach them how to interact better with their peers learn lessons and just in general have better relations with their their peers so to finish up we just wanted to say very very quickly a couple things first to our educators we have amazing Educators in Wayne's I'm sure all of you guys know we had dedicated administrators that have taken this law very seriously since an Inception professional school counselors who serve as our anti-bullying Specialists that deeply care for our students and look after them we have teachers and paraprofessionals and counselors and excuse
021me and custodians and bus drivers and all forms of Staff members all roles who have all taken the anti-bullying courses and look out for our students each and every year we see some of those individuals looking out for our kids in various places so we want to say thank you to the members of the Wayne Community especially our educational Community for always looking out for our students so we are very lucky that they provide that environment secondly we ask that our parents continue to help us it does take a village we've all heard that but we need our parents help when there's a concerning arising we understand the last few years there's been a lot of anxiety please come to us and instead of adding to somebody's conflict or chaos let's add our calm let's
022meet with our kids let's talk to them let's solve things in a respectful way and let's make sure that we don't add to that chaos so parents bring your concern early talk to the school administration trust that they care about your children absolutely no Educators got into this work for standardized testing I hate to break it to you nobody wanted to do start strong that's not what we got into the business for we want to care for kids so the educators will take care of your children um please trust that check your devices please check your child's devices so much is happening on social media these days and that information that stuff is spilling over to the schools so continue to work with us be proactive and help the schools solve the problem the Educators
023want to help you and finally there have been a few cases where we've heard students come directly to the microphone at board medication meetings and suggest that they felt bullied in our schools I want to ensure that each and every student understands that they are valued in the way in public schools I do not want any child to feel that because of their race religion background orientation or for any other reason that they are not accepted in our Public Schools we care about them they deserve to be here and we will take care of them so please continue report your concerns our educators are here to care for you and we will do our job we'll continue to do our job these changes are minimal and we're going to continue whether or not the HIV
024cases all check the boxes to be HIV each and every one of those situations is an opportunity to teach students how to make better choices and how to interact better with other kids so that's what we'll keep doing so thank you guys very much for giving us an opportunity to explain those changes to you tonight oh Mr Burke holder this is Kazan his question I'm going to ask you a question Mr Burkholder oh I think the legislature made some great improvements in the HIV system and the law but I just wanted to share with you a concern I received from a PTO mom in elementary school and I said well hold up we're going to make a presentation and I don't see it in there so I figured I'd wait uh and I'll ask you
025now this particular person thought it would be beneficial if we maybe did a tour especially of the elementary schools and explained the process to parents most of them are completely in the dark yes sweets on the website they're not going to go looking for it until a problem arises and then they're just going to be blindsided and not know what to do a lot of them don't understand that they can file an HIV and this was a concern for this PTO mom who wanted to do some sort of awareness program at one of their PTO meetings so I did say I'd rented up the flagpole so here I am and I'm just throwing it out there's a suggestion I think it's probably more beneficial to start at the elementary and then maybe Middle School which
026we obviously know a lot of the hivs occur but I don't know how many of those parents go to the PTO meetings like the elementary so they would have the information on the website but whatever you think is best but I'm just throwing it out there as a suggestion from a parent we appreciate that suggestion and obviously the principal speak during back to school nights and various events about this and obviously we do it we can but that's an excellent suggestion thank you okay thank you anyone else awesome Dr tobeck so it's not a question but um and I know that um Mr burkholder's West Virginia Mountaineers are playing tonight so I know he likes to go so I will not take much of your time but I I did want to just mention to
027the community that you heard from Mr Burkholder how the Wayne Township Public Schools takes the HIV laws very seriously and you heard how the new requirements have little or no impact on our district and that's because we are well ahead of the curve when it comes to dealing with HIV cases but the person driving that is in many cases Mr Burkholder so we asked him Mrs reichman I have done more than enough in terms of presentations wanted him to do a presentation tonight first of all because it's his job but also because he's the person that's out there that's for those of you who are parents in the audience he's protecting your kids he handles these cases along with the other HIV coordinators with great care he takes these situations very seriously so I just
028wanted to thank him for a moment because ultimately you have a lot to do with establishing a positive culture in each of our schools so we want to thank you Mr mccorder for all your work [Applause] thank you guys um Mr moffatt revisions to agenda items please yes just two tonight uh one the first one is in section T emergent Human Resources under T3 which is approval of appointment of District staff we're going to revise number nine Alana where location from pack connect to Ryerson and the PC number is 11-1 10-12 backslash e and l and the account number is 11-212-100-106-17-008 and the last item will be added tonight under X emergent school resource legal number one will be added as approval of settlement agreement and that action reads as follows resolve at the Board
029of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves a settlement agreement and release in the matter of student ID number 608-7618-103 docket number 04948-2022 agency reference number 2022-34319 as attached by reference and further authorizes the board president and secretary to execute same on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take all further steps required by the terms of settlement to further Implement same and that concludes the changes to tonight's agenda thank you Mr Moffett this portion of the meeting is open for agenda items only for citizens to comment residents are asked to please State their first and last names and their town and the subject matter comments are limited to three minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student
030the board Bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business thank you I'll move Madam president I'll move second Mr Patel seconded thank you come on up I was waiting for a vote oh okay Cindy Simon Wayne um first of all as somebody who was the victim of vicious bullying as a child in a time where we would hold Sticks and Stones we'll break our bones and Angel never hurt us and don't be a tattletale I just really want to say how important it is that the district has been doing what it has been doing in this area but I also want to say and this is
031not meant to point fingers at anybody because this is such a challenging issue we everyone applauded in the audience I don't care what side of the aisle they were sitting on everyone agreed this is important we're all clapping um but there were still so many children particularly children with disabilities and children who are different in other ways that are being maybe it doesn't rise to the level of what counts as a bling incident but they are being picked on and we really have to work to both support these children but also teach other children to respect everybody for what makes them unique and that kind of thing and the other thing I wanted to speak to is the um website accessibility policy that's on the agenda obviously that's good um and required by the law
032but I also really like to suggest that we really help support teachers so that when they're using videos and stuff like that in classrooms that they include captioning and they include some of these other things that make the videos accessible to children who do have disabilities but also as somebody who teaches myself those various things are also helpful for students with different learning styles as well thank you seeing no one Madam president moved to close exactly the agenda public portion second Mr pavlak was the second thank you okay we have a retirement to celebrate this evening Mrs wanting yes thank you madam president Christine Ryan congratulations to Christine Ryan on the announcement of her retirement Christine has worked for Wayne board of education for eight years Christine has gone above and beyond for each child
033to learn each their each of their interests she always put the students first and made sure that the classroom was prepared for the day and gathered materials for the day to ensure successful for all students she has shown dedication and development trustworthy relationship with her colleagues it has been a pleasure having Christine as a member of the school Community we are confident that she will find the same success in her retirement and continue to touch lives in of so many we sent her our best wishes and congratulations on a well-deserved retirement thank you thank you Mrs Fuente we have a committee report this evening facilities thank you uh facilities committee met this evening myself Kazan Mr Patel Mrs Tibbetts Mr romaine and Mr Moffett we reviewed a number of the projects that have been ongoing
034all summer we brought into some issues with projects because the supply chain issues where we're unable to get parts or material to finish jobs so we have many jobs in various stages around the district our video surveillance system is in place in all our buildings so we the it is up and running um or we had some our generators uh we had a power outage last week at Pines Lake and our generator kicked on and we're now looking at how much more we can put onto the generators that we do have uh we they are there to keep the basic functions of the building um powered so that we don't have to shut the building down um I'm happy to report that the sidewalk number Dan Avenue is complete for our students at Wayne Hills
035are transportation department is still in need to still in need of drivers um our bus routes have been condensed and and made more efficient so we're spending less money on fuel the emails of the bus passes this year seem to go well yes there were a couple glitches but we were able to get them straightened out and that's it thank you thank you Mr Pavlov um Mrs Kazan you have a legislative report please thank you for allowing me to deliver this at this time I'll be very brief um on a quarterly basis I attend the State Legislative committee meetings in Trenton where the School Board Association members who are delegates to that committee I represent the 40th District are given an update on what's moving in the legislature what's already on the governor's desk Etc
036and this particular meeting was interesting for many reasons our guest speaker was speaker Coughlin and he gave us an interesting report I'll just give you the highlights you talked about the fiscal year budget and the prospect of providing tax levy cap flexibility which means he's basically saying he might want to affect the two percent limit wasn't much of an elaboration on that but it's something that we should be on the lookout for uh because that's going to affect our taxpayers um he talked about the same comment that Mr Moffett made about the increase in health care and we were lobbying for them to go into reserves or find the money somewhere rather than slapping a 15 increase on our districts so that's what we're lobbying for as school board members the school construction Authority is
037working on reforming that department there's been issues with it over the years but right now there's several billion dollars up for grabs most of it goes to the schools that are obviously in uh not as favorable a financial position as ours were considered a regular District not a SDA District but there will be some money for us so that's something to look forward to um this is another concerning one he's kind of fast tracking a bill for later High School start times now there has been a lot of study on this a lot of discussion on it for many years now they've done reports they've done studies they've discussed it Ad nauseam pediatricians have weighed in everyone has weighed in but at this point with everything that's going on in the state of New Jersey
038with academic recovery bus shortages driver shortages staff shortages many of the school districts and I'm assuming my colleagues will agree now is not the time um I've already spoken to Senator Corrado about this because that's the first place I go when I see problematic legislation on the move and um she kind of nodded her head and didn't give me a definite answer but I did weigh in on it with her so that's you know one of the things I get to do thankfully and she's always receptive and willing to speak to me on any issue that's going to affect us here in her District so I appreciate Senator Corrado's ear the other thing was the food insecurity law which uh has been expanded to free School meals they're increasing the eligibility they're raising the income
039limit and considering the inflation and the cost of food I'm in agreement on that one I don't know anyone who wouldn't be Mental Health Services was another thing he discussed and um tweaking the usage of remote instruction and by that I mean everyone still agrees we want those snow days but there are other reasons where school might not be able to be in session a hurricane power outages lots of other things so initially there was no flexibility because we all agreed that remote learning really wasn't optimal for students period the pandemic taught us that so anyway that's pretty much it uh I do have a complete PowerPoint for anyone on the board who would like me to share it with them send me an email and it shows all the different bills and what's in
040them so if you want any further discussion with the senator or our Representatives I'll be happy to call a meeting and weigh in whatever your questions or concerns are and get back to you on that that's my report thank you thank you Mrs Kazan um the next portion is action on our agenda items Madam president yes has moved the entire agenda on consent also I'd like to make a secondary motion at this time I'd like to refer policies 3216 and 4216 back to the policy committee there's been some concerns expressed to me by board members and uh some feel the policy is a little too restrictive and would like us to tweak it so if I could get a second and about a second okay thank you Mrs wanted um the secondary yes please Mr
041Moffett secondary motion uh miss Mr prosacos yes Mrs wendtick yes Mr Bubba since the board wants to yes Mr Duffy yes Mrs Kazan yes Mr pavlak yes Mr fatal yes and Mrs put up yes motion carries thank you now the rest of the agenda items roll call please Mr pavlak yes Mr prosacos yes Mrs windig yes Mr Bubba yes Mr Duffy yes Mr Kazan yes Mr fatal yes and Mrs put up yes motion carries thank you this portion of the meeting is open to Citizens for comment on any topic residents are to State their first and last names and their town their subject matter comments may be limited to five minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board Bears no responsibility for comments
042made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business thank you do I have a mover oh snap Mr fatel Mr pavlak thank you come on up thank you hi I'm Marion moravi oh I'm sorry oh sorry I'm actually taller than I thought Marion moravi uh packing that Lake uh Wayne New Jersey right good evening board members and leadership team and stakeholders as concerned parent and public school teacher I am here requesting evaluation of an inequitable rubric being utilized to track students in the Wayne Public Schools primarily the rubric used to identify students in the track 1A Middle School my wife and I moved to packing that Lake after conducting much research on
043the school system athletic programs and Community as a whole we have been extremely pleased with the entire staff at pakanak since our children enrolled my daughter currently a sixth grade student has always Excel excelled academically especially in ela beginning in January of her fifth grade year she was a victim of bullying however with the help of the school team and her family she finished strong as the year ended she mentioned to me to my wife and I a program called track 1A that would be open to students who were selected we waited until her schedule arrived and we're surprised she was not selected especially for ELA we follow the chain of command to inquire the reasoning behind this decision since it was not available online anywhere on the district school website her current counselor state
044state the vice principal selected the students I received an email of the rubric and was surprised to see njsla scores that have yet to be released to parents as one of the indicators according to the rubric she was close but did not meet the criteria required the njsla score sent to the district over the summer are considered raw scores not official scores yes I'm aware of the students who did not meet the proficiency will receive a re-evaluation of their score and that those scores who did me proficiency will not change regardless using this score as one of the categories for the families even known to even know the score is not the best practice I continue up the chain to the principal who has reiterated the rubric and and was told that there was about
045130 students in this range at GW alone he was gracious enough to meet with my to meet with my wife and I and also permitted Kaylee some time to advocate for herself he was able to give us an alternative option until we continued up the chain of command to director of secondary of Education we spoke over the phone and again the rubric was reiterated to me so then I emailed doctor so my wife and I then email Dr tobac and received a reply from Miss reichmann to which I'm sorry if I said the name wrong to which I requested my daughter to be permitted to speak for a few minutes during the zoom meeting the zoo meeting was during this the zoo meeting was scheduled with reply unfortunately I'm able I'm unable to have Kaylee
046join the zoom meeting each and every time I met with a team member I expressed the reasoning behind my dissatisfaction with the rubric of and my reasoning I explained it into no circumstances that could I potentially affected her performance not her learning but I would like to bring my focus to the zoom meeting with Ms reichmann as we logged in Mr Eichmann was accompanied by Mr McNally the director of secondary education with patiently listening to both speak and again reiterate the rubric ladies and gentlemen I was told that this rubric is a model for many districts and changing the rubric would result in watering down the curriculum or hiring new teachers also that differential instruction would be provided to challenge her watering down the curriculum for a child who scored 87 percentile a child who
047not only met proficiency but exceeded the score a child who comes highly recommended by her teacher a teacher who whose expertise and judgment should be valued at the highest level is there any data that shows that children at 87 percentile have been unsuccessful in the past I highly doubt it in terms of hiring additional teachers a certified English teacher can teach track 1A Ela cert curriculum so there is no need to hire additional teachers in terms of the differential instruction in the regular track if differential instruction is offered there are track one there are track 1A students not allowed to have the same their curriculum is differentiated the impress the impression I have received was that this would be a negative or should I say an inconvenience to have more sections created for these potential
048130 students we do not even know if these 130 even want to participate in the rigorous curriculum but for those that do isn't that what we want don't we want highly motivated children who want rigor and have the support of their families and teachers be permitted to enroll so what if more sections have been created is anyone even taking the time to reconsider the applicants who are whose parents are advocating for them do parents do not have the right to advocate for their children's courses in a public setting the Ruby implemented for determining who re-enrolls in track one day is not only pre-covet model but this this year it's included an additional category njsla five scores oh I'm sorry excuse me I'm so sorry you're five minutes are up okay sounds good thank you thank
049you Wendy moravi packanack Lake as the guidance chairperson at my high school where we rank proudly number 45 in US News and World Report I am responsible for analyzing the data to place our students and honors and AP courses in addition to being the PSAT s-a-t and AP coordinator who administered almost 600 AP exams last year we utilize a holistic approach to ensure that honors and AP courses are Equitable and accessible to all an approach driven by the data we are using njsla scores for individualized learning plans for staff to implement within the classroom to identify areas that need strengthening what these scores were meant to be used for I could guarantee if a parent came to my office with the same situation as Kaylee my office would be the first and final stop it
050would be ridiculous to force a parent to go all the way to the superintendent to receive approval for a more rigorous curriculum in ela for their child that would be rewarded and praised for demonstrating the inner motivation and discipline to want to do the extra work to be challenged especially when proficiency is not even a question that is the type of child at least in my district our leadership team and teachers run in their challenging courses there's something about the word holistic that triggers the opposition to start grumbling about participation trophies in reality a holistic process is simply one that tries to look at the whole student and not reduce them a mere test score or a grade all factors are considered in an effort to view students as more than just the sum of
051their parts even Harvard University recognizes that standardized tests are not predictors of college success and will not require these scores through 2026. students post covet are still feeling the Ripple effects of academic regression some may have lost loved ones been victims of bullying Etc my daughter's circumstances began from January to April she was tested for NJ nfla during that time I allowed her to test assuming the district uses scores to benefit her even with the emotional distress she experience she still was able to score in the 87th percent I spoke to her teacher after receiving the news she was not selected and her teacher without a doubt assured me that she will do well in track 1A and offered her contact email for anyone to reach out no one did instead I was told that
052even the teacher's recommendation would not be enough a teacher recommendation not enough there were no other factors taken into consideration not the Abundant educational data and research on the effects of covet had on learning nor the special circumstances she had overcome you may say to yourself she can try again next year maybe there's room for flexibility in ela but for math track one that's not possible math is sequential and a student does not begin in track 1A in sixth grade they cannot enter in seventh or eighth again more information not made public to parents or students you may say to yourself what's the big deal if she doesn't enroll in honors her AP in high school the board approved the new District goals last the last board meeting where weighted GPA will now begin for
053the rigorous courses I agree more work more reward GPA higher GPA equals higher rank not not but now college is not for everyone as a U.S veteran myself the military trade schools and entrepreneurial Endeavors are amazing options for students but you're limiting access and opportunities for those that opt for a four-year degree if we look at the the alignment with the district missions we do not meet that number one compassion is not demonstrated in this rigid rubric number two my child wants rigor she's advocating for herself and being denied number three during the meeting I received no indication that there would be any reevaluation of the current rubric instead Miss reichmann praised that the current model offending Us by insinuating that the district would have to water down the curriculum if my my child's range
054would be permitted number four we provide students with Equitable access my daughter does not have Equitable access to this program a program that could Empower her and challenge her I propose what is done in many districts I conferred with use a holistic approach and make sure it begins in first grade not two weeks before sixth grade begins she is smart hard-working and motivated but she possesses the single most important factor in not just academic success but life in general the ability to be resilient resiliency is what all of our children demonstrated during covet and continue to demonstrate our children are not just scores on an Excel sheet you can filter and sort to accommodate the master schedule at the school level in terms of Staffing they are much more than that thank you so much
055thank you moravi um packanack Lake good evening board members and Wayne leadership team our greatest weakness is giving up the most certain way to succeed is to always try just one more time that was a famous quote by Thomas Edison it has inspired me to try so hard to be in the advanced classes from working hard in school and now standing in front of all of you advocating for myself I was always very determined to be an honors and that all started in January when I started to get bullied by people I thought were my friends this made me realize that looks and popularity does not matter now it and it won't later but we'll but what will matter is my grades and the classes I'm in kids who get bullied but are most are
056more likely to experience anxiety depression Health complaints and decrease school performance there was a time where I wanted to transfer schools and wasn't focused in class thanks to my family friends miss reska my school counselor and my fifth grade teacher Miss Rocco who taught me Ela and math I was able to overcome the bullying in isolation even through all the bullying isolation and Global pandemic I was able to still work hard and do the best I can for this program the school may not give it a second thought but these classes and my grades now will affect my future as a student and young woman adults need to take special cases into consideration and allow students like myself to rise to the occasion trust me you will be impressed I know school just started but
057I am currently averaging at a 98 98 with Miss fasciola the ELA teacher who teaches chocolate Ela Miss Rocco would say that I am an amazing writer she believed in me so now I have the confidence to know that I can do anything I put my mind to I believe that I am good enough to be in these classes I am willing to go above and beyond to be in these classes and I was shocked when Miss reichmann said that the district would have to water down the curriculum I am a very hard-working and talented student for Mr schreichmann to not even be willing to talk to me really disappointed me I am willing to change myself I would I am willing to challenge myself in any test or assignment I receive so I all
058I am asking is for a chance a chance to show the school how great I could be and not by just and not just by test scores I am I am now afraid to take the state test again will it be used against me those standardized scores are not a reflection of who I am I am a natural leader I have my own babysitting business and I am a multi-talented performer over the summer there was an Ela enrichment program that I did not need to attend but volunteered my time to be ready if I was chosen for the chocolate classes the teacher was very impressed with my writing and public speaking skills and selected me to be the leader of my group this is another example of my work ethic my negative experiences has changed
059me for the better everyone around me seems to believe in me in my abilities all I am is I all I am asking is for the team members who represent the Wayne schools Pub the Wayne public schools to believe in me too thank you for your time [Applause] Francis Galley Wayne on August 18th I stood at this Podium and I addressed a couple concerns I had regarding some curriculum items I addressed them simply because I wanted to Open the Eyes to the denial that certain things were actually transpiring in the schools I brought up several examples however for some reason the traction of incest seemed to be the salacious headline I get it totally inappropriate District felt it was appropriate when I raised it to them and they immediately within 24 hours of my speaking
060with that District administrator removed those examples the lesson was skipped in the classes that it was not covered in yet because the handout had already been provided to the students so to try and remove those two would have caused a bigger stir so no the lesson was not permanently removed from the curriculum to suggest that would be inappropriate the examples removed because they were deemed to be inappropriate so I found myself really puzzled watching the tail end of last week's or two weeks ago Board of Ed meeting when I seem to become the focused point of some pretty salacious accusations towards me I tried to resolve those someplace other than this Podium but that meeting was denied it was met with Mrs Galley why you had your chance to speak so did I I never
061imagined that this was the way this board was going to operate 19 years I've been in this District I'm Not tooting my own horn I've lost count at the hundreds of hours I have dedicated to this District to improve everything focusing on the child so to have my reputation I'll stop there I'm going to just highlight a few of the misinformation that was provided at the tail end of the last Board of Ed meeting she didn't have a child in the class it's thrown out twice in that presentation I have her transcript my daughter took the class did she have to listen to the lesson no because the respect of the District administration had on me responded to me at seven o'clock that night when I emailed and within 24 hours as I said it
062was removed so does it make the lesson any better because my daughter didn't have to listen to it no the same lesson has been taught for the last eight years not exactly how do I know my oldest son sat in that same classroom eight years ago with that exact same teacher so the lesson on more of the lemmas absolutely has been in the curriculum those two examples no I did my homework I spoke to students who took those classes during covet you think those lessons were talked over Google meets I don't think so I didn't go to the teacher principal administrator four times when I stood at this Podium I'd made reference to talking to Administration there was even a quote thank you Ferris the point is you took care of it you reported it
063you did it correctly and it was removed was it not to which I said it was the point of the lesson was taken out of context and it may never be taught again no not accurate that lesson's still there those examples aren't point of the lesson wasn't I never had an issue with the lesson I had an issue with those examples I also had an issue when my daughter was inappropriately surveyed about what she'd do when if she found herself pregnant with the in the in the suggestion that would she abort the baby somehow that was lost quote to besmirch a teacher's reputation that way without having all the facts was Despicable close quote quote to come in here and make a theatrical presentation and trash someone's reputation is just not right end quote I
064challenge whose reputation was trashed I never once uttered the word teacher when I stood at this Podium I never once laid blame at the teacher why it wasn't the teacher's fault the teacher told the kids it wasn't his lesson do you think these Health lessons we should blame the teacher they didn't write the lessons we just spent how many weeks talking about the lessons that a Committee created so why would I blame a teacher that's not who I am so why were my words so twisted and Concepts fabricated why fabricate the storyline that a parent was trashing a teacher maybe that was a desired reaction perhaps it fit a narrative perhaps to change the focus from the issue and Target the messenger the word fear was used to insinuate that that was my calculated motive
065nothing is further from the truth fear is an overused slogan these days for political playbooks I don't subscribe to and I won't be a pawn in that game neither will my daughter or Administration that was dragged into this 19 years in this District I want to be perfectly clear and thank Dr tobeck and his entire Administration down to the teachers who understand who I am and respect me when I raise issues to them and this is no different his administration valued my opinion corrected the issue and guess what the teacher and the school administrators they know why I raised it I don't think they were happy I stood here and raised it but they understood why never oh your time is up can I end with two sentences please certainly we say we want to
066put our children first can I just share do you know who's writing my daughter's College letter of recommendation her AP psychology teacher the very teacher that it was suggested I'd be smirched and trashed do you know what she wants to be when she grows up ever since she's been a little girl a teacher think about that and ask yourself was it two and a half minutes worth it [Applause] good evening Norman Roberts and I'm a Wayne resident I have to say I'm honored to be following the last four speakers and young lady you can be very proud of your mom and dad too I'm going to speak about something that is not as consequential as what you've heard from the last four people I thought about our last meeting in the days that followed and
067something occurred to me that I didn't mention the last time I was here there was obviously some sort of discussion that was held in the executive session prior to coming out here to discuss the curriculum that's the health curriculum it was being discussed down the hall maybe it was having to do with the administration and why the vote had to be taken tonight I don't know I wasn't there maybe it had something to do with the legal aspect of it but I'm not sure I wasn't there I want to read to you something that the legislature had said a long time ago the legislature finds and declares that the right of the public to be present at all meetings of public bodies and to witness in full detail All Phases of the deliberation policy formation
068and decision making of public bodies they said it was vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of a democratic process did it ever occur to you folks that you might have been violating the open public meetings law oh I don't doubt it I don't doubt it and yet it was stated from the Deus that um that was the most divisive issue in your experience Don and I don't doubt that either one of the reasons that parents are frustrated and I've spoken to a lot of parents during this last year is that you don't provide a way for parents to talk on this side of the room to talk to parents on that side of the room you give them something to fill out you know on the on the website to give input and then
069it's a question of well you know can our side put more in than their side you had a wonderful opportunity last October when this whole room is filled with people on each side of this aisle and I was looking forward to it because I wanted to hear what the other side was saying and I mean the other geographical side because frankly everyone's a neighbor but the Quorum was defeated by the president and the vice president of the board who had the opportunity to hold that discussion and chose not to do so that's disgraceful now I don't know what happened in there maybe I could find out from the minutes but generally speaking the minutes don't come out until five months from now which P.S is also a violation of the open public meetings law which
070said that the they shall be promptly available to the public five months is not prompt because that's when it shows up on your agenda but does anybody notice that I mean maybe yeah I mean I realize I've been on public bodies so I would tend to notice it more quickly I'm an attorney I tend to know some more quickly but it's got to appeal you know it certainly has to appeal to your attorney a certain certainly has to appear to your superintendent I have yet to see a real debate from this body on any subject you might explain how you voted a certain way you know oh well yeah and we saw from and from the last meeting that there had to be a discussion back there and it's time for you to come clean
071and tell us what prevent what happened back there I spoke to the HIV coordinator who made such a nice presentation tonight and I asked him one question I said is it fair to say that no matter how a report of bullying comes to you you're going to take care of it no matter how he comes it comes into a custodium it comes into a guidance counselor it comes into a teacher that they will start the ball rolling that's what you should be doing with parents concerns and very often you do and I've heard people who've gotten notes back from the superintendent but you can't operate in the dark I can't tell you how frustrating it is for me as a citizen and as a former office holder who sat through numerous meetings at this time
072no I'm not quite dynamic very close though there thank you [Applause] hi I'm Ryan badashil Wayne um firstly I want to thank the HIV presentation I thought that was great that was I was really pleased to see that through all of this the bureaucracy that is being pushed down on us is not being pushed down on everybody else and I think that that's a good way of being able to implement some of the procedures and policies that come down come here is that better thank you so I'm pleased to be able to see that we're able to remove a lot of that bureaucracy coming down I hope we can find from all of the dni based presentations that we've seen over the years a real Echo way to solve Kaylee's problem I think that you
073know we always think about dni in terms of helping people at various different stages that are not necessarily doing as well as other people someone who wants to go through and do more and really push for more we should be trying to help them and find an equitable solution to that kind of problem right get people to be the best people that they can that is the point of dni that is the point of equity so I really hope you take that into account and find a way to solve her problem um the opt-out form um which I'm glad to see is getting used by a number of people so that means that we've done a good job of being able to get it out there in front of people and so on um I
074do think the language issue is a concern the response that came back on the language issue was to just go and use Google Translate and cut and paste things into Google translate a number of other districts have actually translated it ahead of time and the reason to do that is if you go look at Google translate and what it does it doesn't take context into account when it does the translation and this can very easily end up with things like sexual education being turned into very inappropriate words in foreign languages so you'll probably want to go back and look at that and make sure that when people are Translating that at least to Common other languages around Wayne that we're not putting those things into a bad position for other people to go back and
075read um and the other the receipt that comes back from filling in the form it's common practice when someone hands something into you especially something that they are expecting to be done to ensure that that gets a receipt back we do it we had this discussion as well about the let's talk app and making sure that that gets something as a parent you're never sure if you've pushed the button or not especially those people that are not so sure about technology and so on making sure that that comes back with a hey yeah we've got it we know that we're going to do something you don't even have to say what it is that you're doing with it but just we got it that's an important aspect of being able to use technology to increase
076the communication with the community um and then my final comments um I think I want to reiterate a lot of what Fran said I had a whole set of stuff in here that was not as eloquent as what Francis said on her side of things this board that is meant to unite this community is really pushing for a lot of division out of comments like that we can't be going through and stopping parents from making the proper complaints in the proper ways and raising those things up we need to encourage communication we need to get people coming out and talking to us I personally spent a large part of Wayne day talking to a number of parents at that time and I asked every single one of them how's your school what do your kids
077think of the teachers every single one of them loved the school loved the teachers without exception anyone who spoke to me about problems with bussing for example and the two mile rule on bussing or special needs education and getting the right people in for special needs they had problems with the processes they had problems with getting to the point of finding how to do things very much like this poor family who didn't know how to go through and get to the point of advocating in the right way they're left alone they're just told no at the first step nobody's telling them this is how you'd go next if you've got a problem if you want to go further this is what they're going to need to see let's help people get through these things let's
078help people get through their IEPs Let's help people get through the things that they need to do so that they are put in the right place we have great people all the way down the process when you find the right person when you find the right form when you get in front of the right things we're just missing that transparency in that communication that brings all of that together and I think that every time we say transparency you think about some amazing set of stuff that you need to go through and do it's about bringing us along with the journey it's about making sure that people get what they need out of the process and not going back and vilifying how parents and teachers don't get on because that's just not true thank you [Applause]
079good evening Laura Walker Wayne I am very nervous right now um I have not been to a board of ed meeting ever I am a graduate of Wayne Hills High School in 1996. I am a proud Wayne resident I have two very small children ages six and three my son is a first grader um I'm here tonight to ask or to beg I'm not here to say that you're doing a terrible job I'm not here to criticize your work you have a huge job for our children I am asking if at all possible I understand the sex ed curriculum is a state requirement you are limited in what you can do but can you please change the opt out to opt in it will give parents the opportunity to think about the curriculum to make
080the choice for their children rather than a parent two parents who are working incessantly Around the Clock who don't have that opportunity to log on and understand that they actually have to remove their child from the class and say no I do not want this taught that is the only request that I have is for that process to be thought about because as of right now if I hadn't taken the time to look at the curriculum and go through every slide I may have had my son subjected to something that I don't approve and I am his parent I am my daughter's parent it is my choice what my child learns in an explicit manner this is explicit content in fifth grade very explicit it's more explicit than I was ever exposed to as a
081child children are very impressionable things that are put in their mind can be twisted into different things we have teachers teaching these curriculums who feel exceptionally uncomfortable what is the chance that a teacher teaches a child about some of these things that are in the fifth grade specific curriculum which by the way doesn't even affect my child my my child's in first grade so the curriculum for a first grader is not even as explicit what if that child somehow twists that and it becomes the teachers doing something to me how do we identify sexual abuse how do we identify child abuse there's going to be a blurred line I only ask and I do not want to take much of your time is to please reconsider the opt out subject and make it opt-in for
082parents so they can have the choice I know you're limited in what you can do and your hands are somewhat tied but you can do that for us and it would be a huge huge thing for the parents of our community thank you [Applause] good evening members of the board people in the audience uh my name is Michael goddessman I am a 37-year resident of Wayne both of my children went through the school system and thank God they're both very successful in what they do today I've come up here just to just to address a few things that were mentioned at the last meeting after I had already spoken and some of the things that were mentioned tonight I want to say that I do feel for the person that came up before me and
083her concerns about the curriculum and I do not dismiss those concerns but I think we've gone through this on numerous occasions and unfortunately it is not the prerogative or the ability of this board to make the curriculum opt-in instead of opt out and there's a reason for that and that's because there has to be a choice made and if you look at the statistics that were presented by Dr tobac at the beginning of this meeting of all students 307 out of 2803 I believe it was have parents who have chosen to opt out comes to 10.8 percent parents have the ability to opt out that's their right it has been not recently existing but for 42 years it's not something new and the question is do we put an obstacle up for the 89.2 percent
084of the parents that do not have an objection to the curriculum to satisfy the 10.8 that have the absolute right to opt out and remove that curriculum from the education of their children I don't think that it is Equitable or right to put that obstacle up for 89.1 percent of the people that want their children to be a part of that curriculum at the last meeting a resident of Wayne came up and he implied that some of the board members were told that they had to vote for the curriculum I have a question for that Resident who told him that was it in writing or was it vocal did he bother to try and verify that has the state of New Jersey or the doj issued an edict to that effect or were we just
085hearing supposition there are facts and there are supposition and unfortunately a similar implication was made by that same resident tonight when he was talking about the goings on in the hallway or in the back rooms and he talked about how the board's responsibility is to bring people together and yet what he spoke about tonight was telling people to have to so mistrust in what this board does to me that's not getting people together that's being divisive and in fact when he talked about it he said I wasn't there but and that's the point you weren't you have no idea what went on and yet you're sowing these seeds of distrust the other thing the final thing I'm going to address is the open public meeting Act the implication was made that it is absolute and
086that everything this board does has to be done in front of the public well I can tell you that is a misstatement because if you were here and the board was discussing your contract and what they were going to offer you and the negotiations that they were going to have I'm sure you wouldn't want that done in public and it's not supposed to be and if there was a HR problem relating to your behavior in the classroom and whether it was appropriate and was grounds for discipline or dismissal I'm sure that you wouldn't want to have this board discussing that in public so don't be misled the open public meeting Act is not absolute let's not try and play the fact again that this board is not being transparent because they've been more transparent today
087than they have before Mr God thank you foreign second Mr Bubba excuse me vote please roll call I'm sorry the motion is has already been made no I'm I'm sorry the motion has been made good evening to the kids who walk down through their grades suffer what happens to the kids you're welcome excuse me you are welcome to come up and ask Administration after the meeting thank you we can't answer the question up at the podium anyway thank you okay Mr Duffy and Mr Bubba roll call I don't know I'm sorry I don't need a roll call pardon me okay um old business old business thank you new business oh Mrs Kazan Mrs Cassandra sorry excuse me just a moment excuse me Mrs Kazan can we please stop the side conversations if I can hear
088you up here I need you to thank you this is National book Banning week I thought that was interesting I didn't know that was a thing I happened upon a TV program Today where it was a topic where it was a topic of discussion and what I found interesting about this program was you know they looked at it from all sides they talked to parents who were for the books they talked to parents who were against the books and there was this one particular group a woman who was from Atlanta Georgia she runs a group called moms for Liberty which she claims is a parental rights group but the host of the show pretty much pointed out that they were really a political action type group and that their real goal and she didn't deny
089it is to take over school boards rewrite policy and ban books so this is more most likely why they were invited to the show because it was National book Banning week and it was also made clear during the show that that group has some how shall I put it members in our community which I find a little unsettling because I think if we want to be a United Community the last thing we need are people who want to go out of their way to infiltrate our education system and be the deciders of what child gets to read what that decision should be up to our Educators the people who we task with doing that professional job our media Specialists Etc so I'm just letting you know this is a national issue but guess what it's
090local as well you need to pay attention you need to see what people's platforms are and if that's the kind of thing they support in this upcoming November election I have concerns another topic I wasn't going to say anything Mr Robertson but I'm gonna make a statement and I was going to leave you out of it but since you brought it up again you can't hear me I said I wasn't going to bring this up but since you mentioned it I I've decided to do so at the September 8th beating um a member of the community you uh came up to the potom podium and mentioned something that had basically just happened in our executive session so you just stood here and claimed you have no idea what went on there I find that interesting
091and that was of great concern to me because uh executive session is meant to be confidential and you know that everything is not available to the public under the open public meetings act so at the conclusion of the meeting I went over to that administrative Deus and I asked you because you mentioned it again that who told board members they had to vote if they didn't they'd be brought up on ethics charges and I said well where did you get that information from Mr Robertson and you were quite Frank with me you told me a certain board member sitting on the edge of the Deus there told you that you said it to me in front of witnesses sitting there and sitting in the audience they could corroborate what you said thank you I took
092the time to review the tape because I was concerned who could possibly have shared executive privilege I noticed that there was texting going on during the meeting which has always been a concern of mine I remember when Loretta Weinberg was in the Senate and she was actually I believe working on this with Senator Corrado they had a great relationship and I'm I'm sorry to see Mrs Weinberg is no longer in that body because she was a phenomenal leader always bipartisan and and a great lady and one of the things she championed but was never able to get it carved in stone as it were was no personal devices during a public meeting and I agree with her because there's a lot of reasons not to have a personal device during a public meeting um it
093erodes the public trust it opens up suspicion of collusion between people sitting up here people sitting out there or even people at home this is not the sort of thing that should be going on it also uh says basically they're not here they're not in the moment they're not paying attention you elected them to sit up here and be attentive and to pay attention to what's going on during these proceedings now I say all this not to Target you not to Target him I don't plan to take this I don't plan to take this any further but I am pointing this out because this is the sort of thing that this gentleman just said erodes a public trust we can't have that we need board members trustees who are trustworthy um so that said I
094would really like to make a motion that we amend a couple of policies and potentially limit the use of personal devices through our own local policy so we don't have this issue going forward but that of course will be up to the board there's a couple of policies that include that language and I'll make the motion to revisit policy zero one six nine board member use of electronics and conduct of board meeting 0164. that's my motion if anyone is wishing to help me in that regard so that we can restore trust to the board I would appreciate it I'll second me thank you Mr Bubba that's a question policy to go to policy committee for review discussion discussion sure can I make mention yes so I've never been more insulted and offended in my life
095but there's a motion on the floor you can address that after we discuss the motion we're discussing the motion right now motion yes I'm just giving you a point of information I'm in full agreement about the electronic policy okay and I you know I mean I'll go on record as soon as this uh the sense okay thank you any other discussion about the motion on the table I'll wait thank you there's a motion on the table to revisit the electronic policy roll call Mr Moffett if I could restate the resolution before the board so uh the board has policy electron policy number one zero I should say zero one six nine and zero one six four as it relates to electronic devices at board meetings go back to policy committee for review yes I'll take
096roll Mrs Kazan yes Mr pavlak no we're adults we don't have to be told Mr proseccos Yes actually Mrs wendtick yes Mr Bubba yes Mr Duffy no Mr fatal Mr Fatale also in the back I'll take a review I'll record that as a yes Mrs put up no five motion carries thank you um any other yes I'm sorry Mr fatal and then Mr prosakis I think prior to our meeting today they're free to they're free to weigh in prior to the policy committee meeting please do it okay the voice just said it's the policy committee okay so Mr Prosecco we're still in new business uh yes it might be old places by now you're right so over the last week um six days actually I've never been more insulted and offended in my life there
097was an Oprah request put in for my text messages and I'll go on record right now I did not have any outgoing text messages last week uh on the September 8th meeting what I was doing was when Mr Vandenberg came up during the public portion he asked why I voted no I was searching my emails to find my feedback from more than three weeks prior to that meeting so five weeks ago of my feedback that I provided to this board and to the the superintendent regarding the healthcare curriculum to refresh my memory so I was having trouble searching for it so the accusation that I was text messaging was offensive because it meant that an Oprah request is not an accusation it's just a request so and then there was another part anyway I'm sorry
098[Music] excuse excuse I apologize to you Mr prosakos for the interruption please proceed so it insinuated that I didn't know the rules the policy you know of which we've had ethics classes we've had we've been told do not text you know during the the public session so that insinuates that I'm stupid I'm you know my profession is I'm a banker I've taken more confidentiality and compliance classes than I think almost everyone here on this board times two so you know to insinuate that I was breaching confidentiality during our executive session was a real offense to me and that I was texting during the the meeting so I just wanted to go on record with that [Applause] uh does Administration have any comment for this evening Mrs Richmond will be back she has a few things
099I'm sorry I didn't okay because he was off the diocese so um Mrs reichmann is going to address the track 1A topic okay um Mr Battleship I know that you talked about um the Google translate issue so we could certainly look at that um that's something that's standard that's used in districts all across the country for helping parents if there's a need to translate but um certainly we could look at the concern that you raised I I don't know what to say about that I mean so um the other thing is I would like to we've discussed the opt-in versus the opt out option on a number of occasions so I understand not everybody is necessarily able to attend board meetings so what I would like to do is ask Mr geppert to once again
100to explain about the opt-in versus opt out and what's allowable and what's not allowable yes just to help clarify the situations um as I've explained before the opt-down provision is uh provided by State Statute and I think we can answer a couple questions because you asked one and the woman in the back asked and just to share that with you it states any child whose parent or Guardian presents to the school principal a signed statement that any part of the instructions in health Family Life Education or sex education is in conflict with his conscience or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs shall be excused from that portion in the course where such instruction is being given and no penalties as to credit or graduation shall result there from so for the second question the statute
101itself says there can be no penalties as to creditor graduation shall result there from so those individuals are protected from any retaliation it'd be a violation of law and this is what the legislature and the governor had passed as a law they provided that a school district can opt out parents if they want to there is no statutory authority to do an opt-in situation as you requested so unfortunately that's driven by the law thank you Mr geppert Mrs reichmann I just wanted to respond to Kaylee and her family Kaylee I wanted to applaud you for coming tonight I think it takes a great deal of confidence you're an eloquent speaker you advocated for yourself you have Drive ambition you have it all going on and that was tremendous and it was really important and great
102for me to hear what you had to say I apologize that I wasn't able to speak with you during the zoom call I've never had students leave class and enter a zoom parent meeting before and I have to make sure that I'm fair and Equitable for all students I would be happy if you emailed me to come over to your school and speak with you more and I guess the only other thing I wanted to say is you do have an opportunity to re-qualify and and Kaylee I wanted to also thank your parents for coming tonight and I think it's important for every parent to advocate for their children there are many many requests for meetings and I know the administrators talk and meet with every parent at the class if it's moved up to
103me I always take those calls which we did have an exchange but but please know there is a process that's in place it's always Revisited I have a great deal of experience I actually came to The District 20 years ago as a gifted and talented teacher I applied for a fellowship for the gifted Institute attended I was awarded attended the Renzulli Institute so I have significant training and background in GNT instruction uh there are multiple measures you there's a qualifying score in each category it is a very very rigorous process but you do not have to meet the qualifications in every category the standardized test is one category we look at the benchmarks and I'm happy to talk to you about that but please know you do have an opportunity to re-qualify again and I
104would encourage you to communicate with your teacher and share your aspirations share your Ambitions they will be your greatest cheerleaders and we'll do whatever we can to support you on your end to be successful in meeting your goal so I hope you reach out to me and I hope we can continue the conversation and thank you for coming tonight [Applause] um Mr Moffett would like there was a statement made about minutes and so there are um a lot that there's a lot that goes on in developing minutes so he's going to talk about that for a minute right I would like to say I have experience in other districts and what we have here in Wayne is we have live um Pro program is is right now live right so not only is that part
105of the minutes ultimately we have also board docs so remember this video is being taped it'll be available the township has been fantastic on getting that information over to us and they've usually posted within the next day once that video there's a video between this location as well as what we what we call the PWS meeting which is held up in the board office that video is usually available by the Tuesday following the board meeting again that is also part of our minutes it's also really recorded and broadcast continually on our YouTube channel again as as our technology has advanced here in town we also acquired a software package which is called board docs which is probably a lot of what you see in front of you is actually uh tonight's agendas actually generated from
106that system and in that system not only do you have the formal written minutes but you also have embedded within the technology the video for posterity so that is part of the minutes so if there's any question on who said what or how things uh were presented in a uh the public meeting you can access that either on the YouTube channel or through board docs um and that's what I'll say as far as regular meetings we do have uh special meetings our executive session meetings that are confidential I think that was raised here today and those do have confidentiality issues and they're very generic and they are not provided for uh the general public to view on our website or through aboard docs so I just wanted to make that clear to the people that
107may be listening tonight and are here thank you thank you Mr moffatt Mr fatal short and sweet uh like the way she both Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley good luck tomorrow night those who are going remember to wear orange so we could all support Rocco his family and keep his memory living on so good luck to both schools tomorrow night thank you Mr protacos I just wanted to make mention uh you know all the back to school nights are going out and it's nice to see all the people I was at the Randall Carter back to school night the other night it was standing room only so it was great that everyone was able to experience what their children go through every day I wanted to thank the ptos and encourage everyone to join their
108ptos they're very important they they provide a lot of enrichment to their students um uh I also was able to participate in Wayne day uh back on Sunday I want to thank the organizers uh Mr Graziano Mr reutman and everyone else it was a great event um the Wayne Board of Ed had a nice Booth uh everybody was able to sign up and go out there um and and during Wayne day I was able to speak to some of the principals and administrators and the principals were very complementary and very excited about the sros that we hired to be into the elementary schools so all the elementary middle schools high schools it was it you know it was great that that we have money well spent there and um good luck to uh both Wayne
109Valley and Wayne Hills there'll be uh one winner tomorrow uh orange out I got my Rocco t-shirt so um I'll be there um uh Kaylee moravi I hope I said it correctly um you're in you're in my uh my daughter's class so I believe in both of you and I believe in all the children here in Wayne and that's why I'm here so um thank you you guys are Gonna Go Far I hope you guys uh you get together with my daughter so you guys can can really go far um Mrs Galley thank you for coming to set the record straight um I think it's very important to be set in the record straight here and uh thank you for everyone else that came up here um and you know regarding the previous accusation like
110I said you know I'm a new board member and you know I don't like playing games I don't like nonsense and I don't like to see wasted money and wasted resources so to pursue you know an allegation that I was texting you know I'm going on record to say that I was not texting and there are absolutely no outgoing text messages whether private or Business board business related text messages on there so please do not waste the Board of Ed and the Wayne District's money these hard-working taxpayers don't need subpoenas and other BS you know because I did not freaking text message [Applause] foreign since he brought it up again I need to respond let me explain something it's it's very simple excuse me there there is something called the public record and uh the
111board meeting has to be entirely reported to the public you just spoke about transparency Mr Robertson so if anyone is sitting up here using a personal device and texting for whatever it doesn't I don't know what's happening on someone's phone if it's in their hand I have no way of knowing whether they're receiving messages in sending messages out an upper request is not an accusation it's just that it's a request it costs the district zero they sent him an email he got to respond to it so no one was accused he can be as irate and upset as he wants to be it's not an accusation it's a request the the request was what's the word I'm looking for uh brought out because of of you Mr Robertson because you plainly stated to me that
112Mr proseccos told you what went on in executive session that's a problem so that needed to be looked into and that is all and problem solved discussion over and whoever wants to pursue it is up to them I for one have no interest in filing ethics charges I was the recipient of them I know full well what a waste of time it is and quite frankly tens of thousands of dollars involved why would I do it to someone else I just wanted to set the record straight and make sure that Mr proseccos understood that it's not appropriate to tell you what's going on in executive session thank you yes excuse me yeah I don't want to waste everyone's uh time but let me also go on the record I did not verbalize or say anything
113that happened to the executive session to anyone so just want to put that on the record as well thank you quick things uh one good luck to Wayne Valley Wayne Hills tomorrow night I'm sure it's going to be a great game um Mr Robertson I can assure you nothing went on in executive session that was not supposed to go on an executive session because if it was I wouldn't be in the room all right I can assure you that um secondly and finally I think we have to heat our own words that we read we have to heat our own words that we read before the public session everybody thank you thank you Mr Pavlik any other board member Mrs wendtec Kaylee I'm so proud of you it was so great of you to Brave
114of you to come here and speak in front of all these people you are going far places I too was told I think in the eighth grade that I'm not a college material and I finished master's program in a different language so don't let anyone stop you I'm really proud of you and I will too join you tomorrow at the Wayne Hills and Valley games um wearing my orange shirt so I'm really excited to go everyone go Wayne thank you um my husband and I attended the 911 ceremony at town hall 11 days ago not too many people came out for two years because of covid so it was really nice to go down there so thanks to the mayor and Parks and Rec Department First Responders were there our police firemen first aid Squad
115two terrific Wayne Valley vocalists saying we had trumpeters from Wayne Hills a Boy Scout Troop Mikey Cheryl spoke and Kristen Corrado and we had the bagpipe and drums which always gets me I remember 911 strangely with sharp detail about my new details big contrast with the kind of dream fog around other parts I was a librarian at Albert Payson Triune school at the time fairly early in the morning I saw George Rose a fifth grade teacher making his way across the media center toward me with a very strange look on his face he said do you have a cable TV hookup here in the library I said yeah an emotion to the back corner where the cart was he goes you have to turn it on because people will need to come down and see
116this we move some of the cubicle screens so that any students coming in and out of the library couldn't see and as teachers got released time they came into the library to see what was going on it looked like a scene from a Godzilla movie with the billowing smoke coming out of the towers and then parents started coming to school to pick up their students which alarmed the students that were left behind how come Katie's mom came to pick her up how come Joey had to go home so our job was to keep the children calm and safe we all did it our principal the secretary fielded Communications like crazy the nurse the custodian everybody chipped in um and then we had bomb threats in some of the buildings in Wayne the police came to
117help us to make sure the kids were safe the teachers were safe the other staff members were safe to have traffic flow in and out of buildings to get kids safely home at the end of the day everybody in Wayne all our kids were okay and on 9 11 we put our kids first they just happen to be your kids that day so I think that was also the thought that went through the teacher's Minds and Sandy Hook Parklands and Uvalde and I think that's what all of us want to do is keep our children safe so despite the rhetoric and sometimes the heated arguments and occasional bad feelings it all goes back to the kids so thank you thank you for those of you who appeared at the podium tonight good luck at the
118hills and Valley game tomorrow night both teams and the back to school nights have been wonderful so I thank you everyone's participation have a very good evening motion to adjourn move to close thank you