001calling the meeting to order adequate notice of this regular and executive meeting setting forth time date and location has been provided in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act on january 10 2022 by prominently posting a copy on the bulletin board in the lobby of the offices of the board of education which is a public place reserve for such announcements transmitting a copy of this notice to the record the wayne today tap into wayne.net the municipal clerk and the district website uh approval to convene into um to start the meeting um mr moffatt roll call please there are motion and second name mr bubba here mr fatale here mrs kumar here mr pavlak here mr uh prasakos present mrs put up here and mrs wentek here okay at this time we're going
002to do the flag salute followed by a moment of silence thank you 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 thank you dr toback excuse me one second okay so good evening everybody this evening we have much to discuss and share with the board of ed and with the community we have many committee reports and our student reports plus an important presentation about our budget so i'll keep my comments brief yesterday the school district launched a new initiative to gather more information from the community about the post-secondary planning process we've heard from many parents and appreciate your ideas and feedback and we're happy to report that we experienced an almost immediate and
003strong response from the community we've been able to gather that families can use more assistance with the college admissions process and how to start planning early it's apparent that the admissions process has become increasingly competitive and it would be helpful for us to offer more parent workshops to navigate the various stages of the college process families also requested that we consider working parents and provide a flexible mix of in-person workshops and zoom sessions throughout the school year many families expressed an interest in educating students about various career and trade opportunities early on so students can take advantage of more high school electives to get exposure and awareness about different post high school career options additionally we recognize the need to educate our special education community about college programs that offer support services and accommodations to
004maximize student success so we'll continue to read your comments and use this information to plan for our goals for next year i'm also pleased to continue to be involved and support the annual community forum with mayor vergano and also with the wayne education association the wayne alliance and our school resource officers it's a fantastic annual event that makes a difference in the community focus of the event this year is teen mental health and will be held on may 24th additional details will be shared in the coming weeks of covet update the district continues to experience unfortunately a growth in the number of coveted cases once again following the pattern before where the number of cases doubles every two weeks so now we have 30 positive cases two weeks ago we had 15. there is good
005news though in that the number of students quarantined has been reduced by about half the other good news is that even though the number of cases are on the increase this is nowhere near to anything we experienced earlier this year regarding the hiv report i'm reporting the following data related to harassment intimidation and bullying incidents in the wayne township public schools there were four incidents of hivs investigated since my last report two of those cases were deemed to meet the criteria of hiv incidents that concludes my report are we going to go over the budget information at this point i believe we have the student reports we'll do those first thank you ladies on wednesday march 2nd the wayne hills high school wellness committee hosted their first pets for less stress event pets from the
006brighton beautiful therapy dogs organization visited the high school during the lunch block to offer the school community a much needed break from the school day the event was well attended and brought joy to students and staff alike wayne hall student ruan austin won one gold medal for vagabond and one silver medal for stargazer rocky shores in the scholastic art and writing national competition for poetry that won gold keys in the regional competition round will represent wayne hills at carnegie hall on june 9th for a national awards ceremony he was also chosen as a semi-finalist nominee for the 2022 national student poets program congratulations everyone the wayne hall symphonic band participated in the 2022 north jersey school music association's concert band festival on june on sorry on tuesday 3-22 the band earned a silver rating from
007the adjudicators and some valuable feedback on how to improve the band did well in the role of musical ambassadors of wayne hills the wayne hills millennial winter guard won first place in the scholastic regional a division at the matawan guard show on saturday 3-26 the guard's score improved over two points and their program everest is looking to reach the summit by championships the patriots hosted their crosstown rival indians in the first of a two-game series in the unified basketball league it was a come-from-behind home team win with hills earning the victory 33 over 28. unified sports team have both from general ed and special ed players combined at the team team and are supported by the njsi and special olympics wayne hills hosted the pacific county relays for track and field earlier in the month
008and had several students with personal records in addition to major team wins in the boys javelin distance medley relay and a girls four by sixteen hundred patriots baseball brought home a big win 3-0 over undefeated ramsey high school 7-0 record this past weekend caitlyn davies continues to be a major leader in the success of her patriot girls lacrosse program where she was recently recognized for a career 200 goals wayne hill sent student leader representatives to leadership through athletics conference and have brought back some great ideas for the coming leadership development program at wayne hills two of our coaches were recognized for successes and coaches by passaic county greg rayburger girls soccer with 100 wins and kathy peters gymnastics with 50 ones our boys lacrosse program brought home a big win after celebrating senior night against
009kennel with a 5-2-1 our unified track and field program is underwear underway in collaboration with special services that will round out our offerings of unified bowling basketball esports and track and field for the year our first year with all four offerings for our unifi program thank you [Music] the national honor society is once again conducting its kids helping kids program which takes place weekly at the wayne public library with this long-standing program the nhs students offer extra help and tutoring to elementary middle and high school students on monday april 4th the baseball team had their season opening game against clifton this year this year's baseball team has seven seniors including david ritacco and drake flower they are looking forward to a bounce back season after losing to wayne hills in the county semi-finals last year
010the boys start off their season with a challenging schedule facing bergen catholic randolph and ramapo to begin their 2022 season we're all really excited to see how the team will do key players to watch out for shaun dubois andrew christian and connor mcnally girls flag football kicked off their first ever scrimmages at nutley on friday april 4th the team is not fully a sport yet at wayne valley but represents itself as a club so dual athletes can join and experience the new opportunity the team consists of freshman sophomore juniors and seniors and they started off their season with small scrimmages against teams in the league on april 3rd at metlife stadium valley is one of the eight new newest teams in the league and we wish them the best of luck in their games the
011girls golf team is looking promising this year with senior captains amanda voight and maddie martin leading a team with high expectations this year the girls golf team is 1-0 and they open their season with a 206-237 victory over northern highlands boys lacrosse is 2-2-0 with wins over mawwa with a score of 8-7 and lakeland 13-5 this team is led by coach glander and he and his squad look to capitalize off of last year's county championship with another solid season leading the team this season is high point university commit colin rover colin schmitz and their junior defense unit which consists of cole wolford jake jack lavner paul zoransky and matt shapiro after graduating after many seniors graduated in a season and ending injury to danny smith the boys are going to have to look for some
012underclassmen to step up softball is 1-1 with a big 14-3 win against west milford on saturday april 2nd key player senior gabby perez leads the team this season after an unexpected 8-12 record last year for the boys volleyball team the only ways to go is up the squad's key players include juniors andrew teichert and brandon lechner the boys volleyball team is currently 0-1 with a tough opening day loss against against fairlawn good luck with the rest of the season boys wayne valley's sta will be held on april 28th 29th and 30th the two teams have been practicing for many months and are go and are looking forward to the show i can't wait to see what the incredible dances the girls come up with the james fallon pto donated 180 dollars to james fallon elementary
013school and the donation is to be used for transportation of fifth grade students to james road memorial pool on wednesday june 5th the james fallon pto donated two thousand dollars to james fallon elementary school and the the donation is to be used for a fifth grade field trip to liberty science center on june 10th the lafayette pto donated three thousand dollars to lafayette elementary school and the donation is to be used for k-5 k-5 field trip busing james veal donated a thousand dollars to skyler colfax and this is to be used for the metal flower sculpture dominic del antonium donated three thousand two hundred dollars for the 3d printers for cad class to wayne hills high school wayne education foundation donated three thousand six hundred dollars to wayne hills high school and this donation is
014to be used for renovations to the theater room wayne education association donated 1 401 dollars to the wayne township public library and this is used for books for each school library thank you very much okay we're moving on to a presentation on budget revisions yes okay ready okay so this evening we have a presentation and to participate fully members of the public should use the pie chart we shared with the agenda this evening so everybody hopefully you have a pie chart so you'll notice that there are numbers these numbers will be used to call your attention to certain areas of this document but to get started mr moffitt will be providing a budget update along with some background information that will help with the discussion and will also help the public understand a little bit
015more about what we're talking about mr moffatt yes welcome to tonight's meeting and the discussion regarding possible budget revisions the board has recently been given opportunity to revisit the budget priorities due to the decision to move to the state of new jersey health benefit program some program some background related to this unique opportunity is that the board as part of the annual renewal process went out with a request for proposal process which was due back to be opened in my office on march 26th there were no new benefit proposals presented just a renewal from our existing carrier aetna with an estimated 27 percent increase over last year's costs this increase is contributed to our claims history and overall market factors which includes the covid pandemic the board as recommended by the broker of record approved
016the transition um to the new jersey state health employee benefit program this transition was approved by the board at their march 31st meeting that transition will be effective obviously we'll start before that but it'll be effective july 1 2022 which is also the beginning of our new budget period which is for the 2022-2023 budget year at this time board is also in the process of considering and approving the 2022-2023 district budget the board approved the tentative budget at their march 16th meeting as an update the submitted tentative budget was approved by the passaic county office new jersey department of education and our user-friendly budget was advertised in newspapers and related internet sites on april 13th as per nj doe regulations since the final budget has not been adopted and they would normally adopt a budget
017at the the hearing which is slated for a may 5th meeting that's our that's our next meeting again it's our budget hearing the board has an opportunity to change that budget which presents this unique situation in time which was brought forward by the employee health benefit change the board through the finance committee and feedback from an administration decided to revisit district priorities in the areas of reducing the reliance on budgeted general fund balance property taxes issues and conditions resulting from the covet pandemic and to continue to identify resources for school facility needs for today and into the future as dr toback suggested that there is a handout and at this point did you want to start with the pie chart yeah so at this point i'm going to uh use the pie chart for reference
018okay so if you want to take your pie chart um okay so i'm going to discuss items one four and five on the pie chart and i'm going to do that because they are all connected mr moffat will be discussing the rest of the items okay so um we anticipated the first question might be is any of this going to reduce taxes so the answer is yes in multiple ways so if you see number one that's just a straight tax levy reduction for the upcoming year so part of our plan is to reduce the tax levy increase from what was originally scheduled to be a two percent increase to 1.5 percent which adds up to approx approximately 800 000 so some of these numbers can change they may not be exact numbers at the time
019that the final budget is adopted but they're very close number four is interesting it's a major victory for the board and it funds number five so in 2014 when he started the district budgeted 3.5 million from the prior year's budget for future budgets meaning that there was an assumption that each budget would produce in excess of 3.5 million dollars in fund balance at the end of the year so it's difficult in some years to produce any surplus and the auditor cautioned against continuing this practice so since that time the board chipped away at this number so it's now down to 1.5 million dollars and now the board has an opportunity to eliminate this problem and the problem started in the early 2000s when the district experienced severe financial strain so that's sort of a response
020but at this point it's taken many years to get down to 1.5 million now the board has the opportunity to eliminate this problem within our budget number five is also very important so by eliminating number four it is likely additional funds will be available for capital reserve which is number five by building our reserves we've been able to move ahead with numerous projects including most recently new security cameras across the district new security vestibules new phone systems roofing replacements enhanced wi-fi renovations to the ecc and the preakness school which paved the way for full day kindergarten new science labs at both of our high schools backup generators kitchen upgrades hvac enhancement and also the strobe light external building alarms the file and media center upgrades the rhino carter small group instruction spaces and that's just
021since 2018 so the board has really moved ahead in terms of facilities and they've completed every one of these projects without seeking additional funds from taxpayers by taking action on number four and continuing to build our reserves we'll be able to fund without a referendum the bleacher replacement projects at each of our high schools plus a new track for wayne hills assuming our financial position remains strong so that's really quite a testament to long-term planning by the board of ed and also a commitment to build your reserves and that really at this point it has really paid off for the district and at no additional cost of taxpayers it's all done within the district's budget and i'll continue around the pie chart i'll start with number seven which is budget restoration during the budget process
022many of our district needs and wants are under addressed as the administration has to prioritize and build the budget within a two percent cap in other words administration balances wants and needs and at the same time projects into the future two three five years out there's it's not an easy task when you consider continued and consistent salary growth beyond two percent tax increases over time and into the future these are areas that we'd like to build resources back into the budget and as you can see it's for various technology subscriptions for administrative and instructional uses expand student support services and programs to address anticipated needs resulting from covid pandemics both generally and for iep driven needs it's also going to be used to restore an english language learner teacher to expand the district's program number
023six various federal grants have assisted the district in managing the pandemic's impact on the delivery of instruction and school operations across the board a downside of these grants is that they present a budget cliff which means when uh the money runs out and the needs continue the board will have to absorb these various services and or programs into its operating budget additional needs continue uh to be identified since the budget was crafted and these areas include one critical area i'll note is an emotional mental health services for our students this will help us expand our counseling program by hiring additional guidance counselors we see a continued need for paraprofessionals to support our special needs population we also expect to continue to address behavior and disciplinary issues at the elementary level number two increased utility and
024fuel costs you see there since the creation of the budget again this is a very fluid situation as we all may know we have seen an unstable oil in energy markets which along with the pandemic have hit this year's budget hard that's this year and will continue to be being have an impact in what i would anticipate a negative impact moving forward due to the ongoing war in the ukraine we are currently adjusting this year's budget and continue to project for next year's needs number three which is employee retention recruitment and for the teacher shortage uh anyone watching or reading the news is aware of a general worker shortages across various areas in our economy this shortage stretches into hiring and retention of teachers bus drivers and many other areas within our school operations we
025expect that we expect an increasingly competitive market for attracting new employees and are increasingly concerned about keeping all of our valued employees at the same time we need to continue to provide support such as substitute teachers and additional coverages as we continue to attract employees with competitive salaries and high quality employee benefits programs and i think that uh handles the most of what's on the slide i will go into what's really what are the next steps for the board the board of education may consider this recommendation at the next budget hearing which again is may 5 at which we will again inform the general public of these subject changes so what does that mean since the budget has been advertised there's a change so i have to document that that change so you'll be seeing
026some information as it relates to uh the local tax levy plus the budgeted fund balance which each equals about 2.3 million dollars we'll reduce those lines in the budget and we'll also offset it by reducing the lines on the appropriation side in the total personal services area this change again will be presented after and after the budget hearing an amendment will be added to the resolution uh to adopt the district 2022 2023 budget the board will consider and if approved these subject budget changes will be forwarded to the passaic county office and jdoe for final approval if approved by the county office the budget will then open the district budget as adopted for general district purposes that concludes my report on the presentation thank you all right mr moffatt revisions to agenda items please okay
027back to me and we do have two tonight under uh the regular section which is m human resources uh item number five which is approval of additional hours of minutes uh we will be revised start date with item number one under five uh the start date from march 22 2022 to april 22 2022 and additional hours to be 216 a day and moving on to the emergent section section t we will be adding t11 which is approval of increment withholding and that recommendat the recommendation it reads as follows resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent withholds the employment and adjustment increment for employee number 4171 for the 2022-2023 school year for good cause and directs the board secretary to provide the affected staff member with written notice of this action
028and the reasons therefore within 10 days in accordance with njsa 18a colon 29-14 and that concludes the revisions to tonight's agenda thank you the next portion is open to the public for to address agenda items only this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on agenda items only residents are to state their names addresses and subject matter comments may be limited to three 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 made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to this evening or at subsequent meetings under old business may i have a move to open mrs kumar second mr pavla madam presidency
029no one rise i moved to close public portion second thank you okay we have some retirements to celebrate this evening mr fatale mrs randy korch has been a spanish teacher at anthony wayne middle school since fall 2009 after working as a world language teacher at wayne valley high school as a member of the school community at anthony wayne she has taught four mark and period cycle classes of spanish for grades six seven and eight for many years getting to know the large majority of our students included in her courses have been conversational content vocabulary and grammar as well as cultural and lifestyle content associated with spanish-speaking countries mrs korch always liked always worked to give her students a well-rounded experience she also served as advisor of the anthony wayne sewing club for a number of
030years mrs korch has been a trusted and loyal colleague to many over the years and has always been an example of professionalism consistency and kindness her many years of service and dedication to anthony way middle school are appreciated and we all wish her well on her upcoming retirement it's time for her to spend some quality time with her husband and daughter thank you mr pavlak walter johnson we're celebrating the career of mr walter johnson as he plans his retirement for july of 2022. walter has been working in the wayne school district for 39 years his devotion to wayne and the students of wayne is broad reaching as his contributions have touched the lives of many and is felt both at wayne hills high school wayne valley high school as well as george washington middle school
031and skyward colfax middle school from 1982 mr johnson was an integral part of the coaching teams at both wayne valley and wayne hills high schools as well as the athletic site manager at hills from 2016 until now his long list of accomplishments include 15 state championship awards 13 in football one in basketball and one in track and field his combination his combined coaching between the two high schools is 34 years from 1982 to 2016. an achievement unparalleled and a testament of walt's loyalty to his kids who and would not have been possible without mr johnson's dedication and commitment to his players his teaching career spans multiple schools starting at wayne valley in 1983 then george washington middle school in 1984 and then finally at scholar colfax in 1985 until today mr johnson fondly refers to
032skyler as the best kept secret he is the backbone of the phys ed department and is responsible for evolutions of physical education and health programs at schuyler mr johnson sees schuyler as his home and family which is evident in the relationship he has both with staff and students you always know you can expect consistency from walter from the beginning of the day as he carries his lunch and diet snapple down the hallway to the end of the day when he waves goodbye to the office crew on his way to hills high school his favorite memories include the washington dc trips faculty 8th grade basketball games and pe field days when asked about his time in wayne waltz said i feel lucky to work at schuyler colfax with an outstanding staff and pe department walter's booming
033voice will be embedded in the walls of skyler for the coming year for many years he will be missed every day and through and though about often we wish walter all the health and happiness and joy as he begins this chap new chapter in his life with travel in his future congratulations walter on an incredible career and thank you for your unending support of our wayne students just on a personal note i've known mr johnson all those years i worked with him at the wayne pal day camp we went to college together and we you know we see each other from time to time and you talk about the model you want for a teacher walter johnson is that model good luck walt thank you mr presados linda greenberg after 16 years with the wayne
034school district and 35 in education miss linda greenberg will be retiring as a teacher of french her commitment to the students of wayne hills and schuyler colfax truly embodied her motto that learning a language should be both educational and fun from constructing the eiffel tower out of candy to learning to make crepes her students were afforded a variety of ways to embrace french language and culture her work spanned all five levels of french from beginners to honors and each year she worked to bring in new technologies and activities to enhance learning she was also the advisor to the french honor society and the french club through which she organized trips to museums restaurants cooking schools and broadway shows miss greenberg took every opportunity to enhance her students learning experience including bringing in former students who
035were living abroad in france as guest speakers through video chats it is thanks to her hard work and dedication that the french program is thriving her future plans include living up to being voted wayne hill's most traveled teacher by continuing to do so in her retirement we thank her for her service and know that she will be missed by staff and students of wayne hills thank you mr bubba [Music] miss annette evolio has been a member of anthony of wayne middle school since it opened in 2005. she has been a loyal and trusted colleague to many during her tenure here in wayne township schools and has been a role model of patience and kindness for her students as well more than just a language arts teacher ms avolio has served as a student council advisor
036for many years in this role she has helped develop leaders within our student body through activities like the annual paterson fire department toy drive ms avolio also served on the anthony of wayne middle school community as the chair of the sunshine committee all happy and sad occasions for staff staff members have been acknowledged for many years to thank her for ongoing thoughtfulness and caring nature a mother and a grandmother first and foremost miss avoglio has more than earned a long and happy retirement as she embarks on her next phase of life we thank her for her many years of service and commitment to the children of wayne and wish her nothing but the best thank you thank you we will come back okay we have one more retirement we will come back for that one
037sorry about that thank you uh we also have some committee reports this evening you're coming back for mr olenbach oh no i'm coming to you now the one that mr bubble was supposed to read we'll come back to thank you dr toback yeah yes thank you okay um so it is an honor for me to read this retirement statement written by assistant principal lisa ernie who works with dave ombach so it's an honor to celebrate the amazing career of dave ombach the principal of anthony wayne as he plans on retiring august 1st 2022. dave has made an everlasting impact on the anthony wayne community they started off his nine-year teaching career at the randolph public schools in 1995 as an elementary band teacher after a year he became the middle school band director for four
038years before moving to randolph high school to be the high school band director he then became a teaching supervisor for the visual and performing arts at randolph high school seven years later he was promoted to high school vice principal for two years and then in 2013 dave decided to forge a new path in his career by becoming the principal at anthony wayne middle school where he's finishing his incredible career in education from the moment he stepped into anthony wayne dave has impacted the lives of all those who have come in contact with him he's been known to say education is about relationships dave's built such positive relationships with students parents staff and fellow administrators before his first day at anthony wayne he studied the previous year's yearbook so he could learn every staff member's name
039and face he also spent those first few weeks meeting with staff members so he can get to know them as people and not just teachers everyone knew instantly that he was the right person to lead anthony wayne dave does so many things well on a daily basis he's always the first to arrive working in his office before school starts so he can spend most of his day with the staff and students throughout the building you can always find dave in the halls spending lunch periods in the cafeteria visiting classrooms giving students high fives and engaging in conversations his office door is always open and even if he is busy he always has a minute for anyone in need of his time his communication skills are top-notch always keeping his staff students and parents updated on
040the latest school news he's always willing to collaborate with fellow administrators with the goal of creating a strong school community during his years at anthony wayne dave has brought many new initiatives and ideas to the school creating a school culture that was focused on educating the whole child it all started with aw's character education program the 180 days of awesome and branched out into monthly staff breakfasts spirit days student of the month and community fundraisers he's even been known to display his musical talents during band concerts talent shows and end of the year events when he plays the drums with the staff rock band his personality lights up any room he walks into and he's an uncanny ability to make people laugh as you walk down the hallways of anthony wayne you can see staff
041members that truly love what they do and students that are enthusiastic and engaged this is because of dave dave has created a learning environment that starts and ends with relationships he's touched so many lives during his 27 years in education he cares about every single person he meets as his relationship with education ends dave's legacy will continue as new relationships are built throughout the halls of anthony wayne he's made a lasting impact on the anthony wayne community and he will be greatly missed we wish dave much happiness as he starts the next chapter of his life trading in snowy winners here in new jersey for warmer weather down in naples florida with his family congratulations dave on completing your phenomenal career and thank you for many years of hard work and dedication in education now
042i will admit sometimes retirement statements sometimes they're a little exaggerated and sometimes you know people get a lot of credit at the time of retirement um in this particular case this is there's nothing in this statement that is an exaggeration dave is really an incredible human being he will be sorely missed in this community everything that is written in here is absolutely true and not an exaggeration he's one of the most exceptional people that i've met and in terms of his leadership skills they are truly unparalleled so he's a class act he did an unbelievable job at anthony wayne and we wish him well but we're certainly going to miss him thank you very much dr toback okay just a moment please oh okay all right just wanted to make sure thank you very much
043uh we'll be moving on to committee repo no it was it was the first one uh but evie read that one then we read them all okay all right thank you mr bubba okay yes all right thank you next moving on to committee reports mr pavlov facilities and transportation committee met this evening myself mr patel ms tibbetts mr romaine mr skobitsky and of course mr moffatt we reviewed tonight's agenda we talked about use of school facilities we talked about some security projects that we have underway and some that will surely be underway we talked about the ryerson roof replacement and we will be changing out hvac units at ryerson as well as pines lake had an issue in front of jfk with a sinkhole that ended up not being our responsibility but the counties um
044transportation wise we reviewed our transportation contracts and these con what these contracts are these contracts are for contracted services for buses a lot of them are for special special ed we in the renewal of these budgets we're seeing anywhere from a 20 to 30 percent increase in prices it's totally um out of control where it's going because of fuel and just because they can't get drivers either the same situations that we're having we have a couple new drivers that are coming on board a new mechanic and again we reviewed a lot of these contracts and the huge increase in fuel costs which are creating some deficits but hopefully we'll be able to work that out that's it thank you mr bubba personnel committee met tonight with myself mrs puttup mr prasakos our administrators were mrs
045clark this is reischmann dr toback we re reviewed the march 16th committee minutes we also reviewed tonight's agenda items we discussed non-rentals of certificated staff members we also went over the single unit contracts and changes there and we also went over the reduction in force and that's the end [Music] thank you moving on to action on agenda madam president i move that we move the entire agenda to consent do i have a second i'll second it thank you mr bubba i have a question though certainly um dr toback mr moffat i was wondering because we did the presentation tonight with the budget and we have the we have the percentage down to 1.5 is there any way we could see at the budget hearing the breakdown of what one percent and 1.25 would be just
046so we have something to compare to so that maybe we can you know if it if it's feasible i'm not even sure it is but at this point in time at least having something to compare to and where we'd be with each would be great that's all thank you okay do i we're going to move all the agenda items together is there any discussion mrs kumar uh just for the public also as part of the budget presentation if we could have the numbers um if you could just say them now for the just changes so you mentioned that the horizon was a 27 percent increase in our health insurance costs but compared to last year how does the state employment health benefits plan like save and what percentages are those [Music] any other discussion [Music]
047um this is wendick okay all right do i have a mover to pass all the agenda items i moved it oh i'm sorry roll call thank you mrs wintick yes mr bubba i'll abstain on t number 11. and yes to the rest chris mr duffy yes mrs kumar yes mr patrick yes mr prasakos no on item u2 and no on item u3 and yes to everything else mr fatale yes and mrs paddock yes motion carries thank you okay the next portion of the meeting is for public comment on any topic residents are to state their names addresses and subject matter comments may be limited to three 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 made by the public
048comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be be responded to this evening or at subsequent meetings under old business thank you motion all moved open mrs kumar a second mr fatale thank you we're open thank you for the record my name is norman robertson i'm a wayne resident um first thank you all for your service to the community it's not an easy job and we do appreciate it uh just a couple of general comments uh one of the things that happened or i know whatever whatever it was ten days ago with the state department of education sent out some changes to the health curriculum uh and that really raises the question uh of what will happen for the balance of the year because i know you're
049going to be subject to taking a look at a variety of curricula and i just wanted to say that i really do believe that parents and neighbors will be watching closely this year uh not that they have in the last couple of years but they certainly have they will want to know whether or not you're going to continue to ensure transparency with changes uh perhaps this to how we post the minutes or the requests that we get under the open public records act you might want to take a look at that what will the board do with respect to recognizing a parent's right to be a part of input on controversial policies or curriculum changes you took a step toward that today by i think you re uh reinstated the five-minute rule as opposed to
050the three-minute rule was that is that correct or is not done not done yet oh oh that wasn't on tonight's agenda oh it was not oh okay well i encourage you to do that and that will be a step in the right direction you may want to take a look at what your summer reading program will be take a careful look at it last year there was considerable debate about that and some people said that there was some history there that was not good history and by that i mean not well done and we should really take a look at that which leads to the point about what kind of american history and world history is going to be taught in our schools that's something else that i know the public as a whole will
051take a very careful look at and we hope that you will too and then of course there is the health curriculum and um this is the teacher's guide and i'm not going to quote from it it's not needed yet at this point it's being relooked at and so forth in trenton but i encourage you to take a look at it if you need to know where you can find it you can find the link to this site on senator shapizzi's facebook page she made comment about it after it came out and she asked for it and she got it and it's very interesting uh you know because it it involves whether or not the curriculum is age appropriate especially in the younger grades in first and second grade so then the question is going to
052be for the public will the board be taking a stand on the age appropriateness excuse me i'm sorry sir that's your time oh that's three minutes yes sir oh and okay you you can come up again after everyone else who wants to speak has spoken thank you dale cavanaugh lived in wayne probably over now probably over 23 years so truth what is truth truth exists truth is objective for objective truth to exist there needs to be a transcendent arbiter of truth but objective truth is not as personal opinions of individuals we're entitled to our own opinion but not our own truth otherwise we're the subject of the whims opinions dictates masquerading as truth of individuals or groups of individuals in a current moment what is not true is the supposed covalent vaccines are effective in
053controlling the spread of covid and preventing hospitalizations this is clear for all to see through much evidence of those willing to objectively investigate reason and discern furthermore the definition of vaccine has changed from the historical understanding of prevention to control spread masking also is as a prevention tool is also not true it's cosmic theater there is not one study anywhere demonstrating the efficacy of masking there are how over a hundred studies showing the harm it causes especially to children such as delayed speech and ability to recognize facial clues confusion fatigue leading to infringement of full cognitive development function and confusion we also miss out on possible indicators of emotional distress through facial expression the strong expression of some government officials in some in educational system for children to be vaccinated mass comes from a spirit
054of deception our children are not in danger of covet according to cdc complete recovery from covet among school-aged children is nearly 100 percent it's tragic that anyone lose anyone any loved one for any reason according to many health officials the risk i already said that meanwhile fatalities due to suicides overdoses fentanyl poisoning and i say fentanyl poisoning because it's not actually overdose the kids aren't knowing that they're getting fettened on a lot of these cases and these pills are heroin or whatever it may be overdoses fentanyl poison are increasing rapidly and are the leading causes of death in these age groups our children are more likely to be a fatality in a car accident on our way to school that just come to covent in addition to strong encouragement of our children to mask in
055fact it is a polling segregation of students based on their covet status whether by masking or separation is an egregious violation of their constitutional rights most specifically the fourth fourteenth and first amendments it is a gross violation to inquire of anyone's health status which has always been considered a private matter another non-truth we've heard in one meeting is that crt is not sel the tenets of critical race theory is the ideology seo or tsel is the delivery system whether it be critical race theory crt gender theory or csc and sel children are taught what to think rather than how to think for themselves through a problem we were also told by a school board member the kids are struggling with a return citing one reason only i too have a background in psychology counseling and
056what you learn very quickly is there rarely ever if ever one causation to one's emotional distress yes return to stool could be one reason for the child struggling then they come to school full of faceless people they can't see smiles they hear the usa is bad and racist it may be their fault or they have no chance to succeed because the system will prevent them from from succeeding in life and then they are told that the earth will die in 10 years if we don't stop using fossil fuels for our cars we're planes sir i heard you thank you cindy simon wayne first i'd like to acknowledge mr ironback's service i just figured i'd do it at the same time i get up here now second i know the board has put a lot of
057effort into trying to figure out the public speaking policy which is why it wasn't on tonight and it went back to committee and as somebody who was at the board meetings that used to end in the wee hours of the night i i respect that you want to get out of here but i really really have to say that i i am against the idea of limiting public sessions to 90 minutes if there is something that the folks in the public and town want to share with the board there should be an ability for more than 18 people to do that if everyone were to take their five minutes um so i just put that out there even if the phrasing of the policy is you know free so that you can extend the time
058i just i think that we want to give people the opportunity to speak whatever it is that they want to share with the board um i also really really want to stress the importance of getting out accurate information um we hear a lot about um you know the social and emotional challenges that uh people are facing not only because of covid but you know if you've got high school students they're stressing out about college and there's all sorts of other reasons people are stressed because of the war going on you mentioned um hiring more counselors i commend you for that um and i think we need to make sure the public understands the difference between doing what we need to do to support the whole student in in in their learning as opposed to some
059other kind of sinister whatever it is people are saying that are out there they're two different things thank you again norman roberts and i will uh i'll finish very quickly we talked about the age-appropriateness of the first and second grade uh and i would just encourage you not to simply say uh well it's a state mandate there's nothing we can do about it uh there is something you can do about it even if it's just to say that you don't agree or that you do agree if that's if you're so inclined also you hear a lot about the opt-out rule you know and as a legislator i understand that you try to put things together but an op out is a cop-out remember that an op-out is a cop-out if something is wrong if it's
060inappropriate it shouldn't make its way to our classrooms parents and neighbors will be watching they'll be watching not what you say as much as what you do so i suppose we should buckle up again this year it's liable to be a bumpy ride we were warned in 2020 and 2021 by events that happened that something radical perhaps politically radical was on its way to our classrooms and parents and neighbors will watch that process very very carefully and they will want to know how you stand thank you and again thank you for your for your service to the community all right dale cavanaugh so repeating so the kids come to school full of faceless people they can't see smiles they can't hear uh they hear the usa is bad and racist and it may be their
061fault or they have no chance to succeed because the system will prevent them from succeeding in life then they are told that the earth will die 10 to 12 years if we don't stop using fossil fuels for our cars and planes oh by the way it might be too late just getting up and going to school can cause several causations to emotional distress for our children then to really confuse them further they may be told that if they don't that if they don't feel good about themselves they can change themselves to be one of 40 genders or so and that will help them feel good about themselves or becoming someone different gender theology is not true it is abusive and destructive there's a biological and scientific fact that male and female are signed at conception
062it cannot rationally be argued otherwise and is a tragedy to imply to a child otherwise sex is biology gender is grammatical that is not to say that children suffering from gender dysphoria do not need our empathy and help read the many stories many stories of people who have chemically or surgically transition to something other than who they were conceived as and live to horrifyingly regret their irreversible decisions these are the tragic stories of many d transitioners 80 to 95 of children who consider himself transgender will naturally outgrow their transgender feelings by adulthood given the chance none of us are necessarily who we believe and or feel we are we are all created by jesus christ to be who he designed us to be therein lies the truth transcendent objective truth all these things that i've
063covered help lead to the educational deficiencies we see demonstrated by lower test scores that were displayed in december's meeting remember what i said about the multiple causations they are also being used to divide and separate children the clues are all around us are we thinking thank you for your time madam president seeing no one else arrives i have multiple seconds i'm sorry sir no didn't he get up and done no sir two seconds too late yes sir i can talk let's be honest about it so i'm gonna just say what i have to say anyway my name is craig andrew i live on ridgeview terrace i'm sorry i'll withdraw my motion thank you excuse me i didn't know i was going to close it mr pablo has withdrawn his motion is there a second there's
064the second okay thank you so my name's craig andrew i live in ridgeview terrace uh my daughter is one years old i'm sorry she's going into first grade we decided not to send her to kindergarten we didn't feel comfortable at all with the curriculum that we were seeing and a lot of stuff going on i grew up in garfield i came from garfield moved here thought my kids were going to have a better you know experience when it came to school certainly didn't think i was going to have to deal with a lot of the stuff that i'm seeing and when we had the meeting in the summer about looking at this curriculum and the k through second one of the things that was said is you can opt out when i said opting out
065means that we have to then all the people that were in the room agreed that it shouldn't be taught the people that weren't agreeing weren't there therefore they're not represented to force people to opt out is indoctrination so how will we know if opting out we would have to have a lesson plan every day to know that the kid wasn't being taught something by the teacher so is that something that you are willing to do which is provide lesson plans daily secondly how will that affect their testing will they be having a different test from the other kids because they opted out or are they just going to be marked wrong on those questions or are they going to have to see those questions because if i don't agree as a parent i certainly don't
066want them to read them and have multiple choice options for something that i don't agree that they should be taught so there's a lot of questions that are left unanswered and certainly don't make any sense when you think about it in the scheme of things on how this is going to be handled properly again it's not i just think it's nuts to think that k through second should be learning about sexual orientation i mean it's it blows my mind but again i'm open to at least entertaining what the options are if it is something that is put in place because it doesn't seem like it would be seamless it doesn't seem like it would be effective and somehow these kids are going to be introduced to it in one way or another and i just
067want that to be my right and my privilege to teach my children about this stuff so that's all i have i appreciate your time [Applause] no anyone else [Music] madam president i moved to close public session mr duffy seconded thank you [Music]