001second recession the wayne board of education pws meeting of november 11 2021 was convened in the conference room of the wayne board of education 15 ellis driveway new jersey the statement of compliance setting forth time date location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and the enrollment is taken the meeting was recession is now being reconditioned please rise for the reflections states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all happy veterans day let's get started yes we're always on holiday mr bubba here mr duffy here mr giordano here mr kazan here mrs kumar here mr pavla here potter here and mrs sheer here so my administrative report tonight is pretty extensive due to the fact that
002really it's an administrative report for two meetings so i'm going to go over a lot of different items but i'd like to start our evening by taking a moment to recognize our students and staff especially at our middle schools for doing a wonderful job with recognizing veterans today he's very happy to be able to attend the anthony wayne middle school and you can see the veterans were so touched by the songs and the poems and music shared by our students and then each of the veterans was recognized in the slideshow there's an amazing annual tradition in our middle schools that continues not because it's required but because of a desire among students and staff members to recognize veterans really very touching um for the fourth leg season i'd just like to take a moment to
003recognize our student athletes as they finish the fall season we have no shortage of championships and no shortage of big victories we'll save this report for our student representatives we'll be in attendance at our next meeting and week for now congratulations to our student athletes and all of our coaches for an outstanding fallout for this season this week our our newsletter which will be distributed tomorrow will include an article about one of our wayne hills high school students who has an internship at oakland spine and physical therapy this article is one of the many examples of how work-based learning opportunities are expanding in our school system and they provide amazing learning opportunities for our students these kinds of internships are often reserved for college students when wayne our students get a head start with interning
004you'll be you also find an emergent education agenda item number six for the marketing three capstone classes which further expands this work of these work opportunities for our students thank you to best buy the clifton little house the hometown creamery and medallion chiropractic physical therapy for hosting our students and providing them with valuable work experience i have an update for the board of education in the community regarding the bourdain avenue crossing at wayne hills two weeks ago as an added safety measure the school district started running a lunchtime bus service for students who would otherwise need to prosper dan avenue ridership at this point has been about 25 to 30 students per day while there is a safe crossing at britton chase the district is taking this step as an additional effort to increase student
005safety mr ruik also reports that the bus has been a huge help in reminding students to get back to school on time it's a good visible reminder for all students who are in that shopping area the second part of my sidewalk update has to do with the meeting that was held october 19th with mayor vergano county administrator anthony denova director of secondary education matt mignanelli and the director of public works heather vitz del rio and i attended the meeting as well there's clearly a shared interest in a long-term solution to people crossing bourdain avenue at wayne hills high school and to building a sidewalk on the reservoir side of bourdain avenue not only for school students but for a variety of other events and different situations where there is a need for people to cross
006for dan avenue project appears to be moving ahead very quickly with the passaic county water commission the owner of the property agreeing to the sidewalk sidewalk installation and say county has agreed to split the construction cost of the 900-foot sidewalk with wayne township the school board's contribution in this agreement would be to take responsibility for clearing the sidewalk of snow and ice when the weather's bad while the attorneys for all four government entities must finalize written agreement the project is moving ahead in a very positive direction it's not every day that four government entities can agree on anything and so i think this says quite a bit about how we all came together to solve a decades-old problem um also regarding enrollment so i have a little report for that we're in the process of
007completing the required state enrollment report also known as the october 15th count which is a snapshot of our enrollment for across the district which is used primarily for funding purposes we have almost 500 kindergarten students we needed to open one additional class of tunis to include overcrowding in other locations we're operating our kindergarten classes at maximum capacity i'd like to talk a little bit about um books so over the past few meetings some concerns have been expressed about some of the books in our collections after hearing these concerns we advise all of our parents that if there were any concerns about books in our libraries there was an opportunity under the board policy to file a book challenge at this point some people have requested the paperwork to file book challenges but ultimately we do
008not have any actual book challenges from the community in order to take an internal look at our books and libraries however and this includes our classroom libraries the administration developed a book checklist which is rooted first and foremost in our board of ed policies about library materials but also under standards developed by the american library association book selection criteria and the national council of teachers of english the education committee met to discuss and review the checklist by having this checklist all of our librarians classroom teachers and our administrators have a quick and easy way to evaluate books that may be viewed as controversial keep in mind that this process does not replace the book challenge process building principles and their designees will conduct periodic reviews of library collections as they do annually um i just
009want to mention that i think there may have been a false alarm that was created and there was a hope created i think in the community that we will be ending masking requirements on january 11th upon further review governor murphy's executive order that requires masking does expire on january 11th and governor murphy stressed though on his press conference on monday that even though the executive order does not expire in january it should not be interpreted that it will be lifted in just those two months also we want to provide washington dc update for our middle school 8th graders starting in july of 2021 the district sought out information regarding a potential trip to washington dc for 8th grade students as reported previously there are a number of significant issues including the cancellation of the trip
010loss of down payment and the difficulty of ensuring such a trip due to potential covet outbreaks at school or general spikes with covid and the potential need to cancel a trip even up to the last minute before departure or during the trip this summer three tour companies were contacted and since that time we've been in contact with two additional companies one company offered a price of 695 dollars per student with a non-refundable 200 deposit if a student cancels but no refund option if the school has to cancel the trip another company offered a student protection plan that allows parents to submit a claim based on death in the family illness hospitalization but not for covet issues like contact tracing or quarantine the same company offers a cancel for any reason protection plan at an additional
011cost that will cover 75 percent of the trip costs while the company has not disclosed the price of this option this being said there are a number of reasonable concerns related to the trip the end of the eighth grade year in wayne is a time to bring our students together for some fun activities as they begin their transition to high school we're concerned that the eighth grade trip would include far fewer students due to parental concerns over covid increased costs the potential loss of down payments with fewer students attending the cost of the trip would likely increase depending on the comfort level of parents quad occupancy may be a concern that would further increase the cost of the travel also we will be traveling to locations where the cdc currently recommends quarantine after travel which
012means when students come back they need to quarantine so while we continue to evaluate the dc trip and we know that things may change the principles in the director of secondary education are actively planning safe and enjoyable alternatives for all students and we also have to consider staffing we also believe there will be an issue with staffing at the end of september niche.com the leading platform connecting students and families with colleges and schools released its 2022 best schools and district rankings now in its eighth year the k-12 school rankings include updated data for 94 491 public schools 2488 private schools eleven 11 846 school districts nationwide our district did very well with the rankings and the district received an overall grade of a we are ranked nationally in four areas our schools are ranked as
013the number six school district in the united states as best school districts for athletes number three team in the nation for best places to teach number 346 for safest school districts in america and we are ranked 500 511th in the overall category of best school district the national rankings carried through the new york metropolitan state and local rankings we picked up some additional rankings including being ranked 105th in new jersey for districts with best teachers and we also rank 217 for the most diverse school districts in new jersey we're ranked at the top school district of vesay county this is exciting news and certainly a point of pride for the community also on the agenda you'll notice there is a an item about unified sports for the remainder of the year we're happy to continue
014the program in partnership with the njsia and the special olympics unified sports joins people with and without disabilities known as unified partners on the same team dedicated to promoting social inclusion who shared sports training and competition experiences it was inspired by a simple principle training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding in addition to basketball and track and field the high school level or unified sports has expanded this year to include esports and bowling a preakness school update i had to report that our early childhood program at greek this school continues to grow we started the year with 109 students and we now have 129 students in addition to more students and attendance we have a number of students who transition from part-time to full-time the education committee will be
015discussing plans that will allow for additional expansion as we are now approaching our maximum capacity there's good news as we move deeper into the fall season towards winter our covert numbers have decreased dramatically since the end of september as it stands we only have one positive staff member as of november 10th one staff member who's quarantining seven students who have tested positive and 37 students who are quarantined the percentage of staff that's vaccinated is approximately 85 um so note about a vaccine clinic so the wayne township department of health will be conducting a vaccine clinic for children aged 5 to 11. the clinic is set for november 20th and december 11th both of these days are saturdays however due to the extreme demand from the community the department of health is changing the location originally
016the clinic was scheduled at anthony middle school but will now be held at multiple locations at town hall once made available the 90 reservations for the vaccine filled up almost immediately the wayne township department of health is seeking additional ways to provide more opportunities for vaccines based on popular demand a few other notes on october 19th a group of stakeholders consisting of district bargaining units administrative staff met to continue and discuss federal funding for cover 19 related programs and projects members were provided an update and overview of the various waves of esser funds received by the district use of the funds up to this point and the anticipated uses for the third wave members were given the opportunity to provide additional feedback as the district will be working to finalize the grant budget for a
017november 2021 submission to the new department of education i'd like to talk a little bit about executive order 253 past few weeks have been a real challenge in the school district i'd like to thank all of our employees involved in carrying out ball behind the scenes work executive order 253 includes requirements for all school employees to either be vaccinated or to undergo code testing well it may seem simple it was a major undertaking for the district and remains a struggle every week as we monitor the employees who must undergo testing at this point approximately they said 85 percent of our employees are vaccinated like to just report quickly on our election day november 2nd we have many excellent workshops for our staff including a number of subject-specific training sessions at the elementary level offerings are
018included adverse childhood experiences writing pd communication devices for md and lod power professionals i ready training sculpture training for art teachers behavior management for kindergarten teachers optional technology sessions including swivel training and finally there is an articulation time for all as well as wellness sessions that were added at some of the schools there's a required report that i have to deliver tonight which is the ssds hiv report so this is something that i have to do a few times a year so the semi-annual report under njsa 18a 17-46 of incidents violence vandalism weapons and substance abuse offenses and harassment intimidation and bullying which took place in our schools during the period january 1st 2021 through june 30th 2021. pursuant to statute i'm required to report to the board of education two times per year to
019publicly meeting all acts of violence vandalism and harassment and intimidation and bullying which occurred during the previous reporting period tonight i'm reporting the following incidents that took place during reported period 2 january 1st through june 30 through 2021 as reported to the department of education through the sdss system this replaces the former electronic violence and vandalism system also requires each school district to report more and different data than in the past for example all hiv investigations both alleged and confirmed must now be reported in addition all removals for example suspension for disciplinary reasons must be reported for both general education and special education students so the numbers being reported may appear higher in some instances than the totals reported in prior years for that reason it's tough to draw a conclusion on any increases in
020reported totals due to the state requiring more information under the new ssds system our schools continue to maintain an excellent record of investigation documentation reporting and handling incidents in a timely and efficient manner reporting period 2 from january 2021 for june 30th throughout the district there were 38 incidents in total reporting zero incidents of violence two vandalism zero weapons offenses zero incidents of substance abuse three incidents deemed other which led to student removal and 13 confirmed incidents of hiv out of a total of 36 investigated alleged hiv cases for the reporting period the 13 confirmed hiv cases include the categories of race two ancient street and national origin one religion zero gender eight sexual orientation two and other zero for distinguishing characteristics of students cases were investigated by the school-level anti-bullying specialists with guidance and
021support from principals and the anti-district employee i'm sorry the district anti-blind coordinator consequences and remediation efforts for offending students including individual counseling student or parent conferences are disciplined according to the district go to contact remedial measures for targeted students including counseling support services parent conferences schedule changes stay away agreements teacher and aid monitors during the school day adult student hearings and other monitoring measures in addition each school has instituted programming including the district-wide initiative no place for hate intended to reduce bullying and improve school climate so i have two hiv reports to give you first of all for the previous reporting period um that occurred from october 28th there were nine incidents of alleged hiv reported and investigated since that report and three of those cases were deemed to be actual cases of hiv for
022the current board meeting this meeting there were 10 incidents investigated and four cases were deemed to be actual cases of hrd okay so this week we introduced a new program to recognize students staff and community members for inspiring others or otherwise providing a boost to the school community the program is called present the positive this will be an ongoing program we'll continue to share these stories through our weekly new newsletters at board meetings and on our social media channels so tonight we'll be sharing seven of those stories at this point i'd like to introduce mrs reichman to share some of those inspiring stories good evening everyone um can everyone hear me okay yes okay i'll move a little closer um hi uh we we have so many students and parents uh staff members community members
023who do really inspirational and motivational things and we were looking for ways to bring them to all of you to celebrate them and showcase them in the community we have not done enough of that and we keep hearing these stories so today we're going to share some through a presentation um moving forward from time to time we'll bring them to board meetings you can see upcoming newsletters and watching social media channels and what was really great was we put this out on monday and we had an overwhelming response within a few hours which to me was just an indication of so many wonderful things that happen in the community um we simply ask if you know of a student who did something exceptional a teacher or staff member that's been inspirational or if there was
024a community event that was uplifting you have a feel good story share it with us we'd love to hear from you and there are so many things that people do in the community that involve students parents we want to hear all those stories because this is about our wayne schools community when we put this out we just gave some examples um simple things helping people out finding a lost wallet or keys returning them donating time so many things that kids do on a regular basis parents do to help our school community i'm going to start out by sharing a few awesome students who are highlighted i'm going to read the narratives exactly as they were submitted to me so that they're completely authentic these two students actually three students grace steiner taylor smash and datika
025malek were recognized by one of our wayne valley assistant principals they are part of the we act club the we act club under the guidance of miss falner collected 1140 bucks to send to a library in uganda led by grace steiner taylor smash and tikka malek the students organized the book collection the students also organized a paya teacher fundraiser where students donated money to see their favorite teacher get a pie in the face the students received more than enough money for shipping this was a great opportunity for students to provide assistance and donate to those in need the next few students sophia ken and jay ferreira this was submitted by one of our history teachers as leaders of the wayne hills model un club sophia kemp and jay ferreira have both demonstrated the exemplary leadership
026putting in extra hours over the summer to prepare the club this year to be the strongest it's been in recent memory they carefully developed a strategy to recruit more members to the club providing training on model un procedures to incoming members and finding ways to make club members feel connected to each other and the mission of the club the progress they've made so far is recently shown in her book in our club's mock conference held after school on november 9 2021 they successfully led the club and prepped them to be successful delegates at regional conferences held at high schools and universities nearby sophia and jay deserve to be commended for this work now we're going to showcase a few of our motivating teachers this first one was submitted by a parent of one of our
027students max carter miss um justine basilicato our instrumental music teacher is being recognized she's the director of bands at anthony wayne middle school despite a challenging situation especially for instruments during the 2021 school year she and her team managed to put together an incredible spring concert for may 17th for seventh and eighth grade students who played beautifully in the light rain while wearing face masks we witnessed first hand how she nurtures and encourages musical talent development by working with parents as a team mrs basilicato is indeed an inspiration the next teacher we're going to recognize is miss heather altamira a fourth grade teacher james fallon this was submitted by the parent of eden mckenna mrs altamira was my son eden's fourth grade teacher last year at james fallon school we had recently moved to town
028and this was even's first year in a new school but i understand the support um and support all the necessary requirements for the safety of students and teachers starting a new school during the pandemic with remote learning social distancing and mass wearing and all the other obstacles was understandably very challenging for students mrs altamira was welcoming positive and motivating she went above and beyond to make aiden feel like an important member of the class community from day one despite all his early worries my son soon began to enjoy school and being a part of a class at james fallon elementary miss altamira's long year-long positivity encouragement and kindness resulted in an auspicious and auspicious transition for aiden and a successful first year in a new school i will always remember the positive effect she had
029on my son and i'm forever grateful for her dedication to aiden and all her students during a very difficult time this next slide is dedicated to staff members that go an extra mile um up top we have an administrative assistant megan dory at wayne valley valley high school this was submitted by a parent she said wayne valley's administrative assistant who runs back and forth the door a gazillion times a day to deal with parents is so friendly and polite despite the fact that i'm sure she has to manage difficult people so we're very fortunate to have her then we have miss julia kelly a school nurse at tunis dye elementary school this was submitted by one of our parents miss kelly is a bright light in my daughter's day she has been part of her
030education for a few years now she's always kind cheerful and it's a safe place for my daughter to fall if she needs somebody i feel fortunate that my daughter is in such great care when i'm not with her and down at the bottom we have a submission by a math teacher at wayne hills to recognize mr jacob cavins our assistant principal mr kavins of wayne hills high school has been doing a phenomenal job this year and last guiding his teachers in his department he supervises through this trying time of teaching he continually gives support of all kinds such as having his teachers work together to figure out how to fill in learning gaps from last year and checking up on teachers well-being he's genuine a genuinely kind individual that goes above and beyond to make
031sure that wayne hills runs smoothly on a daily basis doing such things such as finding teachers to cover for absent teachers making sure all special needs students have their assigned power professionals for the day on top of all this he does a terrific job being there for the students he uses a kind and firm approach to make sure they grow into well-rounded adults in the future his incredible patience for any distressed students making sure they learn from their mistakes and i know and i know they are being listened to we will continue to share this out there's a link in the presentation which we'll post tomorrow and we invite you to continue to share your submissions with us and um please look out under social media channels and continue to read our newsletter so we
032can share some great things that are happening in the community thank you so much thank you mrs reichman what a wonderful program it's so nice to see the positive things that are going on in the district oops okay so you're up again i hope you okay so um remember what i'd like you to do is i was wondering if you could pull out the athletic booster club guidelines i provided to you in draft form and um this is on the agenda it's a public works section but it is section k public works session administrative item number one winter club guidelines okay so um over really the past probably six months maybe a little longer there's been a discussion um in within the high school athletic communities about a booster club guideline a manual something to
033assist to standardize the operations of these each of our booster clubs and to protect the integrity of each of the booster clubs to make sure that um you know ultimately we have a set set of standards and also that all booster clubs are aware of our policies and so in the end it's an important tool that is intended to communicate information from the board of education but there's also a process involving feedback from the parents who are involved with the history so we can hear their perspective on some of the things that are here in the guidelines so we have a four and then we get into a table of contents and then after that the booster club guidelines really consists of a number of district policies because in the end booster clubs under operate
034under a number of district policies the district policies that are included here gone for a number of pages and those district policies are all of the policies that we suspect might be relevant to any of the booster club so it's a collection of excellent policies that are great reference and important information for every booster club to review every year the first one is the most important one it's district policy 9190 and so if you go through that one of the things that became a concern during this discussion was really item number one so earlier tonight the board had a legal discussion about item number one which requires booster clubs to be incorporated as non-profit organizations and to file a copy of the certificate of formation with the school business administrator so that's the existing policy
035that we have however we know many of the smaller clubs have not gone through the process of forming what is known as a 501c3 organization because of the paperwork the reporting requirements lack of awareness about what needs to be done so it's an important thing the board will continue to discuss this particular requirement because right now many of our booster clubs do not do not follow number one which is okay because the standard had not been previously established yet that is an important element in the policy and that's intended to protect the board and the booster clubs as separate entities also number two it says enter into contract with the board the conduct of activities that is a requirement to basically submit additional information to the board of education about booster club activities so that
036is that is really one of the key things and the board um in this situation may have to if the board is interested talk about the policy maintaining the policy if there are adjustments that can be made our attorney provided guidance that says there are not really many options for the board but perhaps this is the time if the board wanted to discuss some aspects of the booster called policy which i keep going does anyone have any comment on this section mike i'm sorry no it's okay the only thing i have to say is obviously the 501c3 is important that's to be that has to be first and foremost um because it does protect us and it is what the recommendations are and for the clubs that don't have them i mean i think the
037pooling idea is a good one i mean i think maybe we need to explore that a little bit and kind of if they don't want to do it then that's fine but we can explain a little bit on how it's going to work you know so for members of the public what what mr bubba is talking about is the pooling of a 501c3 certificate meaning that multiple clubs would operate under that certificate okay does the outside is the outset is there not a microphone available that can make it more audible we can you have but i couldn't hear was there a microphone available there is oh it should have been working so mr moffat is checking right now to make sure now but thanks um so i'll just i'll just uh i'll try to talk
038a little bit louder yeah so i was explaining that um mr bubba raised the issue about um the possibility of different booster clubs sharing 501c3 certificates so just providing that information for the public in case you're wondering about the conversation that was going on that's trying to just um shed a little insight into what was being discussed okay so the guidelines also include information that is important regarding volunteer coaches it includes information about the use of school facilities it has to do with security insurance equipment so it is really a very um extensive manual and it adds up to over 50 pages the booster club requested um an index of different members of the booster club so one of the things we did to accommodate them was we set up booster club contacts for both
039high schools so wayne hills has contacts wayne valley has contacts and so added together we provided that so that way all the members of the booster clubs could be in communication um the other the other part of the guidance includes information about how to incorporate as a non-profit in new jersey so there's a question and answer session or section that basically would help any members of the booster clubs that are interested in forming a non-profit organization there is information about running raffles and other legalized games of chances so now i'm on page 38 for those who are following along and so that information is provided including the contacts in the township if you wanted to won't run a legalized game of chance as a booster club that information is provided there's also a statement one
040of the issues that existed for many years is there were questions about taking electronic payments so whether involves fundraising using electronic payments whether it involves purchasing things with electronic payments the issue of electronic payments has been an issue for a long time ultimately our business officials determined that as long as the electronic payments are tracked um in a non-electronic manner with record keeping as you would for any other fund it's a it's acceptable as a business practice for booster club so that that should help our booster clubs quite a bit in terms of um raising funds or paying for things um and then as you go along further there's just um appropriate and inappropriate uses of booster funds now i'm on like page 44 and 45. i want to just stop this okay good one
041second um did anyone else have a question before we continue insurance um who's monitoring uh and are we making sure that they have liability insurance so that's something that would be done at the high school level um some of it some of the booster clubs at this point they they operate they just throw cash in cash out they're very simple they raise a little bit of money and uh so just thinking that might be another umbrella situation that can be expensive to purchase liability insurance i know pto does it but they have deeper pockets than a typical small booster club so that would be a second concern with the 501c3 and i'm still trying to find it but somewhere over in here as i mentioned that a member of the community uh notified me about
042because they couldn't be here this evening was the two people for bank account minimum so that there's checks and balances over the money that the parents raise and donated to the clubs and the shows yes i just want to make sure that that's carved in here somewhere because she didn't see it now i'm looking for it and uh that's well that's something we'll go back and check let me just write a note down about that okay i i may have overlooked it i don't know all right we'll go back into it mrs kazan was expressing a concern to making sure that for any check that's written that there would be at least two signatures no there's two people on the account oh two people on the account i'm sorry on any checking account for any
043booster organization so that there's not there's not only one person handling the money in and out of an account for the booster organization there needs to be at least two so that two people can count the money and there's both signing off this is how much we collected for this event um it's just a common practice for any organization for safety and security of the funds right so um then finally towards the end there is guidance for the booster clubs from the national booster club training council so there's 15 tips for booster club numbers and that concludes my presentation about the booster club guidelines okay so um so at this point what we've done is we've raised the volume to its maximum level and so you should be able to hear it in the hallway
044much better and it should be out here so it's now it's it the volume was at the regular level but now we've raised it because there's a significant number of people in the whole life part about the funds but again i'm not seeing it we'll go back and make sure okay very good all right did anyone have any other questions or concerns about the manual it's on the pws so it's not getting approved tonight just moving forward if you want to make any changes now give you the time what i would like to see because this is a very large 52-page document can we break this down to have to include like a bullet pointed um you know filing what needs that like do it kind of so that it's a quick overview of this
045rather than the 52 pages because i can tell you most people aren't going to read it and then they're going to say on the network so yeah yeah but i mean you have a particular conference just yeah it tells you where to find things i'm talking about you know if you have five specific filing dates that have to happen for a season you know where we know that they have to put in whatever they're going to request for you know events or anything like that but give them dates give them you know or at least time frames so we can condense there's some of the some of the um there's some financial reporting pages that could certainly be condensed yeah reduce some pages like that exactly you can't reduce the policies yeah the dates and
046things like that but i would just like to see it be out there and try to convince you try condense it a little bit even if you throw it at the beginning of the booklet so that way you know because you know how people aren't going to read it and then it's going to be a problem i'm sure most don't know these policies even exist after all the years since we started being run that's true but i'm just that's why i kind of can kind of say in the points too hey read the policy you know that's unless you put it all together in one place finally uh anybody else this is mr cleveland this is a public document correct yes and all these people agreed to have their phone numbers put out they knew
047it was part of a manual so we make sure of course it goes out to the public it was already attached that's actually could be an internal document at the high schools it's not really part about an instruction manual or regulations or guidance or policies okay i agree mr okay thank you this has been a long time coming and a lot of work and uh hopefully you know we can get better oversight of uh what's occasionally been an issue here and there all right first of change to the board agenda is under section m human resources on number two approval leave requests number nine id number eight five four nine lead dates of january third twenty twenty two through april twenty nine twenty twenty two is without benefits m3 which is approval of appointment of
048district staff number one patrick wallace change end date from may 25 2022 to sorry march 25 2022. moving on under the emergent action section under t we will be rising t10 approval reappointment district staff paraprofessionals revised number 207 salary should be two thousand nine hundred and eleven not twenty three thousand two hundred forty four we are adding uh t12 which is approval of wea memorandum of agreement and salary guide we are also adding t13 which is approval of w excuse me i failed to read the agenda resolution so i'll go back to number 12 which is a wa memorandum resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of a superintendent approved memorandum of agreement with the wayne education association dated september 23 2021 together with exhibit a exhibit b 133 and the salary guides
049for the period from july 1 2021 through june 30 2024 and further authorizes the president of the board of education to execute the new collective negotiation agreement reflecting the memorandum of agreement and incorporating the salary guides as discussed in executive session and back to t13 which will add is approval of wpa memorandum of agreement and salary guide that reads resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of a superintendent approved the memorandum of agreement with the wayne paraprofessionals association dated september 30 2021 together with the salary guides for the period from july 1 2021 through june 30 2025 and further authorizes the president of the board of education to execute the new collective negotiations agreement reflecting the memorandum of agreement and incorporating salary guides as discussed in executive session moving on to school resources
050legal which is section x we will be adding x1 which is approval settlement agreement and the action reads as follows resolve at the board of education upon the recommendation the superintendent hereby approves a settlement agreement and release in the matter of student id number 475-159-1137 oal docket number eds 05940-2000 agency reference number 2021-32990 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 the settlement to further implement saying we're adding x number two which is another approval of settlement agreement and that action reads resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves a settlement agreement and release in the matter of student id
051number 55976-18004 as attached by reference and further authorizes the board president secretary to execute sane on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take all further steps required by the term the settlement further implements saying moving on to revision under ee emergent we will be removing uh number one which is approval of authorization to submit grant as discussed in the education committee meeting the community does not want to move forward with the grant moving on to mergent ii we are okay that is actually it for the end of the agenda 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
052from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students who are immediately responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at some sort of meetings on your own business can i get a mover anyone wishing to address an agenda item nobody misses before okay let's move on to the agenda well you can either move it or break it down mr duffy mr connor black full agenda roll call mr muffet mr bubba um t12 i will be voting no the issue i have is when you're looking to hire teachers and they're not getting raises the first two years basically that they're here is a problem to me so i'm not going to support that um otherwise
053yes everything else mr duffy yes mr giordano uh t12 and t13 for legal reasons i have to abstain i say this and everything else mrs kumar yes mr pavlak um yes to everything i'm staying on yes everything except i'm going to say no to oh that's public work session never mind um for the guidelines i'd like to see the phone numbers removed and i'm going to abstain on t12 and 13. mrs kazam yes motion carries which includes the wea which is four well i'm just going to say congratulations it's good to settle two very large union contracts so uh our staff will be receiving their raises and retro paying time for the holidays and it was a long negotiation we want our staff to know that we appreciate them very much thank you go ahead
054i want to apologize technically i am on duty right now in the firehouse i have somebody covering for me i tried to make time to make it to this meeting because i know it's important things on the agenda that need to be considered i recognize the crowd that's here and you know what you're here for i can understand and appreciate what you're here for however i'm going to miss all of your thought well speeches i apologize once again um and you all know where to find me but uh i'm sorry i have to go back to work that being said that please make excuses let the record reflect mr moffatt that mr duffy had to leave [Music] i apologize thank you committee reports thank you it's been a while we're gonna have to do the
055job go ahead this is cool um okay so tonight i actually have two education committee reports we met once on october 21st which was off meeting day just because of timing as to when things worked for all committee members so it was myself miss albanese and mr giordano in attendance along with the administrators independent mrs reichman don our dawn hourglass matinelli and dr toback um at this meeting on october 21st we discussed as dr gomez has stated already in his report the select book selection checklist that should be gone through through the supplemental resource and classroom library um he already went over the book challenge forms um in his report along with how we are currently redoing collections so that was what the 21st meeting was about and the november 11th meeting which is tonight
056um lendowski were the administrators of attendance and mr giuliano and i were also in the attendance of the board members we discussed the october 7th and october 21st education committee minutes and we reviewed a residency request and we actually went over the nursing plan which is very comprehensive for our entire district it was very eye-opening and it was good to see what our nursing community does the personnel committee that on october 28th paul clarker director of hr compliance and labor relations is our administrative liaison mrs cher and myself were in attendance uh we reviewed the personal committee minutes from september 23rd and we also went through a review of revised job descriptions in the business office in facilities and in central office administration and those will be appearing on an agenda this evening the finance
057committee met mr padlach mrs kimzan and myself along with our administrative liaisons mr william moffitt and mrs cheryl lightning our agenda items included going through things that are on the agenda the check register financial reports contracts transportation agreements policies a550 and 6115 dual use applications that are in effect in some of our schools comprehensive and comprehensive maintenance plan as outlined by mr moffitt we keep track of all maintenance work and costs over years which helps us inform what we're going to spend moving into the following year um our audit procedure continues but should be over soon we went through policy revisions 46311 um we went through a business office update there will be a new accountant joining the business office and we discussed the new jersey department of education um requirements where we can keep
058up to four percent in surplus um the 2022 and 2023 budget discussion has begun uh working toward a final budget plan in the spring uh mr moffatt will put together again a board of education virtual binder uh if you need an update on your password to get into the virtual binder mr model will help you out i lost mine um and we will be reviewing the budget process as we go through it over the course of the next couple of months uh and then we will because we have four day kindergarten there will be a resolution in december dismantling the k-rap program thank you anyone else mr sheriff tonight we met for technology and safety committee it was dr burchard myself and mr bubba and we were given an update on the email retention policy
059that we're looking to set up that will follow the new jersey records retention and disposition schedule for local education agencies we got we discussed upgrading some of our cameras in throughout the district um an install update we are still waiting for equipment to arrive from orders that were placed in the summer unfortunately there's no way to deal with that but wait uh we have started receiving some of our interactive boards and ours as soon as they come they're scheduling to have them installed and we also discussed our phone system update that is moving forward with phase two of the upgrade and we're looking to complete another school by the end of december and then i just have a question for the education committee um can you just explain to me the book chat the book
060challenge is there if they fill out the form what happens next if you fill out the form the next step i actually feel like i could answer it you have to submit your um request through the building principle and then there is a committee that is assembled um it's all detailed in the standard operating procedure and and then there is um basically the outcome will be communicated out but the form does need to be completed and submitted and once a book challenge is put in are we removing that book while we review it or are we still leaving it on the shelves while it's being reviewed it's off the shelf while it's under a review so is this a quick process uh cause i hate to remove books from our shelves there's a timeline that's
061really clearly explained and then yes okay so there's a certain timeline there's a certain timeline that the committee has to be assembled and it's made up to me ultimately the book can be reviewed but nobody is nobody is entitled there's no administrators nobody can take the book on their own and remove it the board has to land and the other part about it is that the board has to have a written explanation in the event that a book is removed there's a written explanation from the board determining why it would be removed okay thank you okay anyone sorry i actually have to leave for a family emergency tonight and i will hopefully be able to talk about whatever only three more this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on any topic
062residents are to state their names addresses 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 this word bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees your students cannot be literally responding to but forward other comments may be responses tonight for subsequent meetings under old business can i get a mover okay thank you mr share alrighty okay go ahead well this is uh well actually it's nice to be in an actual meeting for once where we have everyone show up to the meetings it's beautiful to see everyone show up for a meeting for once uh that was nice to watch and uh even though we had to sit for an hour it's fine we got
063to speak and the i think what everyone's concerned about is they they don't understand why this has been moved to such a smaller room when we have so many people inside and outside we talk about concerns for social distance and concerns for them for that if you're concerned about social distancing why are we in this tiny room when you could have had it in any of the schools in this district we chose to do what's it for normalcy this isn't normalcy it's intimidation of freedom of speech because you want to intimidate people not to come any threat against any board member or anyone on administration but that does not mean we need to intimidate everyone not to speak that wants to speak respectfully because putting us in this tiny little room with little air with
064this is hard to breathe and hard to stand with and i hope that we don't pull this every single meeting now because if we do and people are gonna stop coming and you'll get what you want but i will not stop coming and i will not stop because i want to be here and i want my voice because it is our freedom of speech and it is being it is being intimidated here the people that are in that hallway the reason why we couldn't hear you is because the amount of people that were in that hallway that wanted to speak they were talking they didn't know what was going on they couldn't hear their voices are not heard now because congratulations you succeeded on intimidating some people that's a real thing to be proud of
065real thing to be proud of i i just can't it's but i'm beside myself that i i really was starting to like like understand things going on in this board why some people are upset now i just i don't understand why you don't want to hear what everyone wants to say why do you want to limit the group because it's much different from being out in that open air from being in this little tight compact room with little to no people wearing this where you could barely breathe in a room with little to no ventilation where it's extremely hot it is not fun it is not anything that i would ever encourage to happen again because people will have their voices heard and then masked i'm not sure if that's a requirement outside now because
066in schools they're starting to tell kids they need to wear these outside which i'm not understanding to some students it's i just want to clarify if you have to or not because some teachers depends on the teacher there's been teachers that have told some kids you have to wear this outside there's other teachers that say you don't it's not i'm not saying anyone's doing anything wrong i want there to be a clarification on what the mandate is and what are the exceptions like i always call upon this board to do every time he tell all of them all the teachers the accepted tell me accessories thank you [Applause] [Music] hey the record show i had to climb over several people to get to this podium because you have 25 people in a very tiny room
067i'll keep my voice up my name is norman robertson i live in wayne township first and foremost thank you veterans for making this meeting possible [Applause] a quick note on your last meeting i was really looking forward to hearing from our neighbors who are part of the lgbt community when it comes to questions of inclusion and gender their input is absolutely essential unfortunately you stood everybody up i ultimately hope that we can have a productive dialogue meanwhile i was very disappointed to see this letter from the leadership of the wea [Applause] unfortunately they chose to this was to their to their members unfortunately they chose to substitute name calling for genuine dialogue maybe in the future that'll change now to the board this is a little esoteric it would be a mistake for you to
068think that a town this large that no one understands critical theory i didn't say critical race theory i said critical theory and i know that some of you know about this critical theory is a post-modernist neo-marxist political and social construct that includes things like critical race theory critical feminist theory gender theory queer theory post-colonial theory just to name a few it arose in the european marxist communities primarily in france and germany after world war ii among others it includes professor herbert mocuzza who later came to the united states inspired a young acolyte named angela davis uh it was her he was her phd advisor perhaps most pertinent to us here is the concept of critical pedagogy for those of you who graduated more recently i'm sure you were taught this that was formulated by a
069brazilian christian socialist named paolo frede he wrote the 1968 book pedagogy of the oppressed the reason i'm mentioning all of this to you is to let you know that you have all the things that you've done in the last year not everything but all the major things that people are concerned about are just steeped in critical theory for example you can draw a direct line between marcusa angela davis her most ardent admirer ibram candy and the wayne township summer reading projects at the same time your new mission statement borrows liberally from the language of critical pedagogy in ways that three minutes wouldn't allow me to explain but here's what happened the superintendent supplied you with someone to facilitate your planning process however her title was not a facilitator her title was a trainer she may
070have been inspirational but it probably didn't occur to you that you were being trained the same thing happened with the committee that redrafted the mission statement well i'll come back and finish it [Music] i had the pleasure of speaking with sean duffy before he left and i asked him the same question i'm going to ask you and i i come here with a really sad heart tonight because i've spoken to various members here about mandatory vaccines and parental choice and i was always reassured that parents would be able to have choice and that you would have our backs and and support parental choice and i asked sean where did this vaccine clinic come from in a school setting who approved that and his answer was i'm really not sure i was away so i asked
071you all the same thing who approved a vaccine clinic in a wayne township public school because that's a big no-no in my book and in many parents book and it's because that is the first step of what's going to happen and i i said this to various people on this board months ago that my concern is they the government gets an inch and starts doing this in one school it's going to happen in all schools and parents are going to be terrified to send their kids into school because they're going to be worried that they're going to get jabbed up in school without parental consent and i'm really concerned about that so i'm going to i'm going to just quote one thing that i i read this is what i think is good and and
072this is this is a board of education that supports parents and that supports parental choice um what i'm seeing in that school is really scary again and i am very much for anyone who wants to vaccinate their child go for it but why can't we use the macy's like we did with the adults why why in a school setting and then with the disclaimer that this is this is promoted from wayne township board of education right because there was a there was a text and then there was an email that came from wayne township school system okay so it's being promoted by you guys from the school system but then there's a disclaimer that says this has nothing to do with the way township school system this is from the board of health i mean
073come on you guys that's like that's absolutely ridiculous to me if you're going to promote it and you're going to have it in a school then you have something to do with it and we we're just wondering why why in the schools you could do it in macy's or in any of the numerous abandoned buildings in wayne why in a school um that's really scary i don't know if that disclaimer is basically your your you know kind of what the pharma companies do like the the liability hey we're not liable in case your kid dies or has an anaphylactic reaction when they get jabbed i'm not sure if that's what that's there for but to me it's confusing and i'd like to know who voted on this and why it has to happen in school
074um i read this and i was like i wish my border bed would do this very recently the department of health this is from clark cordova the department of health is making a push for such clinics and put out a request that we denied and we will continue to deny as long as we are able to dr grande said other board of eds are denying vaccine clinics in their schools and i would love if you could do the same thank you thank you [Music] okay we're going to recess for five minutes oh one of the questions that i have here is whether or not this this meeting lies with the open public meetings act i mean if you're supposed to permit the public to hear and they can't hear then you're limiting their passion whatever
07521 want to say in here the public meetings is there anyone waiting in the hallway to in speak well that's fine so what the polite thing to do would be if you've spoken if you let the other people come in that would be the polite thing to do and if you could finally wear a mask in the school building or you'll have to leave we've never been here order to make the medium go long there's some rules that need to be filed uh so masking to be worn in the room i realize i'm not wearing one i'm gonna detail from the police department if it would make the situation better i'll wear one well i just want to move this meeting along so people can move on with their what they would like to say
076at the podium we come in oh anyway all right let's start the party folks break it's not lunchtime [Music] my cousin just sent it to me and said you need to start reading this now so i'm assuming it's a good one and she usually likes what we like [Music] you think this is not this is not dinner time [Music] it's yes all day thank long so much [Music] there's another seat over here [Music] in my life i've been told it's very symbolic here we go i think i might have picked it up good evening board members um great names guys have seen me growing since the uh jennifer lee and you've seen me growing since the beginning of the summer to try to make as many board meetings as i can until the bitter end
077in december um but going back to my first board meeting i came to you in the end of the summer and i had a daughter who was entering kindergarten and i asked for transparency and what i've seen take place from august until now has devolved into the exact opposite of transparency we're sitting in this tiny room we can barely hear you i mean at one point we might as well just close the partition because i'm not sure where we need to go from as a community and a board to try and make this work but whatever this is is not bringing the community and the board together it is not making us trust one another it's not making us work together and this is not how education moves forward in any kind of a positive
078way you know there were a lot of people who gathered to speak to you two weeks ago and they came from both sides of the fence here and all of this build up about books and you know whose side were you on and this person's saying this and this person's saying that our community had the chance to actually come out and say the things that were on their minds and you shut us down and you know the sad part about it is you also robbed us of the opportunity to actually get to hear each other out back in the beginning of this with a whole mask debate we were coming in asking for parental choice there were other parents who didn't want that and interestingly enough when they were able to give their side and
079we were able to give our side i was able to come together with people and speak to them about maybe their point of view that i didn't see before there was an interfaith leader who had a different viewpoint than i and he and i were able to come together and have an actual civil conversation after this board meeting so what you actually did two weeks ago is you stripped us of that and now here we are in this tiny room and i can't help but feel disrespected i can't i don't even have teeth in the game right now because my kid's not in the school district but i gotta tell you something if you ask me to trust you with my five-year-old right now there's no confidence here and i hope you understand where i'm
080coming from and that's why i'm making every single attempt as big as i am right now to come in and let you know this it's that important it is that important i don't want to spend more money on private school than i do on my taxes right now but i guess at this point it's imperative we really need to work on a level of respect here in both ways but shutting us out like this is not the right way thank you for your time [Applause] anyone else oh i love your shirt sunset terrace louisa spoke a little bit earlier about a board of ed that did the right thing and said no to vaccine clinics in schools so i just want to read a little bit about that clark new jersey at a november 1
081clark board of education meeting superintendent dr edward brand in an effort to update the school community and announce to the district would not be hosting student vaccine clinics at any of its buildings very recently the department of health is making a push for such clinics and put a request that we denied and that we will continue to deny as long as we are able to grande said our district supports parental choice not for only masks but for student vaccinations and we are denying these vaccine clinics because we do not want to send the implicit message that we are encouraging such vaccinations grande continued again we want to stress that we are encouraging parental choice many thanks to the board of ed for their support and allowing parental choice so we are asking for the same
082thing [Applause] torrey esposito with lot road came here tonight to first of all address why there wasn't a bigger issue with the right before the elections with the teachers at george washington and i'm here tonight waiting for a statement from the head of the wea using vulgar terms for the candidates who recently won the election calling them extremists and everything else so i will sit here and wait for that might be at the next meeting who knows um i'd also like to address the fact that um lost my train of thought um oh the books um who who is on those committees to determine that those books are appropriate um and if they are appropriate i'd like to talk to them one on one um and there's a couple playboys that my kids can bring
083in because if that's not pornography i'm not sure what to the extent that even comes to um so and again this is a fire hazard so i don't know why that's not being addressed um and you know we talked about we had it at wing valley we had to the hills because of the capacity now we're making it smaller we'll continue to show up there'll be a snowstorm there'll be a state of emergency we'll continue to be here if it takes till 2 a.m we'll be here where parents where there are children and we and we'll be here thank you [Applause] is there have been ongoing misrepresentations from the board of ed and superintendent concerning the viewpoints expressed from parents largely associated within the conservative and religious community here in wayne for the record i
084wish to state that we are not seeking to exclude discriminate against or disparage any one individual or group from being heard or represented based on their race creed color gender or religion wayne is a very diverse and inclusive community something we should all be proud of and grateful for the wayne education restoration parent association was formed because many parents became alarmed at the direction the board of education was moving in regards regarding decisions concerning our children's education we have endeavored to reach out to the trustees via phone calls emails and speaking at the public portion of our board of ed meetings it's become increasingly apparent that you're not hearing or heeding us and what concerns us does not concern you thankfully we were able to be heard through the election process congratulations to the newly
085elected trustees now we will have a measure of hope that our voice and our rights will be considered which is to champion and defend the rights of parents to exercise freedom of choice and for our children to receive a high caliber public education it should be multicultural yet one that is void of discrimination social political and religious religious biases the focus should be placed on advanced academics and supportive of traditional american values of freedom liberty and equality for all protecting parental autonomy and freedom of choice with specific regard to masks and vaccinations is also paramount to our group we advocate and publicly stand for the preservation and safeguarding of our precious children's innocent and impressionable hearts and minds we are unapologetically pro-american pro-law enforcement and and while we continue to stand up against salacious comments
086on social media and divisive tactics by certain individuals and organizations that misrepresent who we are we still desire to extend an olive branch to anyone willing to listen and engage in mutually respected respectful dialogue we seek answers to issues and have repeatedly looked to you for a response as concerned parents continue to look through our children's books and curriculum please be aware we refuse to give up exercising our first amendment rights to free speech in these board of ed meetings this is not the military and there are no chain of command protocols if there's some local or state statute we're unaware of please provide it to us it's not surprising that parents are largely relying upon the public session of the board of ed meetings to share their concerns especially in light of the past
087few months where many field trustees have made back room deals haven't intentionally misled the parents and broken our trust [Music] [Applause] hi everyone um peter rutherford i think most of you know me i i met mr dr toback last week a little louder i i'm stunned over a child with special needs peter rotherford then i'm mainly here for a personal reason i'll share one thought towards the public i just um did not see anything relating to my son's it was approved this evening thank you very much i appreciate it and i apologize for the delay i appreciate it i'll just say um as a somewhere my son has special needs hasn't been educated on for many reasons over the last few years i know you guys have a program which is on the news for
088the star i think it's called i um my son's never done any of that i think i got one invitation i think you could um try to especially with your son being out try to have your staff reach out more to the parents especially the kids at home who needs the chance to bond with a neurotypical child or any type of child i think try to make more of an effort for that and you guys know a lot of my other issues i'm not going to go in right but if you could try to make that stars more um you know yeah or more communication more things because my son has been home for certain reasons but i would have gladly have taken him after school giving him the chance to be with someone so
089if you could look into that that would be great and i wish everyone loved your other wishes thank you anyone else make sure everyone has had a chance to speak that wishes too that's there's anyone in the hallway officer if you could ask that would be nice hi i'm valdejacento i was a 35-year resident of wayne and i find it ironic today on veterans day and first of all god bless that this meeting is being held in the way that it is i attended the last meeting that never happened as a disabled vietnam veteran the 19 million veterans in this country and the so many millions of veterans and soldiers that have gone before us to defend this country and to hold up the constitution our for our forefathers the very first amendment that they
090put in was the freedom of speech and this forum in a local community is most important the most important i think of it the last meeting it was such a disgrace to not show up and at least give these people our people our parents our citizens grandparents the opportunity to express how they feel to you because it's a board of education it's about the education of our children i didn't think it could get any worse but this is really much more worse you have to be out here to feel how we feel as citizens parents grandparents of the children of this community who are entrusting them to who we think are people that are supposed to be dialoguing with us and really caring about the children and a lot of the ways that you're acting
091are showing us that that's not the case i can't imagine in your hearts that that isn't the case i must believe that you people are just like the rest of us good honest people that want the best for our children because they are the future but why is it that you're treating people this way here why do you what are you afraid of there's not we're not afraid of you why would you be afraid of us and do the two in two meetings in a row do what you just did this is disgraceful i can't think of another word it's a dishonor to this country and to this community and to these citizens parents and grandparents but most of all it's disgraceful to our children they deserve better you know i was thinking about the
092program that's sending books off to uganda there's been a lot of things that's happened in that country and a lot of people are supporting it i wonder if the book that's been in question genderqueer would be nicely wrapped up and sent off to uganda and your people would feel comfortable about doing that i wonder how it would be greeted by the people in uganda who opened it up and wondered what in the hell has gone on in the united states of america that they would give this to children in schools and that's just one of many the problem is we've just barely opened the curtain parents don't know what's going on in the schools and they should thank you [Applause] hi eda ferrante the proud president of the wayne education association the wea would like
093to thank the board for ratifying our contract this evening there are many hardworking and dedicated teachers and support staff that are grateful for getting their raises before the holidays it's truly amazing when the board and the education community can come together and and do something good and get along so thank you very much have a good night [Applause] is there anyone else that hasn't spoken yet that would like to speak i don't think so are you sure is there anyone in the hallway anybody um i just wanted to thank everyone for being here tonight i know that there are a lot of people who were disappointed that the last meeting did not occur but i i also want to know because i i wanted to share because i don't know that everybody was able to
094hear some of the discussion that was being said here before about the vaccine and please correct me if i'm wrong but from what i heard the vaccine clinic is not going to be held at the schools it's going to be held at the wayne department of health so that's an issue that no no it's not going to be held there no it's not it's not going to be held there it was just move that's another pocket yeah that's that's what dress is friends she's correct um so i just wanted to share that so that was the first thing um second thing i've grown up in this town i've been here for 46 years and i've been through the wayne public schools and and i know that vaccines are certainly hot topic right now but it's
095not new that vaccine clinics would be held in a school setting on and off time when classes are not being held i personally along with my classmates got vaccines in in the school buildings when we were growing up so it's not new um so i just wanted to share that with everybody and last thing regarding the meetings i've looked at the meeting schedule online on the wayne um board of the wayne school page and they're laid out for the whole year this is the scheduled location for the meetings it hasn't been moved here this is the actual location where it's scheduled to be held once a month the other meeting that's held the other always if you look on the exception i'm just i'm just i'm just letting you know she's got the floor yeah
096i'm just like if you go online just address the board so i just i just wanted to you know clarify some concerns that parents may have i've i've asked some questions to some of the board members here and i've done some you know research online to see you know this is the the pattern of where meetings have been held and it's and from what i can see it's always been one meeting here one meeting at the municipal building i think most people have attended the meetings of the municipal building pre-covered there was you know when when cove it happened there was there were the zoo meetings so i don't think we had as many people that were interested in coming to these meetings before covet so this is it wasn't an issue pre-coded so that
097was it i just wanted to share those issues thanks thank you for sharing anyone else who hasn't spoken yet anyone else [Music] hello good evening my name is wendy lemandry i live at april's terrace in wayne um just want to sort of restate the general opinion that the venue tonight is insulting to say the least it's insulting it's uncomfortable it's disrespectful and it's a purposeful decision and no one it's absolutely ridiculous to think that the taxpayers and wayne have to be in this situation like sardines uncomfortable hot and yet you know what the beautiful thing about it is the passion is here and it's not going away we are here the other thing i want to say is that it is my understanding that a second grade classroom had a visit from a school nurse
098today who spoke to the students in second grade about the importance of covet vaccination would any of you think that's appropriate anybody if you're a parent you talk to your kids about that that's why they're too and they don't vote right or second grade and they don't vote it's unacceptable and this happened in james fallon school okay so the point of the matter is that parents are parents and we are in control of our children not you and not the teachers that's all i have to say [Applause] all right i understand how some people like the vaccine if you want your kid to get it give it to them and i outfit i'll research more about where it's being held but i i can't speak about something that i don't know 100 about and that's
099when i will speak about it when i know everything about it but the venue the reason why i think everyone is upset is because it's very young it's very uncomfortable and you heard that i just think everyone in here all they want is to ask peacefully please just give us an explanation at the end of the meeting why you didn't change the venue why there was no no choice by the board of education to change the venue so it could be more suitable for for the number of people that you all know come to this meeting as you know this is not suitable a suitable venue for the amount of people that want to come here and speak and it definitely intimidate intimidated plenty of people uh here cannot speak and just leave because it
100was also carried out for a long time before the public portion came exactly a little over an hour and i could understand there's different things but being in small venue having to wait a long time makes people tend to go home and it steps right on their first amendment right of their freedom of speech and this the taxpayer money that goes into this town and i hear from my parents all the time that they have to pay it is definitely definitely not deserving what the taxpayers in this town are getting here in this room and i hope that we keep in the municipal building next time yes that's the standardized location and that the next uh meeting like this uh the public works session is held in a bigger venue because of the number of
101people we go and i'm gonna look down uh now i'm gonna go back to september the september 24th or 23rd meeting yes september 23rd that was probably the best meeting the public came together everyone was happy everyone came together until this genderqueer book came along then everyone started to hate each other again and come up here and scream and yell and that is not what we want we just want this town to be a happy town that's what we want more than nothing the people in this room are not fighting because they want there to be a fight they're fighting for things to go back to normal and that's all they want they want transparency which this is definitely not transparency and they just want answers to all their questions which we have not been
102getting and you as mrs kazan you oh you say i believe it was the deputy chief of staff of the governor you say that's on my speed dial maybe you should give a call and ask the exact and the details of the masked mandate because i think that's a definite confusion we have in our schools because teachers don't know the students don't know how do we know who's right put together an email and tell them what's right [Applause] sliding in here again but one more thing i just thought was really worth mentioning and i think it's so compelling the same situation that happened in that second grade classroom the students were asked by a show of hands who has been vaccinated can i ask what in the world is the purpose of that how it's
103so disturbing it's so disturbing that we would isolate and and separate kids based on vaccination status in the second grade thank you move too close who's in here [Music] okay sir the public portion has already been closed i'll answer your questions now they just moved it they moved the advertised location mr moffatt they had it originally in the in the building and then they moved in here next week is in the minute okay all right are you ready to listen i have some comments on answers to your questions mr robertson the session is closed you should be seated oh we are here while i was working my way up well i'm sorry i mean i indicated i would i indicated that i would be back uh well i'm sorry we closed these portions well why
104should well that's okay we made the motion you know was a fan of sam cook one more week sam cook wrote a song called a change is gonna come and the change will come okay so we'll start with the room this is where we've always held our public work sessions this is not new this is not a punishment this is not to stifle public comment we have them here for a very specific reason this is where we go over in-depth discussion on things like a booster club manual or uh anything else that we would need other papers we had an executive session here we were going over documents and salary guides and those things are in our administrator's offices and we have lengthy discussions about new initiatives that's why we have work sessions here our
105once a month public meeting is held in the council chambers now i can have our attorney explain the open public meetings act to you and what we're actually required to have which is could be as few as one meeting a month am i correct mr gephardt that's correct we choose to have two meetings a month we don't have to have two meetings a month we could have three meetings a month we could cut it down to like i said just the one but we base our meetings on whether we have business to conduct these meetings are not just for public comment these meetings are to do the business of the board we have a school district to run and there's a lot of work that goes along with that so there are times when there's
106very little business and we may cancel a meeting not unusual i'm not saying that's what happened at the list meaning i made a public statement on that i don't plan to repeat it um so no this is not a shenanigan we are having another meeting a week from now because the schedule allows for us to have it next week because the following week is thanksgiving so there's there's no consistency with date it's not always the first and third thursday because things come up holidays etc sometimes we'll cancel a meeting for weather it's not uncommon so um the accusation that we're doing this to stifle public comment is just that that's your opinion i guess but that's not what's happening here this has always been our um mo as far as the vaccine clinic first i'm
107finding out about it but uh as far as having it in a school on a saturday i don't necessarily see the harm but i understand it's already been moved and it's been run by the department of health the school district is not handing out vaccines uh that would definitely have to have been approved by the board but uh any public building can be used by the public through a request which if the township makes a request to use our building like the pal wants to have a basketball practice or the boys and girls club we don't approve that we don't need to approve that that's done through the administration process um okay vaccine clinic w3a i think i've answered mr rutherford um yeah so again we'll be at council chambers in a week and hopefully
108everyone that feels they didn't have a chance to speak here this evening is certainly welcome to join us again that's uh anyone else have any comments to make and then you can wrap it up and happy veterans day by the way mr dr toback i'm sorry now i'm calling you mr doctor it's okay so as mrs kazan indicated right she talked about the vaccine clinic and the fact is that the time shift and the board of ed regularly partner on a lot of different things for example the sidewalk of and there's all kinds of different ways the township and the municipality partnered together this particular case there was a vaccine clinic that was set for anthony middle school it is moved but it's moved interestingly because of popular demand in other words the vaccine there's
109different sides to the story some people like the vaccine so the fact is the vaccine appointment's filled up almost immediately but anyway it's not an issue because it has been moved to the municipal building and that's where the vaccine clinic will be held in multiple locations um there's been some comments about the fact that um questions aren't being answered or that there's a lack of transparency at least as far as i'm concerned i know that at the end of every board meeting i have done my best to write down every question that every member of the public asks then after that i do my best to respond in some cases people make statements which i don't necessarily respond to they ask questions and so when there are questions i answer them um so really there's
110probably about a 10 or 15 minute period at the end of a reward meeting where we answer questions um as far as um i guess that's basically the only thing i would say is um as far as the concern about inconsistency and mass requirements this is at anthony lee middle school so this is a topic you brought up nicholas i would say the important thing to do is to speak to your principal the board of education here would not necessarily have an answer for you right away however i would like to call your attention to the fact that you've classmates you have teachers that have a variety of medical issues you have people who are immunocompromised you have people who have had organ transplants you have people who have cancer so it could be a
111situation where you have somebody who with is in proximity that you don't know about that has a medical condition that's probably best for everyone to wear a mask around okay so we don't go revealing that information to the public but that certainly is a possibility okay um and then as far as um the situation that was described there was a concern about some some activity of our nurses at fallon elementary school we read about that particular issue on social media we already conducted a investigation and i would like to speak to the parent that raised that issue of course at this point i don't believe anyone spoke to the teacher the nurse or the principal and the issue was brought here to the board and i i would at this point based on our preliminary
112discussion i would dispute the account of what was presented here this evening i think there is more to it that has to be expressed and like i said we did do a primary investigation and what we found is contrary to what was reported here um i think that covers all the questions that were asked anyone else too thank you