June 10, 2021: Board of Education Meeting

001please rise for a flag salute [Music] 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 okay can i get a mover to reconvene mrs albanese mr pavlak and if you'd like to take roll call again mr moffatt you seem to have some changes mrs albanese mr bubba mr duffy here here mr dana here [Music] here okay dr toback good evening everyone first congratulations to the class of 2021 this is the final board of education meeting for our high school graduations and i would like to take some time to congratulate all of our seniors for the resiliency and also their positive attitudes the school year was an awful year to be a senior but

002things have improved these are better days and we're very fortunate that we've been able to move ahead with our traditional end-of-year events including proms that were held this week for both wayne v hills and wayne valley i was also very happy to attend both the wayne valley community scholarship program and the wayne hills senior scholarship award ceremony is this week i'd also like to mention that we've been able to make changes to our graduation ceremonies due to changes in indoor and outdoor gathering requirements originally we started with a morning event at 9 30 with a backup time in the evening due to the fact that we would not be able to move our event indoors if the weather did not cooperate now we're returning to our regular graduation 6 pm on june 22nd at both

003high schools with indoor graduations planned the same time in the event of bad weather in addition to all the community recognition for our graduating class the wayne tantra public schools will be publishing our end of year newsletter which highlights the accomplishments of our 654 graduating seniors in addition to a number of personal stories about the students and teachers this year we're also including a student voice section where one student from each high school will be sharing their thoughts about this past year in the class of 201 21 as they um at their respective schools we look forward to sharing this important publication in the coming weeks both of our student representatives are moving on to college and they're not in attendance at this evening's board meeting at this point i'd like to fill everyone in

004and talk a little bit about our spring athletic teams which would normally be their responsibilities so starting with wayne hills wayne hills high school had a tremendous spring season the baseball program finished an impressive 18 and four bringing home both the say county championship and a decisive win against pcti in the league championship as well this is the first county title for wayne hills since 2009 the golf program in baseball the golf program had something of a rebuilding year but provided strong competition and certainly saw a great deal of growth throughout the season our boys lacrosse program progressed through the passaic county tournament achieving entrance into the finals with an exciting game against wayne valley our girls lacrosse team which has been moved up into a stronger division this year had another strong year with

005both seasoned and first year athletes playing significant roles leading to their bringing home yet another passay county championship for the girls lacrosse program the softball team finished out a challenging season with some decisive plays at the mound and found some great fielding the boys tennis team successfully ended a strong 10-2 season with achieving 16 straight county championships i'd like to share a special thanks to our veteran tennis coach mr bruce keough who is retiring this year he's also served us as a distinguished wayne hills guidance counselor and a long-standing and accomplished bowling and ghost tennis coach after a strong 13 and 8 record this season the boys volleyball team successfully progressed to the pacific county square and semi-finals making it to the finals with a very close three-game contest lost to west milford when he

006was also hosted the new jersey state sectional championship for boys and girls track and field this past weekend with all north one group two and three schools of participation six of our track and field athletes placed in their respective events green hills recognized the valedictorian and varsity soccer player minute singh as the 2021 njsia scholar athlete recipient minute has earned a weighted gpa of 4.62 and will continue his academic career and rensselaer polytechnic institute when he was also recognized passaic county female and male student athlete of the year samantha graf is a first-team all-county athlete both basketball and lacrosse she'll be continuing her career in academics and athletics at kutztown university and dan daly who's recognized for first-team all-county and football and lacrosse will be playing lacrosse at the united states naval academy for wayne

007valley spring sports it was another great season it's great to be back playing sports after missing the 2020 spring season because the pandemic baseball finished their season at 15 and seven big north conference co-independence division champs boys golf finished their season at 12 and three and won the big north conference independence division girls golf continue to grow and improve finishing their season with the 2021 state county champ championship boys lacrosse finished their season at 12 and 5 win the first round game at the njsa playoffs goes across was in the fight every game and had three players in first team all county softball continues to improve every season and has five all-county award winners with a very young team boys tennis continued to improve as the season progressed and first doubles qualified for the njsa

008doubles tournament and this weekend boys volleyball was another great team that started slow but finished strong boys track had a number of athletes qualifying for multiple events at the njsi group three championship girls track and field team finished their third season in this i'm sorry the finished third in this division and still have several athletes competing in the group championship the njsa scholar athlete at wayne valley high school is kyle corso kyle has a 4.32 gpa and will continue his academic and baseball career at columbia university the state county coaches association female student athlete for wayne valley is tammy mcnutt tammy was first team all county in both field hockey and winter track and will be attending syracuse university this fall i also like to report quickly on the unified sports program the unified sports

009and clubs program at wayne township has expanded nearly district-wide we're excited to share during the spring season a unified track and field team was established at wayne valley and wayne hills students were able to attend multiple practices and compete in two to three track meets and came together in person all events were very successful this summer there will be an extension of our current partnership with special olympics of new jersey during our extended school year program in conjunction with the wayne education foundation for students in grades 4 to 12 and young adult students who are eligible to participate in a variety of activities during the week of july 19th to 23rd these activities include fitness sports team building and recreational activities the wayne educational foundation will soon share information with the community about an opportunity

010for students to volunteer and be part of this partnership provides an opportunity for students to emerge as leaders in the community and make friends with students that have a variety of interests and abilities it encourages students to understand differences and similarities training will be provided to all student volunteers before the program begins also excited to share that the special olympics of new jersey will be funding esports teams at wayne valley and wing hills for the 2021-2022 school year look forward to expanding and providing new opportunities for wayne students through this partnership also happened to report that i was able to attend the annual auto show which was held at wayne hills this year congratulations to mr hopper and mr bergen and all the automotive students for a great show and thank you to all the

011sponsors that added to the program including the wayne police department which had many vehicles on display and as well as some of their equipment okay so now on to the agenda this board of education meeting is packed with important agenda items presentations and reports including a report on our district goals for this year as well as a preview of some possible goals for the upcoming school year first our safe return to school plan we'll be having a presentation this evening about the new jersey department of education's safe return to school plan this is a mandated report and based on emails i've already received the title of the presentation creates some confusion here in wayne and probably in most communities this presentation is not the same as the return to school plans that were provided to

012the community in the past and this is really a starting point for next year's planning at this point the new jersey department of education has yet to release any planning planning guidance for next school year another important point the plan being shared tonight must be written to reflect current state and federal guidance which has not changed but will likely change multiple times before september what we are doing tonight is reviewing a requirement that will allow the district to access significant federal funding under the american rescue plan in our case wayne is eligible for a total of approximately 4.2 million dollars of which 2.8 million is available immediately with another 1.4 million available at some point in the future funding can be used for a variety of purposes including educational programs to address learning loss technology

013mental health needs and facility needs which have have the effect of protecting students and staff note that the plan is being shared tonight but there is no vote scheduled and we'll be entering a period where we'll be seeking public comment and feedback we'll be seeking public comment through a survey that will be distributed tomorrow we suggest residents provide feedback looking forward to next year and share what you'd like to see for your children any employee of the district is also encouraged to participate in the survey and provide feedback mrs reichman will be providing a presentation in a few moments and she'll be providing even more details regard to the 2020 2021 district goals our system of district goals has been very effective and it led to a number of important advancement in advancements in our

014schools over the years including kindergarten rap and then full day kindergarten our new place for hate program the development of the wayne township learning center which is our hub for professional development the enhancement of numerous academic programs and expansion of an in-district career and technical education program at this point i'd like to start to discuss our district goals and for the school um this year through the pandemic we only had two district goals i'd like to turn the meeting over to tamika reese a consultant who's here to discuss our equity diversion i'm sorry equity diversity and inclusion goal welcome tamika you're on mute here there we go good evening good evening president kazan members of the board dr toback assistant superintendent richmond members of the community and staff i have to tell you i am

015so privileged and honored to be here tonight to share all of the wonderful work that's been done by staff this year okay so i'm here to present the final summary of the diversity equity and inclusion goal outcomes i moving it thank you background in june 2020 the board established a diversity equity and inclusion goal the board obtained the services of an external consultant to conduct the review the consultant met with a core team to set the foundation for the work from this meeting committees were established to focus on seven specific areas to evaluate through an equity lens the work was collaborative in nature and the consultant worked with over 100 staff and stakeholders in completing this audit just to brief review the district goal action items develop a district mission statement review curriculum and instruction

016specifically english language arts and history review human resources policies procedures and hiring practices develop no place for hate too assess nicknames mascots slogans and school symbols review student achievement outcomes schedules and related data review social emotional learning programs and professional development the mission statement although this was approved in december it was part of the goal and i just wanted to share it again now the wayne township public school district is strengthened by the collective efforts of its community to raise informed inquisitive and compassionate members of society we are committed to delivering a culturally responsive critically engaging curriculum for students of all backgrounds we provide instruction that is academically rigorous and affirms the humanity and dignity of all learners we are dedicated to a constant evaluation of our current systems and policies and enact necessary changes

017to ensure equity and opportunity for all under the guiding principle that education is a human right we provide students with equitable access to education that empowers them to positively engage in our democratic society and contribute to the global community curriculum and instruction committees were created at the elementary middle and high school levels training was provided on identifying seven types of bias found in instructional materials invisibility stereotyping imbalance and selectivity unreality fragmentation and isolation linguistic bias and cosmetic bias committees reviews books texts and novels used in english language arts and social studies for various types of bias the findings for elementary ela and social studies most texts were appropriate bias free and there is evidence of diversity in cultural backgrounds however units need to be reviewed as a whole many family structures are represented with the

018exception of the lgbtq and it would also be good to have single dads with children to increase diversity of texts middle eastern asian and indian authors need to be included additional texts dealing with mental health issues should be included middle school ela findings 110 novels were reviewed for bias in addition to diversity of author invisibility unreality imbalance and selectivity fragmentation and isolation were found in many of the texts novels were identified with suggested pairings to provide a different vantage point middle school history findings novels were reviewed for buyers out of 24 novels invisibility stereotyping unreality or imbalance and selectivity were found in 22 of the resources some materials were selected to be removed however in most cases supplemental resources should be added to provide perspective and balance high school ela findings reviews were conducted only

019on novels and plays due to the time constraints teachers reviewed a list of all available novels and plays that have been approved as resources in the curriculum teachers worked in teams to select the most frequently taught novels and plays for closer examination through the anti-bias lens they conducted the bias audit and make recommendations for future steps of action there is an overall need to bring in native american latinx asian american and arab american authors to diversify american literature british literature as sequenced and defined is prohibitive to this process the highest form of bias is invisibility and imbalance suggesting that other texts can be brought in to ensure a more representative picture of themes and issues some textbooks may be outdated or obsolete and suggestions to review new anthologies were made curriculum and instruction high school

020history five poor classes eleven electives and four advanced placement electives were reviewed the curriculum whoops my i'm sorry my did i come up on another screen now i'm sorry hold on one second i'm having a technical issue hold up there we go i'm sorry can you still see me give me one second please my computer just switched over me we can still hear you oh you can't oh okay i'm sorry i you just go down a little bit and you're there okay here we go all right we'll just do it this way can you see me on just one place we can see you now okay thank you okay i'm gonna do this hold on one second hold on one second okay i apologize really it is like having a freeze here there we go

021okay here we go i apologize can you see here we can see fun okay i apologize it just something is going on okay here we go five four classes 11 electives and four advanced placement electives were reviewed the curriculum and seven of the courses should be updated using an equity lens to ensure a balanced perspective okay can you see me again now i'm sorry there we go thank you curriculum high school findings overall there is a very eurocentric world worldview in the history text some suggested modifications from the committee include additional resources should be added to provide material on other perspectives especially the voices of the marginalized groups impacted by imperialism and colonialism the contemporary issues unit in world history should be expanded to provide more information about current social and cultural issues impacting the

022world today teaching about race as a social construct should be included in world history in order to provide a foundation into the historical underpinnings of systemic and institutional racism the african empire unit in world history should be expanded so students have an understanding of the rich culture in africa before moving on to imperialism in order to address conflicting ideas about equality and freedom information on ways to prepare active citizens who provoke diversity and cultural understanding advocacy and allyship should be included in introduction to government additional information on asia post-world war ii should be included in world history intersectionality should be included in the psychology course middle eastern studies should be expanded to include issues such as race racism sexuality etc systems of social inequality and unequal distribution of wealth and power should be included in

023sociology in world geography adding information regarding the cultural aspects of a region and how those changes have occurred over time would be beneficial human resources three committees were established to review multiple aspects of human resources including review the current application and job postings review the interview process and committee structures standard operating procedures and interview questions and expand sources of attracting diverse candidates review current advertising marketing and branding human resources and hiring practices application the online application for certificated staff and administrators has been updated to include the following equity question please provide an example of how you make your students feel a sense of inclusion belonging and equity on a daily basis the interview process has been updated to ensure a more inclusive and consistent process across schools standard operating procedures have been developed for administrators

024and teaching staff members human resources and hiring marketing the district's mission statement has been added to the district website updated marketing materials have been created and distributed to all job fairs and campus recruiting events to highlight commitment to an inclusive work environment no place for hate too scaffold scaffolded equity and social justice activities will be implemented at all grade levels in all schools in the district our elementary school students will engage in an activity related to identity all middle school students will engage in an activity related to inclusion and belonging all high school students will engage in an activity related to advocacy and allyship mascots in december 2020 the district invited community stakeholders to engage in a thought exchange to share their thoughts on the following question what are the most important priorities we should

025consider as we work towards our goals of having a more diverse inclusive and culturally competent school system the top 10 thoughts were teach kids respect self-discipline and take responsibility for their actions everyone needs to feel safe in the school environment respect each other's differences and have empathy it's important to understand that as individuals we all contribute to the society that we want to have acceptance of all students of different races sexual orientation gender etcetera people come in all colors and forms we are all humans created equally no one is above another showing respect toward everyone acceptance of everyone's individuality teach history the way it happened not the way we think like to think it occurred as well as including multiple viewpoints when events so we don't repeat the past and understand each other in the

026present make sure our children feel understood and valued include people with special needs teach our students to respect each other everyone should be proud of their culture no matter what religion or race key things in this exchange were respect understanding everyone acceptance include safe in the recent mascot thought exchange participants were asked to share their thoughts on keeping or replacing the wayne valley mascot there were 2 742 participants there were 2908 thoughts and 83 706 ratings of the responses were from wayne valley high school students and alumni the top thoughts on keeping the mascot were it's part of wayne's history it's tradition and honoring the native americans the top thoughts on replacing the mascot were its culturally insensitive it's a stereotype and it's racist at this point there does not appear to be a need

027to change the mascot based on the population sampled in this thought exchange however there were thoughts that expressed a different point of view and should not be overlooked since tradition and honoring the native american were the resounding reasons not to change the mascot at this time it may be possible to find an alternative way to honor them and keep the spirit of the tradition alive as the district embraces its diversity equity and inclusion initiative through its mission statement hiring practices marketing and curriculum revisions it may be worth further conversations with more members of the community to ensure the values espoused are truly aligned programming considerations educate wayne valley students and fans about appropriate respectful and socially conscious ways to honor native americans while supporting athletic teams data analysis after reviewing much of the data sources

028it was apparent that the pandemic significantly impacted the value of the trend analysis since there were no test scores for the past two years as such a trend had to be looked at starting five years ago with recent data two years ago therefore data analysis will begin using september 21 as a foundation using the smart start testing outcomes in the fall of 2021 additionally when reviewing ap and gnt it was not clear if the same criteria for inclusion as the classes was consistent across schools and grades this will be examined further in order to interpret the data accurately social emotional learning this area has been divided into three subcommittees sel vision statement seo programs and school culture and professional development social and emotional social and emotional learning is an integral part of education and human

029development sel is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals feel and show empathy for others establish and maintain supportive relations and make responsible and caring decisions the seo mission vision statement the wayne township public school district holds social and emotional learning central to holistic student growth focusing upon whole child development and a culturally responsive manner we recognize and affirm the humanity and dignity of all learners and view students as active citizens of the world around them we believe that in order to grow academically students must engage with diverse communities and actively contribute to society in a way that recognizes its inherent multiple perspectives to this end we expect our students to become committed

030advocates and engaged members of our community and global society we commit to providing equitable opportunities and experiences for our students and staff with a justice informed approach that explicitly addresses racism and implicit bias and focuses upon relationship-centered learning environments we will engage in this work through informed culturally responsive staff development and student engagement that embraces partnerships with families and with our broader learning community we will continually reflect upon our work to ensure that is facilitated in a manner that validates the dignity and uniqueness of all members of our school communities social emotional learning programs surveys were distributed to guidance counselors in each school to ascertain the degree of development and implementation of sel programs throughout the district overall the findings were as follows there is no formal curriculum that is implemented with consistency throughout grade

031levels or buildings there's not dedicated time in the schedule for sel practices to occur sel competencies and skills are not integrated into academic frameworks and ongoing opportunities for professional development related to sel are not robust climate and professional school climate and professional development the intent to conduct school climate surveys to all stakeholders this year due to to the pandemic this action did not take place and the goal is to conduct this activity in the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022 to establish bait baselines spotlight on scl was a section included in the superintendent's newsletter to highlight sel activities that were happening throughout the district professional development topics for the summer and fall were discussed for implementation in the fall and for all staff the professional development will be tiered in order to provide

032learning opportunities best suited to the individual staff member and will include topics such as social identity implicit bias and stereotype threat microaggressions cultural competency culturally competent pedagogy courageous conversations the link between social emotional learning and academic achievement next steps summer the consultant will meet with all subcommittees to outline action steps with timelines for initiatives this will be incorporated into a collaborative executive summary that will be presented to the board and community in the fall curriculum revisions will begin as well as identifying additional resources to eliminate biases and add perspectives to themes and topics sel standards will be incorporated into the curriculum social justice standards will be incorporated into the curriculum tiered professional development for administrators will be admitted will be initiated new high school history texts will be reviewed and identified for future purchase professional

033development will be provided to staff on effectively teaching elements of the enhanced curriculum human resources will use applicant tracking features to identify results of the new marketing and branding techniques as well as to ascertain if additional adjustments need to be made in any steps of the recruiting and hiring process to attract and hire diverse applicants and before we go to um the next part if i could just take one moment as i said i had the privilege and the honor to work with over 100 amazing staff members in the district and although i'm not going to acknowledge all of them i would just like to briefly acknowledge and thank them for all of the work they did to scott burkholder mac mcnanelli don arbach kathy gainer jose silas heather weinstein christine cordiera kelly venezia crilley

034roger oglen christie stoffy christine bentim miglia jen no jen montana sarah sheliak paula clark and ken palzeski and i just wanted to just take that moment and thank you and thank you for the opportunity it's been a privilege a pleasure and honor ms reese thank you for that report uh clearly we've left no stone unturned in this district with regard to diversity equity and inclusion and thank goodness this is a two-year goal because it's quite a heavy lift and it did take a village to accomplish it under your guidance and i want to thank you very much for your efforts and to everyone else involved thank you um was there anything you wanted to add dr toback i just um also i'd like to echo some of the thoughts that have been expressed and very

035proud of the progress that we've made in our school community as we opened up our district to review under a diversity equity and inclusion lens it's not an easy thing to do but it's vital important work so i did want to thank tamika and 100 others or so that participated from across the district in this really significant project thank you for having me so did any of the board members have any questions or comments okay i don't see any hands just for the public to be aware these are thoughts and recommendations that will be handled through our normal process of committee work if something needs board approval it will eventually make its way to an agenda and and that'll happen over time and with recommendations from our internal staff our superintendent specifically and thank you

036again ms reese much appreciated it's it's not an easy thing self-reflection but i think it's always a good thing and a positive thing i just like to say you've got a great staff there yes we have a pleasure to work with and um it's been truly wonderful working with them thank you okay okay sit down dr kobach okay dr toback so mrs reichman actually has remembered we mentioned there were two goals for the district this year so tamika presented one of the goals because his rifle represents okay thank you thank you go right ahead this is rashford good evening everyone just waiting for dr borchard to bring up the slide goal number two was our return to school plan dr toback and i have been reporting out on this goal throughout the year so at

037this point i just wanted to give a quick summary of what we have done the cdc the njdoe and the department of health and guidance released by the governor was complied with and the wayne return to school plan was updated and released to the community as new guidance and requirements became available schools were open as much as possible we were very fortunate to be able to return our students to school on september 8th and throughout the year we were able to keep our schools open quite a bit a hybrid distance learning plan was put in place to allow for comprehensive and inclusive instruction to meet the needs of our at home and in-person pre-k through 12 students and this was due to our tremendous efforts from the technology department to deploy devices at the start

038of the pandemic throughout the summer and make sure that we had technology training available throughout the school year and you know a great congratulations and show of appreciation to all of our staff who embraced and learned all this new technology academic support and enrichment programs were put in place to meet the varied needs of our students and address unfinished learning behavioral impacts throughout the pandemic were considered and counseling services and programs were planned to help students and staff prepare for in-person learning the wayne public schools safe return to school safe reopening plan was developed and will be available for public comment that presentation will be shared next and this plan is based on the current guidance and will be updated prior to september as we have new guidance released that concludes our second goal report

039okay back to you dr toback okay a lot of presentations this evening a lot of presentations um so at this point what we'd like to do is go to the safe return to school plan that we um we originally talked about in my administrative report um at this point we're going to open up we're going to do the presentation we'll have a time period for public comment now and this is where i should also explain how comments and thoughts will be collected from the public in the coming weeks so this is not a final plan the board is not voting tonight what this is is basically a presentation as i described in my in my report thank you doctor for sure we can advance to the next slide as dr kobach indicated when he shared

040his report earlier this evening on may 24th the new jersey department of education released guidance for the federal funding included in the schools for schools in the american rescue plan and this is for elementary and secondary schools emergency relief this was new guidance we are aware that parents have lots of concerns about what the opening of school will look like in september we do not have all that information yet because our planning will be determined based on the guidance that we're given any parameters that are released and put in place we are fully aware that there are lots of concerns about social distancing and masking we need to make sure that any plants that we have are consistent with the new jersey department of education and the new jersey department of health requirements at the

041time so it's likely that this plan will be revised and updated over the summer as new information is released and as we did last summer as we approached the beginning of the new school year dr tobak and i will share any information as we have and we will continue to develop our plans we can go to the next slide this slide includes the timeline for the grant completion and submission we are required to offer public comment um for a period before our june 24 submission of this plan tomorrow this presentation will be shared on our website the actual template which was devised by us constructed by the new jersey department of education will be shared on the website and i will also include a link to a google form which will give anyone from the

042public an opportunity to share in input and feedback we can go to the next slide each of these slides details um exactly what's scripted on the template so you'll see tomorrow that it mirrors exactly what's on the template we just wanted to give you a preview tonight um as i said earlier right now anything that's included is based on the information that we have so at the present time um you know our elementary students have returned they um participate full day with no cohorts the physical distancing requirements are currently at three feet um just this week we released some new information about um guidance for wearing masks and this was in conjunction with information that were shared by the governor just two days ago and go to the next slide as far as we are

043aware at this time mass will still be required for the onset of 21 22 school year but again new information comes out frequently and as we have new information this information will be communicated and shared with the public and as i just stated physical distancing is currently at three feet we can go to the next slide this part of the template details our commitment to maintaining cleaning and hand sanitizing protocols next slide we'll continue with the process for contact tracing and screening as required by the new jersey department of health and the njdoa again we anticipate that it's likely this will change and as we have new information we will release it efforts will be maintained to work with the township to secure vaccination appointments for staff we have a number of summer programs and

044academic programs that are running at all levels offering academic recovery and enrichment opportunities for our students tiered intervention will be a focus of our instructional model when we return to school next fall and and once again i'm just going to reiterate that throughout the pandemic we made public presentations to me communicate our plans with all stakeholders we took input from committees public comment and we released a number of thought exchanges to gather up your ideas and thoughts tomorrow we will share out a link so that you can communicate any input you have based on what is shared in this presentation tonight and we'll continue to update you throughout the summer and at this time i really just wanted to say thank you to all of our nurses our counselors our cst team members teachers related

045service providers support staff and principals they were on the front lines every day working extra hard this year to keep our students safe and feeling secure in our schools so a huge thank you to all and thank you we look forward to your comments and your input that concludes my presentation thank you mrs reichman any questions or comments from the board none okay uh dr toback back to you okay um so dr bashar if you can pull up the 20 21 22 mr goals and um while he's doing that i'd like to do is just wrap up something the hiv report there were five incidents investigated since my last report none of those cases were deemed to be cases of hiv okay next page please so as i mentioned before the the fact that we've

046had these district goals over the past few years has been something that has been it's been a very powerful tool they're all one maybe two year goals in some cases three year goals but for the most part they've led to some really significant improvements in this school district this year we're proposing just three goals although the first goal really probably could be divided into two goals because it really pertains to an academic recovery but it also pertains to issues of mental health right all sorts of issues that perhaps we'll be facing in the school district once the school year starts again so some of it is contained in the information we talked about with um our recovery plan and our plan for next year but this particular goal is something that is already informed by

047a number of counselors okay so i'm going to talk about the mental health piece within the plan and within the financial side of the goal right there's a significant amount of money set aside for services to be delivered directly to students okay so after hearing from counselors across the district so we had i had three different meetings with counselors from the high school middle school and elementary school level all the counselors reported an uptick in different types of situations in some cases it's because students have not been to school so there's new things that have happened that the students have not received counseling or services for in other cases there are situations that were unknown that now the counselors are aware of in other cases there's issues of school avoidance one particular issue is that

048students that are transitional and in that they are making their way from for example from eighth grade to ninth grade or they're making their way from fifth grade to sixth grade those particular students in many cases have never set foot in their school before their new school so a new sixth grader who's never been in school in some cases the students are coming in they're returning to school then going right back out because they're experiencing anxiety they're concerned there's lots of different issues that our counselors are reporting many of our our high school counselors are recording really some very acute cases some serious issues that they're seeing with the high school students and likewise at the elementary level there are a lot of things that have happened since many of our students have been in

049school and in many cases those students have not been cancelled have not seen anybody and need services one of the parts of this particular goal and something that was agreed upon by all the different counseling groups what would be very helpful is there are many situations where students need services but for whatever reason those services are not available to them in other words for whatever reason sometimes parents don't have insurance they don't have the funding so students can go and receive these services for mental health issues one of the proposal uh proposal for this goal is to actually hire an agency to handle the the most serious cases so in other words we have a certain number of issues that we see in many cases the counselors are recognizing this is beyond what i can

050handle here but they also recognize that under the circumstances the students will not receive services so that's part of what's included here but what you see here is a general statement if you go to the next slide dr bashar you can see some action steps that are important for the district one of the things that is listed as part of our plan but also is something that is recommended for districts across the country is to initiate the screening process you started that process but screening students to make determinations about where they stand academically as well as mental health issues right so you see some actions that could be taken there including the adverse child experience training so that would be an important thing and then you can see down below that tiered system of responses

051so in other words moving forward with rti response to intervention which is something that is in wide use across the country in schools to help students academically and so to identify what types of needs are out there and how to fill those performance gaps we also have summer programming that is set up and at this point planned for mid-july um and if you can scroll down a little bit dr bashar okay so we've also developed a crisis and bereavement manual so we had one that's now updated the other thing that was mentioned um previously from tamika's report and something that keeps coming up is further analysis of our counseling program to be completed by our guidance counselors and that's something that we'd like to do in summer of 2021 but also throughout next year so

052have a formal guidance curriculum that the councils will be responsible to deliver so those are just some of the action steps that we have there's probably some more we'll be able to add before next week so this is not an action item for the board it's not up for a vote let's just give you an introduction to these goals i know i've sent a copy before just in general now this is fleshed out a little further if you can go to the next goal okay so if you keep uh scrolling down a little bit dr burchard so this is basically continuing with our diversity equity and inclusion goal for next year so as you heard from um tamika reese there's a lot of findings there's a lot of information to digest there's a lot of

053things that we could possibly pursue probably more than what we could even do in year two of this goal so at some point we have to prioritize we're going to work with her to make some determinations about what the best action steps we will have for next year um finally if we go to the last goals there's no action steps yet purposely because we need to hear back from tamika reese our consultant the other the other goal has to do with something probably many residents and wayne have have read about already which is it appears there's gonna be a lot of construction going on in the community it appears there'll be quite a quite a bit going on along hamburg turnpike and that will lead to by the township's projection an additional thousand students at

054some point not all at once but at some point probably over the next 10 years we have our own demographic study in process that is not yet complete we were working with the demographer for a final report we will be sharing that with the board the whole idea here is if the if the projection is accurate if it is an additional thousand students where they would go and for school and what kind of facilities we would have available those are all very important topics and it's important to talk about those things now because there's a progression all these things take time construction takes time innovation work takes time you can see the example of the preakness school the preakness school is no doubt going to have to be based on its location an important part

055of whatever solution we come up with and if you'll you'll notice there's been a progression it started many years ago to preserve the school he started using it a little bit more so the library was in operation but on the other side of the school that was pretty much not utilized we made that into the learning center right time went by we leased it out to the northern region at services commission on the second floor renovations were made work was done that part is done then we move along to the early childhood center in preparation for full-day kindergarten so that entire wing that is now the early childhood center has been renovated and up to speed so there's some more work to do but the point is that that school is almost ready to go

056as a fully functional elementary school that would house over 400 students so we have to keep working on that and we have other things that we have to do we also have a number of projects that due to the pandemic kind of went by the wayside so one of them was the bleachers right we had a bleacher project that we were actively discussing as a board where ultimately we know that we need to replace the bleachers at both of our high schools so those bleachers are and you know they're they're at their end of their useful lifespan and they need to be replaced so that's a project um on top of that there's roof projects there's curbing projects there's all sorts of projects across the district that um you know they all require analysis as

057part of an overall look at our district and um so that's basically what this goal is about so those those three goals we thought were three significant goals they're important goals and uh we will flesh them out before the next board meeting but we're hoping to have the board review them add suggestions talk to us a little bit more about things that you might want to see and um and at that point hopefully we'll bring something that works well um for the school district um it works well for everyone so we can have that at the 24th board of ed meeting okay um so i think that concludes i know that's a lot of reporting and presentations that concludes it for tonight thank you dr toback did anyone have any comment or question about the

058goal presentation okay alrighty uh mr moffatt revisions to the agenda yes we have a few tonight uh in under section m human resources under number one approval of resignations retirements number seven barbara giuliano add the word retirement under reason on number three which was approval to hire for emergent vacant positions the languages was revised it reads resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves for the time period july 1 2021 through september 1 2021 superintendent to hire for emergent vacant positions needed for the opening of school upon consultation with the board president and the chair of the personnel committee the next revision is in number 10 approval of additional compensation number 13 under assignment elementary phonics teacher remove names a and b moving on to the emergent section of tonight's

059agenda we have a change in under s emergent education number eight approval of textbooks uh we will be adding on on line number one add wayne valley high school in the tea emergent human resource we have of two other changes item number three approval of leave requests revise number 5 id number 6108 to read dates of unpaid leave without benefits april 20 may 19 may 21 may 24 may 25 june 7 june 10 and june 11 2021 under number five approval of revised items we're going to revise number two id number eight six one four to read revised end date of sick days from june 7 2021 to june 10 2021 fmla slash njfla june 11 2021 through september 3 2021 and september 4 2021 through october 1st 2021 vacation floater research recess days and

060finally the last revision under ex-emergent school resource legal we'll be adding number one approval of settlement agreement recommended action reads as follows resolved at the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the settlement agreement and release in the matter of student id number two one excuse me number two seven one six one nine seven eight seven five oal docket number eds zero three agency reference number 2021-32609 dated june 10 2021 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 same that concludes the revisions to tonight's agenda thank you mr moffatt at this point we are going to move

061to our first public session and i just want to remind everyone that this is a public work session which means that the entire first portion of our agenda is not being voted on this evening so therefore those items are not discussable under the first public portion you're free to bring them up in the second public portion um which we are voting on the emergent items so if of course if you have something to say about one of those that would be allowable under the first public portion um so 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 five minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or

062a 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 tonight or at subsequent meetings under old business can i get a mover mr giordano second this is put up okay hi uh katie cluck 34 hillcrest drive um i wanted to say i uh really appreciate the um work and that time and effort that went into the um diversity equity and inclusion goal i'm sorry that's not something we're voting on that's what i just explained um so if you could kindly wait until the second public portion we can discuss it there got it thank you james frieswick one two one two summer hill road uh can you hear me yes okay is this about

063an is this about an agenda item that we're voting on this evening i believe it is i have a comment regarding your policy regarding public participation in board meetings i believe that's policy number zero one six seven which is on the agenda it's an agenda actually we're not voting on it uh we're moving it to the next meeting tonight is just a discussion on that topic public work session items are not voted on at the meeting they're moved to the next meeting so this is not a proper time to comment on this no you can bring that up in the second public portion we're not voting on it but we will discuss it you may want to wait okay i'll bring it up i'll wait and bring it up at the second public portion thank

064you okay can i get a mover i'll move mr duffy mr pavlak thank you okay committee minutes i'm meeting uh who would like to go first mr giordano thank you mr president um the education committee met tonight uh they included uh myself eileen albanese along that was don reischmann dinosaur and dylan auerbach were also present we reviewed the agenda from the previous meeting and approved that one the topics discovered were kindergarten registration and staffing we looked at residency issues we went over the elementary middle school and high school summer reading lists we had a discussion about textbook approvals um even including ap program approvals and we had a discussion about the educational portion as regarding the american rescue plan and the allocation possibly in the future and had some discussions about that and that concluded

065what happened at the meeting today thank you thank you mr giordano mrs putta hey thank you madam president uh the finance committee met this evening uh mr moffatt miss lighting from the business office mr pavlak mrs gazanna and myself were in attendance um we had a lot to review this evening financial reports our transportation agreements contracts for tech technology and professional services uh vended meals uh a transfer of funds to reserves the arp and sr grants we also had grant updates for cares fema and esser funds we had a business office update about future employment there we had a 2021 budget update uh review and appropriations our enterprise programs the unemployment account which of course was affected by covid we also talked about an increase in tuition to passaic county vocational technical school the increase

066for next year will be 340 000 dollars and we also discussed further items that will be coming up on the june 24th agenda thank you thank you mrs put puttup were there any other committees that met that need to report okay not seeing any uh let's move on to the agenda can i get a mover madam president i'd like to make a motion move the entire agenda can i get a second a second mr pavlak okay discussion go ahead mrs albanese um two items i wanted to raise the first was under the public work session and number one it's policy number four one two five um i understand that this is standard language being put forward by strauss esme and i don't want to imply that there's any thought process to go ahead with something

067like this but it's a policy about the employment of support staff members the language does read that there's the ability to go back to a contracting service at some point to hire substitutes for the district i think for many of us who have been here we've been down that road we know it was at best not a successful program for us so i would ask my fellow board members if we would like to have that particular part of the language stricken from that policy that's first the next is under public work session and number two this is changes to the public participation in uh in in meetings um i do understand during the past mrs albanese can i just recommend that we do one at a time sure absolutely okay thank you i think that

068would make it easier sure um okay so with four one two five uh does anyone have a copy of that policy that they could bring up for the board to see it on their computer is there a way to do that so we can see the language and the board can discuss it i think that's how we should handle it this is what we're doing you want us to go to the next policy because we're going to need the same thing so why don't you do that well we'll need a copy of that as well sorry it's that well if we're going to discuss the policies we'll you know we could wait we're not on a timeline did you i know i should [Music] pull those from the vote and then no no okay this

069is a public work session this is where we discuss that's the purpose of the meeting and i think this is the proper time to address it and have the discussion spare with us we want to bring the policy up so we can have uh good discussion thank you sir you're a gentleman and a scholar mr giordano i appreciate how to get it to him does anyone care to elaborate on the policy uh who was involved what committee did that come out of it didn't go through committee was that personnel mr giordano i don't recall it coming from policy committee i would i'm on it i don't remember discussing that one not at all obviously the second one that i remember quite well it says reviewed at the policy committee it does say it but i

070don't recall it well that one i remember okay well we'll get there i think we might have not spent a lot of time on it because it was just like a strauss esme update or something and lost over it got it can you screen share there's so many screens if you can probably the better way of doing this because he said this is unexpected is to maybe just go to language okay okay well read the paragraph that mrs albanese is um concerned about so the board can hear it so the paragraph reads the board may employ substitutes and or contract for substitutes for absent support staff members in order to ensure continuity in a program the board will annually approve a list of substitutes and rate of pay and or the board will approve a

071contract for a contract and service provider to provide substitute support staff i think that captures the the issue okay is that what you'd like um amended mrs albanese yeah i would like us to take out the language about the ability to hire an outsider right if we need to do that it should be done separately we like our current system and have no desire to change it uh would anyone else like to weigh in on that soon mr pavlak i i agree i was here for when we did outsource to the service and it was to say it was a disaster is putting it nicely an understatement um mrs put up i concur with my colleagues i do not want to use outside contractors for our support staff members thank you okay uh do we

072have consensus to remove the language and re-submit or vote on it with the first reading tonight to move it forward as a first reading so everyone is in agreement to change the language okay so this is a question i'm sorry so to be clear we will come back at our next meeting and we will have a revised version of the policy but we'll have it as a second reading yes because we're not pulling it or tabling it fun thank you i think you're pretty clear on what needs to be removed do we need to make a motion to amend i would okay i'll say as amended and two right now and okay it's being discussed as amended and then i think we can and the second right there's a second issue with yeah we'll get

073to that but this one you're just going to go ahead with as amended right we're going to do the resolution all amendments got it okay very good carry on mrs albanese do you want me to make a motion to amend the fraud he'll say as amended there's consensus to amend the first reading okay um the other policy i wanted to discuss was also under the pws and number two the change to public participation it's policy number zero one six um i do understand why during the pandemic um we wanted to have some form of a time limit we wanted to have a limitation as we're at this point intending to look at global magnitude full in-person public meetings i would not like to see us make this change i would like us to say with

074the five-minute time limit i don't want to put a time limit on the public portion because i do think at times when we do have a sensitive issue it will wind up with people not being able to get to the podium within the time frame so i realize there may not be consensus on the board i just wanted to voice my concern that that's not a policy change i would like to support i think we need to be very sensitive to members of the public wanting to speak on a sensitive topic that at times i realize does take a while but it's the job of the board member to um hear what people have to say and allow people their opportunity to speak so that's my view on that policy i would like i will

075not vote for that change uh and again i leave that up to my fellow board members how they feel about that and i'm mute mrs cher um oh i'm sorry hold on i am going to agree with miss albanese and disagree with her so i would like to not put the time oh my god the echoing is awful i would like to not put a time limit on how long they can talk but meaning not the 45 minutes but i would like to move it to the three minutes because five minutes is very long um i do want to hear what the public says but when you have five minutes to speak you tend to get very repetitive and um since i've been on the board in the past five six years i we have

076been there have been many hot topics as there should be in education but you als you also have to consider the fact that some of us don't want to sit there until one in the morning at a public meeting and it's not because i don't want to hear the public or because i'm lazy or anything like that i do have a family and i have a job and for our administration especially they work all day then come and sit at a meeting that could go till one in the morning or so and then they also have to get up the next morning and be ready you know to fit the day and i just i i feel like if you if you write a speech and in three minutes three minutes is a long time

077in public speaking and i feel like you could you're more than able to get in whatever you want to convey in that three minutes plus if you talk in the first section you can always come back the second section to finish off what you have to say you'll have another three minutes so i would like to change the five minutes to three minutes but i am agreeing with miss albanese that we don't need to put the 45 minute time frame on because in reality this is our public these are the people that we need to hear from thank you this is paddock yes thank you for shard thank you um this particular policy was not done in a vacuum as few policies are we did consult with new jersey school boards association and for guidance

078and they told us that and it makes sense that the main purpose for us being here as board of education members is to conduct the business of the school district and i agree the reason that we set the three-minute time limit was as i agree with my colleagues people can pretty much say what they have to say in three minutes in order to block out the first period of time 45 minutes seemed appropriate so that we could get to the business of the board if you would like we can open up the second session keep the comments to three minutes but we could leave that open which would mean that the public would have an opportunity to voice their opinions without restriction except for the three minutes thank you mr bubba i was muted again

079i disagree with school boards because part of doing the board's business is listening to stakeholders on agenda items that's when you listen is in that first portion of the meeting because it's on agenda items only so i don't i don't agree that we should just be doing board business and you know captain we have been through many issues going back let's see we had talking about substitutes we had long meetings about when we when we did privatize the substitutes we had long meetings when it came time for kindergarten the first two times long meetings happen they don't happen all the time i i think this is jumping way too fast and it's very limiting to me so i wouldn't support the 45 minutes at all the three minutes maybe but definitely not the 45 minutes

080anyone else mr g or dana thank you i was on the uh policy committee and i'm getting an echo hang on a second here i was on the policy committee and i was anxious to move this forward to hear the opinions of all of my esteemed colleagues on this uh that's why i like to see it on the agenda tonight my personal opinion is during the pandemic we were in a completely different dynamic um people did not have to expend as much time or energy to get on and talk with you they could sit very comfortably at home um that was a different situation if you are a citizen who gets out of the house gets in the car drives to town uh the town meetings and sits in one of those unfortunately rather uncomfortable

081chairs they see in that chambers area and you know listens to people that's a totally different story we also see a lot of times when a person comes up and they very eloquently state their point you rarely see six seven eight nine people come up and say the exact same things over and over and over again they realize the point has been across they realize that they see us listening to them and sometimes they'll come at a point that's missed on it they'll make an emphasis on it but they won't go into an entire five-minute dialogue over something that they're very passionate about so reducing it to three minutes i'm okay with that i don't really like the idea of putting a cap on in this case if you're taking the time and an effort

082and you're a taxpayer of the town or you're a parent or you're a stakeholder in this town or whatever combination you are if you take the time and effort to come to us in our chambers and have something to say you need to have the ability to say that comfortably and completely so that's where i'm standing on that situation in one of those chairs in one of those chairs mr pavlak um one i i don't support the 45-minute time limit you know i we have we have a mechanism in place now if we have to if we feel that there's a need to reduce time that we can vote on it at each meeting to do um definitely not the 45 minutes the three minutes i think is kind of short but i do agree

083that people get two bites at the apple but again this whole policy there's a mechanism in place that we can deal with it as on and on as needed basis anyone else okay what i'm hearing is the majority one two three four five um wish to remove the 45 minute time limit and stick with the three minute is the board okay with that does anyone object to that okay so that's an amendment we will move forward with forget the 45-minute restriction but change it to three minutes because we can always vote to do the 45 minutes dr toback do you want me to read what would be removed from the policy or are you okay if you wish it's very quick um okay no for the record absolutely following language will be removed the first

084public comment session shall be limited to 45 minutes in duration second public comment session shall be limited to 45 minutes and or may not extend past 11 o'clock so that is for policy 0167 public participation and board meetings that will be removed that will be removed thank you okay i was going to read everything i researched on the sunshine law and the open public meetings act i'm not going to waste anyone's time but it was pretty interesting and if you ever wish to read about it it's not that lengthy and it basically does say that the board is here to do business we don't turn into pumpkins at 11 o'clock we're accessible through email uh public portion yes there is a right but we can limit it and we don't have to respond so i

085i think there's a misunderstanding of the role of the board too sometimes on a big hot button issue we should probably do a community forum this way there can be a q a and the people who make the decisions and recommendations can be there to answer the questions because that's not really our job we are here to do the business of the board and we don't administer the schools so while i agree we do need to hear from the constituents the stakeholders the taxpayers um there is a limit to what we can do here so uh to listen to repetitive lengthy uh comments and i disagree that they haven't been repetitive at least this year but it was an unusual and unique situation and uh it will probably settle down when we go back to

086public meetings uh in person so okay uh i think we have consensus here and were there any other discussion items because the agenda is still the motion on the floor we'll move that as amended as well correct mr moffat that is correct thank you unless there's any other discussion okay well i'm waiting uh mrs cher did you have something i i was just curious i noticed that the and i should have asked this beforehand i'm sorry i noticed that the for the substitutes being approved the daily rate did we change that or is that consistent with what we've had the deal agenda item number oh i'm sorry um two hold on t emergent two i could just be totally not remembered correctly for the it says 200. that's correct so the board agreed to um

087retain the 200 rate for the duration of this academic year okay the 24th there's a personnel committee meeting at that meeting the substitute rates for the upcoming year will be discussed oh okay i'm sorry i thought it was a different number i just wanted to make sure thank you okay any other discussion on the agenda okay roll call mr moffatt let me just go over the the resolution before us tonight is the entire agenda that was motioned by mr duffy seconded by mr pavlak there was discussion and there are two amendments moving forward with consensus of the board for end number one and and number two as amended and as discussed and one will be uh the amendment will remove language related to outside contractors and number two uh amendment will be removing language for

08845 minutes and keeping language for the three-minute limitation with both consensus is that agreeable okay um as amended i'll take roll yes mrs putta yes mr shearer yes yes yes and on hr10 i'll abstain and i'll stay on anything with pcti noted forgive me but did we change the professional contract uh um resolution for special ed it currently reads um one we can make an amendment did you read that in um well the amendment hasn't been really confirmed but i can read it in the next agenda as a change you want to put it off till the next meeting i can i can alright okay i just well because we're approving it then what we're going to do no it's a pws item oh okay all right very good we'll do it that way we'll

089do it your way just make it note to self yes and that's a yes from me on the agenda thank you yeah motion carries okay thank you very much now i have to find the second public portion reading give me a second okay here we go this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on any topic residences to state their names addresses and subject matter comments may be limited to five minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at subsequent meetings under old business can i get a mover mr giordano

090mrs share okay here we go good evening tory esposito 47 woodlot road in wayne um dr toback i'm still waiting for the ladder from the wayne school district to governor murphy to unmask the kittens for the fall like the majority of the other school districts in this state are doing to prepare for the fall can you please stand with the children i mean covet apparently doesn't exist this week because it's hot not gonna exist in september either unmask the kids three minutes three seconds three words unmask the kids thank you next unmute how do you want to mute dr burchard on the phone i believe it's star six hello here you are hi okay thank you for taking my call um my name is sandy prasakos and i'm calling from uh 28 dartmouth road um

091i don't even kind of know where to begin a little bit frazzled here but um you had just gone over i guess the whole issue with the time limit and um i have to say that i i tried multiple times to get in touch with dr tobeck and miss reichman as well they did not return my calls or my emails and i had reached out to the board office and they told me the quickest way to get through would be to email them and and this was an email sent out for may 27th now i had a lot of questions and i could have had those questions answered so that way i wouldn't be wasting my time because a lot of what those questions were about was in reference to uh the presentation earlier so

092i mean if if if you can please make an effort to just let me know that you've read my email and you're gonna get back to me i i would appreciate that um because then again it would save a lot of time and here i am probably just wasted half of my time explaining this to you before i get cut off so i i was going to read my letter but i don't have time so instead i'm going to get to the point um after that presentation but also in my letter my my main issue was that a lot of terminology was thrown out there this evening um that i i did not understand i don't believe that the residents of the town would understand it and i i'm demanding that before this uh extreme

093agenda goes forward that uh that you do explain what all these terms mean and in terms and i asked in my letter what exactly is equity what is equitable how is that going to be implemented what does that look like in the wayne school district what what does that mean for the students equity because we keep hearing that word is all over the place tonight i've heard equity equitable implicit bias intersectionality systemic racism on and on the presentation went really fast i couldn't jot everything down and um i i just it was kind of jaw-dropping um and what is what is equity we're going to look at everything through an equity lens but what what are you talking about equity when i did my research on equity i really found that it was highly connected

094to critical race theory which is extremely controversial you know due to the fact that it has all these inaccuracies about our history so i i know there was a lot thrown out there but it's very deceiving and it's it's just it's something extremely controversial throughout the country right now there's a lot of pushback that parents are giving um to their own board of education they're they're going they're sending letters things like that um i i'm just not happy with the direction that wayne has turned into i mean your your whole mission statement is focusing on equity but when you look up what equity means it's nothing like equality equity does not equal equality it it sounds like it it's misleading but it's not it's not and um i again uh just please answer your emails

095um and i even called the office and and somebody told me they would get back to me and i said please anybody i don't care who responds and and dr tobeck i even said in my email i don't know if you read it or not i said consult your your colleagues show it to the board of ed whoever you need um no response no response whatsoever and and again this is frustrating and i think that gets other people kind of hyped up and excited answer back because it's not transparent if things are thrown at us you know at the last minute and i understand you've got the issue with the masks um but but there's just so much going on please let me know that you've you've read it and you're considering it and remember

096you're talking about inclusion i need to be included don't don't exclude me my thoughts i had a lot of questions a lot of questions that were again in regards and and i feel like i'm not prepared because you didn't give me the chance uh you know to have those questions answered so now again i kind of wasted my time um you know with that in instead of going forward taking your responses that i would have liked to have you know and and going further from there so please take this into consideration because it's frustrating i i have four children in the school system and i'm not happy i'm ready to pull them out pull them out because this is a divisive uh agenda that's going forward it i don't believe that it is the consensus

097it is in the consciousness okay i stated in one of the you know the mission statements you guys put out there um but but it is not something that it's all agreed upon um please please take this into consideration what i'm saying and be honest and be transparent and answer answer the the letters and and you know the calls from the parents and and maybe we wouldn't have a lot of these issues that's going on um but again just what is equity what is equitable mean what is all that thank you thank you next caller jim frieswick 1212 summer hill road uh first of all i don't understand why i was not allowed to speak uh on this agenda item public participation in board meetings policy number zero one six seven the board had a

098discussion on it and he even voted on it i don't understand why i wasn't allowed to speak on it if it was if it was an agenda item in any event i'm speaking now during the general portion uh i'm glad that you eliminated the 45-minute limitation on public comments i agree with that i also agree with eileen albanese that should not reduce uh the time that each person can speak from five minutes to three minutes i don't think three minutes is enough in every situation not everyone will use the five minutes some people will most people won't but the people who do probably have a good reason for talking for five minutes um i don't understand number three no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to

099speak on that topic have been heard how do you know who's waiting around to speak on a particular topic until you call on them i don't understand that at all i think that this policy puts too much power in the hands of the presiding officer who can quote waive these privacy or the efficient administration of the board's business first of all a vote should be taken by the board but my other objection is that this is too vague what do you mean by protection of privacy who's privacy and why should the public be limited in their comments if someone has a private some type of privacy concern that is not defined in this policy it's too vague also the presiding officer shouldn't be able to just put an end to the public portion as d

100allows uh without a full vote of the board uh the board should be voting on this not not the power should not be in the hands of the presiding officer uh my second comment is with respect to the uh report on diversity equity and inclusion as i understand the report there is no recommendation that the wayne valley indians nickname and mascot should be eliminated and i completely disagree with that recommendation clearly the indian's nickname for wayne valley high school should be abandoned and and done and it should be abandoned by a vote of this board uh i don't see how it's tenable to keep the indians nickname for wayne valley high school it's been more than a half century since the american indians started their campaign to eliminate nicknames of schools and sports teams such

101as indians redskins braves and chiefs they object to it and we should comply with their wishes and i don't understand how it uh a diversity equity and inclusion committee which by the way is secret i we don't even know the identities of these people who made this recommendation i object to that clearly should the public should be able to know who is making these recommendations otherwise how can the public judge the credibility of the recommendations uh but clearly a committee of diversity equity and inclusion should have come to the conclusion that the indians nickname for wayne valley high school has to go it doesn't pass the cringe test and that's all i have to say and i think i came in under five minutes you should keep the five minute rule i agree with eileen

102albanese thank you that's your time thank you next hi can you hear me yes great hi this is evie wending seventh seminal i have one question but it is for each and every one of you i would like you to answer whether or not you believe in the critical phrase theory and this question also goes to dr tobach i would like you to answer that for us thank you can i get a mover mr giordano mr duffy i'm sorry it was mr giordano and mr duffy sorry mike okay did you have any comment mr dr toback i'm sorry sure i could talk to um very quickly for um sandy persacos just um a quick comment that we do receive an awful lot of emails in the board office and sophie didn't respond but we apologize

103for that but we'll certainly find your email and i will respond to you tomorrow board members mrs cher um i just wanted to bring up um just to clarify for mr freeswick that um it was not the committee that decided on the mascot staying necessarily i'm not sure if you're aware that there was a thought exchange done that included all wayne valley students i believe that the 8th graders from the middle schools that will be going there uh parents of wayne valley and alumni so i just wanted to clarify that fact that it was not just a committee that made that decision it was actually probably half the town of wayne thank you whole business is that a hand raise mr chair down wait i was waiting for new business okay new business right ahead

104thank you very much um let me take these out because i always get a feedback on this so i apologize um during meetings i very rarely comment i very rarely comment about my personal opinions in public because as a board trustee my personal opinion does not matter my personal feelings my personal teachings don't matter as a trustee of the board of education my personal feeling of the job is to represent the best interests of the students the citizens and all the stakeholders of the township of wayne especially in the education department we've been listening for about a year to people demanding social justice and i don't disagree with them with equality and i don't disagree with them i think many of our ideas um are too centered around a single group and we should expand

105on those groups and i don't have a problem with that but any time a situation like this comes up it's like a pendulum and the pendulum swings from quite frankly conservative to liberal conservative to liberal right now the pendulum is swinging in the township of wayne towards the liberal end and there's many fine qualities and many fine things that come from liberal liberal ideology there's also many fine things that happen in conservative ideology also and both sides need to be heard equally in this case and i salute um in this case uh sandy pistachis for reaching out and speaking so passionately i've watched politics for my great part of my life and i have found that everything works best when it kind of comes down the middle when a little bit from both sides get

106it and i ask the people of the board to watch for that when it goes far to one side or far to the other it doesn't serve the commit the entire community very well and i encourage everybody to keep coming come to the next meetings when we go live and express those feelings i will not answer the critical race theory i think everybody out there has to learn that themselves i have my opinion but giving our opinion doesn't serve the community well we weigh our evidences we look at both sides of it and ultimately ask one single question what is best for our students and if we're not doing what is best for our students then we have to make changes for those students we're all educated and we're all people who are of excellent

107character and excellent judgments there's some people on one side of this some people on the other sides of this however we all come together as a single unit and we then cast our votes as we think is best for all students so please come forth and talk about racial equality come forth and talk about the honor and the dignity of wayne in wayne's history come talk about what you think is great about the critical race theory but come back just as hard telling me how you disagree with the critical race theory this is what america is all about here and i just caution us from being too reactionary and swinging that pendulum from one side to the other one last thing as a personal note and i apologize for my indulgence on the board today

108is june 10th of 2021 my parents will not see this until the recording afterwards but i do want to wish them a very happy 59th anniversary god bless you both i love you both very much and yes mom you can be embarrassed now because your little boy got your name out on out on what you call the tv thank you anyone else okay i have some final comments to make and i'd like to answer a question um mr freeswick we did not vote on that policy we amended it and it's up for a final vote at the next meeting so there's still an opportunity for this entire board to vote no we've heard your comments and that's what this meeting is for you have weighed in at the proper time um obviously the consensus was

109to go to the three minutes miss prosakos miss dr toback answered you uh i also will not answer a question on critical race theory uh as i mentioned after the goal was uh reported on this is going to unfold gradually all changes to our curriculum to anything of that nature will go through the regular process of committee work discussion among the board and voted on when necessary um so this is not ripping off a band-aid and making some epic monumental change to our district not not at all what we did was the work the work to look at how uh we address different uh races religions etc in our curriculum and our hiring practices and um make some recommendations to do better uh i don't see that as a negative i see that as a

110positive i don't think it's anything radical liberal or conservative i think it's just a good practice in any type of institution public or private to uh look at how they go about things and um i for one am not reacting uh or think that we are reacting to any sort of public outcry um this was a goal we set because we thought it was a timely goal uh and everyone agreed to it so we'll see how this unfolds and you're certainly allowed to state your opinion about any of it at any time uh the last couple of weeks have been amazing the events i've attended uh i will speak to a few the memorial day parade the most well-attended parade i've seen in years i don't know if it was the weather nobody went to

111the shore or chose not to have a barbecue but uh i have to say the turnout was unbelievable and it's always a highlight for me to see both our bands marching down the street showing off their talents and the two young ladies who got up and sang the national anthem and the god bless america literally uh gave people chills they did renditions that were you would have had to have been there to understand how unbelievably fantastic they were i attended two scholarship nights one at wayne valley and one at wayne hills our community goes above and beyond their generosity is unparalleled 120 000 in scholarships at both schools i have to commend our pto co-presidents and all of the executive boards throughout the district they gave out over forty thousand dollars at each school how

112they managed to raise all this money uh during a pandemic is just unbelievable and noteworthy and thank you to everyone who uh came to the events and donated to our students who uh deserve it and worked very hard this year and still managed to succeed academically i have two friends that gave out scholarships one couldn't get over how well-run the events were and um the other one both of them former teachers in our district by the way and i know them through another organization we belong to couldn't get over how spotlessly clean the schools were she had to make special note of it to me and i was happy to hear it she's like uh when i was here the schools were never this clean i can't believe how clean they are so it was

113nice to hear from someone who hadn't walked our halls in a while to notice just how good a job our custodial staff is doing and how nicely we're maintaining our buildings especially now during the pandemic the honors night was held out on the field under the lights it was beautiful it was amazing and um i enjoyed that very much and i think the parents did as well uh i think that's it the auto show dr toback touched on another great event uh this is my favorite time of year when we finally and thank god we're to a point where we can see the students in person uh it warms my heart because if any of us appear on this uh screen had anything to do with their academic success we're just all terribly proud of

114them i know i can speak for everyone on that and we're looking forward to normal graduations again and uh moving on and putting this all behind us so thank you to everyone and uh i'll get a mover to close [Music] mr giordano mr pavlak have a good evening