February 25, 2021: Board of Education Meeting

001good evening the executive session of the wayne board of education regular meeting of february 25th 2021 was convened virtually and hosted in the media center of anthony wayne middle school 201 garside avenue wayne new jersey the statement of compliance setting forth time date and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and the roll call was taken this meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened can i get a mover to reopen mr giordano second mr pavlak please rise for the 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 oh mrs albanese here mr bubba here mr duffy here mr giordano here mrs

002kazan here mrs kumar here mr pavlak here this is put up here and mr sheer i see you and recorded as present okay dr toback so this board of education meeting is being held at anthony wayne middle school again although for except for a handful of employees the meeting is largely a virtual meeting as has been the case throughout the pandemic the meeting is open for public view and public participation using zoom and is also broadcast on channel 77. this evening is devitt excuse me this evening is devoted to recognizing our teachers through the governor's educator of the year program there are two recipients for each of our 15 schools so we're thrilled to recognize a total of 30 outstanding educators the new jersey teacher of the year program and the governor's teacher educational services

003professionals recognition program have been consolidated into the governor's educator of the year program this updated program highlights educational innovation student achievement rewards of teaching and important services outside the classroom environment that lead to student success further it seeks to attract public attention to the positive aspects of our educational system these are extraordinary times and tonight we celebrate the many extraordinary teachers that serve the children of this community while we are only permitted to recognize only 30 of the over 800 educators that work in the district due to the requirements of the program i would like to take this opportunity to recognize all of our staff members who have made an extraordinary effort and have also made many sacrifices during this past year thank you to all of our educators for all of your efforts and

004your commitment to the students and the school system also a special thanks to each of our principals who did a wonderful job in celebrating the accomplishment of our educators as well as tracy lee works in our information technology department she developed an excellent video which you're about to see in a few moments mrs reichman will be taking us through the educator of the year program and um we'll go ahead with my administrative report after the educated review program good evening everybody tonight i would like to recognize all of our teachers related service providers paraprofessionals nurses technicians custodians clerical staff transportation workers and administrators for their ongoing commitment and dedication to our students and school community this has been a very unique year and one that changed the way we offer instruction and operate our schools

005this year required instructional staff to learn new technology instruct our at-home learners while also teaching our in-school learners communicate using google classroom and other digital platforms that were entirely new to us and spend countless hours searching for innovative and creative resources to enhance distance learning while keeping our learners engaged our clerical staff and nurses spend countless hours making calls to ensure that our home surveys are completed daily facilities and transportation staff work vigilantly to keep our schools sanitized and safe technicians work tirelessly to make sure that we have enough devices on hand and are always available to service any devices that need repair administrators put in countless hours to devise plans for optimizing the learning environment all while providing support and communication to each school community this is work that all of our staff embraced

006and learned we are a proud team and i'm truly honored to be part of such a committed staff of innovative leaders we work together to safely open our doors for our students on september 8th and committed ourselves to maintaining the safest environment possible to keep our schools open as much as possible thank you and congratulations to all of our staff for your endless contributions to our school community tonight i also have the pleasure to recognize the wayne schools recipients of the governor's educator of the year program awards this program is designated designed to highlight educational innovation student achievement the rewards of teaching and the important services outside the classroom environment that lead to student success this program integrates the teacher of the year program with the governor's teacher educational services professional recognition program to continue

007to recognize our state's best teachers and educational service professionals tonight we have a very special video presentation to celebrate our winners we wish you could have we could have had you here in person with us but we know that this is not possible this school year it's truly an honor for me to be able to recognize all of you for the outstanding work you do each and every day to support our students and educational programs tomorrow the full presentation will be available on our school website dr burchard you can start the video the volume five sorry we're having a technical issue there doesn't seem to be any sound um oh sorry for the delay just bear with us while we try to sort this out hi this is dr jessica hammond principal of the greekness

008early childhood center it is a great pleasure to announce the recipient of the first ever greekness early childhood center's governor's educator of the year award to mrs andrea gilman mrs gilman affectionately referred to by her students and families as miss andrea teaches an inclusive preschool classroom of three four and five-year-old students with and without disabilities andrea embraces both opportunities and challenges with a desire to support students families and colleagues parents in andrea's classes often say that she takes care of her students like her own children andrea is a true team player and an inspiration to us all here at the preakness early childhood center mrs carey or miss cynthia as she is affectionately referred to by our students and families is a speech and language specialist at the ecc and works with the youngest learners

009in the district as a speech and language therapist cynthia works directly with preschool students families and staff she is a dedicated and motivated educational services professional who has embraced virtual learning for our students creating differentiated and specific instructional models directly impacting both students and their families assisted with the opening of the center they're meeting with families teachers and administrators to ensure smooth transition for our preschool students she's a consummate professional and is an inspiration to us all here at the preakness early childhood center hi everyone i'm nick grimshaw and on behalf of the staff faculty and students at ap turkey and elementary school it is my pleasure to congratulate mrs samara bonner as our governor's educator of the year recipient it's easy to see why her students love her because not only does she engage

010their curiosity but also makes goes out of her way to make sure that they all feel loved cared for and accepted congratulations samara on behalf of the ap terhune faculty staff and students it is my pleasure to congratulate maggie carruthers as being our education specialist of the year recipient maggie's impact has been seen all over the building providing support whether it's in technology or different instructional strategies to our whole staff as we transition to remote learning she's been wonderful giving on the minute triage as well as pd and we are so happy to have her congrats congratulations to michelle thomas fallon's teacher of the year uh michelle has been with me at fallon since i got there 16 years ago and it has been a great pleasure working with her the whole time she's extremely

011dedicated to her profession and continually goes above and beyond mrs thomas is loved by her colleagues and her students who know that she truly cares about their success and well-being so again congratulations uh to a great educator and one of the nicest people in the whole world michelle thomas congratulations to joe hicksville james fallon's educational specialist of the year uh in addition to creating innovative and challenging lessons for his media classes mr hicksville has taken the lead as a technology specialist expert at fallon as teachers learned to live stream their instruction for the first time mr hicks was there every step of the way to assist him with anything they needed he's been an unbelievable asset during this very very challenging year and that's why he's affectionately known as the hexanator congratulations jfk staff students

012and families would like to congratulate third grade teacher jen shay on being selected as this year's governor's educator of the year ms shea engages students through her sound instructional practices her high expectations and innovative learning environment students in her class simply have so much fun they can't wait to come back the next day and what more can we ask for our teachers she builds relationships with students and families so that they all feel valued and accepted the jfk community is truly lucky and proud to have such an exceptional educator among us she makes us all better congratulations miche on behalf of the staff students and families of jfk it is my pleasure to congratulate miss maureen kelly as this year's governor's educational specialist of the year as our speech and language teacher miss kelly aids

013in students development of expressive and receptive language but also helps students to foster confidence so that they can participate both in and out of the classroom she consistently collaborates and supports both colleagues in the district and in our school building and we are very proud of her congratulations miss kelly on behalf of the students staff and community members of lafayette elementary school i would like to congratulate fourth grade teacher mrs ronnie patel on being selected as this year's recipient of the governor's educator of the year award school community members describe her as compassionate engaging accomplished dedicated and we always appreciate her sense of humor and practical jokes we are constantly impressed with her use of technology the way she differentiates instruction and her ability to connect with each and every one of her students congratulations

014to mrs patel on this well deserved recognition we wish you continued success at lafayette elementary school on behalf of the students staff and community members of lafayette elementary school i would like to congratulate lafayette elementary school's basic skills teacher mrs lisbenizia on being selected as this year's recipient of the governor's educator of the year award mrs venezia was nominated for this award because we notice how she supports her students in small group learning how she rearranges her schedule so that she can work with specific students and how she helps to build confidence in the children who are in her class mrs venezia is always willing to provide interventions and strategies to help parents work with their children at home and is a tremendous resource in inrs meetings congratulations to mrs venezia on this well-deserved recognition

015we wish you continued success at lafayette elementary school congratulations jennifer farrow you are our and act governor educator of the year first grade teacher extraordinary feedback from parents from your colleagues on everything you do to help the students in your class especially during these difficult times they are relaxed the students are relaxed the parents are informed your colleagues tell me that you are the organizer of all of the things that you're working on together as a team so thank you for everything you do and congratulations again jenna you richly deserve this award congratulations dana dimena for being our pacquinak governor's education specialist of the year for 2021. thank you for everything you've done dana you have been an enormous help you've helped all your colleagues you've trained them in i-ready and link it your fantastic

016communication with parents has been acknowledged in nominations for this this honor we appreciate everything you do and congratulations dana the pines lake community is proud to celebrate our two governors educators of the year in a year that saw many of our teachers and staff respond with tenacity and care these two individuals stood out as exemplars in our community for their dedication and leadership first i would like to recognize mrs fredericks one of our speech and language pathologists for her service to students with communication and language impairments she has helped individuals with complex communication needs to develop and expand their communication skills and has consistently shared her this expertise with her professional community she is an advocate for individuals in this community and seeks to ensure that the community provides the appropriate and necessary resources for

017their authentic inclusion most recently she helped to ensure that a playground in wayne added a communication board for students with communication impairments i would also like to recognize mrs carroll one of our second grade teachers this year she exemplified care concern and focus as she led her students and colleagues through the challenges of hybrid learning during the pandemic she has continued to develop her skills to ensure her students receive the highest quality education possible her students are always actively and thoughtfully engaged in instruction applying skills to new situations and making connections across the disciplines she is a building leader who constantly advocates for her colleagues and students pines lake school is thankful for these two educators and their many contributions to our community and we are honored to recognize them as our educators of the

018year congratulations to mrs alexis scheck for being named teacher of the year for randall carter this year we're so proud of her in all of her commitment to the students of randall carter this year working with the fifth grade and doing putting together amazing lessons in the area of academic and social emotional learning congratulations and well done congratulations to mrs kim to pedras for being named educator of the year in educational specialists as school nurse of randall carter we're so proud of her and what a year to recognize the nurse the year of the health educator we couldn't have done all the craziness without you this year congratulations mrs defeaters i am so proud to announce lori collins as our teacher of the year for the 2020-2021 school year mrs collins is the epitome of

019what a special education teacher should be not only having the expertise and knowledge to teach students in a multiple disabled classroom mrs collins also demonstrates her flexibility and patience each and every day she shows kindness and compassion and puts her whole heart into everything she does congratulations lori collins on receiving this prestigious award i am honored to announce katherine sanders as our education specialist of the year for the 2020-2021 school year mrs sanders exemplifies what a paraprofessional should be she has worked with students of all ages and abilities and has always proven herself to be successful she follows a teacher's lead and supports her students in all environments congratulations katherine sanders on receiving this prestigious award and thank you for all that you do i couldn't help but take this beautiful sunny day to wish

020ms lauren peachy mahmoody congratulations on tunis dye's governor's educator of the year award for teachers ms peachy mahmoody you do so much to make all of our kids shine and i can think of no better way than to honor you with this beautiful sunshine thank you for all that you do and we are so so proud to have you at tunis i wanted to take this opportunity of sunshine and a beautiful day to honor mrs carey de la bono as tunis dies governor's educator of the year award recipient for education specialist mrs delabono has been absolutely instrumental in supporting our students and staff as we navigate new technological waters she is beyond helpful and wonderful mrs della buono thank you so much for all that you've done it gives me great pleasure to congratulate our

021governors educators of the year for anthony wayne middle school we have two fine professionals who are student-centered very talented and and very dedicated to start our teacher this year is nicole marquez she's an eighth grade language arts teacher here at anthony wayne middle school she's been in education for 12 years all in the wayne school district she did start teaching at george washington middle school she's a very kind soul the students love her and she's a fantastic teacher and then our educational services professional is christopher vaca he has spent 20 years as a licensed certified speech-language pathologist and this is his 11th year at anthony wayne middle school he started his career in non-public special education also private practice and participated in early intervention services he is an excellent athlete he has run six marathons

022and has also been a licensed us soccer referee chris is also a kind soul and generous and a valuable member of our learning community so i congratulate both chris vodka and nicole marquez it is my pleasure to congratulate miss karen leibowitz for being recognized as the teacher of the year for the george washington middle school truly this recognition is well deserved and especially for this year from the day she has arrived at our school carolyn has always treated her students and colleagues as they were family and this year more than ever what she has done for our school has truly made the difference for all of us thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do congratulations carolyn congratulations to our school nurse mrs peggy for being recognized as the educational

023service professional for the george washington middle school i could go on for quite some time to list peggy's accomplishments during her time at our school however there are no words to express what she has done for our families and our faculty this year i know i speak for everyone at gw when i say thank you and congratulations for a well-deserved recognition thank you peggy i'm excited to announce this year's recipient of the governor's educator of the year award goes to mrs jennifer burton mrs burton is one of skyler's 7th grade ela teachers her commitment and dedication to her kids is evident in the creative lessons that she makes as well as her innovative approach she incorporates with technology i'm proud to call mrs burton a colleague and work alongside of her every day congratulations mrs

024burton on receiving this year's 2020 governor's educator of the year award our 2020 governor's award of the year for specialists at schuyler goes to mrs laura healey mrs hilly is one of the most motivated tenacious and supportive teachers i have ever had the pleasure of working with her ongoing spirit and positive attitude has been uplifting to our entire staff and her willingness to share her time and dedication to our teachers and our students has been unyielding mrs hilly has been a foundational support to all of us at schuyler congratulations mrs healey on the governor's specialist award for 2020. hi everyone mr ruik here i'm the principal wayne hills high school and i'd like to congratulate miss donna del moro miss del moro is an outstanding teacher both english and journalism for the past 20 years

025at wayne hills she's our lead teacher she's our tech trainer she's our go-to person for school initiatives and district initiatives as well as being our resident bruce springsteen fan and expert in addition she's brought our school newspaper the patriot press into the digital era and i'd like to congratulate her and thank you so much i'd like to congratulate mr bruce keough one of our fine guys counselor mr keough is one of the most caring and professional people that i know he spends a tremendous amount of time getting to know each one of his students and creates a personal pathway for each of them to find success in high school as well he is a coach he has coached girls bowling boys and girls tennis including 17 straight say county championships for girls tennis and this

026is really a testament to mr kia's ability to motivate students not only uh in his office but also um out in the the hardwoods and also on the tennis court congratulations mr keough thank you so much dory and amy's hard work and dedication arc in our community goes beyond the classroom as she engages her students in community-based project lessons in order to support the wayne alliance ms amy and her students research and presented their survey findings on drug usage in america created psa's public service announcements to educate not only our students but our community as a whole about drug addiction and drug prevention in new jersey a colleague and nominator had this to say her passion to teach to make our students high-level thinkers to give them real-world simulations and to see every student as

027individuals with special gifts is in itself remarkable i couldn't agree more so congratulations to miss dorian amy our wayne valley high school teacher of the year it is with great pleasure introduced to you our wayne valley high school media specialist barbara bardi barbara is passionate about our media center she works tirelessly to keep our students and staff aware of new resources available to them she has been a steadfast participant in our professional development offerings particularly in the area of technology her willingness to go above and beyond for her colleagues and our students has certainly made a positive impact in nominating her a colleague stated she has been a bright spot and most valuable part of the process to keep our students connected i couldn't agree more congratulations on being selected as our educational specialist of

028the year well that was fantastic do any of our board members care to make a comment on our educator of the year recipients mrs kumar i just want to say congratulations to everyone and i just know some of you personally and i know how hard you all have worked this year so congratulations anyone else this is put up i would just like to add my congratulations also to your teachers and support staff members um having been a win educator myself i salute you thank you i just want to congratulate my fellow teachers especially on winning this year probably no matter how many years you've been teaching one of the hardest years of teaching that you will ever encounter so congratulations great job anyone else well i want to echo my colleagues uh congratulations to all

029of our fine teachers and this is absolutely been one of the most challenging years for everyone in education and uh great work and uh thank you for all you do dr toback back to you well i'm just gonna finish my report just a few more um points first and foremost we received excellent news from the new jersey department of education regarding our state aid so our school district will receive an additional one million three hundred forty three thousand four and thirty nine dollars in state aid this figure an unexpected increase places us an excellent position to establish for the kindergarten program that we've been working on for so many years so our next board meeting on march 4th we're going to have more of a discussion about the budget but we're well into the budget

030process and this is really unexpected and wonderful news final part of my report is is something that is required so um obviously it's not possible to um in any way shape or form follow the educator of the year program successfully but in this particular case it's it's a little bit of a it's a difficult report that um you know it's not the most exciting content so pursuant to the statute i'm required to report to the board of education two times per year to public meeting all acts of violence vandalism and harassment intimidation and bullying which occurred during the previous reporting period tonight i'm reporting the following incidents that took place during reporting period 1 september 1st 2020 through december 31st 2020 as reported to the new jersey department of education the student safety data system

031ssds replaces the former electronic violence and vandalism system it 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 like suspensions 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 totals reported in prior years for that reason it's tough to draw conclusions on any increases in reported totals due to the state requiring more information under the new system our schools continue to maintain an excellent record of investigation documenting reporting and handling incidents in a timely and efficient manner for the reporting period september 1st through december 31st of 2020 throughout the district there were incidents reported as

032follows two incidents of violence those include assaults fights threats and simple assault zero incidents of vandalism zero weapons offenses zero instances of substance abuse or suspected substance abuse three general code of conduct incidents which led to educational removal and five confirmed incidents of hiv at a total of 15 alleged hiv cases for that reporting period the five confirmed hiv cases involve the categories of race one ancestry and national origin zero religion zero gender one sexual orientation zero power imbalance one and other which is uh two cases distinguishing characteristics of students cases were investigated by the school-level anti-bullying specialists with guidance and support by principals and district anti-bullying coordinators consequences and remediation efforts for offending students included individual counseling student enter parent conferences and discipline in accordance with the district code of conduct remedial measures for

033targeted students including counseling support services parent conferences schedule changes stay away agreements teacher aid monitors during the school day adult and student pairings and other monitoring measures in addition each school has instituted programming including the district-wide initiative no place for hate and to reduce bullying and improve school climate um fast forward now to this reporting period for hiv during this reporting period there were two incidents reported as hiv after thorough investigation none of those reported incidents were found to be actual cases of hiv that concludes my report are you ready to admit the student representatives this evening okay it's their turn there we go gina fermi we'll start with you hi good evening thank you for having me again congratulations to wayne valley's boys and girls basketball teams on a very successful season so far

034the girls currently hold an 8-1 record with a 36-24 win over wayne hills the boys team is currently 4-1 with a huge win over fairlawn on senior day great job to both teams congratulations to the girls ski racing team on qualifying for the njisra team state championships senior julia lasalla came 14th overall in new jersey at the nj isra race of champions finishing first in passaic county and earning third team all-state owners in honor of black history month mrs ospiazo and mrs felder's senior physical education classes have been researching trailblazing african american athletes students are working on understanding and discussing the contribution of black athletes not only to their sport but also to american history great job to the wayne valley band on the virtual winter concert last week special recognition is an order for

035featured soloists michael mcgrath isabelle mailman justin sonnet winston leaf joanna saxon and dana leschinsky despite covet restrictions mann program has practiced tirelessly for months and presented an incredible show the wayne valley students who club has been meeting virtually on a weekly basis so far this year club members coded the website page for lean valley's computer science department and are currently working on coding their own original games congratulations to senior gavin axoy on being selected as one of purdue university's emerging leader scholars gavin was chosen out of a highly competitive applicant pool based on his achievement and academic potential in stem he will receive a scholarship and many other study abroad fraud and research opportunities from purdue juniors christopher cordero ryan kwan and michael matthews organized a fundraiser fundraiser and donation drive for raphael's life house

036a shelter for homeless and young pregnant women in elizabeth new jersey with contributions from wayne valley nhs members the boys raid 540 dollars in monetary donations and over two thousand dollars in items great job thank you very much sorry i'm on mute thank you gina joseph good evening thank you for having me i'd like to start off by congratulating all of the governor educator of the year award winners that's a great honor after four of the six new jersey math league contest wayne hill still remains number one in passaic county wayne hills was a school with high q with high cumulative score jacob hablitz grade 12 had a perfect score and also the student with the cumulative high score congratulations to todd green and his team congratulations to wayne hill sophomore eunice chi who won

037several awards and honorable mentions for her poetry submissions at the 2021 scholastic art and writing awards some of her work has advanced to the national level competition last year eunice won the scholastic art in writing silver medal for a poem on this absence this year eunice won the following awards for her eight poetry submissions gold key silver key and honorable mentions the wayne hills national art honor society and art students spread love and made valentines for each of the residents and staff at the sunrise assisted living in wayne these beautifully made cards were distributed on valentine's day bringing cheer to many residents the wayne hills band and the schuyler colfax band will be combining for a virtual band through the ages concert this event showcases our instrumental music students from 6th grade to 12th and

038gives the students parents and community a chance to see how our musicians grow throughout their years in our band program the link will be made available to the public as soon as editing is finished the wayne hills millennial winter guard is will open its 2021 competitive season with their first virtual competition this saturday the guard will be competing in the mid-atlantic indoor network a circuit that includes guards from all over new jersey the wayne hills chapter of tri-m national music honor society has been busy sharing their passion for music with the wayne community tri-m has been putting together playlists of songs to go with the school district wellness initiative and writing letters to the assisted living residents about what music means to them wayne hill senior phillip park won the jersey sports zone north jersey

039game ball for his basketball performance his 29 point performance against lakeland last week earned him the nomination and fans voted him the winner congrats phillip did either of you have the donation list or no yes i did mr alan tumpascu through the benevidi has made a donation in the amount of 557.76 to be used for welcoming students back into the building when virtual learning has ended to schuyler colfax middle school thank you both very much we enjoy your updates and it's great to hear all the amazing things our students are doing especially when we can't see them but thank you both and back to your homework okay that brings us to revisions to the agenda mr moffatt yes we have a few tonight we'll start in section t of the emergent items human resources number

040five approval of appointments of district staff number four we're going to revise salary to reflect forty eight thousand two hundred and five dollars prorated and we are adding an item x1 under emergent school resource legal uh we'll be adding an agenda as as follows resolve at the board of education upon the recommendation the superintendent hereby approves a negotiated settlement agreement and release in the matter of bp and bp obo versus wayne township public schools oal docket number eds 01134-2021 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 additions and revisions to tonight's agenda okay thank you mr moffatt

041um before i go into the blurb about the public comments section i just want to make a couple of points first is the reopening phase is not on the agenda so that's not up for discussion in this first public session um or comment section you'll have to wait for the second um and secondly our uh board attorney would just like to remind everyone about speaking about our employees if you could just give us a quick reminder on that mr gepper yes people who speak in public do so at their own peril uh there's always the possibility that an individual who receives negative comments in public could seek a slander defamation lawsuit so we just want to be sure that the public's aware of that before they proceed tonight so that includes all of our employees

042including our administration and our union officials um this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on agenda items only residents are to state their names addresses and subject matter comments may be limited to three minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at subsequent meetings under old business can i get a mover mr giordano mrs share go ahead uh good evening my name is roger gunnels i'm calling from uh 22 hourly apps so while we're out while we're at it and we're uh talking about the educators i i personally would

043like to dedicate this call to the wayne parents you know i'd like to take a moment to recognize the educators of the year for us on this side of the wall because there's apparently a wall that's been built between us here the parents of wayne township they've added to their already hectic lives the additional duty of teaching children that should be in school um the selfless service dedication integrity of the wayne parents is a testament to their resolve in the face of tremendous what i consider to be their election a responsibility of the wayne township school system uh lane parents have extended themselves to meet the educational needs that might not that might have not otherwise been met the exemplary performance of the wayne township parents reflects great credit upon themselves and the children they

044educate again from a from a fellow parent that's really working hard to educate my child when they should be in school thank you to all the parents that are out there doing this and while you might not be recognized um by who but might not be recognized i want to make sure that you're recognized uh right now publicly and again i thank you so um that's all i have to say next good evening my name is ida ferrante i am the president of the wayne education association on behalf of my officers and my association we would like to add our congratulations to the wonderful recipients of this distinction of teacher of the year and educational specialist of the year they are the most worthy and they are the most worthy of accolades that they have

045received and are all fine examples of the outstanding educators we have in this district it is the reason why wayne schools have seen such success year after year this year the award is particularly poignant truly heroes these honorees represent all wayne educators who over the last year demonstrated the resolve in not letting this national crisis get in the way of our children's education having never been trained for such a disaster your teachers took this impossible task of teaching children and work to provide this community with the support it's so desperately needed and the normalcy that they so desperately sought despite every technological issue scheduling and even political challenges wayne educators provide our students with the best possible education i only wish that every teacher related support provider secretary paraprofessional and custodian could have been awarded

046this prestigious honor there is little doubt that every year possesses new challenges to face and new obstacles to overcome but this has been one for the ages we once again congratulate the members of the wayne education association our essential working heroes for getting wayne and its children through this crisis this community owes you more than it could ever pay thank you hello can you hear me i can't hear you guys but okay uh rebecca bradley thank you 28 pitman please um i i i had to log off briefly so i apologize i don't know the time limit and i i don't really know exactly what was said but my my main my main bradley i'll just interrupt you quickly can you hear me yes okay you have three minutes which we'll start over uh but

047this is agenda items only the reopening of the school is not on the agenda that's for the second public portion oh okay to my apologies no worries you can come back in the second portion if it wasn't related to the agenda oh it wasn't okay thank you okay thank you for understanding okay can i get a mover mr giordano mrs cher that concludes our first public portion back to the agenda okay we had committees miss kumar hi um i will be reporting on actually last meeting my the education committee met um but i was not here during the public session so due to the worldwide pandemic the education committee of the wayne township board of education took place in person and during a google meet at approximately 5 p.m on february 11 2021 the meeting

048adhered to the agenda and began with a brief overview of the minutes from the december 3rd meeting in attendance was administrator donna reischmann and board of education committee members dawn kumar aileen albanese and maggiordana a new volunteer club was proposed for wayne hills high school and was approved and we had a few school choice requests to be discussed and we also went over a mid-year update um some of the things that we have been able to get accomplished this year was to open the ecc and moving along with our full-day kindergarten plans working through some of the distance learning issues creating the district goal fight for diversity equity and inclusion and that concludes my report thank you who else has a report mr giordano [Music] thank you president kazan uh today february 25th at 5

049pm the wayne board of education personnel committee met uh board members who were attendants or myself miss stacy sher and suzanne put up also in attendance was paul clark director of hr compliance and labor relations uh during the meeting we reviewed the december 17th minutes uh as the changeover of personnel occurred at this meeting we also reviewed several hr items the two big ones we talked about were the ideas about student teachers in person was discussed and ideas about sabbaticals were also discussed at that meeting and that will conclude from that personnel committee meeting thank you thank you mr giordano next mrs albanese thank you the communications committee also met tonight at 5 p.m in attendance where dr mark toback board members eileen albanese dawn kumar and michael bubba we discussed the response to many

050emails that the administration and board members have received and the addition of answers to the frequently asked questions as a result of questions asked in those emails we've reviewed many newspaper articles online communications and we're happy with the way accurate information is being presented based on information that's presented at the meetings we had some discussions about communication to the board and to the public at the next meeting and that concludes my report thank you thank you mrs albanese mr pavlak good evening uh the facilities and transportation committee met this evening both virtually and via zoom in attendance mrs kazan mr duffy mr blanchard and mr moffatt we had a discussion about on external facility permits for both use of in-school gyms and also for field use for the coming spring we spoke about the generator

051project where we'll be putting generators into a few of the schools looking at we reviewed the number of power outages of schools and we are going to look at moving forward in the budget with potentially with placing generators in a couple different locations we had a legal discussion over some issues um we talked about document storage and archival um we're moving away from paper we're moving to scan a lot of the paper to save on the cost of storage and we're also running out of space to put places energy savings the esap program the second phase at wayne valley was completed today and we're moving on to wayne hills and then we'll move on to the middle schools afterwards which this program has saved the district hundreds of thousands of dollars we kudos to mr

052blanchard and his crew for the inordinate amount of snow that they've plowed shoveled snow blown and done everything else with and controlling the ice and the roadways and parking lots and around our schools so far this year we used 138 000 tons of salt on our property transportation we had some issues with re-bidding district bus routes we also looked at doing a joint venture with lincoln park to see if we were able to do some shared transportation with some of our out of district students unfortunately it was not going to work out with the locations and the number of students and one good thing uh our driver training is up and running and has been and during some of the downtime in the afternoons we've been able to facilitate this training with all our drivers

053online as required by the new jersey department of transportation as well as the national department of transportation and we also had a discussion on some security issues does that conclude the committee reports anyone else i think we got all of them okay thank you everyone okay let's move some agenda items can i get a mover for the public work session mr pavlak president as one of them okay can i get a second mr duffy that's mr pavlak and mr duffy mr moffatt are there any items for discussion does anyone have any questions or comments on the agenda items okay roll call mr muffet mrs albanese mr bubba yes mr duffy yes mr giordano yes [Applause] kumar yes mr pavilack yes mrs put up recorded as a yes mr sheer yes and mrs kazan yes uh

054we have some retirement blurbs to read mrs put up [Music] he's one of the first can you hear me i'm sorry can you hear me you're having a little bit of a a glitch there uh i think someone else might need to read this we are having difficulty with your audio john can you hear me can you hear me now mrs put up i think someone else needs to read your retirement blurb you're here can you hear me now yes okay please mute um okay i will you read yours and i'll pass along mr celentano to someone else go ahead i have pleasure reading the retirement of mr alexander smith alexander smith will be retiring from the transportation department on march 1 2021. alex began his career as a van driver on april 19 1999

055over the course of his 22-year career of service with the wayne township public schools he has been dedicated to his work responsibilities of safely transporting our students each and every day of his employment alex has truly been an asset to the department of transportation and his commitment of transporting the special needs of transporting the special needs of the district will be hard to replace his smile positive attitude and quick wit will be missed mr alex as he is affectionately known by his students called him enjoying seeing and greeting his students each and every day each each year he continued to take several preschool routes including in mid-day so he could take the little preschoolers to school each and every day the transportation department and the wayne township public schools wish to express their sincere thanks

056and appreciation for all his outstanding support and dedicated service from all of your friends and co-workers best wishes for a long and happy and healthy retirement mr giordano thank you valley freestone retired from the transportation department on january 21st of 2021 valley began her career as a van aid in 2013. over the course of her eight years of service to the wayne public schools she has been dedicated to assisting students with special needs every day as their ride to and from school she always made herself available to cover and go on any route no questions asked valley's loving and nurturing attitude was evident daily as she helped guided and watched over her students we thank her for her service may her retirement allow the time to do the things she loves and avoid the things

057she doesn't like to do valley will be missed but never forgotten in the next phase of her life bring all that she seeks and even more happiness thank you mrs cher fill in for mrs put up let's try this again john celentano john celentano has worked in the wayne township public school system for over 23 years he was one of the first building technicians in the district who supported our staff with technology john was instrumental in the rollout of the district's first purchase of teacher computers he spent over 14 years of his career working at wayne hills high school supporting the staff and students with their technology needs while there the wayne hills staff embraced him and made him part of their family he has great memories of the staff he worked with through the

058years after wayne hills john went on to work at schuyler colfax and a few of the district's elementary schools he always would bring his best effort and helpful attitude to work each day john is looking forward to spending time with his family and grandchildren while he will be missed by all of us he certainly deserves his retirement his hard work and diligence have greatly benefited our district and we hope that the remaining employees here will strive to follow his stellar example we wish you the best in your future endeavors retirement will surely offer you many new opportunities which we know you will embrace wholeheartedly just as you did at wayne township public schools thank you for your service thank you mr chair congratulations retirees and thank you for your service to the wayne school community

059it's much appreciated by everyone um okay roll call mr moffatt for yeah we're good to go i wasn't sure if i did it before the retirees or not all agenda items have passed okay very well okay so then we'll move on to our final public portion uh this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for common on any topic residents are to state their names addresses and subject matter comments may be limited to three minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or subsequent meetings can i get them over mr giordano mrs share

060okay go ahead sorry you're not speaking okay thank you how are you doing this is uh christian c 16 claremont terrace in beautiful wayne new jersey hope everyone's doing well tonight um i have a question i don't i don't think this has ever been uh brought up before um at the ap terhune and skyler colfax property there used to be a a tennis court that tennis court um was decommissioned and has now become a supply yard for um i i think it's it's for maybe you know winter supplies whether that be salt or some other things but um it's fairly unsightly and along with that there's a number of c box uh shipping uh containers being used for storage on the piece of land between um skylar colfax and apt right by where that tennis

061court used to be as well as um next to the playground behind to the left of the um ap tour here i was just curious if that was going to be permanent um structure where we're going to be using that old tennis court as a supply yard or if that's something that was of a temporary nature and there's a plan to kind of bring that back to um i guess uh a position where it looks a bit better than what it does today okay thank you next hi my name is rebecca bradley 28 pitman please um i had some questions and then i just sort of felt like not asking them because i feel like at this point that the questions seem sort of ridiculous because i we feel this is in regards to school

062closing and i would like to urge that we not do preemptive closings and things like that in terms of what we're doing with school openings we've just begun to move in the right direction and i guess my call is more to continue in that manner why are we not moving more toward a five-day model sooner it feels as if everything in life has found a way to move forward to almost a normal degree we all wear masks and continue to go to restaurants and bars and and live our lives and i just would like to know exactly what seems to be the issue with schools that march of 2021 looks identical to april of 2020. like why are we this the only institution that is failing to really move forward when it seems to be

063an institution most importantly needed so i'd like to know specifically what are the stumbling blocks that stop schools from moving when every other institution is able to move forward and if and if we can pinpoint or at least think about what they are since we're over almost a year into this what do we have planned to combat things that may come down the pipeline these these i feel like this excuse now needs to stop and we need to be we've moved not an inch in a year as the world has seemed to push forward and i don't know why we have to drag each other with that i'd also like to thank the teachers today for their wonderful effort congratulate all the teachers for their well-deserved honor and thank them for their very very very

064hard work and commitments thank you thank you next hi there cindy jaffe 10 sherwood street um i would like to refer to the frequently asked questions that were put out today um i feel that for each question there the questions were not actually answered or i have follow-up questions so in planning for the next reopening phase you state we are required to distance to the greatest extent possible what i want to know is are you required or are you choosing to go by the strictest interpretation of all the guidelines and if not these are not new increased guidelines are they why haven't the dust shields tables and tents been purchased already anytime in the last year what have you been waiting for please correct me if i'm wrong but i don't believe these are new

065safety measures um next the next frequently asked question there's two groups of people that are not part of that internal team that you refer to in your response to consulting with and who you have been relying on to plan for re-entry these two groups of people are both students and parents that have very valid perspectives and are on the front lines does your team that you refer to include representatives from either of those two groups and instead of asking about comparing our reopening plan to similar size districts i would suggest that that question be modified shouldn't the more relevant question or comparison be how do our class sizes compare to districts that are five days the size of the district shouldn't matter as much as the number of kids in a class and the space

066in the classroom in dealing with these things in regards to your statement that the only teachers that are out are those that have medical reasons that are accommodated by law i'd like to know are you saying that every single teacher that is not reporting to work has a documented medical condition protected by law because if not what are we doing about other teachers that maybe say that they're exposed to covet or they have copied um obviously a valid reason to not uh go in school but what kind of protocols are in place to follow up on that and i guess um you know just uh have their reentry back to school in the quickest and safest um manner possible um how is all this being handled other than hiring subs to replace those that have

067been accommodated what's the long-term plan for all the other reasons in regards to covet again in terms of you citing guidelines and another question you again referred to um the guidelines i challenge you again are you just using the strictest interpretation of all these guidelines you also also mentioned increased instruction time and wednesday's being back in i'm just want to point out that so far there actually hasn't been increased instruction time except for that crazy intermittent schedule where it increased instruction time by five minutes per class but it added that hour and a half block in the middle of the day and wednesdays haven't started yet so there hasn't been any increase as of yet and why can't we ask parents to commit to each other to to uh fully virtual or fully hybrid we've

068been asking that question since the start of the school year and this is literally the first time you've even admitted that you can actually ask parents to do that why why haven't you that's your time okay thank you thank you next hello can you hear me yes okay hi i'm katie clock 34 helpful drive i want to give my congratulations to all the teachers they have been great especially in this past year with the pandemic as well i just i was just for the board um thank you for all your hard work i was just wondering when the next update on the diversity inclusion goal would be um as well uh it's just been a couple months and i was just wondering what the timeline is going to look like as well i was just

069wondering who is specifically running the um anti-bias trainings um i can't i was having trouble finding it on the website so it'd just be super helpful if you could uh just let me know uh like let us know like which specific organization or a group that's from um as well um anything to address uh there's been some in at large in the world and increase in uh racism and hate towards asian americans and i was wondering if um the board was ever going um would be discussing that um again thank you for all of your hard work um it's much appreciated especially in this pandemic and um you've all been doing great um sorry i had more questions um yeah and i think uh that was my main ones but just thank you again um

070and just appreciate the update thank you thank you next hi julia hilde dardia 87 poplar road i have two questions one how often do you plan to report district coveted numbers i have become accustomed to those numbers being reported at every meeting but they are missing this evening two can you clarify what four hours of active instruction means for example if a teacher has taken a pto day during the virtual day is it okay for their elementary students to be left to self-teach assignments posted in google classroom or if an elementary teacher has taken a pto day during a hybrid day is it okay to have their in-person students have a substitute and their virtual students be left with assignments posted on google classroom and no live instruction lastly yes this concern has been raised

071to our building principle but i want to make you sure that you're all aware that an increasing number of parents are concerned about the age-appropriateness of iready a tool used for literacy our elementary students are taking a mid-year assessment this week and as someone who sat and watched my first grader in pain as she was presented with question after question that she was unable to answer it's not okay when a seven-year-old says to her mother mommy this test makes me feel dumb thank you thank you next hello hello my name is winnie kivett 57 parklane i wanted to make two comments the first about teacher vaccines the second special education accommodations senator teresa ruiz chair of the senate education committee attended this week's meeting of the garden state coalition as part of their monthly meeting

072she indicated through the efforts of many groups and individuals including njea assa njpsa and many parent and teacher emails trenton is listening she predicts that by mid-march group 1b which includes school personnel will be added to the vaccine list this is encouraging news for our schools my second comment is about special education students i attended the october cpac parent advocate meeting and some parents asked if special education students would be given the opportunity to attend more in-person instruction here we are in march and there's been no movement on allowing special education students and resource room to attend additional days i researched all the websites of all the districts open in passaic county side note wayne had the best return to school covid website out there of all passaic county and many of them do allow

073special education students to attend four to five days hawthorne clifton west milford woodland park little falls totawa pompton links special ed students attend four to five days if we want to compare wayne schools to other high achieving districts the following districts offer special education students additional in-person instruction ridgewood the largest school district in bergen county offers special ed students five days fort lee four days westwood four days montville five days effective march 8th lincoln park four days and glenridge five days i read your updated faqs and you like to compare yourself to parsippany they also offer special ed students five days i urge the board to consider offering additional days to special education students so some as some instrument steps on our way back to full-time instruction thank you for your consideration and congratulations to

074all the governor teachers awardees thank you thank you next hello michelle toscano with 15 kimberly place um i pretty much just have two questions i think at this point going um a year into the pandemic and a year into two full school years of children not attending school in person what is the plan that's all we want to know what is the plan what are we doing to move forward and how can we make it better um i think every single child right now is feeling what's going on including my own we've all had to have counselors step in at moments that we normally would not need that and to me that's very sad um today was my son's first day at school in over 70 days and it felt like a new day to

075him what is the plan that's all we want to know what is the plan are these kids going to be going back to school full-time by the end of this year will next year happen what is the plan you need to let parents know at this point can't keep anything behind us anything a secret what is the plan thank you thank you next hello hi hello my name is nicholas stellinesses 576 valley road i'm a seventh grader at anthony foreign middle school i would like to i would like to also start with a question uh is there no knowledge if uh we will be closed two weeks after spring break and be all virtual and uh another uh question are we going uh is the target date that i've seen uh for us going back

076to school uh in april for five days a week is that is is that going to stay the date or is that going to be pushed back and pushed back again and again and i would just like to know if there will be anything done by the council board of education to to anything to fix on uh fix this hybrid schedule because this hybrid schedule is great today was my first day back since beginning of november and it felt like it was my first day at school but it was a very happy moment i was very happy to be back in my building seeing my teachers but it but it was also difficult to wait for people to log on online and it is extremely stressful for my teachers to have to deal with kids

077online and i and i i one uh what my question is will we be going anywhere to fix this because it is a problem hybrid learning is not a is not that is not that good as well it's better than virtual but will we be doing anything to make hybrid learning work better than do anything to help these teachers have a little bit of an easier day for to help the students um have to not wait for for 10 15 minutes to start instruction to wait for everyone to be online who's sleeping who's not sleeping who's at the camera who's not at the camera because i i do not feel like i'm learning and school is also not just a place of learning it was always a place of conversation as well i get that

078is that that is very difficult during the pandemic but that that also shouldn't we be doing something to have these uh kids like me be able to socialize be able to interact not just be the the push from classroom the classroom masks and just do just completely not doing anything social because there's not much social uh stuff about this hybrid learning and i i just want to know if we're moving anywhere to fix this because it's very difficult for me it's very difficult for my teachers and are we just going anywhere thank you thank you very much nicholas next hello can you hear me yes oh great hi i'm ed wenting seven seminole avenue when new jersey um diversity and inclusion program was mentioned and i just wanted to make sure that it also includes

079conservative views there have been i have kids in three different schools um in each of the schools i was met with an instance where children were i don't want to use the word brainwash but brainwashed into certain liberal and views saying that mr president trump had hated black people there was one instance and i had sent the inquiry to mr toback and they handled it but i just wanted it to be known because parents may not realize so watch out for those newsela articles with my kindergarten or with my first grader this week it had happened there was another brain pop that had similar kind of reviews about president barack obama which was somewhat based on someone's opinion and not on facts again you're trying to tell the children something that is true and it's

080not necessarily true so long story short diversity and inclusion needs to also include conservative views and those children who have those views should be protected and not this whole cancel culture that is going on around the world especially in the united states um needs to be you know they need to be included and also i would like to add i would like to get my school kids to schools sooner rather than later they really are happy in the in school environment full-time so i support that as well thank you so much thank you next hi eileen d'amico 29 manor drive um i actually have two questions one of them is um just if at some point uh someone can point me in the right direction where i can go find the rule that indicates that

081um there can be no consumption of food by students at an outdoor school sponsored event whether they be on school property or off um that's my first question is where can i find the rule or guideline that states that so that i can read it a little more thoroughly and i'm going to try my second question is actually since mrs jaffe didn't get to finish um i have a copy of some of her questions so i'm going to try to summarize the last one um with regard and she actually was going to address um one of the last faq i think that was sent out about um seniors and them getting you know why is there not or what is the plan for seniors for their activities or some of their activities through the end

082of the year um i'm going to take it a little bit broader than that um it just seems and i guess the question is in general why is it that this district always seems to be especially with regards to the reopening and all these plans reactive instead of proactive we are obviously a very large district and you would think that um if anything should be setting the example and leading the way in terms of proactive and quite honestly that doesn't seem to be the case and if it is to echo then as well mrs i think it was mrs toscano's question or questions then why is the plan if there's a plan in place and multiple plans in place why are they a big secret if we are truly being proactive and there are plans

083in place why are they not being shared and if the answer is we don't know what the plans are well why not um we shouldn't at this point have just a plan a we should have a plan b and a plan c and maybe even a plan d um these things aren't new they're not unknown there has to be a plan so the question is why are we constantly reactive instead of proactive and if there are plans what are they all of them the current plan and the backup plans thank you next torrey esposito 47 woodlot road and wayne um my first question is where's dr goldberg been he came on when the case counts were high and we haven't heard from him since so as a paid employee that the board pays can we

084please get him on the next board of ed um and again i asked the question last last session um when they do go the full days the 2 3 in april are the remote are the higher the coat or the remote kids the hybrid kids that are not in school that day are they expected to stay on until 3 20 so now they are on the computer even longer um so i need to understand what that schedule looks like for the kids that aren't in that day um and then to just echo the points about school the longer that these kids are not in there they're getting a sense that school is not safe and they're they're never going to want to go back um you know you have little kids elementary kids that want

085nothing to do with it they feel like that you know kids will say i'm dropping out of school so um the the sooner they get back the better um other districts are doing it let's move in that step and again if we can't get them back this year five days what fate do we have in the 12 months when everybody's out at the pool or at the beach getting a tan that we're gonna go back in some capacity five days in the in in the fall so now you have people that are looking at private schools actually moving out of the town moving to to towns that can do this so let's let's be a little bit more transparent share the plan for september not not just counting the days till june 22nd that the

086school year is going to end because september is going to be here before you know it and these kids got to get back to school thank you okay thank you can i get a move to close public portion mr giordana second this is share okay dr toback care to address some of these questions okay so let's go from the top um christian c asked a question about the tennis court that is decommissioned between apt and scattered colfax so yes it is used for supplies and is used as a location that's out of the way and something that has a hard surface as an area to store things primarily for the winter months and um it has been used in that way um we apologize if um members community find it unsightly we think it is

087somewhat out of the way but certainly we can look at that as we move forward the sea boxes that are located throughout the district are used for storage so the fact is that while we have a pandemic going on we had to clear out virtually every single thing in every classroom so the idea is to to allow students into the classroom and to meet the standards that are established by the state in terms of what a classroom should look like um while we have this pandemic most of the teaching supplies most everything that we don't absolutely need on any given day have been moved to these c boxes so they are not permanent editions they're used for storage and once the pandemic is over hopefully most of them will go back to whoever the owner

088is release them with regard to mrs bradley's question about school closing of openings um so just just a quick reminder that um i don't believe that the mark march of 2021 looks the same as april of 2020 in april of 2020 schools were closed we were in uh remote instruction and it appears every day that things were going to get worse and they did get worse for a period of time march of 2021 is um it's the spring it's a time for hope and it's a time for rejuvenation um so the i guess the important thing in addressing the questions that have been asked um next board meeting on the fourth we are going to have a significant discussion about the final part of the school year and what that's going to look like and

089some recommendations but it's also going to involve the community feedback so it's a public work session and the public works session involves proposals and other information that we share with the board of education um and that will include some of the questions that have been asked tonight a little more specific information about that and then um at the following meeting the board will have an opportunity to modify approve depends on what happens but we have to understand that a decision will be made based on the input from the whole community um we do need we do recognize that um in the coming weeks it is a time to do a survey to find out more about the questions that parents have while i do understand that there are a number of parents that are very

090committed to seeing their children return to school it's also important to consider that there's many parents who still have their children out of school in fact there is signs of progress in that in our last reporting period from the principles there were about 520 students that decided to return to district for hybrid instruction but there was another approximately 420 that went out so we did have an increase overall across the district of 100 students that are coming back but that is not also by any means an overwhelming number and like i said we did have a significant number of students that decided to go and attend school on a remote basis um so we do look forward to to moving forward we do look forward to sharing a more of a plan tonight's meeting was

091really intended as an opportunity to recognize our teachers and our educators of the year and um that's pretty much what you know what we did but we can talk a little bit more about some of the questions that were out there as far as um i guess mrs jaffe had a number of questions about the reopening so just to to be clear the school district has had cohorts and so death shields um have been purchased we had this district um purchase death shields available to staff members and we also had um the wayne education association also purchased death shields we've purchased more desk shields um based on the number of students in school we do not need the number of death shields that we have um like i said there is an additional order that

092will allow us to take a variety of actions when it comes to the next few months but ultimately we have at this point we have we have the ability to socially distant our students so um the question regarding class sizes that would have to be something that we would have to look at further when this is jaffee asked about that question there was a question about um are we comparing our schools to other larger districts so what we responded to on the faq was faq's frequently asked questions from our parent community that we received by email so that was not a question that was asked and i did not have an answer at this moment so as far as questions regarding staff members not reporting to school of course any staff member who is required

093by the school district to stay home because of uh quarantining um yeah we do have staff members like that otherwise we have staff members that are accommodated under section 504 and those staff members also remain home so um as far as how they're how that's being handled um we have a procedure for that after you know a certain period of days we have a medical officer who reviews all the cases makes determinations about when staff members can return we do rely on the staff members to truthfully report um you know different conditions that lead them to be concerned or require a quarantine right now we have 83 students and staff members that are quarantined and we have a number of cases but the numbers continue to go down which leads me to miss darty's question

094about how often do we plan to report covert numbers we do report every meeting the numbers are much lower from our last meeting but we do not have a formal report because again the purpose of this meeting was not to present a new plan anytime we take action um regarding school reopening or any other decision related to the staff or students or for the community regarding covid we always report those numbers um i'm not sure about the specifics of the question you have about the four hours of active instruction but certainly it sounds like what you're talking about would not be acceptable um but i would want to know more um katie cluck you raised some questions um we will be reporting on our goal towards the end of the year so we have two

095goals for this year the goal that you're talking about the diversity equity inclusion goal physical that we'll be reporting on um probably not next month but perhaps the following month um let's see what other questions do we have here okay um winnie keebit um i think it's important to understand the the effect of the vaccine of course is is an important thing um so yes conditions are improving what i have here is about the self-contained students we do offer self-contained students four days of instruction soon to be five days of instruction starting next week with the in-class support students or the population i assume you're talking about and those students we're going to be talking about next week regarding their return and what that's going to look like um michelle descano asks about what is

096the plan at our last board meeting we um discussed the plan we showed a plan we gave a timeline we provided information about the foundation for that plan um so that is what the plan we're in right now um but like i said we'll be revealing an additional plan at our march 4th meeting okay um it's with regard to the question about what is being done for the end of the year so that question is something that um is really it's to be determined i mean this pandemic if you if you talk about you know conditions a month ago emission conditions two months ago facts change rapidly right now our trend is positive but in the meantime we have restrictions in place we have the government of new jersey i'm calling the shots in many

097ways regarding things like social distancing and things like that which is a question that came up when we have our next meeting we are going to talk a little bit more as i mentioned about a survey but one of the questions in that survey will involve the comfort level of parents when it comes to um many parents are suggesting that we reduce social distancing okay so the standard is six feet um just doing our our research about our plans we know right now that our wayne department of health at the say county department health that the new jersey department of health that our executive county superintendent all confirmed that they still recommend six feet worth of social distancing um that's that's a consideration for the board but then like i said there are districts that

098are moving ahead with reducing social distancing and um using barricades or barriers to um to make sure that ultimately students are safe so um how that looks and how the district responds well we'll find out more from the survey ultimately if parents feel comfortable with that then that's something we need to know about parents are not comfortable with that and that's something that we'll learn from from the survey as well so we'll see it'll be really a determination made by the community um i think ms wentig basically made a statement regarding the need for conservative use to be represented with mr miko's question about um food service i'm not really quite sure about this specific so i hesitate to comment on something like that until i know more about the situation so if you'd like

099to give me a call tomorrow that'd be great um and i don't believe that throughout this you know the pandemic the district has been reactive i think if anything we've been very proactive we've been booking um here there and everywhere for different ways to bring students back to school to look at different options to um and and we've had these discussions i mean really we started in the summer literally with over a thousand people from the public participating in meetings commenting going through all the different um scenarios going through the different options that were available and we've pretty much kept up that pace all year we've had a lot of public input regarding any plans that we have we allow a good amount of time for the community to respond to any plan before acting

100upon it and so i think that that's very reasonable with regard to mr espizida's question about dr goldberg he's a consultant for the district so we did have him attend earlier when there was a great concern about returning to school and how safe it would be and dr goldberg provided his expertise at that point if that's something the board would like to have in the future that's that's certainly fine with us um we could certainly um create an opportunity for that but at this point um we really most of most of what we talked about was not in dispute um with regard to the other question about with remote kids expected to stay until 3 20. i really like to know more about that um because i i don't have the specifics um [Music] okay

101and then the other thing mr special said was about parents moving out of town to other towns based on their plans their announced plans for next year regarding schools and their reopening personally i'm not aware of any any community that has announced actual specific plans about how they will conduct business next year only because a lot of that is tied up in executive orders it's tied up in requirements for social distancing and things like that so i'm not aware of any district that has a plan like that i would be very surprised if anyone was actually leaving town to another town for that specific reason but if there are communities that have a specific plan set aside for next year i would love to know more about that i'm not aware of any and um

102certainly we would be interested in learning more about um what what schools have a specific plan for next year i'm sure every school has the following in mind that we want as many students to return to full-time instruction as possible and that's the overall goal that's what our goal i'm sure that's what the goal is in every town but how to get to that point is another question and there's a lot dependent on on what happens so um i can't say that um you know like i said i would like to know more about that i think that that is a response to all the questions thank you obviously if we overlooked anything oh i did you know what i did sorry okay i wrote i wrote on a as a as a part of

103another um swedish comic nicholas our seventh grader we are going to be open after spring break and we have no plans pushing back any aspect of our schedule we want to move ahead with our reopening and do as much as we can to get you back in class thank you i'm sure nicholas appreciates his answers to his question um but if we overlooked any others obviously feel free to reach out but our next meeting is only a week away so we'll have another presentation ready for you by then um any old business new business mrs cher um i just wanted to ask administration to being that everything's fluid and we're looking into our plans um i have not read the executive order myself so i don't i know that we have to give people the

104option of virtual or going in i get that but i don't think that it states how much time we have to give them and the more i see it like especially when you say numbers tonight like we had 20 coming in but 4 20 going out i and i'm going to phrase this incorrect that people will jump on me but i think we're making it almost too easy for people to go in and out and as someone who's home with a child listening to them saying i don't want to go i want to go i think some parents might just be like fine i'll sign you out or i'm putting you back in could we maybe look into if we're allowed to do it i don't know maybe by marking period like you sign it

105if you say third marking period you're going to school then you're going to school and i i say that because i think that it will be easier on the administration because i know the principles are completely overwhelmed with who's coming in who's going out who's right um i think it would be as a teacher myself if i'm going to have a whole marketing period of kids in front of me at least i know it's this set group and it's not going to keep changing every two weeks maybe that will calm the nerves a little bit um because it is scary you know you're you're it is a scary thought um and i also think that maybe some parents it will help them decide are they going to just listen to their kid and make this

106decision because they don't want to listen to it anymore or just something i don't want an answer tonight at all it's just i would really appreciate if you look into that i feel like it might make some people's lives a little easier in this time including yours hopefully thank you and again congratulations to all the teachers that is such a great honor and we are so proud of you keep up the hard work thank you anyone else i'm on the same note sorry i was on mute again mrs kumar on the same note as uh mr chair just said um i do think we need to look into it we had spoken a little bit about it as sending out a communication and a survey as to parents like okay would you be okay with

107a little bit less flexibility in terms of even if it were a month speaking as someone who's a t who was teaching even just having that okay this month these are my kids is and i i understand on the admin side but at the same time we have to go with what the community wants and we don't want to shut anyone out either so we really as we had said sending out the survey to figure out exactly where everyone stands so we can figure out the best way forward with getting the best education for the majority of our students mrs peta i participated class for some of the committees when we were looking at reopening schools many of the schools around us never opened there are some schools that are just opening in march and

108they've been closed since near the beginning of last year getting into proactive and reactive it's hard to really be proactive when you're dealing with a pandemic the likes of which we haven't seen before and a lot of what we do which is being proactive is dependent on the community if you decide to hold halloween parties if you decide to not socially distance if your social life is more important than your child's educational life then that impacts the school district every child in our care and that's the bottom line the education of our children and you have the community has to take responsibility so that we can be more proactive so please follow the guidelines please get back steam as soon as you possibly can i would recall right now but more is being made available

109very soon and just be aware of the fact that our district is dependent on you our success is dependent on you thank you thank you congratulations again to all you terrific teachers anyone else once again i'd like to congratulate all of our teachers and service present providers of the year um we can't run a school district without you uh our teachers have really had a challenging year and this this year more than ever uh we we congratulate you we appreciate you and you are uh all deserving of the honor um i could address some of the negative comments but i just i refuse to uh i know what our staff does i know what our administration does i know the challenges we've faced and we we can't possibly tell you everything we're doing we'd spend

110seven days a week having meetings it's it's not part of our job to keep you that in the loop uh especially when we're dealing with a situation where it's a complete unknown it's a complete unknown to us uh the the guidelines haven't changed um we're still where we were since the executive order was released and um we'll be there until it changes uh i personally have looked at what other school districts are doing and i think wayne has done an excellent job we've done everything we can when we were out it was because we quite frankly just couldn't staff our buildings and it's not because teachers were taking uh un uh needed time off um that's just it's an a and a ridiculous notion i'm sorry it's i'm frustrated um you get to criticize but

111some of the criticism is just it's off base it's out of line make unfair comparisons to other districts with with very little fact dr goldberg is not an employee he's a consultant we pay him as needed and quite frankly none of the decisions we're making right now are pandemic based other than the fact that we're still under an executive order we're trying our best and the administration is trying their best to bring our students back to as close as to normal as we possibly can and we will continue to do so uh that's all i can say other than we ask you for your patience uh and i'm with 7 500 students i dare say the majority of parents are being patient um but not everyone uh and i'm sorry that you are have reached

112that level of frustration but it's not our fault we're not causing the problem um so with that i'll take a move to close we'll go back into executive session but there will be no action taken um mrs put up mrs kumar wait for the link in an email to return and mr duffy to everyone else um have a good night and i'll take a mover move to closer thank you and