001executive session of the wayne board of education regular meeting of october 29 2020 was convened and hosted virtually from anthony wayne middle school media center the statement of compliance setting forth time date and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened please rise for a flag salute 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 thank you statement okay we'll start with dr toback okay everybody good evening um so we're very happy to be returning back to normal at least a little bit in that we are going to conduct our student recognition
002section of our board meeting so this time what i'd like to do is get to the national merit program for our ap scholars for the class of 2021 and at this point what we're going to do is we're going to do a broadcast so you have to give us a few moments and we'll go into the broadcast we've done everything we can to make the program as similar to the the live program we would normally run for our students and so there's a lot of people that were involved i'd like to thank them for putting together a very nice recognition program mr bashard if you could broadcast the program there is bear with us while we figure out the sound glitch and now our ap scholar with honor winners these awards are awarded students 3.25
003on the ap exams and congratulations to all the students and their families that are being recognized here tonight i have the pleasure of recognizing the national merit semi-finalists from both of our high schools they are listed below this recognition places each of these students in the top 1 of students taking this test now for our national merit commended students these students placed in the top 50 000 of the nearly 1.5 million test acres our commended students from both hills and valley are listed below this recognition places them in the top three percent of students taking this test thank you mr palaszewski i am mr ruik principal wayne hills high school it is my pleasure to congratulate delay all the recipients tonight for their outstanding academic achievements now here are our national ap scholars who had
004at least a four in all their ap exams and scored a four or more in eight exams our ap scholar with distinction awards are given to those students who average a minimum of 3.5 on all their ap exams and score three or more in at least five of these exams and now our ap scholar with honor winners these awards are awarded students who have averaged a minimum of 3.25 on the ap exams and score three or more at least four of those exams and our last awards are ap scholars these awards are awarded to students who score three or more and at least three ap exams good evening my name is felicia miller and i am the lead school counselor at wayne valley high school it is my pleasure to be here tonight to introduce
005our national merit and ap scholars for wayne valley first is gavin axoy he is an ap scholar with honors his intended major is engineering he is hoping to attend either vanderbilt university of texas at austin university of pennsylvania or cornell his proudest accomplishment was placing second in the county swim meet adrian onomichi is an ap scholar with distinction his intended major is computer science he is hoping to attend either mit caltech cornell or princeton his proudest accomplishment was being a four-year varsity athlete on the wayne valley swim team muhammad arif is an ap scholar his intended major is mechanical engineering he is hoping to attend either njit stevens institute of technology rutgers or nyu his proudest accomplishment was being a founding member of the wayne valley muslim student association jordan oscenbach is an ap scholar
006with honors his intended major is marine biology he is hoping to attend either boston university university of maine university of new england or umass boston his proudest accomplishment is all his hard work dedication and drive that was not only supported but inspired by a very select few teachers at wayne valley he is proud of his 4.3 gpa that reflects the four years of his own struggles and accomplishments peter bottweil is an ap scholar his intended major is physical therapy he is hoping to attend either ithaca college lebanon valley college quinnipiac university or northeastern university his proudest accomplishment is making the national honor society so he could continue community service projects and be involved at wayne valley evan buckley is an ap scholar with honors his intended major is computer science he is hoping to attend
007either university of richmond university of rochester or stevens institute of technology his proudest accomplishment was scoring fives on his ap u.s history and ap gov exams he scored a four on ap computer science a and a three on ap physics he said those scores made all the hard work and studying throughout the year worthwhile jack file is an ap scholar with honors his intended major is engineering or architecture he is hoping to attend either drexel njit hartford university or tcnj his proudest accomplishment has been his cumulative gpa over 4.0 while playing basketball and baseball for all four years at wayne valley it took a tremendous amount of time management and hard work but it paid off james cavallo is an ap scholar with distinction his intended major is finance he is hoping to attend either
008university of pennsylvania columbia nyu or georgetown university his proudest accomplishment was being chosen to receive the rensselaer medal out of the competitive pool of applicants angela campos is an ap scholar her intended major is criminal justice she's hoping to attend either princeton university cornell dartmouth college or rutgers her proudest accomplishment is participating in track and field despite not being able to go to more means due to covet gerald cetrullo is a national american mended student and an ap scholar with honors his intended majors musical theater he is hoping to attend either elon university pace university ithaca college or boston conservatory at berkeley his proudest accomplishment is being president of tri-m music honor society it helped him fully decide that he wants to pursue music and performance in the future sohan chatterjee is an ap scholar
009with distinction his intended major is computer science he is hoping to attend either stevens institute georgia institute of technology university of michigan ann arbor or njit his proudest accomplishment is earning second place at counties with the wayne valley swim team kyle corso is an ap scholar with distinction his intended major is economics he's going to columbia university to play baseball his proudest accomplishment is winning the county championship with the baseball team in 2019. joe fight is an ap scholar his intended major is business or finance he is hoping to attend either lehigh university of delaware penn state or villanova his proudest accomplishment is having over a 4.0 gpa while playing both football and baseball during all four years at valley he has been on the executive board member at the wayne boys and girls club
010keystone community service organization as well gina fermi is a national american mended student and an ap scholar with distinction her intended major is international relations or east asian russian studies she is hoping to attend either yale georgetown stanford or brandeis her proudest accomplishment is being a wayne valley student representative to the board of education and winning a national security language initiative scholarship from the u.s department of state she also received a score of 800 on the math section of our sats brandon fox is an ap scholar his intended major is computer engineering he is hoping to attend either stevens institute of technology new jersey institute of technology penn state or university of rochester his proudest accomplishment was doing well in his ap courses junior year from ap physics to ap history courses he received fours
011and fives on each test as a senior he is taking six ap classes doing well in these classes has shown him what he is capable of salaam haroon is an ap scholar her intended major is neuroscience she is hoping to attend either fordham university of miami boston university or uc san diego her proudest accomplishment is all the hard work she put in and being given the chance to learn here at wayne valley [Music] amir ibrahim is an ap scholar with honors his intended major is mechanical engineering he is looking to attend either wpi mit princeton or stevens institute of technology his proudest accomplishment is his gpa and test scores [Music] james john is a national merit commended student and ap scholar with distinction his intended major is chemistry pre-med track he is hoping to attend
012either columbia stanford nyu or university of north carolina chapel hill this proudest accomplishment is winning in the state championship on the football team and being voted team captain he also received a 770 on both of the reading and writing sections as well as the math section alexandra kazukov is a national merit semi-finalist and an ap scholar with honors her intended major is business she is looking to attend either university of north carolina chapel hill university of michigan university of wisconsin-madison or university of maryland her proudest accomplishment was being the blue secretary for sda receiving a 1510 on the sats being an ap scholar with honors and a national merit semi-finalist james kelly is an ap scholar his intended major is cognitive science he is hoping to attend either harvard university oxford mit or rutgers his
013proudest accomplishment was running for the cross country varsity team neil kiyami is an ap scholar with distinction he is undecided on his major but hoping to attend either swarthmore college tcnj nyu or rutgers his proudest accomplishment is being a founding member of a local chess club allowing kids to pursue a game he is passionate about amanda keel is an ap scholar her intended major is mechanical engineering she is hoping to attend either rutgers university wellesley college lehigh university or villanova her proudest accomplishment is her will to learn and spend the last four summers taking classes to advance her education andrew keel is an ap scholar his intended major is psychology he is hoping to attend either rutgers case western university syracuse or lafayette college his proudest accomplishment is his contribution to the positive and supportive
014culture of wayne valley min jin kim is a national merit commended student and an ap scholar with honors her intended major is biology she is hoping to attend either university of virginia rutgers villanova or nyu her proudest accomplishment is that she's tried her best at wayne valley although there were a lot going on in her personal life outside of school she was able to find a balance noah kressel is an ap scholar with honors he is undecided on his major but hoping to attend either tufts university tulane university brandeis or tcnj his proudest accomplishment is over the past four years he has refined his writing ability in a way that he is very proud of winston lee is a national merit commended student and an ap scholar with distinction his intended major is mathematics with
015computer science he is hoping to attend either mit carnegie mellon university swarthmore college or cornell university his proudest accomplishment is getting the american math competition hosted at wayne valley pope manler is a national merit semi-finalist and ap scholar with distinction she is hoping to attend vanderbilt which is her number one choice her proudest accomplishment was as a sophomore she became president of the world language club she helped establish the club and gave students an interesting way to explore different cultures she also received an 800 on the mass section of her sats sophie mcneil is a national mayor commended student national ap scholar and an ap scholar with distinction her intended major is music performance specializing in percussion she is hoping to attend either mason gross school of the arts boston university or curtis institute her
016proudest accomplishment was her four years attending juilliard pre-college mahir mystery is an ap scholar his intended major is business management he is hoping to attend either cornell rutgers villanova or drexel his proudest accomplishment is being vp of the science tech club vp of robotics club member of fbla and multiple cultural club he has taken multiple ap and honor courses he played varsity tennis for three years and competed in local county and state tournaments natalia ortega is an ap scholar her intended major is criminology she is hoping to attend either university of miami university of maryland delaware or penn state her proudest accomplishment is being the founding member of the world language club her sophomore year of high school and winning a mock trial case for junior year nicole ricci is a national merit commended student
017and an ap scholar her intended major is health and exercise science she is hoping to attend either northeastern rutgers john hopkins or boston university her proudest accomplishment was being a four-year varsity player and captain for the wayne valley girl soccer she is proud of receiving an s.a.t score of 14.50 vanessa rigaloso is a national merit commended student and ap scholar with distinction her intended major is computer science or human centered engineering she is hoping to attend either cornell boston college villanova or lafayette college her proudest accomplishment was completing her sats she was very stressed about it but was able to successfully complete it and get a perfect score 800 in sat math section and 800 math in two subject tests skyler ryan is an ap scholar with honors her intended major is engineering she's hoping
018to attend either northeastern purdue university lehigh or villanova her proudest accomplishment is being the wayne valley national honor society webmaster she was the founding delegate of the model un club she has enjoyed taking classes and being part of the computer science program at wayne valley since freshman year catherine shapiro is an ap scholar with honors her intended major is biological exercise science or kinesiology she is hoping to attend either university of north carolina chapel hill university of virginia notre dame or boston college her proudest accomplishment is the hard work towards her academics and being the student project coordinator of nhs she is the senior captain of wayne valley gymnastics team and was nominated for north jersey gymnast of the year in 2019 she was the top gymnast in passaic county for two years in a
019row congrats to all our wayne valley students i am now going to pass it off to monica mann who will highlight the students from wayne hills hello this is monica mann and it is my pleasure to be able to introduce the national merit and ap scholars for wayne hills high school first up is nicole bergman she is an ap scholar with honor although nicole is undecided as to which college she will attend she is planning on majoring in environmental science with a minor in entrepreneurship some of the activities which she participates in at wayne hills are the president of the national honor society as well as a member of the ski team and student council nicole's proudest accomplishment is being named the captain of the ski team for her junior and senior year robert blanca
020is a national merit scholarship commended student as well as an ap scholar with distinction he hopes to be appointed to west point and major in computer science some activities which robert participates in while at wayne hills are the fencing team patriot marching band and national honor society he is most proud of becoming one of the top 10 high school saber fencers in the state and receiving the all state award kiera blakely is an ap scholar with distinction she is undecided as to which college she will attend but wants to major in accounting some of cara's activities include being a member of the track and field teams as well as the soccer team and volunteering at the wayne education foundation camps during the summer her proudest accomplishment is being named the second team all league for
021soccer and track ben dayan is a national ap scholar as well as an ap scholar with distinction he would like to attend stony brook university and major in engineering some of ben's activities include being a member of the math league he enjoys 3d modeling and building computers he is proudest of the fact that he received a 5 on the ap calculus a b exam rahab dayan is an ap scholar with distinction although rahab is undecided as to which college he will attend he plans on majoring in computer science while at wayne hills rahab participates in the american computer science league all-star contest does volunteer work for friendship circle and is a member of the wayne hills track team he is proud of the fact that he scored well in the american computer science league all-star
022contest sarah gabber is an ap scholar with distinction she hopes to attend new york university with a major in physics some activities in which sarah participates are the lantern literacy arts magazine the wayne hills swim team as well as a member of the french honor society she is most proud of being the lantern editor emery gomez is national merit scholarship commanded student and an ap scholar with distinction emory hopes to attend the university of florida with a major in either pre-med or stem wallet hills he is a member of the wrestling team counselor and is very involved in getting a good education he is very proud of his sat score as well as how far he has developed in the sport of wrestling isaac goshen is an ap scholar with distinction he is unsure what
023college he will be attending in the fall but knows he will be majoring in quantitative finance some activities he participates in are the wayne hills boys soccer the hills engineering club and the passaic county red cross youth council he is most proud of receiving the outstanding leadership award from the passaic county red cross youth council miriam gaz is an ap scholar she would like to attend stevens institute of technology majoring in mechanical engineering while at wayne hills some of the activities the miriam participates in are the band competitive robotics team and the lantern literacy arts magazine she is proudest of the fact that she led the robotics team to become part of the top point five of teams award wise in the world championship in the in a league of over six thousand teams nico
024guerra furionelli is a national merit scholarship commended student an ap scholar with distinction and the college board national recognition program's hispanic scholar he hopes to attend the massachusetts institute of technology and major in engineering computer science nico's various activities at wayne hills include being a member of the varsity football and varsity wrestling teams as well as the american computer science league he is most proud of being a three-year varsity athlete in both football and wrestling [Music] jacob hablitz is a national merit scholarship commended student as well as an ap scholar with distinction he is undecided as to which college he will attend but jacob would like to major in pure mathematics or computer science while hills he participates in new alpha theta the math lead and is a member of the fencing team he is
025most proud of the amc jessica husky is an ap scholar with honor she's undecided as to which college she will be attending who wants to major in forensic psychology while at wayne hills jessica is a member of the swim team future business leaders of america and the stars club her proudest accomplishment is having placed third in the future business leaders of america state competition in her category hazel henners is an ap scholar with distinction she hopes to attend wesleyan university with major in biology she is a member of the future business leaders of america the french honor society and the lantern club here at wayne hills she's promised of her community service work with the rise program to help rebuild people's homes luke kaplan is a national merit scholarship commended student and an ap scholar
026with distinction luke would like to attend duke university with a major in computer science while at wayne hills luke is a member of the baseball team the patriot press and the friendship circle his proudest accomplishment is being ranked number three in his graduating class noah kaplan is an ap scholar with distinction he hopes to attend the university of michigan with a major in the science field while hills noah is a member of the swim team the national honor society and the patriot press he is most proud of being vice president of the national honor society justin langbam is a national merit scholarship commended student at an ap scholar with distinction he hopes to attend cornell engineering with a major in mechanical or aerospace engineering justin's activities include the new jersey physics olympics the wayne hills
027cross country team and the new jersey science league he is proudest of being selected to participate in the new jersey science league aidan larusso is an ap scholar he would like to attend swarthmore college with a major in mathematics or engineering aiden's activities at wayne hills include marching and jazz bands as well as being a member of the track and field team he is proudest of being elected vice president of the wayne hills band program yadam lee is an ap scholar he would like to attend boston college and major in finance the adam's meaningful activities include volunteering at a soup kitchen in paterson as well as with the mexico missions and participating in a church leadership group he is promised of the fact that he is building relationships with children from hana missions sakshi lindy
028is an ap scholar with distinction she hopes to attend massachusetts institute of technology and major in mechanical engineering while at wayne hills some of stockton's activities include ftc robotics volunteering at the library and being a member of the engineering club the accomplishment that she is proudest of is being a research scholar at the new jersey governor's school of engineering and technology jessie liu is a national merit scholarship commended student a national ap scholar and an ap scholar with distinction at this time she is undecided as to which college she would like to attend or what major she would like to be but while at wayne hills some of jesse's activities include being a participant on the tennis team and model un as well as doing some volunteer work edward lynch is an ap scholar he
029would like to attend montclair state university currently he has undecided what he would like his major to be some of the activities that edward enjoys are being a counselor at camp theradins working at the dairy queen and spending time rock climbing he is most proud of his gpa considering the difficulty of his classes ashu madhupuro is an ap scholar with distinction while she is unsure of which college she will attend she knows she would like to major in economics and computer science during her high school years some of the activities that asha has participated in are volunteering at the bandana foundation and being part of the wayne hills bowling team and the future business leaders of america she is most proud of receiving the presidential volunteer service award from her volunteer work at the spandana
030foundation lauren research is a national merit scholarship commanded student and an ap scholar with distinction while lauren is undecided as to which college she would like to attend she knows that she wants to be a business major during high school she enjoys being a member of the patriot press as well as a member of the varsity tennis team and being on the children hospital junior court she is proudest of being a four-year varsity tennis player isabelle sees is an ap scholar she's undecided as to where she would like to attend college but she does know that she would like to major in architecture isabel is a member of the wayne hills national honor society italian honor society and the arts honor society she is proud of all the hard work that she has put into
031all of her endeavors both creative and academic to give her the greatest opportunity for success in college and beyond siobhan sharma is an apa scholar with distinction he hopes to attend northeastern university with a major in civil engineering some of siobhan's activities at hills include being a member of the national honor society the basketball team the math honor society and math club he is proudest of being selected to play on the varsity basketball team in his sophomore year skyler zaradsky is an ap scholar she would like to further her education at either her dream school of harvard university or georgetown university with a major in political science she knows that she would like to attend a school in the dc area while in high school skyler is a member of the future business leaders of
032america the national art honor society and the national honor society she is proudest of becoming a two-term state officer for the future business leaders of america yuliana sim is a national merit scholarship commended student she hopes to attend boston college with a major in business management some of juliana's activities include volunteering for the national inclusion project a member of the wayne hills swim team and a member of the national honor society she is most proud of breaking the 200 free relay school record for swimming during her freshman year as well as being part of the first relay team from hills to attend the meet up champions minute cena is a national merit scholarship commended student and an ap scholar with distinction while he is undecided as to which college he would like to attend he
033wants to major in chemical engineering some activities which minou participates in are the columbia science honors program the new jersey governor school and sciences and the wayne hills boys soccer team he is proud of some being selected to attend new jersey governor school in the sciences and sewell cinna is a national merit scholarship semi-finalist and an ap scholar with distinction he wants to attend cornell university and major in computer programming or data processing wallet hills and zoo participated in the robotics team the jade droids the engineering club and the track team with four years of winter and spring track john chapanski is an ap scholar he would like to attend stevens institute of technology and major in chemical engineering john's activities include being a safety town volunteer since middle school being a tech help to
034senior citizens at the wayne public library and swimming he is proudest of defeating wayne valley in swimming his sophomore year ending a 10 year loss karina tay is a national merit scholarship commended student and an ap scholar with distinction at this moment karina is undecided as to which college she would like to attend or what she would like to major in some of her activities include being a member of the lantern club wayne hills fencing team and the national honor society christopher pilarte is an ap scholar with honor he hopes to attend carnegie mellon with a dual major in computer science and animation while at wayne hills christopher participates in fencing marching band and the culinary competition his proudest achievement is his progress in digital art studying and working independently over the course of his
035high school career lily waterman is an ap scholar with distinction she is most interested in attending either washington university in st louis or yale university and majoring in biomedical engineering some activities lilly participates in are a volunteer coach and swim instructor for autism radio's special olympics team every weekend of the season prepping them for local regional and state level meets since she was 11. playing on the varsity lacrosse and swim teams since her freshman year and she is most proud of taking eight ten ap classes mostly in the sciences over her time at wayne hills high school faith way is an ap scholar she would like to attend the university of southern california with a major in business administration some of these activities at wayne hills include being a member of the student dance association
036the competition dance team and a football cheerleader she is proudest of being named the maroon overall captain in sda aidan williams healey is an ap scholar he hopes to attend either stevens institute of technology or rutgers university with a major in either mechanical or biomedical engineering wild hills aiden was a member of the cross country track and wrestling teams he also enjoys guitar lessons he is most proud of participating in varsity sports such as cross country and track chris wu is a national merit scholarship commended student and an ap scholar with distinction he hopes to attend rice university with a major in physics chris's high school activities include being a member of the ski team new alpha theta and the engineering club his proudest accomplishment is participating in the columbia science honors program and finally
037lydia yang is national merit scholarship commended student and an ap scholar with distinction she is undecided as to which college she will attend but she would like to major in public policy her high school activities include being a member of the leo club relay for life and the girls tennis team lydia is most proud of attending yale young global scholars for biological and biomedical science and that concludes the national merit and ap scholar recognition program for the class of 2021. we wish all of these bright and talented seniors the very best during this college application season and as they conclude their time at wayne hills and wayne valley we know that these students bring so much to our schools and community that are confident they will be amazing contributors to society for many years to
038come congratulations again to you all good night okay wow that was quite impressive let's give them all a hand some amazing students we have here we couldn't be prouder and i'm sure your parents are as well uh dr toback move on to the superintendent's report good evening everybody we're holding our board of education meeting at anthony middle school again this evening do the limiting number of people that may assemble outdoors i'm sorry indoors this in-person meeting is limited to the board of education members some administrators at our board of education attorney however the meeting is open for public view public participation in the same manner as our other meetings using zoom for many years the board of education has welcomed one student from each of our high schools to serve as student representatives this evening
039we're pleased to announce our student representatives from wayne hills we have joseph kobapsic and from wayne valley we have gina fermi both of our student representatives are seniors gina returns as a student representative from wayne valley after having served in the same capacity during the prior school year welcome gina and joseph we're happy to report that by the end of the day tomorrow all elementary teachers will have their new laptops and that will resolve most if not all the previous problems experienced by our staff members and students when chromebooks were in use by teachers for video conferencing the district continues to make great strides when it comes to our diversity equity and inclusion goal this week our consultant tamika reese was able to meet with a number of our key district employees who are involved
040with assisting to meet this important goal in addition to the planning that took place this week we're also involved in developing a mission statement now that we have a foundation it's time for the community to get involved we'll be starting a thought exchange for all members of the school community next week yesterday we completed our october school bus inspection cycle we had 65 of 87 buses passed on the initial inspection for an initial pass rate of approximately seventy percent the state average is about thirty percent so congratulations to our garage staff for a truly outstanding accomplishment this was a big accomplishment because this year there were many challenges in keeping the fleet ready along with increased scrutiny by motor vehicle commission inspectors due to the shutdown they also had to work around the modified school
041schedules which they did seamlessly without disruption or interruptions to the operation at large thanks in large part to the expert staff of the dispatch office we can say that we're very proud of our effort and really this is quite an accomplishment for our transportation department considering like i said all the hurdles that were in the way the november third professional development day kicks off with our keynote speaker al hassan susan is a world renowned educator author and speaker who has devoted his career to transforming the lives of young people facing difficulties the remainder of the day includes a choice of technology workshops offered by our teachers specialists and administrators to share best practices to enhance technology integration during distance learning board members you received a copy of the link to the website showing you all
042the different offerings that are available to our staff members on november 3rd we're very excited we think this is an excellent opportunity for all of our staff members so that concludes my administrative summary report i do have to do the hiv report so i might as well just do that quickly during this reporting period there are five incidents reported as hiv after a thorough investigation two of the reported incidents were found to be actual cases of hiv thank you dr toback how are we gonna have our student representatives would you join us in a second okay we'll be giving them a second to come in to the meeting okay hi gina how are you welcome back we'll start with you okay um first thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve again in this
043capacity and i'll start my report now the field hockey team remains undefeated at 6-0 with a hard-fought 3-2 win over west milford seniors ashley zarb tammy mcnutt and angela angelina pietro paulo all scored while underclassmen alyssa sherry sydney rathchen and delaney philp also had strong games in the victory congratulations to valley football and their 24 to 14 victory over hackensack moving their record to three to one senior sean testa ran for 201 yards and a touchdown while gavin mcgarrity had six tackles junior cross country runner ryan pena won the last game of the gary mountain invitational in 16 to 45 time his admirable effort helped lead wayne valley to a fourth place finish congratulations to the wayne valley marching band on their second place finish out of 21 on their fifth virtual competition of the
044season this season their production is entitled push until something happens the marching band will submit their virtual performance for state championships this week wayne valley television has adapted their production to match the hybrid learning format one of their key projects this year is keeping up with valley a weekly video that updates students on announcements trends and more yesterday wayne valley's chapter of the national honor society held its induction on a virtual format congratulations to all of the new inductees the wayne valley model the united nations has gone fully virtual under the leadership of president hope mandler the president is currently debating the ethics of the belarus election and authoritarian approaches to mitigating the pandemic senior adrian anamiji was accepted to the prestigious mit online science technology and engineering community program this summer he studied science
045writing and biomedical signal processing under the mentorship of phd candidates at mit now he is in the enrichment fees of the program thank you thank you welcome hi thank you all for allowing me to be here today and providing me with this opportunity to speak before you all and i will now begin the report so at wayne hills mrs getzke's structured learning experience students took on a project to show appreciation to the custodians at wayne hills posters quotes and decorations were hung in the custodial office each custodian received a goodie bag along with cookies and snacks for them to enjoy our custodians go above and beyond for our students thank you to the wayne hills custodians hannah montoya 11th grade student at wayne hills one artist of the week through artsonia artsonia's artsonia is the
046world's largest collection of online student art portfolios mrs tripp wayne hill's art director created a project for the advanced drawing and painting classes to design a piece of artwork that reflected a style and subject for the inspiring artist diego rivera to honor hispanic heritage month during the month of september students in wayne hills chapter of national honor society made masks to be donated to eva's kitchen in patterson over 150 masks were made this month the chapter is collecting candy to be sent overseas to our troops as a halloween treat the wayne hills patriot marching band has been working hard on their 2020 field show resistance the band has been performing at home football games soccer and field hockey games and most recently at the wayne band showcase with the wayne valley band this event took
047place on saturday october 24th and featured performances by both high school bands the group also received live clinics from mr paterno and mr batis the wayne hills football team defeated old bridge on friday bringing their record to perfect 4-0 and the wayne valley the wayne hills field hockey team defeated pompton lakes 2-1 in a very exciting overtime game on saturday thank you thank you both was someone prepared to read the donations this evening yes i was as well you're taking a turn uh yes yes okay thank you go right ahead a donation was made from the james fallon pto in the amount of thousand nine hundred dollars for the purchase of playground equipment and installation and that was our one donation this month thank you both very much and we'll see you next month great
048reports moving on okay looks like we're ready for our phase two reopening presentation not quite not quite okay i have to do the ssds report okay okay start with that okay so pursuant to statute i'm required to report to the board of education two times per year at a 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 2 january 1st 2020 through june 30th 2020 as reported to the new jersey department of education through the student safety data system ssds which replaces the former electronic violence and vandalism reporting 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
049confirmed 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 the totals reported in prior years plus we have the impact of the pandemic for that reason it is tough to draw conclusions or any on any increases in total reported incidents but we're required to do this under the new reporting system our schools continue to maintain an excellent record of investigation documenting reporting and handling incidents in untimely and efficient matter for report period to january 1st 2020 through june 30th 2020 throughout the district there were 37 incidents in total reported including two incidents of violence three incidents of vandalism two weapons offenses ten incidents of substance abuse that's substance
050possession suspected refused exam use confirmed and sale or distribution and 20 confirmed incidents of hiv of a total of 49 investigated alleged hiv cases for the reporting period the 20 confirmed hiv cases involve the categories of race three ancestry and national origin two religion two gender five sexual orientation one and other seven distinguishing characteristics of students cases were investigated by the school-level anti-bullying specialists with guidance and support by principals and the district anti-bullying coordinator consequences and remediation efforts for offending students included individual counseling student and or parent conferences discipline in accordance with the district code of conduct remedial measures for targeted students include counseling support services parent conferences schedule changes stay away agreements teacher and aid monitors during the school day adult student pairings and other monitoring measures in addition each school has initiated programming
051including the district-wide initiative no place for hate intended to reduce bullying and improve school climate that concludes that report okay ready yes okay now we have it reporting right okay so now we're going to move on to our phase two of our return to school okay so i'm happy to be presenting a proposal for phase two of our reopening with donald reichman our assistant superintendent of schools phase one is coming to an end in about one month at the thanksgiving break phase two starts on november 30th and extends through january 20 of 2021. so if you can pull up the presentation please okay so the administration is convinced that the safest place for students and staff is in school because due to the cohort model and social distancing um everyone has been very good and
052everyone has been very good about wearing masks washing hands and following the screening process we've had a pretty good run for this school year even with these other precautions in place we have had to take formal action to quarantine or briefly shut down at jfk elementary ryerson elementary and anthony wayne middle school while these were setbacks it is worthwhile noting that they were minor setbacks compared to some of the shutdowns that took place in other local districts well there has been an explosion of cases in other parts of the country most notably the midwest and far west and new jersey numbers continue to climb conditions in wayne remain favorable when it comes to covid our office of emerging emergency management provided the following information about the coveted situation in wayne the rate of local cases
053has increased over the past three weeks from the end of the summer where there are few or no cases reported per day to in the start of the school year two or three cases reported per day now in the community we're seeing approximately five cases per day this coincides with an increase in the rate of local testing and at this point the increase does not appear to be at an alarming rate however it should be monitored to see if levels um or if this levels off or it continues upward it shows a recent upward trend which shows that we are still far below the numbers at the peak okay so if we can move to on the next page okay so how do we do in phase one well it's still not over yet the
054fact is at this point our schools have been open for eight consecutive weeks the cohort model and our social distancing protocols have been working we've successfully established a safe and comfortable learning environment for our students we have new laptops for elementary teachers so regardless of what happens in the future we're well prepared whether we're hybrid or virtual um each cova 19 case has been safely responded to and addressed with guidance from dr goldberg and the department of health you can move to the next screen okay so for phase two what looks different so the main difference is that wednesday will be added back as an in-person learning day so that means increased in-person learning time for all hybrid students elementary and middle school students will gain one additional day for in-person instruction every other week
055so the rotation will be a little bit different than what it is now because now it's balanced with a wednesday virtual day now the rotation will involve three days and then two days so one group would be in for three when there's two chords the other group would be in for two and then it switches the following week so high school students gain one additional in-person learning day each cohort rotation and there's also increased opportunity for in-person for special education services so at this point mrs reichman is going to take you through the rest of the presentation well not quite all of it but she's going to go over the schedules and how things will be different good evening everyone i will share the proposed schedule and um as always the presentation will be posted
056tomorrow so that you can view it in more detail we can advance the next slide this details the early childhood center rotation currently there are three and five half day options and then we have full day options phase two offers choice to have more in-person time um the benefits of that would be students and teachers would have more time to interact and students with ieps will have more consistency and engagement opportunities to learn and practice skills go to the next slide this better shows because the schedule does offer a lot of choice and it's a little complicated if you look at the table at the bottom you'll see that we offer five half half day sessions those students are currently only coming in for two days with the proposed option which again would be a
057choice for parents they would have the option to come for five days in person the three half day students currently are in attendance two days and with the proposed option they would attend wednesdays every other week and the bell schedule will maintain consistent as it is in advance to the next slide for for elementary and middle school we will be bringing back the wednesday and if you look at a week one and week two schedule here it shows a rotation week one they would now come in monday tuesday and wednesday they'd be in person uh and they'd be virtual thursday and friday on week two and uh so again both cohorts gain an additional day in school and you can stand for the next slide and the bell schedule is maintained as it is currently
058the next one shows the middle school bell schedule which again is exactly as it currently is students are just an extra day at school you can go to the next slide um in high school it's a little bit more complicated so i'm going to start with the bell schedule if you notice at the top this shows the schedule which would run november 30th through december 23rd the reason this is broken out into two parts is because we wanted to equalize the number of days that students are in attendance so that um looking back from the beginning we make sure that every student had the same number of days offered them to be in school for the weeks of november 30th through december 23rd on mondays all periods would meet and then we'd follow the rotation
059of a day four three two and one so um cohort a cohort b and cohort c are picking up an additional day where they'd have any period day we can go to the next slide this shows a more detailed over three weeks what the rotation looks like for each cohort and it'll be a nice guide for families and students to go back to once we have the schedule posted online go to the next slide winter break starts december 23rd and then we come back to school on january 4th on january 4th both high schools will transition from the current hybrid schedule to their traditional rotating block schedule and and they would use the same bell schedule that they're using so what this change does is it eliminates the all periods day and it results in
060all cohorts attending an equal number of days for instruction for the remainder of the school year go to the next slide um so here you can see the rotation um for the two holiday weeks we looked at thanksgiving week where it's an abbreviated week with three days and we looked at the winter break the week leading up to winter break i should say um which also has three days uh you can go to the next slide and beginning january 4th you now have a very detailed rotation to just show that if you look we would start with cohort a coming they would do a day four day three at day two day one and then cohort b starts so um the frequency of being in school um happens sooner and we go through our rotation
061um much more quickly so this goes over three weeks and as you see we're going through a four day traditional drop block and on the fifth day the next cohort starts let's go to the next slide the bell schedule will remain consistent with what we presently have in place go to the next slide dr dr toback okay so thank you mrs reichman so now we're going to get on to some additional topics that require some some discussion um well first of all as as we mentioned this is a proposal so this is not a plan that is set in stone at this point um what we'd like to do is have a period for public discussion and feedback and so tomorrow we'll be posting in addition to the presentation we'll also be posting an email
062address so the email address is phase two opening at wayneschools.com the idea is that a member of the public would be able to provide feedback which will be shared with all the board members as we move towards our next meeting on november 12th at that point we'd like to finalize our um phase two of our plan but there are some other topics that we'd like to talk about this evening and one of them is the merging of cohorts at both of our high schools so at our high schools right now there are a large number of students that have determined they will be virtual we also have a good number of students that are attending school on a hybrid model we do believe that there is a possibility if things go well that we would
063be able to merge the cohorts at the high school so the schedules at the high school were developed this summer knowing that someday we would be doing that we would be merging the cohorts so for the students that are in cohort b if you're in cohort b1 then those students will go to cohort a if you're in cohort b2 then you would go to cohort c so the b cohort would be split up and that would obviously reduce the amount of time out of school for the students who are attending hybrid so that is um one topic of discussion but we also know that there's a lot that's going on right now when it comes to covet and we know that there are increasing cases so some of what we're talking about now may not
064make much sense two weeks from now so we have to really wait to see what happens and make another call at our upcoming board meeting okay um the other thing is that um parents would need to make a decision by january 4th and students would need to stay until the next marking period so under these circumstances and with the movement and we know we started the school year and we provided a tremendous amount of flexibility for parents because we knew there was so much uncertainty so there was really just a two week window where students could move in and out of hybrid to virtual or virtual to hybrid but at this point we need to really establish more parameters around that only because of there are significant staffing issues depending on the number of students
065that return or if there are students that leave or it's just there's a there's a variety of things that can happen but it would have would affect staffing so that is as i said another important discussion now another thing that i wanted to talk about is where it says here about virtual instruction from january 4th january 15th okay and what i'd like to talk about is basically what seems to be standard practice in colleges and universities across the country so the fact of the matter is that when colleges have a break um for example for the holidays then they typically allow time for students to then um quarantine essentially when they return and then they're able to return to classes after that we do know that there will be a large number of students and
066parents that will be going um to a variety of destinations more than likely during the holidays so we are concerned that ultimately if everyone returns on january 4th after having traveled all around the country and knowing the incubation period of the of the virus and knowing that um we could really wind up in a very difficult situation very quickly depending on what's happening that might be a strategy that the district uses to make sure that ultimately and when staff and students come back there is a virtual period of two weeks approximately and that would make it possible like i said for essentially a quarantine to go and to go on through the time period that's required and then we come back in um later in january so i know that this is a topic for
067discussion you know one of our board members um has also brought this up as well so it's um it's a very good thing to talk about and something like i said that can really that might be able to help us um if we do have a situation where like i said we're bringing back a number of students who may have been to a lot of different locations with with us not being aware of how that might play out can we go to um is it okay if there's board member questions i'm finished okay all right so discussion this is cher uh yes um so i have a bunch of questions um first of all thank you for for doing the plan i know that this is a tremendous amount of work some of my questions
068are you had mentioned about when we add the wednesday that special cert more more the special eds can get kids can get their services in-house um i'm not aware of any of the services that are actually happening i know most of like the speech and everything's taking place on zoom and i know that there have been some difficulties with that so i'm just curious um is this something new that we're going to be bringing in that they're going to be getting their services in-house and i really hope that it happens because i know that a lot of these kids are missing out on some services that they need as far as counseling or speech or whatever the next thing is you want me to just give you my questions and then you'll review them okay
069the next thing is so the elementary teachers we were we had they didn't have wednesday well everybody we didn't have the wednesday and then they were struggling because they weren't getting as much time as the middle school and high school teachers to do some of the planning and everything with wellness wednesdays so we gave them that time and now we're removing it so i just want to make sure that the wea is on board with this and that um some something else is being done so that these teachers are not now just adding another day to completely overwhelm them for the high school level i believe this is my personal opinion that we need to go to two cohorts immediately i don't know why we're waiting we were told in the beginning that it was
070a very simple process that it would be nothing simple obviously but that b was being split up b1 b2 for the simple fact of easy b1 goes with a b2 goes with c so if that's a process that can be done why are we not doing that right now i i don't mean as today i mean the start of phase two the problem that i'm seeing with high school is that when we looked at the numbers of the kids in the past i don't know i guess it's two weeks or so that have switched from the uh hybrid to the virtual from what i'm hearing in the public this is not due to covet concerns it's due to the fact that these kids don't want to go into school when it's them sitting alone with
071the teacher so it's just one kid or it's two kids sitting alone with a teacher so if cohort c is that small that this kid's sitting two kids in a spanish class if we added b2 now you have four kids sitting in a class i know that we would have to look at the numbers but i feel like from now until november 26th that everything else is still pretty much in place that we have enough time for administration to go over that and see if that's something that could possibly happen because it's just these kids don't want to be alone in class they don't it's not and then they're they're saying that their teachers are paying too much attention to the computer which how could you not when you've one kid sit in front of
072you and 16 on a screen obviously that's where your attention needs to go um i'm very happy that we're doing the january 4th that the parents need to make a decision about the hybrid and or virtual and they need to stick to it speaking to the parents now not even to the board members it is very difficult when you keep switching your kid around for the number factor for the fact that now everybody who looks at all our reports thinks well maybe they are doing it because of it maybe they're afraid but if your kids just switching out of high school because they don't feel like getting up 10 minutes earlier or don't want to you know would rather stay in their pajamas you're throwing off all the numbers and i think that's having a
073major impact on us being able to go into phase two phase three so just something to keep in mind um my last thing is virtual instruction january 4th through 15th i like the idea of that i get you know the college kids will be back on their way people go away for vacation or do whatever they do but something that i want the schools to consider are would we be having sports and clubs happening at that time too because i don't know if that would help the staying home factor but i i just didn't know if it was something that you had looked into yet or not those are all my questions and again thank you for putting all this work in i love that wayne schools are still open and you know i think
074we're doing better than most of the places around us so thank you anyone else hi hey okay um so along the lines of what stacy had said about the merging and the cohorts um i don't necessarily have a problem with the merging of the cohorts um as long as we look at the numbers and we look at the appropriate distancing when we're talking about it and i do agree we have had a lot of movement of in the high school level in particular people in over in virtual and then out of virtual and i think that does not help our planning for even that idea so really that's important and as we look at the possible merging we do have to be cognizant of the numbers of covid within our area um but again if
075we can do it with social distancing and all of our precautions then yeah if we can get the kids in school for longer as long as they're socially distanced we should do it because it's worth it for them to be in school so just making sure we can do it within our constraints um is important to me and what was there was one other thing that i wrote down okay yeah so merging of course and then the class number um and then actually this is more of a question for the ecc in particular because i know enrollment is low um but i'm wondering if you're going to be extending the option to people now that they could have their students actually in five days full in person because at that age most people are not
076going to do virtual with a three-year-old or a four-year-old so they're gonna do the two days that are in person and that's it whatever they could get in person so just wondering if we're going to be extending that option to parents that might want that but obviously there will be a cap for that and then my last question is along the lines of what stacy said with the teachers as far as their actual schedule and how that all shakes out in terms of prep time and making sure that everyone is on board with the plan that's it anyone else mr pavlock um very i like the uh concept that was put together by the administration i think they did a wonderful job as they've done through this whole thing um is there any consideration to
077moving the to combining the cohorts in the middle schools as well getting getting that you know looking at our numbers of you know actual students in the school versus virtual and seeing if we if there's any way to consolidate those cohorts in order to bring you know to have the ability for students to come into school even even more but again if it can be done safely i was the one who proposed to dr toback you know consider the two weeks virtual in january which the concept i've been reading a lot about looking at a lot of the colleges and what they're doing but it also potentially hopefully would put us in a better place that maybe we could get back to even a little more normalcy maybe we get back to full days at
078that point um you know if if things go well and knucka would um god i hope they do that maybe we even consider coming back full days at that point thank you anyone else okay you want to weigh in on those questions dr toback yes i do okay so i'm just going to go if it's okay in reverse order only because i have all these notes written down and so it's probably easier to do that um so as far as mr pavlak goes so certainly let me just get my glasses here um so the the consideration that we have is certainly um especially when it comes to the the idea of full day or like what options we could possibly pursue in this next phase um of course it all comes down to safety and
079social distancing so this also addresses some of the questions from mrs kumar and also from mrs sheer so when is risk created when when are when are um you know when are we as school administrators um concerned about you know when students are together so if we merge our middle schools we looked at that and so the merging of our middle schools would definitely lead to situations where you would have some larger class sizes our middle schools um do not have their two cohorts and there are a significant number of students still attending our middle schools on the hybrid model so in a number of cases we would definitely be in a situation where we would have a much harder time with the social distancing as it stands right now we're in pretty good shape
080with that we're able to maintain social distancing so that is more of a a taller order when you talk about the elementary schools we have there's no doubt that if we were to merge cohorts we would definitely have quite a few classes that would be well over and the social distancing would not be possible although there are [Music] there's wording within the guidance that allows that to happen where you ultimately you're supposed to social distance students and staff members when possible we've we've had a pretty good run and i believe we've had a pretty good run because ultimately people have been very responsible they wear their masks cohorts allow us to maintain social distance so the whole idea is that we maintain that bubble we maintain that same group of students moving forward when we
081combine them additional risk takes place um so with regard to the ecc in the question from mrs kumar the two days that we're talking about that would be extended to parents it's really it's more of a parent option so that's something that we would would be something that would be part of an option that we would make available to our parents if they're interested in that with regard to mrs shearer's question about sports and clubs every activity we've followed along with um throughout the pandemic at least since the school year started we've had all of our clubs all of our sports continue on like normal so that would certainly be the thing we would not want to during that time period and our and or any of our activities okay so those those things would
082continue um we know that in many cases that's a very critical time of the year for for some of our winter sports so we would not want to have um any negative effect on the students by going ahead with virtual instruction for that time period um so let's go to um the merging of two cohorts immediately um so that is something that is possible um but it's also it's very difficult to achieve first of all you i'm just thinking from a teacher's point of view um right now you have very small classes you would now you know in almost an overnight you would probably have some larger classes it would probably be something that we could put in place maybe in a little bit of a staged way so we started and also the other
083issue is our ability to make sure that everybody has equal educational opportunities so that nobody misses out no one has a shorter time period where they they receive hybrid instruction for those that are in um so we have to look at those issues but we certainly can talk a little bit more about this at our next board meeting and perhaps there's more that can be done if you wanted to move back the time period if the board of ed would like to us to pursue that as a as a direction for the high schools we could like i said we can certainly look at that and um and move it up if if that's the desire of the board with regard to the teachers association um first this is not something that we would ever
084be able to discuss in executive session so first we wanted to have this discussion with the board we want to make sure that you're okay with this direction and like i said because this is a proposal this is not something that is set in stone this is now an opportunity for all stakeholders to to weigh in and discuss this proposal um so um what else we have as far as um services for students with special needs um i really it really does depend on on on what we're talking about but for the most part we believe the wednesday would be an opportunity for more of our students to be in school to receive services so whatever we're able to put together and add as services for our students on the wednesday that's really that would
085be the goal um with regard to the staff members and some of the issues you heard about previously um so for the wednesdays one of the issues you heard about is the technology and the need for an immediate fix for the technology so that has all been done the staff members have um all the training and they have the technology they need now to deliver lessons on wednesday whether they're a hybrid or i mean sorry from home or from school regardless of it they're in good positions so i think that they would be like i said time has passed since that issue was really a problem i think that things have improved during that time period so i think i think i answered all the questions board members were there any of the questions that
086you um you asked that have not been answered good you've covered it dr toback okay thank you both for a wonderful presentation and for the public everything will be on the website tomorrow and you'll have your opportunity to weigh in uh to the email address as well as this evening so moving on if you're finished with the presentation doctor oh you have another question mrs cher not really a question more of a um statement dr toback had said that he if the board if it's something that we all would like to consider then they will start working on possibly doing the two cohorts sooner so is this something that the board is going to tell administration they'd like to do i think he also said he needs to get back to us at the next
087meeting to see if it's even possible and check the numbers correct yeah i don't think we're ready to make that decision here this evening because uh okay but you'll have all the numbers because the numbers should be set and i mean they were separated a b c all true we don't have them here we don't have them here in front of us to make no i get that okay i just want to make sure that my next board meeting we will see the numbers and yeah we wouldn't want you to be involved in a situation we don't have all the information so certainly you would have all the numbers and quite honestly um it's safe to assume that for the most part we have generally small class sizes and we have one um earlier not
088now but earlier we did do a simulated schedule if you merge the cohorts and so we do see that the why the reason we're saying this is a possibility is because we do see a reasonable um situation for our staff members where there's definitely social distance in i get that but i realize that there's there's a lot of um at this point there's a lot of classes that are really just like one two three kids so yes please look at the numbers and get back to us next next board meeting okay hopefully we'll we'll nail it down at the next meeting this is sure this is albanese um i i just wanted to say thank you also to the administration for all the thought and effort that's gone into putting together the plan i'm interested
089to hear from stakeholders uh students parents staff members members of the community um and i agree with mrs sher that i do think we need to take a hard look at maybe having the combining of the high school cohorts start with phase two rather than pushing it farther back so i'd like to hear what members of the community especially the high school community think about that but i think it's something that maybe we should take a a good hard look at look at the numbers if it's something we could do and we can give kids more face-to-face time who want it and parents that want it i think it's a it's a good thing for us to look at thank you mrs albanese okay is that it for the plan was was that a finger
090raised mr giordano no okay all righty well thank you both dr tobak and mrs reischmann great job uh very well thought out future plan um we'll move on to you mr moffatt for revisions yes ma'am we have a few changes on tonight's uh agenda starting in section m human resources item number two which is approval of mentor payments we have uh going to withdraw number one line number one which is jamie morano dash september 25 2020 through january 5 2021 dash at basically 201.63 cents dash stacey imar moving on to the emergent agenda we have some changes in section t emergent human resources item number three which is approval of leave request number one id number six zero one zero revised school location from ry to jfk item number 12 approval of extracurricular coaches revised
091number two winter coaches at wayne valley as follows withdraw number 11 anne-marie mcgrath head coach fencing girls step seven thousand four hundred and twenty nine dollars revised number twelve kristen jager from assistant coach fencing girls step four six thousand thirty seven dollars to head coach step one six thousand two hundred and twenty two dollars and add francesca russo assistant coach fencing girls step one five thousand three hundred ninety eight dollars um we're moving on to which is an ad on x which is emergent resource legal that is an approval of a sidebar agreement which reads be resolved at the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the elementary schedule sidebar agreement dated october 29 2020 between the wayne township board of education and the wayne education association reached by reference and
092further authorizes the board president and secretary to execute same on behalf of the board the superintendent and business administrator are authorized to take all further steps required to implement saying and that concludes tonight's changes to the agenda thank you mr moffatt move on to the public portion 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 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
093mover mr giordano and this is cher okay dr burchard you're on hello hello go ahead i didn't know if i was being heard um my main question is i was just curious if there is um what the specific reason why the day has to end as early as it does since the teachers are teaching virtually and in person at the same time so it's not like they're meeting virtually in the later afternoon and has there been consideration to extend the day a little bit longer so the kids aren't getting you know taken out of school as early as they are currently i'm sorry we'll answer at the end next caller you need to unmute your microphone is this an older version issue dr bouchard no they just need to unmute themselves okay you have to
094turn on your microphone okay next caller dr burchard hi hi um i'm katie scheidt i live at 11 shore road i have a second grader and a fifth grader at pines lake i had a few questions my kids have been virtual since the beginning of the year and i just want to clarify um about the january 4th deadline if we decide we're going to keep our kids virtual does that mean we do not have the option until the end of the school year to send them in um is that like something that's set in stone i mean i understand there has to be um some things ironed out and and some permea you know some permanent plans made but i just wanted to clarify that um i'm all in favor for the virtual after the
095holidays just going on the record for that um the um i know some other school systems are having a virtual teacher like a dedicated virtual teacher so that the kids are not on chromebooks in the classroom i think that if my kids could go to school and not be in front of a screen i would actually send them but i'd rather keep them home and have them on chromebook than sitting in school and taking on that risk and having them sitting in front of a chromebook so if that is something that would change i would probably send them to school and i think that's all my questions thank you very much for everything you're doing for our kids thank you next okay hi it's me as usual alan klein can you hear me yes we
096can okay good i i have several questions i wrote them down so with the wednesdays wednesday was originally supposed to be a deep cleaning day with the numbers going up as they are um how how are we um like allowing there to be more contact time as numbers continue to drive up in new jersey um the new governor murphy just sent a twitter that we are now currently in our second wave so again i'm going to ask why are we increasing children time wednesday was also supposed to be a time for teachers to have more planning of lessons and grading of paid papers to catch up um now you're taking that away so i don't understand uh how are we supposed to um prepare for the future lessons and grade papers and respond to the
097kids every single day without that ketchup day i know somebody said that the tech issues were totally put away but that's not true i am going to tell you that a hundred percent i still have tech issues with audio um i've had to have people from the help desk and my own media specialist come in with the brand new teacher computers and there's still a major issue with with major issue with audio and then um what is the sidebar agreement that everybody is talking about was that past and what exactly is the sidebar agreement and those are my questions i'm sorry there are so many but that's me i'm sorry okay thank you next caller hi um good evening this is evie wenting from seven seminole um thank you for working so hard and staying
098on this late and putting the plan together um i have a couple comments one is um i feel like the kids really need to go to school for full time in any level i have three kids in each level one in each level not three in each level that would be crazy um and they are really struggling you know every my high schooler who has an iep is struggling i my middle schooler her grades went down by two in uh two of the subjects where she had no problems like that before my little guy who's in the first grade and i have a teacher hired for the two days when he's not going in so we're really trying hard to keep him caught up but things are really hard in here and i'm spending a
099lot of money outside of my taxes on trying to make good education for my children so i personally feel that whatever the risks are with the proper distancing and the mask wearing they really need to be in school full time um wanted to give you a comment on your one of your policies that happened with my high schooler i kept him home last week because he wasn't feeling well but he attended he was supposed to go in on friday and i kept him home he wasn't feeling well i didn't want to risk getting anybody sick he does not have covet but uh just you know as a percussion and he was marked absent even though he attended all of the classes online um was with every teacher i had let the nurse know i left
100messages and all that stuff and i feel like that is very discouraging for people to keep their kids home when they're not feeling well um if they get marked absent even though they were there you know i i received i talked to the school and i received kind of a lukewarm response but i feel like you guys should really look at the policy because if you want to encourage kids to stay home when they're not feeling well and they attend every class they should be given the credit and not be punished for it and then there's also issues with being penalized for not attending a class when there is a technology challenge that has happened too because sometimes in my house i have five people streaming i work from home so we run into an
101issue with streaming and i did try to do the hotspot through the school and i got nowhere i was given a phone number and they when i called lt's they had no idea what i was talking about so i you know we're doing the best we can on our end and my last and final question is you mentioned clubs so like i said i have a middle schooler and a high schooler and none of them know anything about any kind of clubs there's no outside of the two days or four days every two weeks going to school any kind of activity that they were made aware of to be able to have clubs like they had the last time so i want you to i guess consider giving more information on that that would be
102great so thank you okay thank you next caller you need to unmute your microphone hi yes i'm calling about the second place sorry name of the address 91 chestnut drive i have two children in the wayne schools and i'm just calling about the second phase i hope you will take into account the need for teachers to have a mask break and a stress relief break and allow for office hours virtual office hours to be done from home each day you require teachers to stay in school and to perform virtual office hours even after school students leave the building many residents have written you and asked you for your rationale to date no reason has been provided why is this all office and eating spaces are shared all secondary classrooms are shared the longer teachers are
103together the higher the risk becomes for coronavirus aerosols to be released and these aerosols stay in the air for over three hours cases are rising the longer staff stays in school each day the increased risk of a district shutdown impacting students through no faults of their own and yet you choose for teachers to stay for virtual office hours why it's getting colder teachers are forced to sit inside in shared classrooms and office speed spaces eating and performing their office hours to eat they remove mass one of those teachers test positive a whole group of teachers will have to quarantine and students will miss out on instruction this can be avoided simply by allowing teachers to go home for virtual office hours why are we forcing this everyone on this board talks about safety and wellness
104in fact one of our district goals is wellness well one simple thing you can do to promote teacher wellness is to allow us to go home for our virtual office hours you will never compromise in-person student interactions this way allowing teachers to piss the best and safest place to be when students are not in school will alleviate huge amounts of stress it will also help teachers gain mental and emotional energy to successfully teach and finally it will give their faces a break from the mask which will be especially important without the break on virtual wednesdays as a wayne parent my own children miss their teachers faces less teachers in the building means teachers can safely remove maths and students can see actual faces this promotes student teacher connections and therefore student teacher wellness if we
105go to a hybrid model without virtual wednesdays there will be no time for students to see their teachers faces ever with cases rising in our town and state you must do everything to keep people physically and mentally healthy and safe you can easily alleviate teachers emotional and physical stress and promote wellness by allowing them to choose where they can best teach virtually at home or at school i beg you beg you to allow teachers the choice to perform virtual office hours at home and if you choose not to allow this you are obligated to give the public your rationale and reasoning behind your decision why are we doing this thank you thank you next caller hello can you hear me yes hi my name is katie cluck i live at 34 hellcrest drive um just
106to clarify this is only for agenda items right now correct yes okay cool um i would like to voice my support for um what the previous caller just suggested in allowing teachers to go home for their office hours um it will like increase safety and it's just really important as well i think um having the uh wellness wednesdays where everyone stays home is really important especially once we get into the winter months because now when people meet they can meet outside but it's going to get cold and numbers are going to rise and numbers keep rising so i think that's something to be really we should be really careful about i don't sure i don't think that's a good idea to have everybody in on wednesdays because we really need that day to deep clean
107and it's really important for uh students teachers faculty's mental health because like this is one of the most generationally traumatic events of everybody's lifetime and sometimes you just like having that day to kind of be at home and with your family and unwind is really important um that's all i wanted to say uh thank you thank you next caller hi can you hear me yes hi eileen d'amico 29 manor drive um i guess first i just want to say thank you to um the administration and to the board for putting this together and for considering this plan um i'm sure it was a lot of work but it's definitely a very detailed plan and uh i'm in fa as a high school parent of a high school senior i'm very much in favor of at
108least the high school parts of it um you know my concern from the very beginning has been uh the amount of learning time essentially with between the half days and the hybrid and so on and so forth um just that how and would we have enough time again especially for the high school kids to cover all the curriculum needs before these kids especially the seniors head off to college um and so i i do tend to agree with the first caller that if there's any way to consider extending the school day a bit uh beyond the this half day schedule that we're working with for the most part right now um something i would definitely urge you to consider if it's feasible again maintaining all the necessary safety protocols uh to make sure everybody stays
109healthy um all that being said as i mentioned when i first called in uh very much in favor of the proposed schedule especially at the high school level and merging the cohorts you know as soon as is possible um i've spoken to a number of other high school parents over the last couple weeks especially and i tend to agree or what i'm hearing is very similar to what mrs shear said early on um many not all certainly but many who have switched or are planning to switch or thinking of switching to all virtual are doing so because you know their child is one of two in a class or is the only one in a class um you know my son on average when he's in school in person has about four or five including
110him in most of his classes but he does have one class where it is just him and the teacher and it's sort of a bizarre um it's just a bizarre environment and and you know from a mental health perspective for many of these kids that's not necessarily healthy and their mental health is something we have to consider i think as well um so again definitely if it can be done safely and looking at the numbers um sooner than later might be just worth considering um i'm also very much in favor of that two-week virtual proposal for those first couple weeks in january you know you're right a majority of colleges are doing something similar after any major holiday when the kids would technically be going back um they're delaying their openings and so on and
111so forth you know it not only allows as you said for the quarantine time um for those who will be with family or extended gatherings or traveling or whatever they're doing um but hopefully it then allows us to be able to stay open longer into the spring you know if there's that time for everybody to sort of quarantine and make sure they're healthy before they return um just something else i'll throw out there and it's it's purely anecdotal but just you know i wonder to the extent we can increase in-person school time um you know as example with the wednesdays and i know you know there's certainly going to be disagreement on this but anecdotally i i part of me wonders if more in person time might actually um reduce for some the uh amount
112of travel perhaps that they're doing or the amount of gatherings they're participating in and i say that because if your student is virtual they can be in class from anywhere they could be in their home they could be at someone else's home they could be you know down the shore they could be wherever if they're in class in school they need to be in class in school so i wonder if perhaps a little bit more in person time if it's able to be done safely might limit that a bit and thus make it you know safer to some extent for at least for those cohorts so just something anecdotal that i was thinking about um but otherwise i think that's it and again thank you uh to all of you and thank you dr toback
113mrs reichman and you know all the administration for putting this together um i know it's no easy task so thank you very much thank you next caller um hi my name is lovely madar avenue i just want to speak out and say that i support the teachers and their want for the office hours to be at home we've obviously heard from teachers who are fearful of getting covey of losing their jobs because like you know if they're not here they might lose their jobs whatever and um they just want schools to stay closed or at least like you know less hours and like we don't need office hours during you know in school and like as um a previous caller said there's no rationale for that um and like by pushing forward to reopen schools
114an environment that isn't like safe you're like you're like it's a breeding ground for cobin and there is going to be lives lost and it's going to be harder to handle those lives lost then it is going to be and then it is to handle uh the plan before that like you could like if you plan out like a better plan now um you could prevent those lives being lost and um teachers i feel like teachers should be given a voice i know like you're taking the students like concerns of this consideration but these decisions decisions also affect the teachers and by silencing them um you're not letting them re-enter like the workforce or the schools um safely so um yeah i just want them to get like better treatment and i want them to
115get like the resources they need like getting off office hours at home and um yeah i just want better for everybody not just the students because i know you're trying really hard for students to be safe and for our students and our cohorts to you know be able to safely learn in school we have to take into consideration that our teachers are also part of that community are also part of the school and anything that you decide will also impact the teachers because they're also in the building with the students and i know you've you've worked to place like several safety measures but sometimes they're not enough because you know masks there they help but they're not you know 100 fool proof and um scientifically it's not safe to open schools but you know whatever
116we have to do what we have to do um but if we spend if you if you make teachers stay at school for office hours unnecessarily it will exponentially like spread the virus um and that's we're going to have to close schools which is already it's going to be a step back even more and um your decision is gonna like either cost lives or save lives and that's that's a decision that's a difficult decision for you guys to make but um i just want you to keep that in mind um just keep the teachers concerns in mind and like maybe communicate with them more because um it seems like there isn't as much communication as there needs to be and we'll be able to serve the community better when you guys listen to everyone in
117the community not just parents not just students but also the teachers and the other staff in the schools because they're being affected just as much as we are and um you know yeah like he um so we need to make the right decision for our community so because it affects everybody we need to rise together and like do what's right for everyone and yeah that's all okay thank you next caller hello steven sundell 107 maplewood avenue i just want to say that it's some pretty uh disheartening that you're stating that these uh numbers increase in numbers is due to increase in testing that's kind of the same kool-aid they're trying to serve over in pennsylvania avenue and dc it's not true even governor murphy said today as well as many other experts that we are
118in the middle of a second wave now so things have been going okay so i don't understand why you would try and risk things and poke the bear so to speak by increasing the number of students in the school at the same time increasing hours this is not the time to be doing this and like the other teacher said agree with her if you take if you extend the day and take away the time for the teachers to support the students whether that's the uh you know the last couple hours of monday tuesday thursday friday or you take away that that virtual date that they have some time to prepare and talk to students one-on-one then they're not getting the help that they need so i just think that um you should stick stay the
119course it's been working for you and stay with that and even the superintendent sent out a letter the other day about a case in the hills that was uh suspiciously showed up right after uh a halloween party with the cheerleaders and the football players so um i don't understand why they would threaten to go all virtual in that letter and then say okay well we're going to increase the number of kids in school so that that you know it didn't make any sense it's a contradiction okay that's all i had to say thank you thank you next caller julia hilgidardia poplar road i am the parent of two elementary children and i'd like to express my support for opening school on wednesday the more time our kids can be in the building the better i
120honestly never thought i'd see the day but my kids beg me every day that they are home virtually to be in the building instead of at home with me these kids need time in the building for their mental and social well-being and their risk of exposure in the building is very low i also ask that you revisit elementary specials being entirely virtual virtually delivering specials such as gym art music and media are not a proper substitute for education and our children are suffering under this practice if the children cannot see the teacher in person then i encourage at least live google meets on a set schedule it is very hard for young children to engage with a video and having a live instructor would greatly improve their experience lastly while i encourage as much in-person
121time as possible i think speech services should continue to be delivered on google me because it is a service that is hard to receive when everyone is masked thank you for your time thank you next hi my name is heather vaccaro and shady terrace and we um i have a really big concern about being locked into either in person or virtual i think the pandemic isn't over yet the covet cases are on the rise and to have to make that decision now isn't really a good place i don't really want to be there my kids are in school now they're in person they're doing great everything's been going great but i don't know in a month if i'm going to feel the same way and be honest if the cases go up i probably would
122want to switch them and also i think if you do that you're going to be encouraging people who might switch to virtual for a short period of time because they may have been exposed covet or something like that they may just decide not to do that now because they don't want to have to be locked into virtual forever so something to think about thank you next caller hi this is donna del maro english teacher at the high school sorry i thought i was not able to unmute before but i finally saw that big message so um i have a couple of questions and then a couple of comments so my first question is and i'm sorry if you addressed this but um will students still have the option i guess after january 15th to opt
123out for virtual that's number one number two i think there's some sort of typo on the schedule for mondays at the high school so maybe we could just clarify if that's it seems like a full day till two o'clock usually students would have to have lunch if that's the case so i'm not sure what that's all about if that's um a virtual all periods meet day if it would still end at the same time that it would if we were doing virtual wednesdays so those are just my questions my comments in general i agree with everything that my colleague amy nazarco said about afternoons and teachers having that freedom to go home to have the uh one-on-one conferences i do conferences sometimes from 12 right until 2 15 2 30 masked you know still in
124my room and it's very difficult it's exhausting and i think that most of my colleagues make those comments you know every day we're exhausted we're tired um the the mask wearing all day is very strenuous for us and to know that when the country is going in one direction we're kind of going in the other is really concerning to me i'm even more concerned by the fact that i'm hearing that you want to merge cohorts the classes are too small we're spending too much time on the computer and not spending time dealing with the students in front of us that is just absolutely not the case it's a very difficult balancing act that we're performing here trying to teach to people on a computer and teach to those that are in front of the room
125and give them equal attention it's a balancing act so i just think you should be aware of that i also wonder where the cleaning situation has gone wednesdays are reserved for cleaning and um i think i've kind of addressed all my concerns but for mr duffy captain momo says hello thank you guys okay thank you next caller hello um my name is reince main i live in 51 world uh woodlock road and um you know you we all agree that this pandemic has been really hard on us you know ever since the penang happened uh me and my boy kyle have been able to like shotgun some monsters and stuff so you know it was really tiring for that but um i think that school should be closed you know because of the dangers of
126kobe spreading and everything and um also um you know i'm an upcoming pro and everything you know i i'm going pro and valerie i'm currently ranked like silver 3 but i'm working next caller hi my name is uh kim baker 94 uh lions head east and uh i want to talk about these specials um especially in the elementary school i know pre pre-covered um before lockdown our kids on a partial day would go to school um until 1 15 and during that day they would still have their specials now they're going an additional 30 minutes and their specials are being um done after the school day i just basically want to know why um the specials can't be done during the school day with the extra half hour and i would like you guys to
127consider please streaming it during the regular school day just like you do in the middle school and the high school i do have an elementary school student and i do also have a middle school student and i see how wonderful everything is working out in the middle school um as she logs on every day does all of her specials during school maybe does some homework after school but i see how difficult it is for my youngest daughter who is in fourth grade at apt to continue to do her specials after school and they're not even live streamed i would really like you guys to please consider having the day with the specials just like we did back when it was just a regular partial day thank you so much thank you next caller hi this
128is lauren peachey mamudi i'm a teacher at tunisia elementary um i just want to share with the community that teaching in the hybrid model requires like way more planning than regular teaching does you know in addition to our regular planning and grading we've been exploring new technology tools learning how to use them to enhance our instruction we have to load all of our assignments and resources into google classroom and it all takes time so i know many of us have been working through our lunch periods working for the entire afternoon after the students leave at 1 45 and this isn't a complaint it's just it does take a lot so virtual wendy's wednesdays have really been a blessing for us to have that additional time but even on top of that we're still working evenings
129over the weekend just to stay on top of everything so like again this isn't a complaint i absolutely love my job but everyone needs to know this career isn't one where you walk in teach and leave you know there's so much that occurs in the background so to speak so if we're going to be teaching in the classroom on wednesdays as well i just would really hope that we would be given more planning time elsewhere so that we could remain effective in our roles because i just don't see how it could all be done while remaining effective and also having a focus focus on our wellness thank you thank you next caller hi this is jenny franklin uh 21 keyland drive i would just like to uh first of all say thank you for everything
130that you've all done to make this as good an experience as possible for our kids um but i'd like to express my support for the caller who talked about the high school kids having as much time in school as possible i too have one child left in wayne who is a senior and i am concerned about what college will hit like after a year and a half of this um but i i'm more concerned about what i see the behavior of the high school kids too much free time is not a good thing and we might like to think that they're sitting home after school ends at 12 o'clock and doing their homework and hanging out all night long and that's not what's happening i think the safest place that they can be right now
131is in school and i think this the longer that they are in school the safer they will be um but again thank you to all of you i like the plan moving forward it sounds like more school time which is awesome thanks thank you next caller hi this is alan tempescu 41 gibbs drive um i missed part of your presentation but i did hear a call and make a comment about students being locked into being either virtual or in person so if i understood that having come late to the presentation right now students have the ability to switch from virtual to in person vice versa with two weeks notice that flexibility is a benefit to your current practices allows parents and students the ability the ability to react to the evolving pandemic and to react
132to their personal family situation and i hope that flexibility uh would not change i think it's an important component and i think if you take that away if i heard the caller correctly again i apologize for coming late but uh that would be something uh that i think would be a detriment to the program thank you okay the last two callers i'm sorry you need to phone in please try to do that for the next session um seeing no one else can i get a mover mr bubba mr pavlak okay moving on well the next is uh h items human resources can i get a mover i'm president i'd move to move the entire agenda uh that's fine but we have a lot more involved before we get there with retirement readings and committee reports
133um could i just interrupt for the motion by mr pavlak was seconded by which individual mr well that's how i heard it um when we madam president can we do our committee reports and then do the retirements and then we'll vote on the agenda well that was what i was hoping to do so i was about to say that to mr pavlak if that's okay with you thank you very much so um i will go first if you like well we're doing the res we're on the human resource items right now what happened to committee reports did i skip over them well no because we moved the whole agenda so we would have to do them anything yet uh approval of minutes uh okay administrator hr well this is the public work session so let's
134let's move that and then we'll go to emergent i'm sorry this isn't the public work session right no it's not we're this is the regular meeting but aren't we moving the minutes the the items from the last public work session before all right i'm looking for the committee reports and i don't see it it's usually in the beginning okay fine move the whole agenda and then we'll do the committee reports and the retirements it doesn't matter okay okay is there any discussion okay roll call mr moffatt this is albany yes mrs albanese is a yes yes mr bubba um on emergent number seven no yes to the rest please t number seven doesn't know all else yes mr bubba mr duffy yes mr giordano his abstention and yes on all others mrs kumar uh yes
135on all items except for abstaining from x1 thank you mr pavlak um yes to all items on t7 of staying on number seven and i'll abstain on x1 this is put up yes to all lives thank you yes on all items mrs share yes to everything oh sorry yes everything except for um x1 i'll staying on exxon thank you mrs kazan yes all items pass okay so let's start with committee reports go ahead mr bubba thank you uh facilities committee tonight met with myself mrs kazan mrs puttup and our administrators mr moffat mr skobinski and mr blanchard so it was a pretty lengthy meeting we got a couple of looks at a couple of agenda items that will be on the november 12th agenda the comprehensive maintenance plan uh was one of the items that
136will be coming on the 12th and the esip2 agreement will be finalized and on the agenda and as soon as it's approved work will start immediately right now the use of school facilities is limited to pto and school activities though we are asking just to see if other things can be worked in to that we're going to do some research the ecc the the garden plaque is well set to go and the dedication plaque is in holding and waiting um the final election polling locations are set now we are going to have voting in ryerson wayne valley george washington lafayette preakness and ween hills yes it was one school in every voting district in the town we had talked about a new democrat a new demographic study update and it was put on hold due
137to the pandemic and we started to talk about it again um but right now we're going to leave it um kind of on hold until we get more information from the town we need to find out whether we're going to have a thousand new homes 800 new homes so we need more information before we can actually move forward with that um and the last thing in facilities was um we've done cleaning testing for all of the schools we are actually testing above and beyond the state parameters so i want to thank the staff for making sure that the schools are cleaned now we have transportation so we had bus evacuation drills are on schedule and going well state had actually extended it but we decided to do it anyway because why rush if we don't
138have to um we looked at our transportation agreements um and our contract for transportation mostly dealing with special ed transportation they're going up and it's due to the pandemic the extra cleaning the extra bodies the extra time is going to cost more money our state reporting is going well so far the only issue is that the state is dealing with the virtu how the state is dealing with the virtual students um we were advised to use one route but then it was kicked back because too many kids were on a bus kind of wasn't going to work but they decided to try it anyway and we also talked about department operations right now there's some challenges with hiring due to leaves that are going on and things like that and trying to hire at this
139time is not easy we also talked about a reshuffling of positions adding a dispatcher um adding a driver safety position which is being really brought by the state as the legislature has a bill that's unsigned but they expect it to be that we're going to have to have that position the good thing is is the way that they're working it out it looks like even with the this new dispatcher and the driver safety position we are going to be budget neutral the bus inspection cycle is over like dr toback stated earlier we did have a 71 percent initial pass the state average is 30. but 100 of our buses have passed in total so we are good to go we have registered for the fmca driver clearinghouse that tracks drug testing so that that's a
140mandate that we have to do um we are upgrading our brush transponder software to a cloud-based system because right now it is too antiquated in the old system to do what we needed to do the school bus security program is being offered by the tsa for free they do a comprehensive evaluation and work with our staff to help improve safety we're looking at all driver records to make sure that things are up to date and what we need to fill in um we're donating another vehicle to the first aid squad for training i know mrs puttup was happy about that and we ordered driver shirts that were part of the contract so that way the drivers will have the same shirt and that is my lengthy report mr bubba who's next mrs cher tonight uh
141we met for personnel myself miss clark miss kumar mr pavlock we reviewed the minutes from the last two meetings we went over the hr agenda and we went over some more personal matters that's it sorry bubba could you cut it a little shorter next time mrs cher mr giordana [Music] uh [Music] there's something wrong with your audio mr giordano you're breaking up uh badly is it your microphone that's a buffering the voice is buffering to the computer is there someone else from your committee that could possibly give the report on your behalf because no one's going to be able to understand you i'm sorry thank you okay the communication committee meeting that tonight matt is still talking um the communication committee met tonight with chairperson matt giordano eileen albany's board member and um dr toback
142um it was uh it was a very informative meeting but a lot of things were discussed tonight we looked at some recent media coverage we discussed the uh proclamation that was read last meeting about hispanic heritage month we talked about the newsletters that have been going out to the community we got an update and a little preview before tonight's meeting about the phase two return to school um presentation as well as the information that will be on the website to starting tomorrow with an opportunity for stakeholders to comment and voice any concerns or any suggestions they may have and that was the communications committee meeting thank you mrs albanese for pitching in is there anyone else that has a report this evening i think we've covered everything okay so let's i'm sorry oh i'm sorry
143technology uh technology committee met a couple weeks ago a lengthy discussion about the laptops for the elementary school teachers and i'd like to thank mr bouchard for being able to get them out as quickly and get them here quickly um also we had we had a lengthy discussion about staff wi-fi issues and um we're looking at um anything on our end which we can do and we also spoke about replacement of the older chromebooks that's it thank you mr pavlak uh okay can we get to the retirements now i believe you had one mrs put up charlie calderon mr charles calderon is retiring after serving the wayne township public schools for 25 years working at the groundsman in the buildings and grounds department charlie started back in 1995 as a part-time custodian but only for
144a short time charlie became a full-time groundsman in 1996. charlie has done it all when it comes to grounds working in the district be it some fall winter or spring charlie was outside cutting and edging our natural grass lawns raking leaves trimming tree branches and planting flowers in the winter charlie would be traveling and i know he played a critical role ensuring our district was ready to address any ice or snow event charlie was here for every snow storm and worked tirelessly night and day his commitment to salting and plowing allowed school buses to roll out safely from the north coast busty boat and for parents to drive into our school parking lots with their children teachers and staff were able to reach school safely charlie has one daughter whom he loves his second love
145is for carbs charlie has won awards for showing off his late 60s corvette at numerous car shows we're sad to see him leave the main family but we are happy that he will begin to enjoy his well-earned retirement we hope that charlie will be able to enjoy his family and his love of antique hearts we would like to thank charlie for his years of dedicated service and wish him all the best good for you charlie thank you mrs put up uh mrs cher tonight i will be reading for josephine miranda when miss miranda chose nursing as a career she found her true calling for the last 16 years miss miranda has been entrusted with the care of some of wayne school's most medically physically and fragile children and has afforded them the expert care and
146dignity that they deserve the families involved considered miss miranda their angel as they knew their children were her top priority miss miranda was a powerhouse bundle of energy that could run rings around staff half her age no matter what school she was assigned to over the years miss miranda endeared herself to staff and students alike and formed many close friendships we wish miss miranda the happiest retirement and wonderful times ahead with our cherished family best of luck i'm on mute mr giordano let's try again okay sorry about that you finished yeah maria cerrone has been an office professional for the wayne township public schools for the past 20 years she began her tenure in wayne in february of 2000 as secretary of directive facilities while there maria played a vital role in making sure our
147schools were always in tip-top shape and prepared for our teachers and students in 2018 maria joined the staff at wayne valley high school and ever since she has always been a welcoming presence in our office and in assisting students and staff in the building many fans may remember her smiling faces she frequently worked at various athletic and other student events outside of school marie enjoys spending time down the shore with her family however her face truly lights up when she speaks of her three grandsons and the time they spend together the administration staff especially our students will miss maria and her contributions to the school we wish her happiness and many warm days down the shore in the next chapter of her life congratulations thank you everyone and well the best to our retirees and
148thank you for your years of service to the wayne public schools we're going to our second public portion and i would just like to make a couple comments first first we'll go to three minutes and uh second if you could please be brief because we have to go back to an executive session after this we're not finished with our work this evening uh this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on any topic residents are to state their name 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
149other comments may be responded to tonight or at subsequent meetings under all business can i get him over who moved oh mrs cher and mr giordano okay let's begin hi can you hear me yes hi my name is katie clark 34 hillcrest drive um i just wanted to thank you again for um expanding the expansion of the history curriculum and making it more diverse um you said that you would be opening a thought exchange about um diversity inclusion and i forget the third part of it but can you uh please go into detail about what that is um as well i would also highly suggest um starting to look into expansion of the english curriculum the breakdown of authors of color in the history english curriculum is um very stark there are very few authors
150of color in the curriculum and almost none of them are required reading for teachers to teach and that's a concern because um people of color have important things to say and they're very cold um the works are very culturally important um and then you also announced last meeting that um committees about diversity equity and inclusion will would be announced um i wasn't really able to find any details about that so um when uh if you could expand on like what's happening with that i would greatly appreciate it again i thank you for all that you've been doing and i appreciate the steps you've made um i just want to know how we can keep going thank you thank you next caller uh mr bu i think he has the older version um so we can't
151admit you you need to phone in um unfortunately next caller hello my name is marissa budnik i live at 38 clinton lane um just like what katie said i want to thank you for your efforts in diversifying the history curriculum with the choices program i think doing some more research on it it's very credible and and we all appreciate your efforts in doing that um and like she said um i think the next step is definitely diversity in english curriculum in terms of authors making authors of color mandatory rather than um yeah just making them mandatory basically um and i also wanted to ask for an update on on um curriculums for the mascot and the diversity uh um uh committees um who that who's on them and when they're gonna be meeting because like
152she said you did mention that about that and i'd just like more information about that thank you for all you do thank you very much next caller hello good evening uh jamie lillis 70 brandywine road um so i have two kids in elementary school that have been using the office hours of our teachers a lot so for those seeking teacher office hours at home i'm just curious what happens for the teachers who live almost an hour or more away from the school or if there's traffic or bad weather that delays them getting home the purpose of office hours is to be available for your students so unless you could somehow guarantee everyone will be home in time for their office hours i don't see how you could do that and be fair to all and
153make sure everyone gets the help they need one more thing i'm just curious about has there been any consideration been given to the week after thanksgiving being all virtual or will it be a last-minute decision like next monday is thank you thank you next caller um hi it's lily madar 23 bonds avenue again um i just wanted to say uh thank you for your efforts so far in trying to diversify the curriculum like so far you've done part of the history and i appreciate that but we all like while we're also you know pointing out this the strengths of our school community as we're coming together to diversify um the curriculum and the schools and everything we also have to recognize the school's inherent shortcomings um by asking you guys to like more strongly support
154the struggle for racial injustice um for example the english curriculum is lacks a lot of you know cultural diversity it's almost all white authors which doesn't you know provide perspectives into like other um cultures other races other identities and um yeah i feel i do not feel represented when whenever i'm in english i ha i'm kind of forced to speak about other cultures i've never had a chance to read something of my own culture or like you know other people's cultures that aren't you know the majority um so yeah i believe that there's a lot of work to do and um beyond you know just the history curriculum and supporting diversity through that um we have to like make sure that our schools are safe inclusive and supportive that encouraged student like access to um
155like support systems like we could have maybe there there's there should be a way for students to get like a support system where they can talk about these type of things because um guidance can be kind of scary sometimes maybe if there's a student group where we could go and then they could like you know um represent us or whatever um so yeah i'm just calling upon you like as like the board of ed leaders to like be committed to diversity to take more swift and specific action to eliminate like this harassment and discrimination that all the people of color and all the minorities in our schools are facing and that'll like help ensure a more positive environment for all our students um it's like kind of an obligation because um it's a it's an
156obligation to remove barriers and you know give more support so that all students can succeed and are you know equal and welcome on campus and this problem is not uncommon you know it's very obvious and it's serious and dangerous and this is this discrimination negative negatively affects these under represented students because they don't feel a sense of belonging and um it's not good for their mental health and i know you guys are also trying to you know do that through the wellness um program but you guys also have to make it clear and widely like publicized that students can file complaints in harassment because um i feel like it's very discouraging i i don't know where to go if i have an issue that's your time thank you very much next caller yeah hello um
157so my name is and i just want to talk about like um all like the gender inequalities in the classroom and stuff like i i feel like i can't express myself in the classroom and stuff like that um i've been like really having a tough time in school and everything you know like as a non-binary kid um i want to be able to like express myself in school and i'm not be i'm not being able to do that in school so like i think there should be like a oh sorry about that dr burchard i think we have another prank call next caller please it's not amusing hi my name is sarah gaber and i'm live at 1051 ratzer road uh i wanted to commend you on expanding your curriculum like the last couple of
158callers and i wanted to say that there does need to be change in the english curriculum specifically there needs to be incorporated a more diverse group of authors not only racially but there needs to be more um more women authors there needs to be more authors from the lgbtq community and there needs to be more representation from authors with disabilities um the commitment to try to reach the amistad mandate requirements is very progressive and important so i commend you for that but that same change needs to be found in the english department if it's not found there it negates what you've already worked for um i agree with the other callers that we there needs to be more done about the committees we need more specific details we need to understand that this isn't going
159to be another one of the vague promises that we've received in the past we need to know that this is being taken seriously and that issues like the mascot and numerous other racially a um numerous other racial matters in within this school are taken without bias and that they are properly investigated and the only way to do that is with proper transparency with the wayne community thank you for your time thank you very much next bar um hi i'm speaking on behalf of a student who had to leave i'm speaking on behalf on of us fellow student lawrence inquino who unfortunately had to leave the session early she just once wanted to reiterate the necessity necessity of listening to teachers and complying with their requests they are put under immense stress and have to do
160double the work to ensure the best experience for both in-person and virtual students as for office hours students should be allowed to go home to do their office hours from to two less time they have to spend it in the buildings amongst all the other teachers the better there's no reason that they should not be allowed to conduct office hours in their own homes any environment they can work best in during this difficult time should be available in regards to increasing in-person learning and merging the cohorts in the high school this is not a practical option with the increase in cases of coping we have hit an all-time high of cases nothing has changed or gotten better besides there's hardly any difference between in person and virtual while in person you connect to the google
161me or user chromebooks to the same work anyway there's no difference or advantage of being in person besides the fact that it's easier to interact with the teacher i'm not saying in person it should be taken away it is beneficial for students to go in to change their environment and have some form of social social interaction however with the rising code number comfortable with the fact that ritual is not very different from in person the hybrid schedule should not be modified to keep students in school for longer thank you okay thank you next caller okay so we have another situ neither neither of these two callers can be admitted i can't hear you miss patricia oh okay i'm sorry patricia you have an older version of zoom you would need to phone in and the
162other caller can you talk to me through here i can't hear you hannah could speak you're unmuted now okay thank you hello how about the next one okay can you hear me yes can you hear me yes oh sorry thank you sorry about that no problem this is patricia brown i'm at 1500 ratzer road i have um two children in anthony wayne one in jfk um first of all i want to say thank you to the board because this this town has to be impossible to be on a board um i just sit here listening to people talk about what's better for kids education and their well-being and i just feel like no kidding we all know that we all know we want our kids in school five days a week we want we all
163want that it's just not the reality right now and you know before the pandemic we talk about children having resiliency and grit and i don't know what's happened to everybody with their children at that at this point but i mean i for one maybe they're not getting the academics but my kids are learning empathy they're learning um you know how to be patient they're learning computer skills they would have never had they're learning other things and complaining about the number of kids in a class my daughter's in an eighth grade algebra one class and she's the only child there am i to think i'm supposed to complain about that my daughter is getting a one-on-one algebra class like who could be so lucky right now like we need to as a town look at the
164positives and the way people talk about teachers i did a fundraiser at my school for a sign about supporting wayne teachers and we sold 40. i i find it pathetic that the teachers are this board and the and the teachers are just the things they're learning i see people who can't wear a mask properly in the supermarket for 10 minutes and these teachers are wearing them all day i see people who can't figure out how to help their child turn in an assignment on google classroom and these teachers became masters of everything google like from a google me to how to keep people out of meetings that want to hack your meeting and be disrespectful i mean they're doing amazing things and kids running around when they're supposed to be somewhere else at a high
165school age that's a parent problem and you know a lot of the things people are talking about that's parents problems and they're putting them on the board and they're putting them on these teachers and what if the teachers don't get home in time to do a one-on-one with your student like when did we become such a selfish town it's really annoying to hear people complain i don't complain to my kids we don't complain about anything we thank the teachers for what they do we thank the board for what they do and we focus on what new skills we're learning and and what things we can do not all the things that aren't the way that they used to be i just find that horrible and i think that everybody is doing the best they can
166and aside from that the only other thing i would mention is just that not letting people come in and out is probably not a great idea i mean my kids have been in but if i mean the numbers were like over 1600 i just think we still have to keep that option because i for one was thinking maybe the holidays i wouldn't put my kids in either so i think that's just an option that we should kind of hold on to especially with numbers going up but again thank you wayne teachers thank you wayne board and anyone out there who has complaints to to make you need to refocus and reprioritize and thank the people that are doing what they're doing thank you thank you very much can you admit this one okay hello i
167think you have an audio problem okay i'm sorry we can't seem to connect all right seeing no one else mr duffy mr pavlock okay old business new business dr toback care to address some of the questions from this evening i tried to um during the time where speakers were commenting tried to add some things together to cover a bunch of different topics um because there were either the same question might have been asked a few times or comments may have been made or they're related so what i like to do is just by starting out by saying that um with regard to all the public comments they're all very helpful because like all schools we are largely on our own to develop the best plan for wayne when it comes to our next phase there's
168certainly no one to call with an ideal plan but we are looking at small steps for phase two and we also have a unique situation which some of the callers pointed out and that things have gone well and so why mess with something that's working well for us in terms of covet you know there's other issues there's a variety of different problems but in general um we've been able to remain in school when many others have not um so i guess the next thing to remember is that everything that we are discussing tonight may not make sense at all when it comes to our next meeting a lot of things can change two weeks is an eternity during the pandemic so um there are a lot of things with this plan that may very well
169change quite a bit as we work towards our next meeting because like i said conditions can change um then with regard to the sidebar agreement there were it was kim baker ellen klein and julia julia hill jidardia that brought up some questions regarding the sidebar so this is something that is it's an agreement between the board of education and the wayne education association and it pertains to the elementary school special schedule for parents the important part of it and the thing that you will be happy about is that the specials um are back in the schedule they're not virtual and so that's something that's that's a detail that's very important and i think that will satisfy a number of our parents and for teachers i think there's also a very positive thing related to some
170of the questions about the ability for teachers to go home early so the original schedule was agreed to this summer this is pretty much the same agreement that was arrived at this summer but things happened and um so now the teachers would be able to leave at 2 45 at the elementary level so there's some time to leave school a little earlier but there are there are some um you know there's there's some other facts that need to be considered um so as far as um another another um topic that came up kind of related about teachers being able to leave at lunch time so that's a different topic and the ability to leave or i should say right after the students leave okay so that question came up or there were statements made about
171that issue a number of times so there's actually quite a few different um things to consider when you're doing something like that and we're thinking about it so can teachers hold office hours from home okay so the answer is yes that might be possible but the teachers are represented by their teachers union the wayne education association and there are some there are some fairly significant issues that have to be discussed for example one of the issues is that overall the district cannot pay for a teacher's commute so ultimately we are prohibited from paying for the commute time for staff members so that's one issue two it's not just for the superintendent to change the contract so ultimately the teachers have an existing contract that they're obligated to um meet the conditions of that contract so
172it's a much larger discussion because if you're going to change one part of the contract then other parts of it change and so there's there's a give and take and and um the other thing is there are liability issues for the district that must be considered so for example um teachers are traveling during school time and there's an accident or some other things there are or some liability issues that have to be considered and there's also concerns of taxpayers um wondering about accountability and things such as that so like i said there are some important issues that need to be discussed if that were to be possible but that's something that's a process that would not be easily achieved immediately okay so then lauren toronto brought up that the day is ending early and is
173there a way to extend it one of the big issues with the return to school plan in every community was lunch um so right now especially at the elementary level we have a snack we have a take-home lunch at the middle school in high school and so the whole point is that it's very hard to extend the day further because of the lunch issue and inevitable inability to serve your traditional lunch okay there was a question from katie scheidt about a dedicated virtual teacher we did look at that option but if we do something like that it makes it very hard for teachers or for students and parents to to look at options to come back and and go out so it really would be a hard thing to do then set up a virtual
174teacher for a grade level we require quite a bit of additional staffing um another question there's a question from ellen klein and some others about cleaning okay so how is it possible that we have all these you know an increase in cases and things like that um how can we increase contact time when wednesday is set aside for a deep cleaning but we can do the deep cleaning we have been doing the deep cleaning and second shift so once everybody's gone we do the deep cleaning during the second shift now because there's a lot of other things that we do during the day on wednesdays so that's that's how that would work out so it's the same cleaning just a different shift okay um so and if there are technical issues audio issues things like
175that i'm sure there are some minor issues that are out there um same i'm just going through here just real quickly um there's a number of comments that were made [Music] steven sindell made a statement that he was disheartened he took exception to the wording of my report um the wording of my report when it comes to the discussion about covid cases in wayne that is language directly from the office of emergency management that is not my my wording it's from the office of emergency management um let's see all right we'll for donna del morro's comments we'll certainly look at the the monday schedule typo if there's an error there we would certainly fix that thank you for finding that issue um there's another question about the specials mrs peachy made a number of comments
176okay um now for the oh mr tempest you raised an issue about students being locked into virtual or in person some other people brought that up that's an important topic and in general certainly that's something we look at and we know that that versatility that you have the two weeks notice was a nice thing but it does become increasingly difficult to do that especially if like i said if more people come back into the building in any particular school it makes it makes it a little difficult so we do have to work on that topic but we'll have a final version for our upcoming board meeting with regard to the students that spoke about the diversity equity inclusion goal there's quite a bit of progress so just a few things real quickly um one the
177thought exchange will be coming out next week and so there's really no great detail other than we're framing a question about um the goal and we're going to ask the community to provide us feedback about the different um parts of the goals so that's coming out next week um we are moving ahead the committees have formed in part in other words we have some people some lead people that are being trained to do some work um as leaders in these committees and so the rest of the members of the committee will be developed in the coming weeks um but we are we are making progress in all these areas and we are like i said one of one of the areas that was brought up tonight was about addressing issues in the curriculum and so
178there is one committee that is specifically set aside to address curricular issues so um that's basically um i think i've answered if not all questions pretty close to all questions definitely got it covered there dr delpak if not they could always send us an email did anyone else have anything else to say before we close uh we are going to reconvene i'm sorry mrs put up go ahead please vote thank you you stole my line um this is cher um i just wanted to two minutes congratulate all the kids from tonight their achievements are so impressive and i just wanted to congratulate all the kids and their parents and their teachers and everybody that had anything to do with it um i would like for us to possibly look into the specials more at the
179elementary school i'm seeing that this is a problem and and i guess having j having gym art music everything virtually could definitely be doesn't help if that's what's happening i don't i'm not even sure that that's what's happening at this point um as far as the committees for the diversity i know that they have started committees but i don't believe that administration has to tell the community who's on the committees just what's happening in the committees so i'm sure as soon as they all meet that the community will be told about exactly what's happening but you don't necessarily need to get to need to know who's on the actual committees and then a comment was made that a letter was sent home by our superintendent stating that we're gonna have to go all virtual if
180the footballs and cheerleaders keep having parties that never happened and anybody who's read his email knows none of that happened no mention of any students football cheer anything and there was no mention i just reread the letter there's no mention of going virtual people have parties it's simply a recommendation being put forth from the superintendent that i would like to say this whole board supports our administration and it's common sense if you're all getting together and you're not doing the right things you're going to spread it and guess what then we can't send our kids to school so it has an effect on everybody but i just wanted to make it clear that that letter never never happened in the way it was said by one of our callers um and it just brings me
181to the point of the rumors that are floating around the town if you have questions and concerns about your school no one is going to answer them on facebook they're not going they don't administration does not go on facebook and answer your questions so please you have the email for all the board members all the administrators your principals your email just ask if you want to know if wayne is closing down from november from thanksgiving to christmas just ask and you'll be told no it was a complete rumor by another board in another town but please reach out to your administrators that's why you know the emails have facebook thank you okay anyone else um i did want to ask dr toback since we are considering the um virtual scenario after the christmas break is
182there a reason we're not considering it for after thanksgiving because unless i'm mistaken did i misunderstand something it does seem prudent but i'm not sure if that was something you were considering it's something to consider in the end we do have um certain reasons to do that and on the other side of it is we don't know the extent of travel plans um it's hard to say so um we'll look at it in the coming weeks and we'll bring um a recommendation for our next meeting um the the time that we were most concerned about was the time after the holiday break in december only because we know a lot of people come home there's all kinds of you know and really that's a tough one um that may be the case for thanksgiving but
183we'll we'll certainly have a discussion about that as well yes and and sooner rather than later because we like to give ample notice um if that's possible uh okay uh so is that everybody now i we have to go back into executive session um action may or may not be taken so i can't really say at this point until we go back um but if action is taken obviously we'll reconvene in public and make any decision of that nature at that time um and yes tuesday and every day between now and tuesday you can cast your ballot so please do so um as as every election it's important and it's uh our our duty as citizens to uh exercise that right to vote so thank you and good night do i need a mover to
184close yes somebody move to close please mr giordano mrs albanese