August 20, 2020: Board of Education Meeting

001good evening the executive session of the wayne board of education regular meeting of august 20th 2020 was convened virtually through the district software the statement of compliance setting forth time date and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and the roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened uh can we have the flag for the 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 very much dr joe back all right so before we get to the main topic for this evening i wanted to provide the community with an update on a variety of topics first of all

002welcome to the 50 new teachers that are starting their careers in wayne yesterday we held our annual new teacher orientation program and for the first time it was held under intent to allow live interaction while social distancing the weather was not the best but the program to help our new teachers get a good start was excellent today wcbs news came to wayne valley high school to broadcast a story about high school sports during the pandemic in this case roger cutlars head coach of the wayne valley football team was interviewed along with some of the players to highlight how schools are practicing while taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus broadcast today was at the six o'clock and perhaps the 11 o'clock broadcast just a clarification regarding high school scheduling yesterday high school cohorts

003were released at wayne hills and queen valley to students and parents and many were surprised to see their children in cohort b1 or b2 this does not mean that there are four cohorts but it does mean that there was an effort advanced planning so that when conditions improve we can go to two cohorts instead of three without redoing the schedule so it was really the result of the advanced planning um in other news about high school sports the njsaa announced today that fall indoor sports will be postponed for this year however there is hope that the njsa um with some other changes will allow for an additional fourth season for the 2021 season and there will be updating starting dates for all sports and wayne the decision ended the current season for girls volleyball and

004gymnastics at both of our high schools i'm very sorry as we know this is upsetting for our student athletes and parents knowing how hard the players have worked to prepare for the season also for the coaches who have worked with the players um for for many hours and we also know how much the parents are looking forward to this season this is especially painful for our senior players and parents but there is some hope for an opportunity for a season later this year the last board of education meeting a set of district goals were approved and it's time to get started with our diversity equity and inclusion goal in particular we're going to get started with the formation of a committee that will assess nicknames mascots slogans and school symbols that may be offensive or

005counterproductive to our mission values and goals this includes a review of the wayne valley indian along with the mascots slogans and symbols for every one of our schools like most districts in new jersey we're going to be engaged in the discussion about a very serious matter that has far reaching implications for our taxpayers our parents our employees and most of all our students who depend on us for quality education we've all been placed in a very difficult situation by first and foremost the coronavirus and then by an ever-changing response from our state government that has created an almost intolerable situation for our public education system many communities are in turmoil even strangers that we have a recovery plan that includes different stages as as a state we are in stage two of our recovery which

006is defined as moderate risk activities we started with safeguards recovery plan includes a stage three according to the plan k-12 and higher education may operate in person with reduced capacity that is once we reach stage three if not but on august 3rd we also have limited indoor seating capacity you still can't go out to dinner there's a lot of things that are creating questions about what's happening here in new jersey and um there's a lot of things that seem to be contradictory but we can control what we can control here and way less than two months we've gone from a requirement to provide in-person instruction to then allowing for parents to have their children attend school on a full-time remote basis for any reason guidance then changed again where school districts were able to go

007to a full virtual model but only for specific reasons where school districts are unable to demonstrate inability to meet the necessary health and safety precautions and they must actively strive to address any deficiencies in order to return all or a portion of its student's population to in-person instruction at the earliest possible date there's speculation that when students return to school the virus will spike and lead to a quick shutdown others point to states where schools reopened and things did not go well although most of the time these are schools and states where the chronovirus has a much greater presence i think we all recognize there's a good chance we will shut down at some point if the virus spikes and we have to be ready for this possibility however right now in wayne we have

008many days where we have no new cases and while the virus is certainly here and people are still getting sick we are in far better shape in new jersey when compared to the rest of the country even when compared to the rest of new jersey our northwest west jersey region is in great shape and the new jersey department of health has designated this region as low risk each reason excuse me each region falls into one of four covent risk categories if a region falls into a very high risk category the new jersey department of health recommends full remote learning if a region falls into the high-risk category the department of health recommends fully learning unless schools can ensure complete adherence to all prevention and control measures if a region falls into the moderate risk category

009then the district should implement remote learning only for students and staff at high risk of severe illness consider hybrid learning and fully remote learning we do not fall into any of these categories and wayne and all of passaic county is in the low risk category the department of health recommends that schools evaluate whether there are students or staff who are increased risk for severe illness and seek alternative alternative placements to ensure continuity of work or educational services the department of health does not guide schools to implement remote learning in low-risk areas the issue of staff and student health has been a topic of discussion in the central office and across the district for five months our principals have worked tirelessly over the summer to make sure they have considered every possible health and safety issue

010along with our facilities department what happens if we return and someone gets sick what about those who are especially vulnerable based on a medical condition a return to school plan allows parents to determine what level of risk is acceptable for their children we believe that our parents are the ones who are in the best position to make that determination august 17th was our deadline for paperwork for any parent who won their children to receive full-time virtual remote instruction our numbers changed slightly and the district now has about 77 of our students returning to in-person education under a hybrid model many of our teachers are understandably worried about returning to school because of the realistic fear that they will be exposed to students and staff members who transmit the coronavirus to them or to their family

011members our teachers and staff members are the ones on the front lines and they work most directly with our students this anxiety is present for all who are working with young people because we know so many are asymptomatic but capable of transmitting the virus to others may experience more serious symptoms our staff members who are vulnerable are protected by section 504 of the americans with disabilities act and many district employees have exercised their rights to request accommodations in some cases staff members have requested to work from home while in other cases there have been simple requests like additional personal protective equipment board of education may be voting later um to take other steps on the agenda we have i'm sorry the board of ed will be voting later to take an additional step to protect

012the health of students and staff members on the agenda we have a contract to hire dr david goldberg to work for the district in advisory capacity when we have questions about best practices about how we should best respond to situations we may be facing as related to the pandemic dr goldberg is a specialist in pediatric infectious disease while dr goldberg will not replace the guidance we receive from the department of health it will be a great aid to us when important health and safety questions arise staff members and students are best protected by the hybrid schedule that we developed now that we know which parents will be keeping their children home we are seeing just how favorable our class sizes are for social distancing now that we are close to having final schedules in some

013cases teachers are left with only three to five students in their classrooms that certainly allows for social distancing however this is not the norm in our elementary schools where class sizes of seven to nine students are the norm as of today still very favorable for social distancing at the high school level we're still balancing our schedules but our class sizes are no larger than 10 students at the middle school level there are some classes of three to five students but much like the high school even the largest classes are around 10 students based on the cohort model because of the reduced number of students the middle school principals are also scheduling students and teachers in the largest classrooms available to allow for even more social distancing so the district has a good plan to return

014to school that places a premium on student and staff staff safety we stand at the ready to start our school year under the hybrid model in a way that protects the health of our students and staff members and we have followed all the guidance we were required to follow this morning i was planning to recommend a delay to the start of in-person instruction for students students within person by just just by a few days from september 8th to 11th not because we're not ready to safely return to school but in recognition of the challenges faced by our classroom teachers and to allow our teachers and our administrators to work together this is not easy and we recognize it we know it would be a benefit for our staff to receive additional professional development to gain

015practice and more experience with live streaming their instruction and to give the district additional time to ensure our buildings are 100 ready for opening then i spoke to our executive county superintendent based on an article that appeared yesterday but governor murphy declared that any schools that go virtual better have a good reason so i inquired about what was considered by the new jersey department of education as a good reason to go virtual even for this very limited time period those reasons are serious health and safety issues and not time to transition or allow for additional professional development which would have been the basis for a delay with in-person instruction from my point of view but not from the department of ed's point of view there's not much that can be done from my point of

016view at this point although i do see a benefit in the slight delay for the start of the school year that is not possible the hiv report is very simple there were two incidents reported none of those cases turned out to be actual cases of hiv after investigation that concludes your report dr toback yes okay terrific um mr moffatt revisions to the agenda yes we have a few revisions and additions tonight uh first is under the m for human resources we will be revising item three which is approval of additional compensation line number 22 will be the 55 dollars per hour each up to five hours instead of the three that are reflected on the agenda line number 23 55 per hour each up to five hours instead of the two that you see before

017you line number 25 55 per hour each up to 10 hours instead of two line number 26 55 dollars per hour each up to five hours instead of two that's found on the agenda the second area we're revising is item number eight which is approval of permanent substitutes lines number three through eight should have a change in the account account number changes from 11-130-100-101-03-0 should be changed to 11-120-100-101 then triple zero line number 10 through 17 account line should change from 11-130-100-101-03-8 should be changed to 11-120 dash 100-101-0-00 the next item we're revising is item 12 again in in the human resource area is approval of district staff it's item 12. number eight for cynthia bullis we're going to add the prorated uh after the salary uh number nine vanessa franny again we're going to

018add prorated after salary number 17 line 17 is elem zuta which we're going to also add prorated after the salary under n as in the policy area we're going to add item number two which is approval of the revision of policy number one six four eight which is return to school plan i'm sorry go ahead okay and that will read resolved move the board of education suspend the rules of bylaw zero one three one requiring two board readings to adopt a policy and adopt policy number one six four eight return to school plan with one reading and have a and have this policy effective september 1 2020 and be a further resolve at the board of education approve the following revision to policy 1648 return to school plan previously approved by the board august 6

0192020 board meeting as per attached and the revision is found under section a dot 2 dot c which reads students and the insert will be will be required rule out is are strongly encouraged and it will continue to where face coverings rule out and are required to do so when social distancing cannot be maintained and it continues after that rule out to read unless doing so would inhibit the student's health it is also necessary to acknowledge that enforcing the use of the face coverings may be impractical for young children or individuals with disabilities that concludes the changes and additions to tonight's agenda wonderful thank you mr moffitt um i see we have 309 attendees and i'm about to open the public session unless there's an objection from the board i will read the statement with

020three minutes per person any objection okay thank you and i'll continue uh 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 for three minutes per person uh members of the community are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at subsequent meetings under old business can i get a mover mrs albanese second mr pavlak okay uh this is agenda items only hello yes you're on good evening board trustees administration and the community my name is eda ferrante and i'm

021president of the wayne education association for the record educators are hardworking caring professionals who want to see their students inspired and grow as leaders and learners if requiring them to go into a classroom on september 8th you are going to have staff members do so begrudgingly full of anxiety and with worry if you force the staff back to these buildings that we call our schools our first and consuming priority will be on our personal safety the education of our students will unfortunately have to be a secondary concern this will be our new normal additionally we have been told many of the specifics to our numerous questions posed will be worked out at the building level this seems to really be a code for i really don't know in 20 days you're asking staff to meet

022the high level of academic excellence that wayne is known for and we don't have the answers that we need we don't need these answers 20 days from now or 20 hours before students report we needed those answers 20 days ago our school community is at risk right now because of indecision and failure to answer the most basic of questions asked which brings us to the buzzword for the day transparency is the school community up to date on aspects of reopening such as flare-ups of the virus over the summer we know at least 12 school-aged children in wayne have tested positive for covet further a custodian in the district hosted positive for corona during the school during the summer thankfully he was in a mostly empty building but what would have happened during the school year

023could you live with yourself if somebody contracted the virus and brought it to their family because other boards superintendents and administrators have echoed those same concerns when opting to open all virtually perhaps their moral compass points in the correct way forward there are a few justifiable reasons to start the year with a hybrid method the hybrid method is best dizzying it is medically unsafe and educationally inferior teachers have zero experience or training at the very least there is some equity garnered through our remote experience from last year the hybrid model is set up to be an unwieldy disaster without a pandemic if one of where to present the remote or hybrid plan on its chances for implementation success it is clear that the remote plan is academically superior your administrators won't tell you that the

024hybrid system is a disaster because it doesn't fit their agenda or they're reluctant to speak up some of you sitting here are guilty of the same towards the public you know what the right and safe decision is we will not go alone along with this charade this deception it seems some of you have the perverse belief that you need to get the educators back to work as if it is some sort of show or a victory like it's some kind of game well i suppose it is but the problem is you're paying with our health if if there are concerns about a virtual platform let me put them to rest now with continued training we will use a virtual model that requires students to go to school during their scheduled time teachers will hold live

025lessons with all of our students and we will also continue to use all the technological tools available to us i am for you to go all virtual time mr moffatt yes i'm sorry mr ante and thank you uh your time is up and i want to remind the rest of the people that this is the public portion on agenda items only um so if you want to speak to an agenda item kindly start by stating which one you're going to speak about or you'll have to wait for the second public portion thank you very much next speaker dr burchard yes hello my name is dennis carolich to speak on the um school reopening um i'm a teacher and unfortunately as i must remind you all i'm a human being i have been a faithful servant

026to the residents of wayne for roughly 24 years there's nothing that makes me happier than to be in the classroom i teach social studies this year i started teaching a new course human rights in world history these studies often end up revolving around how those in power will dominate lesser people and often put them into situations where they take away their fundamental rights of life liberty and property and that we study how those in power will force less fortunate people into situations and do them do things that they themselves would never do and put themselves and put themselves in danger of losing their rights so i would like you to do something for me board members i invite you to have your next meeting in my classroom room 238 in wayne valley you'll love it

027when you enter this brick oven of a building you'll find the stairs to the second floor uh but don't touch the railing it's probably playing host as a hundred or more students have touched it that day you'll you'll know you're getting close to my room when every step you take you'll go up five degrees in humidity and temperature you wouldn't think it could get any hotter but once you go into my room you find out that that's not true next i ask you to put on your mask and make your best effort to breathe i apologize for the faint of the pain the place hasn't been painted in over 25 years um and nothing's really been done oh i stand corrected they did put in windows that don't open very you know that's really very

028helpful in his time um so if you're waiting for a cold breeze you're going to be waiting for a long time and a fan no i'm afraid that's not allowed and it doesn't matter anyway i can't power it for all of the boasting about our technology i have one outlet in my entire room and that is jerry rigged to my computer with extension cords running half the room which is a violation of both cusack and the fire code hopefully you won't have to use the faculty restrooms which have been which have always been a disgrace and an indignity to us cramped reeking with no ventilation or windows just cinder blocks and stench if you have to use the lone toilet in our in our section i suggest you get tested it is not a sight

029or a smell that you would soon forget visiting this room now let's add a little corona to the mix my point are several one is the clear absurdity that for safety you are meeting remotely and meanwhile contemplating ordering us to go back into the room with a bunch of children that is why i need you in my room the next meeting you have get nice and close because the kids certainly will to educators decisions that you're about to make mean more than the platitudes that we often hear from you we don't need cliches we need actions to protect our lives two entering many of our schools is like going back in time old ventilation systems no air conditioning windows that don't open school shouldn't under any circumstance be a test case reopening it's very nice

030of you to volunteer for me mr carol i'm sorry thank you i have to stop you thank you mr sam thank you very much next spoiler hi um i'm rob sardi i work at skyler colfax and i'm the wa treasurer i've i've been teaching for 22 years i've never really had a year like this every year right now i'm super excited about going in i'm slightly nervous about the kids i'm going to be meeting but now i have this sense of trepidation it doesn't matter how this pans out i'm not looking forward to this year whether we begin the school year in an all virtual format or hybrid model we know this is not an ideal situation for students parents or for teachers and staff we are a community that's split right now i'm disheartened

031as i read social media comments that are attached to articles are forwarded to me by concerned parents that teachers in wayne and across the country went from being heroes in the spring and are now targets of countless negative comments and we really just become the villains the perception presented by many people in the community is that we don't want to work teachers are lazy teachers are selfish and that teachers don't care about the children of wayne you know that's wrong the reality is that the virtual model of instruction is substantially more challenging than traditional in-person teaching it is not an easy way out live streaming with our students requires more planning and places us in a position of further scrutiny from the community we are we care about the health of our our students and

032their families and if it's okay because it doesn't seem like for a lot of people we care about the health of ourselves and our families the information at the last community forum just it didn't sit well for me it said that we were perfectly ready materials were in place everything's fine we were informed that hand sanitizers were currently installed in every classroom that every school was equipped with shields and recommended ppe and the ventilation systems were in compliance or at least we'd be able to open the windows a little bit more um two days later i went to school and the reality was there was no hand sanitizing stations in any of the rooms in my hallway um are there shields they weren't in the buildings are there going to be some for some students

033yes will they be in all schools yeah but not for all students two days after the community forum the ppe wasn't in the schools there's no signage in the hallways or in the classroom those items were in progress and not completed as suggested in the last meeting it's miscommunications like these that concern members of the wa and the community and make us question if we are actually as prepared as a district as we think we are having a clear picture of the current situation clearly can impact a family's decision on what model of instruction best suits for them the perception also is that teachers are the only ones that are worried about the reopening the reality is that we know that the board is some of you were ready to come in for um in

034person and some of you were nervous what you guys ultimately apparently decided to do was go all virtual it's kind of like what we're asking right now um we know that the uh custodial staff is also very nervous and they just want a couple of i'm sorry to stop you now but that's your time thank you very much i thank you for the time that you gave me thank you next caller please hello yes oh hi thank you for taking my call this is my name is tara daly and i have three children in the wayne school system and i'm thank you for the plan that you put together i appreciate it you know we love our teachers here in wayne we feel they're essential employees and i'm speaking um in regards to the plan

035to come back i know that the teachers are expressing that they're nervous and anxious and scared these are emotions that we all feel as humans uh and all of those of us that have been working the whole time during the pandemic we understand and we can empathize with you but the truth is and when they speak about the how things went in the spring it caught us off guard we were all unprepared and we had to adjust now we've had time we all know what we have to do we wear masks we wash our hands we social distance that's all we can do no one can predict the future or what's going to happen but these children need their teachers they need their classmates that's how they learn best in a group the parents that

036are asking for the teachers to return we are not asking we're not being critical of you we're telling you that you're essential and you're needed and you're important and just like the workers at trader joe's at stop and shop our healthcare workers all the people that have been working the entire time and we're asking you to come back to mrs ferrante's comments about a moral compass i will say that when we as a community saw the questions that were going around such as will you be willing to provide out extra help will you be willing to provide teacher recommendation letters for children to go to college those questions don't seem like you're concerned about the health and well-being those seem like bullying tactics and it's it was very hard and upsetting for us parents to

037see that that that is your attitude and we were concerned about those tactics being brought on and and the teachers putting the place where they had to answer those questions so again i appreciate the plan that you've made i like that there's options for people to stay at home if they want to the virtual world is not good enough for some of these students for the children with learning disabilities that they cannot have access to the their one-on-one learning their iep cannot be completed they need to go in and they need their teachers present thank you very much thank you next caller please hello five months ago we were all thrown into a world of virtual teaching almost immediately teachers were painted as heroes now we're being called greedy and selfish if worrying about our

038own lives and the lives of our students makes us greedy and selfish then so be it we will not apologize for standing up and saying out loud it is not safe for our students to be back in the classroom during fire drills i make sure every single one of my kids is safely out of the building before me during an evacuation drill i make sure every single student makes it to our designated location walking on busy streets active shooter drills i make sure all of my students are hiding while i'm locking down the room and checking the hall for any children that might be there then i go and i stand in front of them i along with all of my colleagues have proven over and over again that we put our students lives and

039safety in front of our own you all trust us to do that to do what is best for them in an emergency situation well guess what we are in an emergency situation for anyone saying that kids need to go back to school for normalcy and in-person instruction you do not fully understand what school will look like in september i've taught first grade for 14 years sometimes i joke with my kids that i'm going to shu tai in the olympics because i've gotten so good at it in september i won't be able to tie their shoes i won't be able to help zip up a coat or help open a stuck backpack i will be in front of the room with markings on the floor six feet apart from all my kids wearing a mask more

040importantly when my kids come in scared which they will when they have to quickly learn all of the new rules and procedures due to kovid i won't be able to give that reassuring smile or give them that little hug that they need academically think about how hard it will be to teach those kids how to read with those masks on or how they're going to be able to learn those math concepts without picking up the counters think about how safe it's going to be dropping your child off at 8 35 when our teacher's contract doesn't have them working with kids until 8 50. that's not the in-person instruction that our kids deserve i along with our president and my mother we've both chosen to opt our own children into virtual learning we wouldn't be good

041teachers if we kept our own children home and safe but we're willing to let our students return to in-person instruction we're telling you that it's not safe maybe administration should actually tell the parents that children kids will be cleaning their own desks in between classes or that the pm kindergarten kids are going to be walking into a classroom that was sprayed with sanitizer assuming one of the two custodians actually had time to spray it i can only hope that our district values our health and our children's health like bloomfield and passaic who chose to go remote instead of hiring yet another consultant dr toback did you in fact sign the attestation document the document that certifies that the school district has developed and will implement a reopening plan for the 2021 school year that satisfies

042all of the necessary criteria our plan is not enough there is not enough rebirth i'm sorry that's your time iran hi i'm carrie anne palmeri and i'm the second vice president of the wea i am also a middle school science teacher and will be looking at things through that lens when you are mapping a plan part of the process is research of what scientific work has already been done on the topic luckily we aren't pioneering this particular topic in a vacuum and we can look at school districts that have already opened and then closed this is probably because children play a larger role in the spread of the virus than anyone had previously thought today the harvard gazette reported although children with covet 19 are not as likely to become as seriously ill as adults

043as asymptomatic carriers or carriers with few symptoms attending school they can spread infection and bring the virus into their homes the study also found that children can carry a high viral load meaning they are more contagious in research it's best to look for multiple sources so i continued my start my search states who have not who have who have already begun the school year are already feeling the repercussions of bringing people together as dr tobak mentioned it's best to compare states with the same level of risk according to kovidak now pennsylvania and ohio are of the same level of risk as new jersey pennsylvania had 29 different instances with just their summer athletics alone ohio had 33 instances repeating the mistakes of others shouldn't be part of our planning process we always like to think

044that we will be better prepared and these things won't happen in wayne but let's follow one student through their day after riding the bus they are going through the hallway they will reach their first classroom their first of nine different rooms if they are a middle schooler they will touch their desks maybe the pencil sharpener maybe the child next to them sneezes maybe they use common lab materials or art supplies eventually they will need to use the restroom where they will touch the bathroom sink the bathroom stall locks sink handles paper towel dispensers because none of these are touchless then they go home after coming in contact with at least 10 children and one teacher per class that totals a minimum of 90 students nine teachers and nine desk or table surfaces this is not

045counting areas that are incalculable such as stairway railings water fountains and any other high contact areas when you consider this combine it with the findings from harvard that infected children often carry higher viral loads as they go through their day while the district has been working around the clock to prepare we just aren't there yet we aren't there with enough hand sanitizing stations or desk shields to protect the stray sneeze the number that's been ordered isn't enough for even enough of the quarter of the student population the chromebooks for elementary teachers will not be here until the second or third week in september and not all of the ppe we need to open has hit the buildings yet the markings on the floor to help assist with social distancing have not been placed and despite

046be today being particularly pleasant by now most of us have probably experienced what wearing a mask in an unair conditioned space can feel like a very notable gap is that if the department of health recommends in conjunction with a local health department we identify rapid testing resources for when staff and students develop symptoms again through a data-driven lens how can we make informed sorry to stop you ms palmieri that's your time thank you thank you very much next caller hello you're on hi eileen damico 29 manor drive um i guess i first want to again as i did a couple meetings ago thank everybody administration and all those who work behind the scenes for all of the hard work that went into the return to school plan i know that was a herculean effort and

047and i applaud all the work that went into it um you know listening and watching the news and reading social media the last couple days um i guess i'm just really confused we have a plan um it seems as safe a plan as any at this point and as i understand it it's been approved it's been approved by the board of ed it's been approved as safe by the applicable state agencies so what i'm trying to wrap my head around in all this is that if we're following or if our our state and our the appropriate agencies are following the science as they've been claiming all along and the science indicates that this plan is safe then why at this point are we looking to question it why wouldn't we follow it we've been following

048the the state government we've been following the department of health and their their version of safe and the science all along now all of a sudden that science isn't good enough and and you know emotion which rightfully so is very high and fear and anger and frustration but all those are coming into play to make a decision that really needs to be based on what the science deems safe um i also keep hearing that we don't feel it's safe yet we don't feel it's safe enough so my question is and i have yet to get an answer then when is it going to be safe is it going to be safe when we have a hundred percent guarantee that no one is going to get covered that's never going to happen are we feeling safe

049when we have no more cases in wayne or in new jersey well we may as well plan to go virtual for the next i don't know how many years because that's also probably never going to happen it's not how a virus works um you know i i just i don't know when is it that we would feel safe enough um and you know look as a parent of a now high school senior um a lot's been said about virtual and and you know what the virtual model looks like and i think what concerns many parents myself included is that we still don't have a clear picture of what virtual would look like or will look like because we will have virtual days in the fall and i think perhaps if we knew exactly what that

050would look like it may ease some angst it may not but i can tell you if it looks anything like what it looked like in the spring that won't cut it as an example my son who was a then high school junior had zero and i i'm not exaggerating zero interaction with any but two of his teachers from march to june no email no calls no live lectures no zoom meetings no videotaped live lectures nothing his interaction or his education if you will was assignments posted on google classroom both in class you know read these notes here's the notes for the topic learn them yourself basically and then go do the homework and you can email me if you have questions that went from march to june for all but two subjects now i'm not

051blaming the teachers everyone was thrust into this no one was prepared no one was given the proper tools or resources but if anything close to that is the plan for virtual in the fall that's not education and that's not good enough that's your time mr miko thank you no that's okay thank you next am i on yes you are hi i'm linda del piso i'm a teacher in wayne and i want to talk about the school's opening and first of all i want to say that i really respect all of you for all the work that you've done i'm going to get a little personal now because that's one of the aspects of teaching that i enjoy so much in my 29 years in wayne in five years in irvington i watched my mother die

052from this disease in may i watched her die or dying via a zoom at mars town hospital she was alone and by herself i couldn't help her i couldn't be there she lived in assisted living facility in madison now granted she was much older than the high school students and the middle school students and the grammar school students but she caught it from someone who was asymptomatic or had mild symptoms because she was locked in her room for march i didn't get to see her i just talked to her on the phone so you can see has uh this experience has made me very nervous since younger students younger people i'm sorry i'm really nervous right now can be asymptomatic and can pass it on to other people granted more old people have died from

053this or have gotten very ill but there have been people of all different ages that have either died and or become ill or recover and have severe medical ailments afterwards so i just wanted to give you a personal touch about how some of the teachers are feeling especially those that have seen the um destruction that this virus has done firsthand again i respect you all but i personally don't think it's safe and um i think dr toback said that we're in a low-risk area but patterson is closing and we're they're bordered right with us so how does their risk change maybe they they don't have uh obviously it's a different school system i went to kennedy high school in paterson i thought it was a great school system um but uh i just wanted to

054give you my personal feelings about this thank you very much thank you next spoiler hi my name is natalie i live at 94 balsam road um i'm a health care worker and um one of the things in this plan that i've noticed um that's missing is um that you guys are in testing so where is that in the plan that's what i'd like to know thank you next caller i think you need to unmute yourself there you go hello you can hear me now hi um my name is heather potts i'm going to talk about the school reopening um i'm a science teacher at wayne valley high school and i'm also chair of the health and safety committee for the wea i am deeply concerned about the plan for returning to school even using a

055hybrid model to attempt to limit the spread of covid19 through our school population models have shown that infection rates in passaic county have been increasing since june and the wayne return to school plan has significant holes in safety this is especially in regards to the school ppe physical barriers isolation methods and most notably ventilation in the classrooms and other key areas of the schools the proposed plan lacks details and does not meet suggested safety standards set forth by organizations such as osha aiha and ashrae these gaps were identified by closely evaluating the district plan and detailed documentation has been submitted to the district for review there are new cases in wayne being documented nearly every day often in individuals of school age which is still an age group that we know the least about when

056it comes to the long-term impact of covid19 and despite low overall cases in new jersey this state is still one of the three states with the highest number of children showing multi-system inflammatory syndrome a serious and potentially fatal side effect in some children given the consistent new cases in wayne and that even prior to school opening staff members who have been on site have been diagnosed with covid19 at what point does the school district deem it necessary to close and teach remotely when can we expect a plan that meets standards of safety to keep our students community members and staff safe i hope the board considers the fact that although we are close to safe we are not there yet opening with a hybrid model now would push us back and ultimately necessitate remote teaching

057for a longer period of time at the cost of the health and safety of staff and students a cost that could be avoided by starting september remotely so many of us who work in the school have over our many years of teaching attended student wakes and have had colleagues and students who have lost someone close to them we've seen the impact of that and we've seen the impact of distance learning distance learning was not what we wanted but with proper preparation it will be a lot better than what it was in the spring and i'll take that over the former situation any day thank you for your time hi this is stacy smith can you hear me yes okay i am stacy smith and i am the secretary at schuyler colfax middle school i'm calling

058on behalf of all the secretaries in the district we returned to work in july in the buildings and our immediate supervisors have been fantastic however we still i will emphasize still do not have the supplies we were promised in july i received one box of supplies for three secretarial offices at schuyler i cannot share one tub of clorox wipes and walk around to the two other offices and squirt hand sanitizer in my colleagues hands there is no signage on the floors for the students or visitors or my colleagues to know social distance we have two full-time custodians during the day and one part-time it is unrealistic to expect them to clean eight bathrooms as faculty and students go in and out let alone cleaning other common areas many of us as secretaries work in very

059close proximity to the nurses offices which have still not been barriered off this is a huge concern for many of us we requested sneeze guards for our offices i received four sneeze guards for three secretarial offices i think it's interesting that many people in the community and across the world have no problem bashing our profession and our apprehension going back to work however we have lots of government and corporate offices that have no plan on returning to work until january and that is just fine with everybody i hope that the community can realize that a lot of promises are being made and they are not being followed through with thank you thank you next caller hello hello yes state your name and address please frank ruggiero for kimberly place um i'm a student at wayne

060valley and i just wanted to discuss um both the mascot and the cleansiness of the theater when i went back for senior photos so first off i'd like to just say how harmful it is to just keep that mascot i just don't feel as though it's appropriate to have sorry you know what i'm sorry i'm gonna have to interrupt you because that's not an agenda item oh okay okay i'm sorry i'm sorry i didn't realize you were just going down that road uh there's a second public portion after we go through our votes on the agenda okay thank you very much um but i'd like to also discuss the clumsiness of the theater it makes me afraid that what the cleansiness of the theater like how clean the feeder is i went back for senior

061photos and i just there was sawdust and dust everywhere and it just makes me afraid like if that's not clean then what else is not cleaned because i don't know i'm just i'm very afraid like of going back too so like i i just also my heart goes out to ms del piso's mom i'm so sorry for your loss um like just after hearing that i was like yeah i am i i don't want to go back if it's like that i just do not feel safe and i'm sure a lot of other students and staff also feel the same way that they just don't feel safe going back um that is all i wanted to say thank you very much just a reminder everyone this is agenda items only we have a second public

062portion on other school related matters next quality is there a problem dr burchard i realized my uh i was up for the second public portion i apologize you're you're gonna need to fix your audio too it's terrible something's wrong um next caller hello good evening my name is fred ayers i'm a teacher at skylar i would just like to ask you to consider a few things for me please um at the moment how many people are allowed to be in a movie theater what percentage of maximum capacity zero at the moment how many people are allowed to eat dinner inside a restaurant maximum capacity zero restaurants maximum 25 of the total building capacity and you have to be outside can someone please explain to me i understand what you were saying earlier dr toback they're

063impressive numbers we've done a great job here in northern new jersey can someone explain to me how they feel it is in any way safe to have 50 percent of the student body in a building with a hundred percent of the adult staff for five hours a day four days a week when you can't even be indoors or restaurant at all never mind for a two-hour meal i'm glad you are all comfortable playing literally russian roulette with my life i'm not quite as comfortable in that role i love all our kids i have the best job on the planet i am scared literally to death about what can happen to me being with hundreds of kids and clothes in this building every day every week i'm scared for my life literally please consider this thank

064you for your time thank you next [Music] allen tempescu 41 gibbs drive about the school reopening in my opinion the school district is top-notch we have wonderful teachers we have a superintendent who has spent a lot of time leading the development of a reopening schedule the board has done a phenomenal job in entertaining questions and answers but the virus has caused a lot of fear confusion and a difference of opinions i've listened to many of the meetings and as a parent certain things that present concerns to me one remote learning must be better this time better than it was in the spring and i trust that the reopening plan addresses that second i heard a board member at a last meeting call the reopening and compare it to the covid wild wild west that concerns

065me i'm not criticizing the comment but as a parent when i hear that that concerns me third when i hear that parents are going to be taking the temperatures and the symptoms and recording them in good faith for the school to rely on and for parents and teachers to rely on that concerns and then when i hear that they could do it the night before when we know temperatures can change over the night that concerns me as well i'm also concerned about cleaning of of deaths in between classes when there's six minutes i don't know about you but i can't find lysol wipes in the supermarket how are we getting all these anti-bacterial wipes that all the kids are going to be cleaning their desks for the six minutes they have going classroom to classroom

066that concerns me and finally i'm concerned when i read in the wayne patch on august 17th just this week that bergen hudson and passaic counties with it when the car where the corona virus outbreaks originated and infected tens of thousands of people are now at risk of an outbreak and according to covet act now paseo county is ranked highest in terms of infection rates in new jersey it's on august 17th do a google from the wayne patch i applaud everyone for doing the reopening plan everyone has worked hard on it but as a parent i hope i get answers to these questions thank you hi my name is lee madar 23 villains avenue i am a student currently attending wayne valley high school first off i want to thank all of my teachers because they

067will be sacrificing so much for us i want to apologize to all of my teachers for this horrible situation they're being put through when will you as the board understand the risk of going back to school is it going to be when a student dies my teacher dies are you aware of how devastating that is going to be when a student's close friend dies when someone's favorite teacher dies how are we going to deal with that it's absolutely sickening to see how little the board cares about our teachers so many teachers have already spoken out and many will continue to speak out please i urge you as the board to change your decision make the schools fully virtual also i have a question um is the district goals on our agenda today no yeah no

068all right so um so i want to talk about the um sorry i want to talk about the district goals today um i'll have to come back for the second public portion equal and understanding sorry please come one of the ways we can do this yes not at this public portion it's not on the agenda we have a second public portion after we vote on our agenda items you can return and address it then thank you did you have anything else okay next caller please hi good evening um i'd just like to thank uh sorry tori esposito woodlot road i'd just like to thank dr toback and the members of the board for listening to the 77 percent of parents who are also taxpayer who are who are also taxpayers who want their children to

069go back to school i keep hearing this word safe when will it be safe is the vaccine going to make it safe will everybody be mandated to get this vaccine the same ea w ea members who are complaining that it's not safe i hope they all enjoyed their summer vacation i hope they get all of their groceries at the supermarket i hope that they that all of their kids play their sports in the summer or they actually go to the town pool and and interact with other kids you don't what you don't hear on the news is the school districts that have opened and have had no cases it's amazing to me that daycares could be open i can go send my kids to the boys and girls club to the ymca to idealab for

070a thousand dollars a child and they can figure out how to make it work that's all i have thank you thank you next caller can you unmute yourself okay um skip that one dr burchard they've spoken already and go to the next one good evening my name is nancy linden i have been a social worker in the wayne public schools for the past 27 years i have always worked in multiple schools and i am currently assigned to three different schools i would like to get some information about teachers and staff who will be traveling to different schools throughout the school day or school week will we be provided with ppe protection for each school that we go into and what about the issue of us carrying potential germs from one school population to another my

071other question is in all three of my child's study team offices there is no possible way for us to socially distance safely with my teammates none of us have been informed as to how this has been addressed with school only starting in a couple of weeks so i'm very curious that um we haven't heard from any of our department administrators thank you thank you next spoiler you're on klein i'm a teacher wayne also a resident seven uh 476 to hewn drive i just wanted to know i keep hearing that i just need clarification that's all eighty percent of the parents is to go back to uh full-time in-person learning but 80 percent of what let's say for the sake of argument there's a thousand students in wayne did or did a thousand parents answer the

072survey i doubt that highly because i know how hard it is just to get an emergency form back from students the parents don't always send it back right away so what are we talking about when we say 80 percent of the parents that that's all i'm asking thank you thank you hello yes you're on hi my name is natalia ortega i live at three thomas terrace and i'm an incoming senior at wayne valley um for a lot of the parents who are concerned uh with their kids going back to school because they feel they're not getting the same education my junior year which is the most academically struggling and difficult year of my academic life because it prepares me for going into college was cut short and i had to do the three most important

073months of it online for ap testing and we had no finals so the most difficult months of that year i had to do online and i don't feel comfortable going back to school because i have a grandmother that lives with me at home who if i were to catch it because i could be asymptomatic because children and younger adults are more asymptomatic than they or have mild symptoms i don't want to give it to her and i don't want to put her at risk and after hearing a lot of the teachers and other staff members talk about or complain about how the conditions of the school are a perfect breeding ground for this virus i honestly would prefer a virtual education as opposed to an education that is going to be equally as as little

074but in person with the risk of us getting sick and family members sick so i just hope the board considers that there are other students who have older family members or people with risk at home and that it's not really safe for us to go back thank you thank you very much i don't see any further hand raised up one popped up you're on hello can you hear me hi i'm zola casanova i'm a former teacher and as well as an attorney and a resident of wayne who has two students in high school at wayne valley and i love and i appreciate the model that you have created because it gives everybody options for those who have sick family members and do not want to return fully they can virtually study i have two high

075school students who've got virtually no contact with their teachers at all i had to intervene to email teachers that still did not respond to me during this model and i commend the as a former teacher i know it's a hard job and as a i had a father who came out of retirement to be a front line worker at a hospital because it was so important we have essential workers in every supermarket and i agree that yes there is a safety issue but we have a model where the not a 100 attendance will be there the high school students understand the repercussions of not wearing a mask they are at a different level our virtual learning failed because at least for what i observed and private schools are able to return we have depaul right

076in this town who is returning in person learning so i have to then not i'm still going to pay taxes and pay private tuition in order to get the same level of education for my kids that's the only option if we do not go back at least with some in-person education because honestly the virtual learning failed it failed because at least for the high school model that i observed teachers were absent thank you next hello you're on hi steven sundell 107 maplewood avenue i just want to say that uh is as as well thought out as the return to school plan was for hybrid there's no plan it's perfect i mean you still have teachers that are there full-time 100 you still have parents that are going to be uh relied upon to take temperatures

077we know that that's not gonna always happen you've got situations where kids are going to be allowed to play sports which kind of null and voids the whole point of keeping people in cohorts and although no plan is perfect our son did the remote learning obviously last year and it was fine so mr sardi was correct in saying that um there aren't enough preparations that are taking place even though they say there are preparations in place there's no hand sanitizer my wife teaches in a different district it's the same thing so whatever is being told to you about the preparations that schools are taking is not happening it's a myth so you're not gonna have the ppe you're not gonna have the sneeze guards you're not gonna have anything that is being put into these

078plans so i think the best thing is to keep the teachers safe keep the kids safe and just go full remote thank you next that's because and the other two callers uh have an older version of you and we're not able to accept them in but there's two more that just raise their hand okay so lisa carbone and randy court you'll need to call in for the next public portion we can't admit you and i see two other hands raised hello um my name is claudia chilego and i teach at wayne hills high school um i'm hearing all the sides of everybody that everybody's saying and i just want to uh with my heart in my hands tell you that the teachers did not fail in the spring we worked very hard to do the

079best we could with what we were given and part of the reason why the students were not in contact with teacher with teachers was because administration did not require students to join zoom meetings when teachers had the zoom meetings there were meetings i set up with students that i had no one there or maybe one or two students so i just wanted to put that out there the teachers did not fail we tried our best and the students were not required to do that that's all thank you thank you very much hi andrea mchale 82 hershey road um many high school bathrooms at valley are often locked and not available to students i hope that all bathrooms will be open and available to our children to allow for less bathroom traffic i'm just wondering how

080can we be assured that soap dispensers won't be empty like they are on a normal day thank you yes um part dardia poplar road i just have a quick question about the plan to go back and how a potential change to go full remote might make us question some of the past meetings contents around reduction in force for paris i'm wondering if the board deems themselves to have a fiduciary responsibility to the wayne taxpayer and if we do go full remote will that matter be revisited and discussed in order to save funds for the district hi my name is marion carroll i am a proud wayne school teacher i have been a teacher in the district for the past 20 years first of all i want to say thank you for all of your hard

081work for putting many many many hours countless hours back into a plan i also want to say thank you very much to the high school students who have spoken up um we taught you well um so thank you for speaking up for what you believe in i have never spoken at a board meeting before but i i feel the need to now it's in regards to the reopening plan i have watched the past several board meetings over eight and a half hours i had i watched the i was listening to the community meeting and i am left with so many questions and in regards to the public who think so many of us have just spent the time on the beaches this summer i just wanted many of you to know that for me personally

082i have spent countless hours trying to figure out ways to make this work for the students in my class they are my children and anybody that i've ever taught will tell you those kids are my kids and i feel so strongly about not reopening because the district is not ready i have been in school several times not at the beach but in school the past several days trying to get my room ready and realizing this is not going to be a normal year thinking that i'm going to be standing in front of a classroom six feet away from the children i i can't help them hold their pencil correctly if they can't log onto a website i can't come near them so if that's what the expectation in the minds of some people think if

083that's what it is to be learning and a good teacher that's not what we want we we don't want to go virtual but it's not safe to go back in the school our buildings are not ready i could tell you from my own building windows don't open we don't have screens floors are not marked these poor custodians where is all their ppe um we already know that a custodian already contacted the virus and it's scary so i'm urging you to please rethink your plan let us go virtual but give us the professional development so we could do our jobs we could do it well we can be successful if you give us that chance please let us have that opportunity so thank you and i appreciate your time thank you you're on hi my name

084is maria jannard 27 you hear me you're breaking up a little but yes this is maria ginart um okay i'm going to move a little bit maria jannard 27 terrace road i am also a proud wayne teacher my main concern is the ventilation now this seems to be the big issue with this virus and our rooms the way the windows are it's all glass and the only air that comes in are through two little two by four squares on each side of each window the science rooms in particular is where i teach are pretty big room so opening the windows a few inches more i don't know how much air i'm going to get in there opening the door i face a wall so i i don't understand how i'm gonna get circulation of air

085into that room and i am very very concerned about this and again i also wanted to thank you for all your hard work because this is a daunting task but i i really feel in my heart that we are not ready for this thank you thank you next hello yes hi um my name is jody tribasian i live at 37 smith lane i am calling in on this meeting because initially i thought i'd be here listening to plans to you know not allow the children to go back to the hybrid learning model but i'm hearing a lot of concerns from the teachers as a nurse on the front lines of this virus i understand their concerns of not having ppe in my hospital when we did not have it there was a ton of anxiety

086for us working in this environment i don't understand we're august 20th at this point why there's not hand sanitizer in the schools why it's not marked for the teachers these are simple things that we can do to make them feel more comfortable i want my children in the classroom many people want their children in the classroom my children will be participating in the hybrid learning model which i wish they were going every day in all honesty but i am happy that they can go two half days and i will do whatever they need me to do i will have my children in a mask they will wear a face shield i will have them wear gloves if you want them to okay because i know the importance of them being in the classroom but these

087are simple things at this time that i feel that the board of education can address to make the teachers feel comfortable when you feel that you are being supported in doing everything you can to protect the teachers then everyone's going to be happy the parents are going to be happy the teachers are going to be happy this is a very challenging situation it's it's unprecedented but we can't live in a bubble either and i just think there's simple things possibility of hiring more custodial staff as well i don't know if that's been discussed to have more support to clean the bathrooms to make sure the desks are being cleaned the railings all of these things i heard there's no hand sanitizer ppe for the teachers um you know the the custodial staff being concerned as

088well the secretary's having concerns these are simple things we can do so let's do it let's help them let's support them let's go back to school let's work on this together let's support each other and let's all be successful and show the rest of the state that we can do this we can do this together and we can put our children and our teachers and everyone have their best intentions and work together for the best possible outcomes this is not difficult there are simple things we can do and these things should be done now and i thank you for your time thank you is that an older model miss dr richard i no she had spoken earlier okay all right we're gonna end this public portion for now can i get a mover you can

089speak at the next portion mr bubba okay dr toback would you like to address some concerns now or go through our agenda you're on mute that was a long session sorry about that um i could address quite a few it was a common thread i figured you could address it when it was over yeah um so i do agree and like i said i had intended to recommend to the board that potentially we could go to at least a delayed opening to allow some of the types of questions that you are hearing um to be addressed okay because ultimately when teachers do return to their classrooms they have questions they have concerns there are details that need to be addressed but as i said before when i call the county superintendent um there are issues

090that ultimately are our our request would not meet what they believe would be the requirements for us to go to um to start to school virtually now i guess you can go in reverse order there's one one of the concerns especially with a recent caller that there's there's no hand sanitizer there's no there's no custodial class clas um i'm sorry no custodial staff there's not ample ppe it's just not true there's more than ample ppe but we don't distribute the ppe before it's needed so ultimately we have a central location for our ppe our principals have ppe but at this point in the year our teachers are not back in the buildings for the most part there might be some that come in every now and again to you know to decorate the classrooms to

091get organized for the year we understand that um so the district does have more than adequate supplies to get the school year started we have more than enough um ppe that will be available for staff members and students um we have two masks for each staff member as far as sneeze guards i know that question has come up quite a few times but sneeze guards are not required um seize guards are a possible tool that could be used but in the end the masks are what we do require and that is really the main thing as far as the um the ventilation system just wanted to mention that we did have our hvac engineer take a look at our plan um ultimately our plan does meet a number of requirements and a number of standards

092and so as far as like dampers being opened to allow more fresh air that is something that has been done as far as our ability to run our hvac systems 24 7. that's something we'll do once we're up and running as far as the classroom windows we're doing an assessment around the district about which windows are difficult to open or which windows can only be opened a little bit again there's a safety standard that also exists and second floors that ultimately we keep the windows because ultimately there was a case a few years ago where there was a student that jumped out of a second floor window not in wayne another community but that caused a lot of school districts to change how wide you can open second floor windows okay um regardless um if

093there are staff members that don't have something in their classroom that they need ultimately there is a work order system so for any staff members that i'm called in and i'm concerned about something that they do need in their classroom certainly their their administrator or the work order system would likely yield at least some kind of positive result or response you can find out um you know a little bit more about the concern you have um as far as mr darty's question about the reduction in force of course any decision so and that's probably something that is being lost in this discussion but if we were to go fully virtual that would certainly be a significant discussion for the board when it comes to discussing if you are going to be fully virtual for the

094year what about the futures of the bus drivers that we have working in the district what about the future of the paris that we have working in the district i mean those are significant questions um and like i said if we were fully virtual there would be even less work to go around so that would have a major impact on employment in in this community um so i guess overall um i guess one of the staff members um called in about um students not appearing in their class certainly that's that's in that's a situation where the administration should be contacted if you don't see students reporting to your class on a regular basis that's not acceptable and again that's that's a concern that any staff member should report to the building principle as far as

095signage on floors and signage on walls and things like that that is something the district is working on but we'll certainly be ready to go when we get to september and when the buildings are ready to open but um again going back to the oh and ellen klein asked a question about exactly where the number 80 um came from we're talking about parents wanting their students to return to class okay so or the children so we have um basically the most recent number is that we have about um 1700 students out of about 75 70 600 i don't have the exact number on me but that that is the number of students so now we're down to 77 of the students that will be returning of our total enrollment so the number is 77 percent

096of students um then the other question was about and a concern that was expressed which is certainly a very important concern if there are situations where students or staff members have um they have a situation where they have a relative at home particularly for students if you are living in a multi-generational house i know we have a number of students in that situation and so those are decisions that have to be made by the family regarding the level of risk that's acceptable ultimately full virtual instruction is available for all students and so that's something that governor murphy made available so if there is any situation with a student in a multi-generational home you have the ability to to receive virtual instruction um the other question was about testing so we've we've reached out to the

097county and also to our local department of health and we're working on a rapid testing program um and so there's a there's a rapid testing program that we're going to have a schedule for sometime soon it's not it's not required obviously we can't force students to go have a test um for you know just for screening purposes that's something we we don't right now have the capacity to do but we will have a program available if parents would like to have their child screen so we are working on that um and i guess i think i answered many of the questions i think you have as well okay so we'll move on to the agenda start with the j items level of minutes can i get him over to share this is kumar this is

098at the point where we'll also give our committee reports before we call roll we'd like to go first i'm sorry mr moffatt i'm not holding the role until after the committee reports it's part of the agenda item so that's what i would do yeah i'll go first mrs kazam thank you mr brother okay tonight facilities and transportation met with myself mrs kazan mrs put up mr meso mr moffat and mr skibitsky who is taking over transportation for the moment so we started tonight's discussion with the early childhood center we are in the final stages of completion we have received our certificate of occupancy furniture is in place technology is being put in place we are in a really good spot with that we also discussed the dedication garden and bench it's all laid out waiting

099for the plaque for suzanne karanski which is something we wanted to do to honor her we discussed the ecip ii update and we're in the final language being done with the attorney and we should be approved financing is in place so we will be doing our second esip which is something that very few districts get to do as far as energy savings we also discussed every few years that the organization undergoes a review for efficiency so mr maso is looking at ways to make the department more efficient so we also talked about um having cleaning baseline set up in the schools mr miso is going to have that wrapped up hopefully in the next week and then each school will have a baseline and it will be kept up for the whole year as necessary

100and we lost power in nine schools during the last storm which is kind of unnerving and during the summer isn't so bad but it's really pointed out the fact that five or six of our schools need generators so that has to be something that as a board we need to start looking at in our next budget cycle is to start trying to figure out how to get um the generators on all the schools because we have to put a custodian in every school where there's no power because they have to do fire watch because we have no alarm systems so it ends up costing us money long term so then we switched over to transportation oh one other thing about the um i forgot from facilities we happened to see pictures of the warehouse full

101of ppe tonight so mr maso has assured us that we have plenty to start the year with they are all ready to go and we have met the standards that the state has asked us to meet so now we'll move over to transportation which i'll start there with transportation so they are also in the right place as far as all their procedures with coveted 19 they are all set and ready to go routing is in the final stage they had to add 15 routes because of the early childhood center so it's been a little tricky getting all the routes in order but they are ready to go mandatory driver training driver in aid training schedule has been set and they are all set to be ready to go on the 8th when school opens um

102there were some minor issues with the bus conditions of after the shutdown because the one thing that buses and diesel engines don't like to do is sit so we had some repairs that had to be done but they were all taken care of our state inspection is underway um the state has been here sporadically so it's we're ready and we've been waiting for them to just come in and certify everything we're good until the end of september that's the the extension that the state put on it because they don't have enough people at the moment uh let's see we need to look at security again down at the bus depot at north cove because we've had a theft of a catalytic converter and as we all know they can be very expensive and the also

103the last thing we discussed was the department is also going to undergo a review for efficiency they've already made a couple of minor changes to make things better and they will continue to do so over the next several months and that is my report as long as it was thank you mr bubba on the agenda this is albanese um thank you the finance committee met last night wednesday board members in attendance eileen albanese matt giordano catherine kazan administrators in attendance bill moffat who's the business administrator and we all have the opportunity to meet our new assistant business administrator gerald lydic we'd like to welcome her to the district she seems already have um hit the ground running i already got some paperwork from her today and she seems to be settling in and learning the

104rules um we discussed the agenda items that are on tonight's agenda one that we wanted to highlight was a uh new uh cup new contract dr david goldberg from saint joseph's hospital he's a pediatric specialist in infectious disease i think he'll be a huge asset to the district uh for the multitude of questions that i'm sure will have and um you know he'll be there for us as a consulting resource uh we did sign today a budget transfer it was for a rather large amount of money this was to pay for those ppe supplies that apparently are stored in that warehouse um we um we also talked about the amaresco the east cip2 project mr bubba reported on that so i won't go through that detail again um the purchase order for carting is still

105open we had some budget updates some um discussion for district reopening plans um we may have some financial concerns in our extended day programs our that's our before and after school program our food service operation so we had a discussion about how and when uh you know we'll be we'll be looking at those numbers um the early childhood center budget-wise on track more importantly um ready to go no change orders uh looks like it was a job well done we uh also discussed the october board of ed convention uh based on the fact that it will be virtual this year based on the um new jersey school boards association there will be a virtual fee for all wayne attendees it will be a significant savings to the board um in addition to live programs live

106um discussions um those discussions will be um what's the word uh you'll be invited archive thank you you'll be able to review those anywhere for a year so you can really do those training programs at your own uh at your own leisure and um many of the mandatory board trainings for board members will also be done at that time so it will be a a very good savings for the board rather than the in-person trips that we've done in the in the past um that's our report and again welcome to our new assistant business administrator thank you thank you mrs albanese who else met this week mrs share today personnel committee met with myself miss kumar mr pavlov and uh miss paula clark we reviewed the personnel committee minutes from july 16th we reviewed any

107questions we had regarding human resources items on tonight's agenda we uh discussed the new employee orientation that dr toback had mentioned that happened outside under tent but was we were told went very well we reviewed um the reasonable reasonable accommodation process that's been put in place for staff members and the survey data which we've already discussed the um the paris staffing they will get their they should be getting their placements by next week and just that about that that's excuse me the subs that we are putting in place there's going to be two permanent subs at every school and there's already three at the high schools and we are approving many subs because we're trying to minimize how many schools the subs can go to so that we can minimize exposure so most of the

108subs will be placed at one or two schools and that's where they will stay for as long as we need them and that was pretty much it thank you very much mrs paddock thank you the education committee met this morning at 10 am mrs kumar mrs cher and myself along with mrs dawn our back who is our administrative liaison we reviewed minutes from last month and then we went through the agenda for today's meeting the learning center will be hosting virtual pd for our teachers um elementary spanish has expanded to a full curriculum cycle from k to fifth now that we've had the program in place for a while the amplify science program will include more virtual labs for this year um and this has come up before the new jersey state mandate for diversity

109studies will include contributions to our society by members of the lgbtq community and those with disabilities these curriculum mandates will be included in social studies psychology or language arts classes they do not involve anything with sex education or health classes this just has to do with contributions of a diverse society thank you very much isn't there a policy meeting yeah mr pavlak there wasn't a policy meeting did i miss something okay all right my my mistake um okay you can call a roll now mr moffatt on the j items this is motion by mrs seconded by mrs kumar and we call enroll mrs albanese yes mr bubba yes mr giordano yes mrs kumar yes mr pavlak yes mrs put up yes mr shearer yes and mrs kazan yes motion carries thank you at this point

110if someone would like to move the balance of the agenda that would be appropriate or we could do it individually mr president based on the number of people we have in attendance i'm sure a number of them wanted to speak tonight i would move the entire agenda at this point up until okay thank you mr pavlak can i get a second second mr bubba any discussion on any of the agenda items for tonight seeing none roll paul mr papa yes mr giordano yes mrs kumar yes mr pavlak yes mrs puttup yes mr shearer yes mrs albanese yes and mrs kazan yes motion carries thank you this portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on any topic residents are to state their names addresses and subject matter comments may be limited to three

111minutes 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 hello my name is katie cluck i am a voter and i live at 34 hellquest drive the instagram and facebook page racism in wayne schools posted a student story saying in my freshman year a student asked my history teacher if it was okay to call japanese people by a racial slur from the 40s he said yes the same teacher did nothing when a student told me go back to your country this is my country and to watch him do nothing

112was extremely hurtful as a woman of color and a gay person i am also concerned about the culture and wayne schools i have read your current plans and commitments to diversity and inclusion i do not think they are enough we need transparency and in the committees and plans we need to see you are sticking to your commitments please consider making sure the meetings of subcommittees specifically for the mascot as well as um plans to diversify the education are they are made public as they go on and that they continue to meet um to leave out people of color from history and english classes is not only harmful to students of color but inaccurate harming white students as well we need to make sure that the voices of people of color are are not optional we

113need to make sure we are teaching history accurately because people of color aren't and aren't an elective we have always been here we need to make sure when teachers talk about race they are doing so in an appropriate manner there's no excuse for the teachers saying racial slurs and they definitely should not be saying the n word that's just not okay any t-shirt trainings must focus on both implicit bias as well as cultural sensitivity and they must be ongoing as our conversations surrounding race continue to change they cannot claim to support inclusion while also supporting the indian mascot the national congress for american indians have said they do not agree with them these mascots we need a verbal confirmation that this will change even if it is gradual the commitment must be made if we

114wish to start making our community inclusive we must listen to people of color and the experts thank you please consider to stick to your commitments continue to strive for inclusion and continue to be transparent thank you thank you next caller hi my name is lisa carbone i live at 27 dixon place also a teacher in district this is going to be my 14th year at randall carter um like other callers have said i've never called in or spoken at a board meeting but like some others feel very strongly to have my voice heard as well so um i'd actually like to offer a dissenting opinion so i understand that this is a loaded issue and it's complicated um but i feel like it's important for not only the board of education members to know but

115also the superintendent to know that you have a large majority of staff who feel safe returning to work are willing to return to work and want to be in the classroom with our students um just like through this pandemic there's been many essential workers i feel like we are essential workers so i mean there's a couple of points to consider um i feel like just like students have been given parents have been given the option to if they feel unsafe remain totally virtual teachers also have options to keep themselves safe and i also feel like there's a lot of studies behind the fact that and i come from the elementary world of course but that children 10 and under are less likely to be infected and less likely to transmit the virus um and i

116think that's something to be considered as well the other thing to consider too is that virtual learning i think most people would agree does not hold a candle to in-person learning so i mean children desperately need the socialization as well and there's nothing like being in a classroom with your students to um you know really drive points home so i just want to say that i acknowledge it's a complicated issue the virus is not going away anytime soon and i think it would be not only foolish but detrimental to think that we should be consistently virtual until you know a vaccine would be available so that's just my two cents um i appreciate your time and i appreciate the time and effort that you all have put in to um making a hybrid plan that

117sort of benefits everybody thank you thank you very much next caller hi thank you donna river again i just wanted to re-ask my question from before dr toback did you in fact sign the attestation document the one that certifies that the district is ready and that our plan satisfies all of the necessary criteria in regards to what mr bubba and dr toback did say before regarding you know enough ppe to quote unquote start the school year which i think is an interesting way to put it um how can you say we have enough ppe when our own secretaries just told you that we don't they have been asking for it since july and they don't have it so i'm a little concerned with what we have enough to start the year means and i also

118just wanted to say congratulations that i'm really proud and i'm so happy that your school boards association decided to go with a virtual convention thank you hello my name is sarah gaber 1051 rats road and i will be a senior at wayne hills this year i want to discuss with you the racism and prejudice in the wayne school system among the curriculum faculty and students i'm going to read to you a post from the racism and wayne schools page where students and alumni have shared many of their experiences with racism in the school system here it is this past school year we were discussing 911 in my history class and my teacher made a comment that after the incident whenever she would take the subs subway she would hope and pray that there would be

119no muslims on the train and she said this in front of muslim students i'm not muslim but i don't have to be wrecked to recognize that what she said wasn't okay and it's extremely xenophobic how she assumed that every muslim is a terrorist as a muslim girl who has been in wayne school since first grade this story is far too familiar i understand that you have a lot on your plate right now dealing with reopening and coronavirus safety and have already released an outline for addressing this issue but teacher trainings need to be annual and accurate and the committee to reevaluate the wayne valley mascot must be unbiased and transparent because quite frankly the mascot is blatantly racist disrespectful and undermines the wayne school's no place for hate and other anti-discrimination initiatives the school's curriculum

120also needs to be adjusted i'm asking for you to adhere to the change.org petition with over 5 300 signatures to diversify the curriculum and intend to increase to at least 10 percent of social studies content to be about black history and black leaders the achievements of people of color need to be taught the intersectionality of the racism in the women's movement needs to be taught the plights of native americans and the continuing injustice faced by them needs to be taught and it needs to be taught in the elementary middle and high schools as many of the anecdotes on the instagram page span across all three if people of color are able to experience racism at these ages they're old enough to learn about it there must also be attention to how these subjects are taught

121to make sure that they aren't triggering for people of color as methods can do more harm than good some people people need to also be held accountable for their actions all of their actions not just taking actions when there is bullying but also when there is microaggressions gaslighting and cultural appropriation you are responsible for educating the next generation please do so with attention to the social issues they face every day that is it thank you next hi my name is diane lee i'm from 16 kimberly place um i wanted to comment on the wayne valley mascot issue all right so um the wayne valley mission statement states that the goal is to provide a safe environment that promotes tolerance and respect for others one of our core beliefs is that there is to be tolerance

122for cultural racial religious ethnic and individual differences i believe that these are beautiful and great words that are put up on our website and it makes our school look great but to be honest i'm not sure if we have the right to be saying this when our school mascot the indians is offensive it's stereotypes and it degrades the whole community we are not respecting this cultural the cultural nor the individual differences of these people putting them up as a mascot degrades them lower than a human being depicting them as a red angry savage in our mural and not respecting them the words of our mission statement should not just be words on our website but words of meaning and weight it's time we stop deceiving ourselves that we are great and find the way we

123are we'll never be perfect i really understand that we're all human but it's time we follow our own words and our own beliefs that we set ourselves and actually become a community that honors and respects the cultural differences of everyone including the native americans it will not be easy but this issue has come up many times before and will continue to come up i understand that there have been many issues and circumstances that made this change hard to achieve for sure a lot of big ones but there will always be problems and there will always be issues so i sincerely ask that this will no longer be neglected but this is taken into serious consideration thank you thank you next caller hello my name is kristen and i am at three grover drive and i'm

124a wayne valley graduate and i would like to share a wayne hills students experience with racism in their high school and it reads as this a kid in my class was making fun of an asian freshman we were the only asians in the class and he asked if the freshman had the coronavirus while pulling his eyes back the look of confusion and the awkward laugh truly reflected how embarrassed and conflicted he was and this story was story was shared through the instagram account racism in wayne valley at wayne schools and is also available on facebook and i just wanted to like come on and say that they shared the story because sometimes like we get so like caught up in our own little bubble especially in our predominantly white town that we don't realize that

125a lot of there's a lot of racism sexism like xenophobia in our town we don't realize it because we don't experience it ourselves so i think it's really important that we continue to amplify people who have like amplify the voices of people who have experienced this because the first step to creating positive change in our town is to listen to each other and have empathy because then once we learn what's going on we can do something about it so thank you so much for letting me share thank you next spoiler maria gennard 27 terrace road um again i am a teacher here at wayne and proud to be so um and i just wanted to say dr toback i want nothing more than to come to school i i love my kids i love being

126there and i'm sure that i speak for everyone who has called in tonight so for the speaker who spoke before we do want to come it's not about not wanting to come to school but we have apprehensions we have been told for five months keep your windows open don't get together you can't go in be outside so yes we are apprehensive it has nothing to do with wanting to go or not wanting everything to wanting to go but not being able to go and as far as having choices not everyone has a choice to return i don't have a medical issue that will impede me from going to school however i do take of care of an elderly parent so if i contract the virus or something happens i come home to that parent and

127i just heard that president is this president is deciding that maybe teachers are essential workers and they are not going to be held to the quarantine um exceptions the new teachers don't have the sick days to take every you know for an extended amount of time so no we don't have a choice and yes we want to be in school we want to educate our kids but we want to make sure that we're safe and we are apprehensive thank you thank you do you know what the problem is dr shaw hope needs to unmute herself can you unmute yourself okay keep try again next caller um hi my name is amanda keough i'm a resident of 11 alma deer drive i want to thank the board of ed for working hard to plan for this

128school year and speak a little louder or closer to your microphone i can't hear you i want to thank the board of ed for working hard to plan this school year including promoting diversity equity and inclusivity as a student it means a lot to know that we're doing as much as possible in all ways to create a safer environment for students i want to talk about the wayne valley mascot it is racist and insensitive but also harmful in other ways there's decades of research to show that indigenous mascots have harmful effects on the educational experiences of all students the american psychological association called for removal of all american indian mascots in 2005 after publishing research showing their negative effects including diminishing educational experiences of all students who have minimal contact with indigenous people creating unwelcoming

129environments for indigenous students fostering racist stereotypes and portraying indigenous cultures inaccurately we are sending wayne valley students the wrong message through the use of our indian mascot um and like a student said before it goes against the initiatives meant to combat racism um it's not as right as non-natives to decide how this culture is portrayed and the mascot must be removed and even during a time of uncertainty with the pandemic the retirement of this mascot is just as important a part of creating a better and safer environment for all students and also concerning the subcommittee i want to ask for transparency of who the committee members are and what's happening at those meetings thank you again thank you hi thank you eda ferrante wayne president of the education association i just want to clarify um

130the co one of the comments that miss carbone um made um when she talked about that there are plenty of teachers that want to go back into schools and while they may you know i just want to let people know that the overwhelming percentage of members of teachers and secretaries and staff that have an issue far outweigh the small minority of teachers and staff that i'm getting emails from um saying that they'd like to go in and i'd also like for somebody to answer um and to comment on ms chilago's comment about students in the spring not being required to log into classes at set times and not being forced to zoom because that was a you know that was part of the problem in the spring and it is really heartbreaking when parents say

131that teachers left kids to you know learn on their own and to you know fend for themselves teachers worked very hard over the spring and i'm confident that teachers will work even harder and and train even even even more so should it come to all virtual instruction thank you thank you hello you're on hi um my name is timothy thompson 138 lowey avenue and today i want to read an anonymous story from the racism in wayne school's instagram page quote in first grade at ap cherhyun a kid told me that my parents were terrorists and were going to be killed by the police just because i wore a turban on my head in second grade i was told i could not enter a part of the playground because i did not have white skin by

132student this is just one of over 90 stories that have been submitted to the instagram page in the past month what is the board of ed doing to make these kids feel safe i acknowledge and thank the board for incorporating diversity into their district goals but we need a thorough transparent plan that allows the student body and families to hold wayne schools accountable same thing with changing the mascot and diversifying the curriculum so that kids are learning about all racial ethnic religious gender and sexual identities in a substantial way these plans can be gradual and incremental but there needs to be a plan i understand that this is a tricky time with kova 19 but we have talked to a number of sources who claim that these two issues don't need to be mutually exclusive

133we can address both as other schools have but most importantly as someone whose safety and life has previously been threatened by homophobia in wayne schools i hope you will see that aggressing prejudice within school within the school is just as important as addressing this pandemic unless something is done these kids your kids will continue to be subjected to careless incidents of prejudice and violence from both students and faculty i know because i have experienced it personally myself i support the steps that racism in wayne schools is calling on and the board to take i hope you're writing this down one expand the curriculum i.e incorporating minority history and re-contextualizing how we see colonization to setting up a task force that is diverse and transparent at each school to address incidents of prejudice harassment and bias

134three regular teacher trainings to educate them on how on why it's important to not do things like single out our muslim students chase black students with do-rags say the n-word or spew incorrect facts about the lgbtq community and four to change the mascot mascots are not human beings ways that you can be transparent isn't it includes sending public updates when you meet to talk about diversity and inclusion again it does not have to happen all at once but please we need a plan we need phases and we need transparency i don't want another minority child to have to go through wayne schools experience what experiencing what i did and that's why i'm here tonight thank you thank you next hi my name is lee madara 23 bowling avenue i am a student currently attending wayne

135valley high school i want to talk about the racial issues in our school we have many amazing wayne activist social media pages i need to know if we are being heard as a person of color and a minority in the school i do not feel safe or included i feel ignored by students in the school curriculum i feel ignored by the board here's an example that my own brother and i go through i practice a religion called sikhism in this religion i'm supposed to wear my brother supposed to wear turban i am supposed to keep long hair my brother is only 10 years old he has been going through this for years he gets harassed in school for before wearing a turban he gets asked are there are there rocks in there like are you

136kidding me he's eight years old this should not be happening so many students have shared their stories and i think it's disgusting that there's hundreds of people coming out with their stories it really shows the racism in our schools another thing i want to bring up is the mascot i believe that the mascot portrays the opposite of what our district goals for this year are what i'm asking for is inclusivity equality and understanding this is the perfect opportunity for the board to bring positive change indians is not an appropriate mascot it makes indigenous groups seem like savages we know this already this negative point of view on an entire race is not what we want to represent our entire school in town i know you are creating committees to diversify the schools please make the

137members of this committee public so we can personally reach out and email them to i'm asking that you could that you record each and every single meeting with this committee and make it public so we can review it we want absolute transparency in every single step of the way we want access to absolutely everything so we can have a say too we have so many brilliant ideas to make our school more safer and inclusive for example one major step is banning the appropriation of indigenous cultures during sports game native headgear face paint and other cultural items should not be allowed most students do not even know the meaning of the or the value of these why because we're not taught in our school curriculum another sign of the lack of diversity in our towns we

138want transparency and we want to know how you will be adjusting the curriculum in every single school we want the list of required books we could review it too the curriculum is changed everything needs to change what i'm asking for is really simple there are so many ways we could bring positivity you guys can do it you guys need to do it please do it thank you thank you next hi my name is marissa budnik i'm at 38 clinton lane this is a story from the racism in wayne school's instagram account in eighth grade my social studies teacher was giving a lesson about 9 11 and she started the class with asking who in here is muslim i was the only muslim student in the room and i raised my hand and felt completely singled

139out for no reason there have been many stories posted on this instagram account and it should be alarming to hear the fact that this was done by a teacher is horrific teachers should never do this do this and use the n-word never but when it comes to the knowledge and awareness of students diversifying the curriculum is a must we must expand the curriculum and it's so wonderful to hear that the state mandated order to put lgbtqia plus and disability history is in but let's keep going in the middle school curriculum there are four black authors and one latinx author offered to the students and in seventh and eighth grade only lengths and huge pieces are offered that is unacceptable especially when middle school is an important time in reading new books and starting to expand

140their knowledge the high school curriculum is a bit more diverse but it's still not enough at least there are native american asian and arab authors but there needs to be more offered and again they cannot be optional making these authors material mandatory will give students so much more perspective of the cultural diversity we have in this country and world racism and wayne schools instagram has four steps to take expand the curriculum set up a task force where this discussion where there is discussion on school climate teacher training to cease ignorant phrases and bystander intervening and changing the mascot all we ask for is transparency please be specific and talk about this in your meetings on what you plan to do as congresswoman mikey cheryl said in a meeting with my friends and me diversifying the

141curriculum and adjusting to covid and diversity in general shouldn't be two mutually exclusive topics in other words they can be addressed effectively at the same time we are counting on you also opening up schools is a life or death situation kids may be antsy and missing their friends while at home but in school they won't even be able to play with or touch their friends i am in full support of virtual instruction and please vote to change the mascot the wayne valley mascot again this shouldn't be pushed to the side i understand you plan on looking into all mascots and wayne but we need more details and a plan this can be done incrementally we need to move forward thanks thank you next you're on hello hi do you guys hear me yes name and

142address please oh i'm so sorry amy camper 50 way wasn't sure when i would be able to get on um so basically my point is just first of all thank each and every one of you because you had no summer and this has been an undertaking like nobody ever could have thought about um i thank you all very much i'm just worried about some of the comments tonight in regards to you know is there actually the ppe that was provided it's in the warehouse it's i'm not really sure teacher myself different district however but um you know we have the same concerns and as a teacher you want to be prepared right so you want to go in this is the week you go in so can we give the teachers that availability and i

143you know personally am keeping my children home for many personal reasons um but i applaud all of you i really don't know what the answer is i don't think any of us knows what the answer is to this complete to be honest with you um but i think your number one goal is the safety of wayne and i thank you all um and that's really all i have to say so thank you thank you for calling next good evening again um i i just want to start off by saying how absolutely i have offended i am when i see or i hear my some of my former students and some of these students calling in and talking about the horrors of racism while mr bubba is on his personal device laughing that's not a great

144optic it's disgraceful absolutely disgraceful and um i guess one of the problems with zoom but um embarrassing i'm embarrassed for this district right now that we have somebody like mr bubba that would do something like that um but getting on to a second point um every day we're hearing today we're hearing about places that open up and just as quickly have to close schools constantly i was going to watch the met game tonight i can't you know why they had to shut down tomorrow i wanted to watch the a game i can't do that either when are we going to stop as a country making the same mistake when are you folks going to realize that these everybody keeps making the same mistake i know that i am seriously considering my options as we enter

145this school year i am not sure what i am going to do uh i know i am in the same boat as many teachers they do not know whether they are going to come in whether they are going to have to retire take sick days personal days you're going to have a tremendous staffing problem because you have teachers that are scared to come in you already have had a hiring freeze in my department we've already lost two people that means more people in our classrooms not less so you have to realize that um so let us let us be absolutely clear in what we're saying here the teachers and the secretaries are and our teachers are asking this question how much does my district the parents the board and the upper administration care about my

146health and safety what you do here tonight is definitely going to answer that question you will all have to live with your decision but we may have to die from it thank you thank you mr carroll next spoiler hello hello name and address please uh hi my name is sophie from 24 littlewood court i'd like to thank the board for all their efforts in response to kovak19 i'm in i'm calling in regards to the wayne valley mascot and i think it needs to be changed i think this needed to be attended to faster than it has been i'm not sure why there has to be a subcommittee why the board can't call a vote so we can see where you all stand and move on that way the board could focus more on kova measures

147and promoting inclusivity issues that are both essential to the safety and success of our community thank you thank you next hi hi it's ellen klein again um i'm not sure that my question was interpreted correctly the first time i was just asking like i think dr toback said there were 7 500 students i was wondering how many parents out of the 7 500 actually answer the survey and then my second question is i have a little bit of a concern about the health app that the parents are supposed to be [Music] sorry the health app that the parents are supposed to be um filling out what about the non-compliant parents those kids are going to be able to come into my classroom and then once we get a report they go down to the nurse

148what if they have symptoms they've already been exposed to the amount of students that are in my class thank you thank you okay move to close public session and presidency and no one else's hand raised they moved to close okay would you like to start dr toback answer a few of those questions you're on mute sir sometimes that happens when you're not talking for a while sorry about that okay so um with regard to the comments made by the students i did um i did actually have an opportunity to review the racism and wayne school's instagram page it's called to my attention by a former student and certainly the stories there are are deeply disturbing um and so my whole point is that um any story like that requires serious attention but i also like

149to say that like i said there is not much that happens in a school district that is more serious than establishing a district goal so that is the organizing way that a district places emphasis on issues of importance for a school system and so um i i believe the district does have a very reasonable very strong response to some of the issues that were raised by the students tonight i believe that ultimately and some students have said well if we can do this incrementally ultimately if there is going to be committee work it has to be well defined there has to be key questions that are asked the committee has to identify how it's going to do its business so on and so forth so all those things have to be set up that does

150take time and so um like i said i think that we have a very good goal that's been established i think that it will help the district move into the direction it needs to and i'm confident that by the end of the goal period next next june the district will be in a much different place when it comes to many of these issues okay with regard to the questions raised by mrs river so what you're talking about the attestation is something we discussed during our executive session of the board of education at her last meeting um that's something that ultimately there is there is some aspect of um there's a legal issue connected with that so that's something that is in process and something that will be done that's the that the attestation there's one

151part of it that is an issue um so the other i guess the other concern or the other um person that spoke was riya ganel okay so um i hear the concern in your voice about returning to school and i guess when i when i heard your comments i agree and i understand why you would be concerned about returning to school and understand why many of our teachers are concerned about returning to school but i think rather than having a situation where we're pointing out that in this room there wasn't hand sanitizer and in this room we weren't sure where our ppp was even though it's not the time of year where we've delivered it thing to do is work together and the thing to do is for all of us to start um looking

152at issues identifying ways that we can work together to make sure that our schools are where they need to be when our students return um one of the issues brought up by ms river was that there was a secretary that called in to talk about the lack of ppp at scott or colfax middle school that is simply untrue and i encourage you to go to scottier colfax middle school tomorrow to take a look at the ppe that is there and then i guess um that's most of the most of the questions and comments okay uh four comments new business soul business um i just want to address the comment of us not being able to do two things at once we're absolutely doing several hundred things at once uh but most specifically when it comes

153to this uh goal and the committee work we do that when school starts um there this is not the time to form the committee uh we we wait until everyone is back to work um and typically our committees are not made public we report out like we did this evening tonight was a perfect example of how uh we are very transparent um not to call out the town council but i don't think i've ever heard a committee report um over there uh but i digress uh we do we do intend to uh keep you abreast we will have committee and we always have goal updates it's part of our process um and to ask us to just unilaterally make a decision before we've even begun that work is is just not fair i'm sorry uh

154that's not something i would do and obviously none of my colleagues have raised the emotion um because we do have to do all of the fact finding and discussion um before we get there it's it's may seem black and white to some but it's just not that simple and that's why we made it a goal we take it very seriously and i'm very concerned about this social media um page where students are reporting issues of racism i would much prefer that those reports come to our building to our hiv coordinators because those absolutely need to be addressed um there's no reason why any student should be afraid to come forward um if a staff member which it would need to be reported it should be reported or if a fellow student um made inappropriate comments

155uh these these are all part of our hiv um rules and law so uh i would hope that uh you're not suggesting or relying that social media is the place while it might be a good place to have open discussion amongst friends it's not the place to report these incidents um as far as the board meeting in person we've already decided that we will do that in september and the district will be giving us a model for our first in-person meeting we we do have some board members that may have compromised uh family members that may choose virtual just like our parents can choose virtual uh as for whether or not we'll include the public uh that might be problematic because unlike our students they're not going to be tested first before they come in

156for uh temperatures or whatever but we'll work that out and i for one will be at that meeting in september so yes uh if you're going to go to work i will be going to work and so will the board members that can do that um because we'll offer them the same options we offer teachers and students for that and that's uh all i have unless there's any further comment from anyone move to close mr padlock mr giordana thank you very much have a good night