July 16, 2020: Board of Education Meeting

001the executive session of the Wayne Board of Education regular meeting of July 16th was convened virtually through the district software program the statement of compliance setting forth date time location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened time for a flag salute everyone will join me 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 in a moment of silence thank you okay let's begin with you Dr tach so what I'd like to do is I would like to actually forgo my administrative summary report this evening because really there's just so many different issues and

002um at this point what we need to talk about is our district goals and also the presentation about um a return to school but I do have one part that I have to attend to which is the HIV report so during this reporting period there was one incident that was reported as HIV that incident was found to be an actual case of Hib after investig ation so now um if it's all right we can move on to the presentation of the 2020 2021 District goals okay okay so um if you can go up one Joe okay ready so um we would like to do is also introduce d rman our assistant superintendent who will be co-presenting our district goals so we're very happy to start our meeting by sharing our district goals for the upcoming

003school year District goals are a very important part of our work in Wayne and have helped with many improvements in the school district for example some of the district goals from prior years include our Wellness goal for students and staff our full day kindergarten goal our marketing and public relations goal our onet toone Computing goal and other goals focused on Safety and Security the no place for hate program and the expansion of our ESL program so it's exciting to think about how these goals have helped to improve our school system and this year we're glad to be able to share two more important goals so um what I'd like to do is get to the first goal about diversity equity and inclusion okay so Mr bashard thank you first goal should come as no surprise

004for those that follow our Board of Education meetings at the last meeting the board issued a statement Against Racism and called upon the administration to develop a diversity equity and inclusion goal and that is the goal you will see tonight so as you go through the goal Mr bashard if you can go to the next page with the goals I'm sorry with the board's statement Against Racism and a directive to establish diversity equity and inclusion goal we recognize that the foundations for future inequity are sometimes first established unconsciously in school systems so what we're talking about is unconscious bias where in some cases stereotypes are belief that influence behavior lead to different types of discriminating Behavior so it exists outside of a person's awareness you can go on the goal essentially calls for each School

005Community to come together and look at our operations with consideration to issues of diversity equity and inclusion the goal also calls for Action to be taken in incrementally as opposed to waiting for the conclusion of the goal in the June in June of 2021 so what that means is ultimately as issues are identified and solutions are found that we take action during the course of the year so there is no lag time between of determining what is a course of action that was appropriate for the district and taking action um the goal also includes if you go to the next page this is really where a lot of our supporting activity is found so this is really the uh the needy gr part of the goal the goal includes formation of committees and subcommittees to

006address a variety of topics one of them being the development of a district commitment statement for diversity equity and inclusion another activity includes the formation of a subcommittee to assess nicknames mascots slogans and school symbols that may be offensive or counterproductive to our mission value and goals this part of the goal will address concerns that may be expressed about one of our mascots tonight okay if you can keep going along the goal also calls for an advancement of our no place for hate program it calls for professional development for teachers under the New Jersey Department of Education equity and professional learning framework and also to develop a written plan and budget to support our efforts so that is our first goal board members at this point what I'd like to do is turn things over

007to Mrs Richman however I would like to allow the opportunity for board members to ask questions if you have any anyone go ahead good evening oh I'm sorry Mrs Sher has her hand up I'm sorry um I just say that um I if we're going to put committees together for to go over this goal that all stakeholders need to be involved but it should be um Wayne residence that should be in the committee that's just my opinion thank you Mr share anyone else that yep you can go ahead good evening everyone um I'm here to present our second goal which is the return to school plan our shift to distance learning um began on March 18th and at that time we anticipated that our schools would be closed for two weeks we thought we would

008then have our spring break period and return to school sadly things did not work out as we had hoped and as the covid-19 virus spread through our community and and the state of New Jersey governor Murphy announced that school would remain closed and distance learning would continue while we were prepared with the distance learning plan that was approved and recognized by the county superintendent we realized that the overall needs would require greater access to video conferencing and video instructional tools we expanded our professional development training options to enhance our model and further developed our teachers and staff in these areas and deployed hundreds of devices to students and staff you can advance the next um Slide the NJ DOA recently issued the roadback restart and Recovery plan for Education requiring each district to develop a

009plan to ensure a hybrid model of learning where there's a combination of in-person and remote learning for all students to provide the safest learning for all of our students and staff we are committed to developing distance learning 2.0 plan that includes a hybrid of in-person and remote learning with Co student cohorts that meet the NJ doe requirements a cohort model will result in reduced class sizes reduced Transportation loads and time to carry out a significantly higher standard for cleaning and sanitizing we know that in the fall our students will return to school with a combination of some inperson instruction and some remote instruction there is also a possibility that we can be ordered to close schools and switch to a fully remote or distance learning model at any time to make decisions about the best

010methods for a combination of virtual instructional delivery and in-person instruction we needed to learn from our staff students and parents we also needed to consider research in neuroscience and developmental psychology that can guide districts through this unprecedented ship to Virtual learning while this crisis has led to many negative outcomes we can also choose to view it as an opportunity for reimagining and improving remote teaching and learning the goal for the 2021 school year is to develop an enhanced distance learning 2.0 plan the plan must allow for a stronger connection between teachers and students and peers while and students and peers while also offering adaptability to a variety of unanticipated changes time is of the essence and this work will begin immediately and continue throughout the school year uh this slide details the plan um just

011all the work that would be done to fully execute the plan and as you can see here um some of the work has begun um gathering information from our stakeholders devising a plan which we will present tonight um seeking input from our community which is super important and we do have a timeline and we'll need at um sometime in August to submit our PL final plan for the Board of Education after that happens we'd like to start working with our teachers as soon as possible to provide professional development any questions so at this time what I'd like to do is just um make a note about full-time G kindergarten so ultimately we have a multi-year goal to bring full day kindergarten to the district and that's still moving ahead the rations at the pness school

012the opening of The Early Childhood Center in just a few weeks frees up classroom space needed for full day kindergarten the original goal called for the start of full day kindergarten in September of next year um we're very excited about that we continue to work towards that goal one of the factors that we've always communicated is an understanding there's an ongoing positive financial position for the district that was really a key to final implementation so obviously we're a very uncertain Time Financial impact of the Corona virus has yet to be fully determined but we are certainly still moving ahead this year and getting ready to open F day kindergarten for September of next school year any questions okay go right ahead Dr Jo back okay so what I'd like to do is before we get

013started on our return to school proposal I'd like to just U mention that we have over a thousand viewers for this board meeting tonight so that maxes out our system however we have a backup plan so for those of you who are interested um there is uh opportunities to watch the board meeting on channel 77 so like I said we're maxed out on on viewers as far as our our software goes but you can watch the board meeting on channel 77 oh my God yeah it couldn't even fit that many in the council chambers no welcome everyone so that's a good um that's a good thing obviously everyone is very interested okay so um keeping that in all in mind what i' like to do is start with our return to school proposal so for

014Mr bashard if you could please pull up the presentation okay so Mrs rexman and I are glad to have this opportunity to present this proposal to the board of education and also to our community this proposal represents many days hours of work in consideration of many different options and possibilities each school district is different and each has great flexibility when it comes to planning for returning students students and staff to school so any any return to school plan or proposal in the end is hundreds of pages right with backup information and things like that we did everything we could to condense this proposal to make it understandable and but every page is important okay so what I'd like to do is call everyone's attention to just the title page okay there's a few noteworthy facts

015for the title page one this is a proposal and I'll talk in a few slides about the timeline and where we are as a district and what we need to do and the timeline that's required for that okay note it also indicates that it's to be modified as conditions change one thing we could be sure of if there's only one thing we can be sure of when it comes to covid-19 is that changes will inevitably happen so we can expect the unexpected um the other thing to understand and that's important is language phase one okay so the idea at least for now is that this plan would extend from September 8th to November 25th which is Thanksgiving the end of the first marking period That's a traditional time for the first part of the school

016year again things can change conditions can change For Better or For Worse and adjustments would need to be made but in any event um the final plan will also be done in phases maybe the phases will look a bit different but we'll go through different phases and we'll see how we things how things go and then we would reassess at the end of that phase okay so Mr bashard if you can go to the next page okay so as you can see with the slide we've been working since May to develop a plan to return to school even before such a plan was required at the time we had almost no official guidance other than a few fa pages from the Centers for Disease Control which was provided to help administrators make determinations about the

017reopening of schools we started with one committee which included a board member te teachers and administrators from across the school district our initial meeting was overwhelming because it became evident that there were literally hundreds of important questions about if schools could possibly reopen and how that might be possible seeing that we were up against an impossible task we enlisted more members of the community we included parents and in the end we had about a hundred people that um formed subcommittees which were designed around the CDC guidance but also around educational concerns so as you can see with the yellow highlighting we're at the July 16th Board of Education meeting and tonight we're sharing the proposal after the proposal is shared it will be posted for public review and comment and will enter a period of

018time where you'll have a chance to respond to express your opinion so we're thinking of gathering information by running something everyone's familiar with a thought exchange and we're also going to complete a survey to determine the Comfort level of parents with returning their children to school so if we can go to to the next page so I did want to take a moment to thank all of our return to school chairs and our subcommittee members as I said that adds up to about a 100 people including parents from the community so we'd also like to thank all of our administrative team administrative team has been working over the past few weeks qu tirelessly to create a thoughtful and comprehensive proposal so if you can go to the next page okay so the list of subcommittees

019are as follows you could read that and you can see um most of those are self-explanatory right so as you can see if you look at all the different factors that go into our return to school proposal and also consider the fact that all these things are bound by issues like board policy and procedures that exist in the districts um long-standing practices and you look at all these different things you can understand how overwhelming this is so um for example health and wellness is a very important issue guidance from the Department of Ed very important C youc guidance student connections the ability for students to connect with teachers and their peers um a better model for distance learning our needs of our staff um our facilities the input from the Committees all of this was

020balanced out like I said within board policy and also within our existing Employment contract s so it's really a very complex undertaking and to find common ground which is what the goal was we had to we had to balance among multiple issues with the help of our committees so there's much to consider in the process of developing this proposal okay if we can go to the next page okay so I think it's time to get down to business The Proposal calls for a hybrid schedule which means a combination of in school and virtual instruction it also calls for Co horts which is one of the suggestions from the New Jersey Department of Education so why would we have a hybrid schedule health and safety is always our top priority the CDC the department of Ed

021the Department of Health guidance requirements our facility and Staffing limitations and I'm going to give you an example of that when you see a photo in one of our upcoming slides um we also considered the return to school experiences in other countries so there was other countries that did return to school this spring so we looked at some of those returns we looked at all the results of our committee our committee work we also considered enhanced cleaning and the opportunity to do that um the idea of maintaining cohorts which in a covid-19 environment allows for contact tracing and quarantines so that way larger parts of the district can remain open if there was a case covid-19 um also planning and enhan virtual learning experiences flexibility adaptability for parents students and staff and because of the

022the the the hybrid schedule is based on our existing schedule it's easy to understand um okay so let's go to the next page okay so this is an important slide and the photo is an example of a classroom that is set up for hybrid instruction in a social socially distance environment each desk is set up for one student on the a rotation and another student on the B rotation which means each set of desks represents one student On Any Given school day with social distancing in mind you can see that at most if you count them up we can fit maybe 12 maybe 13 students in this classroom leaving room up front for the teacher and leaving a minimal amount of space on the perimeter of the room to store things to keep your instructional

023supplies coats things like that so this is this photo really gets to the heart of challenge that you're up against and why a hybrid schedule is essential so we go to the next page so what we have here as our hybrid schedule is basically an idea that on Monday and Tuesday cohort a about half the class would be in person at school and cohort B would be out of school on Wednesday across the district we're proposing a wellness Wednesday and so you know um there's a lot of issues regarding Wellness so there's also needs for remediation there's opportunities for virtual assembly assemblies Virtual Field Trips planning for cohorts so in other words the opportunity for teachers to reach to the cohort that is not in school um to provide additional instruction it also provides time

024for cleaning between cohorts so the bottom line is that one group of students is Monday Tuesday there's a thorough cleaning of the schools and then on Thursday and Friday we have another cohort of students that come in that's for the elementary and the middle schools okay um so it also allows for other some clubs some activities other things to happen so that is the the hybrid model for the elementary and the middle schools that's the cohort part of it so you can see students are in school two days a week out three days a week go to the next page the bell schedule it's a redu day so you can see the school day goes from 8:55 to 1:45 lunch and snack will be offered so there would be no centralized lunch this is something

025we spent a lot of time considering and we also looked at what a lot of other districts are doing and many districts are not offering a centralized lunch they're offering a grab andgo lunch which allows students to take their lunch home um there's snack possibilities during the day but for the most part there is no centralized opportunity to eat lunch for students or staff members um and there's also after this there's the afternoon right so once the students go home the teachers are are still at work and the afternoon virtual instruction is an opportunity for teachers to now reach out to the cohort that is not in person and provide instruction so the bottom line is that the students are dismissed teachers have Flex time but the idea is that that part of the day

026is their time to attend to the students that are in the other cohort that is not in person so that's a very important part of the plan and like I said we think that's important because it keeps students connected at all times so everybody's in school at least two days a week and everyone is connected to their class okay it also allows in in the in the event of um so so say there is a case of covid-19 um like I said the cohort part that allows for contact tracing that allows for other investigations to take place to the Department of Health the Department of Health is a key player in any return to school plan because in addition to making recommendations they're ultimately the authority in the community when it comes to contract contact

027tracing and making determinations about who would be quarantined who wouldn't be quarantined what steps need to be taken by the district to ensure the health and safety of students and staff so it's a very important part of U the district's plan so if we can go on so you can see it's something similar for the middle schools there's a little additional time that's allotted and that's that allows students who are fairly close in all their classes to go to their next classroom but then do a little cleaning to make sure their desks are clean to wipe down their desks and or spray their desks and make sure that ultimately as a student leaves the room another student comes in but there's a cleaning process that takes place in between every class you can also see

028in this schedule there's grade six S8 flex period that is when lunch would normally be served but this is an opportunity for students to go outside for recess and participate in other activities you see there's a grab and go lunch and dismissal and then same thing there's an afternoon virtual instructional period intended to um allow teachers to work with the students that are on the out of school cohort go to the next page okay so with regard to the pro proposed high school schedule this is a little bit different and this involves three cohorts so the idea is that the block schedule remains in place so you go in for your block Wednesday is still a virtual day so it's a virtual day at all levels but the block goes on Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday

029which is one block one full block so one full rotation in the high school schedule and you can see that cohort a is a third of class cohort B cohort C so why are there three cohorts and you will read and you will probably see on social media that there are a number of high schools in in Bergen County that have gone to like an A Day bday rotation right um and so obviously we have three days but the idea is that those high schools are are much smaller than ours we have to consider that our high school is a very both of our high schools are very large high schools so if you had only two cohorts that would mean depending on who's in attendance and everything else like that you would probably have

030somewhere between seven to 800 staff and students together in a building on any given day with the three cohorts you could see the number of students together is dramatically reduced to about the size that you would see in these Bergen County school districts that have much smaller high schools they keep their numbers right around where we are but we have very large high schools as a result of that we have to take some steps so we do have the virtual instruction and um it's also allowing for reduced traffic in the hallways because when you have over a thousand students 1300 students 1400 students in the hallways that's some serious traffic um it also allows for reduced bus ridership Which Mrs Richman will talk about Transportation a little further but we also know that High School

031populations tend to be a little more susceptible to the coron virus so what this two we cohort means is that quarantine groups means it is great we have a greater likelihood of remaining open so in other words if there's a group of students and one of the students or the student is exposed in some way or another there is a CO court that is affected by the Corona virus that cohort is out for two weeks and then they come back in so it allows for all the things that would need to happen as far as quarantining it allows for a lot of other things like contact tracing if in fact we wind up in a situation where there is a staff member or a student who's affected by the Corona virus if we go to

032the next page so here is a little more complicated you can see the same idea it's the school day rolls along in a A reduced time period you have a grab and go lunch and dismissal so it's like a muddled dismissal where there are fewer people going and congregating at a single location at any given time and then the afternoon there is virtual instruction so same thing goal of the teachers during that time period is to attend to the cohorts of students that are not in school okay go to the next page please okay so this is the Early Childhood Center we have a new Early Childhood Center that's opening so we have a hybrid cohort schedule for that as well you can see Wednesday means the virtual day you can see the am the

033premm and the full day preschool okay right so I am quite sure that the among the thousand people that are tuned into this um meeting there are there are quite a few that are saying what about child care and how is it going to be possible what can I do to maintain my employment and so we do consider things like that and we spent a lot of time looking at different options the one thing that the district will continue to do is we're going to run our before and after CARE program and we're actually going to expand those services so for elementary students one once dismissal time happens we're still going to have we're gonna have after care run till 6m so that involves expanded hours we're also in contact with the boys and girls

034club and we're also interested in partnering with the YMCA to um provide spaces for parents so the boys and girls club has capacity for 110 students the YMCA has capacity for 120 students um the one thing that is part of this proposal is and it's been a little bit of an obstacle is is KP so we're trying to maintain KP we worked very hard but we do believe it's going to be very difficult to do because of our plan for special needs students and Mrs Richman will talk about that in a few minutes there's an effect ultimately in one of the things that we're trying to do and um so at this point it's going to be hard to retain k um as you can see I just wrote a few comments the district was

035going to make every effort to keep cost minimal for our programs while there is a cost involved there are options for our parents and so um that's what we could do for now we're going to continue to look at different opportunities that might become available um to help out with child care issues okay if you can go on all right so now very important go ahead Miss I'm sorry are are you ready I'm protecting students and staff you want to take it from here I thought okay go so that was my cue well consistent with the goal that we presented earlier this evening the number one priority in doing all of this planning and everything that we're sharing out tonight is prioritizing the safety of our students and staff um we know based on everything

036that we've learned through our committees and our discussions with staff members um hearing from parents that and and the plan that was set for forth by the New Jersey Department of Education that we want to make sure we increase in person time and that was something that we were charged with doing um having inperson time available for all of our students uh we also know that we want to increase um time for video conferencing on days when students aren't in school and that was the reason for offering a reduced day uh and the last thing is making sure that the plan that we put in place as long as we're allowed to be open is sustainable so the only way to have a sustainable plan is to keep everyone as healthy as possible and keep

037things as clean as possible listed here um it really just highlights and summarizes things included our detailed plan that we have done Dr toac shared we are limiting our class sizes you saw that with the cohort model and you were able to see um an example of a classroom where social distancing is in place we're ensuring that students um can sit in the elementary schools in the same desk because those students keep items in their desk every day and then when student B comes they sit in a different desk and then we have adequate time um between cohorts at all three level for extensive cleaning uh right now we're exploring screening apps so that we know that anyone who enters the building on any given day that includes staff and students um is screened um

038and can verify that they do not have any symptoms they do not have a fever before getting on a school bus um before coming into our schools once we have more information um and the specifics about what we'll be doing of course that'll be shared out later um we also know that our needs to include flexibility and we will have a survey going out because you know there may be parents who choose to keep their children home all together and we will offer a virtual option for those students based on what we were able to research this week uh many districts had board meetings Tuesday night um and just looking at the data you know we saw everything from 50% um down to 15% so you it'll be interesting and important for us to have

039that information as soon as possible uh staff members um who request and uh meet the parameters will be able to receive accommodations to work from home Mass uh will be required and and again there's exceptions and you know this was put out in the New Jersey Department of Education guidelines young children or students um who have difficulty keeping masks on and and these were things that would be predetermined by us um we are looking right now at um sneeze Shields um we already have them in our main offices and high traffic areas but there are a number of options for student death and places where students may be in closer contact younger students specifically um where they're working with power professionals or where the teacher might need to get closer any added measures we can

040take um we're looking to implement we will be encouraging flu shots um for all of our staff and students right now we have um purchased a a large number of air scrubbers um to improve air quality we set up um a model in the central office and the air quality has been tested and we were able to show that it has improved we know that these are very effective in hight traffic areas main offices um nurses office or Open Spaces when students walk through cafeterias or gyms in many of building you have to walk through those spaces to get to a classroom there are buildings um where we can add the HEPA The increased air filters HEPA filters and we do have a plan in place to require everyone to keep the windows open so

041that the air can continue to C circulate there will be um a cleaning verification process which I will talk more specifically about on an upcoming slide Wednesday is um a deep cleaning day for buses and facilities and um that was you know another part of the consideration for having the virtual day and grab and go lunch model uh also was something that was recommended uh we did consult with our district physician and you really don't want to put students in a cafeteria space where you know we know the virus is Airborne where this can be circulating and impact a large number of students so any food um it could be snack and that's something that's being um discussed and will most likely be offered at the elementary level would happen in the classroom so it's

042in a smaller space and you will continue to work with our part um on our Partnerships with the local Department of Health and the school physician we can go to the next slide this slide details um the enhanced cleaning protocols I've been learning quite a bit um there's a lot of information here so you know just to touch on the most important pieces for you to understand electrostatic disinfection is something that we will be doing there's a spray process um that basically sanitizes all of the surfaces it's something you can see in the picture that you can reach greater surfaces much more quickly and we obviously have a lot of of um building facility requirements during that sanitation time to cover um this is something you know also for for sanitizing buses but more importantly

043once we have all these cleaning processes taking place we wanted to have a verification process in place which we will do um so that we know that the cleaning protocols that we put in place were actually effective there's verification tests that will indicate this for us can advance the next slide uh Transportation has been a Hot Topic and again a very concerning one because we have a large large number of buses in our district so this is a challenge you know the number one priority was to distance as much as possible on our buses it is not required that you socially distance on a school bus if you're not socially distanced it's required that students um and any staff members on the bus wear masks for us the number one priority is distance as much

044as possible and create the safest environment before after when being transported to school for all of our students and we know we have staff on the bus uh the cohort allows for an opportunity for us to have at least um 50% of the students on the bus we're also anticipating there may be parents who um opt to drive their own children to school and that is information that we'll also capture in the survey that we put out um you and looking at our buses you know what we're hoping is to have a student on one side near window and then a student all the way across the way on the other side and no one in between and that's um what we're hoping when we say reducing um the student transportation routes by 50% and

045um when we plan our cohorts there's a great um there's a lot of detail that has to go into it and you know initially we thought you know we could look at half of the alphabet but that's impossible because in some cas cases that may mean you have six students in a class you know and 18 students in another class so we're going to have to really randomize our classes look at siblings look at neighborhoods and evaluate a lot of things because we also want to have balanced classes and student um Wellness is very important sometimes there are certain requests that have been made from the teacher in the year before um information shared by parents and we're very concerned about our students they were not in school for a great deal of time we

046want them to come back to a safe secure environment um everywhere from the moment they get on the bus in the morning to their entering and leaving the classroom super important is um drivers will always wear a masks we're going to ask our students to wear a masks as well even if they're distance on the bus they're walking by um other people as they get on we feel like it's the safest way we will assign seats this way they're on the same seat going in and going out and um deep cleaning will occur every Wednesday um every night cleaning will happen as well you can advance thank you uh this slide really represents our commitment to our enhanced distance learning model I have to say that um last week I met with a new committee

047that we put together which was um put together for the purpose of evaluating our distance learning plan that was put in place in the spring uh it was comprised of teachers from each level and we did have two parents who weighed in um who have students at various levels one U happens to be a superintendent in another district and it was really nice to hear um the feedback but what was interesting was it was very positive um we did recognize we got off to a shaky start because we were not oneto one um all grade levels we did not have Google Classroom set up in our kindergarten first second grade classes um which wouldn't expect and that would not have been our model had we stay in school but we very quickly set these up

048um we were very grateful to have our teacher technology coordinator Tracy Lee putting together um a lot of resources she we were offering these live we offered refresher trainings we set up a teacher Resource page so people had an opportunity if they weren't available or if they wanted to um rewatch and and repeat the training uh this is something that we'll continue to add to but overall the feedback was super positive of course the greatest criticism and um frustration was that there's no substitute for in-person instruction and with this new plan we have an opportunity not only for students to be in school as much as we feel as safely possible but we're providing built-in times every day for students to check in or I should say for teachers to check in with students we're

049also going to prioritize student wellness and there are a number of initiatives that that we will be able to roll out on Wednesdays we don't want to um have any opportunity to minimize the importance of this the grading and assessment practices were definitely a concern it was you know an unanticipated closure and there was a lot um to make decisions about we had opted not to move towards a past B option because we wanted to prioritize student learning however we know this is an area where we can improve and um this is something that we will address we are looking at um synchronous learning opportunities for high school students and Dr borchard is going to share we have um an exciting plan in place that we think uh will really help because I know that

050there'll be concerned about students rotating in on a three-week basis um this opportunity is going to keep our high school students on their daily schedule so that they have an opportunity and they'll be accountable for checking into their classes daily the new technology that um Dr Bor I can talk about is something that could be a great enhancement and we can expand if our pilot works well and our teachers are receptive I already touched on um the health and wellness initiatives but you know here we'll be enlisting our counselors um we have Specialists who help but one thing that we realized that um it's super important that maybe we didn't consider in the spring there was just too much to think about and we prioritized our students but we have deep concern for our parents

051it was not an easy time time um parents are working parents were homeschooling their kids parents did not you know most parents did not go to uh or receive any kind of training so we are looking at ways to offer parent workshops and I think you know the priority from what we were able to gather is um just how how to respond and talk to your children at home uh it's it's a lonely time it's a stressful time and anything that we could do um we have members on staff who are experts and we can also bring in experts from the field if we wanted to offer Zoom sessions and um ongoing staff development and remote instruction um and best practices and resources are a priority we already started working on a fall staff development

052series um a new teacher staff development series and we will continue to um tap into our teachers and Survey them to meet their needs so that anything that we can do to put them in the best possible position to feel comfortable with delivering remote instruction and using all of the video um and digital resources that we have in place um you know they're they feel comfortable and confident using we have also added um a number of new digital resources that will roll out to our teachers in the fall so that we can assess what the achievement gaps may be and you know our intervention protocols have to look a little bit different because we're used to having this face to-face time small good group instruction that occurs daily in the classroom so you know we

053know that we want to be able to go back in and continuously assess and then bring together small groups of students to remediate specific skills and um for students with special needs we had really deep concerns so for this population these classes are smaller um part of the discussion that Dr toeach referenced and touched on was creating extra space in the buildings we are planning to bring our self-contained special needs students at all grade levels to attend in-person classes four days per week and they will receive the related Services um so we know that this will be um smaller classes um these are smaller classes but we need more space so that when they're in school we can deliver all their services and meet their needs we can go to the next slide um at

054this point I'm going to invite Dr Bart um to come on and share some of the information about our technology initiatives thank you Mr Richman uh quarantine has taught us many things over the past few months including how to best support technology and those who use it my team faced the challenge worked the problem and provided support I'm very proud of my team's effort and the work they put forth however our work doesn't stop there for the 2021 school year we're going to be implementing some old practices as well as adopting some new ones to meet the challenges of of the changing landscape of teaching and learning for example we have a onetoone initiative in our sixth and n9th grade classes we're going to continue that initiative where all incoming sixth graders and ninth graders

055receive a a Chromebook we're expanding that initiative to include every student in grades K through 12 in the Elementary grades we're repurposing Chromebooks that were previously putting carts and we're going to assign them to every student individually for staff members we're re re refreshing our high school teacher laptops this is part of a planned uh uh program where the teachers laptops are are near Obsolete and we need to refresh them we're also providing all Middle School teachers with a similar laptop so they can uh provide their virtual instruction in the elementary schools we're providing all staff with a Chromebook device what we learned from the staff from our Elementary staff the device that they used during quarantine did not meet the needs for virtual instruction we're providing them an updated laptop which will suffice the

056needs for virtual instruction both in the classroom as well as at home miss Richman mentioned as part of our distance learning 2.0 plan we're piloting in a device called the swivel you can see it right here it sits in the classroom and the teacher would wear a device like this around their neck it acts as a microphone as well as the opportunity for the teacher to walk freely around the front of the room while this device will record them and provide live instruction so the teacher not uh held just to the to their their labtop they can move around the classroom and the camera will follow them I don't know if you can see um it will move around them so uh and as miss miss ran mentioned we're going to be providing that device

057and piloting it in a number of classrooms and looking for feedback to see if we're going to expand that pilot program okay so at this point what I'd like to do is thank everybody certainly we we very much appreciate I obviously had a large number of residents that decided to watch our board meeting this evening and we really we enjoy your participation we appreciate you attending um what we're going to do as I said we have a public comment and feedback session that's going to start next week on Monday July 20th and the idea is there's basically two ways that residents can provide feedback one is through thought exchange and so that will involve a central question and then people can respond to that question on thought exchange and many people are used to using

058thought exchange but please participate let us know what you're thinking about the return to school proposal and that will be reviewed by the board in advance of our next meeting so those results will be be shared with the board and with the community so we'll share that as well at the next meeting and then the other part about it is we're going to complete a survey and so this is for parents of students in the district you would be receiving an email from us and the whole idea is that now that um you are aware of at least at this point the proposal that we have and the enhanced cleaning protocols and the cohorts and all the other um steps that are being taken to protect students and staff we want parents to feel comfortable

059returning to their children to school but we also understand that not all parents are necessarily going to feel comfortable for a variety of different reasons what we'd like to do is complete a survey so we know what your preferences are what you're thinking at this point and also to provide us with an update about how if you are eligible for transportation you'll be using Transportation if you're going to use um The District's Transportation if you're going to transport your child on your own U we need to know that too because there's a lot of planning that has to happen between in the first day of school so add it together um both all this information will be shared with the board at our next meeting now the one thing one piece of unfinished business is

060also establishing an upcoming board meeting board members um I previously wrote to you and recommended that we we will need another board meeting in advance the public the final plan must go to the public one month in advance of the start of school that would be the eth and so I think the latest we could possibly do a meeting is sept or I'm sorry would be um August 6 however if the board is interested maybe August 4th works for you but it has to be done that week that allows for a significant amount of time for the public to provide feedback and share thoughts about the proposal and it also allows you to review think further about the proposal and it also allows us to look and think further about the proposal and see if

061there's enhancements we can come up with I think we have a good starting point but obviously there's a lot that has to happen between now um an August 20th meeting obviously that that makes it impossible that would otherwise be our scheduled board meeting but we should have a resolution to have um our our next meeting on August 6 or 4th depending on the preferences of the Board of Ed that concludes your presentation did anyone have any questions that they wanted to ask at this time of the administration okay um actually go ahead Mrs G um it's just a little note on the uh Windows um and the air conditioning I understand HEPA filters are good but at the same time as we've looked at the data and some of the spread I understand it's not

062truly Airborne it is mucosal but mu it's mucus droplets that travel through the air right um so the reason why windows are actually more effective than air conditioning is the fact that it's a concentration gradient that you're creating droplets travel from a higher to a lower concentration so the more fresh air you have the better um I understand we have certain areas that don't have Windows like the hallways where students pass through and we have to utilize whatever ventilation we can in those areas um but my concern is we have classrooms where teachers May opt to close windows and have the acon which recycles there which actually is a higher risk so this is just something to think about as we talk about the ventilation within the notes um and something to keep in mind

063that's all if I can add one quick thing about masks also so as you saw throughout the proposal there is a requirement for masks and if you think about it there's really a very practical reason and if you think about a typical classroom and every teacher can certainly relate to the situation ultimately at some point students are going to sneeze right and so whether it's a student on a bus or there's a student in a classroom and if students are wearing masks then the sneeze is contained the sneeze is not a threat to anybody especially like I said if we start to see a Resurgence it'll be very important to contain that otherwise I think there's quite a few parents that would say listen that's almost like a like a a health hazard in my

064classroom someone sneezed and it creates this incredible level of sensitivity where even sneezing now I think most people feel uncomfortable if someone's sneezing next to you I think most people kind of take a step back look sideways they get they are concerned so that the Mask Part is so important to protect the health and safety of our students I don't think there's any question that ultimately they have an effect on Curbing the spread of covid-19 and they are required in all sorts of places there's really not many places you can go indoors especially where masks are not required so we feel that's a very important part of the proposal and it's something that we really have to adhere to to make sure that the school are safe for all of our students and St because

065things will happen like I said the if students are wearing masks then that limits the the spread it limits the threat to other other students and and staff members so very important part of any return to school anyone else well I just want to thank the administration and all of the committee members for their comprehensive work this has been quite a heavy lift uh and again it's still a work in progress because as Dr toak mentioned the one thing we can count on during this pandemic is change uh but we do obviously want to hear from all of you uh and I think the thought exchange is going to help in that so be on the lookout for that coming up on our website um the I like the idea of the virtual hopefully I

066assume their virtual parent workshops uh Mrs rman that's a brilliant plan because I think a lot of our parents could use a little guidance there when they're starting to have some issues with their children at home um so at this point uh we are going to go to you Mr Moffet and addition additions and changes to the agenda thank you yes we have a few tonight the uh first uh revision is in the human resource area under Section M under M7 approval of appointment of extracurricular coaches uh please revise line number one which is Michael McDermot assistant coach fall September uh excuse me step four at 7,000 191 which is three4 stien we have another revision on M as in mik nine approval of reappointments of personnel uh on the attached par par professional AIDS

067list Revis line 21 from step 8-14 to $20 uh 41 to step five which is $18.32 also revise on that Prof par professional Aid list Revis line 164 from Step 8 to 14 which one runs from $20 41 to step six which is $84 under M13 again in human resource section approval of additional compensation now number nine add item K which would be Robert hidinger uh number 15 add number 15 line 15 staff would be Kevin uh simlin assignment is to assist with te scheduling at Anthony Wayne Middle School hours are not to exceed 40 paid hourly $ 8970 an hour uh from July 17 2020 to August 28 2020 account number 11- 0-24 d103 -1 14-0 at 70% and line account number uh 11-- 221-1 04-14 d0 at 30% moving on to M16 approval

068of appointments of volunteers change resolution school year from 2019 2020 to 2021 under m17 approval of appointment of extracurricular advisors change resolution school year from 2019 to 2020 to 2020 to 2021 uh we are going uh to move on to section o I'm sorry section P which is school resource grants we we have added acknowledgement of a grant allocation and the resolution reads as follows resolve that the Wayne Township Board of Education has allocated $25,000 of the title 2A a portion of the grant known as the elementary and secondary Education Act for the purposes of compensating teachers for the preparation of pre-recorded instructional lessons in advance of the 2021 school year the subject funds will support and reduce instructional planning time and allow for more teacher contact time for increased focus on student wellness and

069health needs under school resource legal under Q we are adding uh number one which is an appeal of a Hib finding and that action reads resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and following a hearing with the parents affirms the initial Hib finding in case 111 which includes a suspension served during the 2019-2020 school year and a psychiatric examination moving on to another addition which is for a wtaa sidebar agreement that action will read resolve at the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the sidebar agreement between the Wayne Township Board of Education and the Wayne Township administrators association with respect to the carryover of unused vacation and floater days for the 2020 2021 and 2021 and 2022 school years and further authorizes the board president

070and secretary to execute same on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take all further steps required by the terms of the settlement to further Implement San uh we are adding another under number three which is approval of settlement agreement that action will read whereas the Wayne Township Board of Education sponsored three student tours to Washington DC for its high school students and whereas a details of the trip were to be arranged for by the curriculum travel of America Inc which is known as CTA and whereas the cost of the tours were paid directly to CTA by the parents of the students planning on taking tours and whereas due to the covid-19 global pandemic the tours were cancelled and whereas CTA has offered to reimburse the parents who did not

071pay for trip insurance 50% of the cost of the trip to be paid out over a two-year term and whereas the board on behalf of the district students and uh should say the students parents has agreed to a settlement with CTA whereby the district would make payment of the amount offered by CTA to the parents upon the parents execution of an assignment and release and CTA would reimburse the district for amounts paid now therefore be it resolved that the board hereby approves a settlement with CTA memorandum of understanding as follows number one for each parent who did not purchase trip insurance the board upon receipt of an assignment and release will pay the parents who did not purchase the individual cancellation waiver the total of all payments made to CTA less 50% of the total

072trip costs and less the total of any credit card chargebacks two CTA will reimburse the amounts paid by the board to the parents in four equal payments as follows first payment within 60 days of receipt of the assignment and releases and each successive payment issued at six Monon intervals be it further resolved that the settlement is conditioned upon execution of the referenced memorandum of understanding between the CTA and the board and be a further resolved that the board president is authorized to sign the memorandum of understanding and the administration is authorized to take any and all steps necessary to effectuate the purposes of this resolution thank concludes the changes and additions on tonight's agenda thank you Mr Moffet Excuse Me Miss Kaz one small point on the latest memorandum that was just read if I

073could yeah go ahead um the first line needs to read that it was a tours of Washington DC for our middle school students so uh yeah I was just looking at the actual contract to make sure that that was correct make sure before it's signed that that's that's actually yeah I'm looking at the contract but we could also correct the minutes on that one Mr mofet uh that was an eighth grade trip not high school yes I I note I'll note that for the minutes yeah I think that was just a typo on the uh revisions to the agenda because it doesn't look like it specified here in the actual contract that I just signed uh so we'll review that too yes the agement states three student tours just students correct no not specific to

074a grade level okay so thank you very much uh okay well we're on to the public portion 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 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 okay um now is the time to raise your hand if you wish to be recognized and Dr bashard you can start whenever you're ready okay if you want to take a motion on

075opening oh I'm sorry can I get a overover I'm sorry I'm looking to get to them Stacey move second I did iano I'm sorry uh go ahead okay uh Alan tesy he's able to talk you hear me yes you can begin sir yeah go ahead this is Alan temp pescue 41 Gibbs Drive um I have uh first of all I want to thank everyone for the uh presentation you've you've done a a tremendous job to uh plan for the students of Wayne I have I just have four questions uh CL just on the presentation that Dr toak and and Miss Richman did uh I just want to clarify and just make sure I understood it correctly maybe you could subsequently answer these questions um am my understanding that the masks are required for students at

076all times when they enter the school building so that would include classrooms hallways Etc uh and from what I understand with the exception of of of students that may have a health issue uh so that was my first question second question I have is you mentioned the flexibility for parents to continue with remote uh learning distance learning at home if they if they have a preference is that something that has to be elected prior to the school year or for example if someone sends their students to school and then there's some news reports they get frightened and they want to keep them home and then come back is that the flexibility is it a one-time thing where you have to elect that prior to the school year or it can change uh the third question

077I have is I didn't hear anything about well I heard the presentation about the technology but as far as live stream presentation by the teachers um I did note that the uh Cranford uh superintendent Scott Rubin announced that teachers will live stream what is taking place in front of the room so students who are not scheduled to be in person will will remain on Virtual instruction that's uh post on the internet and also the chat and chatam New Jersey superintendent Michael Lusa has done the same are we going to have live stream and I know there's the issue of cameras and setting them up and that must be a big headache to have that in all classrooms but is that something that is coming soon and finally uh my fourth question is regarding cont contact

078tracing uh I didn't hear anything mentioned if someone sadly would get ill in the school what is going to be the procedure if when kids are rotating from classroom to classroom um in the middle school and high schools or even in other schools does that mean the whole school then has to quarantine because you don't know who the person came in contact with or is there GNA what is the plan in place to address that I guess is what I'm saying if someone sadly was to get ill so I don't know how you want to handle it these are all questions and again I want to thank uh everyone for doing such a diligent job this took a lot of work and um obviously the parents of Wayne appreciate that thank you thank you sir

079next Dr bashard Ellen hi I'm Ellen kleene 476 T Hune drive I'm also a Wayne teacher so um I'm I'm guessing Mrs rman if you can ask answer me hi um what are the plans for fourth and fifth grade as in respect to traveling will will the teachers travel or will we have be in safe self-contained classes we'll answer questions at the end ma'am okay that's it that's all I have thank you okay thank you next hi is it me I think yes it's me yep you're ready thank you that's weird I've not done this before um Eileen Deo 29 Manor Drive um you know I want to Echo uh Mr temp pescue I I thank everybody who's all the committee people and administrators and so on who've worked on all these committees I can't

080even imagine the lift that this has been um I do have a bunch of questions I'm going to try and mush them together and then I'll save the for the thought exchange but just some things that if there is ability to answer tonight might help clarify um for some additional questions the first thing is um I guess when we're talking about and it kind of goes to something Mr toescu said um for the the students who aren't physically in the building uh in class on their given day or days um and it sounded like we may be looking to Pilot some sort of live stream learning via I think Mr bashard Dr bashard said it was the swivel but um you know so my hope would be that we would be ready to do more

081than pilot it and and really be looking I hope uh in some sort of Great Lengths at some form of live stream or live feed um because as effective as you know um I'll say I don't want to say it was ineffective but I just feel the experience is better and more effective obviously when the kids are there in person so if as example new material is taught on a given day especially at the upper grade levels but across the board um and if that student or group of students are not in school on that day the instruction of new material they're getting does that mean that that is done virtually because to me that's not near as effective as in person especially when you're dealing with new material um so definitely you know whatever

082opportunity we can to do some sort of live stream live feed so that really all the kids are getting live instruction every day it's just not necessarily in-person instruction every day um you know with the exception of the the wellness days or whatever those are of course um that would be the one thing then far as um you know again specifically high school and and especially the upper classman you know has thought been given to how this type of schedule will impact students in AP classes and what that looks like for end of year AP exams and um really dovetailing with that with the schedule really being half days and and I I really understand the need for that and and of course health of everybody is tantamount but you're really in a half day

083schedule and then the kids are in live instruction in person one day every four at the high school level three or four um you know how is it possible to jam all the curriculum that they need not just AP but at every grade level but especially the upper grade levels into really what's going to be half days for the first half of the year if not less so you know I'm just trying to understand how it's possible to jam all that curriculum into that limited window of time and and sort of what thought what are the thoughts around that [Music] um I'm just looking uh I guess some other things I you mentioned the sneeze Shields and and different things like that um I assume if those were implemented or if those are implemented that's

084something that the the district I guess would put in place in each of the schools or is that something that would kind of be an add-on or or how would that work um I don't know and I guess I guess that's it the other questions maybe are more clarity once I understand the answers to some of these so I guess that's it thank you thank you very much much next you're live ma'am hi good afternoon good evening um hi my name is Isabelle swam I'm a special needs parent and also the ways uh CPAC president uh first I also want to thank you all members uh and the members of the committee for working tediously on these point plans um it was mentioned that special needs will attend four days a week I assume that

085will be Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday I just want to confirm whether they will also follow a short and daily schedule or will they follow a full day schedule and also wanted to ask about the students who have one to one parents in the classroom um that will raise the number of people in the room and how is that being modified And in regards to Transportation will there be an option for parents to choose am pickup only or PM drop off only or both and uh can we also possibly think about considering maybe doing flip classroom models to allow more teacher interaction in schools that can be something that could be taken into account um and I definitely do encourage more Board of edge virtual meetings as I heard you have over a thousand parent attendees

086which might even be a record so congratulations on on on the uh attendance tonight as well as all the hard effort that you and work that you put into this uh presentation thank you thank you very much next hello hi uh my name is Ahad NES I live at 66 Armstrong Avenue um and first of all I want to thank everyone for uh taking the time to uh explain everything um I do have a couple of suggestions um one one of them is um is it possible to have two shifts uh one in the morning one in the evening and also the days that students are home um is it going to be like live instructions like via Zoom um or is it going to be similar to how it was prior to you know

087in in the month of March and April prior to Summer uh and and that's it those are the two questions I have thank you thank you next hello hello hello my name is Katie cluck I'm at 34 Hillcrest Drive I'm a proud member of the Wayne Valley class of 2020 and as proud as I am of the community we constantly build the mascot at Wayne Valley has always been an issue myself and many of my peers will not buy any merchandise with the masc on on it wearing it can feel inappropriate the American Psychological Association did research and since 2005 they have condemned all Native American mascots as harmful hundreds of Native American organizations have condemned the mascot as offensive we are a school and we teach kids to listen to experts and we choose

088to ignore them now on this particular issue uh Native Americans have had their land stolen an unfathomable tragedy calling the Indian mascot our tradition ignores the fact that many Native many traditions of native Americans have been purposefully and systematically destroyed traditions of all as Society does it is wrong for us to use an entire group of people as M as a mascot Wayne Valley can do better and deserves better thank you next you're live yes it's US hi I have a question um well state your name first and address please okay hi my name is Norma Montero and I'm at 806 Valley Road um uh first yes thank you for doing this um was very informative my question is about siblings in um the district throughout the district will they be put in the same

089rotation like is there a way so if they're assigned to Monday Tuesday will all siblings at least in the elementary and the middle school be put on that same schedule I think that would probably make it a little bit easier for working parents to work something out right and I think that that's it that's my question okay we'll entertain all questions at the end uh next hi uh this is enrio Leo 40 Camillo Drive turn your volume down please sure thank you sure uh enrio Leo 40 Camilo Drive uh just a few questions um well first just want to thank everybody for their you know the time and effort I know this is a a huge Endeavor so I just want to say thanks and appreciate all the effort um just a few questions is

090the first one on the high school schedule I might have missed it but um the three cohorts um is it right that the cohort C was virtual every day um uh or was it is that going to be like a rotating schedule or is cohort C GNA be virtual full-time if so um you know it would be nice if you know if the different cohorts had a balance of um being virtual you know and in person um so I might have missed that but that that that's one question uh another on the teacher accommodations um you know how would that work if you know a teacher was accommodated um being in per um virtual uh fulltime because of their concerns uh for you know health and safety concerns how would that work um you know

091for the you know the students that you know need to have obiously an instructor in the classroom uh on the on those days I'm just curious about that um um also the tech platforms different technology platforms would be I would just encourage like use the use of different platforms I thought the the Teacher cast seemed really interesting but maybe you know more of that you know um and and in particular just sort of more live interaction between students and teachers um if that if that's possible um U fourth just a question on the mask policy like how would that work like you know I understand it will be tough for for some students to be wearing masks all day you know H how would that be enforced um if if it would be enforced um

092yeah like are there going to be consequences for for students like if they didn't they can't wear a mask all day are there going to be like breaks during the day um for that um um and then lastly just um you know after school activities in particular at the high school level you know are those going to be resuming um you know on a normal basis um what's what if any um adjustments to to to the after school programs clubs activities uh uh will there be so thank you thank you great questions everybody next hi this is Judy broget 18 Pontiac Drive um I have been a lifelong member of Wayne Township I am a graduate of Wayne Valley High School I have no problem with the mascot but that is not the reason I'm

093calling um I need a little more explanation and understanding from the CTA policy that it appears the Board of Ed has agreed to um there seems to be some confusion with parents um as well as myself after listening to this is the Board of Ed paying the 50% difference or are they just guaranteeing that CTA does um provide those parents that did not take the insurance with the difference um parents did not cancel this trip this was cancelled by the township and the reason parents did not take out insurance was if a child thought they might not take the trip we were told if you think you might not take the trip you can take the insurance and until your child steps on the bus that day they will be refunded so I did not

094cancel the trip nor did any of the other parents that did not take the supplemental insurance so we'd like to understand why it's a windfall for CTA we want to confirm that this company will never be utilized by the township again um you know there are towns that are suing them demerist for one for 55,000 um so I also have the the question of if there were payments made on student behalfs for PTO from the PTO who is getting that money back is it going back to the parent is it going back to the school there does need to be more clarity on what your resolution was thank you thank you very much next hello hi um my name is Valerie Foley I'm at 143 Cheyenne way um thank you for taking my question um

095will preschool kindergarten and first graders um I guess second graders be required to wear masks and if they are required and cannot due to Behavioral or health issues because there are many health risks to wearing these masks can they still be a part of the school and participate virtually and will they be able to return to school if things return to normal hopefully at some point in the year or will they have to remain virtual thank you okay thank you next hi I'm Diane Lee from 16 Kimberly place um I just wanted to comment on the issue of the Wayne Valley mascot um I understand that times are really difficult right now with the covid-19 and you know trying to fix everything going back to school some and along with like movements such as like

096the black lives matter movement but I think that this issue still needs to be addressed um the black lives matter movement has opened our eyes to unfair unfair treatment of others and it has made us more aware and I think that we should become more aware of our own Community too and um the few reasons that we keep this mascot I think are because of our attachment to it with the memories the history and and the traditions and honestly I've only I am an upcoming senior so I've only been in the school for three years so I can't even fathom the like the grow the Deep um memories that have been um made based on this mascot but I think that our fond memories still do not justify the stereotyping and degrading of a whole

097community and sometimes I think we do need to let go of these things the Native Americans in our community have blatantly stated that they do not feel honored by the mascot and they wish for there to be a change um many schools have changed their mascots such as Stanford and um and Dartmouth Dartmouth changed it from the Indians to the big green and this shows that times are changing Society is changing and we have to grow as well and and I think that as everything is changing around us we can't stay stuck in the past and that we need to grow as well too and as an athlete and part of the Wayne Valley Athletic program um I know that it'll be much very difficult to um undergo this change and that it'll leave a

098big impact but I think that our Valley Pride will still exist because our pride is not based off of a mascot but it's based off of the people and the bond that we have with each other and the spirit that we have and so I think our pride can still exist and even if this change may not come immediately I hope that this is considered and that there will be a change eventually so thank you thank you next hi my name is lene Madar 23 bins Avenue um I want to speak up in support of changing the Wayne Valley mascot the idea of having Native American mascots create a very stereotypical and negative view on their culture we have all seen that mural in Wayne Valley of an indigenous person violently we have seen students

099wearing headdresses and face paint at sports games Native American culture is not our entertainment those subtle yet very powerful symbols of hatred and exclusiveness are completely against our goals listed at the meeting earlier it's also against the no place for hate initiative the National Congress of American Indians has even reached out to the board NC is one of the biggest n Native American organizations what are you going to do to prop properly address this you very briefly mentioned it in the beginning of our meeting but what are you actively doing Mark toac you said and I quote our curriculum and many other aspects of our school district are far more inclusive and representive of our diverse population when compared to the past and we strongly dispute mischaracterizations of our curriculum I have to disagree I

100find the depiction of indigenous tribes as our mascot very inappropriate just because it's slightly better than the past it does not mean that we are inclusive as a predominant white school in town we should be listening to people of color so we get rid rid of this internalized racism a group of a group of students has created a has gotten great recognition recognition we have thousands of signatures and so many comments from Native Americans Mark toac you need to do better are you finished thank you still muted hello okay you're live oh sir there's way too much noise in the background okay um sorry um I have um if I I ask if we can do like two shs as the Gent morning and afternoon day on and day off and the The Continuous schedule

101St schedule could be better we can start early start early for example from 7:30 and we have up to the 8:00 b.m you can both sh and the um most of the students GR in the morning and between we're having a hard time hearing you sir it sounds like you're suggesting we have school till 8:00 pm and split up the classes is that what you're trying to say no I'm I'm saying it to have two shfs instead of one well now he's muted you have to to unmute yourself sir do you unmute or do they M Dr bashard he did he muted himself yes okay sir well we can't hear you you're on you muted yourself would you like to send us an email we'll have to go to the next caller Dr bashard okay

102can you take the next person please I'm sorry we couldn't hear you but we'll definitely answer your questions via email next you're live hello hello speak up please hi my name is Alex wck okay I live at 80 Chesnut drive and I am a rising senior at Wayne Valley High School um and I would like to talk about the mascot that we have and I think that it's very very harmful I'm we just instituted a a training for 30 students at Wayne Valley um to be Anti-Defamation League peer mentors and we are supposed to help combat hatred in our school we are supposed to make it a safe place for everyone we are supposed to help implement the no place for hate initiative and I feel like it's very hypocritical of us to say that

103we are creating a a school that is safe for everyone while still operating under this outdated and very stereotypical harm full mascot that does not accurately portray Native American culture for one and two I don't think that we should have a mascot that is depicting of a race of people of a ethnicity of people especially one that has been oppressed and marginalized since the creation of this country um I think that for the people that think that this is honoring to our um to Native American culture that this is something to be proud of to have an Indian mascot quote unquote I think that we should talk to I think that the Board of Ed and Wayne Valley Administration should reach out to the the the lenp people of Ramapo um right here in New

104New Jersey because they are people who are being most influenced by our um by our mascot there are people who live in the same state as us and have to deal with our mascot as a entire High School um and I think that if they say that this is harmful and we don't like it then we should change the mascot entirely to something else like an animal like a a Viper whatever and if they say that no it is honoring um and perhaps maybe they want to change some things about it and to create a more accurate um symbol I think we should do that um you could look at the the the Florida State University seminal um and they worked with the seminal people of Tallahasse to create one that a a a symbol

105that was more accurate it was culturally accurate um and that still wasn't it it didn't go over well with the PE with the seminal people of in Oklahoma but that's another point I think we should talk to the Ropo um the Lenape and Ropo that's it thank you thank you very much next hello good evening uh my name is Ed Saros 56 power Horn Drive um I want to begin by extending my appreciation for all your work uh as a school administrator in another District I know how heavy of a lift this is and how fluid the situation is so again your your efforts are greatly appreciated um my comments really are more or less in terms of the structure o of the virtual piece um if I'm looking I have a child in the

106elementary school and one at going into the high school so I guess I'm trying to visualize my day as an elementary school as an incoming fifth grader on my virtual days if my teacher teaching in the classroom with the in-person what is my day look like until the end of the day that my teacher is available and then what does that look like when my teacher is available um I know there's a I'm sure there's a lot of PD and training going on when we talk about synchronous and asynchronous instruction um live and not live but um I think we've learned from the spring we kind of had to Pivot and teachers had to learn on the fly so we understand that you know it was a working progress but as we're now moving into

107a more um robust setting I think I think it's important that the consistency of interaction feedback um the conferencing the things that normally would happen in a classroom in live instruction that we try to make sure that kind of interaction is built into the virtual setting um because I'm just thinking of my 10-year-old until well 145 or what not that my teacher is ready for me what does my day look like um and at the high school very similar question um it the way I understood and I could be wrong if they're three cohorts I'm in one week I'm out two weeks um and if that's the case as a High School freshman what does my two weeks of virtual experiences look like um I was under the impression the swivel wasn't live it was

108recorded so kids can watch um pre-recorded lessons so again when we get into the feedback the the the interaction the question and answer if my teacher is teaching do I get that kind of interaction at at um those are really my questions in regards to just what virtual looks like how how robust is it going to be I know there's a commitment to improving and I do appreciate all your efforts um thank you for your time okay this time I just just want to interrupt for a moment because I did a little math we have 30 more 38 more hands raised times 5 minutes is another three hours of questions so uh In fairness to our staff and attendees and and board members who who want to get home before midnight I'd like to at

109least reduce that to three minutes if I could get a consensus from the board on that um does anyone object to at least making a shorter time period or asking if people don't repeat um comments or questions uh going forward is there any objection to reducing it to three minutes no no all right do I need to move that Mr Moffett I do believe that's your prerogative as the president I do believe you have the okay well I think I'm gonna invoke that so I think three minutes is enough to get appointed for us so if we could just check the time going forward to three minutes and we'll take our next question thank you so much you can still reach us by email and through our obviously our survey Etc if you can't get

110it all in in three minutes you're up sir yes George palago 295 ratzer Road um just a quick note on oh thank you very much for all your efforts in putting together this uh protection for our children and handling all the moving parts that that that uh that are challenge but um real quick on the on the Native American mascot I am a Native American I don't find that offensive at all I I think it's a celebration of a culture that is almost uh forgotten and uh there was no knowledge uh that could be shared out there and there's less and less more and more each day so I I I see it as a celebration and uh a good thing for to have a Native American as a mascot for for teams and of

111competition um but my my real question is uh I did not unless I missed it I did not see any uh testing protocol how feasible is that to have that in place so that we can quell some of the some of the concerns about you know the transmission of this covid disease you know and I and I'd like to see if that would perhaps um confirm the data that's coming in from Europe in Switzerland Sweden uh all of UK Ireland and um Germany U that that there is U that children pose a very very significant low transmission of the disease so if we could have some kind of protocol in place for testing um I think that would really help to to uh to help uh put this to to to rest or or minimize

112the the the Panic that's that's my main question thank you very much next hi Pedro Fuentes 83 New York Pompton Turnpike just a question is with sports involved in this I know we're trying to social distance at the school but um I know that the sports are going on now so how is this going to be effective with the fall and winter sports I mean if we're trying to social distance at the school how is it possible that we're doing sports right now so I don't know if you guys really make that call or not but I'm just curious to see you know what the thought process is on allowing our kids to play sports right now when we're supposed to be social distance thank you thank you next thank you for keeping it short

113hi Todd hi Todd Crawford 34 Manchester Court um my question is about um I have an elementary kid and what's going to look like for first grade may may missed it first and foremost you all did a great job but how are you going to improve your technology platforms from last year and you know compared to some other school districts we've seen from other colleagues and friends they have Pledge of Allegiance for Via Zoom or any other technology platforms and well as the teachers checking in how are you guys going to handle that in the fall so that's just my question in general and that that is just it thank you next you're live hello now you're muted are you there can't hear you okay move on to the next one Mr B clearly having

114audio problems are they muted themselves okay go ahead you're live yes you're live hi my name is Melissa gero 154 Beach Drive in Way New Jersey my question is um and if I'm understanding it correctly the um the cohort will follow the block schedule so would that be like two days on and two days off for the high school uh students and if they are you know how do you account for safety when it comes to bullying in school how many people are going to be in school and would they you know safely monitor the students who are in the school at one point and going to the bathroom um you know I know we're supposed to be masking kids up but would they be monitored if they want to go to the bathroom and

115lastly when they go to school would that would there be any temperature checks uh prior to to the start of school and that's all I have okay thank you very much next hello okay Cindy Simon 1444 ratza Road very quickly uh extracurricular activities are really important for a variety of reasons especially at the high school level if they can't be done in person um please give consideration to figuring out a way to do it virtually and my other question which I'm not even really sure how to ask is with the needs to cohort in a high school is that have the possibility of impacting students individual schedules in terms of the classes they uh they've requested and if it does will there be some kind of attempt to deal with deal with that thank you

116thank you hi Melanie Williams 68 Carol Place I have a rising senior and Rising fifth grader just asking for Clarity on the on the high school model I think on the slide where Dr toac Tobak uh described how it would go it it wasn't as clear as the other grade levels so if a student is in say cohort a it appeared that that child would be in school face tace four days a week while the other two cohorts are virtual is that the case in 3- week intervals or in two we intervals we just need a little bit of clarity on that because I heard three weeks and then I also heard two weeks but it wasn't actually written on the slide thank you okay thank you next you're live hi this is David Ginsburg

117to am way thanks uh for all the work you guys have done really appreciate it it's a great job just a few quick questions did the district look at a weekly schedule uh for example where cohort a would go in person the full one week and then the next week fully virtual swapping of course with cohort B uh we have children in elementary school um just asking that as you know having one full week in school and then one week virtually um might be a little easier on working parents versus having to try to find um coverage maybe like one or two days a week um looking at a full week might be a little easier so the dist look at that um the second question is in the schedule that you have laid out

118again for elementary school kids we have um will the parents have any say in which day their children are in person in school I.E can you self- select Monday Tuesday or the Thursday Friday again trying to help accomodate working parents is that something the school district is open to and our last question is for on theg go lunch just a little Clarity um will that be the kids pick it up and then eat it in their classrooms or is the idea they're going to pick it up and then they would eat it when they get home um and if we have money left in our lunch accounts at school does that just stay in the account and get rolled over to whenever uh we're able to use it again thank you very much thank you

119you're live oh hi Jamie lilis 70 Brandy Wine Road um I just have a few questions has it been deemed safe for bus drivers to wear a mask while driving the hot buses who will be enforcing on the buses that the kids are actually wearing their masks and I think if I heard right their buses were being cleaned one day a week if the buses are shared between the three schools how are they not being cleaned in between each route um okay that's my buses for middle school and high school will the kids be changing in the locker rooms for gym um as for the screening app many parents have issues with any sort of app that tracks data with regards to their children so how is that app going to be working uh assuming

120this plan goes through will high school juniors and seniors be able to drop their AP classes now since they will only have half day instruction for the first half of the year and my last question is is there a plan to return the Board of Ed meetings to in-person in the near future with proper distancing protocol masks and such if we're looking to send the teachers and kids back to school these meetings will be in person as well that's it thank you next hi this is Erica Smith 177 oldum Road um so my son is supposed to go into kindergarten in the fall and if I understood correctly he would be most likely two days a week for part of the day because the K program is now in question so really he would literally

121only be in school for a couple hours twice a week because right now he's in preschool and that's currently open all all week he wears a mask from 8:00 a. to 5:00 pm every day um so then would it be better to keep him in preschool at a preschool three level almost it's a kindergarten teacher if we did that could he go back to regular kindergarten if School resumed a regular schedule Midway through the year and if he stayed in in the preschool three uh could he go straight to first grade next year so that is that is my question okay next can you hear me hello hello yes you're on hi uh my name is Scott I live in Wayne so my first question is uh as far as breaking up the groups of

122schools to a versus B are you going to keep into consideration siblings in other words will you if we have two kids one in second grade one in first grade are you going to skip you know put one in one in group a one in group b uh that's my first question and I hope you don't I hope you combine siblings I really hope you can take that into consideration um number two as far as money you know a lot of parents uh both work and because of this one of them might have to quit their jobs or even be fured or laid off is there any talk about money back to the parents that are teaching their kids three days a week has bergano even spoken about this uh third as far as mascots

123uh to any of the high school girls that just called in I asked do they know any Native Americans and I support fully that Native American man that called in I support the Wayne Valley Indians number four dawn whatever Pizza you were eating it looked delicious I would love to know where that's from uh if you could send me a text or an email where it's from it looked delicious thank youa Bo hi um I'm Melody Appel from 92 Chestnut Drive um I'd like to express my support in changing the Wayne Valley's mascot of the Indians I'm ashamed that in a town that seemed to be highly supportive of progressive change through the through the black labs matter movement there is such intense push back in this change there's clearly a a cultural disconnect in

124Wayne how dare people read testimonials from Native Americans on social media agreeing with its racist ties and then disregard their words in order to hold tradition Native American activist bunkey echohawk commented on Instagram how it is toned deaf to say the least to say home of the Indians when the school is built on Stolen land then 87% of State history standards don't even mention the U Native American history past 1900 I've learned that your students call your football field the TP the newsletter the smoke signals and that you tell your athletic opponents to Fear The Spear he then continued to say if your school's history standards align with national um National statistics it's safe to assume that you're not teaching your students an accurate complete or even inclusive history Native American history is American history

125thank you Brian borchard for sharing this comment and I could not agree more if students were well-informed on History this discussion would not be controversial because quite frankly it should not be according to the National Congress of American Indians website as documented in a in a comprehensive review of Decades of social science research derogatory in Indian Sports mascots have serious psychological social and and cultural consequences for Native Americans especially native youth of today's American Indian and Alaskan native population those under the age of 18 make up 32% and Native youth under the age of 24 represent nearly half or 42% of the entire native population it's interesting how the same wi residents support racial inclusivity denounce Native Americans by wishing to keep the Indian Mas mascot but of course this doesn't matter to them since

126Wayne is a predominantly white town so it's a rarity to hear perspectives from native peoples Wayne is trailing behind in the world when it comes to implementing social change and fighting racism and it shows in the demographics and practices of our schools many universities for example have changed their mascots including Stanford University from Indians to Cardinals in 1972 moner State University only 20 minutes away from us from Indians to Red Hawks in 1989 and then of course Washington's NFL team the Redskins in 2020 the Wayne Valley Indians are no different than any of these schools it's important to mention that Valley Pride can easily be kept after replacing our offensive mascot Valley students are so motivated to implement this change that that they' have offered their talents to draw a new mascot it is imperative

127that we change this mascot to truly implement the change that will affect future future Generations especially if you plan on staying in or around Wayne Native Americans are people and their lives and history is valid and not your mascot thank you thank you next hello go ahead hi my name is Eric Freed I live at 40 Marlo rhod and Wayne um this is regarding the Wayne Valley Indian mascot um there's been a lot of uh people against it um on this on this meeting today um and uh you know I understand everyone has an opinion to me the most important opinion is the gentleman that identified himself as a Native American he just said it a few minutes ago he is not offended I I agree that there is a racism issue in the world

128today and that needs to be addressed in my opinion I don't believe that the the Wayne Valley Indian is used in a negative derogatory cartoonish um racist way the fact of the matter is American Indians did exist in this area they refer to themselves as Indians I I have three kids two of which have been involved in in in in many sports at Wayne Valley they're proud to call themselves Indians they they are it's the Traditions I believe should be let me back up I believe the kids should be educated on the Indians more as opposed to eradicating that it ever existed American Indians existed here let's educate let's not eradicate that the field or the snack stand has never ever ever been referred to as a TP I don't even know where that came

129from um I've been around the Wayne Valley for six years now I'm sorry seven years and it's never been referred to as the Tepe um I I we there there are two there are two I going around one against the Indian which does have a lot of signatures but at least 40% of those signatures have no one from Wayne I I think Joe Biden signed I know he has no interest in the Wayne Valley Indians um the the other petition for keeping the Indian has roughly 2200 2500 signatures 2,000 of them are Wayne residents 500 of them are alumni of Wayne Valley those opinions matter more than people who do not live in the town at least to me um once again the uh the NCA the NC AI which was referred to the I

130stands for Indian the ne a the I stands for Indian they refer to themselves as Indians we're not making fun of them we're not using a cartoonish caricature it's a symbol of Pride educate don't eradicate thank you thank you next hello um this is Melanie vanam I'm the 39 Woodstock Drive um I have two questions um first of all thank you for all your hard work I know this hasn't been easy for anyone um two questions is one um when will we be finding out what cohort um our child is in for those of us that are working parents we need to find out sooner rather than later in order to try to figure out um extra help and um also two um will the learning that they be doing for distance learning Be Live

131or will it be something that somebody can help them in later in the day so will it be the same schedule as the school schedule or will it be something that's taped and they could do it at any point during the day thank you thank you next hi my name is Amanda heel um I'm a resident of Love Al M dear drive and I'm going to be a senior at Wayne Valley this fall and about a month ago uh I created the online petition called change the Wayne Valley mascot in which I explain the negative effects of the mascot um and since it was uploaded it's gained over 6,3 00 signatures from people of diverse backgrounds including current students graduated students parents previous Wine Valley teachers other community members as well as Native Americans who

132don't agree with the way that we represent their race um and for anyone who's curious about the negative effects of Native American mascots there's an abundance of resources online that can easily be searched for so I want to say that the issue with the mascot isn't new and people have been calling to change the Indian mascot for decades I've received messages from alumni who created and signed petitions in the 90s and 2000s and I've received messages from people who have trying to bring tried to bring this issue to light for so long um it's easy to ignore or deny the existence of racism if it doesn't harm you even though it's the wrong thing to do and there's a counter petition going around in our town and it can only be signed by Wayne residents

133and people who lived in Wayne and the opinion of our Town's people is so important because this mascot represents our community but it represents an entire race of about 5, 221,000 people in the United States so yes we should discuss this as a community but we must take into consideration the opinion of Native Americans and it's not solely the right of our 90% White Town to decide what's acceptable and what's not and so um as for Native Americans around Wayne um I think Alex mentioned earlier the Lenny Lenape tribe which is the largest Native American tribe in New Jersey um their official website says even though some are said to to be in an effort to honor our people most mascots are insulting and racist and all reinforce insensitivity and stereotypes often our children must

134visit or attend schools where their races being caricatured on walls shirts jackets and flags our proud tribal names Villages Heroes and even rituals are turned into marketing tools and demeaned sadly it has been our experience that when we try to educate such offenders we are verbally and sometimes even physically attacked having so such mascots is no honor and it is an insult um also recently the the National Congress of American Indians directly reached out to the Wayne Board of Ed um to express their desire to have the Wayne Valley Indians changed uh the National Congress of American Indians is the oldest largest and most representative National Organization representing tribal Nations and people and their letter addressed to the Wayne Boe says the use of Native American Sports mascots logos or symbols perpetuate stereotypes of American

135Indians that are very harmful the warrior Savage myth has played this country's relationship with the Indian people as it reinforces the racist views that Indians are uncivilized and uneducated as it has been used to justify policies of force assimilation and destruction of Indian culture and I think that we must listen to the L Len lenapi tribe in NC and over the past few weeks a lot of progress has been made both nationally and in New Jersey um pasek Valley and pasek Hills here in New Jersey decide to change their indes and cowboy mascots as well as the NFL team in Washington that use a derogatory term uh to describe native Americans as their mascot um and Wayne is not an exception and we have to follow and I want to thank the board of ed

136for their promise to eliminate racism in our schools as a student in Wayne for 12 years it really means a lot to know that the students of color's voices are finally being heard so thank you but um we can't brush off this issue and the first step is admitting that the mascot is wrong um and stop to stop actively promoting it as a mascot um and again this isn't a new problem people have been trying to remove it for decades and I can't it it can't wait longer um I do have faith in our community I do believe that if the district is really dedicated to eliminating racism and creating a better environment for their students we'll see a change in the Wayne Valley mascot very soon and I'm proud to be a Wayne Valley

137student and a member of the Wayne Community but I'm not proud to call myself an Indian um being an Indian might represent things like Pride strength and togetherness but so can countless other mascots and it might be hard ma'am I'm sorry you've gone over your time okay thank you very much thank you thank you we've heard your uh loud and clear next hello go ahead you're live hi I'm Haley Budnick 38 Clinton Lane to start plain and simple the Wayne Valley Indian mascot is racist goal one diversity equity and inclusion can in no way be accomplished while this mascot still stands I am a 2018 Valley graduate not once did I feel so connected to our mascot none of my friends talked about their love for the mascot and I never heard any of my

138peers mention their dedication to it either unless it was discussed how inappropriate and uncomfortable it made some of us feel I now live in Washington DC and I currently work at the American Psychological Association I would like to quickly quote one of their articles titled summary of the APA resolution recommending retirement of American Indian mascots they write that these mascots quote undermine the educational experiences of MERS of all communities especially those who have had little or no contact with indigenous peoples the symbols images and mascots teach non-indian children that it's acceptable to participate in culturally abusive behavior and perpetuate inaccurate misconceptions about American Indian culture and establishes an unwelcome and oftentimes hostile learning environment for American Indian students that affirms negative images stereotypes that are promoted in mainstream Society it should be no surprise that

139people are ready to speak out against this monstrosity that has been the face of our school that is 78.6% white may I add I would also like to acknowledge those who so strongly oppose changing the mascot because it honors the Native American Community I hope you are all naming and praying every day for the indigenous women that have been going missing in our country every day you do not get to cherry-pick what you fight for do the right thing and change the Wayne Valley Indian mascot thank you thank you very much next hello you're on hi my name is Timothy Thompson um 138 Lai Avenue I graduated from Wayne Valley in 2019 first I want to say thank you for taking steps to address racism um by doing this you are making this town safer

140for all regardless of race or identity but there's still a lot of work to do and though we are taking steps in the right direction I hope the board will continue to advocate for protection awareness and education for our minorities F but today I want to talk about the valley mascot a petition was created that now has over 6,000 signatures and I also agree that is time for change these harmful mascots have been denounced by the American Psychological Association the National Collegiate Athletics Association the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma the seminal nation of Oklahoma and the National Congress of American Indians among other organizations sports teams and world leaders America's history of Native American oppression stems back to the very founding of the country we all know about the genocide and the displacement of col displacement

141by colonists and the Trail of Tears that wiped out 80% of natives but just to give you a sense of how Insidious these Char caricatures are and something we didn't learn about in school the US used the Savage narrative to justify the forced stealing of tens of thousands of Native American children in an attempt to quote civilize them with an institution that lasted from 1879 to the 1970s this started with the carile Indian industrial school where Native where Native American children were stripped of their identities abused verbally sexually and physically forced into manual labor neglected and starved their motto was quote kill the Indian and save the man similarly similarly in 1958 the US forcefully stole 1/4th of the Native child population to give up for adoption to white families in order to break apart

142native families this was all under the pretense that native parents were unfit to raise their children and were s aages the pleas to change these inaccurate and stereotypical representations are coming from generations of native families some still living today who know what it is like to have those insensitive biases be used as justification for further displacement mistreatment and the breaking of their families as barbar munan a member of the onita nation of Wisconsin says stereotypes ignorance silent inaction and even naive innocence damage and Destroy individual lives and whole cultures racism kills help teach teach tolerance not stereotypes to make Wayne more welcoming for others it is time for Wayne to follow the rest of the world in fighting for racial Justice first by retiring the mascot second by properly educating the community on minorities the

143Wayne education system is a big reason why people move here but it's also no secret that Wayne has a tolerance problem I've seen it I've heard it and I've lived it as a black African-American and in this moment of racial Awakening Wayne's School Legacy is on the line please consider what you want to be remembered for thank you thank you next hi my name is Marissa Budnick I'm at 38 Clinton Lane the Wayne Valley mascot is no honor to the indigenous people it is an embarrassment to our Wayne Community that we feel the need to inaccurately appropriate their culture when they have gone through so much as a people when our overwhelmingly white school decides to eat at a snack stand called the teee and read from the school P newspaper called the smoke signals

144I've been in contact with the individual who runs the key the Indians Instagram account and their biggest argument is that they are quote unquote honoring native people with this mascot I and many people have sent several native activists who denounced this mascot their way where we shouldn't even have to Native people don't need to explain themselves as to why they don't like their culture being appropriated we shouldn't have to be we shouldn't have been one of the many schools who had to do this in the first place so why not write our wrong now in 2020 if the keep the Indians Instagram account wants to honor indigenous people they can donate money to the Navajo Nation who are disproportionately affected by covid-19 they do not have access to clean water or grocery stores which are

145essential in this time donate to them if you really want to honor them anyway pasak Valley changed their mascot that Washington football team recent very recently changed their mascot and the only reason they did that was because FedEx was their biggest sponsor and threatened to drop them if they didn't which is an issue of itself but they did it and and if the problem here is money it shouldn't be if you saw on moral grounds you would care about respecting a nation than about the money it would cost to replace everything if we are honoring Native Americans here we would simply respect them and their wishes so so much money already goes into the sports programs and not the Arts or music programs so what would be the difference of spending some money to do

146the right thing right Mr freed who spoke who spoke before said educate not eradicate so why don't we educate on the real and accurate history on indigenous people in the classroom and eradicate the stere stereotypical car caricature that is this mascot and this brings me to diversifying the curriculum as I stated stated in last month's Board of Ed meeting I have learned more about bipoc history and culture in these last two months than I did in the Wayne public school system I learned of the injustices of this American System toward people of color more in these two months than I did in the Wayne public school system I only had one black teacher Mrs Shawn the school nurse at James Fallon Elementary you must incorporate more black indigenous latinx Asian LGBT accurate history and literature

147in your curriculum you owe it to those students who are within those groups who will maybe feel a bit more accepted within their schools and in their bodies while they are also learning about who they are you owe it to the white students who can either grow up ignorant to these injustices and histories or will grow up and have to teach themselves what was not taught in schools goal one diversity equity and inclusion cannot be complete until the mascot is changed and bipoc and LGBT history and literature are put into the curricul got your time I'm sorry thank you very much next hi this is Augie debl from 52 Princeton Place I just had a couple questions on Middle School basically for back to school uh first one is when the middle school kids have

148their cohorts will it be taken into account the different classes they'll be traveling amongst so I in other words if the cohort is together will they be traveling to the same classes together or will there have to be some sort of breaking up and intermixing between the cohorts to get to the right classes number two um if my daughter you know chooses to to go to school which he wants to do and for whatever reason we decide days weeks mon into it that it's not right for her she doesn't enjoy it she doesn't want to continue doing it is it okay to you know basically change your mind and bring her back home to do the at home instruction uh that's just my two questions for your frequently Asked Smiles question and uh thank you

149very much thank you next took my suggestion we should do a frequently asked questions Dr doc hello it's Ellen Klein and I have two more teacher questions and I'm sorry I don't know if this will be addressed in the near future or not but will there be specials following their original curriculum or will they just be coverage as prep periods for teachers and the expectation of the am instruction versus the PM virtual expression ex be the same learning so like what we teach in the AM to our class is that what we will be teaching to our PM through virtual or will there be something different thank you and I thank you all I'm on one of your subcommittees and I really thank you 100% for all the time and effort you've put into us

150going back to school thanks thank you next hello hi how's it going uh I'm Ryan how I live at tendale Avenue and my son would be starting kindergarten at Lafayette um I kind of came in halfway through um I was curious if it was an option to just strictly do virtual if that was an option if that is an option um I'm all for that um you know I would have no problem help helping him learn and doing my best to teach him as best as I possibly could um and I just want to thank you all for your patience thank you all for your effort I think you guys are doing a great job and uh that's basically it thank you for your time thank you next hello hello you're on Hi how are

151you um my name is Michelle with at 15 Kimberly place um I think I speak mostly on the elementary level I have a son going into first grade um a daughter finishing up her last year at preschool um through a private school I just have a couple questions about drop wolf and pickup um I think I speak for the whole one through five grade um will there be different times will there be different pickup drop off times will there be temperature checks um during that time who will be staying by our children to watch them I'm sure there'll be a line um as far as nurse visits go because you know that always happens and bathroom visits who will be bringing them to and forth um lunch um will that be something that's at their

152desk how will their desk look is it completely open are they required to um where their mask the whole entire time you're talking about six hours that a child a young child is required to wear a mask if they're still socially distant do they have to wear a mask or is that a Parent's Choice um as far as the grab and go lunch is that something that they're going to eat at the school or is it you know you're you're talking about a young child where there you're saying at 8:30 let's say is the drop off and um 1:45 is pickup you you're talking about a great length of time where they're going to be hungry and cranky that's the bottom line you know any grade through fifth um will it be the same rotation

153um whether it be Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday each week is going to be rotating week to week every third week um and what happens after Thanksgiving I know you guys have a plan till basically Thanksgiving break um is it just going to be like um you know let's see what happens um and just not non offensive uh I'm just finding it very strange how I'm a nurse myself um how you guys are all on Zoom not in front of each other but how come these kids filled in a classroom that is enclosed is it going to be okay to be an enclosed environment in another five weeks what what's the difference from now until then um ma'am thank you that's your time I'm sorry okay I'm sorry thank you thank you so much for all

154your guys help too you're hello go ahead hi uh this is Jennifer bsh 207 and overdrive um I just have three quick questions for you guys um one is in regards to the extended day um will the kids remain with the cohorts that they spent the day with um or will they be mixed into a different group um my second question uh would be in terms of if parent happens to get quarantined um from their job therefore I would think our kids would have to stay home and then what does that do to their cohort how does that spread um is kind of where I'm going there um and then my last question which I think was brought up a little bit earlier was basically about specials art gym band Library um and the whole

155past fail thing that we just went through is that going to continue that's all I have thank you for your time thank you next yeah hello hello go ahead yeah hi this is Norman fight 11 Falcon Place um my question my kids are going into high school and I'm curious I understand the cohorts for the kids but I'm wondering if there are cohorts for the teachers or administrators in the event that a case were be were to take place in the school how would that affect the staff coverage um in the event that that staff members had to be quarantined and what would that do to the whole virtual versus uh versus in-person model you know if you if you wind up having reduced staff based on people getting infected that that's all I have

156thanks thank you can I make a suggestion I'm sorry go ahead um the suggestion is that um we're getting a lot of questions and I think that basically if there's um if we go through these questions that we already have uh I think that that would resolve a lot of other people's questions because some of them are similar there's number that were similar so if we were to answer the questions now that like I said that would that would address a number of other speakers who may be looking to speak in in the near future and um there are some elements of the questions that could be resolved with with one explanation well I was going to suggest at the end I've asked people not to repeat questions but some people are coming on late

157the the number it es and floats with the attendees and since this is a public meeting I don't want to stop anyone from speaking entirely uh but if we don't have to answer the questions this evening I would recommend that we do this in an online FAQ um give answers to all of them put them online for everyone to hear the answers or read the answers um going forward along with the presentation and uh take care of that between you know now and when we start the thought exchange how do you feel about that I can answer the questions but if um like I said I could also wait just I know that the there's a normal process but I thought we still have 22 people on with their hands up right now sounds good

158so um I'd like to finish that up uh because we said we would we cut it down to three minutes and again if you heard a question already asked obviously don't repeat it and um repeating and anything at this point is just going to make us take longer we can answer the questions tonight but we'll discuss that later on uh so the next person please hi my name's Susan 51 Agawam Drive um I have a question regarding if a family member comes down with the virus um should you be reaching out to the school to let them know for the the people that are around the child that um there is the virus within that house because potentially you know all where you know some of these kids are asymptomatic so I'd like to find

159that question and then I'd like to find out if I were to keep my child home um well the first question was on you're saying that on Wednesday you're going to clean is the day for cleaning now on the day that these high school kids are in school and they're rotating classes are those desks being wiped down are they being cleaned at all so that you don't know again if a child's asymptomatic that's a question and as well um in the spring I know my child's teachers really uh there was no zooming while some teachers did do zoom and we didn't Faire too well with that and it took quite a while to hear back from teachers so will there be a more um acknowledgement or live teaching I know you said the teachers potentially

160would be wearing this microphone and you know so I just want to know will it be live so that my child does not fall behind and will the teachers how I know in the past they have extra help where you can go throughout the day during their off periods how it was during that lunch hour which I know you're not going to have will there be will the teachers still be there for the children if they need help and that's pretty much what my questions are um thank you thank you very much next hi uh D sininsky Powder Horn Drive um what considerations are being made for resource students at the Elementary level in terms of scheduling and also um as an option would it be feasible for resource students especially those with therapies to

161have more face-to-face time you know like the um self-contained students like maybe three days versus two of course as an option thank you thank you next hi can you hear me yep hi this is Eevee wenting 7 seminal um thank you for your time tonight a lot of the questions I had were already asked but my one is IEP so in the past virtual learning experience I have three kids in the systems and they didn't do so well all kids grades drop drastically at least by two one of which has an IEP and I felt that there was no support provided for the IEP student where he had inclass help so I'm wondering how will that be handled um that's my one question and my one comment is we in our household 100% support the

162mascot thank you thank you very much next hello hi my name is Chris I am live on Timothy Road um I had a question or I guess just comment on the New Jersey Health guidelines that if a student or a staff member had a fever that they would stay home for a minimum of 10 days and then 72 hours after that uh fever free um so just like I guess does the um District have a plan for losing a teacher for 10 plus days if either they have a fever or a um student of or child of theirs has a fever I know that if a negative test does come back that they could be relieved of staying home for that long but with testing taking longer these days um that could be a problem

163thank you for your time thank you next you're on hello hello hello hello yes yeah hi do you hear me yes yeah hi um yeah um first I'd like to thank uh Wayne for all your hard work very proud of what you guys been doing is such a crazy ma'am ma'am can you state your name first yeah oh yeah I'm Jessica I'm sorry Jessica from 44 I'm Jessica from Randy Drive okay thank you yeah uh first um first I'd like to thank Wayne schs for all your hard work very proud of what you guys been doing and there is such you know situ situation we are in right now I truly believe that whatever decisions you guys pick for are for the saf they of our children and I trust my kids with you guys

164that is why I chose Wayne truly lucky and you know not all schools can provide Chromebooks to all kids and that's the first thing and um I actually have three kids in the system elementary middle school and high school and my questions are first first one because I have a middle school that uses a school bus and just want to ask if there will like hand sanitizers like available in the school buses and second um I just want to ask if that staff will be um like like uh symptom surveillance for covid like the staff will they check the temperature or like symptoms of like cough cough you know runny nose or something like covid symptoms for all the teachers like text or you know like anybody that school system staff and then second one

165the second question the third question is um will the kids temperature will also be checked daily before coming into school and fourth question um cuz you know some parents are you know working parents like us um will there be like recorded instructions because it's like been kind of crazy for the last you know um uh online learning so just in case like the parents don't understand the topic can we just go back and listen to the recorded instructions and then the fifth question is um the three cohosts because I also have like I have like I have a high school and um i' I'm not I didn't quite understand it is it one week live classes and then two weeks online and then for high school um will there be extra help or like I

166know there's there are like remind apps that parents can sign online uh can can sign up but can there also be like a daily email reminder if like the child misses a homework or a schoolwork or something like I work and then my husband works so you know it's kind of crazy and like for like us with like a elementary middle and high school I know it's been asked but can they be on the same like schedule on Monday Tuesday kind of like live learning classes or like a on uh yeah live learning classes and second um I just want to like comment on like the whatever these kids are talking about I don't mean to be mean but you know this meeting is for the 2021 plan but you know these topics like the

167Mascus can be discussed on other times it's just so unfair because you know I um save this day save this night to listen to this and kind of like a waste of time for working parents like us so like if this kids can we just like kept this question to like you know see it for different day and time you know that's all but I'm really proud of what you guys are doing yeah you very much thank you so much thank you have a good night uh next hello go ahead hi uh this is Albert deir 31 hton Road uh we have a twins that were supposed to start to first grade in Tunis day and I would like to know uh what is the plan for twins siblings uh as they want to stay

168together most of the time and since we are not going to use the um bus we're going to drop them off and pick them up we would prefer to have them going into school in same time and same day and in terms of the other thing is uh hand sanitizing usage in the school is it going to be everywhere like the hallway in the the class each time they enter the class or they go to bathroom after bathroom they're going to have station for hand sanitizing or not uh that's all thank you very much for your time and all the hard work thank you next you're on hello anyone there next hello you're on hey um I'm gonna make this as brief as possible I got a lot of questions uh my name is Katie

169shite I'm at 11 Shore Road I have my son going into second grade and my daughter going into fifth grade at Pines Lake um I just want to make sure um that the first question is is the union consulted on all of this is this all going to change after the teachers get take a look at this and say okay n this isn't going to work this isn't going to work um have you considered delaying the school year at all I don't know how that works with the state regulations and how many days we have to put in um have you considered at some point during the school year a two- week break just to make sure everybody's healthy and kind of of time to reset um I have a question about siblings sitting together

170on the bus because I know we have to distance but Can siblings sit together and that how does that affect the plan for the busing um and then also I don't want to repeat anything but the cleaning situation with the buses is frightening um is new academic content being introduced um if you have a child on the a schedule and they're online learning for the B schedule is that content repeated or is that new content I don't know if that makes if that question makes sense but hopefully Kathy will will translate um wait me K Kathy I'll email you Kathy do that um online only um if you're if you decide you want to do an online only option for your children can you join the school year late or if once you optt out

171are you out um and then how are we going to um deal with shared materials because I understand the state is prohibiting shared materials so how does that affect specials are the special teachers coming to the classroom are the children traveling at all with specials um are they not going to happen at all and then how are you dealing with um populations that are moving such as AIDS substitute teachers and Paras that are moving from from school to school and are being exposed to various different populations within the school system different grade levels and different kids um and then hopefully at some point there'll be questions addressed about after school programs and mixing kids together such as the question about extended day um sorry to throw all that out you but um I have a

172lot of question thank you all perfect timing your time's up thank now we're getting to the bottom next uh yes hello can you guys hear me yes this is Thomas culford two serin drive we have two kids in the elementary uh school and the question is uh I know you guys are offering options for virtual uh for for people to you know do kids virtually will you offer then option for in person in place of the people that do decide to go virtually okay thank you I'm not sure I understand do you want more more in person to take up the room of the virtual is that what you're asking yes if let's say a lot of people take the option to go virtual not freeze up for in person is there an option if

173because I we have both working p parents so will that be an option to take their spots and have my kids okay now I understand thank you thank you next hi Kum Nar 15 Court Lane um I'm alumna of Wayne Valley High School of the class of 2016 The Faculty staff and students of Wayne schools including Mrs rikman my um fourth grade teacher from the windows program hello again uh shaped my life in countless ways and it is because I care strongly about Wayne Valley that I am advocating for us to change the mascot when we use races as mascots we entirely plan to stereotypes and having gone to Wayne Valley I promise you there are no respectful portrayals we're using in fact the land that Wayne New Jersey sits on is the land that

174was once inhabited by the Lenny LP our mascot is a warrior in all our portrayals and our mascot seems to have no idea that the Len LPE were a famously peaceful tribe that put up little resistance to the English settlers and invaded their Shores New Jersey actually recognizes three Native American tribes all in some way related to the letin nap and during the past few years the New Jersey government has tried to strip these tribes of recognition and then reinstated it Wayne Valley didn't teach me any of this so the point is the argument that the mascot represents some sort of pride in our local history is flimsy at best I'm Indian myself in that my parents came to the US from India so I was doubly a Wayne Valley Indian during my time there

175and I'll tell you I was offended it is not that it was fine before and only has recently become racist it was racist before I went it was racist while I was there and it remains racist now and it will be racist two years five years now so you can change our mascot now or end up as one of the last schools in the nation with a racist mascot and get even more bad press for it because this will only snowball thanks for hearing from me tonight please consider this change that's it for me thank you next hi um my name is Nila Alba and I am a resident of Wayne since 2017 um I am a Native American that is disappointed in my town knowing that there is a mascot that is degrading to

176my race I wasn't planning on saying anything tonight but after hearing the people that are fore keeping this unacceptable m Scot I felt I had to say my part especially being a Native American it's the it's the opposite of an inclusive community and it doesn't make me feel comfortable being in a town that degrades me and my children's race you are not honoring my people you are being insensitive to the way my race has historically been insulted disrespected and eradicated now um on a different topic as for schooling this year I came into this meeting late so I I know I heard some of these questions but um as as for the virtual schooling um I was wondering if there was an option for children that have family members that are immune compromised can they

177just take virtual learning and later on through the year would those students be allowed to enter the school year once covid is no longer an issue um my last question is um what measures will you be taking to prevent parents from um from bringing in their children if they or anyone in the household have been recently tested there have been cases where people are getting tested and going to work and sending their kids to school while waiting for their results putting uh putting everyone at risk on all those days in between testing and results that's it thank you thank you very much next hello hello you're on Hi how are you um my name is jod trasan I live at 37 Smith Lane I have three students in the Wayne School District um I have

178one child that will be a sophomore in high school and I have two in the elementary school system I can tell you that online learning for my younger children had been quite detrimental to their overall mental health and well-being even with the best intentions and efforts on their teachers um they did a great job considering the circumstances and I applaud them for everything that they did I don't understand where we are right now okay and returning back to school um with two days a total of 10 hours for elementary schools for in classroom learning when our numbers in New Jersey are very low children from the ages from five to 17 okay there have been zero deaths in the state of New Jersey at this point based on the data from the State Department of

179Health okay and I just feel that we have to be realistic in what we're doing to help our children right now during this time okay they need their teachers they need structure they need to be in the school system okay um I want to know in November what your criteria will be to make an adjustment okay where we can continue on this path of two days and in-classroom learning and then a wellness day and then online learning and what would change at that time what data would change our path okay there are you know children overall do very well if Unfortunately they are infected with covid and I know we're taking all the precautions that we need to do to make sure that our teachers and children are safe but what are the criteria that

180this town is going to say is important that we have to meet to make a change so we can continue and get back to some type of normaly now I know covid I'm a Frontline provider I'm a nurse anesthetist I'm taking care of these patients I put myself at risk every single day when I go to work so I know the risks that are out there but I just feel that we have to really think about the data in this state that affects our children okay and try our best to get them in the classroom as much as we can because they need it they need the structure they need the in-classroom support they need their teachers it's not the same with online learning even with their best efforts and they have done a great

181job okay and I'm very proud of my children's teachers done a great great work but they need to be in the classroom so I just would like to know thank you very much next you're live hi how's everyone doing your name please Yep this is uh Scott Overlook ad Wayne New Jersey um I want to uh support the last caller's comments everything she said was spoton and I support everything she just said she is uh somebody that should be listened to and taken seriously so just please keep that in mind uh secondly to all the uh the high school people that were calling in all the the the young people I just ask and and I respect their decision and and their thoughts I just ask if they would have the same sentiments prior to

182March 25th of this year that's that's my only question to them uh number three um as far as money again so the parents are teaching their kids three days a week now please keep in in consideration that we are going to have to uh keep one parent at home from work and teach our kidss so there's got to be some kind of compensation for these parents to teach our kids three days a week we are not teachers and we're not teachers for a reason all right even if we teach them three days a week our our kids are not getting the same education that they would face to face with our teacher and God bless the teachers that are doing what they do every day because they're doing a great job but our parents are

183not teachers so please keep into consideration compensation for our teachers for our parents that are teaching our kids three days a week and thirdly Dawn again that pizza looked delicious I would love to know what was on that piee tell callers are not allowed I'm sorry your time thank you thank you D it looked delicious what kind of pizza so was it already uh I got it from the new place uh Basilica where uh American Heroes barbecue used to be on Hamburg that's it thank you very much yeah only next and stop calling Scott hello hi hello my name is Summit uh I'm from uh 22 Danel Drive WI New Jersey um I just had a quick question so um my daughter she uh is going to go to first grade next year uh so

184for uh kids that age like five or six I was wondering um I understand why face mask are mandatory and uh make sense uh but I was wondering if there is going to be a colorcoded face masks because I feel like kids they can wear different face masks different like you know characters and stuff like that and like uh kids can come back home and demand for like you know different face masks every time so are you guys uh um going to put any rules around like you know just a plane if you're in first grade in the morning session red white black blue whatever it is um it's just a colorcoded or it could be anybody could wear anything they want that's it thank you okay next uh my name is Jim freeswick I

185reside at 1212 summerh Hill Road in Wayne Uh I moved to Wayne when I was 10 years old in 1960 I went through the Wayne Public School System fifth grade through 12th I I'm a graduate of Wayne Hills High School class of 1968 the first graduating class but before Wayne Hills opened in 1966 when I was a junior that was the first year it opened I was a sophomore at Wayne Valley high school so I I'm a former Wayne Valley Indian In addition to being a Wayne Hills Patriot and I I have to thank Amanda Keel that student from Wayne's alley high school for instituting that petition for Wayne Valley High School to change its nickname the Indians you know when I was a sophomore at the age of 15 we didn't think much of

186it at that time because we had not been educated in the history of the indigenous peoples of of the United States of America and but times have changed and a few years after I graduated the American Indian movement began in this country and we became more aware of of of the tragedy that that the the indigenous peoples of this country suffered from the white immigrants and and for for a white suburban community to use the nickname the Indians for for uh a high school nickname I think is is wrong uh and and and I again I thank Amanda Keel uh and all the other Wayne Valley students and Wayne Valley alumni who spoke tonight and all those people who signed that petition to change the name um it's about time we change that name it's

187cringeworthy uh it just doesn't pass the cringe test uh and uh and that and that's all I have to say tonight on that subject thank you very much for your consideration I do have one question now does the board intend to hold a ple site or take a survey of public opinion uh in the general Community regarding whether or not uh the Wayne Valley Indians nickname should be eliminated and changed to something else uh you know are you going to hold a vote some type of uh survey by email or uh what have you to uh gauge public opinion before before you make a decision on this issue and uh and when when do you plan to make a decision on this issue because I think these students deserve an answer one way or another

188uh fairly quickly because it's an important issue and I think the board of that is gonna have to take a stand and a vote one way or another thank you sir thank you next getting there um Salam harun 1744 ratza Road I appreciate what our community has done in order to keep us safe during these unprecedented times but this mascot issue still needs to be addressed is embarrassing that our school mascot is still the Indians when other towns in New Jersey and a professional football team have changed their insensitive mascot already in the past few weeks I believe that we are capable of instituting this change if not right away slowly but at least starting to stop the distribution of apparel with a Native American face as a logo then slowly we can make this

189change this school change for the better I understand that not everything can be done right away but that an excuse to avoid this subject altogether Wayne has a history of racism and keeping this Masa is only delaying our progression away from that something must be done to change the mascot and we as a community have to address this issue directly if we really have no place for hate thank you thank you next yes hi can you hear me yes hi this is Kim W hour I live at 15 and over drive I um wanted to know for those parents who do get their children into the boys and girls club or the why will these um will they be supporting the remote learning or will it just be child care for the three days a

190week and if they are report uh supporting the re learning what does that in fact look like um and I do want to acknowledge the woman a few callers ago who spoke about really understanding what kind of data is being used I agree the uh I too want my child in school and uh understand how important important it is and really want to have a plan of what will uh allow Wayne to make the change to go to full-time school thank you thank you next hello you're on I am d at 36 Lake Trail East um I'm an educator in Wayne and our son and daughter both attended the Wayne schools they're both graduates of Wayne Valley high school and I just want to say we have the same Valley Pride uh and I it

191just it made me so proud of the young people that I heard that stood up tonight and spoke and and spoke out they're seeing something that they believe is an injustice and they're doing the right thing and I know this spard is listening and I know you're going to listen to them and I know that you're considering them stakehold holders and I know that they're going to be included in whatever decision is made for Wayne Valley so I just want to say it makes me so proud this is this is part of what education is about to teach people to stand up and take a stand when things are not right so I'm just really proud of these young people um I'm also I'm also calling because I was wondering about outdoor instruction I'm an

192educator in Wayne uh you know PE teachers routinely take their classes outside but has there been any thought to increasing outdoor instruction for classroom teachers and for other specials just because obviously when you're outside there's less of a problem with the Airborne um contaminants that might be in the air versus indoor Also regarding the masks is there going to be a particular quality of masks required and if kids show up at the school without masks will there be some on hand such that you know like kids forget their lunchbox maybe they forget their mask at home will we be prepared as a school to provide students with masks if they're in that situation also I teach music so I have there are many questions and the research is still being gathered about this regarding applied

193music both vocal with wind instrument as well as instrumental Coral the problem with the singing and the projecting of the voice in the air has any thought been given to this um and also with bathrooms my room my classroom at one of the schools happens to be next to the bathroom and you could wind up with four or five kids from different classrooms in that bathroom at the same time teachers might not be aware that kids are coming from different rooms has there been any thought to coordination so we don't wind up with uh larger groups of kids in the restrooms than there should be as far as social distancing um and thank you thank you for all you're doing thank you to everyone that was involved in all of those subcommittees I know it's

194a lot of hard work be well thank you next hello go ahead hi my name is John I live on Alps Road I just want to talk about the Wayne Valley mascot change I just want to talk about how I feel that is very necessary and I really hope that the Board of Education members is really taken into account what US students are talking about I'm currently a student at Wayne Valley and I not only feel the the Prejudice but I also see it with with my peers especially my peers that are B that are B and lgbtq plus I just want to talk about how there are some many symbols in our school that project this Narrative of pro um Pro mascot I really feel that really needs to change for instance there is

195a ma there's a mural in our school that talks about I'm sorry that shows a sa a Savage like Native American I feel that is very not only disgusting and vile but is so inhumane and not moral I think that that not only shows how Wayne Valley feels about Native Americans but I also feel that it's projecting to other schools as well and not only other schools but other people in our community I feel like as a community we need to change this and I think it's I think it's time and to people who have spoken before that are for keeping the masot I think that they have to take into account that it's not just what's happening now in the world that bring up um black lives matter but this has always been discussed

196and everyone has felt this in the past before this whole Corona virus and BLM I feel like everyone just needs to take into account everything thank you thank you next hi Michelle again from Kimberly place I promise not to talk about black lives matter not a minute Michelle are you a repeat person yes well we prefer to speak to everyone else first I'm sorry we don't allow repeats until the end I'm sorry okay thank you next go ahead hello are you there next Mr bashard hello Marcus Shak now six sprintwood Court oh man I'm looking at 11 exhausted faces um so let's address that elephant in the room um I I actually just wanted to take this moment to um fully support you guys um and the work that you've been doing especially from Donna

197Richman and uh Mark Tobak have come out with some really amazing statements about not just being not racist but also being anti-racist so I trust that you guys um have your hearts in the right place to do the right thing in regards to this mascot um I would like to actually celebrate and uh cite your curriculum that you wrote um the 10th grade English curriculum uh there is a unit for indigenous literature um and I went into that curriculum and uh I want to bring out two of the quote essential questions that are um written about in that curriculum the first one the first essential question that we ask 10th graders is is how did early American literature reflect the discriminatory attitudes of our culture that continue today now the leap from literature to imagery

198is not a big leap so um my question or my my prompt for the people that are uh supporting keeping the mascot is um how did early American imagery reflect the discriminatory attitudes of our culture that continue today um Eric freed said let's educate and not eradicate well you guys are really doing a good job educating us and that is one of the essential questions that you guys asked 10th graders another essential question is how does the meaning or purpose of a work shift in light of new theories and new philosophies how does the meaning or purpose of a work shift in light of new theories and new philosophies so this is what we're asking our 10th graders to kind of analyze is how things change and we can see things in a new evolved

199Manner and if we can ask 10th graders that question I feel damn sure that we can ask grown adults those same questions also in the curriculum it says that um it aims to make our students globally competent a lot of things have been said such as um you know the town's people are more important than the national Community you know it's our town we should be able to do what we want um and that is not globally competent that's uh communally exclusive or uh it's not too far off from segregationist so uh again if we can ask this of our 10th graders if we could ask these questions of our 10th graders I think we should be able to ask it of our adults so I think that you guys are doing a really good

200job Kathy Kazan you said the only thing we can count on in this pandemic is change and luckily this is one of the most straightforward changes that you guys are going to have to make this season so keep doing what you guys are doing thank you okay thank you perfect timing time's up next okay you're on hello hello okay next hello can you hear me yes okay hello my name is Jeff Robinson I live at 22 Osborne Terrace and I'm a rising senior I would like to speak about the whole change to mascot issue I've never seen Wayne Valley make Native Americans look bad I think instead of can in history and our pride I think that we should further honor natives by dedicating games or setting up donations to reservations in New Jersey so

201I've also never seen R Valley disrespect natives through um the headdresses or the paint because people who are offended don't really know what it means um the paint mean they say that the paint means savagery it actually was thought to have magical powers of protection to natives also the money that would be needed to fund this change is above six figures and we just got a new field that costed a lot of taxpayer money um also a bunch of people are saying oh we live in a predominantly white town and so we can't use a mascot or a name is I think is ridiculous because if we're going to try to be strive for equality that's that's not equality you're just canceling out history and everything um and the only reason that big teams are

202changing their names is because politics are getting involved and people are boycotting which is very different from our situation and again I don't think we've ever thrown any dirt on the name logo or mascot of Queen Valley Indians thank you thank you next hello yes hi this is Chrissy sent tacis from 14 Garvey Road um I wanted uh some clarity on the KRA program it sounded like it was not going to happen but it also was not 100% clear about whether it was going to happen or not and so I wanted to know um if there is any plans still being discussed and if that is a possibility at all I know it's an important program as the town is moving towards full day kindergarten and so um it seems that the kind gardeners will

203be in school for only like in person for only about 4 hours or four and a half five hours a week so I wonder if um if there is any plan to still make that happen as that seems an important part um of uh of the kindergarteners learning um I think that was the main thing a lot of the other things were already um already asked but um yeah I wanted it it seems like a very short amount of time for the kindergarteners where the town was obviously moving towards more time for the kindergarteners to be learning in person with their teachers and so um yes I wonder what what will be done about that thank you okay thank you next hello can you hear me yes hi my name is ellot Franklin and I

204live at 21 kilana Drive first I wanted to say that when I went to the black lives matter event in Wayne New Jersey obviously it was the proudest I had ever been of Wayne and I'm sure that all of you supported that event or attended it because I know that you care so much about this town and I know that the superintendent was there and everyone was there also I just want to put it in perspective that the word Indian is just blatantly not okay like I don't I I I don't know about you guys but does it look like we're in India right now you know so that's that's just my opinion on it and imagine if it was other races in their shoes like say you have Irish heritage or Italian Heritage and

205you were given mascots named after racist titles about those groups racist and discriminatory titles you see how do you think they feel right and if you look at the border wall right now on the border of Mexico and the United States Heritage Indians Native American land their pride everything is being destroyed by this country destroyed everything they care about their s their sacral burial grounds are being Destro destroyed by this border wall and if you think that just changing the name of the of the school isn't going to make isn't that big of a deal oh keeping it you know the town is it's going to be the same just think about like how much of a struggle they're in right now people mentioned before Native American reservations are the poorest areas of the United

206States you can look it up that's facts it is the poorest area in the United States for years they have been attacked driven off their land it this is their land we're on right now their land so the fact that you think that you can keep their name yeah that's all I have to say thank you thank you next I see a lot of repeat names if you're a repeat call we're not going to entertain any of those comments again tonight uh we only do that when we're under an hour hi good evening can you hear me go ahead yes hi um I was just wondering and thank you again for all your efforts I know that this was a big lift um I was wondering if there was any consideration taking place that the

207SK the way the schedule works out that kids would be home for five straight days um whether it's Monday Tuesday and then going Thursday Wednesday with with the weekend on the on the front end and um and I'd like to Echo the sentiments that um you know I I am in a household with two working parents and from day one selfishly or not our job was to keep our jobs when there was 40 million unemployed people job Cuts happening furlows happening we needed to keep a roof over our head to live in this great town of Wayne that we pay extremely high taxes for going towards the school and and and deservedly I am not I'm a parent I am not a teacher my my child's house is not where they learn it's where they

208act out it's where they play with their friends I just find it the kids can go play on a playground and be in groups together but they can't sit there in school and for all the people on their soap box today about the Indians I am a proud first generation Italian-American and my parents came to this country with with no with a suitcase and worked for $1.75 an hour the next day is the land of opportunity and for all of its fault it's still the greatest country in the world thank you thank you next hello oh my God 24 pment Place how are you I'm not GNA take up more than one minute uh thanks for all that you do I know the hard work um I think the Administration has done a phenomenal job

209considering the complexities that we Face uh real quick a couple of issues that I heard come up um more in person you know while that sounds great and is the best uh option for student learning we do have to school districts have to abide by uh what the health department is telling us and those guidelines are still stressing the social distancing so the fact that we have that many students in our buildings really prevent us from when I say us prevent you from having that much in person based upon the the you know the Stark reality that we have that many students and the facilities um you know Can Only Hold so many students and the other issue is Staffing there may be a number of staff that are unable to come in and that's

210going to affect our ability to supervise students effectively and safely so I think you've done a great job um and I was just hoping that um you know you continue to do this type of thing in terms of giving the public an opportunity to share their thoughts and I think what you're doing is um is Right On Target so that's all I'm gonna say have a great night thank you Mitch much appreciated next you're on hello can you hear me yes hello hi can you hear me yes please speak oh I'm so sorry um so have very many issues on this but I would just like to say that the Wayne district has done a phenomenal job of going above and beyond for our children and as an School educator myself in a different District

211different County um you guys have bypassed all the laws of trying to find exactly what needs to be done for our children and I have cannot say enough about how much you guys have gone through and I appreciate every single effort that you guys have done and I know there's a lot of negative and some people go to the side here and they get lost in the whole situation of what really we are facing and I thank each and every one of you for your commitment to trying to make sure our kids are going to get what they need and deserve and all I have to say is thank you very much because you guys you know you get a lot of backlash but in the end thank you very much because nobody really understands

212it unless you're in it so thank you thank you for your support next hello hello hey how you doing all right I'll keep it short uh this is John Q from Fairfield Road I have two elementary kids in Ryerson um I have one that's in the actual Gates program and I know that there is a Gates track 1A um testing that needs to be done I just want to know because I don't think I may have missed it but I don't think I heard anything about the gates program and your um and your roll out that you're having here so I just want to know as far as the track 1 a screening test is that still going to happen as well as how would the um process go considering you know half is going

213to be in school half is GNA be out of school um for the gates program itself um and also if there is you know an option May might have missed it but maybe an option just for those parents that are not really comfortable with sending their kids in uh for those two days um to have a pure virtual experience um uh my second question would be more towards uh speech therapy because I do have a son that's going to be in kindergarten um and one of my elementary kids is also receiving speech ther therapy currently I know when we went to the virtual training there was uh you know a one-on-one session um with the speech therapist I wanted to know how would that be implemented going forward thank you for your time thank you

214next you're on hello are they unmute themselves Mr Bard they need to unmute themselves hello hello sorry no audio next hi can you hear me yes hi this is Don Seaman I live uh 11 sloping Hill Terrace and I've got three kids one in elementary one in in middle school and one in high school so we have a lot of kids in the program and we've been well documented with our experiences with distance learning um but I had something that I wanted to share with you um I have a unique experience with with someone who is a reporter for infectious diseases as well as having a high school teacher for a a husband and I wanted to share with you what she said about her feelings about sending her kids back to school in September

215um and this is what she wrote she said as an infectious diseases reporter who's been covering covid-19 since it was a mysterious cluster of pneumonia cases in uan and China I've gotten to know this virus very well so I will not be sending my kids back to school this fall not because I don't trust schools teachers or the state but because I don't trust the virus from what I know about infectious diseases as a report this virus thrives in crowded poorly ventilated spaces like schools from what I know about kids as a parent it will be difficult if not impossible to convince kids to keep their masks on stay away from other kids or even wash their hands and from what I know about schools they don't have the resources to retrofit ventilation systems or

216Staffing to keep classes confined to 10 kids in the same room for the entire day data shows up to 40% of transmission is asymptomatic atic and the virus has a long incubation period nobody would know if there was an outbreak until a parent or teacher or family member showed symptoms and by then it could be all over the school and once it infects someone the virus is tenacious more and more cases of multi-stem inflammatory syndrome are being reported months after infection amongst kids who had mild or no symptoms all the evidence used to justify reopening comes from other countries with far fewer cases better testing and modified School reopening plans these results are not generalizable to the US there is no evidence that reopening schools is safe here if schools do reopen it will feel

217like sending my teacher husband off to war armed with only his English and journalism degrees and quilted maths from Etsy and because he has to go save the economy while I can't control his employment I can control my kids exposure and I'm not interested then enrolling them in a real world study to test the hypothesis that schools are safe she says all this from her perspective and I haven't we haven't decided if we're sending our kids back to school yet for ourselves but I just want to make everyone aware that someone with an infectious disease background has some real doubts about the safety of what we can provide for our kids and we should just be all aware of that and realize how how important this is and that's all I have thank you very

218much and thank you for sticking it out all night thank you next good evening this is Bill Brennan at 28 Riverview Circle can you hear me yes I just want to point out as a a procedural matter that one of the Board of Ed members Matthew G orano seems to be having offline conversations during the meeting and I believe that might be a violation of the open public meetings act I also want to address um the caller who spoke after the gentleman um who brought up the Irish and the Italian and saying if there was caricatures of Irish or Italian people there'd be a problem that that the town would recognize and the gentleman went on to say that he's this first generation Italian-American and something about pulling her up by the bootstraps and everything

219all like that and the land of opportunity and all that nonsense that has nothing to do with whether you take a caricature of a particular race and then label them something that they're not and then use that as your mascot I mean animals are used as mascots a lot of things are used as mascots people are not mascots races are not mascots but I'm just wondering if this first generation Italian American would be happy if the Wayne Valley gindaloon was the the mascot it was a caricature of a man dressed in some sort of Garb that was a caricature of italian-americans whether it was from a mob movie or whether was somebody with a a a tank top t-shirt and a cigarette hanging out of his ear if he would feel as comfortable as an

220Italian American having that as the mascot as the Wayne Valley gindaloon as he is with ascribing the Wayne Valley Indians to a race of people who don't live in the town had no choice in the matter and I've said repeatedly they're not comfortable being used as a mascot for the team that that's that's representing the the Suburban white community of Wayne New Jersey so I'm asking him not you whether or not he'd feel that comfortable and I just think it's absurd because I as an Irish American would feel very uncomfortable if the the Wayne Valley mix and it was a picture of a drunken Irishman ambling down the street was the mascot or if it was a leprechaun if it was something else I don't think that the leprechauns would be an appropriate would be

221an appropriate mascot either but some caricature of of anything is not appropriate as a mascot and I think that the the young people of this community have got it right the young people have said that there's education that needs to be done about what happened to the IND indigenous people of this country because they they were they were entirely subjugated by this Comm by this country and now we're using them as a mascot and it's absurd and if they don't like it and I don't like it and most people don't like it who cares what you liked 30 years ago because 30 years ago this town was a different town and people need to change people need to to be respectful of each other and their wishes and their whims and their wills and the

222race that that you're using as a caricature and and a mascot for this community is is unhappy with what you're doing and just because you don't find it offensive doesn't mean it's not offensive that's all I have to say thank you thank you next hello hello hi I'm Sam Namer from U L1 Lake Drive West I'm a student at Wayne Valley and I would had a question about how the hallways are going to work and if there was going to be any discipline on if people do not stay within six feet apart and how that's going to work and then I do understand that it's important for children to have that social aspect of being in school but I think that it's a very important to keep in mind that uh that we have to

223take the safest route possible to keep all students and staff members healthy for not only their own safety but as well as family members that are at home that are at high risk and that's it thank you next hello sir you have to unmute yourself hello take that off next hi this is Aaron Mills I'm at one Gina Marie Court can you hear me yes you're fine great thank you so much um I'm a parent of three I moved to Wayne about six years ago my oldest is about to enter kindergarten and I just wanted to voice my you know complete and full support of all the students who have so bravely and unselfishly taken time out of their summer schedule to join this very important call tonight and voice their opinions and in particular

224I wanted to address a comment that I felt was frankly provocative and inflammatory that as those who've spoken up against the mascot to consider their Viewpoint prior to March 25th um even if the Viewpoint was not in the consideration set before George Floyd's death and of course before the black lives matter movement I think it's important that students here from adults like myself that that is not the issue the issue is that beauty comes from tragedy such as the black lives matter movement has proven for us to take into consideration our thoughts our pred preconceived notions our our dispositions our biases our tolerances and whether or not you felt that way prior to March 25th is not what we're here to discuss um and so I commend you for evaluating your personal uh decisions and

225advocating for what you believe is right um furthermore I will say again I tuned in to discuss the school um plan for the fall but hearing the young students tonight gave me tremendous hope um the children that I have that are now entering the school system hearing the kids tonight who've been through the Wayne school system and are showing up in such a respectable manner it gives me tremendous hope that regardless of what happens over uh this very difficult time of turmoil with covid that the school district um certainly has the best interest of our kids in mind and clearly they're very capable of helping us rear wonderful young adults so thank you for hearing me out thank you next hello you have to unmute yourself hello next sorry sorry you're having an audio issue

226hello yes you're on hi um I just wanted to this is Maria 14 chap Drive um I just wanted to commend the uh the Board of Education and and recognize all the work that has gone into putting this plan together tonight many of the questions that I've had have been answered I did want to um reiterate my my strong feeling um I have I have a child in middle school and wanted to re reiterate my strong feeling about the need for direct uh interaction student teacher interaction um live instruction even even though it may be virtual um the importance of live instruction that interaction between teacher and student um is where the learning takes place the interaction amongst classmates um which can be done virtually um you know in keeping with uh you know safety

227protocols um and I I also wanted to ask about parent um teaching at home if there is um supplemental learning needed at home I think parents need to be well vered in the software tools and programs that are uh being used to teach the students so that they can also you know make sure that kids are keeping up with their homework if they don't know how to access that software or how to use the software appropriately um it's it's all for not um and then lastly um I'm a 46 year resident of Wayne and a uh an alumni of Wayne Valley myself and I um I I was never Proud to be an Indian I was proud to be a Wayne Valley student and a Wayne Valley graduate um and and I support um all

228the students that have spoken tonight about the need for change in the Wayne Valley mascot um I think it's time that we've evolved as a town um and I I think that the time is now um even you know even if change can happen this minute given whatever Financial constraints we may have um we can make that decision and you know evolve that change over time but I think I think no time like the present so thank you for your time and and thank you for um all that you've done thank you next you're on hello can you hear me now we can yes I'm sorry technical difficulties um my name is Patricia Brown I'm at 1500 ratzer Road uh let me start by just saying thank you for doing this um I'm sure for

229all of you this can't be easy and it's a lot of work without a lot of thanks so I'll say it now thank you um I would also like to say I'm a graduate of Wayne Valley class of 89 and I don't think we have to belabor this anymore you're all well-educated people we all know it's time for a new mascot so that's all I'll say on that um as far I just one question with siblings whether they'll be this going the same day I know others have asked about that even if they're in different schools if um they would be on the same A or B schedule um and finally I just wanted to say that um this virus is not the school's problem it's not the district's problem they didn't create this they're

230reacting to it like everyone else um you guys are not responsible for bringing the economy back you're not respons responsible for babysitting kids for people to go to work the teachers did not sign on as First Responders they did not go into the health care profession um they're teachers and they're now being asked to assume a lot of risk and I just I'm not sure what we're accomplishing with this plan I think it's assuming a lot of risk with very little reward and I mean that I think the virtual learning learning was great um you know I know everyone has a different experience so I I don't begrudge those who are having a difficult time with it but for a few hours a day I just think you guys are assum are taking on so

231much risk with that and there's just not a lot of reward the kids are not going to have the same experience they did when they went to school before this and that's not your fault um and I just think you're the leg itics of it you're you're just taking on so much and the kids are only going to get a few hours the teachers probably can't lean over their book and help them the way they used to and I just think that what's being accomplished in those few hours in the building can be accomplished virtually um as far as child care let's face that's the family's problems right now just like finding food finding Lysol it's everyone is faced with problems right now that I was never you know a coach but now I'm coaching

232my kids because they don't have sports I'm teaching them dance we're doing a lot of things we didn't do before this um so to say that we're not teachers is so unfair to the school district we're not a lot of things that we are right now I'm a super online Shopper I wasn't that before um but I just I just wish you would reconsider because it's a lot of risk on everyone including your teachers and I think they can accomplish that by having uh a few kids in a virtual class that they can help one-on-one virtually rather than all the risk that I think is being taken on by this ma'am thank you I'm sorry I have to cut you off your time's up but I hope you've asked your questions next um Miss Kazan

233the last person in the queue is using an older version of zoom and it doesn't all seen that name with that hand up the whole night it doesn't allow us to bring her into the meeting unfortunately oh well I'm sorry uh Miss Walford but for some reason we can't admit you under the zoom software you have uh so can I get a move to close the public portion I'll move it thank you Mr P missar uh and uh let's get on to our agenda where were we uh can I get a mover for Jay approval of committee minutes M president I'll move the whole agenda well we we have some committee reports um you can move it uh move the agenda can I get a second second uh Mrs Sher but uh we still need

234to do our committee reports so um and read one retirement do we do that before or after the roll call hello Mr Moffett uh either way I I gladly will take role now and we could do committee uh minutes uh reports after it would be great okay fine then roll call please Mrs albanes yes Mr Bubba yes Mr gardano yes Mrs Kumar yes Mr pavlac yes Mrs pup yes Mrs Shear yes and Mrs Kazan yes carries thank you um committee reports who would like to go first Mrs Sher uh tonight we met for personnel myself Mr pavlock Miss Kumar uh Paula Clark Donna Richman John arach and Mark Tobak and I'm Gonna Keep it very short sweet because most anything that is public knowledge we've gone over already uh we basically are just discussing um

235Staffing and what's going to happen in the upcoming months that's pretty much all I could share thank you thank you next Mrs pup uh good evening the education committee met yesterday morning July 15th at 10 AM uh Mrs Sher Mrs Kumar and myself along with Mrs Richman the assistant superintendent we went over the minutes for the last meeting uh we talked about uh diversity equity and inclusion as goals um through our curriculum um there will be lgbtq um information embedded um according to New Jersey guidelines in parts of the high school curriculum we went over the return to school plan which Dr toac and Mrs R went over earlier this evening um so you saw that part already ready and um in the future they'll there we will be looking at uh policies there will

236be covid policies coming out through Sprout Esme I also have the facilities report for this evening um Mrs gazan Mr Bubba and myself attended along with Mr meso head of facilities and Mr Moffet our business administrator um there have been a lot of questions about cleaning and distance infecting no it's not just going to happen on Wednesdays an answer to qu previous question already um there'll be cleaning safe and effective disinfectant uh especially using electrostatic sprayers and there will also be constant monitoring using special devices called ATP monitors um facility use permits for Fields um not available at this time um the preschool the pretus preschool uh is due to open in the fall and uh basically the finishing touchers are being put on the building and the parking lot and um we also discussed

237a uh Memorial Garden for Suzanne pansky um transportation summer school programs are proceeding uh masks will be will be worn by students and um for the fall new routs are being established with the bus capacity being at only 50% Thank you thank you Mrs P Mrs albanes I believe you have a report yes the finance committee met uh yesterday um in attendance were Mr giod Dano Mrs Kazan um Mrs albanes as well as Mr Ma at the business administrator uh we reviewed all the agenda items on tonight's uh agenda uh we did see the uh pcti contract this year which is going to be for 153 students at $1,614 per student for the year tuition uh in addition there's three specialed students um the way this contract works is there's a figure up front then

238there's a Reconciliation for the actual number of students uh done later in the year year um you have or you have just voted on a grant resolution um item where $25,000 of that grant resol that Grant is going to be used for virtual curriculum development we had no budget transfers we had a uh lengthy discussion about the sedexo Food Service pricing particularly pricing for individual allart items which obviously are not going to pertain to what we're proposing at this point um so we did talk about um the sedexo contract uh guaranteed amounts that may not materialize based on how the year goes for uh food service and how that might be handled down the road by the board um business operations um the uh board is in summer session now they have summer operations going

239on um our business administrator our assistant business administrator finished our uh job responsibilities last week the new business administrator Cheryl litig um has started and um they're already getting her ready to jump right into the audit so welcome to the district and lots of work ahead um we we discussed the uh budget update we got a formal notice from the state regarding our $625,000 reduction in state aid this is still subject to the final budget approval by the state in August so there's a good possibility we may see some further reductions I'm we're we're looking at how we may set that and obviously many additional expenses for um the new school year to come the ordering has begun the purchasing has begun um the business office is in kind of a difficult position because they

240have to prepare both for in school and virtual uh preparation for the school year um so they're tackling that task uh now uh the Early Childhood Center project is on time uh they're finishing their final punch list and all looks good for opening in September the es of 2 we've received three quotes and uh we're looking at um a good rate on the uh money that's going to be borrowed with the July 30th closing uh we discussed a facility use policy that uh Mrs uh put up already discussed and uh what will come to the full board as far as potentially waving fees if permits do become um available sometime during the year we had a discussion about the monthly Revenue coming from tax collector and um how that's working uh we discussed huge huge

241challenges financially for the district reopening plan and some um pretty significant shortfalls we may experience um in the Enterprise funds and um the potential loss of KP um what the uh extended day might look like so we had quite a a lengthy discussion um about what reduced capacity might do to some of these programs um we talked a little bit about transportation and we had a discussion about the potential cost of long-term subs for teachers who only want to do virtual um so the doe is considering allowing that from what we were told and obviously there'll be a cost to that so Mr Moffett if you wanted to jump in with anything additional but that's the finance committee report for this time thank you did I get everyone everyone report out okay um Suzanne you

242want to read your retirement yes thank you thank you Joanne brokamp Hall Joanne brokamp Hall has been a teacher in Wayne for 34 years during this time she served at Ryerson and Randall Carter Elementary Schools her classroom was known for respect and kindness Mrs brokamp Hall understood the care and structure her students needed he said high expectations and her students exceeded even her goals she was always available to to them in any academic Endeavor or just to be an ear to listen she looks forward to spending her retirement continuing to give back through volunteerism the Wayne and specifically Randall Carter Community will miss her but we all know we are better for having worked with her good luck in your retirement Joanne thank you for your service some tenure thank you very much uh I'm

243almost afraid to say it but we have a second public portion 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 tonight's three minutes per person members of the public are disc 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 legal legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at subsequent meetings under all business can I get a mover I'll move it Mr P M Kumar I don't see any hands raised see no hands raised I'll move the wait wait wait Mitch oh no I see two hands okay Mr bashard okay

244you're on hello hi um so I just want to speak about the mascot our mascot is racist you guys can obviously see that from the can I have your name first please uh L what I need your name and address from Valley Road I didn't hear you I'm sorry lene from Valley Road um I want to speak about the mascot our mascot is so racist you guys can obviously see that from the petition that has gotten thousands of signatures you guys aren't blinds you are only ignoring the problem that at hand I agree with all the students who have spoken about spoken out about the mascot before having an entire race as a mascot is wrong disgusting and embarrassing on your part I see how tired you are of the conversation Kathy you know what

245that is called White Privilege Wayne is predominantly white we cannot decide what is and is not racist let the Native American organizations decide they've already spoken out they have been speaking out since 1960s let's listen and respect their position everyone who has said that the support keeping the mascot has not provided facts they were all old white men who have have simply STV their support and nothing else on the other hand students have provided research and deep understanding about the topic these teenagers are smarter smarter than you do you understand this Mark toac and Kathy Kazan are you kidding me why hasn't the Board of Ed stayed their position about this publicly yet shame on you Kathy kazin and everyone on the board for the lack of activism on your part I can see how

246TI tired you are I pray that you either resign or get voted out also shame on you Mark to back we're not doing enough about the blatant racism in our schools we need more education about other cultures but you have done nothing absolutely nothing shame on you shame on you Dawn shame on you John shame on you William sus Suzanne Ellen Donald dreshman and Stacy you guys have done nothing you guys did not speak out and you were barely paying attention during this meeting you may think we don't see this but we do we will remember this when we vote what's this about Valley pride is this a joke should be should we be proud of being racist By ignoring this problem you are promoting being racist without consequences those students in our schools are

247looking up to us but we are doing nothing are you kidding me I use my time next I know I'm going to repeat I just just want to say wow wow I commend to all of you that have been working hard except for black lives matter and the mascot this is about school tonight and returning to school and um I think that we all need to focus on that and our children and um anyway a couple other questions I know I'm going to repeat but I've been here for three and a half hours long um the electric Statics sprayers is that safe longterm um is it safe shortterm um are we elected to have a full-time remote learning and our tutor um my child actually goes to speech um what's going to happen with speech

248are they going to be brought out of the classroom uh brought into the classroom will there be mask with a clear mask how will my child see somebody saying something because that's what speech is all about seeing in hearing um what else I'm sorry to I didn't expect to get back on um so it's completely remote and homeschooling an option at this point um the teachers as far as like who goes Tuesday mon Monday Tuesday and then Thursday Friday will those children be able to remotely get on to their teachers live for the rest of the two days um I understand that Wednesdays will be strictly remote will those days be opted out for specials um I think we're all just really concerned with our teach our teachers and children getting back to school safely

249um will the kids be required to stay in their desks the entire time for many children that is a huge huge um problem unfortunately um children have deficits where they cannot sit still they need to get their energy out will there be recessed will there be um options to read reading is a big thing in elementary school um will they have reading time together will it be separate will it be totally undone um I think I'm back to the quarantine level of if a child is Endor teacher and or anybody in the school or sibling is um at the fact of a positive or a um you know a a positive level where you can be quarantined how far does that go does that go past just the class does it go past the school

250will the whole school be shut down um yeah I I think just a lot of parents want to know the logistics of it you know like nursing wise and um just the safety that I think we're all at the same point right now we just want to know the safety of the children it's not a matter of getting back to work or getting back back to um school we just want to know the safety of the children and that's what I'm concerned most about you know this is this is what the board of education is about and I'm gonna start crying right now because um as a parent you know we all have children we've all been there um we're concerned about the safety of the children that's what it boils down to that's it

251thank you thank you more next hello my name is Katie I'm at Hillcrest Drive uh I was wanted to talk about curriculum in terms of uh diversifying the authors we read and particularly the stories told about characters I am Asian-American I have never read any books with Asian-American characters in them as a person of color that's very detrimental because you can't don't see yourself as a fully me realized member of society the first time I read about any Asian uh any Asian person in any book it was my senior year of high school and it was about a Vietnamese child being shot in the leg and during the Vietnam war and it was about the soldiers saying that they should have killed him I think it's very wrong to only focus on white stories because

252students of color art in the room and they are not getting a complete education by not seeing themselves told as a part of literature uh langsten we don't read Langston Hughes poems he's such a brilliant writer and there's so many other authors of color that we should absolutely be reading and I think it should be uh more attention should be given to authors of color and we should consider adding more and kind of rethinking the way we teach certain things and it's just particularly important to me thank you I yield my time thank you next hi my name is Jack 40 m road um I um am a huge supporter of keep the Indian and I believe that instead of getting rid of our history our history may not be beautiful and it may not

253be uh what we want to see but I believe instead of getting rid of our history getting rid of the name that we need to educate our students and and create change so we can let's say create fundraisers and invite them to our events Native Americans can be used we can use them and we can give back to them just like um we need to do and that's all I have to say for now I'm sorry that uh this has come up in uh the return to school board meeting but I would like to leave leave just with that note thank you next hi can you hear me yes hi this is Ryan how again from tendil AV I just wanted to um I just wanted to stress that I feel that some of the

254children haven't been in the real world yet so to speak and um being a healthcare worker and being in the front lines and dealing with covid patients I think um it really would change their Outlook if perhaps they focused maybe on donating some of their free time to a hospital if possible or doing whatever they can and seeing what's really out there and how it's been uh you know instead of focusing on an Indian and I don't mean that to sound crude or upset or offend anyone but I genuinely feel that the topic you know it's just silly at this point to me that's my personal opinion and I I'm sorry that you guys had to go through it I I I don't know I just want to say thank you for your time again

255and for the children um there's bigger things in life I know you guys have passion for this but you should really put your passion and dedication towards doing whatever you can other ways and being constructive uh thank you for your time again thank you next hi Cindy Simon I was can originally just email this to Kathy but I feel obliged to say it I am in favor of equality I'm in favor of diversity I think it's great that we're setting up a committee I cannot tell you how many letters I've read on this topic from the million different places I work for an organizations I'm in that have talked about all sorts of diversity and left out individuals with disabilities the reason mentioning that is because one of our speakers who was so in favor

256of changing the mascot said you're not blind that is ableist language it purports a negative stereotype of blind people suggesting that somehow we lack knowledge and the like so I'm all for educating but we need to make sure we include all people when we're looking in considering diversity thank you thank you Cindy next hi uh this is Allan temp pescue 41 Gibbs um I think I was the first person to ask four questions which I was hoping to get an answer from Miss Richman and Dr toak I have to admit I think I forgot my four questions it's been such a a long time ago I wrote them down he wrote them down thanks I wrote everyone's question down so uh but what I would say is I in I I've sat through this entire

257meeting and I just want to make some observations first of all uh most people have come on and have been very respectful asking very intelligent questions that are very important about the safety of kids there is absolutely no reason to be attacking board members or uh accusing people of things everyone has the best interests of children and of the community uh I wish in retrospect this meeting would this was supposed to be as I understood it a return to school meeting about the health and the safety of teachers and students and somehow um integrated in this was a lot of people talking about mascots and other topics and I'm not downplaying the issue of a mascot it's obviously people are very passionate about it they should have a right to be heard and at some

258point I would hope the board would put this issue to rest and and rule on what the answer is on the mascot um I'm not even going to comment on my opinion I don't know enough about it to comment other than to observe that people are upset about it in both on both sides um I also think Dr tobec I appreciate what you said before and I had hoped to come to this meeting not only hearing uh hundreds of questions but hearing some of the answers which I think a lot of them are the same I hope we don't leave this meeting with just hey let's look on the internet and see it at least if you could cover some of the questions which seem to be common to some of the people uh my

259four questions and and I appreciate Miss Kazan that you wrote them down was does that mean if Mass going to be worn in the in the building by all students and since then people asked all sorts of questions on mass so I hope you could comment a little bit about Mass uh the second is whether and I heard this question asked four times by four different people the ability to stay home if someone says they're coming to school can they change their mind and if they if the news reports or the the change or is it once you're locked into that decision the live stream we heard that before and I also asked if someone got ill what are we going to do um since then there was a whole array of questions so I

260I hope we focus on the school because we could all talk about mascots but the most important thing is the health and the safety and the education of students teachers and not only the the students and the teachers but let's remember if someone gets sick they could bring this illness back to the people at home so there it's not just getting everyone in the classroom five days a week it's about protecting the community thank you thank you again Mr tempesta okay next hi my name is Erin I'm um moving up into Church Lane um next week we we're currently down on Valley Road but I'm calling in um to piggyback a little bit on what the gentleman said prior to me um I I basically have two concerns that I would like the board to

261consider in their decision- making um one of them most certainly is that although the students might be forced to more firmly socially distance while they're in the building um they're not all socially distancing when they're not in the building and so as you go around town and you see large groups of kids on their bikes um the other day we saw 15 high schoolers inside of Duncan without masks on everybody just hanging out together and so it really makes it imperative to be sure that in order to keep our kids safe that they're also as much as possible doing the safe thing when they're not in the building um and so because of that we've really made our Circle in town even smaller of people that um that we're interacting with even with masks on

262outside because you see on social media where your friends and your friends children are hanging out and what they're doing outside of school time um which is is kind of concerning in not wanting to spread it and I've heard a lot of people say that it doesn't affect children um as much as maybe it affects other populations of of age groups and um demographics but it doesn't mean that the kids aren't just transporting the virus back home or back home to grandparents that they live with um or back home to parents or giving it to teachers and bringing it back to their families so um with that being said I I'm pretty firm and and pretty expecting to keep both of my high schoolers home next year um and do whatever virtual remote program you

263have and so in that light would hope that there's as much time and commitment put into the remote learning um program as there is into trying to get kids back in the building because I think that Wayne did an excellent job on short notice certainly in the spring um and we appreciated it and and both of my kids really excelled um which has is a lot to do with their kind of personality but but also because of what was offered to them um my biggest concern is that having two kids in high school next year and having classes that are not taught via Zoom um instruction you know when when you have a student who has every vision and every ability in math and science to have goals of wanting to go to a school

264like MIT four years from now and math is cumulative and science is cumulative you can't do poorly in Geometry as a freshman and then excel at calculus as a senior it just doesn't happen and so if the program is not going to be taught by a teacher that they can watch and learn from and everything is going to be some form of a Youtube video um then I'd like to know that sooner rather than later so that at least I know I need to look for alternative courses outside of the school district in order to make sure that he's not falling behind thank you your thank you thank you very much we appreciate your concerns next hello hello hello hi this is Vincent I'm calling because I want to discuss the back to school plan

265um it should not only include whether or not students should wear masks and social distancing practices but should also include whether or not we're going back to a safe space that does not promote racist narratives and stereotypes and I just want to talk about how people before um who were for keeping the mascot they talk to talk about the students who want to keep it who want to remove it I'm sorry how we are kids and how we don't really know the real world but I feel like they are looking at kids and not only kids but teenagers and more adults who who are for this change and they they talk down on us and they think that we are not able to see what's happening and you know I understand there's a pandemic I

266understand that changing the mascot is not the doesn't seem like it's the biggest thing in the world for people but I feel like and if you want to create a better world and while facing pandemic and going back to school we have to think about going back to school in all aspects and not just with social social distancing and masks there are so many more aspects to this and I feel like I understand that you you guys have heard a lot about this but I just want to reiterate how important this is so thank you so much thank you next hi can you hear me yep hi uh first of all this is my first time ever being listen I'm sorry my name is Dan address thank you I'm sorry Dan zukovich at 21 Pond

267Circle um this my first time ever seeing or hearing a meeting and I just want to say how proud I am of you guys staying and working so late into the night um you're doing a great job and I've heard some tough rude commentary um which is I thought was very unfair and I think you guys I'm I'm really impressed for the first time hearing you guys um my question down the road will be you know hopefully there'll be some type of normaly uh down the road I understand my kids will be going twice a week to school next you know next uh next year um but like what kind of notice will be that you can do a change like how what timeline will you have for that maybe you had maybe you had

268said that hours ago and I just wasn't here to hear it because I came in you know halfway through and uh but I'd like to hear how you how you go on the next stages I guess on how you will address that thank you thank you hello hello can you hear me yes hi my name is Aisha Aisha idier from three world dve I just want to say that I'm um college professor at very small College um in Upstate New York and we have been thinking about this in opening the college or classes courses for this fourth semester and then we have been having every week three four five hours meeting and still we're just thinking that it's not safe for our college students and I feel that the decision about the elementary school students

269middle school students and high school students in Wayne it's if you open this school it is going to be very brave decision again our colal students average age is around 23 24 and then we talking about you know the seven years old child and 10 12 14 years and then I don't think that they have no idea how they can protect themselves with the you know masks social distancing although they have been seeing everything on the TVs and parents they have been talking about these things and then they have been witnessing these you know the things but still I don't think that they are ready to go to the classroom and then I don't that the schools teachers are not ready to go to schools again um um I just yeah want to thank you

270for this you know the all efforts uh but still I feel that um it's not safe for my daughter and I'm going to keep her at home this year and then I can we can catch up next year as long as she's healthy uh we can catch up with the school works next year thank you have a good night thank you next hello can you hear me yep Stuart resmer 82 New Street I've been on the phone all night long listening to all of this and I have to uh I have to give you folks credit for the time you've put in here tonight um it it it uh it really speaks uh as to who you are and what you're about um so what I'd like to do is offer little statistics this week

27123 States or 46% do have mandatory mask wearing policies in public the remaining 27 States or 54% do not have maske wearing mandatory policies um as we all know the co 19 statistics are increasing with 35 States or 76% having reopened in May with very few restrictions seven states or 14% have decreasing cases uh after opening at the end of May with major restrictions the remaining 8% are flat New York and New Jersey are in that category 16% the message for medical professionals Public Health officials and epidemiologists is the same increased cases are due to widespread non-compliance of social distancing not wearing masks and people in closely crowned crowded venues uh and possibly salons restaurants and bars a lot of people aren't taking this seriously I just drove across the United States to Los Angeles

272and back I drove a thousand miles a day every day to do that that and I went to the gas pump squirted the pump with some sanitizer to make the sale and went on about my business and I got to tell you all the way across the United States people are not paying attention people are not wearing masks and this thing is not over so as you get ready to uh make these decisions of what you're going to do with the schools keep these statistics in mind these people aren't paying attention I don't I don't know what it's going to take to get through to some of these people and including the mayor with that stunt he pulled a couple of weeks ago you know it was just astonishing so this thing isn't over people

273aren't paying attention and uh you know unless it strikes their family or someone they know or someone they love it's really not going to get home so this thing is deadly serious I said it before and uh you know I don't know what it's going to take to get through them but I really I really want to thank you for the effort you put in tonight have a good evening thank you we have one left hi uh thank you uh for your effort and staying um late tonight um I have some different um approach for this problem um I see like kind of weird when um the country was led uh uh off and the school um stopping for school the student to go school when we have just a couple of hundred in the

274USA couple of hundred positive cases and now you have thousand and thousand of cases uh in every state and then uh we open school so something wrong here the first decision or the second decision um I have five kids and I let them to go freely they came like they visited like five states or more just few days ago I'm not worry about them they are from five years up to 18 years old uh I'm not worried if they go to school like regular like before I believe they they cut um the virus or have the immunity already I'm I am happy that uh if they got the virus already before so they have the immunity now I'm not scaring from the virus anymore so um the other thing is here if we open the

275school and the uh the kids go uh you know the problem is for this age for for this for the kids students in the in the school they are at lower risk in this age the problem is if there is a student uh is overweight above like the BMI above 30 or 30 something this is higher risk even if the five student in the in the class if the student has allergy has a problem in the chest this at high risk so we have to take care of this point even if they are just a five student in a class okay so the other thing is putting mask all the day on the in the kids's mouth and the breathing is is a problem if the if the student has the virus and he put

276mask on his mouth you uh condense the problem for him and he going to be in higher risk he is breathing he's like he's sneezing and he take his um Breath Again from his mask so he like he uh he's at higher risk now uh putting chemicals everywhere the kids who has um the kid who has allergy GNA affect on his chest and his lung so um anyway so the way we are talking some points here I I don't like feel like it is the best option um also if we can take like the temperature for the kids if they going to go the school if we can stay at home and I'm just giving my opinion in different ways okay so um the other the other point here when you put the kids come

277one day and day on and day off it gonna be like missing with the schedule it going to be like it's not the right maybe if we can put shifts sir sorry your time is up okay thank you very much for your comments next oh hello Mr Mafi could you give me the time because my phone is dying let me know when their three minutes are up please we'll do thank you is anyone there sorry next yes hi uh my name is Tanya Shakir Dr I live on 24 Swiss Terrace in pacak Lake I just wanted to uh first say thank you to everybody on the board for all of your effort but I also just wanted to make an important Point uh luckily I'm employed by an employer who decided to keep the doors

278of the office closed so we've been we've had the privilege to work remotely and to work from home um I do have a type one diabetic child who's going to be in second grade next year so I will be keeping him home because he is higher risk I will say that it is the responsibility of the parents to make sure that these children are safe and I think that's that's the priority here so I I commend all of your efforts but I do think that there is a huge responsibility that lies on the parents to make sure and to understand that your number one goal is to keep these kids safe so thank you for that I appreciate that very much thank you next hello uh my name is Hazel and I'm from 25 Gates

279place um my child is going into um the apun is his home school but he got assigned to Pines Lake due to the KP uh L Lottery um we're just asking if uh the krap doesn't go through for this school year is he going to be going back to tun or is he going to be assigned to lake with the other kids that were not um accepted in tun for the K program okay we'll get back to you no one else me get a move move it Mr Pac secondar okay we're in the stretch Dr Tobak how would you like to handle answering all of these questions do you want to do an FAQ do you want to address some of the major points this evening I'll leave that to you you're on mute okay

280more okay so um what what I think is appropriate is ultimately that there's a lot of people out there there's still 220 participants who are probably tuned in because they want to hear some an anwers to these questions it would be very difficult to go through all these questions and certainly um all the comments that were made regarding the reopening of school um our questions that we'll consider certainly rounds out our discussion and what we what we place in our FAQ in the coming weeks okay so um but I I think it it makes sense to go through some of these things and try to stick to some themes and also to stick to um you the presentation that we did was kind of a summary of of what the program would look like okay

281but we can get into a little more detail now um but one of the things to understand is that um so the the plan that the district has the proposal we have allows for a whole lot of flexibility so it allows for parents if they make a decision at some point to have their children stay home if there's a situation where a teacher is quarantined if there's a situation where a child is quarantined there's a million variations of quarantining and being at home and also people not feeling comfortable sending the children to school and so the plan allows for that it does not require you once you opt out and you say this I'm going to keep my child home when the day comes and it feels safe for you to return your child to

282school you're able to return your child to school so I hope that addresses some of the questions that that were out there can you keep your child at home for virtual instruction the answer is yes can you return your child to school yes can you start the school year and then if for whatever reason you don't feel safe or you don't feel comfortable or there's a there's a situation at home that makes you say well listen I really I can't have my child going to school those are all things that are accounted for and the other part is the instructional part okay so the idea in general is we want to maximize our time with students okay and we know that that personal contact is very important so we feel that the proposal that we

283have um definitely maximizes time with students assuming that there is a foot classroom okay so in a lot of cases what makes the most sense thing that is really going to help most with that personto person contact is delivering lessons that are a flip style which means that basically a teacher's lecture um like a like a screencastify that we use regularly at the high school level to deliver instruction those are things that students can view on their own and those are things that students can work through there there's supporting materials that go with those things and then once they're in person they also have opportunities now to direct directly work work with teachers likewise the people who are out of school the students that are out of school the virtual um students at that time

284in the afternoon right they've already they they're falling along in class they can still continue to um follow along with the school and the program and their classmates who are in person and then at that point that's when the teachers hop out in the afternoon and work with those students so um will it be maybe a little bit of transition yes will it be something that will timately work out pretty well in the long run the answer is yes I think it'll be like I said it gives us all the flexibility that we need and it also maintains our academic programs and we'll we'll describe that a little bit more um one of the things we forgot to mention in part of our plans to keep teachers and students safe had to do with a

285question by Mrs Klein at the fourth and fifth grade so the idea is that as much as possible we're going to limit the amount of interaction so rather than having students travel there's always the the option of having teachers travel when that's possible that's something that the district would want to pursue is making sure that the the students stay with their cohort and teachers travel that's generally um the idea um so the other part of it is I guess there's the question about the swivel technology so that is that is a device that is available that allows for live broadcasting of lessons you purchased a hundred of them they're hard to come by but we we're going to go ahead with a purchase of 100 we're going to do a trial if they are well

286received and if they work well and if we are they are something that really teachers find effective then that would also revolutionize what we're doing here so the idea is that you would be able to um go ahead you would be able to U as a student log in the to the class lesson that's being taught see the front of the room see what the teacher's doing hear the hear the lecture so that would really it would be like a college setting you know basically where students can either be in person or they can be virtual but they still just follow Ong with the class right one of the other questions was about um the whole issue with the high school and how that schedule will look so I just want to make it very

287clear there's no situation where like the C cohort would always be virtual so everyone rotates so there's a rotation of the a cohort they go through a whole block which is four days so in one week they go through a block then the a cohort goes out and just say the SE cohort comes in all right and then they go to the week out then the B cohort comes in however that rotation happens the fact is that students will be inperson instruction for the whole week and then the two weeks out so that's that um so the other question that came up regularly was a question about siblings and what accommodations we made ultimately that's something that the district has been looking at how can we accommodate siblings if there's a sibling at the middle

288school and there's a sibling at the elementary school we have software that allows us to identify siblings and that's something we would definitely want to do so at the middle school the elementary school we expect that you when you have the AA and then BB rotation then obviously we want um siblings to be on one or the other but not on both that would be a problem so that's something we definitely want to be sensitive to and I know that will help a lot of parents um there was a question about the CTA tours so I'm not sure if um maybe that's something if you want me to write a letter tomorrow that would sort of clarify the position of the district on the resolution that was reached tonight I'm not sure how you want

289to handle that well I was uh I had asked Mr Gard if he would explain the contract that was decided upon this evening uh so that the parents understand exactly what's been agreed to of course we should still contact them after the meeting because not everyone is here tonight listening yeah I just wanted to let uh the parents know uh we've been working hard uh fighting with CTA for the last two month months um part of the analysis that went on there was whether to Sue or not that would take a couple years and be very costly as well as being very difficult with the impossibility of performance that occurred what has happened is that now we have reached an agreement which the board approved tonight where uh the board is going to pay the

290parents who did not purchase the insurance their cost minus 50% of the cost of it so they'll be be uh paid 50% provided there aren't any credit card chargebacks in exchange then CTA is going to reimburse the board for the amount that's paid there and it was clear that there is no credit dealing with CTA in the future and that there is no that will be taken the CTA in the future as well thank you another um comment that came up was you know maybe there was the idea that maybe it's too risky for schools to reopen that you know we should rethink that we're required to reopen schools so ultimately the department of Ed Governor has determined that all public schools in New Jersey will reopen now related to that question was um a

291speaker who talked about what standards would be used for the districts if we decided to close or make other changes and so what I can say is that wouldn't really be a a decision that would be made locally that would be more of a decision that would be made at the state level or maybe a regional level but at this point like for example in New York state um Governor Cuomo there indicated that their standard is that if there's a 5% transmittal rate then up to that level for a week schools can be open but if the transmittal rate goes to 9% then schools will be closed our state has not made that determination and so that's something that's really out there and unknown at this point about when do decision will be made to

292open open schools further post School further that's something to be determined um there was a question about there's a number of questions about this topic contact tracing or basic questions about who's deciding about if there was a quarantine who was exposed to you know basically there's the contact tracing question so in general any kind of question that results from the distri becoming aware of a covid-19 case in any way shape or form whether it's from a parent from the outside from a vendor that comes to the school there's a lot of different things that um would go on that would mostly go on with our department of health so those types of determinations would be made through our department of health and consultation so a local Health official would be the person that really is

293the primary person we would go to along with our school physician you know there might be some other things that we do to evaluate a situation but the fact is contact tracing process would take care of most determinations about what's going to happen in the event that there's an exposure to covid-19 okay um so let's see here right talked a little bit about um the the other important part here is okay um going back to the classroom setup and the flexibility the Google Classroom is the basis right so that that's going to be where all lessons come from that's when all materials come from so those Google Classroom accounts that the students have is really the foundation for their learning whether they're in school or out of school um let's see what else we have

294here um there will be specials okay so um a number of people asked about specials what's going to happen one one um speaker asked about U Musical instruments and so would they be played that's something the district is aware of we're working on that question there is a a major concern about how it's possible to play um certain musical instruments um without creating an additional risk to students or for music teachers um as far as cleaning okay so there was a I think a misconception about buses there was a speaker or two maybe three that talked about um the idea that buses would want to be cleaned what the week buses would be cleaned and the reason we have the cohort model is there's daily cleaning the deep cleaning the cleaning from top to bottom

295and every nook and cranny of the bus would happen on the Wednesday okay so the idea is that there is one day a week where there is um really extreme cleaning I guess it's way to say it we're going to clean every last part of the bus and then the rest of the week there is still always cleaning every day and in between when every H group of students um it goes from one bus to the other um okay that's that okay the other thing there was a question about um what happens when there are um issues of teachers being out um and how will we account for that so earlier there was a report from one of the board members and they mentioned that whole issue permanent Subs that's something that we have at

296our high schools and now the district is extending that to the elementary schools and the middle schools with the understanding that every school will have le two permanent Subs along with teacher coverages and that should allow us to cover any absences that we have without necessarily going into a situation where you have outside Subs we're also going to align our subs to each of our schools so there are some subs out there but they would be focused they would only work in certain schools that we have in the district so we're really going to try to limit any external people from from being involved in in our schools as as employees as best we possibly can um the screening question so there was a question about there's a few questions about screening the district is

297looking at that in a in a bunch of different ways I mean ultimately there are some some issues there's the issue of okay well if you scan for fevers but someone took aspirin well or some other Tylenol it's something to reduce fever that would be something that would um you know that would kind of invalidate any process that we have the other thing is of course there's the the large number of people who are asymptomatic so that is a difficult thing the district is looking at an app and the app the idea behind the app is that ultimately um it it relies a certain amount on parents and the idea that we trust you to screen your children and make sure that you attest before you send them to school that um in the end

298that you've evaluated them they have no symptoms you haven't been anywhere where there's a high covid-19 rate and um so that's something that we're looking at that we will have more information for the next um the next meeting there was another question about was the union consult Ed um was there the answer is yes the union has been a part there's many union members as I mentioned there was over 100 people that were involved in our committies many of them are members of our unions um so is there hand sanitizers um the answer is yes those hand sanitizers those are actually installed throughout the buildings right before we shut down in March um okay so I guess that ums siblings issue we covered that I know it's it's a late night um I know I

299can't even focus okay so I hope that answered a lot of questions that are out there um we're going to continue to update our information and we will also clarify a presentation tomorrow to try to address some things that maybe weren't as clear as they could have been and we'll do the thought exchange and all of that will be communicated how yes you'll email the student population and then we'll put it on website and Facebook and everywhere it needs to be for the community to find it anyone who wants to participate will know how to do that if they want um did you want to address the mascot issue or I mean we we could certainly address it um I I just want to clarify what we've done and what our plan is because it's

300we are not sitting here doing nothing no no um that is certainly not accurate to think that we're we're not doing anything um in the early part of the meeting the district moved ahead we did a presentation of a goal and so I think that many of the people that um commented heard about the goal but there was a specific part that calls upon the district to address that issue it's a very specific part of the goal that calls for committee of people to look at that issue and to consider alternatives along with all the other um all all the other um related things like for example tornadoes or whatever whatever um slogans whatever symbols our schools use we're gonna look at all of that not just one One Mascot thank you okay um Mrs

301rman did you want to say anything else or before we go um you know just one last question because I know we talked a whole lot about Elementary Middle School um will not be able to be with the same cohort all day because they rotate around to different classes um so that's important for parents to know they will be moving that's um another reason why we have the a days and B days because you want as few people as possible in the hallway and we'll stagger the schedules if you saw there was flexibility so that we can limit the number of students traveling the hallways and um for as far as the AP classes what will instruction look like um all those things will be addressed we needed to we need to land on a

302plan and we're Gathering up all those questions so now we can start meeting and having those discussions that's it is there any old business new business board comments Susan M I would like to congratulate our 2020 graduates um I know technically our seniors graduated on June 18th however uh we did not have an opportunity to have a ceremony on our Fields up until last week and so that's when that ceremony took place and the live streaming was terrific and I just want to say congratulations Mr G Dana yes I wanted to say something briefly um I am exceedingly proud of what this board has done what this board is doing right now I consider myself honored to be a member of it um earlier this evening somebody commented that I was talking during the presentation

303that was true I apologize unfortunately we're in a virtual situations you can see on my basement there's my uh aquarium here I can control my wife not coming into a meeting I can control my kids not coming to a meeting I cannot control my two dogs coming into the meeting and one of them was particularly bad um if you want me to send the evidence to the convers hey yeah if you want to send the evidence to the of the conversation of the ngba for ethics charges I can send the yellow towel that's on the floor right now my room smells really bad because of it so I was not trying to disrespect anybody by having these conversations but when a dog does it they're not supposed to do next to you two feet away

304from you on the camera it makes things interesting so I apologize to everybody for not um behaving the decorum I should behave in all the time and I apologize to the people who were being interrupted by that but I need to go get some Li all thank you thank you okay I have nothing to say I'm done good Mrs Kumar uh I actually did want to say congratulations to the graduates um I really wish I could have been there but I had another family event and I couldn't expose my 100-year-old grandmother to any possibility um so and I did want to congratulate actually the valorian and the salutatorian of Wayne Hills were former students of mine their freshman year um so for me that's like kind of a really proud moment um and just the

305rest of the students as well that graduated at both high schools and I really hope for them we can get some normaly at sometime soon as they move on with the rest of their lives so yeah thank you board members for hanging in there tonight and thank you to our staff who I'm sorry Stacy you go ahead I'll go last I just wanted to take two I'm exhausted so I just want to take two minutes to say um thank you to Administration not just Mark and Donna who happen to be here right now and Joe and everybody the entire staff for you know all the questions that came up there are so many wh ifs and if anybody's still watching for the 188 or so that are still watching I just want you to notice

306our backgrounds right now and notice that Dr Tobak and Miss Richman can't see Mr they're still sitting in their office and they've been there well you haven't been there since 8 AM Kathy they have 30 there since at 8 o' this morning working so for anybody who thinks that the district is not putting their 100% effort into making sure that these kids are safe and that every single what if question is answered I can tell you you're wrong it's being done they're working 15 16 hour days it's crazy and my hats off to Administration they're doing a lot more than us and I we appreciate everything that you are doing for this District in such unknowing times so thank you and go home and gets good night can I get a move to close I'm

307moving I knew you Mr pavlac and Mr Gano good night night everyone thank you for hanging in for this very long meeting and