001and a happy new year we have three new board members who have joined us involved the board members we have three new board members this evening joy young robert c and chile and jordan hyman jordan is our mountainside representative so we welcome them to our board mike could i have a motion to return from exec session motion to return from exact session second thank you we are now back in a public session uh the agenda the agenda says a flag salute however we already did our flag salute uh a little bit ago when we when we welcomed our new board members so we completed that uh donna can you share the results of the election was held november and the um ballots cast where joy young received three thousand seven hundred and eighty one votes
002robert chinchuli received three thousand two hundred and twenty three votes sai akari received 2363 votes romney kachari received 1920 votes and peter cheng received 1446 votes um so joy and robert were elected to our board and we welcome them tonight along with jordan hey thank you donna we did our uh oath of office for them the next item on the agenda is the election of the board president donna okay um are there any nominations for board president i nominate doug reinstein for president second okay any other nominations michael de quillofer vice board vice board vice president hold on hold on angela one time hold on one more time we're just we're just doing one or two we'll do vice president all right sorry skip the gun uh if there are no other nominations can i
003have a motion to close the nominations so moved second okay i'll i'm co i'll do a roll call vote and everyone can say if they agree with this mr hyman yes mrs young yes yes mr chinchuli no mr jaquilla yes mrs penna yes miss riley yes yes this is kirsch yes mr reinstein yes all right um mr meinstein you're new you are again the president of the board so congratulations um and you can now take the nominations for vice president thank you very much i look forward to uh leading this organization again next year i will now take nominations from the board vice president i would like to nominate michael de quilla for board vice president and i will second that we have a motion a second from mike are there any other nominations for
004vice president okay we'll close we'll close the nominations vice president donna roll call mr hyman yes mrs young yes mr chinchuli yes mr jaquilla yes mrs penna yes miss riley yes mrs kirsch yes mr weinstein yes my my congratulations welcome look forward to uh working with you on the rest of the board going into 2021 thank you thank you and thank you everybody for your support great uh could i get a motion for the approval of the minutes for our december 21st meeting so moved second motion to second all in favor bye guys abstain all right yeah john let's just capture that jordan and joy and robert would abstain because they weren't board members at the time moving on uh 13 donna correspondents um we have two letters um from parents regarding the special and
005regarding special edit inclusion these were comments that were made at the december 21st meeting we have a letter from mrs ringwood regarding current challenges in the schools we had an email from mrs taylor regarding previous incidents and the berkeley heights public schools share action plan and we had an email from mrs uh wasser berlin and support of mr scott mckinney we also had two oprah requests since the last meeting can i ask a question about these oprah requests what is this what does it mean when it says emails from 156 pages of headers what exactly is that okay um mr majewski requested the emails uh board member emails for a certain period of time and he didn't want the full emails he just wanted the headers which is this you know to from and the
006subject so the subject right so that alone was 156 pages of just header information so now his follow-up request was for all of those emails so that is that would be a lot of work a large volume of information so i'm working with him to try to narrow it down or make it a little bit more reasonable is this for every board member or this was for every board member for a certain period of time i think it was from january to september or january to july but it started last january and i have to assume our lawyer has to review every email and redact necessary information if if you know yourself we read i i reject the information and kathy helps me with that but we print them out we read them we redact
007appropriately i will reach out to the lawyer if i do have questions or and i am uncertain about something if there's confidential information let's say a parent writes to the board about something that they perceive is confidential that is operable it is operable anything about their student is confidential so we do read through it and we will redact what is what should be redacted any student information any personnel information is redacted um things another thing that's redacted is if the board's talking about something but it hasn't made a final decision about it that can also be redacted i'm not sure people in the community really understand this so i think from time to time it's worth reminding them that you know these emails are operable and there are people in the community operating them so
008you know they can always pick up the phone and have a conversation you know in lieu of writing an email so i just put that out there for those of you that are listening great thank you chris big point uh we'll go on to the report of our student representatives thomas welcome happy new year good evening thomas hello happy new year and hello to all the new board members so i'll get right into my report in the week prior to winter break clubs made the most of the last few days by hosting numerous events fba members compete in the regional competitive events and experience great success students place first and third in the securities and investments exam and another placed second in the business law exam the students will continue preparing for the state level
009competition in march student auxiliary collected over 50 care packages for veterans and began sending pen pal letters to seniors in town interact helped the glhs pto clothing drive by collecting donated clothes the understanding asian culture club co-hosted a meeting with the organization dear asian youth union county where they discussed the steps they would like to see from the administration in response to the story shared by previous gl students turning to events that have occurred following the break the spanish club is preparing a video where students share their holiday tradition saga is creating an online information resource for faculty students and whoever else where people can learn about the lgbtq community or to be a supportive ally the club is also planning another round of lunch and learns to see if more teachers are interested in
010joining the newly formed support zone lastly the club has created a form to collect members input on gl's new gender neutral bathrooms and are meeting tomorrow to discuss these this change if the activity of clubs in the new year is any indication of the future the clubs will surely accomplish a lot thomas thanks very much emily haynes if you're out there can you raise your hand i see two other emily's without last name so i don't know which one is you i will promote you once i see you are if you raise your hand you should probably come to the top of my screen maybe emily's not available this evening okay if she comes back we will uh we will catch up with her when she uh when she when she comes back are there
011any questions for thomas okay thomas thanks we will move on next to the report of the superintendent dr varley good evening everyone i want to take a moment to recognize our board members this is board school board recognition month and our board members spend hours working to make berkeley heights public schools a better place all in a volunteer basis so therefore i would like to read this resolution whereas the new jersey school boards association has declared 22 january 2021 to be the school board recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas this berkeley heights board of education is one of 580 local school boards in new jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the berkeley heights board
012of education embraces the goal of high quality education for all new jersey public school students and whereas new jersey schools local school boards helped determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in pre-k through 12th grade and whereas new jersey's 5 000 local school board members who receive no renumeration for their services act as advocates for public school student students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas school boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas boards of education provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of the school district to the public and they convey to school administrators the public expectations for the school and whereas new jersey can take pride
013in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the national assessment assessment of educational progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and sat assessments now therefore be it resolved that the berkeley heights board of education does hereby recognize the services of local school board members throughout new jersey as we join communities statewide in observing january 2021 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the board of education berkeley heights board of education urges all new jersey citizens to work with our local boards of education and public school staffs toward the advancement of our children's education so i want to take a moment to thank you for all you do for our our students in berkeley heights and in mountainside so thank you
014very much i see that emily's here do you want to jump back to her i do i just see emily just joined uh oh there's emily emily good evening happy new year welcome it looks like she can't unmute she's going to get it i have great confidence that she's going to unmute it hold on hi sorry i thought the next meeting was on the 23rd that's okay that's okay so there's not much to say regarding sports given that we didn't have much over the winter break and we aren't starting up until the 11th but we do have i know cheers starting as well as indoor sports had been approved i'm not sure how gl is advancing with that um but then we have this third season starting in february but other than that we have
015no updates for sports given this time period because there was not many sports happening as of now great thankfully emily i i suspect uh next month we'll have a lot more to hear from you so we look forward to that so welcome happy new year to you and i look forward to another uh year with you and thomas delivering updates for us dr raleigh back to you for the rest of your report okay good evening everyone and happy new year and welcome to the first meeting of 2021. i know that everyone is hoping we are in the home stretch of the pandemic and we will be on our way back to normal very soon i also want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome our new board members who are taking their seats tonight
016robert chinchuli who is rejoining us and joy young who was a first-time board of education member and jordan hyman our new mountainside representative welcome and thank you for all the work you do for the berkeley heights public schools the diversity equity and inclusion task force is being formed we have enough parent volunteers and after my email today i think we have enough of all types of volunteers so we will be going through those students former students as well as teaching staff and working on our task force the committee will be guided hopefully by mark strashan who is the consultant who led the district dei implicit bias training at the start of the school year as an update on the status of the investigation regarding the recent instagram post discussed at the december 21st board of
017education members as of today we have approximately 45 current and former students who spoke posted or both there were many individuals who could not be identified if a former student has an allegation or grievance they may use our attorney's email address which i sent out today and if anyone wants it they can request it from me or find it on our facebook page as it is bh former students at cgajlaw.com so i know that's a lot to um write down right at this moment by law hiv incidents reported by current students must be investigated by the district's anti-bullying specialists incidents that were reported by former students will be investigated by cleary jacoby alfieri and jacobs who specialize in education law we are using an outside attorney as so as to be transparent as possible once
018the investigations are complete we will determine our next step starting on january 25th there will be two dedicated gender-neutral bathrooms at glhs this project has been in the works for some time and i apologize it was not up and running at the start of the school year unfortunately it was one of those items that was delayed by the pandemic the district has been working very closely with the berkeley heights diversity council and they have asked me to announce that they will be holding an online celebration and day of service in honor of dr martin luther king jr i encourage everyone to be involved so please go to their website for more information which is bh bhdiversity.org changing topics the winter sports season is upon us we have the start of ice hockey season and it
019was delayed by covet cases on our team from students in a partnering district but they should be skating by january 15th the highlander basketball and fencing team open the season on january 26th and season 2a swimming indoor track and field should hopefully begin on february 16th and season three volleyball and wrestling is scheduled which is not in stone to begin on 3 16. cheerleaders will cheer but they are only participating in the halftime show and will be competing virtually we will be having a limited middle school sports schedule but it will not include any games against teams from outside the district we understand that having a sports season is an increased risk for students and coaches however the district also has a responsibility to educate the whole child and we believe that athletic competition is
020an important part of that mission building on the lessons learned from a successful fall season we believe that committing to a winter sports season that follows all and i mean all njsia guidelines and health and safety protocols is a calculated risk that is in the overall best interest of our students if at any point we feel that this risk is not worth the overall benefit that we will revisit this decision parents and students should also be aware that by participating in sports they are increasing their exposure and may need to quarantine due to increasing their exposure i would like to take take a moment to remind everyone that although the light is hopefully at the end of the pandemic tunnel we must continue to be vigilant and stay disciplined with our mass squaring and social
021distancing i want to remind parents that they must inform schools if their student tests positive for covid and not rely on the department of health to inform us the department of health has many cases cases it is dealing with and our notification may be delayed we are all exhausted a bit from this pandemic and the restrictions but we also know that the results of letting our guard down can be devastating if we all buckle down we will get through this together thank you dr volley thank you very much uh are there any comments or questions regarding uh dr roy's comments about the winter sports schedule i know we had comments before we've gone through the fall sports schedule this is the outdoor one we're now about to approach a modified winter sports season schedule so
022i just want to make sure that if there were any other questions for dr varley about winter sports is there yeah i have one quick question has there been um interest or a change in the interest and you know to be able to field teams during this time so i will turn that over to ann clifton since she knows the ins and outs of everything thank you i appreciate the time to speak tonight um there's been a modified uh decrease in some interest but um we do have our numbers on our form relief and sports clearances are comparable to past seasons i have a question so these students who are going to be playing these sports are i'm assuming they are not going to be wearing masks and they're going to be going into other
023communities and they're going to be going back into the buildings or are they going to be remote education for the um for the semester while they're playing sports go ahead you want to talk and i can maybe you can answer the remote part but um to my knowledge um let me jump in about the protocols very quickly so um our student athletes will be faced uh face covered at all times until strenuous exercise denotes that it's not safe for them to wear the mask any longer i did speak to our uh school care station about that exact question um if a student athlete is prefer to wear the face mask during that strenuous activity then they certainly may may do that that's obviously not a problem at all um our some of the referees may
024have face coverings on our coaches and everyone else will have face coverings on at all times um and i you know we had a long meeting with our coaching staff that is beginning on monday and they clearly understand that you know we're going to have our student athletes face mask at all times until that cardio um rate increases and it's it's not permissible or maybe not able a student athlete able to do that um compete with it as far as remote learning um i think that's uh you know there's no plans to my knowledge um and dr varley you can answer uh that if a student athlete's part of our our sports program that they would remain remote so we can't i don't i mean i don't have an issue necessarily i mean people want
025to take calculated risks to increase their exposure but then they're going to come back into the building where we have all these protocols of social distancing and mask wearing and i'm assuming that when you say their cardio rate gets to a certain point i'm having a hard time envisioning someone doing you know uh you know 100 meter or 200 meter dash wearing a mask or playing a long basketball game with a mask on but maybe maybe i don't understand what you're saying so um i i would just assume under those circumstances people are not wearing masks and they will be in other communities interfacing with you know other students so i'm just i'm just trying to my rational brain is just trying to understand and then they're going to go back to school the next
026day so and and can you just clarify again sorry the actual winter sports that we're uh this the schedule that you're putting together is which sports are there again sure so the ice hockey has already begun um they as you know we co-op with a new providence um so that season is already the practice season's already begun um on monday we will begin fencing and our girls basketball program and then the next following season that is what they're considering what we call season 2a i'm sorry season 2 2a will be our outdoor track program and our boys and girls swimming program um and they will start in february and then in early march we will start what we're calling season three and that's wrestling and volleyball so there is some timeline um and some spread
027out time between the sports beginning um and then the plan is to begin our spring season outside um at a delayed start time but pretty much as long and lengthy um protocols are a long length season as possible there won't be a shortened season as these other sports are and and just again you say that it's recommended that none of them will be wearing masks when they participate correct it's it's you know that's a wonderful question recommended is a challenging word um but i will tell you that i did speak to our care station doctor under advisement and they did recommend that if a student athlete is um unable to compete running up and down as as christine just said um you know up and down the court with the mask on and and not
028able to get oxygen through we did uh trial through three different masks um over the break our coaches and and our ice hockey players have tried out some face coverings that um you know maybe they would be comfortable with and we can suggest um and that's so we did suggest out to our ice hockey team um a mask that would go right onto their um it's proprietary to their face to their helmets that they wear so we we got that information out to that them today um and the other masks that we're looking into are a couple brands that will suggest so dr can you just answer the second part of chris's question which is will if a student is participating in sports will that student be all remote can you answer the second part
029of that so we can't we can't force parents to make their children remote um just like we can't force them all to come in so it is apparent it's a parental decision on whether they come into the building or whether they they are remote students great thanks are there other questions about the sports jordan yeah just a quick one um and i know in the fall there was a there was a program in place uh for like bracelets to to limit how many fans and parents showed up at games is there a plan in place obviously i assume it varies a bit by sport um and by venue um but has that been discussed yes and welcome um uh that has been discussed there'll be absolutely no spectators for any winter sports um we've put
030a plan in place where we will have um uh huddle cameras that are going to be in the blue and red gym um we're going to be able to use a remote live stream i've worked with mr voorhees um on our swim beats and and let me get back to swimming in a second but our fencing meets so that they will be streamed live for our parents to be able to view and family members um and then uh swimming just so you know swing all of our home meets will be what we're calling virtual meets so we will not be um inviting uh teams in um we will be scoring and timing races and then we will submit those scores uh times to our opponent and the scoring will be done that way and there's
031no plans as of this moment from the nsa or the union county conference in regards to um outdoor tracks so i think we're just trying i'm sorry indoor track which will probably be outdoor track of what they're calling a polar bear season thank you so the only alternative to what you've laid out is no sports i mean that people who participate remain remote to protect the other students um so the only alternative is no sports and i'm assuming since we're playing other districts other districts are engaging in winter sports similar to your recommendation at this point yes um in the uni county conference there's um you know there's been some subtle changes in some local schools in regards to um unable to find third-party venues and for um for example like a team may not
032find be able to find a pool that can support them so they may not be having their swim program but for the most part yes we had an ngsi kickoff meeting on tuesday and they have met with the new jersey department of health and they are moving forward with sponsoring a winter season okay thank you very much can i split resource athletes come into this world we will be following all of our social justice and protocols and masks and that could keep our other students to say we can so i i i you're kind of um breaking up a little bit helen um i think you asked if our students are coming back into the building with social distancing protocols and masks is that what you asked right doctor valley i think um a person
033may be asking about visitors coming in uh we don't allow visitors in the building no no visiting teams i'm sorry yeah so um if it's okay with you i can answer that very quickly um we're right in the midst of designing our our gym so that everyone will be six feet apart um we'll probably pull if you've been in the blue gym we'll pull out the bleachers behind um where the team normally sits and have um all of our players six or you know six feet apart we'll have x's on those bleachers our visiting team will follow suit um and because of executive order 196 unfortunately um only required game personnel will be in the in the room um in the gym at the time so the plan will be to include our cheerleaders because
034we feel that's very important that they will come in once the teams go to uh their respective classrooms social distance masks on uh windows open our cheer team will come in and do a halftime cheer dance whatever they prefer at that time and i'm curious what are our surrounding districts doing are they uh having winter sports yes yes at this point as mentioned before um they're they're moving forward with uh the same plan that the ndsi is laid down and really a question for donna i'm assuming we'll have the cleaning protocols after that after the games everything that night before the next school day uh yes the custodians have our and anne is working with the custodians to make sure that all the protocols are in place and that this uh gyms will be cleaned
035at the end of the day for school the next day right and all of our coaching staff receive what we call our their disinfectant kit and we use the same exact thing in the fall um that will you know all of the um equipment used will be sprayed down and will be managed uh you know once all um things work through our building and grounds that are covered um killing disinfectant so we will you know feel very comfortable we have um backup masks in case there are any mask malfunctions we have gloves um and and we created three different hand sanitizer stations that are on wheels that we'll be able to use at any given time thank you i have one how what about transportation i know it's you know getting the teams to and
036from like how does that change in the winter compared to you know fall and well i think our bus rides will be a lot colder um because we will still follow the same exact protocol um we will have you know the the our windows down for the circulation masks on at all times no eating um no no drink in the in the bus at the time um we have 20 passengers we've worked very closely with kelly sheehan and we feel pretty comfortable that you know what we completed in the fall we can transition to the winter and we'll have 20 people on the bus um including one coach so it'll be 19 players um we also too have limited um you know we've always had such wonderful support from our managers and stats and we're
037going to just mandate that one stat person to keep the book we'll travel with um each program so um you know we've worked with both all the coaches to align our buses with what they need at this point great and thank you very much any final questions regarding athletics so anne thank you i know you've met with the athletics committee both uh before the end of last year and then and this year and i know you and your your staff have done a lot of work in the best interest of our students i know you're taking a lot of the necessary protocols i know you've communicated broadly to the coaches and to the parent community and to the athletes about what to expect and i know i expect there'll be some curveballs along the way
038as there are with any season uh that we've had to deal with so uh so thank you uh and obviously the athletic committee is available to you uh should you need them at any time during this season thank you for your support great um okay melissa i assume that concludes your superintendent's report yes excuse me doug i have a question excuse me i have a question on the first half of um melissa's comments her report specifically relating to the diversity equity and inclusion task force so can you just talk a little bit about how that task force will be different from the diversity committees we have because i know we have six diversity committees we have a diversity committee in each building i believe that's made up of parents teachers i'm not sure if students
039are on at least are students on that committee those communities cms and the gl committees and we have action teams at every building building but in um the elementary we have one elementary committee and then i know that there's a district-wide diversity okay so all of those those six building based diversity committees will roll up into the district-wide so can you just maybe help me understand the different roles or how you envision that i know a lot of this is evolving so as best you can um give me some idea as to sort of the different missions or different focuses of the task force versus the diversity committee so our diversity committees are working on changing curriculum as well as holding celebrations and making sure that all of our students are celebrated and included the
040task force is going to look at metrics and how do we know we're successful and so it's going to be a process of how we're going to get where we want to get which is making berkeley heights public schools an entirely inclusive community through training through um professional development through through celebrations through working with the diversity committees but also having how are we successful how do we get there and what metrics do we use to guide us along the way so it's more culture focused overall culture focus this is a systemic change and a systemic issue and so we need we need to lay it all out is something that's going to happen for years to come and culture is hard to change and so we need a group of people to put us on
041the right path along with a consultant and will there be a board representative on that task force there absolutely could be a board as of right now i don't have a board representative my vision was that the task force would come back and report to the board as far as where it's going so that all board members would be a part of that discussion that makes sense um one other thing when you get a chance i would like to know um who is on these diversity committees in the various buildings because and i did speak to a couple of my colleagues on the board about this i'm not saying board members should be on those committees but i think maybe showing up at some of those meetings i know they're relatively new and you know
042then we had covid to deal with so they're just kind of taking root now but having board members you know drop in and just make sure people understand that um we support this good work and that we want to make sure they have a direct line into the board and we take everything they're doing very seriously i think could be very helpful absolutely when you get a chance um you know that would be that would be good information for some of us on the board who are interested in in maybe popping into some of those committee meetings i know this is a work in progress but how often do you plan to to meet with the for the task force well and i'm sure as of right now since we just met with the consultant
043today mr hopkins and i met with that this morning um we're getting back information from him on how where we go where we start and where we go and so i don't have that exact information i'm hoping our first real meeting will be before the end of january where we we start the we start the hard work any other questions for dr varley regarding her superintendent's report tonight thank you dr raleigh thank you for that report we'll move on does anybody have a liaison report this evening yes um one second um as some of you know i am on the um mayor's uh the mayor's advisory council on truth racial hearing and transformation we met on december 28th we had a guest speaker from the county superintendent of schools staff who gave a presentation can
044you who gave a presentation on what is going on at the county level uh specifically relating to um training programs for uh administrators and teachers uh relating to the lgtpq community and as i previously mentioned to dr varley um i liaised with that woman and said if they're developing programs at the county level uh that could ultimately be shared with um our district and other districts that you know depending upon how good they are you know maybe it's something we could leverage so that's the end of my report great thank you chris are there any other liaison reports for this season i have several new jersey school boards that announce this is school board recognition month for members if you uh check your school board notes or the njsva website there are numerous uh webinars
045and papers on challenges that all boards are facing if you would like that information the uh county school boards is having their first meeting of the year on january 13th uh the topic is challenges facing local boards and districts um any board members interested in kathy in the board is very helpful in registering us on services is on remote until january 19th and their remote has been going fairly well considering the population that they serve and the distribution of the masks from state police is complete to all districts and it's environmental commission they are have moved ahead giving their report to the township committee to apply it for the sustainable jersey award and uh they're always working on watershed and uh the tax dress program at um the collection site taylor rental is on hold
046for now that's the end of my report great thank you helen any other liaison reports for this evening okay we'll keep moving on facilities report donna um i wanted to let everyone know that custodians and maintenance staff are using this time where stu with students being remote to catch on up on building maintenance projects they're doing preventative maintenance on equipment they're changing exit lights um they're working on the rooftop fans they're making plumbing repairs they're turning off the water in school which they can't normally do and making repairs in the schools they're doing a lot of painting projects at the middle school they've um in the multi-purpose room they replaced the ceiling they put in new led lighting and now they're working on sanding and improving the stage floor so in each building they have
047different projects that they're doing but they're getting to projects that are on their bucket list that they haven't been able to get to so they're using the time well and making improvements in the schools great thanks don any questions for donna on the facilities report okay we will keep moving on we are now going to move to the citizens hearing portion of our meeting let me just set some ground rules as i as i typically do to be recognized this evening please ensure your first and last name is listed on your device and you should use the raise your hand function when i see you i'll unmute you allow you to take yourself off of mute and address the board although not required we prefer that you use your camera so we can see you
048as well if you have more than one question please ask them all at the beginning also the board recognizes that students and staff members right to privacy and therefore encourages all members of the public to address their concerns regarding individual students and our staff members by meeting privately with the appropriate administrative staff members when addressing the board in a public forum members of the public should refrain from identifying any student or staff member by name and are solely responsible for their comments which could be considered defamatory or slanderous according to the state laws of new jersey and as a reminder each resident will have three minutes to speak with that i do see a couple of hands raised wendy goldstein i see you first good evening my name is good evening good evening and happy
049new year my name is wendy goldstein and i live in berkeley heights and i teach spanish in grades two through five at both william woodruff and mountain park elementary schools each day i teach a six day schedule alternating three days in one building and then three days in the other school with the hybrid schedule i as well as other related arts teachers see a few hundred children in each building during each of these three day rotations i travel room to room pushing a cart wearing a non-medical n95 mask and shield i often worry that i could be a super spreader from room to room and school to school i wash and sanitize my hands following the protocol carrying spray bottles on my cart being very cautious about touching anything other than my own things in
050each and every classroom that i teach in i stay away from all staff members as best i can in both schools i often have difficulty getting my cart into the classroom and keeping a safe six foot distance apart from the children although most desk shields are in place during this hybrid model the shields are still a bit flimsy and the children are young and they often do not always keep their chairs safely behind the desk often the children will have their mouth sorry often the children will have their mouth covered but not their little noses as thoughtfully and caring as i can i point to my own nose covering under my shield and show the children that we all need to stay covered explaining that i know it's not easy but this is what we
051all need to do in order to try and remain safe and healthy some children unfortunately even pull their mask off when they sneeze cough or talk i am teaching under these conditions because i love to teach with the help of the two building principals at both woodruff and mountain park i feel that they are doing the absolute best that they can to try and keep us all safe during this deadly pandemic i still feel the need however to come home each afternoon change my clothes in the laundry room and shower in an effort to not bring covered germs into our home i'm speaking today because i'm really concerned with plan a beginning next week which means bringing back all the children the classrooms and hallways have limited space and in my opinion there will be
052no way to maintain safe distancing especially with my cart there already is a surge of the virus as a result of the holiday gatherings and travel new jersey reports a single day record today of 6 314 covid cases with 123 new deaths i just read this evening that teacher covid rates are four times higher than any other profession there are 17 reported cases in the district as of today with five of them at the k-5 level this would mean under plan a at least five more quarantines this surge along with a more contagious variant of the virus doesn't seem like a safe time to increase our in-person classroom enrollments many of us are really worried for our health and safety including the health and safety of all of our berkeley heights families vaccine vaccines seem
053to be right around the corner i pray each and every night that i can stay safe not just for me but for my family and friends as well everyone wants school to be back to normal i wish it could be too i wish every day that but it isn't safe and i experience more exposure than most on a daily basis it isn't safe for any of us i was just wondering if the district has obtained advice from medical professionals as to whether it's safe to return to plan a which does not include social distancing for many of us again i'm asking from the bottom of my heart to please delay plan a please wait in bringing back full classrooms of in-person children at this time please wait until we are all vaccinated please keep us
054all safe thank you so much for the opportunity to talk wendy thank you very much tonight the next person i see is michael blonde mike i have just refined you mike there you are can you hear me i can great welcome mike good evening um just my video has been disabled so it does need to be turned on just a comment on i unfortunately joined the meeting a little late so i don't know if this was covered but i'm concerned about the district's investigation and the lack of a limit on the budget being set for the investigation of what's going what went on with bullying accusations with no limit on the cost here you can see overruns in the tens of thousands of dollars and that could cause severe budget issues in the future and
055earlier this year the district was noting to this uh significant um issue of the budget and i'm just remain concerned that this investigation may turn into a long-term witch hunt with no clear objective other than to see will something happen 20 or 30 years ago and there's no resolution for things like that and i do appreciate the quick response i got from dr volley when i emailed her earlier this week expressing these concerns but there seems to be no long-term plan here we're going to investigate it to what end to and spend how much to investigate things that happened perhaps decades ago i just want a a limit here on the cost of this because this could spiral into thousands and thousands of dollars on a witch hunt dr you want to just talk a
056little bit about how the investigation will proceed in the parameters we're setting for it so um i spoke to the attorney quick soon after you and i went um discussed email on email and we talked about him giving me an update on a regular basis like if if he sends out let's say 35 letters and you know how many people come back and want it to be investigated and then he will keep me abreast of what the cost is going to be so i will keep the board informed as it comes forward he has done this um as in a similar district with a similar situation and it did not it did not get into the tens of thousands if that helps so we are hoping for um a quick resolution but we definitely want
057a resolution and a solid investigation great thank you dr varley uh next person i see is mary needed for mary hello i'm trying to get to uh i'm trying to start my video but there we go hello um hello i am mary nedenfield i am the librarian at woodruff and hughes schools like most special area teachers i work with over 400 students and well over 30 staff members as i move from classroom to classroom teaching my library classes i'm very concerned with the decision to move to plan a i think it is unsafe for our students and staff we cannot be socially distant in most if not all of the classrooms i entered to teach in my opinion with the current covet conditions in berkeley heights plan a is a reckless option dr varley and
058board members i am personally inviting you to stop by woodruff on days a or b or hues on days c through f in our rotating schedule to see our classrooms and to participate in a library lesson thank you mary thank you very much for your thoughts this evening ramya kasturi you are next ramya good evening how are you tonight hi doug how are you good evening hi everyone i just have a few quick questions about um the process for reporting incidents by former students to the law firm um i know dr barley you might not have the answers so i'll just lay them out for you and then you can give them to me whenever you have the opportunity to circle back with the attorney um but first and foremost i was just wondering under
059what state or federal law the investigation will take place um will it be the same hib laws because i wasn't sure if hib applies to former students or will it be a different set of state or federal laws i also wanted some clarification on exactly who the client will be i'm assuming the district is the client of the attorney and therefore the district will be afforded the attorney-client privilege and not the students that are sharing their stories so i mean i think um parents and students would be interested as to where exactly the privilege lies and if it's true that if it lies with the district then how are these attorneys going to guarantee that the stories will remain confidential is there going to be a confidentiality agreement signed with the students and the parents
060um and then i just have some other questions about you know if the attorney is actually representing the district and is not representing the students or the parents then what about any potential conflict of interest that might arise so for example if a student shares their story with the district's attorney but then later decides that they actually want to bring suit against the district how does that work in terms of a conflict of interest because they've already shared their story with the district attorney um and along the same vein is there going to be any explicit you know document or process whereby the students and parents understand that they're not waiving any rights by speaking with the district's attorney so i know there was a lot of questions i don't know if you have all
061the answers but i'm happy to assure you i don't have all the answers but i will say um in speaking with the attorney and and the attorney's partner um what they what they have done in the past is if a student they send a letter to each former student and all of our former students are adults at this time so um what they they do they send a letter and then the student is it's on the former student to reach back out to the attorney to have the discussion and have the investigation and then they go through the process of you know discussing what occurred and then trying to find corroboration or see if the student has a former student has witnesses that they would like to have them contact and then they are then
062the then the attorney contacts the district and says this is what happened do you have evidence that counteracts that and it just goes back and forth in the end the the attorney would write a report that would be for the board and then the board would be required to take action if it was against employees if it's student to student they're adults now there is nothing that we can do for former student and former student but if it is student and employee and they're still our employee then the board has the right to take action the the um responsibility to take action okay i i get that i'm just i guess i would just like some more clarification as to actually the relationships between and then i'll have to find out i don't know i
063don't know the answers to your questions okay yeah and if you if you want me to put them in writing or send you an email i'm happy to do that too because i know i just threw a lot at you that would be great great romeo thank you very much and we'll get those and yeah drop a quick email while i'm sure will be would be helpful okay thank you great thank you emily ramos emily good evening but um so i just i wanted i guess a question sorry is it working now um a comment on the task force versus the diversity committees i'm still not sure of the distinction between those two things and i'm sure that will come to light as the the ball gets rolling on the task force but i think
064given that we will have more committees focused on diversity and inclusivity it's important that we have clearly defined goals and objectives so we know what we're working towards i think if we have goals we can determine action items for all committees no matter what the committee committee is we can have standardization communication across schools and we can measure our progress along the way um i think that you know i get that metrics are being used for the task force versus the diversity committee but i do think that a way to measure um whether it's kpis whether it's number of metrics a way to measure what we are doing um that would be extremely extremely helpful so thank you great emily thank you very much stacey cerave stacy good evening hi doug um how are you
065tonight i'm fine how about you i am well welcome thank you i i just wanted to follow up on wendy goldstein's speech i'm sorry i don't know if my video is working um but i thought she made some really great points but she also asked a question and i think that got overlooked so i want to ask that question and sort of expand on it a little bit um she asked about the board has the board obtained any advice from an epidemiologist or a medical professional about plan a and i want to add to that have you asked advice in light of this new more contagious variant of the coronavirus and what effect it has on whether it is safe to move to plan a and you know because it does not include social distancing
066and if not is the board going to get that advice and factor it into the decision-making process before moving to plan a doctor i can answer as far as we i'm in constant contact with the department of health and they have approved our plan to move to plan a as we've talked about multiple times chatham is in plan a summit is in plan a and new providence is in plan a as well as mountainside and so we know that as of right now none of those districts have had any major outbreaks we all have every district in the state of new jersey has small confined outbreaks other than you know the high school we we've definitely had a large outbreak at the high school and you know we look like we're having another one right
067now but in the k-5 it tends to be smaller outbreaks and children are more confined at home as well as not involved in sporting activities yeah i'm asking because i actually was quarantined um and i don't want to have to do that again um so even though it there aren't large outbreaks small outbreaks still affect teachers and students and it seems to me like this new variant could cause more outbreaks and i just wonder if it makes sense to wait even just a little while to see what the effects of the variant will be but also to see if the numbers go down in new jersey i just don't know have you been in touch with them very recently like we had over 6 000 cases in new jersey today and um in berkeley heights
068we seem to have like 5 to 12 cases every single day which in a small town is quite a lot it's it's like 40 cases per 100 000 at least so i'm just wondering if like that information that you've shared with the um board of health is um or have you had a current conversation with them i spoke with them today okay and they're still good they're still good we are really worried at the elementary schools and it's it's tough it's tough to teach under those conditions so i just wanted to make that point and thank you for answering my question but i really also want to please pray that you keep an eye on the numbers keep an eye on this variant and if it doesn't seem to make sense let's just wait a
069little while thanks thank you thank you very much for your comments marianne mary ellen taylor you are up next good evening marion good evening um i want to say that the reason for me coming forward is we are well documented with what happened to our family and ours was a little bit different because it was basically a witch hunt my husband had a brain tumor for 25 years and a very discriminatory behavior from police township committee schools and with the disabled it's well known to the state level they say yeah it becomes a real hell hole for families because there is so much discrimination against the disabled period flat out and as the years have gone on a lot of bad players are being peeled away there are some of them are out of the
070township but i'm very concerned for what is going to represent the children's rights and these are young adults that they are brave enough to come forward to say that berkeley heights has had a problem and has a problem and a an attorney hired by the district isn't really representing the rights of those children and the parents have to realize that basically what you're doing is you're sending somebody to interview to see what your risk factors are and that person not knowing the law well will not be represented i called the prosecutor's office today and suggested that they get involved with this in the attorney general's office and they should be the ones interviewing the victims and they are victims my daughter was forced to graduate we didn't have any say in it she's just graduating
071we're getting her out so i'm very concerned for the children and the families and i think berkeley heights is not representing their rights by doing it this way so i thought i would speak up because i did do some things and there's there's case work there it's all laid out and i actually told them that our names were disclosed when my daughter was underage in courts which is against the law so it was at in a rotunda and and union county the attorneys were laughing we're going to decimate this family like they i couldn't hear them so families that are going to get involved in this need to realize this is not their representation and i think the law firm that you have hired should work with the prosecutor or the attorney general's office so
072that they can interview these victims and they were victims they're traumatized you don't make mothers cry you don't prohibit a father that was going to die from a brain tumor not to be able to see his daughter graduate high school anyone can tell any story and i think mrs poe said it best in the meeting with angie devaney in them last month when she was you know saying that she lost the election it is wickedly mean in this town the politics and one of the council members came to my home in october and my husband only passed away last november and she came to my home and she knocked on the door and i was like oh i don't want to be talking to any of them i know all of them and i don't
073want to be talking to any of them right now because we didn't get to live because of what this town did to us and it was all discrimination against the disabled period so i hope when you have these committees that you know metrics are garbage if you're only measuring to make yourself look good metrics are garbage if people are placating but mrs poe said it best that you know it's it's mean and she she said something about the town council that i think the board of education i hope does not do this to people because i have not been involved in it i would hope that you're above it because you work with children but she said that when residents would come to town council meetings they'd go after families they'd go after individuals that
074they didn't like what they said so what metrics are you doing if you're going after people to shut down their voice in democracy who is being protected there and this protect particular council person that came to my house said that um and i don't know if this is true or not and i'd love to know it is this just politicking so they could get the vote said that their child's internship was pulled by our mayor for punishment i was like really that's not very nice could i just ask you to wrap up your wrap up yes i'm wrapping up in the way of i called the prosecutor's office and asked them to get involved i told them if they check on the pacer system my daughter's identity was put out to the public because that
075was to punish our family it is very important that if the district is going to do something that each individual that has come forward and it took a lot of courage for those kids to do that they were victimized by a system that they know that their rights are not being protected because the last thing i want to see for some of these people that's so willing you know they came forward and a lot of it is really from probably flashback and so you're dealing with young adults you each have children and you don't want your families treated that way so it's your obligation to make sure that these young adults that were courageous enough to come forward know that your attorney is not looking out for their best interest long term okay so what
076what the prosecutor if you just give me two more minutes because i think this is a very important topic hold on a second i've given you almost seven minutes of time for three minutes we've heard a number of your comments tonight about some of the things i'll let you make one last comment and then we're going to move on you've had plenty of time we've heard you clear we understand what your concerns are what what you said you can wrap up comments what what i said to the the prosecutor's office has told me there's units that can work with people that have been victimized they they can represent the victims and you know people are concerned about the money they should be concerned about somebody's life we've had many many suicides at gl i went
077to gl i know i was disabled i know what how brutal it was to go through that system okay so thank you i think i think the problem is that we get three minutes or five minutes and like mrs poe said we shut down the public thank you i will make one one comment to that and thank you for your comments we don't shut down the public every person who has a who wants an opportunity to address this school board has an opportunity to do that in a public session and anybody who also wants to address the school board has an opportunity to email either a board member or members administration and they will get a prop reply so i i do disagree with that statement we are very accessible both in the public format
078as we are at every single one of our meetings and outside the public sessions via email or phone moving on dan mcgovern i see you out here tonight let me unmute you dan good evening good evening good evening and happy new year everyone happy new year dan as doug said i'm dan mcgovern teacher of physics at governor livingston and president of the berkeley heights education association on behalf of the bhea members i want to welcome the new board of education members and thank you in advance for your service to our community when i started my role as president i never imagined i'd have to speak out at these meetings as much as i had to during the covet crisis pleading with this board to properly consider the health and safety of the students and staff
079of this district for the past eight weeks the ng cali reports have indicated we are in the orange zone and that district should be planning for all remote instruction additionally dr varley announced today that the district has 17 new positive cases we are clearly in the midst of another outbreak yet the district is adamant about moving to plan a in grades one through five on monday against the guidance of the state and an open defiance of the data the reports around the country if completely booked icu should cause you to pause this dangerous decision additionally the coveted variant running rampant in the united kingdom is here and the data suggests that this variant is considerably more contagious than what we're used to including in schools to the point where the uk has once again gone
080into lockdown this time until at least march yes the vaccine rollout has begun but it has only just begun we are woefully behind our goal of 20 million vaccines in the first month nationwide our district the state and our country are not ready for normalcy yet despite us wanting to be and we want to go back to normal it would be a mistake to pretend that we are let's please step back from unnecessarily risking the lives of our students and staff by packing grades one through five into classrooms like sardines and a can the district must wait to make this move until the data and vaccine rollout supports that decision thank you and as always thank you for your comments uh stephanie spanos stephanie spano excuse me i've just unmuted you hi can you hear
081me i can't stephanie good evening welcome hi dear dr varley and members of the board of ed my name is stephanie stephanie could you just try to speak a little bit louder is this better oh that's much better great okay i got my volume up so i'll start over dear dr varley members of the board of ed my name is stephanie spano and i teach at mary kay mcmillan mountain park thomas p hughes and william woodruff schools i spoke at the december 21st board of ed meeting and shared my concerns about moving grades one through five to plan a on january 11th i could say that nothing has changed since then but that would not be true since december our district's region has been at the high risk or orange coven 19 activity level for
082an additional three weeks since december the number of reported positive cases in the berkeley heights community has increased by 103 and reported school cases increased by 22. what has not changed are the department of health recommendations for districts with an orange or high risk cali score that say to quote restrict activities that involve interaction with multiple cohorts and consider implementing fully remote learning you've made the difficult but appropriate decision to keep grades six through twelve on a hybrid model i encourage you to do the same for grades one through five and postpone the move to plan a until it is truly safe to do so dr varley in your email to the community this afternoon you said cases are on the rise and at the beginning of this meeting you said that we need to
083buckle down i completely agree with you on that i work in all four buildings affected by this decision and teach hundreds of students my question to you is are you willing to meet with special area teachers to discuss additional measures we can take to continue instruction but in a manner that does not put us or hundreds of students at risk absolutely i will me i will meet with the special area teachers thank you great stephanie thank you for your question ursula engel ursula good evening hi good evening dr varley and members of the board first thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak my name is ursula engel i teach spanish sgl and i am also one of the co-advisors to the saga club i am here speaking tonight because i'm very concerned about
084the proposed plan to reopen the schools for in-person instruction and for going forward with plan a current jury is in the orange zone and so clearly it is in the district's best interest to continue with virtual learning in the beginning of the school year parents are notified that they had to fill out a health form for their child before they were to come to school to show that they don't have any confidence every morning staff members receive a student health report from mr nardi a current interim vice principal that shows which students need to go to the nurse to get screened because our guardian has not filled out the form i have looked at the data from these emails and i have found the following these calculations are from october 30th to december 23rd with
085cohort a on average every day about 80 students had to be screened by the nurse the highest number in this cohort was on december the 14th with cohort b on average every day 92 students had to be screened by the nurse the highest number in this cohort being 136 students on december 7th clearly based on these numbers it is clear that parents who are choosing to send their children for in-person instruction are not following the rules set by the administration also it is alarming that these numbers are so high considering the fact that gl had to close for several weeks because of halloween parties where many students contracted the virus one would assume that after the closure of gl after these halloween parties parents and students would adhere more strictly to filling out the health
086screening form prior to coming to school as well as adhering to social distancing guidelines put in place by the governor clearly from the facts and figures that i just shared along with the news of numerous parties that have been held over the holiday this is not happening on the contrary this data is showing once again the community's inability to take fire seriously how are we expected to go back for in-person instruction or even go plan a when it is evident by all of this data that this is not going to work and more and more people are going to get sick i am a single parent of a seven-year-old and i have been taking every precaution to not get sick it infuriates me that the place where i work is not the same is not
087taking the same precautions if i get sick where does that leave my son i know i am not the only one in this situation in the last board meeting students spoke courageously about the suffering they experienced for years and continued to experience in all of our schools it broke my heart to hear their stories and i was proud of their bravery clearly there were many warning signs but the administration did not take heed i commend dr farley members of the board for taking that matter seriously now better late than never we are all giving you the warning signs now myself as well as many of of the staff including students and families in the community have lost the funds in this pandemic i hope and expect that you take this matter seriously as well we
088have all suffered enough during this current situation take heed now learn from the past don't wait until thank you thank you very much for your comments sean good evening good evening hi oh i can't turn my camera on but um hi my name is here i am hi i'm sean procaccini from the class of 28 uh 2014 uh graduate from gl um i do i want to start by saying that um you know a natural thing that uh is expected to happen after uh significant social movements and after um you know after in any large scale organized way that oppressed people decide to stand up for themselves there's always going to be a backlash uh from people who uh who favored the status quo and uh would seek to uphold and continue uh the previous
089system of bigotry i don't think that uh that um you know certain comments that were made here uh tonight are going to be rare going forward i know that there are a lot of people in this community who have invested interest in the bigoted culture of it and um i hope that the administration decides to listen to the moral voices within the community and continues to push ahead with uh changing the culture of bigotry at berkeley heights public schools uh i appreciate a lot of um a lot of the plans that the board has put out so far uh especially um the more inclusive bathrooms and uh the task force is being formed specifically for um curriculum change and for uh cultural change at berkeley heights public schools but uh my question i have two
090questions uh one is that i would like to know more about um i think dr varley did mention this uh in the previous board of ed meeting um i want to know more about the board's plan for diversifying school staff uh including uh administration and i also um i i would like to hear confirmation that it is your intention to spare no expense and to go to whatever lengths are required to uh to protect the lives of berkeley heights public school students because uh when we talk about this issue we are really talking about life and death as was pointed out uh by mary that um there have been multiple deaths in the last three of the last couple years at our public schools because of this culture of bigotry and hatred that has been
091allowed to exist so i want to know two things what is the uh the board's plan for diversifying school staff and i want to or maybe that's more of a question for dr barley and i also want to know uh whether it is your intention to do everything you can for as long as you need to to change the culture at our schools yes we um have partnered with central jersey pride which is an organization that works to bring diversified staff to to all districts in new jersey if you're a partner with them i know summit's a partner chatham is a partner i think west winds are pla plainsboro's partners with them and we have just partnered with them we've also partnered with teachers college of columbia which um also has a very diversified group
092of individuals who they reach out to so yes it is a mission and a goal of mine to make sure our staff represents our student population and we need different people to have a different culture as well as culture is not going to be changed overnight we know that it's going to take a good long process but i am committed to that process i'm committed to the to determining what it's going to take to make sure that we do not have a to not have this current culture where people are treated unfairly or however you want to phrase it because they're different or because they are perceived as different and so it is something that i discussed with the board earlier that we are we're in this for the long haul and we will make
093this a committed goal to make berkeley heights an inclusive place for all students and and i think that's it for me i think the second part of his questioning was uh sean is uh will we spare no expense to get to the bottom of this uh given the importance to people's lives and the answer that question is we won't you know we started this investigation and we will follow through to the end we've tried to be as public as we can to both the people who we know who have uh brought uh who've mentioned things on social media who we know of we've also reached out uh publicly to anybody else that wants to share a story or an incident with us so we'll where our one of our goals is to be as transparent
094about that and for anybody that wants to provide information to us to help this investigation we are open to that and i can tell you that the board is committed to to not so much sparing expenses but to get to the bottom of this to understand it the investigation will close at some point but as dr varley pointed out it is a long-term cultural fix not just our schools but our community that is required so sean thanks for your question uh okay uh olga barashnikova olga good evening hi good evening uh thank you for allowing me the time to speak i hope you're having a good day my name is olga brazenkova and i'm a current freshman at gl yesterday morning i post information about this meeting on my social media throughout the day a
095lot of people i have not talked to in many months fence drop felt strongly enough to reach out to me about this we all quickly opened up to each other about our thoughts on what would happen if schools were reopened with plan a each conversation was the same we were all disappointed in the school for thinking of putting us in danger we were all scared of what would happen to us if we went back full time we were all worried for our for our mental health which everyone agreed was significantly worse than as going back to complete normal would be extremely stressful most of all we were worried about our physical health since even with the plan we use now of only half the students being in school and all the safety precautions being complete
096an outbreak has already happened people have already gotten sick social dissenting inside school classrooms and hallways is already extremely difficult to do and will be nearly impossible with double the amount of people in the building people will definitely get sick if we were to go back and pretend things are normal and yes i understand we have the choice to go full virtual but not all household not all households and families including mine and those of many of my friends are in a position to be able to do that the pandemic is still happening and we cannot go back and pretend it's not as it was said at the beginning of this meeting if we stop fighting the virus now the results could be devastating i really the hope the school board hears the students voices
097and keeps us safe and healthy as thought should be the first priority thank you for letting me speak thank you very much for speaking and for representing yourself and the rest of your students uh the next person is mrs mrs p and mrs p before you start can you just give us your full first name and last name and then you can uh address the board okay um my name is denise piatnachika okay denise welcome good evening good evening so i wanna say a couple of things so i'm a paraprofessional at uh gl and i've been in the district for i don't know seven more than 17 years now and i worked at mary kay and woodruff and all i want to say is that i've been in this neighborhood for a very long time
098and um you know i know there's all this um conversation about um diversity and all this but i have to say i'm diverse because i'm puerto rican and my husband is ukrainian and my kids are puerto rican and ukrainian and i've never felt uncomfortable in this town thank god and um you know so i feel like and i've been working in the community for all these years and i understand the people who may feel uncomfortable and you know i don't want to call say that they're not saying that that's that's not how the way that how how they feel but i just want to say that i have always felt comfortable in this community and um you know i just feel that we have to move forward and if you don't feel comfortable we can
099do everything that can make you feel comfortable and that's it great denise thank you very much uh for your comments this evening gail bradford you're up next good evening gail good evening good evening doug want to get my good evening doug thank you can you hear me doug i'm sorry gail you're you're back that was my fault i apologize your screen moved and i muted the wrong person so i apologize good evening gail jordan that's okay good evening doug thank you my name is gail bradford i am a 62 year old 62-year resident of berkeley heights and i am an alumni of the berkeley heights school system from kindergarten through 12th grade i have taught military children on bases for 13 years and now i am currently teaching my 21st year in berkeley heights school
100district i am highly invested in our berkeley heights community and in our schools and i do look forward to going back to normalization when this pandemic is over i just thank you for the opportunity to make my request known to the board of ed so i currently teach second grade at thomas p hughes and the current safety patrol safety protocols are inadequate in hybrid plan b and would be dangerous in plan a for example the plastic cardboard barriers they fall off the desks they are not attached the children do not sit up close enough to let them be protective the plexiglas clear barrier separating the teachers and the students are only three by four feet apart and still allow the particulates to flow around them the distances between the students and staff have shrunk from
101six feet to three feet from the top of the head of a student to the top of the head of another student and the mass breaks that we have at the elementary level and they're done by grade level outside and they're outside the buildings where the students are all huddled underneath the awnings during cold or rainy weather without their mask while they're having their snacks these are the current conditions under plan b if plan a is implemented next week these safety patrols will face safety protocols will become too difficult to implement hybrid b is working now for us to leap from an all virtual this week to plan a all students at the elementary level is a leap too far for safety i request that the hybrid plan b continue in the elementary schools until
102perhaps the end of january until the conditions change thank you the next person is car carly carly is it carly's that your first name nope okay uh seeing nobody oh carly's hold on okay i see nobody else with their hand raised to address the board hold on as i said that i stand corrected joe miceli joe good evening good evening everyone hi doug how are you happy new year my name is joe maseli i am a teacher at governor livingston high school i teach in the math department i am also the director for the school musical for the past um 10 years or so um and in the past before that for the fall play um i have two concerns i want to bring up real quick one of them is that in i believe
103october um i was approved to be director of the fall play we then went into planning mode and then within days i found out without anyone talking to us that the show had been cancelled and the stipend had been rescinded um even though we had because there was you know no way to get the show done fast enough even though we were in the midst of making a plan to make it work it kind of skipped over coming to us to find out what's going on um and while i know we're in an irregular situation um after the instagram posts came out um those weeks ago i reached out to my former theater students to see how they were and what their reactions to those were and hearing so many of them say that things
104were traumatic at school but the theater programs and the art programs and music programs are things that kind of saved them it kind of broke my heart to feel like we let down this current class of students that they had that they did not have those outlets this year so far um and i know i'm willing and uh mrs talarico who i often work with and mrs procacini and mr voorhees um to make something work however we can to get these kids involved who i think really need this artistic outlet and the community uh people that that comes with this um so i'm asking i don't know who this goes to immediately if it's our school administration or to the board or to um dr varley but we need to get the ball rolling on
105things we can do in this upcoming semester so we can make that happen whether it's something virtual whether it's something highly social distanced um i think it really needs to happen and i'm imploring the board to make sure that goes through um secondly i want to just echo um the other teachers who have said that going into plan a is not safe for anyone i personally think plan b is not safe for anyone i say this um coming out of my second quarantine due to being exposed at school it's it's not a great feeling that every day you walk in that building you're worried what's going to happen um the data's out there that this new stream is more communicable affects children more and i feel like we're just we're not heeding that advice that
106we have to be more careful um it's been said another voice saying it several other teachers have said it but have not gone on the call tonight but they will soon um please please take that very advisement thank you so much [Music] marissa good evening good evening um hello i just wanted to echo what shawn said um we are kind of on the other end of the spectrum from him i realize he went through his education here in berkeley heights and our kids are just starting their education here in berkeley heights um i commend the board for moving so quickly with identifying or wanting to identify students that have had troubles in the past and creating the task force um i do hope the task force is something that will continue to grow and develop
107over time my thought is that if kids obviously do not feel safe at school there is absolutely no way they will be able to learn um we've not been in the community long and we are one of the families um and i've had conversations with other relatively new families to berkeley heights where it's crossed our minds to move we haven't been invested too long is this the community for us i mean listening to last week's call i couldn't sleep after it hearing kids that young talk about issues and things that they had been through i mean it is i don't know how it isn't one of the top priorities and should be one of the top priorities going forward because again if kids are not safe and comfortable they will never learn and i realize
108these issues go on in other districts but you know the tremendous outpouring of students coming forward i mean there is obviously an issue here which i think we've all acknowledged and again and i commend the board for the steps that they're taking i just hope it's enough and i hope that it continues that's it thank you very much for your comments i'll just share that this is the absolute highest priority of the board and i thank you for acknowledging the steps that we've taken but we've just begun we have a long way to go down this path and only until we see changes where we know that we've we've uh gotten along this journey thank you damian facey i never know if damian's going to show up or toyah is going to show up when
109i when i do that it's toyah sorry we have the same account so i apologize i am not going to go on camera because um i look kind of crazy so um i won't do that um but i did just want to address the board and just say um one i i am glad that there are people in the community who have indicated that they have not experienced bias and discrimination in berkeley heights whether it's in the school system or just in general however we cannot ignore those who have um while many may think that this impact is just something that is limited to just school bullying a lot of times this impact is very long term it has an impact on the child's psyche um it has an impact on the way the child
110perceives themselves so just i just wanted just to kind of address that i don't think that this is something that we can just move on um this is something that as a community as a whole we need to address um and it's not something that we sweep under the rug i think what we saw in the december meeting is we were sweeping it under the rug and we have a huge lump in our rug and it is now exposed and we have a duty as a community to address it not to ignore it not to move on so i'm very happy for those in the community who have not experienced bias and discrimination but there are people in the community who have and we have an obligation as members of berkeley heights to address it
111to make everyone feel comfortable and so i just wanted just to make those comments because i think it's very important for us not to see this as something just to move on it is something to address and it is something that we need to change and it's a cultural change so that's it thank you thank you and as many people know we do we have a partner with the broken heights diversity council that toya is a member of uh so we completely agree with your comments and welcome to our continued uh relationship with you steve seabeltz steve good evening good evening uh thank you mr einstein appreciate it uh and uh good evening to all the board of education members and dr barley thanks for for giving me the time to speak a little bit
112tonight um appreciate it uh i am a school social worker in the district um my my home school is governor livingston high school and uh i'm just kind of here to to share my experience but more also speak on behalf of my wife rebecca seabeltz who is a middle school special education teacher and just share a little bit about kind of the ordeal that we've been through these last two and a half weeks or so um rebecca uh you know with her permission you know she's in recovery from uh currently from covid um where she was exposed in the in her classroom um just want to share a little bit about that first of all i just want to tell you you know before i go into the ordeal that rebecca and and our family
113has been through that columbia middle school administration governor livingston administration special services administration staff at the central office have been unbelievable uh in terms of their their outpouring of support i just needed to say that up front and you know to go beyond that our co-workers our friends uh both at columbia and and and governor governor livingston have been unbelievable above and beyond to support us and and we're we're grateful for all of that um rebecca and i are really invested in this community in the school district um she uh again was exposed in the classroom and uh got sick right prior to break um she is young she is healthy uh with the exception of asthma um i asked her permission i can tell you her age she's 42. um and uh what happened
114to her is you know she got quite sick had two emergency room visits was diagnosed with several pulmonary embolisms uh has an array of symptoms still and that's why she's not here on tonight she is still she's two and a half weeks in of recovery and it's going to be a long road uh with with a number of specialists on pulmonologists hematologists cardi cardiologists name a few um it has been uh a journey at this break uh she luckily uh was able to spend and i say luckily because we know that there are situations much more dire than rebecca's she was able to make it home uh in isolation for ten days over the break um i had we have three kids including a five-year-old and a one-year-old um the holidays were challenging to say
115the least uh namely with rebecca's health but uh you know christmas was spent over face time with with my kids and trying to keep as much normalcy as possible um it was very challenging and again we're still still dealing with it um just so grateful that i have tested negative my our boys have tested negative um and really they're not supposed to name names of staff but the school nurse at governor livingston and you all know who she is was unbelievable with us unbelievable um with suggestions and the school nurse was at the middle school helpful as well so we're grateful um so although it has been an ordeal we know that it could be much worse and i've learned a lot of things about cove but things that i never thought i would we
116had been very safe namely to keep our elderly parents safe because they were still involved in child care and what we learned after all of this with rebecca with the hospital visits with pulmonary embolisms that she in the medical community is considered a mild case and that blew me away and what the marker for moderate is hospital admission that when you're reading moderate cases that is the bar and that blew me away i got to tell you um so all of that said rebecca has a mild case um and to me i'm living with it i'm taking care of her and and the kids it just it blows my mind that that's mild um so uh that being said i wrote a few notes didn't have a lot of time for it so i'll try
117to make it brief and wrap up but um we are i'm at the high school we're we're remote until the 25th rebecca you know is in her situation but i needed to speak up on behalf of my my colleagues at the lower levels you know if this could happen to rebecca then we are so fearful and i speak for rebecca too we are so fearful that somebody who is even was is more vulnerable will succumb to this a staff member you know children are namely asymptomatic and we are very fearful and with the numbers going up you know with the holidays and believe me with the testing with everything i waited two hours even having an appointment to get tested it was unbelievable they jammed uh and the ers are jammed and rebecca experience experienced
118it firsthand so with all that said the numbers coming up i just ask to please consider airing on the side of caution to protect our staff our really valuable staff and uh and and delay plan a consider uh and even considering remote uh for the for the middle school and lower levels as gl um you know i work in the different levels there are siblings of older siblings of of the middle school and and and even elementary school so just things to consider i i thank you for your time again i thank the berkeley heights staff of being unbelievable uh with both myself and rebecca um we we feel like we just we're just surrounded by a lot of support and we're grateful for that um and again we're just so thankful this the doctors
119had talked about that that it could have been fatal for rebecca and and at the end of the day the fact that rebecca will make a recovery is all that matters and bottom line but we just are so fearful for other staff members and uh you know we just please want them to stay safe and healthy and and all of you as well and thank you for your time appreciate it steve thank you very much for your comments let me uh say two things number one and most importantly a speedy recovery to rebecca i am encouraged by you sound like she is on the road to recovery it sounds like she's had an awful awful experience so um on behalf of the board and the entire school ecosystem uh our best wishes for her first
120pre-recovery i am encouraged by what you said uh if nothing else what i have seen this is my starting my 16th year on the board the compassion of our community the compassion of our teaching staff of people who've come to help out our teachers and our families in times of need i can think of multiple times where people have come to help a teacher or a family that has been in need and i'm very encouraged and always happy to hear that so many staff members have come to yours and your families and your wife's aid so although it sounds like quite dark times that your wife has been through at least sounds like there's been some light in the amount of support she's gotten from the rest of our community and i am always encouraged
121to hear that and i think it really speaks to the heart of who we are it doesn't mean we don't have challenges within our system i know you're probably the i didn't count that but probably the 12th or 14th uh teacher who's spoken this evening to us and we've had teachers speak at many other meetings as as well but i'm encouraged to do that so please pass along our best wishes uh to rebecca and again i'm always encouraged to hear about that so thanks again steve the next person is is it zangu i apologize if i did not get your first name correct [Music] i'm sorry we can't hear you okay i think she dropped off the next person i see is karima bryant karima good evening good evening how are you good evening welcome
122thank you um i wanted to um just address a few things i'm listening to the many teachers who are talking about their concerns with plan a and i do want as a parent i am also concerned with the move to plan a and i want to understand what the process is for dr bali and the board given these concerns that we're hearing how are we going to take that into consideration and then what steps or decisions are going to be made that was one comment that i wanted to make the other comment that i wanted to make is regarding the comments about racial injustice and discrimination i think we all probably witnessed in horror what happens in our country when we let bad behavior go unchecked so i think it's really important for us as
123the berkeley heights community to make sure as we're making decisions around discrimination that we are holding people accountable for bad behavior and that we clearly outlined that there will be repercussions and punishment for bad behavior so that it is deterred and that we can discontinue it as quickly as possible thank you great thanks for your comments let me address your your first uh question which is uh how do we deal with the comments and questions that that we get a meeting out like this so the administration the board members are always listening for uh community input and although we don't comment on everybody's uh comment it doesn't mean that it's not resonating with us so we do take those uh those views in into account as well as the views we get outside of the
124board meeting so i haven't counted but there's probably 30 or so people who've spoken this evening there's probably an equal if not greater number in fact there's a far greater number of people who also give us feedback via email or via phone conversations that dr barley and i and other members of the board have with the public so we take all those inputs in in making decisions so i can assure you that not only do we take uh input from people like parents and students and teachers uh but experts doctor probably talked about talking to the department of ed and the board and the board of health uh the union county board of health so there's a lot of people who provide input into decisions we make and and frankly sometimes we've changed our decisions
125after we've gotten additional information i don't have to tell anybody here that this has been a constantly evolving uh challenge in education ever since march 10th of last year and we continue to take a lot of input from various members in making those decisions the next person i see has initials of dp i'm going to unmute unmute udp and first asked if you can give us your first name and your last name hi my name is dawn phillips i am the mother of a kindergartner and a second grader um i have two concerns that i'd like addressed uh one is about my kindergartner um he is in am kindergarten with mrs twill she is amazing and i have absolutely zero problems with the teachers um i have a huge concern with the amount of actual
126school my kindergartner has this year full day kindergarten has been all together i think there are 14 full-day kindergarteners they've been together now for months every day at school my kindergartner had seven school days where he was in school in november i didn't count for december and he will have five in january i guess my first question is what is the plan for kindergarten to not be a lost year my second question is about my second grader who is at hughes you've now heard a teacher several teachers talk about the problems uh with the covid protocols specifically earlier it was mentioned that the boards fall off the desks and the kids are huddled together and i'd like to know the specific practical plan that the board has for helping the teachers keep the children safe
127for plan a when the teachers are telling you in practical matters that these things don't work great the first one is to address the amount of time that kindergarteners have in school so why don't you start there so i will say we have we know that we it seems to be am kindergarten that seems to fall under the the monday holidays any of those items that keep them from being in school and i know miss kopez and miss carol have been looking into switching some of the days so that our am kindergarten will receive more instruction than they have been so there is a plan to rectify that situation it should be coming out relatively soon to change some of the dates around so that our am kindergarten will receive more days of instruction so
128i will assure you that that is happening as far as i mean pm kindergarten only has seven days this month so you know yes am has slightly less but that's still an egregiously small amount of time in school compared to what you're giving the full-time kindergarten kids and what your plan is to give the first through fifth graders absolutely and i understand that it's one of those things that we have we don't have enough time in the day because if we put am kindergarten and pm kindergarten on top of each other it would extend our teaching staff day so we are trying to be creative we're working on it it's one of those things that is quite difficult when you only have two and a half hours um with the kit with the kids and
129so it's it's a struggle right now we're but we are working on figuring out half day kindergarten and how to get them in more um and dr harley the second question was around we've heard some feedback from uh some of our teaching staff this evening especially elementary ones talking about some of the challenges of plan a things like uh what was the practical plan even with some of those separators so can you talk a little bit about uh what you plan to do and also your conversation with what you've learned from what other districts have done uh with their plan a plans yes so as far as the i will have to look into the dividers i know that the principals did address this the k-5 principals have addressed it and have worked with their
130custodians to make the but the barriers more sturdy and fitting on the desks more we i will it's generally a management issue if students are gathering in circles and so that is something that we will also need i'll address with the k-5 principles as well that our students should not be gathering in in circles to keep warm or to have their snacks so that's something i will address with them because that is that's a new a new phenomenon that i heard about tonight great thank you dr varley nancy dasty nancy good evening hi good evening good evening happy new year uh welcome new board members um i just want to ask a question that um piggybacking on what ann clifton said regarding the bus so i'm concerned that um having two children of my own
131that ride the bus um is there no filtration on the bus um we're talking about cold weather coming up and we're talking about longer rides to sports and if we are going to plan a we're talking about more kids on the bus with longer rides to school are we really keeping the windows open in 15 degree mornings is this our filtration the windows down i'm confused can someone elaborate on that donna donna do you want to talk about what we're doing for the buses during the winter time um we are we are uh having the bus drivers keep the bus the windows open on the buses uh with the buses are clean dailies you know sanitized and cleaned most of the bus runs are less than a half hour the way that their roots have
132been designed and with the number of students on them we're trying to keep them as short as possible as far as the filtration system on the bus i'd have to get back to you about that okay please get back to them that because that is concerning um the afternoons might be a little bit better but um if you have a 15 degree morning that's quite cold and if we're sitting in a school with windows down these children are going to be cold and i'm concerned about sending my children back to school if this is what's going to be happening if there's no filtration on the bus we need to know that nancy i'll make sure that uh that donna will get back to you thanks for your question thank you tonight next up is jeremy
133marks jeremy good evening good evening hi um so i'm an eighth grade teacher so i teach at cms and um this past year has just been you know trying to gather as much information as i possibly can and uh one of the real challenges that we're facing with covet is that uh so much of the information is just evolving and information that we thought was um was solid we learned later that okay perhaps that's that's not the right way to go and so just the one thing that um that i've heard mentioned a bit tonight is the dividers that are being used in the classrooms and so when we um when covid was first starting like we thought it was all like phonemic transmission touching things and so we all went crazy buying hand sanitizer
134and lysol and whatnot then the thought was that it spread through large droplets and people coughing and it is spread that way but that is not the main mode of transmission the main motor transmission for covid for asymptomatic people is speaking and covet is now it's we know that it's it's just airborne it's air slides and people speaking people breathing are um that that's the main way that people get infected with it and what we've what the scientific community has now learned is that these dividers can cause more harm than good because just like if there's a fence and you know if you've seen the snow kind of uh uh gets built up against the fence after a snowstorm the same thing is going to happen with the air in the room and so you're
135not getting the good exchange of air when you have old all of these dividers so that's just one example where the our understanding of the safety protocols is evolving and i am just deeply concerned that we are not uh doing what we need to and i it's unbelievably difficult because this is this is not just just our district that faces this problem it's like a worldwide problem keeping up with the science and keeping up with the the best information there's so much information out there but i am just concerned that we are taking a more aggressive stance using old information all right um thank you though for the opportunity to speak jeremy thank you very much as well see nobody else looking to address the board i will close the citizens hearing for this meeting
136i want to make one just clarifying comment uh we heard a number of comments about plan a and the clarifying comment is i want to make sure that everybody understands that when we go back to school on monday we have different we have a different hybrid options for each of the schools so the elementary school is the only school that has the plan a the middle school has plan b which we currently have and the high school is still on all remote so we are there are a couple of comments tonight about uh where we have plan a so i just want to clarify that is that the elementary school is the only one that has the change to plan a moving on from the uh citizens hearing item 19 the adoption of the code
137of ethics yes mrs young yeah mr chinchilly yes mr jaquilla yes yes mrs penna yes miss riley yes mrs kirsch mr weinstein yes i am 20 meet in 2021 i have one discussion there is a meeting proposed for tuesday june 22nd on this calendar i propose that we move that to thursday june 24th we have traditionally held our meetings on thursday i do think it's important for the public to count on a level of consistency for us i know we have at times in previous years moved it for special reasons uh where we had conflicts uh but at this point five or six months in advance i propose that we move that meeting to thursday the 24th instead of tuesday the 22nd is there anybody who has any other comment about that uh so i
138will propose that uh that we modify item a to include changing the june 22nd meeting to thursday june 24th and uh and then we'll modify uh and modify the motion in a second to reflect that any other discussion roll call mr hyman yes mrs young yes mr chinchuli yes mr tequila yes mrs penna yes miss riley yes yes mrs kirsch yes mr weinstein yes administration item number 21 i'll make a motion that uh we accept items a through f uh i believe i i can't make the motion for g if that's correct correct yeah you can you can um jordan you can i can make the motion yeah and then your vote will be recorded as which i'll make the motion for uh administration all administration items a3g second closure in a second any discussion
139roll call mr hyman yes yes this is young yes yes mr chinchuli yes yes mr jaquilla yes this is penna um um i'll say yes to items a through d f and g no t e i just had some concerns about uh some of the winter sports okay uh miss riley yes yes mrs kirsch yes yes mr weinstein yes education item number 22 i'll move education items uh a and b motion in a second any discussion doctor could i just ask you or maybe it's um or mr mckinney either one we have talked a lot about what we're doing in the areas of diversity and on the agenda under item a are two new courses that are uh proposed at the high school uh that attempt to address some of the diversity uh challenge that
140we have could i just ask one of you to maybe just talk for 30 seconds about what each one of those is uh that we're planning to propose for next year i'm going to turn it over to scott he um has the ins and outs good evening everybody thank you um yes we have two courses this year it's fewer than our typical uh but uh with the covid uh crisis we've not been able to do some work but as this was an important part of our strategic plan we continued the work on this through last spring and into the fall really with the myself and the district supervisors and the high school teachers these two courses are elective courses uh one is a social studies elective um entitled race in america in the 21st century
141and it will provide an opportunity to really take a more of a deeper dive at some of the historical events and and circumstances and some of the things that built some of the structural um blocks in our society and allow us to have good conversations so that will be a half year elective for ninth through twelfth grade students starting next year pending your approval on the english language arts side we've built off our other elective course music and lyrics to add a roots and rhythm course again this uh both of these courses have been shared with students and and having you know we we have uh measured a little some level of student engagement and interest in taking these elective courses and this will um again combine some historical look at music and um and
142using lyrics as a form of literature that will hopefully engage students in in discussion and learning about different cultures as well great scott thanks very much for that uh uh clarification vocal uh just i had a question oh i'm sorry go ahead robert um i think this is great it seems to be related to diversity i suppose my question for the administration either dr varley or mr mckinney is what about other types of education other than classes that may be related to diversity for example has anything been done on guest speakers i know that was raised at the meeting in december that was well attended that's also to me kind of an education as well it definitely is an education i will say that right now um and it's something we may we may consider
143later on but right now we generally only have the kids in classes for four hours and it's hard to take away instructional time while we think it's very important to have guest speakers and have people come in right now we only have them for four hours and i think it's the middle school we have for four hours and 40 minutes and you know it's one of those things that we will get back to and it could be sooner rather than later right now we're just we're trying to get as much education academics as we possibly can at this moment okay thank you great roll call mr hyman yes mrs young yes mr chinchuli yes mr jaquilla yes yes penna yes miss riley yes mrs kirsch yes mr weinstein personnel mr hyman yes yes this is
144young yes mr chinchuli yes mr d'aquila yes mr tenna yes miss riley yes mrs kirsch yes mr weinstein yes business item number 24. i move to accept and improve business items a through c second and second motion of secondary discussion roll call mr hyman yes mrs young yes mr chinchuli yes mr dequiola yes mrs pennis yes miss riley yes mrs kirsch yes mr weinstein yes yes i'll move uh item 25 a through d but before um that is second in i just want to say that i did review the bills electronically this month and everything looked in order a second ocean in a second any discussion let me add a special thank you to chris uh this was the first meeting of the year and we did not have anybody uh assigned to review the
145bills and on short notice she stepped up and and did that for us so chris an extra special thank you on short notice uh for doing that as a minor note donna and our staff will be sending out a note for the bill review list for the rest of the year stay tuned for that uh and then you'll have your month to do that so again chris thank you no problem okay mr hyman yes yes mrs young yes mr chinchilly yes yes mr dequiola mrs penner yes miss riley yes mrs kirsch yes mr weinstein yes is there any other business to come before the board yes i have a quick question for scott mckinney um i know it's late but talking about these new elective courses just sort of you know jog my memory scott
146i know that i recall that we had a civics civics elected course that we added at the middle school i believe a year or so ago and we were talking about kind of civics 102 at the high school and i don't know where we are at that but with that but given the events of the last couple of days i you know i just can't imagine that it's it's something that isn't more important for our our students is to really have a great appreciation for how their government works or is supposed to work so i i really encourage us if we if we haven't developed that yet to kind of put it on the priority list um for next year it's absolutely part of of what we're looking at both building that course for the
147middle school and as the new standards we're in the process of updating state standards and um that will be in an integrated as part of the high school as well but we're waiting to see what those standards are going to be before we maneuver our courses mandated by the state because you know we need it absolutely i have one item for new business or other business it's it's a question someone spoke up a short while ago mentioning you know we know we have the vaccine coming it reminded me a few days ago i registered for the vaccine myself through the state website no problem there for me at my age i tried to register my daughter age 12 cms student and it said no it rejected that age and said only 16 years if or
148older could register through that state website now my understanding is it's the visor one is fda approved for 12 and older the modern one i believe is 18 or older so i suppose my question is what are we going to do regarding students who cannot get vaccinated because there's no approved vaccine for younger students so i as you you i'm sure you're aware we have a great not a great deal we have a small population of students who do not vaccinate for any reason such as the mmr you know mumps measles rubella polio anything they don't they because due to certain reasons they don't get vaccinated i assume and i'm not sure the doe has not given a ruling on this as of yet i assume we would have students who their parents would opt
149them out of the coven 19 vaccine what we know is that children will probably be the last ones on the list to get to get the vaccine but i don't think it's approved that's the idea my understanding is it's not approved right now i assume it will be though there will be much more testing prior to putting it in um to doing children 12 and below okay thank you uh and the last item that i have is i have talked to each board member about committee next year i will be sending tomorrow uh a list of committees that we have in the liaisons for for for next year again i've talked to each of you uh individually about that so you'll see that we'll have it on the agenda for the next meeting uh to
150approve uh we did go forward with the board's recommendation to combine the finance uh and facilities committee which was a board recommendation uh at the last video i think the meeting before so stay tuned to that obviously if you have any questions uh we can uh you just drop me a note we can uh talk about that with that if there's another any other new business mike i'll ask you for a motion to adjourn this meeting yes i make a motion to adjourn second great thank you we will adjourn for this evening we are back uh at our next meeting in january thanks again have a good rest of the night and a good weekend good night now thanks everybody good night