001e e e good evening this is Doug riny we're going to wait a minute or two I know we had a slight issue with the zoom link that was posted on our social media page and I know a couple of people are still joining so just give us another minute or so and we'll get started e e okay uh let's get started uh can I get a motion to return from executive session moov we are back second can we rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening everybody Welcome to our meeting I have a couple of uh introductory remarks tonight before we get into uh into the
002bulk of the meeting first of all um as I Was preparing for this meeting last night uh I received two emails from residents in the community uh that I wanted to share and both of them have to do uh with the performance of our superintendent Dr vley and I thought I would just read them briefly as uh I wanted to on behalf of the entire board and frankly the entire Community thank Dr vley for everything she has done uh in a very challenging time the first one said um Dr I just wanted to commend you for how well you've been handling this unprecedented situation all all while being fairly new to the district you've held your ground communicated clearly took a motion out of the equation and put the students first extraordinarily trying times to
003be an administrator and I appreciate all you're doing to keep us moving along this is from a parent uh who has a seventh grader and a third grader I got email about an hour later from a person who has three children in our school and said Dr I want to thank you for all the information updates you've been providing I have four children in the Brooke heads Public School in Mary King McMillan Mountain Park and CMS you and your teachers have done a wonderful job from the very beginning of the school year to the present day everyone's hard work is greatly appreciated so Dr V I wanted to thank you for everything that you've done I know I just got these two emails I know there are others and many more who would want to
004uh thank you for everything you've done so uh take that as a small token of uh the community's appreciation and the board's appreciation for everything um that you've done thank thank you um second um I wanted to make a special uh a special call out uh this evening uh as everybody knows uh we have uh we have an outbreak of Co at the high school and there are two people on our staff there who have literally been working around the clock uh to do everything we can to keep our students and our staff safe Ashley Jasco who's our director of guidance who leads our pandemic response team and Jean Ringwood who is our school nurse and both of them uh certainly get our extreme gratitude and thanks for not just working days not just working
005nights not weekdays but weekends ever since last Tuesday when we got the first notification uh and they have done everything working with our staff working with our County officials with the Department of Health with the district making hundreds and hundreds of calls all in the best interest of trying to keep our students and our uh teachers and our entire Community safe uh so Ashley and Jean I don't know I didn't look at the participant list to see if you're on the call tonight but thank you on behalf of everybody for everything that you've done I know your job's not over uh as we're not through this by any means but again um and I know there's plenty of people on your team as well I'm quite sure that it's not just the two of you
006I'm sure it's a team effort I know there's other child study teams there's athletic staff there are multiple people who are um going above and beyond but I know from talking to Dr vley that the two of you have really done that so again you have our thanks um I note about tonight we do have a couple of presentations obviously in the superintendent report tonight uh she will share an update about uh the co situation that's uh in the school community and I'll share many of the facts uh dispel some of the rumors and some of the misleading information uh that I've seen um uh shared that's been talked about also on on social media and what our going forward plans are as promised we are going to have a presentation uh titled curriculum and
007instruction during a pandemic both mayy Beth copz and Scott uh mckin will be sharing how we are looking at education and the academic Gap uh as well as we have a diversity presentation we'll be talking about uh the diversity committies in our schools what what's being done you'll hear from a number of people I'm also excited to announce that tonight um that we were partnering with the Berkeley Heights diversity Council and um a week uh in less than a week on Wednesday night November 18th uh the Berkeley Heights diversity Council has invited us to their next listening session so it'll it's a public listening session focus on diversity in the Berkeley Heights Public Schools it will be Wednesday night November 18th at 7 pm uh there's already been an announcement from the Berkeley Heights diversity
008Council uh I see I saw that uh released today uh Dr Roy will be sharing that information as well uh with the school Community uh and others so we look forward to anybody who wants to discuss diversity uh it's truly a listening session they've had a couple of listening sessions before uh we've had a number of uh great conversations with them in Partnership and we're looking forward to uh partnering with them next Wednesday night uh my final announcement is uh I do I will share an update regarding uh the Board of Ed election results to date these are the tallies as of tonight Joy Joy Young has 3,635 votes Robert C and Chuli has 394 votes saber Garvey has 2278 votes Ramia Castor has 1,857 votes and Peter Chang has 1,386 votes um with that
009can I have a recommendation to approval of a minutes from our October 8th meeting so move second motion second all in favor hi hi hi those those those minutes are not part of our public record Donna correspondence there um we received many letters from the staff regarding uh covid concerns and moving to plan a um we had we received an email from Mr raldi regarding ATT uh attendance policies um another email regarding the transparency and O transparency and oprra processing um we received letters from the Elementary staff regarding re-entry of school and that all of the correspondents are listed on agenda we've also I think there are over 50 letters from the staff regarding uh moving to plan a we also included our Oprah requests and um there were about 12 new oah requests okay
010thanks Donna so so again we have a a large number of uh similar letters from the staff I think it total it's close to 60 now uh of those of those letters and uh for those that might have not been on our last meeting uh going forward we will now be uh publishing in the correspondence uh all the Oprah requests that uh the school board School District receiv okay uh with that I am going to uh grab our two students uh we're going to make one slight change uh to our agenda this evening um in that we're going to have our students uh speak first so Emily is there uh I just have to find Thomas good evening Emily hang on one second [Music] okay welcome welcome to our students uh Emily since I I
011got you online first uh we'll start with you good evening how are you tonight good how are you great um so I'll just speak a little bit about the sports so even with everything up in the air at the moment there's still hope that there may be a few games left in some of the seasons as of now the seasons have been going very successfully football ended ended up winning the title conf of conference Champs and ended with a 4-1 record girls soccer has a 4-4 record and are awaiting the news if they're allowed to compete in the state competition boys soccer ended their season with a 52 and two record field hockey is finishing with a 34 record so it's great seasons for all winter signups and interest meetings are beginning for fencing wrestling
012track and basketball many are anxiously awaiting the decisions regarding the next season additionally the students are excited to hear about the new possibility of watching the sports through Sports Online through a live broadcasting channel the specifics are are not yet known however the idea while indoor capacity is at alow could keep the GL Spirit Alive and then as for the new schedule even though it's only been here for a few days it has been working very well there's been many positive opinions on the progression and in my opinion the days aren't as um tiring and stressful and allow for Better Learning environment as well the lab addition after lunch allows for the extra time desperately needed for Science and AP classes thank you great thanks Emily and you spared me one of my questions which
013was going to be houseing a schedule going which is uh is great thanks for talking about that Thomas good evening how are you tonight I'm doing well how are you great your report yes with with sports being temporarily put on hold at jail many students have taken a greater involvement in clubs model un held their introductory meeting recently and is now working with members to assign them to different delegations for upcoming conferences matle held their second competition of the Year this past week and Spanish club is holding sen din in a movie this week TSA held their first meeting of the Year where they explained to new members the events of the club and future activities Science Olympiad updated members that there will only be a state competition not orinal one held virtually in March
014or April throughout November GL is working to spread awareness of various cultures groups and people guidance counselors have posted information to students about the various holidays occurring around the world this month including cluding day of tradition celebrated in Argentina transgender day of remembrance celebrated internationally and Dali celebrated in India the understanding Asian cultures Club is also working to spread awareness of the by preparing a video that will teach others about the Vol and even feature individuals celebrating the event yesterday the National Honor Society offered membership to qualify Juniors and seniors selected by the faculty Council the National Honor Society now joins other honor societies such as s science Honor Society and the math Honor Society mu Aleta who have welcomed new members and are now preparing for a formal induction ceremony next month student auxiliary
015is supporting history teacher Miss ranit and her rit's family fundraiser virtual 5K which is raising money for Miss Rice's daughter who is currently battling cancer a monthlong virtual event allows for people to walk run or bike to support the family's living and medical cost great thanks Thomas any questions for our student Representatives Emily real quick you said what was the service they're going to do for the viewing the uh the teams the team sports um so M Mr Scara said that they were trying to create a video um program where you can they're going to record and live record the sports um teams in the games so you could watch them online because there's no room obviously and the capacities are lower for for the sports Arenas thanks are questions for our student rep to
016to Thomas how about your your your thoughts on the uh back to the revised um rotate and drop schedule yeah I like Emily greatly enjoy it I I know I talking to other students I think there was an overall very positive response in us being able to choose this this new schedule so I think that made students feel very empowered and I like how the the afternoon sessions are not as kind of compact as they were before because I know students I mean teachers were having a very hard time truly maximizing that time as they were so used to having an hour to teach a class but when you compact it down to 30 minutes they were still working it out and they were starting to figure it out but I think this ultimately is
017the best and when we return back into inperson this um uh when we return back into in person this will maximize our our time meeting with teachers other thoughts Emily um other than it's just more uh it's easier to remember because it's back to the rotation and it's only a 4day rotation schedule rather than the eight day we had I know I always got confused on what was when and where I always had to go on power school for the the schedule so now that it's back to the normal schedule that we've been used to all through high school I feel like it's much easier and it's way better for the students and the teachers and and Emily have a thoughts now that GL is all remote and has been for for a week now
018will'll be for one more week uh thoughts and reactions around that um I think it's going well um for the time being uh we did it all last year and I think everybody is kind of used to being online now and they know how to maximize like the learning capabilities of being at home and with the new schedule I feel like it's an easier transition as well um just because it's a new schedule and they're just going at home so it's not as like stressful great any other questions for our student reps okay Emily Thomas thank you very much have a good rest of the night and uh we will see you again shortly with that I will turn over to Dr barley for her superintendent all right um the last several weeks have been
019very challenging as the district has been trying to deal with a Fallout of the covid-19 outbreak that was ignited by student parties over Halloween weekend as of this morning we have 48 students in the district to have tested positive 43 at Governor Livingston four at CMS one at Mountain Park the K to8 numbers have not changed since last Friday in addition there are 29 97 Governor Livingston high school students who were quarantined due to coming into contact with a positive case I want to make sure we understand that GL is not is remote and not quarantined people who are quarantined are not allowed to leave their house the majority of GL students are able to leave their houses as they did not come into contact with a positive case there are also 48 K to8
020students who are quarantining due to having a sibling in school who is tested positive and finally there are 68 staff members who are currently quarantining due to coming into contact I also would like to reiterate what Mr reinstein has said and thank Dr josco and Miss Ringwood Mr Nixon and the district pandemic team they did incredible work in contacting each one of these families over the course of the last week for those of you who have been following the reports on the number of District cases there was a drastic increase on Tuesday this increase was due toward delay in reporting from the Westville Department of Health which Services Mountainside Berkeley Heights receives its reports from the Union County Health Department the vast majority of our cases are a direct result of the several Halloween parties
021however we are finding that some are Community spread positives this means that an individual who was not at the Halloween party contracted the virus during the asymptomatic spread from a person who had attended the parties as of right now we know of no cases in the schools that were contacted prior to the Halloween parties I realize that many people are questioning why the district isn't moving all students to remote learning right now the data does not support this decision all five of the K to8 students were part of cohort B who tested positive for the virus after their last day of school on October 30th when this timeline is combined with the fact that there have been no further positives in the K to8 population it means that the student population has not been in
022contact with these students since they tested positive we know that the students are best served by being in school and we know that the spread of the virus is minimized by plastic barriers maske wearing and somewhat of social distancing for these reasons and unless until the data changes we are planning to keep the K to8 schools open for inperson instruction we are hopeful that we will be able to return Governor Livingston high school to inperson instruction on November 19th however this decision will depend on the number of Governor Livington high school students who are still positive at that time and if the rate of the positives are increasing or are decreasing I want to reiterate that students in school who maintain a level of social social distance and wear mask are safe sad experience has
023taught us how taught us how quickly an outbreak can spread the consequences of poor choices and relacing relaxing our guard can be devastating with Thanksgiving fast approaching and college students returning home please be sure to social distance wear your mask and remain Vigilant we are working hard to keep students safe and schools open but we cannot do it without your help as I'm sure you're aware this past Thursday the district received a screenshot of a vile racist and homophobic Instagram account using the governor Livingston High School logo this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated the GL Administration is continuing to investigate this bias incident and we have turned over all information to the police department the district has been hard to work been working hard to make sure that all students feel safe and
024included while it is disheartening heartening to think that one or more of our students would make an account that strives to divide us we will not let it defeat us instead I would like to focus on and commend all those who had the courage to stand up and say that these actions are unacceptable and are not the values of our community there are two presentations scheduled for this evening the first is now a very timely presentation on the district diversity initiative it is my hope that everyone will see the proactive steps that the district has been taking to address these issues the second presentation focuses on the district's instructional efforts during the pandemic on a lighter note following the presentation there will be a Boe discussion about snow days I am the opinion that snow
025days are one of the joys of childhood there are three snow days built into the calendar and I would like to recommend that these three days be retained in the calendar if we go over those three over those three none would be added if we do not use them they would be returned at the end of the year as per our normal past practice now I am going to turn it over I think Mr rafid or Mr Scara you have our diversity presentation we have two three students who are in the audience who will need to be promoted as well I sent those to Mr Scara and Ryan I got it okay so as you see on our on the screen we are going to give a highlight of what we have been doing with
026our Berkeley Heights Public Schools diversity committees if you will take a look at the second slide that has the structure of the Committees we have the district diversity committee which is headed by myself Mr Hopkins and Miss copz who are also presenting with me tonight at the end of last year the district wanted to spend some time focusing on all children and faculty we met with members of The Saga club which is sexuality awareness and gender awareness and after that we wanted to focus on Race culture religion as well as mental physical disabilities and sexuality and gender thus the creation of the Berkeley Heights Public Schools diversity committee this fall we created our GL CMS and Elementary diversity committees and then the action teams for each building on slide three you will see our district
027mission statement one of the mission of the Berkeley Heights Public Schools district diversity committee is to support the GL CMS and Elementary level committees in celebrating the diversity of our community and by fostering inclusiveness and acceptance through a three three tiered approach celebration communication and education one of the items that we are well aware of is that our staff does not truly reflect our student population in April we were slated to attend a job fair at Montclair State however that was cancelled most by most other things due to covid we have now joined forces with Teachers College of Colombia where we are able to send our job postings through their Network that will give give us access to a more diverse candidate poll if you look at slide four the district diversity committee members you
028in our in our committee we have District administrators a board of education member supervisors parent and community members and teachers and students we have had our first meeting with just the without the teachers and students but our next meeting will have teachers and students currently our district committee has myself miss copz Mr Hopkins Miss Penna for parents and soon we will have teachers and students if you look at Slide Five you can see that our purpose is clear we want all students to feel safe and secure and included this is a place of inclusive inclusivity and we the Board of Education and District demand that so I will read this for you the Berkeley Heights Public School diversity committee will serve as a forum to discuss and where necessary coordinate building level initiatives plan larger
029scale Community centered events and meet to hear District level Community concerns related to diversity equity and inclusiveness issues in addition the district level committee will liaz with the Berkeley Heights Township diversity committee and the Board of Education like Mr reinstein said we will be working with the bhdc on Wednesday night at 700 p.m. for a listening S I am now going to turn it over to Mary Beth copz on slide six she's going to talk about the district elementary diversity equity and inclusion committee good evening everyone thank you for allowing me to be here to speak to this important work and the work that we're doing in the elementary schools um I really would like to celebrate and highlight all of the work that's being done I am the chair of the district elementary diversity
030equity and inclusion committee and on the next slide you'll see our committee members um they include of course me principles of all of the elementary schools parents and community members um if we could move to the next slide there we go thank you teachers Specialists and we will be including students as the year goes on we have this Elementary diversity committee that meets every other month and then there are what what we call Action teams and each building has an action team the larger team discusses ideas and creates plans and then the building action team puts the plans into action they're doing the really important work that's taking place in the buildings with our students staff and our families on the next slide or the next two slides I should say you'll see our goals
031they are to promote and celebrate diversity inclusion multiculturalism and cultural responsiveness through various mechanisms to provide all members of the community with a supportive space and tools to learn about and discuss ask questions about issues and topics in a safe environment we want to facilitate communication between all members of our community Through discuss discussions questions um if there are issues they have a place to be brought up we want to collaborate with other committees along with staff and parents in an ongoing pursuit of an inclusive and diverse School environment on the next slide our goals are to design specific systems to ensure that every child has an equal chance for Success specifically we want to work on curriculum design program design and professional development we're committed to cre creating environments that are kind open-minded accepting
032loving and loving by creating consistent goals and plans to achieve those goals we want to create accountability for the implementation of our diversity and inclusivity goals and we want to serve as liazon between parents and the greater school and District communities on the next slide there's just a small sampling of the work that's taking place actually every day in the elementary schools Mary K McMillan has a community celebration site that they add to on a regular basis it's part of their website we have what's called monthly precepts those are our themes where lessons activities and celebrations are built around those precepts and one of the precepts is right there it's because we are different that each one of us is special we build lessons around literature so for example we use Todd par stories and
033some of those titles are it's okay to be different the feelings book and be who you are we have culminating month monthly celebrations around those precepts around diversity and various Traditions our weeks of respect have been ongoing we have students Heritage and diversity day it was really an amazing celebration that took place where students created Powerpoints and slide presentations brought in artifacts from home to celebrate their culture and their their hel Heritage and they shared it with classmates and and other classes virtually um October was our Hispanic Heritage Month um November this November we have our devali celebration and cultural arts program scheduled and we have character education and social and emotional learning lessons ongoing they're built in our C built into our curriculum and and as I said they are ongoing and then tomorrow
034actually is World Cup kindness day so we I want to say happy world kindness day and uh those are just some of the important things we're doing in the elementary world thank you so I'm going to turn it over to Mr Hopkins and he will discuss the GL and the CMS diversity committees uh good evening um the uh GL and CMS diversity committees are mirrored and structure the same way that the elementaries are there are two administrators two students from each grade two parents um and two teachers on the Committees uh the most important thing that we're doing at the G and CMS diversity committee is empowering our students to take ownership of this initiative and to communicate our values as a community um and to that end I'm going to turn over the presentation
035to three of our students on the GL committee uh McKenzie Pierce and Sarah farta who are our senior reps and Alyssa prahan who is a Junior rep so McKenzie good evening and thank you so much for having us tonight my name is McKenzie Pierce and as we said before I'm a senior at Governor Livingston Sarah and myself are so proud to be here and explain our goal of being involved with the glhs diversity committee Sarah and I are co-founders of the former student activism club now GL and filtered and we are excited to further our efforts for social justice through the diversity committee throughout our time here at GL Sarah and I have firsthand seen the lack of empathy from the student body the most recent event as mentioned before taking place last weekend with
036a hateful account tied a hateful Instagram account tied to GL including bullying based on racism and SE and sexuality instances like these are disappointing to see time and time again and we are confident that this committee will show that such instances are unacceptable and do not reflect the school the values of our school or Community the goal of the GL CH diversity committee is to embrace awareness and take educational action with the help of our members by partnering with Administration and faculty along with parents and students we are setting up action teams to address different aspects of gl's diversity this includes working to create a Jewish student group and working alongside the pre-existing groups Saga understanding Asian cultures Club G unfiltered and other groups we feel that through the incorporation of these action teams community
037events Roundtable discussions and guest speakers we will be able to provide proper education and steps towards equality and inclusion not only at our school but also throughout the District Columbia Middle School is also following through with a similar program and our hope is to work together on projects to emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion CMS has scheduled its second diversity club meeting for next week Monday November 16th at 2 p.m. they are excited to report that they have established our first action team which will be establishing an lgbtq plus organization at CMS that will develop opportunities to educate the school Community while creating a safe place for students to have conversations about difficult topics there are a number of students already who have interest in participating in this action team and who have lots
038of great ideas and energy I'm going to pass it along now to Sarah to talk about what our diversity committee has achieved so far and our upcoming plans hi everyone as McKenzie said my name is Sarah Fardo and I'm also a senior at Governor Livingston as the other 12th grade diversity Committee Member I'm excited to share that we have already had two successful events including a Hispanic Awareness Month celebration through the guidance department and a bullying awareness activity on Unity day with the help of the glhs best buddies club we are currently planning both a movie night and book club for staff students and parents we will watch a movie or read a book recognize for its inclusive message and have a discussion session after wordss the first book we will be reading is Trevor
039Noah's born of crime which will be in February at the start of Black History Month we are grateful to the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation in supporting this effort and our continued efforts we feel this is a great opportunity to educate our community and have a good turnout McKenzie and I feel that this event and the diversity committee as a whole will bring long needed change by promoting diversity and sensitivity in the whole Community to make GL a welcoming and inclusive environment we are are so excited to continue creating and planning events diversifying curriculum and focusing on immediate actions to improve jail culture to have a long lasting impact on our school I would now like to introduce ghs Junior Alyssa praon who will be speaking about our next activity the understanding Asian cultures Club dwali
040Activity thank you thank you Sarah evening everyone and thank you so much for the opportunity to be here my name is Elissa pran and I am a junior at GL and a member of the diversity committee so in February a few friends and I had successfully established the understanding Asian cultures Club also known as UAC with the purpose of educating the school community on Asian cultures and celebrating them as well we identified the need for UAC due to the due to the lack of Asian representation that we saw and felt that it was up to us as a student body to take the initiative and celebrate our diversity that being said our upcoming event is a celebration for Diwali the main part of our plan is a video that explains what diali really is we
041want to feature students and parents or faculty interested in the first part of the video to share information about Diwali to inform G more about the holiday for the next part of the video we want to include clips and photos of the different ways that diali is celebrated through visuals of traditional dance religious rituals food traditional dress and more together and compile the responses we have sent out information and a Google form where students and faculty can send submissions through it the other component is to engage everyone in arts and crafts activity involving creating a which is traditionally a clay oil lamp used to hold candles that are placed in various spots around homes during thew to symbolically rid Darkness with light I'm honored to take I'm honored to take part in the celebration of
042Diwali and incredible incredibly grateful for this opportunity as a South Asian ameran and a Hindu it's fulfilling to see myself represented in the communities that I'm a part part of and even more so that I can take an active role in celebrating my own identity with the inclusion of the diversity committee at GL students of all communities now have the chance to achieve the representation and celebration of their identity students can assume a more active role in taking the initiative to celebrate the diversity and I'm proud to be part of an educational system that is vocal and willing to help make school a more welcoming and inclusive environment for students from all backgrounds and walks of life ESP especially in current times where there's evident and evident divide and polarization I believe that the efforts
043to educate the youth and welcome diversity is undeniably a step in the right direction for a better future the diversity committee not only helps celebrate diversity but also gives us a chance to share our stories and identifies what can be changed fixed and done to eliminate prejudice and discrimination during the discussions that we've had so far I feel like my voice is heard and that the committee really does depend on students to propel its Mission we have been able so far to address key issues and approach difficult topics that generally in my experience have been left untouched and we're actively working towards change including in the curriculum so as a female Asian-American Junior I feel a sense of Pride as my peers and I help lay the groundwork for a United Future for the younger
044generations to come I look forward to achieving much more through the committee over the course of the next two years and thank you so much for the time tonight thank all three of you for attending tonight um I really do appreciate it thanks to Mr Hopkins for organizing it and Miss copz for um working with me on these presentations and these committees do any of the board members have any questions of Miss copz Mr Hopkins myself or any of the students yeah I have a couple of questions um not specifically to the students I think which you guys are doing is great stuff um but as I'm listening to you um I as a board member I'm not sure I have a clear picture to put a lot of this in context in terms of
045you know what our school Community looks like from a from a racial and ethnic perspective I know the statistics are out there but I I don't recall you know it's ever being presented to the board I mean I I recognize that our town is becoming more diverse uh we have a growing Asian Hispanic population we have a small African-American population but it's more anecdotal and it would be very helpful to me to have a clear picture of what our you know changing School Community looks like as we you know Embrace a lot of these initiatives um which I think are wonderful I can definitely get you the the numbers of our differences as far as race are concerned I think what we are it's pretty obvious to me when I'm hanging out handing out diplomas
046yes yeah but we also you know you see the changes but um I think it's important for us to you know to have that picture of our our community and how it's changing I just want to make sure we understand too diversity just doesn't mean race we are also discussing mental physical disabilities sexual orientation gender and um religion it's across the board like want to make sure everyone's included we are a very we want to be a very inclusive District I understand there's limitations to what you know I'm I'm talking about and then I guess the second thing I would I would say is though I think it's terrific that we have this um emerging or new relationship with uh you know Columbia Teachers College I totally agree that's a um a terrific uh Avenue
047for us to um reach out and hopefully get a more diverse pool of applicants however that said I do still think that I would like as a board member to have a better understanding of what our current hiring practices are and if they are not memorialized through policy or procedure I think they should be and I'm not suggesting I mean I just want to be very clear I'm not suggesting we go for quotas or anything remotely like that but I do think that as part of our procedure we should have it documented that we are looking for the broadest most diverse slate of qualified candidates that we can for teaching and supervisory positions and I know I've asked this before it is you got a lot on your plate um you know especially with covid
048and these outbreaks but at some point I would really like to um I I would like to request that we have a presentation on our current uh hiring practices review those those procedures okay absolutely thank you I have that's all I'm sorry I have a question to our students if that's all right first of all I think we all we all love to see when students take the lead on especially in such important topics so I applaud you I know you have a lot going on in schools so I really think it's wonderful to see the next uh group of leaders you know starting to bloom here and really take upon responsibilities of adulthood I'm wondering have you surveyed your peers to see what they think are concerns within the school system um just to
049get feedback from them what what type what do they think is going on there to any of our students or if they feel like answering oh well Sarah and myself as I've mentioned briefly before we created the student activism Club at GL um so that was like one of the first instances where our school was taking direct action at Social Justice and since it's a more political Club we're dealing with a lot of issues that a lot of people aren't often comfortable talking about um so for gaining members and seeing how many people are interested um we've branched out a little bit more into the community as well and I feel like our growth into the community has been a lot more effective as well in reaching our student body um I don't think we've
050ever done any surveys or anything like that um specifically uh however we have been extremely inclusive in all of the understanding Asian cultures Club gln filtered um and I feel that students that really want to be involved are either already involved or they're in contact with us and they've shown their interest in social justice issues if I could add on to that as well um this summer we partnered with Berkeley Heights unfiltered which is like our parent organization which is obviously um townwide whereas ours focus is on jail specifically but um they're all Governor Livingston graduates and they have given us so much Insight onto stuff they experienced at GL and what many people experience at GL in regards to um the initiatives of our club so that has been a really good indication of
051what we can strive to do better and what we can initiate within our club so again as Mackenzie said we've never sent out a formal survey but working with them has been um really incredibly helpful I will say Dr Chris Andino we um we have been working on surveys more for right now for parents um I know I received some information from Miss copz on staff and we will eventually get to students we're in but we would want the um middle school and high school students to have some input in what goes in the survey for students but it's coming it just everything's keeps getting sidetracked because of Co so um but we are we were hoping to send something out at least by the end of December now I know it's a big undertaking
052and I really applaud you especially to get our student leaders involved so I kudos to all of those that are really stepping up to the plate I would like to ask I give a lot of credit to what's going on at GL uh Steve have we made any Headway at Colombia Absolut absolutely Miss K the uh Colombia has a parallel structure in organization um it's it's moving a little slower just that we're dealing with the a younger student body so they need a little more guidance where at the high school the you know the the students are are more mature and ready to step up but there's a lot of enthusiasm there they're just um they need a little more time to get organized and directed that's all but there's uh the the team has
053met twice that's uh Miss aosta and Mr Mora are the uh um administrators working with that they've got their first action team in place and they've got a couple of meetings going are building towards a year- end culminating activity so there's they they're they're working very closely with the high school at the administrative level hopefully when we are past the current pandemic we're looking to do some more things between the buildings too um but uh so the answer is yes it's it's a little slower by the nature of where they are okay thank you that's great because that'll build the high school program it'll carry it forward thanks any other questions from the board for anybody on our diversity um it's Mike real quick no I just want to say thank you everybody this was
054a great information and thank you to the students and one thing if I could add as a suggestion especially thinking about how to brid between the high school again once we get past uh the Co is uh having some of the student leadership with the k35 so I think it would be a great way to see how uh as mentors and looking up and seeing you know a future what they can do how they can be involved with everything it may also help to bridge that connection versus nothing against the adults but also seeing someone you know in their peer in the school a you know a little bit older talking about this might be something to think about great thanks to all I think we're off to a great start with diversity across all
055the across the district is in the different schools uh with our partnership with the diversity council with the mayor's Council so there's really a lot going on and again next Wednesday will be the listening session for the diversity Council uh with with the school district so again thank I do have one more question specifically of the students um piggybacking off of what Jerry said regarding the survey um when you have these events um have you had or is it your expectation that they draw a broad cross-section of students at the school so I would imagine that's your goal so my question is is that happening or do you anticipate that happening um well specifically since diversity committee is just starting specifically in the case of UAC we had just um established ourselves in March and
056that's right when we um went into remote learning so it was difficult to progress and have more events but during the first two meetings that we had uh we made sure to emphasize that although it is a club that celebrates Asian cultures it's not exclusively for Asian students only we welcome students from all backgrounds um not just for Asian students and um last month we had our first meeting of the year and it was it was really fulfilling for me to see that they were students that were not just Asian and they were all willing to take part we had over 20 students um log into the zoom call for a meeting so I think that's a good indication of how willing the GL Community is to work towards this um inclusiveness in our community
057so when the diversity when the diversity committee is able to finally have um the first event hopefully in person by when things settle um I do expect that uh a wide variety like a diverse group of kids will be able to join and take part of that is very great to hear thank you great again thanks to everybody um L will go to the next topic absolutely so we are now moving on to miss copz and Mr McKenna and they are going to discuss curriculum and instruction in a pandemic good evening everyone this has been a challenging time for all of us as we navigate the impact of the pandemic within the world of Education tonight we will provide an overview of of how the Berkeley height schools are making use of data and formative
058assessments to identify student needs and adjust our instruction to meet those needs I'm pleased to be presenting this information with Miss copz the newly hired director of Elementary education and intervention we will bounce back and forth to provide some examples and snapshots of data points across grade levels we will then demonstrate how we use these various data collection tools and analyze these data points to determine the best ways to differentiate and individualize instruction as we Pro uh we progress through the district curriculum we are all acutely aware of the impact of this pandemic on all aspects of our community as a school district we were thrust into fully remote instruction last March and from March to June we work together to make the best of this learning experience and support our students and we cannot
059say it enough our teachers went above and beyond to quickly adapt to this change and teach our students in a virtual environment throughout the spring and summer months the district administrators collaborated on numer numerous scenario SC arios and plans to enhance the learning environment while maintaining our flexibility so that we could adjust to the unpredictable and changing public health concerns while much of the planning was consumed by Logistics and schedules we also built an aligned system that prioritized identifying and remediating educational gaps this work was supported through the creation of the of formal structures that ensured that this work was a focal point for everyone in the district it's important to note that this process is something that occurs every year in every classroom our teaching staff members work with our students to identify their
060current strengths and weaknesses and adjust their instruction to meet the needs where they are in their learning progression this work is not new to our instructional staff however as the interruption in education extended beyond the traditional summer slide it was imperative that we adjust some of our diagnostic tools and practices to collect additional data points these data points are used to identify Global Trends as well as individual needs teachers are then able to use these findings and plan appropriately plans could include strategically grouping students based upon their needs or could range from some one-on-one remediation all the way to the other end of the spectrum where we provide extension and enrichment opportunities as appropriate Miss kopaz will share some of the data points that we used to help this process this listing is not exhaustive
061but covers many of the most commonly referenced sources of data within our schools and our classrooms Miss copz thank you Mr mck mckenny um as Mr mcken stated this is what we always do it's how we get to know our students here is a list of some of our benchmarks and tools used to pinpoint each students's area of strength and areas in need of growth um I'll briefly go through this list with you um to talk to you about how we collect specific information in different areas so for example the first three are reading assessments our FST in panel in grades K through five Dibbles in GES grades K through three and then our predictive assessment for reading um and we give that assessment as needed and the dibles and the par the uh predictive
062assessment for reading are also dyslexia screening tools we have I ready for math we also include District level benchmarks real-time data gathered by teachers and District interventionists um that could be the formative assessments that take take place day in and day out in in the classroom and remote setting we have historical data data from prior years that might be something for example such as our student learning assessment our state assessment which is called the njsla student learning assessment we have math space we have rubrics performance-based assessments which might include something like an authentic writing task or a students's writing portfolio previous and current year teacher recommendations and student parent interviews feedback and surveys what we do is we take these tools it really allow allows to drill down to find specific standards that need targeting
063and this data informs our instruction we analyze the data we hold data meetings to discuss each and every student at the elementary level and we differentiate accordingly the next slide you'll see some general findings and and what the data told us as we perform these di diagnostic assessments with our students this fall results were varied which we expected while some students needed significant supports in remediation many remained on track and on grade level and some students actually really thrived in this environment and enjoyed it overall student attendance wasn't negatively impacted during the pandemic it's been um it was consistent or better than preco covid-19 attendance um and that really helped with the continuity of instruction and uh instructing students in a virtual setting the reality is it takes longer and we know that there are
064inherent in issues with communication and check checking for understanding so for example there may be technology issues or it may take longer to get everyone to respond to questions and we know that assessments take longer in this setting so we really have to adjust our pacing in order to um to adjust to these uh to the extra time that it takes in a remote setting Mr mckenny we also noticed there's some additional challenges for students that uh we identified in the transitional years for example entering this entering our school system grade two grade six and grade nine um these students likely would have benefited from the traditional activities aimed at supporting moving into a new school setting in these classrooms more time was spent establishing a school community and developing the classroom routines during the
065month of September generally speaking this idea of consistent classroom routines and effectively communicating expectations also leads to increased efficiency in hybrid learning environment this was one of our biggest takeaways from the spring and teachers implemented many of these Lessons Learned to start the school year finally there were some identical patterns of students who struggled the most with these changes in the spring um and they fell into three categories um as you would expect students who had issues with engagement or attendance uh prior to covid continue to have some of those issues uh during this learning environment um and you know we used many of the resources and the partnership with parents and the and the home uh to try to address those issues there were also issues with students who face challenges with organizing and
066learning in this digital format um and and we relied on uh building in some individual skill development and learning strategies to help all students um in this digital environment and finally we are also finding a population of students who are struggling with the amount of screen time and just their stamina for learning without actually being in an in-person setting um so those are the kind of General categories that we found students um who really had um difficulties in this learning environment and again these are broad generalizations of what we found but one of the most important takeaways is that not every student was impacted in the same way during this crisis while we can probably all agree that nothing replaces face-to-face interaction that takes place during in-person instruction we also must acknowledge that many of
067our students were able to mean Pro maintain progress and even flourish in this environment and we also learned that there is not a one-size fits-all solution for all of our students who have fallen behind these issues must be addressed through individualized and targeted measures that support their individual needs the next few slides are snapshot examples of how we collect and analy data to inform our instruction again they're just they're just examples they're not the only ways we do it but I felt that it would be helpful to give a little insight in this area thank you Mr mckin so on this slide we have a Snapchat of our Benchmark reing assessment data one data point we use is the ftis and panel PCH Benchmark reading assessment to determine independent and instructional reading levels of our
068students in the elementary schools um these benchmarks are used to measure student behaviors such as how the doing influency comprehension and accuracy as we would have predict predicted our student showed a slight decline overall in percentage of students who are reading at or above grade level but I'm going to dig a little deeper in a few minutes to to show exactly what that means and using this information reading groups are formed and teachers are able to provide targeted supports to facilitate growth for all students and remediate any identified deficiency so in the lower grades if you look at the chart now in the lower grades you'll notice that the percentages are lower and this is perfectly normal it's because children are learning to read in kindergarten in first grade and it's completely developmental students are
069learning to read at very different rates so you'll can you can see the numbers are in the 50s and 60s which again is something we would expect once students are readers you could see they jump up to the 70 percentiles um to show that they are reading at or above grade level and they need to read and practice on a consistent basis as Mr mckin mentioned he used that term earlier in the presentation he called it the summer slide um it's because children generally do not read as much over the summer so they lose skills and so when we look at fall data we are seeing a reflection of some of that summer slide and in the this fall in September we even saw a bit of a springsummer slide so with that said you
070can see some percentages changing um and they're not drastic for of how many students are reading at or above grade level however what I'd like you to really look at are the same cohort of students and I'll give you an example of what I mean if a student was in kindergarten in the fall of 2019 in the fall of 2020 they're in first grade so I'd really like you to look at it on an on an angle where you go from 54% to 65% that means those students actually grew 11% continued on that on that same thinking first grade in fall in 2019 now they second graders in 2020 they went from 58% to 73% reading at or above grade level that's an increase of 15% again if you follow that same logic we only
071had slight decreases with same cohorts of students from second grade to third grade they went down 4% from third grade to fourth fourth grade they went down 3% and from fourth grade to fifth grade they went down 2% um you can't really see that on the slide I'm sorry about that but those bottom numbers are 75% 75 % and then 0% change so what that's really telling us is that other than a handful of students maybe regressing a bit we really didn't have major concerns with how students um were progressing as far as reading was concerned and the other thing that this shows us is it's a way we determine the level of need of this of support that a student would need whether they need strategic support or intensive supports and then we would
072provide that or those Services as we move to the Middle School one of the tools that we utilize in grades 5 through 12 is math space this is an adaptive technology platform that is tied directly to the New Jersey student learning standards each year teachers use this tool to identify content or concepts that students need to review before beginning their new course work so that they have a strong foundational understanding of the work they will need to complete during the school year the math results for the CMS students demonstrate that they were able to successfully finish last year's Math course that is good news of course but the purpose of sharing the snapshot is really to explain how we identify students who do not who do need additional supports this year so that they can
073be a successful as possible in their new Math course and set them up themselves up for success in high level math courses awaiting them at the high school level um you know these slides are really not for the purpose of showing student growth or achievement but rather how we use these tools to identify students and then get those students the help that they need um so that we are successful with all of our students we took a similar Approach at the high school level the snapshot we selected to share is the AP testing that took place in May of 2020 although this shares data from a smaller segment of the high school population it is an important data point as it provides instructional feedback using a standardized assessment that can be compared locally and nationally
074despite the pandemic our students were able to take and pass their AP exams at an extremely high level in fact the number of students participating in the AP program continues to grow despite a small gradual decline in the High School enrollment there were some subject areas that were outliers as compared to the scores from previous years but this data allows us to examine our instructional practices and share our find findings among staff members to inform and improve our instruction on this slide we want to talk about ways we're addressing student needs and accelerated Stu accelerating student learning we have received guidance from the Department of Education and they've given given us steps for Accelerated accelerating student learning and it actually makes us feel very confident since these are existing structures that we already have in
075place so for example if you look look on the left side of the slide those steps include prioritizing the most critical prerequisite skills and knowledge for each subject area and grade level we've already done that work in department meetings and grade level meetings diagnose students unfinished learning and prerequisite content knowledge and prerequisite skills again we've already done that work through data meetings and benchmarking adapt your scope and sequence and pacing guidance we've already done that work train your teachers and leaders to diagnose students unfinished learning and provide acceleration support that is ongoing we continue to do that throughout the year and monitor monitor your students progress on great appropriate assignments and adjust accordingly again we have benchmarks scheduled throughout the year and we also use formative and summative assessments to continue to determine evidence of
076student growth and understanding and again as I mentioned these are existing structures that we already have in place and work that we've already accomplished Mr mckenny so as we organized our approach to making sure that we address student needs and we accelerate student learning um we really broke it into the three big categories that you see on the slide first by adjusting and modifying our curriculum with an emphasis on building strong foundational skills that will support future growth and achievement and this is most easily observable in an adjustment to scope and sequence from prior years we have also spent a majority of our time planning for differentiating and individualizing our supports to meet the varied needs of our Learners and we're going to talk a little bit more about that that on the next slide
077this includes working to Max maximize our Staffing Resources um and our interventionists to utilize their areas of expertise to help as many students as possible and then finally we continue to adjust and monitor our classroom instruction with an eye on maintaining high levels of student engagement and attendance in our programs this is best accomplished through collaboration among teachers students and their families and on this last slide there's a visual to show you how we support our students we use what's called a multi-tiered system of supports that has three tiers if you look at the base or the widest part of the triangle that's tier one which is called Universal supports that's all teachers providing supports for all students we differentiate through process product content and assess and we're meeting the needs of all our students
078we then have what's called tier two which is our targeted small group interventions and that's really our strategic grouping and then we have the top of the pyramid which is our tier three interventions and that's where the invent in interventions have greater intensity and duration and we use significant staff and resources to provide students with what they need and going around the triangle are all the vital pieces to the puzzle in helping students to grow and succeed including leadership family and Community engagement and positive School culture and climate so as we open the presentation to questions from the Board of Education members I'd like to remind everyone everyone that our work is far from over obviously we are still adjusting our schedules and instructional models to account for changing Public Health Data we need to
079continue cycle of data collection and planning to meet the needs of our students this will require patience and flexibility by all involved it will take longer than any of us would like but we will continue to do the work necessary to meet the needs of all of our students may be Scott thanks questions from the board okay I'll go um couple of questions my first question is on a global basis not an individual child basis um it doesn't look like these gaps are huge based on what I just saw you present so that's good um but my question is and I don't know if you know the answer to this the longer we stay remote do these graps gaps grow or not and then my second question is have we considered you know in terms
080specifically with regards to tier three and maybe even steer two our teachers have a lot on their plate with remote and hybrid um have we thought about the effectiveness never mind the financial efficiency but the effectiveness of potentially making temporary investments in teacher support support to perhaps accelerate remediation of some of these gaps particularly at the tier three and maybe even tier two level so I know that's a lot but sure the um first I I think there there is some good news in the data that it is the the results are mixed now I would say that our findings have showed have showed us that students have different gaps in different areas you know some students are struggling in some subject areas and doing fine in others um there are other students who are
081you know and I mentioned kind of the students who are struggling with the engagement piece in the hybrid or the remote learning environment they're struggling across the board and that's a different challenge that has to be addressed in a different way so um the the gaps are there um the real big takeaway for us when you know and we didn't know what we were going to find this is our first time dealing with a stretch like this uh but it really just like there is not a one siiz fits-all for the best model of doing this there's also not a one-size fits-all plan that addresses all student needs we really really have to become good at individualizing and differentia what we do um and so that's that's a big component um as and Scott that's
082kind of why I'm I'm thinking that you know an individual a teacher you know needs to give that individualized focus and needs to keep moving the ball forward but also has to play catchup with some of these individual you know students and that's why I asked the question about whether or not temporary investments in teacher support you know might help us accelerate that that's where I was going with that yeah no and and that's something that I I'm not sure that we know quite yet so your your second question was kind of are the gaps still growing and we're not in full recovery mode if we were back in school and and you know everything was as it traditionally was we would be making greater gains I will tell you that we've improved how we're
083doing things um so that even if there are gaps that are still occurring uh we're doing a better job of not allowing them to grow as quickly and I think it it is something we're going to have to consider we do have a number of District interventionists who work especially when we get to that tier three level um and we are trying to maximize their time um with students and be creative with scheduling but it is something we may have to consider I I think it's a fair point and a good question you know do we need to make that investment um The Challenge there will be uh what's out there to support that uh but it is something you know we've we've begun to discuss but we're not I don't know that we're quite
084sure where we need to go yet um what just a question if you don't mind um if you looked at similar regression or um how our students with disabilities have been doing have have they fared likewise or we're seeing more of a concern with the students are we doing for those um it it really you know I I think I may have anticipated um that the the grouping might have been uh had greater gaps but it really fell in line with those main categories as far as students who struggled with organization had a new organizational structure that they had to learn um and you know in a digital environment that's a different challenge so you know we had to adjust as Educators so that we provided those Frameworks and tools so that they could be
085successful so it really um it didn't blanket uh the special ed population um in general but in those areas that we did identify if students struggled within those categories they they struggled as well okay thank you other questions from board members yes Scott I have an observation when you look at the uh CMS math space diagnostics at least at the beginning of the year it looks like uh both within the subject matter and then the cohort there's Improvement so is that something that we believe is actually happening or is there maybe the capability for children to use other things at home out of the teachers's uh view that may be helping them improve on those assessments I think that stuck out those numbers stuck out to us as well um and we you know kind
086of I don't know that we're able to give a fully uh causal reason for that but we did take a look at the number of students who participated in math space assignments over the summer and we had a um an increase in the number of students who made use of the tool over the summer during the summer assignments as well as an increase in the number of average number of problems that they accomplished over that summer so you know just sticking to the math space environment I don't know if people felt that a greater need to you know keep up and do some math in the summer but um we we definitely had an increase there and again we're not able to say that that's the reason uh for that you know success in that
087area uh but it is something that we are um pleas a little bit pleased about because I think it you know it is bearing some of the fruit that Mr zobo and his staff have been um working on pretty hard for a number of years and and maybe put us in a pretty a better spot than other districts even uh when it comes to moving to the hybrid learning environment great thanks thanks Scott other questions on go ahead Andrew go ahead go ahead okay so Mr mckenny the the increase in the number of students uh taking the AP test do you think that attributes to the fact that it's a modified version and um secondly the passing rate of three and better is that normal for for the students at GL is that standard um
088yes the um that comparison is standard and we did take a look well we don't have all of the numbers you know the district um breakdowns we do have the State national numbers and they were consistent from prior years so our performance you know uh you know relative to the state you know passing rates and the and the national passing rates uh remained very very good it was a modified exam a different format the students actually took it um online a much shorter exam at home um you know Nationwide not just the governor Livingston students uh but the fact that they still felt comfortable taking the test was a credit to our teachers and that they um were still able to pass at such a high rate um was you know something that you know
089gave us you know made us feel pretty good about what our teachers were accomplishing even in a challenging environment um and that our students felt you know confident enough to take a difficult exam and still be successful and hopefully that'll bear fruit for them as they go they move on to college thank you Mike Sure uh looking at the on slide six and thank you for the diagonal reference on that it was interesting to see like you indicated uh Mary Beth that the numbers did go up which I was again pleasantly surprised but how did that compare or did we do any comparison to other districts to see did they see similar numbers where they did see um increases versus what I would have assumed and thought would have been probably status quo or slightly
090uh a slight regression because of again the uh the online learning thank you for the question I I actually haven't analyzed other districts but I can say that going in I think all of us anticipated that the numbers would go down you if you followed the same cohort so we were pleasantly s surprised and I really do think it speak speaks to and I have to give a shout out to the families because clearly the families were doing a tremendous amount of supporting their their children in the spring and throughout the summer um because you know it was it was such a difficult time for everyone and and nothing a time that no one could could anticipate or expect but the fact that everybody was at home and and parents were trying to work remotely
091from home that they were still somehow supporting their children and teaching them in addition to the work that our our teachers were doing and it really just goes to show you that the partnership between the family and the and school the home and school really I think made a difference and the data shows it so you you really have to give a shout out not only to the teachers and the work they did but also the families no and I agree and and one thing I may ask is as you're looking at the uh potential we're going to do for remediation also looking at is how we can help the parents also help out as you're saying so yes we are looking at putting all these programs in place helping out the students helping out
092the teachers but also keep in mind to that you know what else can we do for the parents to really help them out to ensure that we are providing the best environment any the tools the tricks Etc of doing that as we're thinking of these programs thank you any other questions from board members everybody good okay Mary Beth um Scott thank you I suspect we'll hear from you later on in the year I know this is not a oneand done type of thing I know you your staff the administrators the teachers are doing this every day uh and I suspect uh in sometime maybe in the spring we'll hear back from you and just get an update as to how how we're doing in this area uh Dr VY I would assume that that concludes
093your superintendence report that is the end of my superintendent's report great thank you um moving forward are there any liaison reports from board members this evening yes Angela so um I joined the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation meeting on October 20th and I'm just going to give you a quick update they're continuing to work on their pandemic related Grant items for all of the schools uh they're also at the moment brainstorming on their literary lunch program this program is usually held indoors uh at Columbia Middle School for sixth through eth grade and obviously due to the pandemic they can't do that um this year so they are um looking to work with the Berkeley Huts Public School diversity committee and I reached out to Mr Hopkins during the diversity meeting and asked him if he could
094reach out to the appropriate people and see how we can make this happen and he said he he definitely will he thought that was a great idea uh they've also launched a new updated website uh Bhed foundation.org so when you get an opportunity have a look at it it's it looks really great and that concludes my report thank you other board members Helen uh yes um ed services is continuing with their hybrid model for the handicap classes and the uh alter Alternative High School for Elizabeth is continued remote uh they were contacted by the state police who are coordinating a distribution of PPE equipment for local districts so they will be warehousing the equipment for the individual districts to pick up the equipment at their um Westfield site School boards had their work shop and
095the individual workshops are available to register for several more months and the uh environmental commission through their coordination with many uh businesses in town with collecting the uh clear Plastics gain obtained 17 track benches uh they are reestablishing collection at tayor rental and one other site to try to get more benches several have been placed in Columbia Park Plus other areas within the town that concludes my report great Helen thanks very much any other board members what Le on reports great moving on Donna facilities report okay um over the past week the large rooftop fan exhaust fans were installed at the middle school multi-purpose room at the Hughes multi-purpose room and at both gyms at GL this will greatly improve the air circulation in these spaces and in the adjoining hallways and classrooms uh the
096repair of the window Springs is continuing and ongoing and our maintenance staff is installing LED lighting in the Columbia multip purpose room and the hallways at Colombia additionally they have replaced the lighting at the exterior of all schools uh this project is an upgrade to the current lighting it reduces the energy costs and the costs of the supplies are reimbursed by the New Jersey Smart Start program so overall it's a win-win uh we get better lighting and we're saving money and the cost of the um supplies is reimbursed so we're happy to continue with that program and that's it great thanks Donna any questions for Donna or facilities okay moving on we'll now uh begin the citizens hearing uh as I've said at at past meetings uh previously if you can hopefully direct your questions
097that are board level questions to the either the board members or the superintendent uh can be either on uh subject we talked about the presentations this evening or any other matter that want comes before comes before the board if you have a question that's more directed uh for an individual student uh as relates to scheduling or something else for your for your student it's probably the school principal is probably the best place to do that with with that the first person I see is Ruth Brogden Ruth good evening how are you this evening good evening can you hear me I can hear you now good evening how are you tonight good very good thank you Doug good evening everyone um my statement is it's more of a statement and an acknowledgement rather than a question
098I just wanted to take the opportunity in light of the incident that happened with the GL hateful Instagram post I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you to Dr VAR in particular and Mr Nixon um right after the post was posted Dr vley did respond in a very timely manner with an email to the district which denounced this post outlined steps to investigate this post discuss their um collaboration and partnership with the Berkeley Heights Police Department and I very much appreciate that timely email that was sent out um very shortly after that I understand Mr Nixon during the long teachers convention took time out of his time off to meet with students to hear what students knew and how they felt about it and I do appreciate that time that he took and
099then following the weekend just this past Tuesday I understood that he sent an email out to all of the students again impressing upon um you know that this is not tolerated in our community and that this investigation is ongoing so I feel like that uh I'm very thankful for the steps that the administration and the faculty took in a very timely and strong manner in denouncing this I also want to thank our fellow community members because I know as Dr barley mentioned there were a lot of parents and students that spoke up but from someone from the community I also heard the same thing and I'm glad that we stood together as a community to stand against this and last but not least I just want to say I do not take it lightly that
100you took a lot of time and resources to do this in light of the covid surge that's going on in in GL so again thank you and I appreciate your efforts Ruth thank you very much for your comments you are next Le you can unmute there we go um I wanted to take a longer View and talk to the board this is a recommendation to the board um I've been told that our school system does not have hea filters in the classrooms or in the buildings and I would like to see the board put on their agenda for next year's budget and I know that's a long way off and I'll try to remember to do it again in Spring to either create study to see how much it would cost to upgrade the ventilation
101systems or to move forward with the ventil in upgrading the ventilation system for students so this is simply a request to the board to put that on their agenda for future I appreciate everything that's being done I know it's most we can do right now maybe we could do the study this year but we're using all our money I'm sure for PPE so I understand the constraints of it so I just wanted to put that out there so we take a longer View covid-19 might be gone hopefully it will be gone by Spring we get vaccinated but we'll have another one in a year or two or three years or four years as far as I'm concerned that that's my comment thank you very much I'll make sure that uh the facilities committee along with
102the business administrator put that on the docket for discussion so I appreciate your comments this evening thank you good evening Stacy toorak how are you this evening I'm good how are you I am outstanding um I just wanted to address the board and Dr vley um this is regarding the covid outbreak um I didn't wasn't prepared that I was going to be this soon um but I just want to say so in August before we returned to school I was pretty concerned for my own health as well as the health of my co-workers and my the students I would be teaching and I know a lot of people were concerned about all of that like we weren't sure what covid restrictions were going to be in place um and how those covid restrictions would Safeguard
103us I suffer from asthma Every Spring and fall um I battle chronic bronchitis which ironically this past spring I was not in the building I was not around sick students I did not get bronchitis we returned to school here in the fall and typically at this exact time when we're seeing the surge in the covid cases um this is usually when I get that and even like sometimes that's why my voice is horse I mean yeah um so we are um you know I have a compromised respiratory system I know that students and co-workers do as a PO as they also have other Comming situations with their health um so with that in mind although our buildings are equipped with hand sanitizing stations plexiglass for teachers desks um some I know the elementary schools they
104have plexiglass at students desks um we do not have plexiglass on students Des desks in the high school um there are oneway hallway signs students and staff were required to wear masks um unfortunately although we can control all of this inside our buildings we can't control what happens outside our buildings that affect our daily operation I know you all know that the data yes states that schools are not super spreaders but when people are Reckless outside of school jeopardizing the health of students and teachers the virus now enters our buildings threatening what was deemed a safe environment and something more than a two we shutdown has to be instituted being one of those staff members who got a call saying I had to quarantine had me concerned for my health and angry that I my
105fellow Educators and students some of who have compromised immune systems others who care for elderly family members or live with those who would be impacted if they became ill I have students who live with their grandparents and we know the older population are also impacted um we were put into this situation we back walked back into the building in September we put our faith in the Board of Ed and Dr barley that we would have transparency about protocols and the necessary safeguards unfortunately the district trusted the families and students to be responsible enough to realize their actions outside of school have far and wide consequences inside school if we can't trust every member of our community and our schools to take the right precautions or maintain the social distancing guidelines and restrictions to stop the
106spread or even flatten the curve we have to do it for them people often consider schools to be the extension of the family if someone in your family can't make the right decisions you have to make those decisions for them if this is just the beginning of the second wave I and other fellow faculty members and I can't speak for the community but maybe them too uh don't think it's wise for us to return to hybrid after the end of the 14 days and I know we're moving forward with the elementary schools to go back um with larger capacity um but a lot of other districts in our area have made choices to stay virtual until after Thanksgiving or even after Christmas uh I know that even larger school districts with less cases have also
107opted for this uh I hope you Dr vley and the Board of Ed take this into consideration when moving ahead with your reopening plan for Berkeley Heights being back in the classro and seeing students face to face is incredible there's an energy that's very different but with us half home and half in school it great to be in one place together and although that's an incredible experience for Learning and engaging if it comes at the expense of the health of the students and teachers of Berkeley Heights and then they bring it home to their families is it worth it great Stacey thank you very much for sharing your thought tonight Lindsay Marabella you're up next good evening Lindsay Hi how are you I am well how are you tonight well thank you um I want
108to thank you for the opportunity to address the board and the community um as I as you said my name is Lindsay Marabella I've been an English teacher at Governor Livingston for the past 10 years and I want to speak today about the need for berley Heights community and School District to reconsider the approach we are taking to schooling during this pandemic until recently I have always felt a very strong sense of community here I felt included and cared for however with the districts and incessant push towards in-person education during a pandemic many of my colleagues and I no longer feel cared about and to be perfectly Frank the perception by many teachers is that the district is so single-minded in its goal to bring all kids back into the building that they are willing
109to place the health and safety of staff and students as a lesser priority the current outbreak that this town is experiencing demonstrates that while the ultimate goal of getting everyone back in the classroom is an important one we are not ready as evidenced by our current situation not everyone is doing the right thing over 40 Berkeley height students have tested positive over 60 staff members and even more students have had to quarantine as a result of exposure and some weren't even notified until a week after that exposure occurred a full week of unknowingly exposing their own families and others to the virus this was not because of a shortcoming with Administration or their contact tracing it was because people behaved irresponsibly and then were not forthcoming can we trust that people are not going to
110travel or see family or friends over Thanksgiving or winter break and if they do can we trust that they will be honest about it is shocking to me given the current numbers in both the state and in Berkeley Heights that we have not closed all district schools and it is shocking to me that the district will not consider all virtual instruction surrounding the holidays in an effort to protect staff and students the standard response of the virus does not spread in school is not acceptable there is no database we can reliably look to that tells us exactly how and when people have become infected particularly when we have widespread lack of cooperation with contact tracers it is irresponsible of us to assume that educating students in person will not lead to additional transmission of the
111virus I want to be very clear that what I'm saying has nothing to do with me not wanting to do my job I would love nothing more than to have all my students back in class teaching them as normal because teaching remotely is much more difficult than teaching normally and in no way does my advocacy for remote teaching stem from a desire to take the easy way out it stems from the care for my colleagues for my own family for my students and their families students do not learn well when they are afraid teachers do not perform well when they are afraid or when they do not feel valued and if the board wants to truly say that it values its staff and students this Relentless push to get kids in the building has to
112stop we need to take an approach that is deliberate and safe and we can get there eventually but it should be not be at the expense of anyone's Health thank you thank you very much for sharing your thoughts tonight next up Dan mcgoverin Dan good evening evening Doug thank you uh as Doug said I'm Dan McGovern I'm teacher of physics at Governor Livingston high school I'm also the bhea president the bhea members have worked tirelessly throughout this pandemic to deliver the highest quality education possible given the Myriad of challenges this pandemic throws at us while also implementing necessary safety protocols to keep everyone as safe as possible in our school buildings unfortunately the outbreak at GL has shown that without support outside of school our efforts to keep each other safe will not work I'm
113urging this board to put the health and safety of students and staff first and immediately move to all virtual instruction as Berkeley Heights is in the midst of an outbreak and all data indicates this is only going to get worse before it gets better there are reports that at least one quarantine staff member from GL is exhibited symptoms of covid the theory that schools are immune from the spread are false and we need to take action to prevent further illness or Worse within our school Community students should not have to risk their lives to receive an education and staff should not have to risk their lives to deliver an education in this country while all virtual instruction is not perfect it mitigates the real and observed risk of in-person instruction at this time let's take
114the risk out of the equation right now stop the discussion about moving pre to 5 to plan a and move the entire District to all virtual instruction immediately with the approach of the holiday season it would be naive of us to think that no social Gatherings will occur we're going to be in the same boat here now days after Thanksgiving so why don't we be proactive instead of reactive Follow The Prudent example of other districts in the state and make the announcement now of moving to all virtual instruction until at least two weeks after New Year's Day so that families and staff can prepare appropriately as as opposed to having to react at a moment's notice let's spend the interm time strengthening our in-person plan together so that when the time and weather are right
115we can safely welcome back our students to the classroom thank you yeah thanks very much for your thoughts tonight uh Nicole Megelli Nicole good evening how are you tonight sorry um hi how are you sorry I think I'm echoing hi everybody um good evening I'm Nicole manganelli and I teach at Governor Livingston and I'm also a longtime resident of Berkeley Heights thank you so much for letting me speak um I work incredibly hard to make virtual learning the best that it can be and I want just as much as everybody else to go back to the classroom this is the hardest I've worked this is my 24th year in education um however I definitely do not feel comfortable going back to the school next week and I just want to share a couple of personal
116things because this is personal and I think that you guys sometimes need to hear some of the the Back stories um while the parents have the option to keep their children home the teachers don't have that option um it's been stated a number of times the virus is not spread in the classroom however because I was in a classroom me and almost 70 other teachers are in quarantine right now being in quarantine has been very inconvenient for me and I'm very angry about it and it has nothing to do with what I have done I have been incredibly careful since March um people think that I'm a little bit over the top but the reason why I'm doing that is because I don't want to regret anything that I do or don't do and and
117bring this know this virus to my family um in the summer my oncologist told me that she did not want me returning to school in person um however since I was told that I could not teach from home home and did not want to use up all of my sick days in case I do get this virus and need to teach from um need to take my sick days I chose to put myself at risk every day the virus has personally affected my family as my sister has been suffering from the after effects of this virus for over seven months she has completely lost her life and she is not alone in her struggle and if you have not heard about long haulers you probably should do some research about it no one knows how
118to help them because this is all too new and yes most students will get mildly sick and then they'll move on however adults that come in contact with them may not be so lucky in addition there have been reports of children with mild cases who later on begin to have strange ailments since March we have not been together with my immediate family at all a couple of times we've seen each other out in backyard very distance we decided to order a nice big big heater so that for Thanksgiving my mom doesn't have to be alone for another holiday since she was alone she's been alone this whole time um if we have to go back to school for those five days just for the sake of going back to school and all of a sudden
119we find out we have to quarantine again she's going to spend the holidays alone and so am I um so lastly I would like to mention that my fellow teachers in the elementary schools and the middle schools for the same reason that GL should not be going back I do not believe that they should have inperson classes at this time and I definitely do not believe that the elementary school should be going back to plan A anytime soon thank you for your time good call thanks very much for your thoughts this evening thank you Todd deck you're up next Todd good evening good evening uh thank you for uh the opportunity to speak uh I've been fortunate enough to be a social studies teacher at GL since 2001 uh just the standard that New Jersey
120uses to determine if out ofate visitors and returning resident should self- quarantine is if the state they're returning from has a daily 7-Day average of new cases greater than 10 per 100,000 persons simply put an average of one new case per thousand residents per day there's been over 40 new covid cases among GL students in just the last week that's an average of 5.5 new cases per day with an enrollment of around a thousand students GL currently exceeds the travel advisory threshold by more than a factor of five this is far greater than the infection rate of any of the 45 US states on New Jersey's own quarantine list as a teacher I know the value of inperson instruction and I really long for its return as soon as possible and I'm thankful for the
121board and the administration's really Herculean efforts to begin this year on a hybrid model however now typ class in person has just a small fraction of the students it would normally have in any given cohort two of my cohort groups I have two students okay yes I have days where I have two students sitting in the classroom and 17 or more students at home on zoom and I have to wonder what extra value is hybrid instruction offering these two kids when the vast majority of their peers are watching this on their computer at home if hybrid instruction was giving kids a semblance of an ordinary school day it would be worth the risk but as it stands the distancing a andb cohorts and a growing fully remote population they're nowhere close to a normal high
122school experience for the dwindling numbers of in-person students on the first day of school New Jersey's 7-Day moving average of new Co covid cases was 338 yesterday it was 2,65 with upcoming vacations and holiday Gatherings it's completely unrealistic to believe cases will be trending lower anytime soon and the quarantining of students returning from out of state holiday travel will only increase the number of fully remote pupils returning to hybrid instruction prior to infections trending significantly downward really poses unacceptable risks to both staff and students and has very little potential upside I encourage the board and administration to keep GL all virtual at least until late January and only resume hybrid instruction if local case numbers are return to Levels Close to when school started thank you for your time great time thank you very much
123this evening uh Marcy homet you're up next good evening um I'd like to thank the board of education for allowing us to speak tonight my name is Marcy Hamet and I've been a teacher at Governor Livingston for over 17 years I was exposed to covid-19 in my classroom and was informed only three days ago of that direct exposure due to positive cases among students being still reported daily I'm now quarantining in my house while also trying to teach remotely and I may unknowingly exposed others before I was notified of my own exposure that fear and uncertainty are nearly paralyzing the board of education has made it clear many times that it sole priority is to get students to attend school in person and to move to plan a as quickly as possible but as teachers
124we have many priorities providing a high educational experience in a multitude of modalities seamlessly switching teaching modalities at a moment's notice meeting our students educational and emotional needs during uncertain and often scary times and in these unprecedented times what should be considered the most important priority of all ensuring the safety of our students families and ourselves the unwillingness of the Board of Education to change course when an obvious Public Health Emergency has emerged in Berkeley Heights makes it impossible for us to maintain these priorities we cannot provide a high quality education with the current level of uncertainty as to how that instruction will take place or change at a moment's notice we can't meet the emotional needs of our students when we ourselves are scared and we can't protect our students families and themselves when
125so when we're so uncertain about our own exposure while I too wish that we could welcome students back to the building with open arms it's clear that it's not safe to do so at this time the virus is spreading rapidly and uncontrollably in Berkeley Heights in Mountainside communities and will continue to do so with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday instead of prioritizing in person classes I urge you to focus on helping us maintain our priorities educating our students supporting their success and protecting all of our health it's impossible to bring students back safely at this time but it is possible to support teachers in their educational and health related efforts by switching to remote classes until this current spread has been brought under control thank you Marcy thank you very much for your thoughts tonight Jared
126good evening Jared puus good evening Jared you're on mute Jared sorry no you're not hello everyone my name is Rus and I teach fourth grade at Mountain Park Elementary School I am currently on a medical leave of absence uh good evening Dr vley Mr McKinny Mr Einstein and Other Board of Education members I request the board immediately move all schools in the district to complete remote instruction until the holidays are concluded even though I am not presently in the school I am deeply concerned for the health and safety of all students and staff in our district as you are aware positive covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are significantly increasing in New Jersey in Berkeley Heights as you know there is currently a large outbreak of co9 recently Governor Murphy stated the second wave of Corona virus
127is no longer something off in the future it is coming and it is coming now the risks to all students and staff have multiplied tremendously in the last few weeks due to pandemic fatigue large social Gatherings and I apologize uh large large social Gatherings and the potential of families tra traveling for the holidays I strongly agree with the decision to stop in-person instruction at Governor Livingston high school however our community does not exist in isolation families have multiple siblings at different schools and travel to different buildings in order to keep everyone safe and curb the spread of the virus I urge the board to have all bhps schools move to the complete remote instruction and Hal plans to welcome back more students physically to the school buildings until this latest wave of covid-19 has subsided
128thank you for the opportunity to speak all I thank you very much for your thoughts this evening I do not see anybody else wanting to address the board I'll pause for a couple more seconds just to make sure that's the case and as I said that I stand corrected Nicko Sullivan good evening Nick how are you this evening hello you were not incorrect I just was a late no worries am I looking clear to you right now or you're looking vertical to me right now so yeah that's I think too oh there you go oh there we go now you now you look horizontal without Lu thanks for your help I just wanted to first off thank the entire uh Board of Education and the administration for the safety efforts done so far um internally
129it's gone really well um The Challenge right now is external and it's real and I want to support my colleagues and uh K2 and say that um the real threat is here and remind the board that it's here now and uh unfortunately we can't go outside as much my class I'm lucky I can bring outside a lot um so as we approach the spring I'd like to see more efforts looked into I know there's a lot of legal things about external instruction and in the meantime I want to encourage the board to push for uh uh instruction virtually because it is safer and I want to um just remind everyone that we all are people too and I I I get it my son is looking forward to going to school he's three and we're
130hoping that his school will be open by then Bridgewater Ron's been closed an awful lot and um we want to get him to school but at the same time my other son is six months old and he hasn't gotten a virus yet and we don't want to get his first virus to be um you know baby's first virus to be covid and that's it thank you for your effort so far and uh and I and have a great night yeah thanks for your com this evening next up is Joe Joe Meli Joe good evening hi Mr good evening Joe how are you uh I'm good how are you um thank you to the board and Dr barley for hearing us tonight um my name is Joseph melli I am a teacher at Governor Livingston high
131school in the math department um many of my thoughts have already been stated by my colleagues so I won't go into them again um but I do agree with said so far um what I'd like to note is that as horrible as this outbreak was this past week we locked out in the fact that we had two days of in-person schooling both of which were the same cohort and only for the morning sessions so our students only saw half their teachers had we had election day in the building or the Thursday Friday of convention this the numbers that we're seeing could have been like astronomical compared to what we have now um and I just think that seeing the numbers so high with those two 4our days I think we we need to be very
132cautious going back even on the 19th um when these students will start seeing all their teachers um I can't even imagine a plan a for these younger students going all day with all the kids in but just at the high school I'm speaking about um it just seems not worth the risk um also as other teachers have said we are I'm I'm currently quarantined I was not contacted I reached out because um I was in a classroom working where a student tested positive but Administration didn't know to contact me because the contact tracing doesn't work like that so there's so many work like moving pieces in this that we need to be aware of we don't know where every teacher is at every time where every student is at every time to properly contact trace
133this um and it's just very scary going I dreaded all summer coming back and then we all knew this would happen as soon as they were outside parties as holidays approached um and it did happen so I don't know why if we know this is going to happen again as Thanksgiving comes around when people will be with family specifically in specifically without mask they're eating and drinking that this would not happen again and possibly worse uh with students traveling over these holidays I just think it's irresponsible for us to go back um and put us all in danger thank you Jo thanks very much for your thoughts uh this evening as well not seeing any other uh people want to speak I'm going to close uh the citizens uh hearing part of this I we
134make one uh one overall comment uh as I counted I believe there were nine or so uh teachers uh from Mostly from govern Livingston but others spoke as well as to comment on the uh on the large number of emails that we got from the teachers that we talked about in correspondence and although none of the board members uh commented on that tonight I want to let you know that we hear you loud and clear uh we understand uh the challenges and the balance that we face uh in terms of safety in terms of Education we've talked about that back from the summer when we started our July meeting when we came up with the hybrid model and and made some changes to how we started school to some changes that we've made since uh
135school has started and to how we will continue to look at the data work with our health officers and continue to make changes if we need to uh going forward so please don't please don't take the lack of response by any one of the board members or the administration as a sign that we don't hear you uh some of you talked very personally about how it's affected you and your families and your loved ones not just the education that you serve many of you have been long-standing uh teachers in our community for many many years which which we value so again I just there's a there's always a risk that uh someone could say wow no no board members even commented or said anything about that so I will speak for everybody to say that
136we hear you loud and clear we do look at the data we do work with our health officers on a regular basis now it's daily do people looking at this and are doing what we can to ensure the safety and security of all of our students and staff as well as maintain the best educational outcomes for the entire uh Community um with that we'll move on uh to Administration uh we'll need all the board members to unmute your microphones if I could have a recommendation for the administration item yes I move items administra items a through F second motion a second any discussion roll call Mrs Penna yes Mr Dila yes Mr Joya yes Miss Riley yes Mr casano yes Dr chrisina yes Mrs kersch yes Mr reinstein yes I move education items A and
137B second motion second any discussion call Mrs Penna yes Mr Dila yes Mr Joya yes Miss Riley yes Mr casano yes Dr Chris enino yes Mrs kersch um yes on B abstain on a I am president of their board of directors Mr reinstein yes Personnel item 16 move Personnel items a through I second motion second any discussion roll call Mrs Penna yes Mr Dila yes Mr Joya yes Miss Riley yes Mr casano yes Dr Chris enino yes Mrs kers yes Mr reinstein yes item 17 business I'll move business a through I I second motion a second any discussion yeah I had a couple of questions um Item B for the cloud-based web filtering could somebody just um explain a little bit more about that um we we mve to Cloud uh once we started going
138to cloud-based uh Computing and we've done this is probably the second or third year that we've done this uh this provides protection against it's a security measure for um hacking and keeps our keeps our web-based system secure okay again I think this is the second year that we have this contract okay thank you roll call Mrs Penna yes Mr Dila yes Mr Joya yes Miss Riley yes Mr ano yes Dr christano yes Mrs kersch yes Mr reinstein yes 18 Finance yes I reviewed the bills as this will be the last time that I have done this um I think Donna and her staff loaded me down as usual they were everything's in order I do want to thank them for all the wonderful work that uh they've done and for our relationship all these years
139I think we have a wonderful business administrator and certainly a wonderful business office and I appreciate working with him so thank you um although I didn't appreciate all the bills anyway I will move a through D I'll second motion a second any discussion roll call Mrs Penna yes Mr Dila yes Mr Joya yes Miss Riley yes Mr casano yes Dr Christino yes Mrs kers yes Mr reinstein yes is there any other business to come before the board did you wantan to do you wanna snow days we um sorry I I got lost with everything else we've talked about tonight so we do do have um three days built into our calendar for um snow days we know that the state of New Jersey has declared that we do not have to have snow days any
140longer because we can do virtual instruction I am of and as I said in my opening statement I am of the belief that as one of the joys of childhood and I think one of the joys of being a teacher is that having a snow day it's not the joy of the superintendent to have to be up till 2 o'clock in the morning wondering if it is going to snow but um I guess I would like to get a pulse on how the board feels about keeping the snow days in the calendar or using those as virtual learning days and just so we're clear Dr ol so we have three days built in we can use them as snow if the snow comes if we chose to not do them we would give them back
141at some time in the future if my recollection is typically is around Easter and around Memorial Day would be the option and we still might have that case if it doesn't snow like it did last year there were almost no snow days correct absolutely I believe Mawa already used one of their snow days because they had computer pitches in one of their schools so never know what you can use them for I agree I think it's important to have some emergency days in there whether we call them snow days or something else and since if we don't use them they give backs anyway um I would I don't see why we wouldn't have them in there yeah I agree with I apologize if this has already been said but um but if if we exhaust
142our snow days we I assume we would then resort to e-learning as opposed to adding snow days as we currently do yes we would switch to remote if we um overused our snow day and and by the same token we could probably when we when we suspect we're going to be giving back snow days meaning I don't know whether that's giving back or taking away but um but when we suspect we're not going to be using snow days um we could probably make that decision earlier now than we usually do because we have the fallback of e-learning and that might help people plan a little more yes that's corre so so I recommend that I like you know I think we should keep the emergency days in there we never know what's going to happen
143and we you know we had a boiler problem and things like that but um but we but I do think that we should um probably try to give the probably try to provide more clarity to the parents about the the the calendar than we've been able to do in the past by doing that earlier going forward absolutely I agree any other any other thoughts on the board sounds like most are in favor of keeping snow yes snow days yes don't let technology ruin snow days that's my vote right and it's 2020 and the locusts haven't come yet and I I think the kids look forward to them sir absolutely all right thank you very much okay so we will uh we will keep the snow days on the calendar uh used need is there any
144other business to come before the board okay with that uh our next meeting is uh the first week of December which I believe is two uh Thursday night December 3rd at that meeting we will honor our two board members who will have their last meeting uh that night for all their service uh prior to uh prior to the end of the year uh with that I will take a motion to adjourn so moved second we adjourned have a good rest of the night and to all those a uh a joyful and Happy Thanksgiving holiday good night good night good night