001good evening everyone and welcome to the board of education meeting the board has already met an executive session and we did salute the flag at that time so with that if we could have a roll call mr mclaughlin mr salmon here ms schaefer here mrs beckham here mrs white pierre mrs bacon here ms singh here mrs corn here ms hiro here mr marcario here mr sai here miss fox here mrs cray here madam president thank you thank you mr mclaughlin um mrs mckeon has kindly um offered to read the statement of public notice for me this evening because i'm having a little issue with my eye thank you sure okay i'm going to just read through the statement of public notice this is a regular meeting of the board of education of bernard's township notice
002of the time and place of the meeting was provided and copies of that resolution were forwarded to the official newspapers as designated by the board of education and to the township clerk and a copy of the notice was posted on the bulletin board of the board of education offices in accordance with public law due to the pandemic the board of education expects that in-person attendees to this meeting have completed and passed a self-assessment of personal health done at home wear a face covering pursuant to the executive order 251 sit in a socially distanced manner from members of different households and maintain socially distant social distancing if waiting in line to make public comment for those members of the public who are unable to attend our meeting in person there are two live stream links of
003the meeting posted through the district website www.burnersboe.com the two live stream links are both airing during our meeting each simply backs up the other in case of technical difficulty we very much welcome input from the public there are two times during regular meetings that the public is invited to speak one time is early in the meeting before the board votes when you may speak about any item that is listed on tonight's agenda towards the end of the meeting there is another public forum to address any matter of public concern related to the schools when you approach the microphone please state your name and address each person each statement shall be limited to three minutes duration no participant may speak more than once during a given public comment session um let's see all statements shall be
004directed to the presiding officer no participant may address or question board members individually for those members of the public who are not attending in person public comments may be submitted via email please follow the instructions below starting at seven o'clock email your comment to bt connect btconnect burnersvoe.com or text your comment to 908 292-3047 use public comment as the email subject or start of a text message indicate your first and last name and address this is required for your public comment to be included public comments made in person will be processed first and then comments submitted will be read no public comments sent via email will be accepted before seven or after item what is that under that of my 18 board forum of the agenda begins please understand that public comment portions of our
005agendas are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments any board responses to public comments will generally be addressed during board forum or during committee reports however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when speaking comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students and employees please also understand that the board will not be responsible for the content of comments made by members of the public members of the public are cautioned that they
006are speaking at their own risk and any personally directed statements that they make may subject them to legal liability to the affected individual if it is necessary for the board to go into executive session at the end of the meeting we will provide an estimated time of length for the session and whether any action is anticipated to be taken upon returning to public session thank you very much mrs mckeon our next item is the student representatives report gordon thank you and good evening everyone as ridge approaches the end of its first marking period everyone has been excitedly tying up our loose ends and preparing for the next chapter of the school year in a final echo back to our very successful spirit week the student government hosted its annual halloween costume contest with some incredibly
007memorable and creative entries including a giant among us inflatable costume and multiple full-body penguin seats additionally as is usually the case the past two weeks have been especially busy for our student athletes and coaches who many of bridges sports teams participated in their team's playoffs in the past two weeks or so which of course extends its congratulations to all of the players parents and coaches for their successful fall season and we wish our winter sports teams the best of luck as they look ahead to their practices and games finally ridge also applauds the forensics team for their second place overall win at the phillipsburg fall invitational with ridge students winning first place in multiple speech and debate events as the days get shorter and the nights get longer ridge looks forward to continuing to uphold
008its values of community spirit and character as we enter marking period 2. thank you thank you gordon does anyone have any questions for gordon okay you know the drill gordon you're welcome oh i'm sorry i didn't see a comment not a question um the board of education in you know prior years before the pandemic would always meet with the student government usually twice a year and try to you know talk to all the different representatives from the different grades so mr mccarran do you think that we could try to line up a meeting with the student government representatives that are available so we can get some feedback thanks anyone else ed gordon yep uh absolutely i think that we would be very open to that i think a lot of the people in student government
009absolutely are interested in meeting with members of the board and i think that we would be very much on board and we can definitely arrange that for the future for i'm glad you brought it up mrs mckinney for for board members who were not with us pre-pandemic which seems like a lifetime ago now we did do this at least twice a year in this space prior to a public board meeting and it was always really informative and thought-provoking and you know the kids have a lot of great insights to share so i definitely look forward to being able to do that again especially about the food in the cafeteria it's always about the food well thank you again gordon and you know as you know you're welcome to stay but you are also most welcome
010to head home okay so now we're up to our superintendent's report we do have one item can we have a we need a motion right do we have a motion for item one mrs mccune and mrs corn apologies everybody i didn't realize you were moving when i said that everybody good okay mr marcarian we we do have um mr mclaughlin did you hear what i said mrs mccune and mrs corn for the motion okay thank you mr mark hearing so i i don't know if you guys noticed but i'm looking at the two clubs there was the ridge career experience club and the ridge forensics linguistic club and i've lost access in this lovely google docs system to the ridge forensics linguistics club so i'd be guessing on the details of that one the ridge
011career experience club we do have an advisor for we have the minimum number of students and the purpose of the ridge career experience club is to educate club members about career paths and to give advice regarding future choices the students will have to make this club will increase student awareness of their own future paths and goals which sounds great because it's right up the alley of one of our district goals so i would definitely like to recommend that we move forward with this one uh and i'd like to suggest that perhaps we table the next one until the next meeting so that i can get those details to you because i've been locked out of that one so we would just be doing the ridge career experience club tonight what's that that's it mr mclaughlin
012can we please have a roll call on the second club in item one mr salmon yes miss schaefer yes ms beckman yes mrs white yes ms singh yes mrs corn yes ms hiro yes mrs mccoon yes mrs craig yes madam president thank you our next item is public comment on agenda items if you would like to make a public comment we welcome you up to the microphone please state your name and address for uh the record and please try to keep your comments to three minutes thank you okay so i don't see any public comment in person do we have any email public do we lose miss fox no okay we do not have any email public comment and i actually remembered without prompting this time okay so then we are now up to the
013approval of minutes if we could have a motion please mrs white and mr salmon and a roll call pleaser mr mr mclaughlin mr salmon yes ms schaefer yes ms beckman yes mrs white sing yes mrs corn yes miss hira yes mrs mccoon yes mrs craig yes madam president thank you with that we are up to the finance committee report mr salmon uh we're meeting next week on the agenda tonight is number one is just a standing item and number two is professional development oh apologies i forgot to ask for a motion anybody mrs corn and mrs mckeon and then a roll call please mr mclaughlin mr salmon yes miss schaefer yes ms beckman yes mrs white yes miss singh yes mrs corn yes miss hiro yes mrs spacune yes this is mrs cray yes madam
014president thank you um our next item is the personnel committee report we have items one through twenty uh mr salmon and a second on that please anybody this is mccune and then uh no and then do you have a report mrs mckinnon no we're meeting next week right okay thank you and mr mclaughlin can we please have a roll call mr salmon yes ms schaefer yes ms beckman yes mrs white yes ms singh yes mrs corn yes ms hiro yes mrs mccune yes mrs gray yes madam president thank you um our next item is the policy committee report mrs corn um we just met today so i'll be reporting out next time so there's no report right now sounds great thank you and we're up to the curriculum committee report mrs white yes um we
015actually had an extra meeting last week and it was to do our cue stack dpr review every three years the district performs the state required self-assessment it stands for quality single accountability continuum and we lasted this in 2018 and 19. miss fox reviewed all the curriculum related to the indicators with the committee she also stated that they may write into law a waiver process for cusack which would allow districts to skip the next three-year cycle and if the state does enact a waiver law the administration will review it to determine whether the district qualifies and then we are having our next meeting this friday any questions for mrs white okay um now we are up to our wellness committee report miss schaefer yes so the wellness committee met on october 28th and we had a
016nice discussion about a variety of things the first thing item was the ridge high school wellness program we went over again information that i know um mr um dr lazavec oh my gosh talked about the last time and presented the ridge high school wellness program to the board of ed so we had some information about that there's another coming program not only is there going to be another tea time event in november but there's also going to be a november event for all students and the focus of the month for november and the program will be on honesty and trustworthiness the wellness activities will revolve around honesty and integrity with a focus on confidence and authenticity including connecting ourselves to our values in april they'll be looking forward to yet another whole school program on
017responsibility and commitment so we've all been hearing about the great programs i encourage everyone to attend one of the tea time events the second item was on in-service planning and in services that are coming up we had a report about the october 2nd in service amy eva from the greater good science center which is out of uc berkeley came and spoke to two different audiences first she met with the elementary teachers and then all the secondary teachers they talked about mindfulness character ed sel and and feedback from faculty about comfort level with discussing those topics the november in service which will be next wednesday the 17th there'll be sessions including technology professional development the rotating drop schedule debrief at the high school there's going to be some building specific sessions on rotating drop for example
018and other obviously they're not going to talk about rotating drop at the elementary schools but um and then there's going to be a closing and opening around the theme of tending to yourself the next thing we heard about was summer projects update which we were supposed to hear about the meeting before but it ran far too late so the summer projects updates in the counseling areas included a k-12 counseling program evaluation so they're on their two-year cycle they're in the first they finish their first year of their evaluation the last time they had an evaluation of the whole program was in 2015. they spent five days this summer doing research collecting data and they're doing some internal evaluation as well as collecting information about other districts one idea that came out was creating a matrix
019of lessons by months related to wellness which was some of the wellness issues that the sacs the student counselors facilitate for example include suicide they are creating a cohesive document of counseling wellness and character education initiatives and that is expected to be finished by the end of the evaluation they talked about the evaluating the post-secondary planning there's a now a user-friendly google site instead of the pdf packet so the old college packet is now on a pdf and it's not just college it has career planning trade and vocational schools and military information and you can see the link and we also learned about the middle school group counseling program so the middle school has done some really age-appropriate middle school group programming which is which again for middle school students it's all about group work
020and and peers so they decided to codify a little bit of their program aligning it with the national standards and castle competencies they've got various topics which are age and developmentally appropriate for middle learners they're talking group work with social learning which is the whole point because it's so important for middle learners um is social environments and they've created lesson plans for groups so that they can create these lesson plans and transfer them to each counselor as they're needed so the road they can use these plans as counselors rotate through the age level levels because the counselors in the middle school are now looping which means that they're staying with a class so the counselor who starts with the sixth graders will move up with seventh grade and eighth grade and then move back down
021to sixth um they are creating you know goals mindsets behaviors audience evaluation they're talking about evaluating the programs and creating actual lesson plans and they're really exciting so um that group the work continues to create that sort of comprehensive curriculum we had a brief discussion about how counseling is ready to support students if they need it no matter what situations arise and we had an initial discussion on later start times for the middle school and high school we do need to keep researching this with our busing issues and but what is best for students from a wellness perspective we're looking at the advantages and disadvantages and looking at this for september 2023 so not this fall but next if we were to implement and our next meeting is this thursday november 11th any questions for
022ms schaefer thank you for all that great information um our next item is liaison committee reports mrs corner mr salmon do you have anything nothing for mr salmon i hold on i have to find my email now i'm just going to remind everyone the vape that vape um escape the vape jen can you do us a favor just pull it a little closer the vape 2.0 from empower somerset um and there's a um i don't know if they if they posted this on the uh on our the friday folder website you know like the the district website or not um but you click you can click through you can register it's a zoom event and it's um i mentioned it last time it's on november 11th thursday november 11th and i'm sure if you go
023to the um empower somerset website that that you can find this is or just google escape the vape 2.0 and it's um so it's more than 5 million us middle and high school students use e-cigarettes in the past 30 days from this from the fda and young people in the us are more than four times more likely to try cigarettes and three times more likely to smoke regularly if they have already used vaping products and that's from the truth initiative so um this is a virtual discussion on the dangers of vaping juul and the other tobacco products and there's um it's a speaker rob holiday who's a featured who's been featured on tv radio and variety of news outlets he's an internationally in-demand youth motivational speaker who presents to hundreds of thousands around the us
024and canada so it's thursday november 11th from 6 to 7 30 and you can register online and it'll give you a zoom link so it's all virtual to zoom um it's open to middle and high school students and their parent or caregiver the youth must be accompanied by an adult so i just wanted to throw out in case anyone was interested in that i'm sorry i don't have the link there's no like website link but um you'd have you could probably google it and find it and that was it thank you okay uh with that we are up to public comment on non-agenda items we invite anyone who's here in the auditorium with us to uh come up to the microphone please state your name and address and then also record it on the sign
025in sheet and with that we welcome you hello uh nestle han montag m-o-n-t-a-g 41s6 place here again regarding the continued danger at the essex valley corner bus stop i know the board remembers that you had already resolved this problem and you can still implement the solution at any time but mr marcarion had asked us to provide some background information on the matter and we did that hoping we could help the board better understand the issue to address it properly but frankly we're more concerned than ever we're told the board discussed the matter on october 25th and affirmed moving the stop to the corner instead of keeping it safely down the street where you had already put it years ago and of course we're not privy to those discussions since they're behind closed doors and not
026on public record so we haven't seen any real basis for this decision and we'd like to understand the rationale especially since you're now stripping away the safety measures you previously put in place to protect these children and this is a safety issue nothing's changed the corner is still just as dangerous as it was when you move the stop away and now you're forcing the kids to wait still right back there with no rational basis or explanation as to why mr marcarine in your emails you had cited some items possibly bearing on this issue so we submitted an oprah request for documents pertaining to those specific items among others but the administrator's office has refused to produce anything not one piece of paper in response to 30 specific itemized requests for example you had cited best
027practices as taught in the rucker school transportation supervision certification program so we asked to see those program materials that you referenced but the administrator refused to provide them so you're citing a supposed safety standard but you're refusing to provide that standard you'd also specifically directed us to other factors like observations of traffic conditions parked vehicles so again we asked for any documents pertaining to them specifically tailored to the items you listed literally tracking your language word for word in some cases but the administrator claimed those requests were too vague and again refused to produce a single document so you can see where this is going to cite these factors as supposed standards and then refuse to produce any documents publicly regarding them is obviously very problematic especially when it involves an issue as important as
028public safety of children i could go on and on these are just a few examples and we're willing to assume this was an oversight and maybe someone just misread the request or didn't read it carefully enough either way obviously it's a problem since oprah requires production of responsive records and the public is entitled to them by law so we are willing to work with you if you need clarification just say so we can even consider revising the request if that might help you better understand it and properly respond but just hiding behind a blanket denial and refusing to produce a single document is not acceptable so we're asking the board to look at the request sure so we're just asking you to remember documents aside obviously we're still entitled to the documents so we would
029like you to please produce them this is at bottom still a safety issue and we're hopeful that you take it seriously we know you come from a very different perspective sitting up on a stage behind a deus with your children safely protected but us down here having to go to that bus stop every day with our children at risk it's a very different scene so we again urge you we know you're working hard to resolve all these problems this year so i'm out of breath but we really would appreciate your taking a look at this and responding properly to our oprah request thank you seeing no one else from the audience here in the pack miss fox do we have any email comments yes we do doug hewland 73 queen anne drive basking ridge new
030jersey in the run-up to the recent school board election candidates are asked about their position on the continuation of forced masking at bernards township schools some responded that they understood that masks were annoying but they hoped that they would be a temporary issue unfortunately from the recent statements of public health officials the answer is clear that they intend to keep masks hanging over our children's heads indefinitely yesterday the governor seemed to suggest that getting kids vaccinated could be a way to end masking but a couple days prior the director of the cdc had already said that masks are an effective tool against the spread of the flu and even the common cold clearly she wants to condition us to accept them as permanent leave aside the morally repugnant idea that parents might be coerced into
031choosing to inject their kids with still experimental medicines just for the possibility that their teachers and friends could see their faces again we are being subjected to a continual bait and switch with the mental and physical health of our kids hanging in the balance most of us have lost faith in these public officials who are constantly saying one thing and doing another moving the goal post with little concern for the impact on our children mr superintendent and board members you can no longer evade responsibility for these decisions that affect our kids every day it is a cop-out to say that you could do nothing because of the governor's executive order if the election results from last week should show you anything it's that his executive order is extremely unpopular with new jersey parents we understand
032that this is a tough moment but you will have to rise to meet it you will have to find the courage to be a voice for parents and children's rights in this town or you should find the courage to look us in the eye and tell us that you have no intention to fight on our behalf at least be honest either way hello my name is nancy margulis and i live at 14 essex place in basking ridge please read the below comment at tonight's boe meeting to the board members i am unable to be there this evening due to lack of child care help but would like my comment read and put on record i live on essex place and my son's bus stop for william annan was changed this year to the corner of
033valley road and essex place my husband and i have submitted numerous requests for the stop to be moved back to its original location on essex place due to safety concerns our last email was sent to janet lubosko with all board members copied including mr markarian on 10-2 this email has gone unanswered the buses for liberty corner school wams and ridge have been coming onto essex place for years without incident due to the bus stops being changed this year to the corner of valley road and essex place we now need to stand with our sun every morning as cars fly by in excess of 50 miles an hour in an effort to make the traffic light at the corner of mount airy road the entrance to essex place is also right near the intersection of valley
034road and spring valley where a serious accident recently occurred recently occurred causing major injuries and resulted with the vehicle ending on the lawn of the house across the street from the bus stop combining the excessive speed at which cars are routinely traveling with the two busy intersections i have just noted above is a recipe for disaster conducting a simple evaluation of posted speed limit which goes mostly ignored sight distance etc is not enough in this situation this is a unique downhill section of valley road and your evaluation is not factoring in these two nearby intersections nor the traffic light on a main commuting artery we are extremely uncomfortable with this and we do not feel that this is a safe place for our children to wait for a school bus we are not asking for
035anything unreasonable nor are we asking you to come up with a solution to a new problem the solution is there already it has been there for years we simply implore you to change the bus stops back in on to essex place for our children's safety where the stops have been for the past eight years nestle han montag has been kind enough to speak on behalf of both of us the past couple meetings please know that we share all of these concerns and remain worried about our children each and every day we urge you to reconsider this matter respectfully nancy margolis margulis and let me see that's that is the only comments thank you miss fox mr mccarran is there anything you'd like to add okay um with that we are up to board forum board
036members uh miss corn hi um i'm not really sure where to start here because i was so i'm gonna take this because i can't i need to see my faces um i'm not on social media i don't i'm not on facebook i don't but i i'm so disappointed and frankly disgusted by what is being alleged on social media regarding the people up here on the board i just want to remind people that we live in town number one we have kids that go to school here we have friends family our kids read we're all we all care about children very much and the fact that people were alleging that we were we were are insinuating that that we were covering up some kind of sexual assault i can't even describe my disgust at that kind
037of um i just can't i can't understand how someone could attack someone else from their own town that are volunteers that obviously obviously care for children and would never ever in a million years do something like that they're calling out the and this is all on social media no one came here no one came here and and and and told us what what the problems are having no no you go right to social media to gin up some kind of like animosity towards people who are elected to to to represent parents on the board people who have children in school who why would why would we ever why would that ever even cross your mind that that would be something that that that people from your own town would do it just it boggles my
038mind they're calling out the board they're accosting board members at events that are not have nothing to do with the board that they're in their own personal lives they're um saying stuff like they should remember they were on the ballot on tuesday saying stuff like um we're bullying each other and losing sight and ignoring this terrible thing that happened to kids either in or connected to our community shame on them i mean shame on us for what for caring i mean someone said why is an alleged rapist being protected like i am personally offended that anyone would think that anyone up here would have anything to do with covering something like that up it just and if you don't have the the the respect and the and to come here and if you have or
039go right to the police if you think that's what's going on i mean for christ's sake don't start rumors on facebook where where other even know what you're talking they're like oh yeah oh my gosh imagine that imagine what they're doing no no one's doing anything wrong we're all we're trying to do is is do the best for children if things come to our we are we're legally responsible to report things to police we are not we find out things at the same time everyone else does if it does not happen in our um in our district and the fact that people were calling people out like like we had something to do i just can't i can't it makes me sick that that that's what people would if you think that low of of
040us up here then run for run for board run for the board and take the places because obviously we're just bad people if that's what people are saying this i mean someone would stand for this and someone said when you say this you are complicit in the assaults on these girls i mean my god is this how we talk to each other now i mean i just i just really feel strongly that it's wrong to run and post stuff on social media that you would tell your kids not to do because and i know people are fired up people are upset but this is this is a step too far i can't i can't um it just when i was hearing about this and reading this i was like i was so appalled and taken
041aback that someone could think that and even about our administrators who quite honestly care are so much they work so hard for us and you treat they talk about them like they're not in people like they don't have families and children and care my god why would i be here if i didn't care this is a lot of goddamn work i'm doing and i'm taking away from my own family time and you're and you're going to spew this crap on social media i'm sorry i can't i can't and it just and i have to stand up for everyone here we might not agree on everything i am very vocal about my feelings everyone knows how i feel about mass everyone knows but doesn't mean these people are bad people it doesn't mean that they're less
042than human that you can talk about them like this and it's just it's wrong everyone should really take a deep breath and look inside and see if this is what kind of town we want and this is what kind of um animosity we want we're all up for the same thing we all want the kids to do great and but it's just this is the wrong way to go about it you can't cost people you know if you have a question sure send the email if you have a concern come up here they do get answered maybe not everyone because you know what crazy some of us have other lives too that we have to take care of other real big problems in our families other things we have to worry about right not only
043this this is hours and hours and hours of work and i'm not you know and hey i own it i we ran we're on the board but it's just wrong it's wrong on so many different levels to attack people in your own town maybe you have maybe have a dialogue first before you start spewing crap on social media i just think you know personally i just think we could all use a lesson like that and it just it hit me really people were so upset and it just when you you think people are thinking that about you it really it really it really takes the air out of your sails window why what you know why do you want to be up here if that's how people think about you so that's just you know
044my take mrs white first i want to thank you very much jen corn for saying that we always can count on you to say exactly how you will feel whether we all agree or not but we always respect that you will do that and i think the thing that is the most disturbing is what i've read the past few weeks if i ever saw my child go on social media and say half of the things that have been posted that child would get a big talking to and they would lose every single device that they had because that is not how children should speak to one another on social media it borders on cyber bullying for kids we wouldn't allow it as parents for our kids if our kids carried on that way in school
045they probably would be getting hivs that would have to be investigated and we as the adults we need to set the tone we need to teach our children what to do and that means by modeling appropriate behavior if people have things that they're upset about there is a forum to come come to this mic you may not like the answer that you get but you'll get to voice it if you won't say something to our face but you'll put it on social media then you shouldn't be putting it on social media you shouldn't be making an accusation on social media that you won't come to this microphone and say to each one of us and unfortunately what's so sad is when these these posts get written there's so many people as you can see in
046this audience that do not show up and they have no idea what's going on but they take it at face value that what you have written if you write it it's true and that simply is not the case but what happens is it starts these rumors and it gets everybody upset because the bottom line is everybody loves their kids and everybody wants their kids to be safe in school and outside of school so when they see some horrible accusation that might lead you to believe your kid is not safe of course they're going to get upset but there's a place to get your answers send an email don't send an email that starts out with an accusation and a threat send an email that says i'm concerned about this what can you tell me about
047this what can you share with the public we need to start showing civility to one another again and and i hope it starts today um thank you to both mrs korn and mrs white um in particular i'm grateful that you brought up the point that we should be the models of how we behave on social media because our children are watching and and it's not encouraging if that's what they're going to model um i would just add you know at this moment in time i've been on the board for seven and a half years and i've never shied away from pick up the phone and call me my phone number is everywhere do you have a question call me i'll try to answer your question if i don't have the answer i'll try to find
048out someone to put you in touch with who does but in the recent weeks we've had a number of board emails in which i very expressly put my phone number there so that individuals who reached out with concerns could contact me and instead saw uh you know continued assault on social media in lieu of that and i i think jen said it both jen said it better than i can bother to repeat it but we shouldn't be doing that we should we live in a community we we're neighbors and friends and parents and we should be caring about each other and we should be respecting the fact that not one single person is sitting up here because they don't care because they're not interested because they have they're self-interested and i hope just as we
049move forward we can we can all try to do better anybody else so if no one house anything else i guess we're up to adjournment mrs korn and miss singh all in favor thank you