001hello everyone my name is avni duvall and this is raya bramba and we are co-presidents of ridge exploration for political participation a non-partisan nonprofit club average high school working to increase youth civic engagement and we are working in conjunction with the league of women's voters to host this candidate's forum the league of women's voters is in of new jersey is a nonpartisan political non-profit that works to empower voters and defend democracy founded 100 years ago they make democracy work by protecting voting rights and encouraging robust participation elections and voting are core concerns for the league of women's voters and leagues are committed to providing fact-based information about issues and the positions candidates take on those issues to help voters make their own decisions and participate in the electoral process the league of women women's voters
002never supports or opposes candidates for office or political parties any use of the league name or or of footage from the forum in campaign materials literature or advertising of any kind including but not limited to internet cable radio or television has not been authorized by the league of women's voters the forum will be recorded and published on the league of women's voters website as well as the ridge exploration for political participation club website as a courtesy to the candidates please turn off all cell phones and other electronic devices now and please refrain from taking photos and recording during the forum all public health protocols will be followed during the event as will executive order 251 which mandates the wearing of masks in the premise of all public private and parochial preschool elementary school and secondary
003school buildings as well as social distancing to the best of our ability tonight our forum will be moderated by ann armstrong a member of the league of women's voters who is not a resident of berners township the candidates for the berners township board of education are seated on this stage in the order in which they will appear on the ballot from left to right we have incumbent robin mckeon incumbent timothy salmon kirsten light and incumbent herpet gudiya singh vying for three seats on the nine-member board of education for three-year terms in addition incumbent ruchika hira is vying to fill the remaining unexpired two-year term the format for the evening will consist of 90-second opening and closing statements and questions from the audience both in person and virtually each candidate will have 60 seconds to respond
004to each question and 30 seconds for a rebuttal to be used by request if you want to ask a question please raise your hand and a student volunteer will bring you a note card and pen please return the card and pen when you are done writing and thank you all for attending thank you aveni good evening we have with us this evening candidates vying for three seats on the bernards township board of education plus candidates vying for a seat on the board of education in it for an unexpired term before introducing the candidates i'd like to explain the format although albany did quite a good job of that each candidate will give a brief opening statement after the opening statement we will have questions from the audience all candidates will have an opportunity to answer
005each question each question is timed by a person sitting up front i would like you to as a courtesy to the candidates please refrain from applause until the end of the evening although often said the candidates that are here tonight we have with us we i'm sorry there are two additional candidates that could not be here tonight and that's carl bird and lawrence nastro carl byrd is one of the five going for the seat on the bernards township board of education and lawrence nastro is going for the unexpired term for the rest of the forum i will no longer distinguish between the candidates running for full term versus those running for the unexpired term they're all candidates to the bernards township board of education and will be treated as such the candidates that were not
006able to appear with us this evening has have submitted um statements which i will read and i will read those two statements one from each candidate now we have carl byrd this is his opening unexpectedly his wife was taken to the hospital late this afternoon his words think of how much the world has changed since you were in school i tell my students that when i was their age google had just been created we had no smartphones no youtube no wi-fi they think i'm as old as dirt it's hard to think of how much change we have seen most of this has happened with within the lives of our k-12 students cultural anthropologist margaret mead perhaps said it best we are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one
007knew yesterday and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet in 2016 it was estimated that 65 percent of children entering grade school will end up working in jobs that don't exist yet the trend is not going to stop if anything it has accelerated due to the global pandemic it is due to this constant change that i believe i am the right person for our board of education decisions impacting the future cannot be based on a nostalgic view of education it must be based on best practices current trends and visions for the future i believe that at the local state and federal levels educators are needed in the classrooms where decisions are made about education i am a teacher my classroom doesn't operate the same way as classrooms ran 20 years ago it doesn't
008operate the same way i taught five years ago i have my finger on the pulse of education as a candidate who is an educator i am ready to hit the ground running i bring 16 years of knowledge in the field including curriculum design standards implementation school finance regulation community outreach metrics of post-secondary readiness and more i look forward to bringing my experience to the board so that in collaboration with the superintendent and other board members we can develop and enact policies that implement continual growth for our current and future students most importantly to me as the father of a two-year-old i want to make sure that bernie's township will continue to be a leader in education for whatever the world looks like when they walk across the stage to accept their diplomas again that was
009the opening statement for carl byrd who could not be with us this evening i now have the opening statement for dr larry nastro he regrets he could not be in here in person as he was recovering from a leg injury restricting stairs dear students parents and school staff of bernards township i am a triple board certified infectious disease pulmonary and internal medicine specialist for over 40 years i also served as director of infectious disease at overlook hospital from 1984 to 2015 i have also had the distinction of on and honor to serve my country in the united states air force i would like now to serve bernard's children and ensure their safety against this pandemic new jersey has one of the highest rates of mortality in the nation since the pandemic began more recently we
010are doing better due to vaccinations and appropriate measures however we need to be diligent vigilant and also take care of children as a whole this includes children's mental health and well-being provisions under the cdc guideline guidance and at the national institute of health with whom i have collaborated over my career allow for expedia exceptions for masks for these children in parental control we want these children to return to school and be with their friends returning to life as normal as possible this is what the cdc allows second as a board-based curriculum martin luther king stated intelligence plus character that's the goal of true education as concerned parents teachers we have to foster character building and life skills this means supporting their ability to think independently question reason and bring forward new ideas and not be
011perspective further we need to nurture steam which is science technology engineering the arts and math so that children leave our schools with the tools to reach their full potential and move the world forward every single child is different and every single child deserves the opportunity to try different subjects that will bring out the best in them we owe this to each child and they are our future it is my honor to serve bernard's children and i ask for you to vote for me that again was dr larry nastro's opening statement now that we have the two people that aren't here taken care of we will continue with the opening statement of the people that are here uh we will begin with her preet goodia singh good evening my name is guriya singh i'm running for
012the three-year term as i was thinking about today's meeting and the forum again amongst all of our candidates here today and the two that aren't i was thinking about the last four months and how it's gone for me on the board i'm the newest member to join the board of education at bernards township i've had the great honor of being on the board since june of this past summer joining at that point it's just been an eye-opening experience since i've gotten the inside perspective on how decisions are made for the betterment of our students and the and the families as a parent myself of three young children one who has not even started in the school system yet prior to joining the board i had very little idea on how much work it is to
013put into all of these executive decisions that we make for our district i can only speak to it after having seen it over these past four months to be a board of education member you have to have passion an indubitable desire to make a positive change leaving this place better than how you find it this involves listening to the students and the staff of our community the administration and the other board members being inclusive to all of our students using finances wisely complying with the law leaving any political agendas at home and just being a humanitarian first i strongly believe that i have all these qualities and i'm really excited to keep going and doing this for the next three years thank you thank you next kirsten light good evening i'd like to start the
014evening by saying thank you to all the me had made this happen everyone joining me this evening the league of women voters and to the repp group at ridge for working so diligently on this and taking an interest in america's most sacred right the right to vote i would like to thank you all for the opportunity to share what i why i'm running for the board of education but most of all i would like to thank the current board of education who are here on stage for their service as i understand we are all operating in unprecedented times and service to our children is so important as we navigate through them my name is kirsten light i have been a resident of berners township since 2010. i live in town with my husband frank who's
015here this evening and some of you may know because he has employed several children of this town at his business at rutgers university as well as my two children kaylee who's also here tonight who is a senior at ridge and jackson my son who's also here tonight who is in kindergarten at liberty corner school throughout my residency in the township i've served in many different roles as a class mom at cedar hill school as a licensed soccer coach for somerset hills soccer club and ridge mavericks as a team parent for fc berna on the board of fc barna and most recently as what i call quote the head coach for my son's flag football team with ridge youth sports and also a new volunteer for the liberty corner pto steam committee all of these roles
016have brought me so much joy and satisfaction through interacting with our communities youth now i would like to serve in another capacity as a board as a member of the board of education thank you timothy salmon hello everyone i'm timothy salmon i'm a current member of the board of education and i'm running for the the three year term i've lived in basking ridge for nine years with my wife my twins who are in sixth grade at whams and a daughter who's in second grade at oak street it's been extremely rewarding interesting and sometimes even fun to be on the board of education here in basking ridge it's working with an amazing staff and administration on a daily basis through committee meetings with engaging discussion has been really part of the rewarding experience and i've had
017some great experiences one that immediately comes to mind as part of the policy committee we got to meet with students from each of the schools student councils and hear about what changes we can make so selfishly i'd like to have more of those experiences i'm running for re-election because i want to continue to serve the community assist the staff and administration to create an environment in which all of our kids can succeed and enjoy themselves and build self-confidence thank you ruchika hira good evening everyone my name is ruchika eshira academically i graduated from new york university i have a juris doctorate from rutgers school of law and after law school i completed a one-year judicial clerkship i have several certifications in mediation and conflict resolution including a certification and mediating disputes from the harvard negotiation
018institute i am a practicing family law attorney additionally i volunteer my time at a local nonprofit organization whose mission is to end all forms of gender-based violence i've been married for 16 years my husband is a physician and holds a faculty position in the radiology department at rutgers medical school i have two children currently in the school district a first grader at oak street and a seventh grader at william annan middle school i have been on the board since february and it has quite frankly been a humbling experience i continue to invest my time and energy to educate myself on how to be a better board of ed member because i want to continue to serve and advocate for all of our students as they deserve there can be no dispute that this year has
019been a challenging year for our students parents teachers faculty staff and the list goes on however i've always believed that a school board comprised of members with diverse backgrounds education and experiences adds to the effectiveness of a school boarding community as the board benefits from multiple perspectives and i genuinely believe we have a great administration and board when i'm sitting at the school board table late at night on a monday i want the community to know my focus is solely on the students in our district their families and how the decisions that we make impact them because that is what matters to me okay thank you right last but not least robin mckenn hi um i'm robin mckeown and as a lot of you out there that i see that i recognize know i've been
020on the board for a very long time when i first ran for the board my oldest daughter had just finished fifth grade and i didn't need these stupid reading glasses now she's in her fourth year of teaching fifth grade and she absolutely loves it she was inspired to become a teacher by the amazing teachers that she had in berners township and i want all of my all the kids i know all the kids coming up in this district to have the same wonderful experience that my older children had when they went through the district and my younger two children are still having in the district i feel strongly that i can continue to help the board navigate these challenging times in public education and make our schools even stronger making informed decisions requires a board
021member to commit many hours of time as other people have mentioned and hard work of course we listen to the experts that work in our district but we also do our own homework we research things we look at data and we use our professional networks and organizations to help us gather information i feel like that my many years of experience in education and my networks that i have made in the state and at rutgers graduate school of education where i work and where i go to school gives me a unique perspective and helps me contribute to the district the board of ed is a non-partisan elected position board members take an oath to uphold the new jersey board member code of ethics which requires that we act in the best interests of all students and
022not be beholden to any special interest groups so the board is it's very important that the board takes this seriously this oath and the board needs to work together collaboratively and do their best to support our school district i will continue to do that if i'm reelected thank you it is now time for the submitted questions i'd like to remind you that questions must be related to issues and not personalities all candidates will have the opportunity to answer each question a rebuttal from the other candidates will be permitted but not required the first question and the first person to answer the first question is kirsten light the question is which boe committees would you like to serve on and why 60 seconds um this is actually a good question for me um i am a
023certified public accountant by trade i work for ernst young as a senior manager there and i've been in the accounting profession for 26 years at this point so with my background with my ability to analyze data to negotiate contracts i feel that i would be very well served on the finance committee to help make sure that our taxpayer dollars which are high for our school district are being used in the best interests of the children and that we're also getting our money's worth and making sure that they're being spent responsibly but also um you know trying to stretch those dollars where we can invest more in the children students the support for the students um and less on things um that that don't quite make you know hit the mark so i think that that's
024probably you know the area where i feel i can do a lot of good within the school board thank you timothy salmon which boe committees would you like to serve on and why uh thank you so i am currently the chair of the finance committee which i've been for the past two years um which is a very interesting illuminating discussion because we run a around over 100 million dollar budget so finding out how and when those dollars are spent is extremely important and i've learned a lot over the past two years i do enjoy being on that committee i'm also on the personnel committee and the curriculum committee curriculum is is an is a great experience because you get to meet on a monthly basis with the supervisors of your subject area principals of the
025school other board members and then sometimes teachers and it's just such an engaging discussion all the time i ask a lot of questions so i think sometimes i'm the reason we might run over and even policy committees sometimes get short shrift but um that is also an engaging discussion because you're getting policies that are applicable to the entire state um so it's very interesting to find out how we could apply those to berners township thank you thank you robin mckeon um well at this point since i've been on the board so long i've served on all the committees and i enjoyed all of them um i feel that like like tim said being on the curriculum community and now the new wellness committee which i just got to join so i'm really enjoying that one
026is very fun because you get to engage with so many different people that work in the district and hear about so many things that are going on with the students and the staff in our district so i love being on those committees obviously all the committees are important negotiations is something that the finance committee usually does and i've served on that a lot of times and that's that's a very important committee um and so if i stay on the board i'd be willing to serve and share whichever committees need to be done at this point thank you ruchika there's uh before you start we we need you to turn off your microphone when you're not speaking okay uh goodia you have the answer to the next to this question about which boe committees would you
027like to serve on thank you so i find myself having an affinity towards the wellness committee based on my professional um based on my profession right now i'm actually a holistic wellness chef so i do work with food that's my niche but as a holistic wellness coach you learn that primary foods and secondary foods are what feeds your soul and your actual body so something like healthy relationships physical fitness fulfilling career or school emotional wellness these are all things i'm very concerned about and then especially with this past year in kovid i feel that it's more important than ever now to see how mindful we are with our families with our students with our staff everybody wants to be successful but you have to make sure that things are lined up to to harbor that
028thank you thank you rude chica so i was placed on the policy committee um and to many for those that are new that's overplaced but as an attorney i couldn't have been placed on a better committee because unlike others i could analyze statutes executive orders and review them all day long it's what i do i was also put on recently on the finance committee and i do have a bachelor's of arts in economics and in family law um surprisingly as much as we do writing we do a lot of analyzations of assets liabilities um we're doing budgets things of that nature so i personally enjoy being on both committees i don't mind staying on those committees but i did get to sub in and be on a one of the curriculum committees and i have
029to say i enjoyed that too so i'm open to being on any of those committees and hopefully i have the opportunity to go through the other committee committees in the future if elected because i think it allows you to have a global understanding of all the issues thank you all right the next question should the statewide mask mandate be lifted what mask policy do you believe should be imposed in our public schools richika you're first on this one masked mandy great um the reality of it is i don't like wearing a mask i'm struggling as i speak right now i know my children do not like wearing a mask that currently there is an executive order executed by governor murphy which makes it the law and the state of new jersey that all public schools
030must maintain a policy requiring everyone in schools to wear a mask in the indoor portion of the school unless an exemption to this order applies additionally current new jersey department of health and new jersey department of education guidance permits school districts to not quarantine children who are three feet apart if they have masks on this is what allows our kids to stay in school i genuinely sympathize with students whose education is impacted by the fact that they have to wear a mask during school and are being taught by a teacher who has to wear a mask however in those situations the law does permit for exemptions my husband is a physician i'm not but even if one or more members of the board had a medical or scientific background the board should not substitute its
031opinions for the laws of the state more so our district employs medical experts and professionals to guide us thank you very much yes sorry uh robin you're next it's about the mask mandate okay well um as richard just said that is it is a mandate in our state i think we're seeing um cases of districts that have um you know a lot more kids out on quarantine and out of school than us right now we knock on wood we've been doing pretty well and i just took my child for a covid test today so i sympathize with everyone who's struggling with this whole thing um he doesn't have covet his brother had a cold his brother got a test and it was negative but it's just this has been a really hard two years for
032everybody and nobody likes this no one likes anything about this i feel that you know under the current health conditions and the mandates that we have we just have to keep plowing forwards as um as richard pointed out there are exemptions for situations um for the mask mandate but um at this point in time you know like she pointed out it's not our place to question the mandate or be the scientific experts on this we listen to all of our health department experts and other people and we're just doing the best we can right now thank you kirsten light mass mandate can you repeat the question of course should the statewide mass mandate be lifted what mask policy do you believe should be imposed in our public schools um so i want to answer the
033question as asked i understand completely that is the law and we must follow the law related to masks however you know the the detriments to especially some of our younger children and the education of our younger children particularly with ieps developmental delays 504s is is quite excessive so from a masking policy yes i do think that the mass mandate should be lifted um in its entirety but particularly as it comes to what the law says we should be making it easier for those populations of children within our district of which there are many um to get those exceptions and make sure those exceptions are expedited um so that that's how i feel about that but you know agree with what the statements were made by the existing board members that i feel that we do
034need to follow the law but we need to follow the law in its entirety um and with the exceptions that are also provided under that law thank you her preet ghoudia singh thank you so since the pandemic has hit the common goal was to get kids back into school as a community i think most of us if not all of us pretty much struggled last year with virtual learning and if the option is either to stay at home without a mask on and be in front of a screen all day or to come into school and learn amongst your friends and your teachers with the mask on for eight hours then my preference is the latter i don't think that this is a sustainable issue we're not going to see this for hopefully past you
035know a year or two hopefully not even that long let's hope that it's shorter than that but at the most i feel it's not going to go that far and i feel that as a community we rely on each other to encourage our children to do the right thing and if it's a law how are we supposed to ask our kids to not follow a rule if we're trying to teach them to do the right thing at home with the exceptions that my fellow board members and kirsten just mentioned of course those would be the only reason i would be supportive of not wearing a mask at school at this point thank you timothy salmon um i i hope that's the statewide mandate gets lifted um i you know like everybody else in the audience
036probably and at home i i you know look at the daily numbers and the cali matrix and anything else i can find to see if i can find read some tea leaves and hope that we're you know the data is looking more like it did over the summer when we when the governor did have a mass optional policy over the extended school year and and the district did implement that um when when that was the the directive from the governor now that there's a different directive like everyone said it's the law we have to follow it but i i do hope the mass mandate gets lifted um the mask policy should not in my opinion be set by the board it is a public health issue and it's as good mentioned nobody's expertise or judgment
037on the board should be substituted from that of the department of health of the state uh i think that's a a bad road to go down when the board is kind of picking and choosing what you know laws it's going to follow advocacy is another thing but i think that the mass policy should be dictated by the department of health thank you all right the next question not that one do you support the district's plans to survey students staff and parents about diversity equity and inclusion how do you think the district should support lgbtq students and staff members gudia singh you're first take your time i'm sorry can you repeat the question of course do you support the district's plans to survey students staff and parents about diversity equity and inclusion how do you think
038the district should support lgbtq students and staff members so the first part of that question is yes i do support the diversity inclusion as a member i feel strongly that we celebrate the diverse backgrounds in our town and the cultures of our students our staff our township residents i think we can do this by creating opportunities for residents from different backgrounds to connect harbor open dialogue related to biases across gender sexuality age and ethnicity me myself as a girl scout leader continue to link my young diverse troop with community-based committees and projects i would encourage more education around people who break the norm the norm activists from minority communities including the lgbtq plus community in april of 2021 governor murphy signed a bill mandating diversity inclusion courses in the k-12 curriculum which we have adapted
039here in bernards township right now in new jersey 45 of the 9 million residents in new jersey are people of color or some other type of diverse background and that's from the new jersey office of diversity and inclusion thank you welcome next is kirsten light can you repeat the question of course do you support the district's plans to survey student staff and parents about diversity equity and inclusion how do you think the district should support lgbtq students and staff members okay let me ask the answer the second part of that question first i think that we should support all students regardless of what their race religion gender gendered identity background is everybody is created equal here and everybody is deserving of the same support that everybody else gets throughout the community so i'll leave that
040at that as far as the the survey i do support the survey um one of the things that i was a little dismayed about was the way that that data is going to be used because i would have hoped that as we were hiring a consultant for that and paying the consultant a lot of money to do that that we would have an interpretation of the results and we would have recommendations for improvement from that consultant that has the skill set to do that and kind of a road to success and a road map to implement those suggestions and also some key performance indicators that would indicate exactly if those programs were successful going down the line thank you ruchika hera miss light just indicated that everyone here should be treated equal but unfortunately our
041own students in our district have acknowledged that the experience of living in this world is different for certain subsects of the population versus others and they themselves have requested that our public school implement a curriculum that acknowledges fact those are not my words those are the words of the students in our district so i have to disagree with that statement with that being said in march 2021 legislation was passed in our state that requires school districts to include instruction on diversity inclusion as part of the new jersey student learning standards and as a boe member we are committed to celebrating the diversity of our students and staff and fostering a climate of mutual respect and promoting an inclusive environment where every person does feel a sense of belonging and we need to continue to do
042that because the consensus is from our student body population that is that is not necessarily happening with respect to lgbtq may i wait until my rebuttal you can finish it with 30 seconds yes thank you uh next is please turn off your mic next is timothy salmon the question you know the survey d e yada yada yada well you know it's a lot of things the survey dei and support of lgbtq students and staff yeah so um i i agree with uh kirsten that that all students in the township should be support all students and staff in the township should be supported in any way that leads to their uh feeling of of safety well-being and and fosters their success that i think doves tales with the survey is is do all the students and
043staff in the township feel that way so that's why the survey is a good idea is to gauge how students and staff feel do certain subsets of students feel that they are not represented or do they feel that there is um that they're not being included in in district district activities so i think i do support the the survey as to the results i think the reason that you don't want recommendations or or a detailed plan my personal opinion is that you want to let the first and foremost the students staff and community come together on something like that um so i think that while their recommendations uh you know might be useful for from a consultant i think that is really something that's specific to every district and community to figure out what works
044and will work the best for them thank you robin mckeon um i totally agree with what um tim just said in terms of every district being different we know that we are doing a lot of things right in our district you know there's policies and there's federal and state laws protecting people's rights and we have hiv laws to make sure that kids can report if they feel like they're being harassed intimidated and bullied and we deal with it and stuff so we don't have some of the maybe blatant you know problems that might occur some places but we we have heard students say that they ha and staff that they have not felt totally like they belong um when they're in our district and so i think you know i'm a real nerd when it
045comes to data i like to um look at data i think we should collect from everyone and not just like a survey but the the consultant will do focus groups where people can really talk about the issues and try to find out like what's going on and like mr salmon said you know our our plan going forward will be totally dependent on what comes out of that and i think it's very important work that needs to be done it's not a simple fix where a consultant can give us a recommendation of how to fix the culture in our school whatever might need fixed i think these things are complicated and that's why we need to start working on it thank you 30 seconds go ahead kirsten um i'm very aligned with what tim and robin
046has said about this however um if we are paying money to a consultant that consultant obviously has some insight into best practices that have worked so where i agree that it should be a a solution that is tailored for our school community and we should involve the key stakeholders in the crafting of that roadmap but we still should not be paying money to collect data without any kind of recommendations at all thank you guys to finish 30 seconds to finish my answer i just want to say i do i agree with everyone i do believe that we need a consultant i do believe we should collect data and then i do agree that to some extent uh we use that data and if that means getting a recommendation so be it if we believe that
047we can take the data and then utilize it in some format and come up and create our own you know logic as to how to implement you know diversity inclusion inclusion of you know other students students including students in the lgbtq plus um it needs to be done thank you i'm sorry robin go right ahead 30 seconds okay um in terms of the consultant i mean i i was at the committee where we um met with her and she does provide a summary of like strengths and weaknesses of the district and some like recommendations of areas that need address she doesn't give you a concrete action plan of every single little thing that needs to get done that's something that needs to be done by the stakeholders themselves the students the staff um and the
048community so um you know that we're that's what we're signing up for and i think we're clear about what she does and what she doesn't do when she comes thank you anyone else 30 seconds all right let's go on to the next question as soon as i figure out which one it is do you think that critical race theory is being taught at bernard's if so give concrete evidence timothy salmon it's up to you first um no it's uh it's not um the administration has answered this question saying that critical race theory is not being taught at in berners township schools so i have no evidence to prove that it's not okay her preet i'm sorry goodyear singh um no it's not being taught in our township um i agree with tim i also do
049not have enough evidence to give you an example thank you robin mckeon um no we're not teaching critical race theory i do that down at rutgers um sometimes in my class because it's part of the curriculum there we do teach students about inequality in society when we're studying history and when we're talking about issues so um you know cradle race theory is an abstract theory that people talk about in graduate school it's not something that you teach in a k-12 setting so i think there's a lot of misunderstanding in our materials on our website and the fires out there there's a really helpful summary from new jersey school boards about all the confusion um about critical race theory and how um you know people keep using that terminology there's even confusion out there between critical
050race theory and culturally relevant teaching which is something that people do do and that is something that we do in our school such as basically being aware of your students cultures and how it exp how they experience their education so thank you ruchika hira i piggyback off of what everyone else has also said cr2 is a tool that asks individuals in my opinion to examine and think critically about issues related to race racism and inequity it raises awareness of how policy affects certain inequities that may exist in that society and this is something that we ask our students to do every day we ask them to think critically of the choices they make on an individual level and how their interactions may be perceived by their counterparts we ask students every day what they think
051about historical precedent current events proposed policies the environment society etc and these are tools and questions that we have been using and asking for years this is not something new and this is not required to bring attention to it in a setting of a dedicated class so often the best lessons are the ones that are taught subtly and this is why our district is not planning to implement a critical race theory curriculum at this time thank you kirsten light so one of the the problems um that i've been observing especially through a lot of my research is that um the curriculum and the specific things that are being taught are not transparent to the to the parents um so i don't have a knowledge that critical race theory or tenant or some tenants of critical
052race theory are not being taught um in the school district um i do think from a social emotional learning standpoint i think that program on its face is actually you know very very well intentioned but even as i've tried to get copies of class materials that are being taught to my six-year-old son in kindergarten i have not been able to get those materials so that i could actually review them so i have no knowledge of whether it is or is not because it's less than transparent thank you robin you have 30 seconds okay um i kind of disagree with us not being transparent about our curriculum if you go on our curriculum website for the district you can click on all the different subject areas and you can also search by topic so you can
053search and find out what grade different topics are being taught so it's actually a lot of material on there to look through so i would encourage people it's on our flyers outside the link to the website and it does talk about the different state mandates and what's being taught in our district thank you uh yeah kirsten you wanted a response to that um so i think that it's probably not as transparent as you might think it is because i actually was on that site just this morning um and the materials that i got were dated 2017 2018 and with the new jersey learning standards for 2020 that go into effect actually next school year it was very very confusing to see what is being taught when and where and no access to the actual materials
054lesson plans and things of that nature and i think if we brought transparency that we would be able to assuage some of the parents concerns about this topic thank you timothy um i think uh obviously if you want to know what's being taught in your students your child's class ask the teacher first i think maybe you've done that done that but um if you're looking for something that we're not teaching i don't know how you're gonna find it on a website or get it from the teacher the administration's already said that we are not teaching critical race theory in the district so if you ask a teacher or an administrator please show me the place that you're not teaching something i think that's going to be a difficult request to respond to richika but i
055think this is one of the reasons why i think i believe it would be helpful to have the con co you know the consultant come in and conduct uh you know and find the data and the metrics to see what is happening and if again if the curriculum needs to be changed in any way it is there's a whole curriculum review process which culminates with approval from the board of education thank you all right anyone else next question given that there are dangerously high levels of attrition among all educational staff what plans does each candidate have to encourage retention of teachers aides and educational support professionals robin you're up first okay well i think you've all been hearing about some of the staffing shortages across the country and stuff with bus drivers and workers in
056the cafeteria there's definitely shortages of certain fields in education right now i think more specifically in terms of having staff that want to work in our district i think one of our goals in our strategic planning was about staff competencies and that included their wellness and their social emotional wellness as well as how that impacts students wellness so i think you know we have obviously been derailed by covid because everyone's wellness was very negatively affected during the last two years but we started making some real progress to talk about different ways to try to support our staff and to focus on their um their wellness and and how they feel and um so i would encourage um that we were coming out of um the the years that we had where we we really couldn't
057focus we were just trying to get schools open now schools are open and we're back to some of the stuff we're working on we want to focus on our instructional coaching program for teachers and supports for teachers thank you kirsten light i i think the key question here is why are they leaving you know we i think um we need to be asking not only ourselves but you know really interviewing the teachers the staff as to you know what is the what is the reason why why are they unhappy with the school district is it for personal reasons is it due to vaccine mandates is it due to um you know family obligations did another school district provide something that we couldn't i don't think that until we understand the root cause of why they're
058leaving we can really recommend an action moving forward thank you goodia um statewide nationwide there's a staff shortage as robin mentioned teachers aides food personnel we're feeling it here a lot bus drivers as well as many of us know from a parent perspective we've all struggled a little bit this year getting things up and running trying to be normal without actually being normal i think that the social and emotional wellness of our teachers is imperative it trickles down to our kids which trickles down to home and i think that we need to figure out how to support our teachers better and if that means we survey our staff we survey our staff we ask them we just point blank you know go straight to the source and figure out what the problem is and then
059we come up with the strategic plan to assist and encourage and support thank you timothy salmon um i i would kind of push back on the premise of the question a little bit that there's a dangerously high level of attrition here in basking ridge i mean that there might be some uh statewide part of this question but i i don't see a dangerously high level of attrition here i think we saw an increased level of attrition given the covid pandemic and teachers not either retiring or scaling back work because they they had issues personal issues but i think the way to deal with teacher attrition is uh set up the environment for teachers to succeed to feel safe to feel comfortable to feel like they're making a difference with students and and provide the support
060that they need um through like robin said professional uh coaching and um staff develop professional development opportunities to further their own for their own education and career thank you ruchika i'm gonna be quick i piggyback right off of tim any rebuttal to that okay let's go to the next one how will you ask the curriculum committee to monitor the new legislative mandate on teaching civics what would you like to see in that curriculum her pre-guria sin thing is first and if you want me to i can repeat it okay how will you ask the curriculum committee to monitor the new legislative mandate on teaching civics what would you like to see in that curriculum so to be completely honest i haven't had this training yet since i'm very new to this role but i believe
061i would like to see a little bit more of a connection with our social studies into modern day civics thank you next is timothy salmon the way that i would monitor the um teaching teaching civics is by asking our newly appointed director of social studies mr john terry about what's going on with civics he actually is um very enthusiastic about student engagement in civics so i think that's one of the great reasons that he's coming to this district um what would i like to see in the the civics curriculum is more student engagement to to the students should already runs a proc uh a class or an event called project citizen where students are engaged and pick out an issue and really engage in it and try to make a difference through either their own
062action legislative lobbying whatever it takes to make that action happen and i think just more of that is is is a great thing at all levels so even at the you know youngest kids to understand like kirsten said i mean observing the right to vote and how important that is for everybody uh acknowledging those rights from k through 12 and understanding that the civics part of the social studies education is so important because each student needs to feel like they can affect the change thank you kirsten uh i have common ground with tim on this um i do think it's an important subject i think you know as our nation seems to be very very divided um we need to come back to what makes us great and what makes us you know enjoy our
063country so much you know i did mention that the right to vote is one of our most important responsibilities so what i'd like to see in the curriculum is you know is a reversion back to kind of the the civics classes that i received when i was a child focused on our shared history um you know how people have affected history um through you know various different types whether it be good or whether it be bad uh not all of our history you know is is something that we should be waving a flag about um in some cases so you know with that i'd like to see that but going back to you know how would we monitor it again i go back to curriculum transparency and we really need to make sure that all
064the the parents that want access to that curriculum and the examples have have very very easy clear access to it thank you ruchika hera [Music] i would have to agree with everybody else um i also agree that we use a lot utilize our social studies our teachers our administration to really monitor what is being implemented me personally with respect to civics i mean i would love to see more student dialogue i would love to see the students get more involved and i just want the class to be something that's maybe taught in a way that's a little bit outside the box and actually have like you know again more student involvement and input that's what i would personally like to see thank you robin mckeon um in the many years i've been on the curriculum
065committee over in my time during the board there's been a lot more civics added to the actual curriculum to the standards which makes me very happy this latest mandate is specifically about middle school and more civics in middle school and so the curriculum committee will get updates on how we may implement that in our curriculum but civics to me is much more broad than that and we have so much going on in our district of course covet again put a damper on a lot of what goes on with student involvement there's so many clubs here at ridge like the club that's hosting tonight and many other community service clubs at all levels and student government at even the elementary schools is very very active there's a lot each school has their own things but a
066lot of stuff goes on in our schools not just in our social studies class so i see civics as a much broader thing than just what goes on in the social studies curriculum it makes me very happy to see more and more students getting engaged with real world problems and focusing on what they can do to make the world a better place i think our young people now are much more engaged in that regard than they used to be all right thank you very much next question as a board member how will you assure full transparency of next year's new health and pe new jersey student learning standards how will you assure that the curriculum is provided in a timely manner to parents we're starting with ruchika i can repeat it if you want me
067to um i'm gonna defer because i don't know if i could honestly answer that question okay if you want to come back in the 30 seconds after you may thank you robin you're next um before before coveted when we had some different bernard's connect meetings after the strategic plan one of the threads of the strategic plan was more collaboration and communication so we started some different meetings and threads and there was some meetings at ridge high school about the new curriculum for health and pe i would hope that as any changes are made that there will be parent meetings to give them the opportunity to ask questions about that so i would hope that that's how we could be transparent with the community as anything is implemented okay thank you uh next is timothy um
068i agree with what robin said in terms of transparency for specific topics most of the curriculum is is um delineated by the new jersey state learning standards for health so there is that component of it that that we are teaching what the state is requiring us to teach in terms of the specific class materials that's something that would be shared with parents or discussed topically with parents as we did during the last potential change of the health curriculum okay thank you uh after timothy kirsten um if any if nobody has read the the standards i'd definitely advise going um to do that or if anybody had seen the debate between our governorial candidates as well there was some discussion about that um you know again i go back to complete transparency in the ca in
069the curriculum links available for the parents to review on lessons and what is being taught i know i had an experience where i had asked for the lesson plans which i mentioned earlier on what was being taught to my son on social emotional learning and i was not able to get those so you know again as these things are rolled out there's a lot of concerning things that in the plan that i think revert back to things that maybe you know the parents would want to teach their children rather than having it be taught in a in a school setting so i really do believe there needs to be parent involvement there needs to be ultimate transparency on that and at the end of the day make sure that everybody agrees and what is comfortable
070for their children being taught thank you gudia um in regard to the transparency between parents and staff i had an experience last year with my daughter in sixth or sorry fifth grade two years ago now before covid and i did have questions about the health class i seem to get pretty good answers from my teachers so i think a lot of it has to fall on the parent if you have very specific questions i think the teachers do a pretty fair job of trying to connect with the parents through bt connect and some of the newer programs that we're starting to roll in but i do feel that as an active parent in my house i try to stay on top of some of this stuff and i understand not everybody is able to do
071the same amount at home but i think that you have to prioritize and i i do i do reach out when i need to reach out thank you rachika are you do you want to say anything in 30 seconds or no actually i kind of do agree with goodyear to some extent i think if you're not getting the transparency that's needed i mean again as someone who has now been on the board for several months i can say that the board is doing everything that they can to be as transparent as they possibly can but a lot of it it does fall back to just you know maybe start with just reaching out to the teacher if you have any questions seeing if those questions can be answered and again not just with respect to
072this subject area but with respect to any subject area thank you kirsten you want to say something uh just you know just one thing i i think that we need to find a better way for the community to be able to do that because i don't think that they want you know teachers want to be bogged away from from their educational responsibilities of our children to answer parental questions so again i go back to if there's a nice easy way that parents can actually look up the materials online and if they have additional questions then ask it would minimize the disruption to the learning environment thank you all right let's go on to the next question do you believe that students should be asked to publicly take a political position by participating in walkouts or
073protests during school hours kirsten we're starting with you honestly i think that that is their their right to do so um i know you know in my school we did a walkout to protest the firing of teachers because we were very upset by that when when i was back there i think it's part of their civic duty civic right and their first amendment rights so i would support it thank you timothy um i don't think any student should be forced to take a position um a political position in any of in any event so i like i i disagree that a student should be forced to take any political positions that would necessitate any action like a walkout robin yeah i mean that way i heard the question was should they be asked to do
074it and i don't think they should be asked to do it i think that they do have the right to um to this to protest uh under you know reasonable conditions i i think you know schools have to keep kids safe and they can't just have you know um an unsafe you know protests just you know come about i think students in our district have you know had protests i think you know our students are very respectful and i think that they would probably talk with their student government reps and their their administrators and stuff and so i think we have had that happen here and i think it went very smoothly but i wouldn't say anyone should be forced to participate thank you gudia um yeah i agree with tim and robin as well
075i think that that's walking on a somewhat dangerous line when you ask a child to take a party position and a lot of our kids are younger and some might not even understand what they're trying to decide yet so i do think it's a little dangerous there's definitely a proper way to manage opinions and there's people to talk to so i think that we could do it in a much more responsible fashion ruchika um no i i agree i don't think students should be forced or asked to take a political position if they don't want to with respect to protest if it's going to disrupt the educational process in the school day i don't think it needs to take place at the school but with that being said if it wants to be done off
076camp off school grounds on a weekend and in a respectable and respectful way sure okay kirsten you have i've been asked by the audience to for you guys to please speak closer to the microphone so they can be heard better thank you um let me just clarify i don't think that any student should be forced to do anything that they don't want to do but i do feel that they if they feel strongly for something regardless of political party or a position they want to take they have the right to to organize in a protest as and respectfully organized not violently protest thank you anyone else all right next question do you believe that the ultimate source of values education for students should be their parents ushika we're starting with you could you please repeat
077the question do you believe that the ultimate source of values education for students should be their parents no i think we as a community and as a school district have a job to also instill certain values beliefs in our students i think that's critical robin i agree i mean parents have obviously a huge impact on teaching their kids values but kids also live in a community a larger community a school and a town and i think it's part of learning to be a member of that community that you learn some of those values from your community not just from your family thank you kirsten kirsten sorry um i think yes um the pri basically you know children have a feeling of belonging based on a strong family unit that's where they first learn belonging as
078a part of a family unit so parents should have the primary responsibility for teaching the values of the children and the school system should reinforce those values but not dictate what they are thank you gudia um i believe values start at home at a very early age as soon as you're born and i think that as we go through school and we go through our youth we adapt values at school because it's our community working together to harbor those healthy relationships and and correct values i think at some point the parents become supportive of the school and the school becomes supportive of the parents so there's some type of happy medium where where both parties are equally responsible and then of course that will shift you know as you get into a job and you
079get into a career you graduate college now you have your own set of values but you're still going back to what you've learned at the base so i think that i think this is a question where you can say yes and no i think parents start and then school takes over and then maybe it yoyos a little bit more down the road thank you timothy um i i don't think parents should be the ultimate source of values for a child um i i think that completely inhibits personal growth and and change for an individual i think like goody has said parents provide the initial set of values um that they can reinforce at home but kids kids grow up and they change and they do you know they make their own decisions so i i
080don't think any adult would say i've i've believed the exact same thing as my parents um throughout the course of my life and made zero changes so i don't think parents are the should be the ultimate source of values for kids thank you go ahead i think one of the reasons why our school district is recognized as having such a stellar reputation is because we do focus on promoting certain values and beliefs and as malcolm forbes said the purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one so again i agree i mean whatever the values are that are being taught at home i think do need to certainly be reinforced at school but children will learn other values at school as well okay thank you next question do you commit to
081using information from both sides of the political spectrum when making decisions that affect the students of our district diversity should be respected including differences in political opinion do you agree gutier we're starting with you if you want me to i'll repeat it okay do you commit to using information from both sides of the political spectrum when making decisions that affect the students of our district diversity should be respected including differences in political opinion do you agree i absolutely agree that all sides of the party should be heard included and listened to i do believe that being on the board of education has shown me over these last four months that you really don't need to put politics in to make decisions for the kids education i strongly believe in that but at the same time
082i think that you need to be able to listen to people because everyone has the right to say what they feel that's the whole point of diversity and inclusion every child every family member every resident of this town should be heard no matter where they're coming from or what party they're affiliated with thank you kirsten yes i can commit to that um i think you know as this is a non-partisan position political views should not really have a place we really need to sit there and engage the parents and engage the community to get their input and judge that input and see if we can meet middle you know meet in the middle and find some common ground if there are differences based on a political bias thank you rushika i think that's one of
083the reasons why i feel that it's great to have a board of education that's comprised of a diversity of people with different backgrounds and different different perspectives but when it comes to actual politics i don't think partisan labeling should play any role in our decision making it never goes into my thought making process the board's role is to make decisions that are in the best interest of our students thank you timothy this is like kirsten said this is a non-partisan position politics political opinion has no impact whatsoever on any of the decisions that i've ever made or i've seen anyone on my tenure on the board make or that i've ever heard in coming to board meetings before i was on the board it has zero influence or impact um diversity should be respected in
084different including differences in political opinion um among students yes of course i mean that that kind of leads to the last question of changing values i mean you should be hearing different both sides different sides um regardless if it's diversity and political opinion or uh background or lifestyle um all all opinions should be respected and i think exchanged in a fair way thank you robin yeah i totally agree with that um i make my decisions based on what's best for the students but i do it by looking at research and facts and facts and research might include how people are feeling or people's opinions you know to a certain degree but not politics politics is completely different than that so i this is not a political position it's nonpartisan and politics shouldn't shouldn't be involved
085in any decisions that we make okay thank you next question what are your thoughts on our strategy for special education and its impact on our school budget timothy we're starting with you special ed and its impact on our school budget okay so um my thoughts on special education here are that we do provide an excellent program um in terms of special education here we continually each year have other districts that reach out to send special education students here for all the services we provide i think that the the pec community the parents of exceptional children are extremely engaged and provide an amazing feedback loop to our special education services here i think that's critical to have the parents involved in terms of the school budget uh special education costs are increasing especially for sending districts
086sending students out of district we have made a large important move i think to keep as many kids in district as possible and that actually has impacted our budget because it doesn't open up spots for students to come in from outside of our district however i think that's extremely important i'm a big believer in early intervention and i think our special education department does a great job here thank you thank you gudia um yes i agree with that i've been looking at some of our financials for that we do spend a little bit more money here because of our special education programs as tim mentioned many parents are attracted to burners township because of all that we can offer to our students and so early intervention is key basically the same thing tim said and
087i do i think that's why that's what it is thank you robin yeah i agree um we are proud of our programs here and we do have you know higher costs because of our programs and because of the number of students in our programs i think the big issue here is why the state and the federal government do not fund you know special education the way they should we don't get all the money that we're supposed to get for it and the way that the state does its formula um it's not based on how many actual students we have you know in the programs it's based on this like if we were an average district um so i think you know we keep trying to advocate for our district in districts like ours at the
088state level um i think that you know it's an unfunded mandate but it's a mandate that should be happening we want students to get the best education they can and we're proud of our programs we don't want to take away anything from our students but the government needs to step up thank you ruchika i agree with everything that was said i think we have a great special education program that's part of the reason a lot of families come to our district and the reality is the quest as i understand it is rising and i do agree with robin we need to continue to just reach out to the government to be more involved thank you kirsten you know the first thing that i can say about this topic is that it is the law that
089we need to provide these services um to our children in need of this and and i have one of those children who does receive special services and i can't say how grateful i am for that um my opinion on how that affects the budget it is more cost effective to have the services in town rather than to pay tuition expenses to other towns including the busing costs to to send our children to those other towns and in additional you know because we have such an amazingly strong program here within the district we do get students and tuition payments from other districts so i think it it could be significantly negative on the on the budget if we did not invest on these special services so i support keeping them thank you next question i think
090what are your concerns for the future of education in bernard's township and how will you work to fix it robin you're first that's a hard one um concerns for the future of education well as um mr byrd in his statement um pointed out in the beginning um the world is changing so rapidly i mean i'm starting to feel like a dinosaur but like you know my kids don't believe like i didn't have a cell phone when my oldest daughter was little um and now look at what's going on so um things are changing so quickly i think we have to you know public education is an institution just like most big bureaucracies that adapts somewhat slowly right over time we have to make some more rapid change you know in education in general and how
091we do it i think we've made immense um changes as mr bird pointed out in the classroom the way that these teachers that i see back there teach is completely different than how when i went to school i went to willie mann and it was different then so i think we have to definitely adapt to the times and really put in the investment in education that we need and i really hope that our country and our state can step up and do that thank you kirsten i think one of the overwhelming concerns that i hear from parents that i have are that we are teaching children what to think rather than how to think and how to have some discernment so i'd like to see the curriculum be more thought provoking in those areas related
092to that i think that that's part of the curriculum committee i think it's also part of the um you know the the methods that we use um to teach our children to be able to to think critically the other area that i see as being very very important is around steam because most of the jobs that our children are going to have coming out of school have not even been invented yet and that's because of the fast pace of change related to technology so i think that we should be focusing you know a lot more on steam education in all areas so that our children are prepared for those jobs of the future gudia yes as mentioned the world is ever changing it's changing very rapidly um things become hot one day and then the
093next day it's obsolete i'm having trouble keeping up with my 12 year old um i think something that comes along with that is the implementation of social media and the peer pressure and stress that kids feel these days with just keeping up the facade or trying to be smarter than the next child and i think they feel a lot of that and maybe they don't communicate it properly amongst them their friends their peers their staff their their parents so i want to see more open dialogue in our curriculum around social and emotional learning i want kids to feel a comfort i want them to responsibly use social media and that needs to be taught we need to adapt to a newer curriculum based on what's trending now and what's going to continue to trend because
094it's only going to become bigger thank you timothy good you stole my answer uh that wasn't planned by the way um no i think i echo what robin and goodyear uh said about and kirsten about the pace of change um and i think we learned that lesson as a board in particular during the the pandemic when the district completely switched to a fully virtual system for learning and we just had to make decisions quicker than our typical kind of like uh pace of of you know uh committee meeting board meeting make a change and i think we we learned that lesson and i think we've adapted readily i i think concerns maybe isn't the right word but the topic that i think will be at the front of everybody's mind going forward is mental health
095and social emotional learning i think from most of the people in this audience we we probably had no exposure to that or minimal exposure to that when we were going to school and i think that that mental health is is going to be such a large component of how we move forward to keep kids engaged and and having fun and growing confident at school thank you okay thank you ruchika um one of the concerns i mean i agree with tim as well i think social emotional well-being and mental health is probably right on the top um sadly i do think that there is a rise in student anxiety stress more bullying which is possibly prompted by the use of certain technology these days especially i see it at the middle school level i also think
096that there's a lot of academic pressure that these students are facing and there are cost-effective methods to help students in dealing with these stressors and we need to just continue to create a positive climate in our schools which i think we're doing and we're trying we just need to continue to do it and it's not just amongst our students but amongst our teachers as well okay thank you yes robin 30 seconds i just wanted to kind of um not rebut but to point out that i think the kids are taught critical thinking skills not they're not being taught what to think i am amazed at what the students are able to do at a very young age when i've been teaching college students who haven't had to engage in a debate before or haven't had
097to you know like weigh the pros and cons of an issue or work in a group to do a creative project you know and our students are doing that stuff on a daily basis um so i don't think that they're being taught what to think i really do think that the focus is on critical thinking skills yes kirsten go ahead 30 seconds um again you know from talking to parents in the community i think um you know the fact that we were virtual during covid um opened a lot of people's eyes as to what was being taught and i know that i observed um some teachings that i wasn't comfortable with um so you know whereas it might not be a widespread problem maybe it's limited i think we need to make sure that we
098are teaching children um how to think and not what and i've seen an example of other things in the district thank you timothy um i i think we are really making a a concerted effort to teach the kids uh how to think i know at least in high school we are constantly asking the kids what do you think about this issue if you want to have spirit and and get kids to come to spirit events how do we do that what should we do so by pushing it back on the kids you are engaging them and asking them how can we do this how can we help you how can we support you and that makes them think of the solutions which is the best possible case thank you anyone else yes um i have
099to piggyback off of that too because the reality of it i have a first grader and a seventh grader and even my first grader came home the other day and during nest they were talking about respect but then they're being questioned you know like what do you think about this what does this mean the definition of critical thinking is pretty broad in my opinion that's i thought that he was being asked to think you know to question so i do believe that our district is doing it i see it firsthand at the elementary school level i see it at the seventh grade level as well thank you all right let's go and i'd like to tell the audience that this will be the last question for the evening due to time if you've submitted questions
100and they weren't asked it's just purely because of time last question ladies and gentlemen to further curriculus standards and transparency would you support a monthly report from each supervisor about the curriculum distributed to parents rishika you got the first one there you want me to repeat that yes please sure to further curriculus standards and transparency would you support a monthly report from each supervisor about their curriculum distributed to parents if that helps and the teachers have the time and energy and want to take that away um from you know again educating our students um sure sure okay thank you robin um we've tried different things over the years in terms of communicating curriculum decisions curriculum highlights we've had curriculum newsletters we used to have a committee where there was a parent rep from each school
101that would go and listen to all the new things each month you know what i mean that happened in the curriculum department and go back and report to the school and that that kind of fizzled out a little bit i think the um the intent was for them to then go back to the pto and write up a summary of what happened at that meeting we've tried different things i think when we had the strategic plan this is something that came out about people wanting to have more information and we had ideas of having uh you know threads of the comm bt connect with that would figure out like what's the best way to communicate things i mean there's so much going on in our curriculum there's no way we can like you know send
102a monthly update with every single thing from every single class from every single teacher but i do agree that we should find creative ways to get more information to parents because i think they're very interested in that topic thank you timothy i think there's so many ways to engage with your student's teacher you can go on to like individual teachers google classrooms and see their daily assignments so i don't know if a monthly report is is who is that benefiting right like if i have a second grader and i see a monthly report about what they're teaching at rich high school i don't know that that is materially changing what is happening with my second grader so uh in terms of transparency with the curriculum i support that entirely i think if the if a
103parent has an issue with something they don't want being taught i would say go to your teacher and say are you going to teach this topic because i want to discuss that with you first rather than saying i want to see every lesson plan that you have and then i'm going to hunt through and try to figure out what i don't like it's it's probably a easier process if a parent has an issue to go to the teacher and say i don't i know you're going to teach this i want to know if you are going to teach this specific topic and how are you going to relate this to the students um but i think there's so many other ways to engage with the students teachers and see what they are learning on a
104daily basis um that i don't see the need for a monthly report right now thank you kirsten um i'm not sure who asked that question but i i think my my follow-up question would be you know what what would be meaningful in that report i think through community involvement we should define you know what what does it mean to have transparency to the parent what do they want and i think that you know a survey may be very very valuable to find out to come up with those you know methodologies on which it would be most transparent so i would support anything that makes you know the parents more knowledgeable about what their students are learning on a daily basis i think some of the quickest ways to do that is through you know the
105curriculum website that is up there and maybe making more access for lesson plans and examples of you know at least um lessons that are being taught on hot topic issues that you know maybe the parents don't necessarily all see eye to eye on thank you gudia i'm fully supportive of transparency at home from school but at the same time i do think that it would be counterintuitive to do a monthly report at all age levels i think with the high schoolers it's a little bit easier to figure out what they're working on based on some of the curriculum websites as well as some of some of the individual teacher websites where i have found it a little bit more challenging is with my first grader because he doesn't always know how to communicate what they're
106doing so i think if we were to implement some type of report i would maybe see the benefit at a younger age than an older age and i have a seventh grader and a first grader and i have a child who hasn't even entered the school system so um so i do see the benefit of that i'm just not sure i want to take their the teacher's time away on a monthly basis to spend on a report thank you all right i'd like to thank you for your question we will now have the candidates closing statements beginning with ruchika hera you got the best spot on this table sorry no it's okay um first and foremost i want to thank the league of women voters the rich students and everyone else here who has made
107this happen i thank everybody in the audience for being here i think we can have a vigorous debate and continue to have it in our community about things like mass fiscal responsibility managing property taxes building facilities and everything that has transpired in the past however in my opinion it makes sense to focus your time and energy on the education and emotional emotional well-being of all of our students and how we can better serve them so that their actual educational experience aligns with the reputation that our school district has worked very hard to establish i strongly believe that the board needs to continue to be comprised of individuals who are logical reasonable respectful citizens who are open-minded to varying various varying perspectives as the role of a boe member is to function as part of a
108policy making board that impacts all students i feel privileged that i've had an opportunity to serve on our board for the last several months and it would be my honor and pleasure to not only complete my two-year term but to continue to serve our students and community in the future if elected i do wish to emphasize that i am running for a two-year seat against my challenger dr nastro who is not here today um dr nastro i genuinely hope everything is all right and i hope you recover quickly but i do want to point out to the community this role is a volunteer position which requires a significant time commitment accountability collaboration with other members of the board and the reality is he's not here today but i am here and i am listening thank
109you i'm sorry time is up all right thank you that's all right uh and next we might as well continue in the order here preet goudia singh i want to thank the league of women voters the ridge high rep team for this opportunity to speak among my fellow candidates here i want to thank the board of education and i want to thank all of the audience members out here and everyone who sent in questions online it's been an absolute honor to be able to work with the dedicated team that makes our school district run so successfully as it does from the students and the parents to the staff and the administration to the amazing board members i get to sit amongst every other monday i have joined the board to make positive changes for our
110community to listen to differing opinions and help make the right choices for our students i want to continue doing that i'm dedicated to learn as much as i can and gain a ton of experience here i'm in it for the long haul i'm right now looking for a three-year term but i would love to be here for longer than that so thank you again thank you kirsten light so just a little bit more about myself so that you guys can make an informed decision i am a certified public accountant and i work at ernst young as a senior manager in the tax technology and transformation practice my daily work life involves using design thinking and lean six sigma practices to create process improvements cost efficiencies and technology solutions for large multinational organizations my approach and
111focus is data driven and asking the question why like a precocious toddler to get down to the root cause of any given issue so that appropriate solutions can be recommended to any given challenge data is a very powerful tool that allows insight into these areas that require further investigation and through my preparation for this election i feel that there are a lot of areas that are ripe for that investigation and that focus should be centered centered around people process and technology mantras as a member of the board i will bring these skills to everything the board undertakes and make measured decisions for the community based on the available data and the needs and values of the community the role serves the entire community and regardless of political leanings should strive towards middle-of-the-road solutions that are
112amenable to the whole of the stakeholders this means not everybody will be happy all the time and there will have to be give and take but it will also mean that everyone's voice will be heard and we won't become a headline on the news like many other districts have become i thank everybody who has been here and engaged for the opportunity and i really look forward to engaging with you more after this evening thank you thank you timothy salmon thank you to the league of women voters the students and administration for hosting this great night and the parents for uh and students for asking questions and observing online uh we are so lucky to live in basking ridge and raise our families here there's no doubt in my mind that everybody here moved here because
113of the school district that's that's why that's why i moved here with my family and raised my family here um the amazing staff and administration we have enabled the student um success that we see that continually amazes me on a daily basis with my work with the board for the past four years uh i want to continue my service to the district and i can't wait to see all of you at the next uh board meeting given all this lovely engagement so please vote on november 2nd thank you thank you robin mckeon um but before i say what i was going to say i just wanted to say that the four of us that are running together are having meet and greets which are on the pamphlets outside and we have information on our website
114we really want to engage with dialogue with people so we're hoping people come out and talk to us in a more informal manner i'm not going to even use what i wrote i tried to write a closing statement but i figured it probably wouldn't do any good because i had no idea what i was going to be talking about and what questions are going to be asked i've been on the board for over 12 years and i've loved it i love education that's why i went back to school for a phd in education policy i guess i'm just a real nerd that way and i've had challenging times on the board of education and lots of rewarding times i'm amazed by our students and our staff all the time um we've had a really rough
115two years i've seen people pull together and support each other in ways that i would never have imagined i'm excited about the future i think our our kids are really resilient and yes we do worry about their mental health and yes there are a lot of people struggling but they've shown that students have shown what they're capable of and i would be very excited to stay on the board and help keep working with our school district and all the amazing people here to move us into the future thank you thank you thank you so much on behalf of myself avni bridge exploration for political participation and the league of women's voters we want to thank you all for coming out and participating in this crucial part of our upcoming election and i also want to
116thank our moderator for doing such a wonderful job presiding over today's debate and our volunteers for keeping everything organized equitable and per coven 19 safety guidelines and we also want to remind voters that there are three ways that they can vote in the upcoming general election the first is vote by mail ballot so registered voters can apply for a vote by mail ballot by following the instructions found at vote.newjersey.gov or contacting their county clerk remember vote by mail ballots cannot be returned to any early voting location or any polling place for this election and must be mailed the second way is in-person early voting this new option enables all registered voters to cast their ballots in person using a voting machine during a nine day period prior to election day you can now choose to
117vote in person when it's most convenient to your schedule in person early voting locations will be open saturday october 23rd through sunday october 31st owls hours will be monday through saturday 10 a.m to 8 p.m and sunday 10 a.m to 6 p.m there's no appointment necessary and the third way is at your polling place on election day vote in person at your polling place from 6am to 8pm on election day on november 2nd you can visit vote411.org for all this information for voter registration information early voting locations polling place locations and more if you have any questions rep can also provide you with answers on our website or via email ridgerep gmail.com thank you all again and have a great rest of your night thank you thank you