BTSD BOE Meeting 8 23 21

001good evening everyone welcome to the board of education meeting the board has met already met an executive session and we did salute the flag at that time so if we could have a roll call mr mclaughlin please mr salmon here ms shaffer here this white here missing here mrs corn here mr marcarion here mr syat here mrs craig here madam president thank you mr mclaughlin once again good evening this is a regular meeting of the board of education at bernards township notice of 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

002pl 1975 chapter 231a due to the pandemic the board of ed expects that in-person attendees to this meeting have completed and passed a self-assessment of personal health done at home using the district screening tool wear face covering sit in a socially distanced manner from members of different households and maintain social distancing if waiting in line to make a public comment for those members of the public who are unable to attend our meeting in person there are two live stream links of the meeting posted through the district website www.bernardsbo the two links are both airing our meeting each simply backs up the other to be prepared for possible 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

003in the meeting before the board votes when you may speak about any item that is listed on tonight's agenda toward 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 statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration no participant may speak more than once during a given given public comments session in order to run efficient meetings and allow maximum opportunity for members of the public to speak the board reserves the right to set a different time limit for individual comments and or to set an overall time limit for the public comment portions of the agenda which will be 45 minutes each all statements shall be directed to the

004presiding officer no participant may address or question board members individually for the members of the public who are not attending in person public comments may be submitted via email please follow the instructions as follows starting at 7 pm email your comment to bt connect at bernardsboe.com or text or 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 in the record public comments made in person will be processed first then comments submitted by email no public comments sent via email will be accepted before 7 pm or after item 17 board forum on the of the agenda begins please understand the public comment portions of our agendas are not structured as

005question 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 are speaking at their own

006risk and any personally directed statements they may make 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 length of time for the session and whether any action is anticipated to be taken upon returning to public session with that we are up to the superintendent's report mr markarian good evening everyone thanks for being here tonight uh we are down a few board members uh but they are all well thankfully they're just not able to attend tonight uh but thank you for joining us for uh an august meeting um you know it's been a busy summer getting ready for what promises to be an exciting school year and i just wanted

007to kind of provide folks with a little bit of an update uh on where we are in working through uh our plans for the beginning of the school year but before we do that there is one order of business that's actually an addendum item so maybe we could take care of that and then i'll share a little bit could we have a motion miss schaefer and miss singh it's just item two on item two i'm sorry uh just so for the benefit of the public item two is a resolution uh approving the formation of a high school sailing team here at ridge uh however we do need to to take care of some paperwork uh associated with uh insurance protections uh and indemnification so the the resolution of approval is contingent on uh making sure

008those eyes are dotted and t's are crosses and of course we want to make sure that we can actually get a coach in place because this would be a brand new team so we need to make sure those things are taken care of but that's certainly something we'd be excited to to have as an opportunity for our students at ridge uh i it's dr leopold here uh hi dr leepold thank you i'll i'll see if any board members have any questions for you uh dr leopold has been uh helpful in uh really getting this off the ground and working with the staff at ridge to try to make this opportunity available so i don't know if any board members have any questions for dr leopold if you could come down dr leapo we'd appreciate it

009thank you miss schaefer i don't know if you can you can hear me while you're walking right my quick question was that um with transportation obviously we don't have any place to sail right here in basking ridge so students are going to have to drive a distance and i was just wondering if you think that parents would be willing to sign a waiver saying that you know they take full responsibility for transport because it's going to be a hike for them wherever they're happening to go whether it's jersey city or raritan bay thank you for the question my name is phillip leopold i live at 50 peachtree road in basking ridge and this is my son matthew and he's the sailor so we're both here to answer questions regarding transportation we realize that that covid

010right now is going to require the students and parents to make their own arrangements i think that anybody who is willing to be part of this team and to make the effort to get to sailing venue will also be willing to sign a waiver and if the board and the administration would like us uh to make that part of the recruitment and information for the parents we would be happy to do that does anyone else have questions for dr leopold thank you very much we appreciate your time thanks thanks for coming so with that i think we're ready for a roll call mr mclaughlin mr salmon yes miss schaefer yes this is white yes ms singh yes this is corn yes this is gray yes thank you madam president mr marcary thank you all right

011so thanks for your support for that that should be uh something exciting to see if we can get going so to the start of the school year um i think that i've been trying to communicate a little bit with friday messages it was very busy set of messages this week as the principals as well as myself on thursday of last week and friday of last week sent out kind of back to school letters involving a fairly significant to-do list for parents as we try to to open up things in september and get class schedules out and student and teacher assignments at the elementary level so it's a it's an exciting week as we uh unveil those schedules and those teachers teacher assignments uh during the course of this week uh and of course as we

012prepare for september we've got uh some interesting uh challenges that we have to work our way through i think there's a few things that i just wanted to touch on and make sure the public is aware of uh i'm sure it comes as no surprise for most folks that the governor has taken a couple action items over the course of the last couple of weeks one has been executive order number 251 which speaks to masks and essentially requires masks in school for all of our students staff and visitors certainly there are exceptions provided in that executive order in some situations but generally speaking uh we'll be starting the school year in masks which is certainly disappointing for everyone but uh it is our reality for the time being i was a little encouraged when i

013watched the governor speak about this issue and explain this requirement that he did speak a little bit about hopefully being able to make a change to it at some point in the future certainly as i sit here trying to speak through a mask right now i look forward to that time another announcement which is a little bit more hot off the press came with some news articles i saw just today and i understand we should expect another executive order on the subject of vaccination with respect to public school staff so uh we are understanding that it would appear that staff are going to be required to be vaccinated uh or if not vaccinated then undergoing a screening process on an at least weekly basis so this uh fits with something that we talked about in

014policy committee and something that uh mr site and i explained to the staff in a recent memo where we were requiring them to demonstrate that they were vaccinated or if they weren't demonstrating that they were vaccinated they needed to reach out to mr site and we would explain to them what we felt uh needed to happen and as it turns out that appears to be kind of a statewide decision at this point and so we'll be looking to amend our policy to require whatever the specific provisions are in the executive order relative to vaccinating staff and if that means that we need to require staffing at least once weekly then that will be the recourse for folks that are not vaccinated in terms of our staff i don't want to speak for certain on that

015issue until we actually get our hands on the the written document that explains any details associated with the executive order but that seems to be the basic communication that i was reading about today relative to vaccination and staff and i think that uh comes on the heels essentially of the fda providing the the approval and removing the uh emergency youth authorization for the the full authorization so i think those two things probably went hand in hand and then uh the last piece uh kind of on the the big news front is um is this document uh it's uh it's called uh the road forward and the road forward uh is replacing what was last summer's document which was called the road back and when we had the road back document we had to create a

016policy for schools about returning to school under the the guidance of that document uh and now uh tonight we are actually abolishing the policies that went along with the road back because the road forward is a a different document and our firm that handles our school district policies uh is abolishing the old policy in favor of authoring new language for this road forward document and the piece of that that i think i actually wrote about uh last week on thursday in the sos express which by the way is short for superintendent of schools not like emergency sos but i guess i don't know if anybody ever noticed that but that was the reason for it uh and the pun was intended when i did that but anyway so the the document uh talks about something

017that i mentioned in that publication on thursday which was you know what is the deal with contact tracing last year of course it was disappointing when we would have to quarantine students because they were exposed in some proximity to a student a teacher or someone else in the room who uh we found out was positive for coven 19 we would then sometimes have to quarantine one or more students in the room and that of course was not pleasant and obviously the opposite of what we want to be doing and so that issue evolved all year long and i was encouraged this summer when i saw that the cdc had created a special exception in its definition of a close contact saying that now you'd have to be less than three feet away if everyone was

018wearing masks so if mr side and i are three feet or more apart and we're both wearing masks even if i test positive for kovid he's not going to have to leave school on a quarantine if he's less than three feet for me if we're sitting really close together and he generally tries to avoid getting that close to me uh then um he would have to be a close contact uh if he was within that very close proximity for at least 15 minutes or more and again at less than three feet away so i was very encouraged when this document was updated on friday of course the day after i wrote the message uh they were in fact updated to include that cdc definition so that you would not be considered a close contact unless

019you were less than three feet away in that classroom setting as long as everybody's wearing masks so you know on the one hand i think we can agree this is not fun uh to have to deal with the mask on the upside as long as we're wearing masks in the classroom it helps us reduce that proximity concern uh to being less than three feet that we have to be worried about so obviously that makes our goal as we finalize all of our scheduling and and students are moving in and out of classes and and moving in and out of town to uh really seek to have at least three feet between the the student desk so that's obviously what we want to have so that if someone in the classroom does turn up to be

020positive there wouldn't be a need to quarantine again if everyone's wearing masks so that's actually some really good news in the in the grand scheme of of things so i wanted to share that with you as probably the most significant uh change really uh the rest of this document as we think about the old policy that we had for the road forward excuse me for the road back is very is very similar uh to what is in the the road forward we are still going to be asking folks to check their health before they come to the district whether you're a student or a staff member we did decide this year given all the practice that everyone had last year in checking their health this year we we thought we could forego the documenting that

021you did the health check on a genesis form if you will so that's kind of hopefully one less piece of red tape to deal with every morning but of course we still are asking that you do make sure you feel well and don't have a fever and things of that nature when coming to work as a staff member or coming to school we talked about the masks and physical distancing of course we'll try for as much physical distancing as we can in all of our uh contexts but uh hopefully at least that three feet that we talked about whereby we have the masks and can virtually eliminate needing to quarantine students so that's really important for us uh hand hygiene and trying to keep things clean of course important uh transportation we are uh following

022the mask rule on the buses as well uh daily uh disinfecting at least so we'll still be doing those things uh working on hvac and air filters and when it's reasonable to have windows open we'll be doing that and i know that the finance committee has reported out and will probably report out again very soon on the efforts to improve the hvac equipment with some ionization devices that we'll be installing in them which help essentially help purify the air in a way and that's really the the substance of of of this document and as i said not really a huge difference with the exception of that uh contact tracing that i uh described earlier now with all of that said there's one other piece that we are waiting to receive that may have some impact

023and i kind of alluded to this a little bit uh in my message on thursday was that the new jersey department of health i had a very comprehensive document that was last updated i think it was march 23rd of 2021 and that kind of detailed uh some time frames associated with quarantines or being excluded from school or how long you had to wait to to uh become back in community if you actually have colvid uh so that document is also due for an update it could have some impact on how we have to handle various situations i don't anticipate it to be hugely different but there may be some nuances in it obviously in the context of the new school year we have students in the age bracket from age 12 and up that may

024be vaccinated and that obviously has an impact on contact tracing and quarantining as uh the vaccinated individuals wouldn't have to quarantine uh if exposed so there may be some language changes that they make about that issue because that is a significant issue that did not exist last year with respect to the draft policy i know that the policy committee did meet to work on this draft we have a first reading prepared for tonight as i said the big issue was that three feet we're still doing our regular communication with the health department we talked about the masks still doing that the physical distancing the hand hygiene lunch is obviously going to be a challenge we all recognize that and principals are still working on coming up with the best plans they can to create as

025much social distance when the kids need to take off their masks to eat we talked about the fact that we're still going to have mass on buses and cleaning and disinfecting the exclusion document we're still waiting for from the department of health um we still will have to do contact tracing um you know that i anticipate uh will definitely be impacted by who's wearing masks and who isn't but if we have a case in school we'll still have to look at that situation uh in some detail and determine if we need to take any action or not one thing that we did talk a little bit about was this idea that well now it seems pretty unlikely we're going to need to quarantine somebody in the classroom because three feet is pretty attainable but what

026if there's someone that's six feet away someone's in the class we don't feel like we have to quarantine any students as close contacts but they were exposed theoretically because they were in the same space and we had a little conversation about do we notify people because last year if you recall if there was a positive case in the classroom the only uh folks that would be notified would be folks that had to be quarantined right so the rest of the class wouldn't get a notification they would be aware from our data set where we were publishing in every school every day if we had any cases but you wouldn't necessarily know that your child might have been in a classroom with somebody who tested positive unless we contacted you specifically to say hey sorry but

027we have to quarantine your child as a close contact because of this close exposure so we talked about the fact that if we didn't have any close contacts but there was a positive case in the classroom would we report exposure and let the class know hey fyi there was a student in the classroom that uh or an individual could have been a teacher an individual in a classroom because you know we try to respect obviously confidentiality in these health matters and uh you know we had some conversation about that i think we're still thinking about it a little bit obviously you don't want to create you know drama and panic well who was it who was it in the class was it the teacher was it the kid sitting right next to my kid or

028five feet away from my kid you know and we don't want to create that anxiety but at the same time it may behoove folks to be aware in case they want to do a screening test even if the child's not required to quarantine so we were still talking about that issue a little bit so i think that if we were to decide to do that you know we would want people to accept that you know understand that we cannot be specific about which individual in the classroom uh test deposit simply to say to you that uh there there was a possible exposure we actually saw a situation like that on one of our athletic teams maybe some of you were impacted by that last week and while we determined that there was not a need

029to identify any of the individuals on the team as close contacts and tell those individuals they couldn't come back to school or they couldn't participate we did decide that we should let people know there was this possible exposure and you want to be maybe a little extra vigilant in watching health and as we've seen in the context of travel the recommendation to consider getting a screening done at day five right so for example right now we know that with travel the travel recommendation is hey when you get home you want to monitor your health and be a good idea after five days you know get a screening test and they even talk about you know trying to keep your keep to yourself for a week so you know that sort of standard is is out

030there a little bit that if you may have been exposed it might be a good idea to get a screening test so um that may be the the best approach to take in that case so that's something to think about but um the last uh the last thing in here really speaks to um screening testing which as i mentioned earlier based on today's announcement it looks like we'll need to do that screening testing at least weekly for staff and we've already been in contact with an agency that may be able to come to the district on a once a week basis to facilitate and help the staff have that screening done so i think we'll be able to to handle that pretty well and that's kind of what's going on thank you mr mercarian our

031next item is public comments i'm sorry i forgot one thing i just wanted to share one other thing i'm sorry please indulge me i know you've been very patient um so that uh memo that we sent out on thursday uh that i sent out and then i know some principles sent out on friday i know there's a lot going on and i did make mention of this on thursday we want to have uh an opportunity to kind of focus in on some specific topics so you and i talked about this a little bit uh where we can um work as an administrative team and create some videos to explain for example uh the the new uh aspect to um staff web pages is going to be through the genesis portal so we want to create

032some videos uh where we can show people how that works so that parents can see for themselves how to do it so we'll be setting up some nights like that and i will let folks know about that this week that was the last thing sorry thank you so with that we are up to public comment on agenda items if you would like to make a public comment please come forward and please write your name and your address as well state your name and address and make your comment we ask that you kindly put on a mask if you do come forward thank you karen before before karen before someone are we are we talking about this after like when do we talk about this board forum that's where we'd be at the end so before

033not before you vote on it are we voting on this on on the policy we're going to vote on the policy during the policy when you read out we can discuss before policy yeah we as soon as you share out then we can discuss as board members and then okay i just want to make sure no problem welcome thank you for having me tonight um my name is kristen sinclair 89 christopher mill road medford new jersey um as long as there's no objection by the board and your bylaws for an out-of-towner then i would appreciate it just a few minutes of your time i'm listening and i'm appreciating the tone that you're presenting i really hear how hard you're trying to deal with all the things that get thrown at you every day i just

034want to give you a bit of a different perspective of what's going on on the parent side i am the lawyer for the child advocate coalition i run a facebook group with a number of other people and we're in the thousands the parents have unified across the country i'm working with people in oregon new hampshire massachusetts the point being to reach and mask optional plan for parents we have not been comfortable for a long time and now it's time for the parents to be heard so i want to explain to you why i'm so passionate about it i was a cancer patient in 2019 when i was receiving chemotherapy i had a contract with my doctor and i knew everything that was going to happen to me and all the side effects to sign so

035that's called informed consent this that you're asking children to wear at the advice of the governor comes with side effects my partner is a medical biostatistician of 25 years children are at a near zero risk of death or hospitalization from this disease there's been no spike in the delta variant so to continue this practice with no informed consent of the parents is wrong but that's fine we know we can't sue we know there's nothing we can do but the children i'm letting you know you must remember instead of worrying about what governor murphy's going to do to you you have thousands of children who will be able to sue at the age of majority plus two years for whatever side effects come from this there are children with sensory processing disorders anxiety all of this

036is being ignored doctors are saying they're not allowed to write these letters because they're lose their licenses lawyers you're going to have parents spend thousands of dollars to get told no i'm a lawyer i wrote my own letter my board won't answer me so i would just urge you to look to middletown township's policy they're trying that's governor murphy's backyard and they're having a hell of a fight tomorrow but they're giving the parents the option it's time it absolutely is time the data is not there to support the need for masks they only can reduce transmission they're not stopping it um and the teachers are rallying tomorrow too so i think you're going to be looking at a high loss of teachers all across the state and i would just urge you all to think

037about it before you act and try to find a policy that finds some common ground and thank you for all that you're doing have a good night [Applause] hi everyone my name is nicole riley i live on 35 tall timberlane first i'd like to thank you for your service to the district i realize that this is a thankless job i'm standing here as a mother of four asking you begging you to please when planning for september to go back to as normal as possible please follow the science and the numbers for our area and not just what the mainstream media is putting out there the numbers for new jersey as follows there have been zero deaths for the delta variant in new jersey for children i spoke to a pediatric nurse this morning at morristown

038and there are zero children with covid in the hospital in bernards township as of last week 21 people out of 27 082 have covered 72 of people 12 and older have received at least one dose we have the second highest vaccination rate after morris county while some states across the country are trending backward we are not what are we teaching our children when unmasked adults are going to crowded bars restaurants and concerts but children who are low risk and for most the worst they get is a bad cold can't eat their lunch in the cafeteria with friends for many of the older kids this is their only time for socialization throughout the school day wham students are asked to eat on the curb alone they aren't allowed to use lockers elementary students can't plan the

039playground equipment their friends or teachers can't see their smiles or sadness or frustration teachers and faculty shouldn't worry about the spread at this point because they have been asked to get vaccinated please stop punishing our children please follow what we teach in the classroom advocate for our children show grit and don't quit when fighting for them push back don't be complacent after two normal abnormal years they deserve to go back to as normal as possible thank you for your time [Applause] sherry nelson 195 smoke rise road i have some concerns about the district's plans to implement the guidance from executive order 251 it's written the same as last year with the same exceptions and last year our district for some reason had a really strict interpretation of the executive order children with ieps were not

040being given exceptions there were children with ieps and a doctor's note that were not allowed to come to school without a mask i don't know where this policy came from of not making any exceptions we did have mass optional for esy and i've heard from so many parents and teachers and those of you who know me know that i know the special ed families in town their kids after a year and a half of regressing and not making progress finally we're making progress because they had the masks off their face they could see their teachers hear their teachers speaking to them um it it means so much to take these exceptions into consideration right we're dealing with a mandate fine but let's do it in a flexible way that makes sense for each kid's individual

041needs you have the same authority you had before when it got hot and murphy sent a tweet and said oh the districts have the authority to do whatever needs to be done you can make math optional when it's too hot or there's no air conditioning in a classroom this executive order is written the exact same way still going to be hot in september i want to make sure everyone is keeping track of that there was a family guidance document for covid guidelines that was included in that welcome back letter that we all got on friday from the district and this document has a policy that requires a letter from a doctor before any mass exemptions will be even considered by a school nurse i need to know like was this voted on by the board

042did you guys approve this policy the executive order does not state that exemptions may only be approved with a doctor's letter there are students with mental health problems anxiety they're suffering from the negative impacts and they should be allowed in exemption based on the request of their need requested by their parents that's not unreasonable um there's also guidance in this document that says that the only time mass are optional is when students are outdoors there's no mention that the executive order says that when they are engaged in aerobic and anaerobic activity there is an exception to mask wearing that means pe indoors and outdoors maths are optional we had children pass out last year this document needs to be updated to reflect that it's not safe to wear a mask when you're exercising last one

043on that same guidance document it says that the plan is for students to eat lunch in under 15 minutes if possible guess what i checked the cdc guidelines and the american academy of pediatrics recommendations and guess how long they say a student should have to sit and eat a minimum of 20 minutes are we making decisions based on our children's health or not this just doesn't make sense you've got to at least be consistent if we're doing all this for the sake of their health thank you [Applause] hi my name is hayden nelson i am starting my sophomore year at ridge in two weeks uh my address is 195 smoke rise road and wearing a mask has negatively impacted my health because it kind of makes me feel anxious and like lightheaded of it i

044kind of feel like i can't breathe sometimes um the mask also kind of like sorry it partially blocks my vision so like it's kind of difficult to like read and concentrate on my schoolwork and i was just hoping that maybe we could create like a more flexible policy on max mask exemptions so students like me could breathe freely and concentrate on our education and so that we can do well in school thank you [Music] [Applause] sorry hi everybody thanks for uh having public comment tonight and i hope you're enjoying the summer stacey molinari 27 franklin drive i am looking forward to a normal return to school as much as humanly possible and i believe that that's something that should continue no matter what um also wanted to thank the out of town guest who joined

045and said her comments i agree largely with what she had shared and i urge you to take into consideration what she shared i do have a few questions recently in the sos express you mentioned that all students will be getting a chromebook and so while that normally would sound incredibly exciting i wanted to make sure that this initiative is not in any way related to any potential return to home instruction plans can you please address that and then secondly mr markarian last year thank you for this you wrote to the governor following the urging of the public community that masks be optional and so i just wanted to request this year that you do the same and please write to the governor again as well as the members of the board so that you let

046him know that mask wearing should be returned to the local area and should be optional and it should be left to the parents decision at this point who either might have chosen to get their child vaccinated or for whatever reason they believe the the right decision for their child is not to wear a mask at this point i think this is the stage that we're at and i would request that you take those things into consideration thank you very much [Applause] um hi my name is doug huleen i live at 73 queen anne drive um first of all i want to say thank you to the members of the board i know that for the vast majority of you when you joined the board you probably didn't anticipate uh serving during such a unique time

047so i appreciate the unique stresses that you're under and all the the pressures from different sides that you're on and that you're dealing with i just brought with me a mask that my that is typical that my kids wear we got an old navy a year ago and i just want to read the disclaimer that comes with this mask that's still there to this day this is not a medical grade mask and is not intended as a replacement for medical grade personal protective equipment or other recommended measures to stop the community spread of code 19. this product makes no claims of anti-microbial protection anti-viral protection particulate filtration or infection prevention or reduction this product is not intended for use in a medical setting i think that means it doesn't really do what we're saying it

048does [Applause] and if it did then we would look at the data from the countries that never did this to their children and we would see dramatic differences in their outcomes but we don't if you look at the united kingdom if you look at sweden they have the same situation that we do and in fact it may be better so we've inflicted all this social damage on our kids teaching them to be afraid of adults to be afraid of others that they need to live in constant fear and this is theater it's just theater and most the the parents that have studied this know it's theater and i believe that you know it's theater too and i don't understand i appreciate again that you're under a lot of pressure in june as she mentioned you

049wrote a letter to the governor to say we want this to be at the local level so what i want to see is the same thing i want you to turn around and tell the governor again this is a ridiculous overreach of his authority to tell parents what they need to do to send their kids to school to get an education when all the kids are wearing these and they don't do anything it's just a way to make ourselves feel better and it's there you have to do the cost benefit analysis to say what are the costs of having kids have their face covered all day long and and you know i looked on the newjersey.gov website the dashboard for covid because i wanted to see um you know what is the situation we're dealing

050with is it is it worthy of this the number of of children aged 5 to 17 that have died in new jersey have coveted since the beginning of this pandemic is two two and those that's a terrible tragedy for those families and those kids but is what we're doing an incredible overreaction to that i don't think you need me to answer that and our kids are going to be bearing the cost of this for years and we we just we don't know the governor can give us his orders and then he can fly off to italy and we're just stuck here waiting for him to tell us when they can finally see each other's faces again and excuse me sorry your time is up so please try to finish up if you could okay it's

051a disgrace thank you is there anyone else who'd like to come forward good evening everybody my name is joe rossi 46 library corner road i'm here tonight as a parent of somebody that has an iep and i'm concerned that i haven't seen a solid plan to what you would do in a worst-case scenario that the school would go to a hybrid program or to shut down to ensure that all families that have children with ips will still get the in-person education necessary they're recommended by their physicians that's all [Applause] hi good evening my name is victoria casta i live on 15 hill top road i would like to take a moment to remind this board that they are voted in and entrusted by the people of this community not the governor and not mr markarian

052it seems somewhere in the midst of this pandemic this seems to have been lost for people on this board who have remarked that they don't want to make health decisions for our children you seem to have no problem blindly following what our governor says let me ask this board a few questions how well do masks work what studies have been done on masks what case studies do you have on math from the past year and a half what health issues come from masks and what are their statistics what are the measures of them who is advising the governor to his health decisions i would like to show of hands as to how many of you have the answers to all of these questions if you if all of you don't have all of these answers

053then i'm going to refer to mr salmon's statements in the last two board meetings and excuse me while i paraphrase that he did not feel comfortable making health care decisions for our children mr salmon do you feel comfortable making health care decisions for our children when it comes to masks do you feel comfortable man please direct your comments to the board as a whole thank you do you feel comfortable blindly following the governor and not listening to the people who entrusted you and voted you in are you going to take responsibility for any respiratory or mental illnesses that our kids will endure in the future a cdc report data 10 2020 shows that of code infected people have always worn a mask the epa stated in a report dated april 2021 that each mask has

054a different protection which is based on the material how it is worn how often it is cleaned and whether it has a filter in essence there is no number how well masks work in general and no one can tell the efficiency of a school environment wearing masks let me also remind you that on a very box of mass it specifically states it is not a preventative measure of contracting proven additionally an extensive danish study dated 20 november 2020 published in the academic journal anals of internal medicine states and published in the wall street journal that masks don't prevent covet but somehow our governor our superintendent and this board seem to think they know differently i won't spend all of our evening giving you the hours that i spent countless hours reaching them researching on but

055i will say even if you volunteer you should take this position seriously and do all of the research just like some of us parents have i don't know why we feel so comfortable with an elected official with no health care background gets to make decisions unilaterally for everyone and our state doesn't seem to be and our board doesn't seem to be bothered with that thank you [Applause] stellaperna 105 tuxford terrace i would challenge the board to look up a certified industrial hygienist subject matter expert on hazardous particulates stephen petty s-t-e-p-h-e-n p-e-t-t-y he has podcasts he says masks are ineffective we should be focusing on technology the dilutor kills the virus and what he's referring to are the mechanisms in our hvac ways to ionize the air again stephen petty podcast i challenge you to look

056and listen to his speeches and interviews it's remarkable and once you write listen to that you would never wear a mask again thank you [Applause] hello uh my name is sue patton i'm 14 ox bullying first of all i just want to say i don't envy any of you right we are living in extraordinary times where people are expected to make extraordinary decisions that they aren't prepared for last october i asked my pediatrician tell me what he thought and he said do you want to know what i think or do you want to know what i'm supposed to tell you and i think we're all operating in fear right now everybody's in fear of the mob right we're scared to lose our jobs we're scared to be heckled we're scared to be canceled and i

057also read somewhere recently that this isn't going to end until somebody stands up until we all stand up and say no we're not going to take it anymore so what i'm asking you is to be a leader be able to set the trend stand up because i know 10 years from now we're going to look back on this and we're going to be like what the hell did we do to our kids have the courage i have two children one is going to be a senior i took the other one out of the district into private school i know a lot of people are leaving the district to private school i'd like to know if enrollment has dropped and by how much because i think what's going to happen is people have had enough and

058i'm asking you be a leader take a stand make masks optional [Applause] uh hi suzanne gilligan 44 chimney ash farm road first thank you for all your hard work i'm sure again it's not easy however as a mom of a brain cancer survivor life has not been easy and doing virtual schooling with a child that's deaf autistic learning disabled for my husband and i who both work was brutal so put yourself in that position do i worry about him getting the virus yes do i know whether i want him to wear the mask or not i don't know yet but i would like the right to decide this poor child has no idea why we walk around with man's son he doesn't have the ability to understand he just walks in and does it but

059these children don't understand so that's what i just wanted to say thank you [Applause] hi my name is cindy wong 22 carriageway baskinridge thank you the board and the superintendent um for your time this evening uh i just wanted to speak um because you have a mask on your face could you just put it on like everybody else did please oh do they do they speak with the mask on yeah everybody did oh just like you yep all right okay no problem okay um we understand that you guys do not make the laws of the guidelines and you have to work um with what you are given uh as part of the new york new jersey school ethics commission um code of ethics um the first one a is you will uphold and enforce all

060laws rules and regulations of the state board of education and court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall be brought upon only through legal and ethical procedures b i will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability ability race creed sex or social standing i asked the members of the board and the superintendent as educational administrators and leaders in this community to advocate for every resident guardian parent or consent concerned person that uh and that their duty remains directed to our local children in the local community um we hope that you will um join the number of townships and districts in new jersey against the black blanket mask mandates for our children

061and push for flexible guidelines the end for it to be decided locally and for the individual families to be able to make that decision for themselves this doesn't mean that we are asking for children to not wear masks it's entirely different it's not saying no no mask it's not saying yes yes mask it means it's giving the family to the opportunity to choose it this gives the child to choose everyone who wants or does not want to wear a mask can choose to do so this blanket mask mandates does it gives zero opportunity for anyone to choose whether they have any disabilities whether they're uncomfortable whether they just need to take a break you guys it's just for little children they will not know to say no like i cannot breathe in last month's meeting

062one of the members said a parent's concern for the children's physical emotional and mental well-being due to masking is just as valid as a parent's concern over covid where is the equity for these parents and children who are concerned about their children being masked all day please support the members of our community who are asking for the freedom of choice and not to be bullied into blanket health decisions thanks hello my name is kirsten light i live at 13 victoria drive and just to be transparent i am one of the candidates for the board for next year in january i wanted the board to just consider a few different things with mass with young children i have a son who's entering kindergarten who is now going to be receiving an iep and i held him

063back an additional year because of kovid so he's starting a little bit late his iep relates to communication impairment because he has trouble understanding the context and tone of what teachers are asking him to do they he doesn't understand instructions and his speech is delayed because he has not been able to see the faces of the teachers that have been teaching him over the course the last year and a half um you know as a point of note related to that every time we have to have a student with an iep or with a 504 that costs the taxpayers in this country in this uh county and as well as this jurisdiction additional funds in their tax dollars to support the additional services and i think that as we continue to enforce these mass mandates

064particularly on the younger children who are not at risk which everybody here so eloquently indicated today that we are setting ourselves up for a very very long term of additional support that's going to be needed by this township so i would just choose to ask that the board consider that thank you would anyone else like to make a comment on agenda items okay thanks no one i'll close public comment on agenda items oh i'm sorry we have email comments my apologies yes we do first public comment is from lauren manduk 46 liberty corner road first the local media outlets have covered several instances where other municipalities boards of education have written the governor and demanded that power be restored to the local board of education where it belongs what has this board done to ensure

065that our autonomy will stop being impeded and be restored to the board there should be no illusion that any board of education in this state currently has any autonomy as we head into this our third academic year with mandates restrictions and directives from the governor's office that will overstep every boundary second continuing to strict parents of any say with respect to their children has got to stop the constantly changing directives guidance and mandates from all levels of government and their related agencies have leaves little to no confidence and the science which we have heard so much about is iffy at best mass must be made optional to be decided by the parents at the parents discretion who know what is best for their children not someone from trenton the board needs to represent its constituents

066and push back in a meaningful way with respect to these ending constantly changing restrictions and mandates next public comment is from karen zebelik at 82 church street forgive the pronunciation mass should be optional and should be the responsibility of the parents to decide if their child should wear a mask not the boe [Applause] whoops next public comment is from zachary perna 105 tux for terrace i think that mass should not be mandated at school because of the effects on the social aspects of the school experience also the chromebooks should only be distributed to students who do not already have a device to submit work remotely from thank you [Applause] next public comment is from jennifer cutter 151 thackery drive dear billy and mr merkarian i'm asking you to please allow masking to be optional this

067should be a parental choice all summer at my children's summer camp everyone was massless and all children and counselors at the camp stayed safe from covid there was one case of cobit and no transmissions at the camp all summer long when it relates to our community we should be using esy as an example we allowed our children in our community to have a choice of wearing a mask we managed to do extremely well this is evidence that our community is safe and parents should have the right to make the choice to whether or not mass their child i know that the governor mandated mass however many districts are fighting back to make mass optional this is something burners township needs to do we have proven through esy that in our time with our students and

068our teachers we can prevent the spread of covid allowing mass to be optional and allowing each parent to make the choice for their child i am urging you and the board to make the change for our district and the good of our children the social emotional effects that masking has on our children are irreversible even with all the guidance counseling and all the other things that the district has in place it will never ever change the fact that they can't see each other's faces and see facial expressions there are children in our district with social emotional deficits and have issues communicating and expressing feelings not being able to see someone's face only exacerbates this at what point are we going to look at the child and realize the risk of qobit is almost zero for

069these children than the damage that mask wearing can cause the governor really has no right to tell anyone in our district what we need to do in our community and our students every single township has different levels of covet and bernie's township has an extremely low risk please make masks optional thank you [Applause] next public comment is from susan ursuno 12 challenger court mass should be optional we should have the right to choose what is the best option for ourselves and our children those who wish to wear masks should wear them and respect those who choose not to next public comment is from awan joanna 150 factory drive dear superintendent of boe members as we know that governor murphy has put a mandatory mass for all children in new jersey i do believe that this

070executive action was very arbitrary and there was no scientific reason to push for the mass mandate what about people who got coveted and recover they should have a high antibody level that already protects them from covet why is this being ignored while vaccines are being pushed i think it is time for our school district to implement a common sense policy we should not just follow what the governor says blindly at one point we will should stand up against him let the parents decide what is best for their children this is the matter between children and their parents we should make masks optional instead of mandatory if you are truly scared about the virus perhaps everyone needs to wear a hazmat suit because that is the only way to protect people if this virus is really

071dangerous i do believe that virus is contagious but is not as lethal as what the mainstream media reported you can't protect people with just a regular mask please watch this testimony from a doctor in indiana about the ineffectiveness of masks in school thank you for your attention [Applause] next public comment james famala 226 lions road i am very much concerned about the effects my kids will receive from wearing a mask for 68 hours per day the facts i know about kovid are that there are more kids dying because of a bicycle accident than covet fact check the the numbers but does that mean kids can't ride a bike anymore another fact is that more kids died in the 1920 flu season than the 18 months of covet but we weren't wearing mass then i realized

072that there is a state mandate that disregards these facts but is there anything we can do we talk about science and data but do we know what the science and data say about mask wearing over the long run do we have any data on hypoxia here's another fact if you can smell something while wearing the mask the mask is useless and can only do harm i'm an independent when it comes to politics and i try to be consistent on the issues my body my choice i believe that in every aspect and i employ you to fight to save our children our children deserve people that will fight for their well-being [Applause] next public comment is from brenda watt 99 culverson road i am ready to demand that there'd be no more mandatory mass in any

073burners township schools for either teachers or students if you want children 12 and up and adults to continue getting vaccinated there is no better incentive than the ability to be mass free at school i know there are many parents who got their child vaccinated against coven 19 with the hope of never masking again after allowing their children to receive a new vaccine technology being forcibly told to mask up for the new year feels like betrayal any faculty who wanted to be protected from cover 19 could have gotten a free vaccine already there is no reason to force children to wear unhealthy masks all day healthy children are reasonably safe from covet and delta variant i challenge all parents sending their child to school to also wear a mask from the time their child gets on

074the bus until the child returns home from school if you go to the gym wear a mask if you exercise outdoors wear a mask maybe then parents will understand the suffering of their own children and realize they need to fight and stand up for their child children's right to breathe free no more masks in school [Applause] next public comment is from lynn neuske 39 lyndon drive hello mr mercarian and members of the board thank you for continuing to work for our children i understand students are required by the state to wear masks however murphy has said there are exceptions such as when someone is engaged in high-intensity aerobic or anaerobic activity can you please instruct pe teachers to tell students to remove their mask when in class also can teachers and aides instruct kids to

075remove their masks when outside the kids have become so accustomed to wearing the masks it's difficult for them to navigate when they can and cannot take them off especially in the younger grades thank you next public comment is from rippy carter 58 independence drive thank you to the hard working board for all your efforts in trying to ensure the safety of all students it's greatly appreciated and staff as well your role is not an easy one and it is difficult to please everyone my family values the work you all do and your time spent in evaluating decisions based on science and facts we ask that you continue to work towards feasible solutions with the safety of all students as the paramount priority thank you for your efforts next public comment is from susan ward 46

076northbrook avenue i would like to thank the board for all their continuing hard work not only in keeping schools open but in dealing with continuing opposition to your best judgment and keeping our children healthy in school returning to normal is not realistic when we are not living in normal times it is no secret no tall tale that the percentage of infections among children is on the rise as is hospitalizations of children including in the intensive care unit i do not find death or severe illness and acceptable cost of returning to normal the american academy of pediatrics published statistics this week indicating that in new york point two percent to one point nine percent of all their child coveted 19 cases resulted in hospitalization even at one percent how many students is that in our district

077for who among them is this acceptable it should not be left to the loudest parents to determine the safety of all it makes me sad if there's even a chance that my child wearing a mask could save another no matter how small a chance that my child could keep another healthy there's there is no calculus keep the masks please stay the course and support our governor doing our best to keep us all healthy i ask that we all take a look at what is happening presently in the southern states of our own country the reality is that everyone who is complaining that school was not normal last year what do you think it will look like when when school has to close completely when affection runs rampant indeed what is the cost please keep the

078mask mandate thank you [Applause] the next public comment is from susan conroy 18 allegheny drive does covet know when it's lunchtime due to the new schedule ridge high school approximately 1 600 students will be eating lunch at the same time without masks and that's the conclusion of public comment thank you mr saya mr mercarian is there anything you'd like to address at this time okay so um thank you uh for all the public comment um i think it was really nice that a lot of people recognize that uh you know we're confronted with a lot of challenges difficult decisions and uh you know we we could be in for you know another challenging school year so thank you for for recognizing that i totally understand the concerns about the masks and i think there are

079you know some things that we can certainly do in terms of communicating what the the current eo is and and where the exceptions lie uh relative to the different school environments um whether it be you know uh playing a musical instrument or being in pe class and and physical exertion um you know certainly that's uh well documented and we can we can do a better job of of communicating that um you know i really don't uh you know it's really difficult i i like i said i appreciate that you recognize that i i mean i i don't know what else i don't know what to tell you um let me just look here at some of my notes recess uh lockers and and trying to do uh some measure of normalcy i mean look you

080know we're we're looking to open school with all of our students and have full school days i think that's a huge step in the right direction and something that we were trying to prepare for and and set an expectation for in the spring we are going to have the students on the playground equipment there will be students doing recess and lockers we are re-opening lockers in terms of students being able to use lockers which is largely a middle school issue a lot of the kids here at the high school don't use them but for those that want to of course we're going to allow that we did talk a little bit about the the locker situation uh in in pe uh and there was uh some suggestions as some schools are apparently making changing optional

081uh a lot of the students um you know may wanna do what they were doing last school year and wear relaxed clothes and sneakers to school and not have to change um and certainly we we talked about there being some sense in that but for those students that want to use the locker rooms we are reopening them uh as far as the launch goes and the amount of time i mean we're we're certainly not looking to have kids you know try to force feed their food but we are trying to look at being efficient where we can and uh if we are creating multiple rotations uh of lunches um you know for example and dividing a period in half um you know we look at ridge high school the unit lunch we've got a few

082locations planned in terms of two gyms and a cafeteria and splitting that unit lunch in half essentially gives us six location times location slash times to uh try to spread the kids out uh and so we're you know looking to be as creative as possible to try to to manage the challenge of lunch in in all the schools but i know one person had mentioned rage there were some comments about chromebooks and whether or not that was related in some way to uh home instruction uh home instructions you know kind of a unique uh education legalese term but i think the concept of you know remote learning uh obviously the last thing anybody wants to do is be in that situation um the district has talked about advancing on a one-to-one initiative for almost as

083long as i can remember and financially this year we had the opportunity to do that does it make sense to be as well armed as we can technology wise i think it does it was a district goal to be prepared to deal with necessary responses to school closures if we had to have them obviously that was not the only reason to make the investment in chromebooks but it certainly gives the district more ability to respond one person commented on you know worst case scenario if we had to shut down in some way obviously that's the last thing we we want i think everybody understands that and the question was related to students with ieps and and we are certainly planning um to be prepared for that scenario those plans aren't finished yet because our focus

084has been on september right now but i can say that there was a significant sensitivity to our neediest students relative to individual needs through ieps last year and i certainly anticipate the same sensitivity if we had to uh do another variety of shutdown and again obviously i certainly hope that that isn't the case uh the someone commented on um sort of a cost-benefit analysis and uh i think that's really the challenge right i i i can hear the the passion that we all have i know that everyone here on the stage has the same passion about trying to do um you know what's best for kids and you know we have individuals and institutions and school districts and buildings and trying to do the best thing for everybody in that cost-benefit analysis is extremely difficult

085it seems that we can't even agree on what is fact and fiction so tough to come to consensus in that environment uh someone pointed out the code of ethics for school board members uh it's an interesting observation one i've i've read about in the news relative to you know uh the responsibilities that board members have and how that would tie together with eo251 is certainly a an interesting observation and true uh and thanks uh for the reminder on this one the the question about the the process for uh exemptions for uh ieps that that actually is in the the draft um that we're looking at tonight relative to you know what is the process um we know that this is a a communication challenge a little bit in terms of the processing for a request

086for a mass exemption um certainly we're aware of each of the exemptions listed in the uh executive order uh and in a lot of cases um that may uh involve students with ieps and or 504s so we are just simply asking for the doctor's note uh explaining the situation to be submitted to the school nurse uh and it would then uh be processed by the district physician to approve the exemption or not and um and what can i say i i recognize the challenge and and the passion and it's where we are at the at the present thank you okay our next item is the approval of minutes mr mclaughlin i'm sorry can i have a motion please miss white and mr salmon and then could we have a roll call please mr salmon yes

087miss schaefer yes mrs white yes ms singh yes this is corn yes mrs gray yes thank you madam president thank you mr mclaughlin our next item is the finance committee report can i have a motion to approve we have 20 items on the agenda ms singh and mrs white and then mr sam do you have a report thank you yes i do finance met on august 19th the first discussion item was a facilities update which involved bill gerichter who's the president of advocate which is the district's food service and facilities and maintenance consultant the first sub-item was an introduction of the new food director jason baer has been identified as the placement for chris dietch to be the district's new director of food service mr bear has k-12 food experience and is currently the food

088service manager at a charter school with about 2 000 students john mclaughlin from aramark will be on site at ridge high school for two weeks before school starts and then two weeks after school starts to ensure a smooth transition also shawn walsh from mr griego's staff will be on site at ridge high school for the first week of school we discussed the food service um staffing issue i think everybody kind of in the public knows about that um aramark has been trying to get candidates into its hiring pipeline and mr grechter is following up with aramark hr about different incentive programs or sign-on bonuses to get new candidates to apply for the positions for the start of school the district will likely ask all students to bring lunch um and mr markarian is going to

089speak with the rich high school principal about potential use of delivery services if that's if that would be allowed uh we did discuss daily cleaning procedures we will be doing the recommended cleaning up once daily throughout the school and then doing daily cleaning of high touch surfaces a procedure has been established for clean up after the unit lunch at ridge high school to allow for use of gyms in other areas where lunch is served and students eat the unit lunch logistics will be using a combination of aramark staff and campus monitors to deploy and break down the unit lunch service areas and equipment the next item was an update on cyber insurance by dan reagan who's an svp at arthur garrolger traditionally the district gets its cyber insurance policy through new jersey schools insurance group

090which is a purchasing consortium the cyber insurance is purchased from beasley through njcig in past njcig has been an all-or-nothing purchasing program you either purchase all your insurance through the consortium or none of it and there's been no a la carte purchasing options for the coming school year the consortium did allow members to purchase cyber insurance outside of the consortium um however uh arthur gallagher approach other cyber insurance providers and um we will be meeting our maintaining our policy for this uh 2021-22 school year with beasley through new jersey sig uh the next update was an update on the construction progress from uh john perrin who's the assistant director of facilities here in berners township he updated us on the wham science labs project based on the current pace of construction mr print thinks august

09126th is a possible date for the completion of construction um which then will require uh staff to come in and clean the spaces before it can be shown hopefully it will be done before the school wams opens up to let some new students and staff get in there before school officially starts in any event mr perrin believes the renovations will be complete and cleaned ready for students and staff by the start of school the next uh the last item for discussion was the uh hvac initiative that we would be using sr2 funds to um to purchase uh ionization air ionization systems uh mr mourinho who's the director of facilities for burner township device specifications for the systems needed the state authorized the district to use a pre-approved time and materials vendor for this project as

092opposed to going out to bid mr mclaughlin explained that we received a quote from an installer that falls within the granted budget and he has validated the wages from the vendor but not yet the materials assuming material is all validated the vendor can work after school hours for installation lead time on ordering the devices is approximately eight weeks from when we sign a contract with the vendor and mr mclaughlin is projecting a late october installation start date in terms of the items that are on the agenda one through four standing items number five is professional development six is disposable of old geography books and chromebooks seven awards the waste disposal contract for the district to interstate waste services number eight is approval of carryover of unexpected unexpended title three funds number nine approves a parental

093transportation contract um 10 through 11 are student services 12 is an out of district placement 13 and 14 are student services 15 and 16 are out of district placements 17 is student services 18 is a donation from the cedar hill pto for the purchase of equipment for the cedar hill quest lab so thank you very much to the cedar hill pto for raising those funds for donating those funds and 19 and 20 are approval of settlements any questions for mr salmon okay with that can we please have a roll call mr salmon yes ms shafer yes mrs white yes miss singh yes mrs corn yes mrs cray yes madam president thank you and just to reiterate mr salmon's thanks to the cedar hill pto for their donation much appreciated with that we are up to

094our next item the personnel committee committee report if i could have a motion to move items 1 through 77 mr salmon and mrs corn i don't think we have a report this evening because the committee hasn't met and we're not due to meet again until september so with that mr mclaughlin can we please have a roll call mr salmon yes ms schaefer yes this is white yes ms singh yes mrs corn yes mrs gray yes madam president our next item is the policy committee report um we have two items so can we have a motion uh miss singh and miss schaefer and then we have a report correct mrs corn thank you i'm reading my report with my math down so hopefully no one will yell at me i'm all by myself over here um

095so the policy committee met on august 16th that was last monday um and we a lot of stuff we covered mr markarian covered because we were talking about the um road forward which is policy 1648. um the health and safety which is cover 19 health and safety which was replacing policy 1648 is 1648.11 at 1648.0 is replacing the road back which is the restart recovery plan that was from june 2020 that policies abolished and this policy is taking its place includes like all the new jersey department of health and the new jersey department education recommendations requirements and mandates for the upcoming 2021-22 school year which mr mccarry went over as well as the governor murphy's executive orders um and i think um mr mccarran covered everything that was involved in those pop the policies and

096we all also had discussed excuse me the um parent and the parent guidance documents which were sent out to parents on friday and um i think that was about it right so that was the um our meeting which was covered in superintendent report any questions for mrs corn okay i think we need a roll call please mr mclaughlin mr salmon uh yes miss schaefer yes this is white yes mrs singh yes mrs corn no this is gray yes adam president thank you our next item is a curriculum committee report a mrs white dave report okay thank you i do hold on i gotta switch glasses because i can no longer see from far and read with the same ones um a lot of the stuff is out of date but we haven't met since the

097beginning of july and a lot of the stuff was actually covered at our july meeting but i'll quickly go over it we discussed the textbook approval that was actually approved at the last meeting for physics and chemistry both honors and enriched physics will use the same textbook inspire physics cp chemistry will use inspire chemistry this past year it was a real struggle during remote learning for students not having a textbook to utilize so textbooks will be utilized in the school coming year a new course was approved mr fackleman had shared the curriculum change proposal that was not in the course of studies there will now be the option to participate in two different choral courses one version is one credit the other is two credits and the number of credits will be determined by the

098number of days a student is enrolled in the course students can be in a study hall on the other days teachers are very happy with the enrollment in these courses the number of students in each course are where they have been or better and now there will be accountability as these are courses students are officially enrolled whereas in the past some students attended unofficially during lunch or study hall we were given a community service update for sophomore students that the community service requirement will resume for the 2122 school year but the hour requirement has been modified to 10 hours for the school year and mrs rayfield shared that they're working to ensure opportunities for students to fulfill these hours will occur ridge students will be able to volunteer for two different organizations without needing special

099approval the assignment following the completion of the volunteering hours remains the same as in past years and information about this was sent home a while ago through genesis we also discussed the summer geometry which probably the course is almost done at this point but if not done three three students qualified to take a summer geometry course however as mentioned at a previous meeting the course would only run if there was a viable number of students who met the criteria and this didn't happen so mr colmer spoke with the students and the parents who met the criteria to discuss the option for these students to double up on math courses freshman year which would allow them to be on the two year ahead accelerated pathway the qualified students were offered another option as well to take

100a final exam for the honors geometry course and if a score of 90 percent was achieved they would be able to enroll in algebra 2. this is not an option for any student who did not meet the criteria to take summer geometry we were also provided with the summer support update about the number of students that were enrolled in the summer support slightly changed from a previous reporting for a variety of reasons and there had been much movement in particular with the second grade during the first week and at our next curriculum meeting we'll get an update of what actually happened for the remaining of the summer ela and math teachers were pleased with how the programs had been going there was a great deal of individu individualization for students in grades three through five

101receiving math and reading support teachers and student students were surveyed twice during the program just to receive feedback and at the time of our meeting the results of the first survey weren't available there were also 32 students that were enrolled in esl summer support program students in grades k through five were meeting in small groups of three to four students with teachers and students in grades six through twelve were receiving one-to-one tutoring next we discussed the new jersey department of education implementation implementation timeline for the standards had been revised and as reported previously it's been ex the schedule has been extended for districts to implement the 2020 new jersey learning standards to september as a result of the covet 19 public health emergency the closing of schools made it difficult to engage in curriculum writing

102the standards were updated in the following content areas visual and performing arts comprehensive health and physical education science social studies world language computer science design thinking career readiness and life literacy and key skills while the implementation has been delayed we have begun the work during summer curriculum writing to update curriculum but they will not be fully implemented into content areas until september twenty twenty two in addition to the revised new jersey student learning standards were also responsible for meeting additional curricular mandates we must be compliant with the newest mandate diversity and inclusion in september 2021. the team approach is being taken to work on these mandates ms rayfield's met with teachers for two days and reviewed standards and they are cognizant of the need for training lessons around essential questions and ensuring terms are framed

103with the requirement of her historical perspectives themes in all social studies courses and these conversations will continue to take place the critical race theory framework is not part of the berners township school district approved curriculum however topics related to this are discussed in specific courses and electives when they are relevant and these topics can be seen on rubicon we also discussed that freshman orientation is scheduled for august 27th information was sent out to parents about the orientation in addition dr lesbik had proposed a reopening and wellness initiative that will run the first two days of school for grades 9 through 12. what was at the planning stage it will likely be an altered schedule each day of four classes and then the rest of the day there would be different activities for students to take

104part in at ridge and this will help all students acclimate to being back at school full time as well as adjust to the rotating drop schedule and then we also went over the um technology proposal that we actually all had another presentation on our meeting last in july in which we um went through plan a b c and d and what came back it was determined that we are in good shape and able to move forward with plan a and the purchase felt all the devices needed for the entire district was shared at that meeting and they're working on planning how devices will be distributed and now our next meeting will be september 10th any questions for mrs white okay thank you mrs white um we are now up to our wellness committee report ms

105schaefer is their report this evening the wellness committee has not met since our last board meeting we are meeting september 30th okay thank you and that brings us to liaison committee reports does anyone have anything nope okay thank you um and that brings us to public comment on non-agenda items we invite you to come up to the microphone please state your name and your address as well sign in for us thank you i'll sign afterwards save a little time stacey irvine 42 mount airy road i'm here to talk about something totally different option two um there's changes to option two at ridge this year i'm not sure they're all positive the application process is long it's difficult to navigate but my son and other students at his taekwondo school applied anyway because they had hoped

106the committees evaluating their applications would see the value in their sport but that's not what happened every ridge student at my sense type window school had their option to application denied everyone they were not given a reason even after multiple requests for more information they were told only that they could appeal but without knowing the reason for the denial they weren't really sure how to appeal after speaking with students in other sports there seems to be a pattern dancers for example who participate on competitive teams were approved dancers who work just as hard and just as long but have recitals instead of competitions they were denied why is competition the only thing that matters athletics in this town i think we can all agree can sometimes border on too competitive we don't have enough varsity

107sports to include everyone we make cuts shouldn't we then be encouraging students to try non-traditional sports shouldn't we be happy when they find their place where they fit in in taekwondo my son has found a sport he loves he's a third degree black belt an achievement that's taken a decade to achieve he can break concrete blocks with his bare hands he can execute a spinning jumping kick launching himself off a step and breaking boards in the air that takes athleticism flexibility agility speed strength power and years of practice he competes in tournaments and championships he's been a member of the demonstration team for eight years in taekwondo demonstration means a choreographed routine set to music it includes skills tumbling it actually looks a little bit like competitive cheerleading there's another component sparring which is like

108wrestling or boxing you may have noticed the united states had a gold medalist in taekwondo spartan this year or maybe you didn't maybe didn't realize taekwondo was an olympic sport taekwondo is an olympic sport it's a competitive sport it shouldn't be dismissed from option two but more than that this district should send a better message to athletes in our town all sports matter all students matter sports should be enjoyed students should play sports because it benefits their bodies and their minds it shouldn't be only about competition please make option two more inclusive and now a couple of other students are going to talk and they've waited very patiently for two hours through all this other to come and tell you why option 2 and tag window are important to them thanks good evening my name

109is jasmine gill and my address is 263 patriot hill drive as a concerned student who lives with two grandparents i'd like to truly thank you for your time and continued diligence in protecting our community but i'm here to speak on the option two policies that have been recently implemented i'm a rising senior at ridge high school and for the past 10 years taekwondo has been a crucial part of my life not only is taekwondo a rigorous sport physically but it demands personal growth through the culmination of discipline respect and strength as a third degree black belt and an instructor at mastermind summit martial arts i spend over 10 hours a week teaching in classes and partaking in them it has taken me over 10 years to reach my current level an immense amount of motivation

110perseverance and commitment to attend classes testing and leadership meetings we have numerous events that students must work toward within taekwondo as benchmarks of their progress and growth including belt tests demonstration performances and statewide championships our program has competed in multiple competitions including the dobong taekwondo festival which was most recently held virtually in over 20 countries as well as more local competitions such as the new york governor's cup and the new jersey taiwa open the physical aspect of taekwondo includes intense one-on-one sparring strength great strength based board breaking and rigorous full body exercise the mental aspect of taekwondo cultivates personal virtue and exemplary behavior within the home community and world at large i can never be as dedicated happy or strong as i am today without taekwondo unlike other sports taekwondo is a journey that requires

111not only physical strength but also personal growth that reflects the endurance stamina and commitment of the student over the years as both an instructor and black belt i and many of the other high school instructors have developed a personal responsibility to the school in the form of teaching management and community interaction that requires a significant time commitment that wouldn't be possible without the allocation of an option to study hall taekwondo is a rigorous martial arts sports that is consistently satisfied every requirement for option 2 and it must be accepted for option 2 if our students will be expected to successfully balance their academic and personal lives thank you uh good evening everyone my name is gotham namjoshi i am currently a rising senior at ridge high school i live in 47 hartley lane in basking

112ridge i would just like to briefly make a comment before i start that as a fully vaccinated rich student i strongly support the mask mandate and i appreciate your effort to implement that in our schools my the previous speaker there has already stressed the importance of taekwondo as a physical sport but i want to stress the importance of option 2 to my academic success and other successes outside of school i'm an all honors ap student and due to the hours of commitment i have to do outside of school is extremely difficult to balance academic life with athletic life and the importance of the option to study hall is that it's allowed me the time in school to catch up on work and studying that i need to do also as a rising senior i can

113anticipate the additional time i'll need to fill out college applications and so the option to study hall that is a part of taekwondo would really help me achieve all these goals i'd also like to mention that without option two there's a lot of outside of school achievements that i wouldn't have had option two allowed me the time to go practice in the band room and as such i became a first year all-state tympanist two years ago when allstate was still running without the time that the option two study hall afforded me this really would not have been possible so as a fourth degree black belt and a junior master at master moon summer martial arts i'm not only expected to take classes but also to have additional responsibilities such as teaching younger students and on

114top of the two to three hours of classes i take a week this can add countless hours and additional stresses to which the option to study hall helps alleviate those i just want to close quickly talking about some of the faults that i recognized as part of the option to application process mainly in the transparency of the board and the clarification and communication with students for one there was no clarity on the requirements that were not met in the appeal process we actually reached out to some of the members of the the review board who took the time to review the applications yet the only response that we got was quote the activity did not meet all of the specified requirements without actually specifying which requirements it did not meet and i would just like

115to note as well that taekwondo has never been disqualified or denied option two in the past uh so also there was no time frame given with the appeal process as to when we'd get a response uh before the schedules come out this week so just to close i think it's really important that the board take some action on the transparency and the communication given by the option to appeal committee because i feel it's a very important part of any athlete's life outs who does not do a varsity sport within ridge thank you is there anyone for in-person public comment anyone else saya do we have anything on the email yes we do thank you michelle allen ten birch drive thank you for all your work for all our children thank you for supporting the recommendations

116to protect our children like the mask mandate it is because people in new jersey are following the health guidelines to reduce risks that the numbers in children are low as a comparison note what is happening in florida to the number of cases in children where masks are banned 25 23 to 25 positivity rate thank you we appreciate your hard work nancy griffith 31 ridge street thank you to the board members for all of your hard work dedication and time i've seen firsthand how difficult it can be for you keeping some of you up at night i am writing to ask that you please allow mass to be optional for our children please allow me to continue to make the health decisions for my children that i've made since their birth please do not put my

117child's physical and mental health at risk by masking them during some of their most important social and emotional moments i'm simply asking that must be optional thank you let's see my next public comment is from katie sacco 45 springhouse lane good evening i believe mass wearing should be left up to the parent to decide my oldest of three children is about to enter kindergarten he is sick and frequently asked when things will be normal again when is the virus gone and why do i have to wear a mask again the adverse effects of mask wearing for a few weeks or months may not appear to cause harm but there is considerable damage being done to young children when that stretches on for years and years research shows that masks are not effective in preventing coping

11819 when used by young children we know that the fact of the matter is they are actually causing more harm than good it becomes soaked and filled with bacteria they also lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood they are causing irreversible physiological harm and as a teacher with a master's degree in special education i can say that mask wearing is muting the nonverbal forms of communication that are necessary for all young children to learn watching others speak is necessary for phonetic development please support the members of this town that ask for parental choice and mask wearing especially for our youngest and most vulnerable students thank you for your time next public comment is from dana juskin six brook ridge drive to whom it may concern please make masks optional for the school

119year parents should have the choice whether or not to mask their child there is absolutely no scientific data to corroborate that mask wearing will hinder the spread of covid there is however evidence to support the social and emotional risk to young children wearing masks i ask that every family is given the option whether or not to mask their child stephen juskin 66 bridge brook ridge road drive excuse me to whom it may concern please make wearing a mask optional for children this school year it's every family's right to decide what's in the best interest of their child and their family it's been evident young children are largely unaffected by covid and there's no data evidence to that indicates otherwise thank you next public comment from kamini domani for connington court basking ridge i'm writing to

120request that you find middle ground between mask wearing and unmasking one size does not fit all and this is especially true for growing children i am requesting that you consider making masks optional and to encourage those that are around illness or have active illness colds sore throats runny nose to wear a mask and no masks for healthy children thank you for your consideration next public comment is from nancy pierro 179 aspen drive i am not anti-mask i respect those people who choose to wear them like my mother who is 84 and afraid to get vaccinated but also afraid to get covered so she wears a mask everywhere i don't have an issue wearing one when asked to go to an appointment or in a certain store my 15 year old son with autism also will

121wear a mask if needed my concern is this my son can't express himself well verbally and has a very high tolerance for pain and discomfort my husband passed away in early july and he made me promise i wouldn't get our son vaccinated until there was more research our concern was if his chest pain or side effects that could be serious he wouldn't be able to tell us here's my other concern as i mentioned my husband passed in early july after a horrible battle with brain cancer i'm struggling to know how this is affecting my son because again he can't communicate to me he loves going to school and when he is in esy which was mass optional and he did not have to wear one he was finally breaking out and starting to talk more

122after going through a difficult year with his father's illness and being in school wearing a mask which makes it difficult for him to hear and be heard and read expressions i can't afford to ask him to hide behind a mask again in september and it should be my decision and that concludes public comment thank you mr syat mr mark hearing is there anything you want to add just with respect to the option two i would say i can reach out to a principal about it you know i could find out some information but i would also encourage the speakers if they haven't reached out to the principal to do the same okay thank you our next item is board forum board members this is corn well obviously i'm going to talk at board forum now

123since i said no to our policy um i want to start by saying that i know that we are doing everything to get back into school have school full-time and i to truly appreciate it and i know we're doing everything to try to make it as normal as possible for kids and i know how hard everyone's working i know how hard the staff and the administration and i know how much the board members care about it i really do i i feel like we all we're our board is to make sure the kids get the best education they can supporting their emotional their social emotional and learning right it's one of our things um the problem i have is and i have to agree with some of the speakers like this has been a long

124time i can't believe i am flabbergasted that we're going into september of 2021 and still here talking about it i feel like and i feel the frustration when we have parents coming up saying we want mass options i know it's a mandate everyone knows it's a mandate but when people have taken control away from you away from your control of your family and your kids it's a very emotional thing and the frustration being leveled is not i don't think it's us personally i think it's just frustration that the control you have over your family has been taken away from you like this this is not all about kobe these lockdowns have had serious serious effects on people's families like serious forget covid the lockdowns if you were dealing with a suicidal child during lockdown it's

125not fun it is a very serious thing lockdowns have their what they've done to to to the society has it has huge ramifications and the problem is that we're sitting here talking about masking children that aren't sick and and we're having and the governor's he's putting a medical mandate it's a medical intervention what's what mass are a medical intervention that we have to accept even if we think and all that data shows that kids are really the data just the the raw data shows that kids are the least susceptible to the disease but we're treating them like they're the most success you know they're most susceptible we're treating them like they're diseased kids the only place they have to wear masks they're coming to school like that's the only place so the problem i have

126is that i feel like we're teaching kids to be afraid of school to be afraid of each other when you're in when you're speaking with a mask on you can't really it's hard to hear it's hard to understand they're gonna be singing there all day little kids too like little five-year-olds i have friends if you're if you're a speech pathologist everyone reads lips when you talk when you speak everyone because that's how you helped you hear understand what they're saying so educationally if we talk about just educationally itself it seems like it's a wrong thing to do because all the teachers can be vaccinated and 12 and under can't and then this one that was just approved by the fda is only for 16 and over so which i don't know where it leaves the

127the kids in between there right now but um i'm trying to be i'm very emotional about it i'm trying not to be because i know it this is school this is we are mandated that they have to wear a mask but it's something we have to talk about because even i sent you the article it shows that even the cdc's own study showed that like we're doing it we're doing with the hepa filters that's great we're getting we our schools are are newer they're cleaner we can open windows that all works washing hands um but the other stuff doesn't the barriers are showing maybe actually be worse because they they block airflow or like the the constantly cleaning is not that good from although we're only down there once a day which is better but

128constantly that hasn't shown to be good but what i'm wondering is how many mandates what mandate aren't we going to push back on like like what what where do we draw the line from a mandate they've told us if you got your kid vaccinated everything's gonna go back to normal no they told you know don't worry don't worry it's gonna i i was i'm a positive person i was like oh my god this september it's gonna be great we're gonna get kids back to school normal we're going to we're going to it's going to end this constant constant covid so i'm afraid that every august we're going to be sitting right here doing the exact same thing we're doing right now every august what's going to stop it we already have the vaccines what's what's

129going to stop us from sitting here every august listening to parents please don't miss my child for the school year like like like like where does it end like what's the end game because the the the goal posts have been moved it's i feel like i have a i have mental health problems from it because when is it over is it we know children are not like what are we doing to kids so from 12 and under they can't get vaccinated right but if you if they watch tv you know what they hear every all day on tv it's the vaccinated you're unvaccinated it's your fault this is still going on like i'm no psychologist but i can't imagine that doesn't affect kids in some negative way if every show every newscast every program that's

130on television says it's the unvaccinated that is causing this problem and they can't get vaccinated so and then we're saying well you better put mass on because you're a danger to society if you don't and that's a real that's the message and i can't condone that i i really truly feel very strongly that is is the wrong thing to do for kids i know i don't i know we can't say no to the governor i guess i mean i know we our hands are kind of tied but we can say that we don't agree and really i don't know i just feel so strongly about it i personally feel strongly about it that we're doing kids a disservice kids aren't supposed to protect adults adults are supposed to protect kids and and i feel like

131we're failing in that a little bit not us personally i i i personally think everyone here is trying to we're trying to get school our job is to get school open you know seven five days a week get them in full day it's better for their education but what's going to stop governor murphy from putting us all just saying you know what numbers are up we're going all virtual even though we all know that's the worst thing for kids what do we do then like we have no control either even though we're supposed to be the ones who are like trying to do the best things for the kids it's just something that that really weighs heavy on me that i think that our kids deserve more you know and i'm not saying cope is

132not a real thing it is and i'm not saying ban mass i think it's a parent's choice it's like don't send your kids to school sick do what we did before and if you want if you feel safe with your kids wearing a mess by all means but it's not fair to parents who think it's really something that's going to affect their mental and physical health in a very detrimental way that they're forced to put mass on their kids even though they think is not something that's good for them you know and i that's how i feel about it and it's only my personal opinion but there's a lot of data too that they can't no one said to me you know what no one's come to us and said mass are good for kids

133i feel like we should have someone saying to us don't worry they're good for kids they're going to be positive except for someone from the new york times saying don't worry about it the women in the far east they wear burgers they learn how to speak man that's not the greatest you know that's not what i'm looking for i'm looking for that it does do no damage to children to wear masks and there's nothing that shows that that there's no collateral damage to children wearing masks all day with no end in sight with no like there's no like way to say it's not gonna don't worry it's only for this mad time it's like it's never ending this is our third year woman's right it's gonna be our third school year of this for something

134that i don't think it warrants this kind of um damage we're doing to kids i mean we have kids in new jersey i haven't been in school in over a year i mean we're our kids are lucky but what do we what about those poor kids you know i i don't know i just miss my rant but i can't i don't know i i'm so torn i don't even know what to do that we're still here talking we talked most of this meeting about medical intervention for children i want to ask the other members of the board because i don't i've been thinking about this all weekend i don't really personally have any issue at all with doing what this district has this board has done on a number of occasions which is write to

135the governor and say we disagree um or we would like local control we've we've done that with um parcc testing we've we have a history of writing uh letters from this board but we need to have agreement on that it's not something that we can do you know with independent opinions so i'm just curious what other board members think about that i don't know how much effect it would really have but i'm certainly not in favor again of going against what we've been instructed but i am open to the conversation with other board members mrs white you know i will always share my opinion um you know look i feel everybody's frustration um i i think it's a little disappointing that all the people you know not all there's still some people out there but

136a lot of people that came to the mic to voice their opinion didn't stick around to hear this conversation because i think it's important to hear i don't have any right answers or wrong answers you know there is so much we don't know and for every article that we read that says masks are good you find an article that says masks aren't good for every you know point of view you can find the counterpoint of you what i do believe a hundred percent is that we have parents in this audience that strongly feel it should be optional or there shouldn't be masks we also have parents that strongly feel please don't make it optional because then my kids will be at risk because then they'll be kids that aren't masked and my kid can't get

137vaccinated for whether it's a medical reason or there's no vaccine available so you we are stuck between a heart rock and a hard place and you know i i get that you know many people feel that the masks are a layer of protection um but there is this mandate and i'm not a doctor and i'm not a scientist and it keeps me up at night to think if i make a decision that is beyond my area of expertise and one kid gets sick because of this like what's that magic number that's okay for something to happen and you know when jen says you know she gets emotional about this i think we all do because that keeps me up at night it's not just about my kids it is about other people's kids and i

138i totally understand it's a parent's choice whether to vaccinate or not vaccinate like that's not the issue the issue is how much pushback do we give to the governor about something that isn't asking about education i'm an educator i was a teacher i was an administrator i'm not a doctor i don't know the right answer i really don't and i i hear everything you're saying jen and i and i know that it's there are kids yes that are suffering because they're in the masks but there's a part of me that's but they're alive and they're not sick so i don't i don't know how i feel about it you know i was very much in support you know a few months ago when things were looking better to say let's let parents make the decision

139and then six weeks later our numbers are you know we're where we are and i i don't know missing um i just wanted to say that i see both sides of the argument i see both sides of the story both sides are very strong for their own reasons and so when jen was speaking i could understand jen where you're coming from because i have little kids in the district and i go through it with them and so i do feel that frustration as a parent with the masks and when we were finishing the school year in june we were all very hopeful that things were getting better and the masks you know were not as required or and then the mandate was lifted and and it made my family very happy i can tell you

140that um but with that being said there's a reason that we're still talking about it and there's a reason why this is such a controversial topic for so many families in the district and well you know to be frank throughout the world so it's not a localized problem it's a global pandemic it doesn't happen often and i'm very hopeful that it does go away or minimalizes very soon and it's not such a hot topic and we can talk about other things like sports and budgets again i'm hopeful for that but again there's a reason why we're still talking about it because numbers are going up and maybe we're not seeing it so directly in our you know related community but globally they're going up and in the us they're going up and we we have

141a lot of cases in our county now which we didn't before and so again i think when when vigilance isn't there people do get vulnerable and that's when you get a little too comfortable and i don't want to go one side or the other right now because it's just not there's not enough information out there still you know there's variants now we weren't talking about variants before it was it was covered kova 19 coven 19. now we're hearing about delta and there's other variants out there that aren't even you know making the news yet because it's not so big but the life of a pandemic is is very interesting because it does modify and it changes and it adapts to you know whatever organism it's in and i know that from taking public health classes

142so i just i i do understand why we have this mandate and i'm not i'm not ready to push back yet because i'm scared of that risk for our kids you know i i have little kids like i said and lots of us have kids that are still in the district and and so we're worried about them and we're worried about the kids in all of our schools and so i i'm um i'm also at a loss for a decision but i don't want to go against the governor if there's not enough information out there to say no this doesn't work for me so just my thoughts thanks miss schaefer jen i so see your passion and your emotion and i feel it i mean well first of all just you know i'm dying to

143get home to help my daughter pack for college for tomorrow morning so i'm emotional already that said mrs gray to your point this is a community issue it's not just a community of basking ridge or bernards township it's much bigger than that and kovid doesn't know boundaries we our numbers might be low but we have people who travel to all communities within the state out of the state we're hiking all over the place we're going we're going on vacation there aren't there's reasons why we have rules that are set by state government because it has to be done that way we can't as a town make decisions about pollution because bernard's you know township's decided one thing but um burnsville do something else i mean there to me it's this is a reason that the

144state is making a decision and so kovid's not going to respect the line between bernardsville and basking ridge we have to go with what the state has to say um so just two quick things before i obviously talk about masks um number one is the the lunch 15 20 minute thing i i think i think we were saying that 15 minutes is for like eating time but we're not saying the lunch period is 15 minutes the kids are we want them to eat in the 15 minutes but then they'll have time to socialize and do their other things right okay um which i think is sort of consistent with what i've seen um the other part is um the quarantine so i know we're gonna try to to make all the seating arrangements at the

145three feet mark so we don't have any close contacts if we do have a quarantine i i know that you know the committee talked about it and said you know it's best to do um like an individualized plan with a teacher so i'm hoping that uh that is truly like kind of you know based on the student the teacher what level they're at so like you know maybe it's easier for rich kids to zoom because their schedule is so kind of delineated whereas for elementary kids you know it's not it's a little more flexible so i just hope that you know at the elementary levels we're you know uh really coming up with some sort of plan or best practice there and i know that's a little bit of a work in progress but um

146especially i know that there's like a household close contact role which is kind of like the worst of the worst uh then you're out you can be out for a while so um in those cases i hope we kind of you know aren't rigidly set to whatever is working for the kids that are under the the shorter quarantines but if somebody has to do be a whole household close contact and has like a 10 or 15 day quarantine i hope we you know can come up with something that maybe it is zooming in for that you know one kid and i i wouldn't be opposed even if it's you know one kid for being out for that long especially at the elementary school level i wouldn't be opposed to that um so i hope we're

147gonna come up with something good there um on the on the mask side so uh okay um so i don't i don't know why this is like uh i mean i obviously know why everybody's frustrated right i'm just i'm one of them i'm still a member of the community even though i am also an elected volunteer uh but like it's not really rocket science what's going on here with i think i feel like everybody's just like overlooking the executive order which is like a which is a law uh i i know jenny said like you know i know we have a mandate and everybody knows that but i'm not sure if we're really giving that the credit that it's due it is a law like we have to follow it is it a law if

148it's not through the legislature it is a law an executive order has the force of law so i'm just i'm asking yeah no and i'm telling you and that's why the attorney that spoke up here i'm not sure i was i don't know i don't know which lawsuit she's bringing maybe to challenge the constitutionality of the executive order under the new jersey state constitution but you know to me that's a decision that has been made murphy already made that same thing in the summer right masks were optional and it was great everybody for eosy mess were optional that was fine now masks aren't optional so like we i'm i'm nev i'm not going to really be in support of a position that would be violative of a law or executive order or really anything you

149know like any uh legislation in the state so i i'm that i i don't i'm not it's not going to convince me to when somebody says be a leader or be brave or don't be a coward or something like that i'm not going to say we should violate an executive order the second part of this is the kind of science aspect and the medical aspect of this um i i like i said before i don't feel comfortable being like an amateur immunologist everybody comes to the microphone with studies and videos and podcasts and things like that but i by saying that to us you're assuming that governor murphy and the cdc are ignoring those things that you're finding um and i i guess i'm not i don't i don't believe that i believe that they

150are taking those things into account when they make these rules and these mandates so if it's a mandate i'm i'm just going to follow it and on it like i just want to say one other thing and and uh you know i think miss white said this too jen said this too like i i really personally feel like the the argument that only two kids are dead or or only a few kids are hospitalized i don't i don't know why that's a good thing to say i i don't get that that's just my personal opinion but um just to kind of because i was called out i just want to reiterate like i don't feel comfortable making health decisions for kids um if you know murphy changes the mandate to mask optional that's great i

151would be in support of that too i hope that is the case at some point um and then parents can make their own decisions but while it's in an executive order i don't feel comfortable you know relying on a study that somebody found or a video that they saw or a podcast that they listened to it's just i'm not going to be in support of that this is why i just want to add you know yes we are elected and yes we are elected by you and we are board members but we're also moms and we're also dads and we may not necessarily all agree or see things from the same point of view but we're all coming from the same place which is we want our kids to be safe we want our kids

152to be healthy we want our kids to be happy and i just don't want that to get lost because there is so much animosity in the community about you know you're not you're not making the decision that i want you to make and now i'm just going to get angry and angrier and tell you i elected you but you're not doing what i want so and i understand that you know i i totally understand that but at the end of the day also um we're just we're we are parents and we are volunteers and we are we are just trying to do the best we can with a really really you know terrible terrible situation and i'd like to say we have the answers i really do but we don't and that's you know that's

153that's the harsh reality of this miss schaefer i also just want to add that i think it's not well known but certainly any of us and all of us actually have spent time on the policy committee we are told things to do all of the time by the state this is not unusual we don't operate in a vacuum here in basking ridge in burna township and say this is what we're going to do we work within guidelines set by the state by the gov federal government i mean by you know all kinds of things all the time are coming at us so we're not just you know being told what to do in this one case i mean this is this is sort of the way that we work we can set and and decide

154on you know how these are going to be implemented but we're given a lot of mandates i i just um i want to kind of address two things something that that miss schaefer said and something mr salmon said i don't want to be misconstrued as having suggested that we go against a an executive order what i was saying is like many other legislative decisions that are made in this state and many others uh small groups of local volunteers or whatever we want to be called by the public tonight elected officials do in fact try to influence decisions that's how everything works down in trenton so if it's and i'm hearing that it's and that works both ways by the way [Music] if it's something that is not the will of this board then i mean

155i'm all for the uh the democratic process here and we are a body of nine and five of us at a minimum would have to be in favor of such a thing i was putting the question to the group because i think it's important to know where everybody stands and i think we heard from the group that's here tonight obviously we have three board members unable to attend tonight so that that's one piece of it the the other piece is kind of i think ms schaefer and ms white both both addressed this a little bit the comments that were made tonight about us as elected officials what what struck me is the ease and willingness of members of the community to suggest that the singular issue of masks defines the work that we commit to

156this district and to the children who live here and i just categorically refute that we work all the time we've got five committees that meet routinely we these meeting meet committee meetings go on for hours we make decisions that have financial implications that have educational curricular implications that have personnel implications and i forget which one of you said this but to to bring it down to you're not making the decision that i want about masks and reducing it to that is really unfortunate and i would submit to the group that has vacated the room that perhaps that's why there aren't 25 people running for board of education this november because it's not all that appealing and it's not all that rewarding at times there's plenty of times where it is and it's it's definitely a

157challenge without covid so bring covet into the picture and obviously it's exactly what you're witnessing here tonight and for the last 17 months so i just encourage the members of the public that we're so quick to if they're at home listening maybe reduce us down to one decision about masks be mindful of everything else that is going right that we had students in school in the spring when other districts didn't have any students in school and didn't even make an effort to try to get students into school there are a host of areas that were still very high functioning while this pandemic raged on for us and that doesn't mean there weren't plenty of areas for improvement but that's what we work on that's what this group tries to do with the support of the

158administration i say one more thing there's one more sorry it's all right and and tim i don't think anyone was saying that that children's deaths are acceptable but what you're saying is that the risk reward is very unbalanced for what we're doing to kids okay number two a zero coveted policy is a failure a policy failure and i don't know when it's going to change i'm not saying we're going to defy the um the governor i know we can't i know it's a mandate all i'm saying is that one when what may what step what would be the step that would make it be too far that's all that's all i'm asking like what mandate would we not do like i'm on the board because of mandates i'm on the board because of the testing

159mandates that we had that i went to trenton i guess i'm going to go back to trenton i don't know like i don't even know what to do about this that i think is negatively affecting my children and other children now other people think other ways ver just as strong i know that so we're on the board we have the balance that's why i was i was thinking like i don't know why you'd mandate masks when you could have it optional when that would be fair i guess to everyone because if i feel as strongly that's all i'm saying i'm not saying that you know it doesn't matter if kids die that's ridiculous no one wants anyone to die but people die every day and that's a terrible thing but it's the truth and people

160are dying of cancer and people are dying all kinds of things but we're punishing our children that's how i feel i feel like children are punished for the adults fear of covet i mean i'm not epidemiologist either but there there is a lot of information you say we don't know a lot we know a ton we know a ton of information and it's the cdc numbers it's not i'm not looking at numbers that are like just like a rando like a wacko from the from twitter these are cdc numbers so and i'm and and we can't no we're not medical people we can't make the decision but we can say wow the you know that's my check the the governor wasn't a doctor either okay and the recommendation from the cdc was was masking in

161high when there was high transmission areas which we are not the governor made his decision he messed all the kids in new jersey europe does not match children at all they think it negatively affects them and they've made that decision that's europe that's the uk which just had their variant and it is going down it's gone down a ton so they've been through the delta variant they didn't miss their children at all so with the studies coming out of europe are saying that masking children's is detrimental to them now we're not europe i know i'm just saying that i guess we have to accept governor murphy being in charge of my kids health with his medical mandate of wearing a math okay i don't have to like it though and i don't want kids to

162die i don't want anyone to die that's just that's just not what this is about this is about putting in onerous putting the weight of all this on our kids shoulders and that's how i feel what we're doing is there any way to think about reframing that and i know i'm not going to change anybody's opinion but to me the idea of blaming kids is wrong absolutely i don't see though masking everybody i mean i'm asked now everywhere i'm vaccinated i'm healthy but i see it as a community protection why can't we reframe it a little for our kids and not say we're not punishing you we're i mean and for all the people who said you know how can you stand it for six hours there are some of us who work and we

163are masked all day long so you know we are aware of how this this goes um can we just reframe it a little bit and make it a more no it's not a positive thing jen will never come up with with studies that say this is something that's good i will say that like this isn't positive like it's great that we're all wearing masks except for the lack of the flu last year that was actually a good sign but the you know we could think about reframing this with our kids and help them i think kids are more resilient than people give them credit for but we don't know what's the problem it's an experiment we don't know how how it comes out and i appreciate that i appreciate like that yeah i i don't

164want my kid to get used to wearing a mask i don't think that's healthy but i appreciate and i'm sorry that you had to get vaccinated and then had to wear a mask because i think you were bait and switched and it seems like people got vaccinated and they're like you're good you're your health and now you know but that's my that's my personal opinion right on the board we have to i know there's both sides but yeah i just think that there's nothing we can do and i think we did a great job we did we did a great job getting kids back in school and and we have great schools and we have great dedicated people it's just it's just a it's a shame that's what's happening that's all it's a shame i

165just and it's that's all this is white i mean this is something you know we could spend hours and hours and hours going around around so i i guess to in my mind kind of focus it for me i think look we have this mandate we know that their kids that have a hard time with the with the mask so to me then what we need to focus on and we need to help our teachers and the administrators do is focus on how can we make it a better experience for the kids who have they have to wear masks september 8th you come to school you have to wear a mask what are we going to do what are the teachers going to do to make that a better situation especially for the elementary kids

166where it is harder because that's the reality for whether it's for a month or two we don't know how long it is until perhaps we will be given that option perhaps he will say it we'll give it to the locals you can decide numbers are better but we're not there so we need something tangible to do because we have this mandate so let's focus the energies on okay what are steps that can be taken to make it better for the kids in the classroom while they're wearing masks no i'm just i know but just to say like that's where we are it's rhetorical it's rhetorical but i do agree and we've talked about this in committee meetings this is this is the subject of discussion i'm sure in many meetings board members aren't even at

167every day right you're right i don't think there's anyone who works in the district who isn't who is sitting around going how do we make this horrible let's make it as bad as possible no they're sitting there thinking okay how can we make this something that the kids are going to be able to get through the day and feel like they've had a productive and hopefully social experience while still working within the confines of the mandate and keep in mind you know where we were last year versus where we are this year all the kids are coming back so yes they're going to have their masks on but all their friends are going to be there and yes they're not going to be on top of them but you can have a conversation you know

168a couple feet away they're going to be at lunch together they're going to be at their gym together they're going to be walking to school together like except for you know the mask we're trying to get back to normalcy and you know we weren't there a year ago so for those kids who struggled a lot of their struggle was the isolation of remote learning and that is gone our kids are coming back and i think that we we can't lose sight of the importance and hopefully the positivity that that's going to make for the kids we've got to keep them in school and if the masks help that happen we've got to keep out the school you know going and that masks might be the difference between having everybody quarantined or not so let's keep

169doing it keep them in school we all want that all right so too to mr markarian it's a very eloquent point this could go on for a long time if we especially if we change the focus of the conversation so um if board members don't have anything they want to add can i see an emotion for adjournment a few ms singh and mr salmon all in favor you