Hillsborough Board of Education Meeting 11 08 2021

001board of education in accordance with the state sunshine law of new jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the hillsborough hillsborough township board of education was provided on november 4th 2021 to the hillsborough beacon and the courier news mr mahmoud may we have a roll call please mr gilette here mr kid here mr marini uh present mrs maroon here is his nurse here mr oliver mr pulcifer here mrs statz here and mr trujillo here we have a quorum thank you very much mr mahmoud and now i'd like to turn it over to mr vincent delucia from the new jersey school boards association for board training tonight and take it away thank you everybody good morning good afternoon i get all confused this time of day quite frankly it's that transition time i've been solution i

002know i've met some of you i hope to meet others of you at further trainings but what we have in front of you tonight is uh really a a powerpoint you all have we'll have copies of this and in the interim you know what i like to do is begin with just say have a little bit of idea of who i am and really kind of what my interests are as an entrance and i've been an educator for a long time however in my other time i enjoy uh history photography uh and music and my family and those are just some photos i've taken over the last many years actually um the top two photos are from wartly beach just north of seaside uh on the bottom left is the world trade center as it

003was being constructed many years ago and on on the right is bruce springsteen and uh my sons my wife and i have seen bruce about 55 times and we're still counting quite frankly we're gonna be talking tonight about inherent bias and the title of the program is deliberate and it's deliberate because we have no control over our biases until we identify them i also want to give you an idea of my educational background a little bit of my resume i spent 34 years in in public schools i've done a lot of professional development over uh over my career i also had a small business and i also was uh um the mayor of south brunswick at one time many years ago and i raised that because you know public officials today are um under under

004fire at different times and unfortunately so regardless what our beliefs are uh in my time it was about preserving land it was about saving farms it was about having a decent economy but you also notice the last line on there there also was corruption and to make a long story short an investigation that i initiated with the feds led to the um the guilt of the aid to the then senate president of the state of new jersey for attempting to bribe me now i say that not because of that but because when you take a position sometimes you're marked what does that mean my home was broken into four times nothing was ever stolen they would go through my briefcase for two years they took my garbage every week the fbi was in the window

005watching them they were trying to get some something on me to have me change my positions so what i'm suggesting to you that as public servants being elected or selected there are a lot of pressures that you're on and i understand them but what does work is a focus on the issues and the focus on the facts and honoring discussions and i say that this evening because that's also the way i conduct my professional learning if you've been with me before is that this is meant to be an open dialogue this is not meant to be a lecture at all so i do ask you to interrupt i do ask you to ask questions and i will honor your time as well i also believe it's very important that we have a reason for what

006we do as volunteers or even if you have a paid position there are a lot of times that you're out at night you're away from your family or your friends or the things that you enjoy doing in your spare time oftentimes it's thankless for me throughout my career i focused on my north stars those late night meetings or those meetings that made no sense be it my kids when they were younger or today it's my grandkids and i say that specifically as well because i do want to share a couple little things one of which is that on the on the lower right is my granddaughter she's in first grade she was diagnosed at two as being on the spectrum we were told she would never speak well she speaks and although she's maybe a

007year behind i'm good with it because now she's reading so what i'm suggesting is because of a board of education that was devoted to every kid in the district because of phenomenal educators being certificated or not certificated and i will say i have a lot of pride in my son and his wife because they have done phenomenal things with with with gia as well as nick who is their other child now the iowa school boards association uh suggests that when you're doing this work there are certain things that we should do ahead of time and one of the things is to talk about how we got involved with in this case uh fairness and inherent bias etc for me was part of the family business that's my father my father was an urban educator before

008the term was even coined the city of hackensack uh and uh as you can see in 1954 despite being in a diverse city the classes were not diverse that school was actually closed in the early 60s became part of hackensack high school so that they could then redistrict build another school and really have classes that were more reflective of that community in that city but what we were truly talking about this evening ladies and gentlemen we have to prepare our kids for their futures and not our pasts and everything we do has to be in that lens the preparation that i went through decades ago that many of you went through more recently is still strong it's a foundation but we're preparing kids for a different world not just from a point of technology but

009from the point of we have an evolving and fortunately diversifying society now when we think about in those terms what are the things the skills that the experts quote unquote say kids will need kids today in school will need to be successful in their careers according to both fortune magazine the national education association and others who have done this work kids who are graduating today and tomorrow need to feel and understand empathy they need to be able to relate to other people and their situations now why is that important because in our world there are very few jobs that are done in isolation overwhelmingly we work in teams we work collaboratively so not only do we have to have empathy but our kids need to be able to collaborate to critically think and to be

010creative when i talk to my grandson and i start telling him about his various traits if i leave out creativity i get smacked down as i should be because it is that important and that our kids need to believe in themselves in that way and the third one is communication but it's not just talking or writing it's about how we form our messages see the research is clear if we tell things in a in a story kids remember people remember because we make connections in our in our brains so today we need to communicate communicate effectively use multi multi means of doing so and do it in a way which is strategic so that those hearing the message will truly understand and remember it our nation we are changing as we have been since the

011first settlers came but we look at our uh census the most recent one and we compare it to the last two we also see that we are well on the way to becoming a minority majority nation as a matter of fact since 2015 there have been 50 metropolitan areas around the country from boston to texas to california 50 cities in areas that are minority majority since 2019 total population of those states are minority majority since that time under 18 our nation is a minority majority nation and but which means that our elementary schools nationally today our middle schools our high school state of 12 is a minority majority population what does that also mean that by 2041 based on the statistics our country will be a minority majority nation it speaks to the need for

012all of us to have an understanding of each other and all of us to have an understanding of how our inherent biases are formed because we are victims of them it's it's it's the brain literally we'll get to that in a few moments but i also want to distinguish between equality and equity there's a lot of misconceptions we're not talking about equality in terms of our constitution in this case we're talking about equality or equity in our interventions and how we assist people our kids etc see in the top row there was no thought about differentiation in the top row if you notice everybody got the same size bike even if they didn't need it but we're talking about equity what's equity equity is giving the very specific interventions a person needs a differentiated instruction

013etc that someone needs to be successful we don't give everybody eyeglasses because one person has them we give them to those who need that type of assistance as you can see in that bottom row each individual has a bike that's designed to help them succeed and that is what equity is nothing more nothing less it's ensuring that the appropriate tools are available for our learners our staff our families etc and i'm going to tell you a true story it's about six years old happened in berkeley california high school the first day of school was an ap physics class as juniors and seniors entered the class the teachers sitting on the desk greeting each kid individually however for each student of color the teacher asked to see their schedule he didn't ask anybody else to schedule

014he did not do it in a mean way he had no mal intention but his inherent bias was and it's very similar you're going to see data from across the country and you're going to see data from my last district northwest township what you're going to see is that adults people in general make assumptions based on their inherent biases and unless we teach them i take that back unless they discover through means what their biases are they will continue those biases those behaviors so what did he do was it prejudice it was not prejudice it was not racism they're very different concepts those are concepts that are intentional this is not an intentional act he was just having conversation and he was influenced by inherent biases now inherent bias has something that that leads into

015something else and they're called microaggressions now microaggressions are not physical things they are verbal things and i'm going to talk a little bit about them in a few moments but what they are they are the results of our inherent biases so i can't emphasize enough implicit bias does not equal racism or prejudice overt racism is a conscious decision implicit explicit implicit bias is not however when we become aware of our inherent biases and i mean each one individually not in mass if we do not modify our behaviors and attitudes that is when they become prejudice there's a big difference now this is this slide is literally a message is three years old you may recall in the fall early fall of a starbucks in philadelphia had an incident that led to them closing all their

016starbucks doors for a full day to do professional learning for their staff to ensure that all customers and employees and others were treated with uh with fairness and dignity because you see implicit bias it impacts all parts of our society now when i started doing this research and started doing this work over 10 years ago i i had a misconception misconception was that i was going to be talking about race ethnicity or spirituality and it goes a lot deeper than that the nba did a study between 1991-04 they assessed the way officials were calling fouls in the mba what they learned there was inherent bias in the files were being called this was not conscious decisions on the on the part of the referees it was because of unfiltered information that they had that impacted

017their decisions you may recall this is the one on the left is from south jersey in 2019 state tournament a wrestler uh in buena new jersey was uh going to be eliminated from the state tournament after wrestling for two months because he had dreadlocks the photo there is a the team trainer cutting his dreadlocks his choice was he was he wanted to participate in the state tournament right before he was going to wrestle he had his dreads cut what resulted well the nj sia the interscholastic association at overseas athletics in state of new jersey they determined as have others that our officials interscholastic officials needed training and inherent bias anti-bias training so for two years which ended this past june 30th to officiate in new jersey at the interscholastic level every one of those officials

018uh took a training in bias on the other side that's just from the spring from north carolina female softball player you can see she has beads in her hair the umpire made her either told that she had to remove the beads or cut her hair because the beads were interfering with his being able to see the number six on her back i don't think so and i'm not also going to criticize the umpire because unless that umpire has had the benefit of training he or she i don't know who it was he or she is as much of a victim as that player so what happened was the nj sia they actually uh joined with the nfl in order to do that training over the last two years um and it's something that hopefully it's

019one of those steps forward because we all we always want to make forward progress food and nutrition this is from a journal i'm not a dietitian by any means i know how to eat however um what this is about is how to help parents whose kids are picky eaters and how to teach them to be intuitive eaters well the only thing that's being suggested is to have a variety of foods that kids can choose from that are healthy but it ignores the fact that in some areas primarily urban areas having access to fresh produce and even or at all or at a reasonable price is challenging so instead of having other alternatives and this is again over a year old this is from 2020. so instead of having other alternatives there was only one pathway

020well as we know as educators and as board members there is seldom one pathway to teach kids this is from 2018. uh harvard we've heard a lot about um more direct bias and prejudice in our asian american community but there are other factors which you need to understand and we need to have these understand these factors so that we can share them with the other adults in our district or our world that are working with kids because harvard consistently rated asian americans applicants lower than others on traits like positive personality likeability courage kindness and being widely respected and the third point asian musicians at the graduate level who were applying to harvard if they only submitted an audio tape they had a better chance of being accepted than if the audio tape was accompanied by

021a video because there was a perceived lack of emotion on the video bias and regardless of the stereotype negative or positive positive and negative stereotypes negatively impact those groups of individuals because their unrealistic expectations if they're positive and they're unfair if they're negative this one's close to me my as i said my granddaughter is on the spectrum if you are a female you are less likely to be diagnosed at an earlier age and we know that the magic cut off is the age of three after the age of three becomes increasingly difficult to intervene successfully to kids on the spectrum now why the why is the media but not in a negative way the media portrays those on the spectrum frequently on tv shows movies but almost exclusively they are males so the media in

022our minds we're seeing males as being autistic but then there's the other piece as well that females are able to mask their quote-unquote symptoms that's a horrible word but what they're able to do is they're better to analyze the behaviors of others and repeat those behaviors so what's happening today in in their 30s and older there are more and more females who are being diagnosed as being on the spectrum but they're going for assistance for anxiety and depression the anxiety and depression has been has been shown to lead directly to their being on the spectrum and trying to deliberately behave and think before they act in each way artificial intelligence love it it's biased these are just some of the headlines why are they biased two reasons one of which is humans are programming them

023but the other is this you know our smartphones our technology is able to teach itself and what's happening is that when our technology is learning about the images of different people overwhelmingly the images that are seen of women are not in professional settings they are in domestic settings so because they are teaching themselves but they're teaching themselves with arrows or flawed images the result is not what we want it to be biased in healthcare fewer cardiovascular interventions fewer renal transplants more likely to die after being diagnosed with breast cancer less likely to be prescribed a pain med likely receive less likely receive chemotherapy more likely to be blamed all stats from the ama and related places now the why it's our brain's fault it truly is our brain is constantly making connections it's trying to

024seek patterns it's trying to make sense of things but there's only so much we can absorb throughout the day every day since you were born essentially 11 million bits of information are being bombarded at your brain per second 11 million bits the conscious mind can only interpret 40 to 50. now what does that mean the other 10 million bits are stored in our memory banks when we're making a decision we see a conversation we see something going on and we're trying to make sense of it our brains are literally making connections with information that's never been filtered or or or interpreted but yet it goes into our memory breaks and it comes out as whatever our decision whatever our thoughts are at that moment that is the basis for inherent bias you'll see something in

025a few moments from researchers saying no way should we be demonizing people for their inherent biases of course unless we do the right thing and do the work and identify them and we'll talk about that as well so this is a part of this uh conversation which i dread quite frankly there's a nervous smile behind my mask why well if i'm gonna have any credibility with you i really need to share with you um something that bothered me for many years and it really is an example of my inherent bias so way back uh you may some of you may recall hurricane andrew way back in the early 90s south miami it was uh devastating well that camper is a picture of a camper uh my family i used went all over this country and

026that summer we went to the southeast and then we decided to go down to miami area to see family we were there a few days and i kept hearing about this hurricane coming well i realized it was time to go north you know who knew what the devastation could be and it was a good decision so on a tuesday night i think it was we left uh dade county about 7 30 at night driving up route 95 coming back to new jersey have you ever driven 95 it's a great road at night there's not one light there's no streetlights so about five miles from an exit going north uh that tire literally blew i pulled it's about 2 30 in the morning i pulled off the side of the road on the shoulder i had

027to be changed i looked at my surroundings i knew it wasn't safe so i think let me drive to the next exit there's got to be one of those big truck stops gloves or those places maybe take a shower or whatever no so uh we drive about five miles pull off the road there was a service station not a truck stop the area was a nice big plot of land it was dark it was open the service station looked like it came out of the twilight zone quite frankly i could even hear the tweaking of the the sign so i pulled off to the side it was open i did not want to be in the way i uh detached the trailer jacked it up when i went to take the tire off i literally

028needed a half an inch to clear the fender half an inch now it's about three o'clock i was driving through i really didn't want to hook this trailer back up so i literally stood there like this when the door of the gas station opened the door opened i see these two men walk out i look in the back seat of my car when my two kids are sleeping or my wife is sitting in the front seat this is the most embarrassing thing i can tell you folks but the truth is i thought of my i thought my family's safety for no valid reason but the fact that two i'm a big guy two black african-american men about my size were coming out towards me i had no reason to suspect anything and i tell you

029in a very embarrassing way i did think something else so what they do they came over we said hello they picked up the trailer so i could take the tire off put it on and goes on my way i offered to pay them they said absolutely not pay it forward we exchanged some nice season left i mean i tell you right now i'm still embarrassed about it i had worked in the city in some of the roughest neighborhoods never had a second thought but that evening i did well folks i asked you to think about the impact that my behavior put me back in the classroom what would my behavior have had the effect on parents or kids if when kids of color or parents of color came into my room it would have a

030devastating effect and i submit to you you're going to hear other data that with the untrained eye that is what's happening nobody's fault no one is doing it intensely when i had those thoughts that night in south carolina they were not intentional thoughts i was a victim of what had been unfiltered in my own mind now you will all have a copy of this by the way tomorrow this presentation is already in the district i encourage you on your own to um look up harvard's project implicit why it's a a series of about 20 tests each one takes two to three minutes on the computer and what happens you will get an assessment of what your inherent biases are and don't forget they can be positive or negative but they're still a bias these are

031some of well these are most of the tests mostly assessments for each of these areas that are assessed in that and since you'll have a copy this i'm not going to read this but i encourage you to ask yourself those questions to reflect after you take these assessments it is the best way for you to have an understanding and as leaders of the district it's the best way to be the exemplars because we really want all the adults in our district to do this we also want to encourage our parents to do this these are the other examples of inherent biases quite a few of them at the end of the day it's always about relationships kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care president teddy roosevelt said that

032but he said people which is obviously an expanded version so i've talked about a little bit now let's think about those impacts i showed you a list before look at this there is a bias of low expectations there is there's a bias of low expectations according to the national education association and their polling of some 15 000 teachers and there's a bias that i'm also going to share with you that was identified when two teachers at northwestern township high school did a triangulated study about 13 years ago now which demonstrated the exact same data that the national data reports it's critical if you're a coach if you are an activity director if you teach music if you're an academic teacher or a special teacher it's critical that our kids know that we believe in them

033that's the number one factor that can impact the kid in a very easy way positive or negatively if not we've all heard those why did at least growing up people will always meet the bar of expectations if we challenge them realistically it's healthy if we don't challenge them at all it's an insult and if we don't believe in them we're doing both research does my teacher believe in me this is going to be reflected in in the local data teachers have lower expectations for black and latino students versus their white tears the same thing holds true when kids are taking their tests or doing their work many of them are thinking will will does this teacher does this adult believe in me and it impacts them this is from a few months ago pisa an

034international test you know right now over the last several months in new jersey in particular but across the country as schools are on this pathway back to hopefully normalcy at some point there's been a organized movement that we need to be um advocating and emphasizing an asset mindset versus a deficit mindset where where we are will contribute to our achievement and our growth well here 600 000 kids 15 year olds in 78 countries the bottom line is in red when compared to students who believe their intelligence fixed students with a growth mindset scored significantly higher on all subjects and you can see what the numbers are of the kids in the united states 70 percent uh reported a a growth mindset does my teacher believe in me do my parents believe in me do i

035believe in me the same thing holds true when it comes to behaviors folks again this is based on inherent biases these are not conscious decisions that are being made these are the adults as well as the kids are victims of inherent biases this explains the perceptions that adults have based on their biases on who's doing what in schools in terms of behavior the escalation of behave of those things and that because it's their preconceived motion notion that our kids of color are are more troublesome well the the infractions then require harsher punishments in those worlds all things that data will affirm all things that can be addressed and all things that are not being done deliberately the bias of low expectations it becomes a self-fulfilling behavior when we label kids they know the labels we

036have for them going to any school kid may be not the model student in class a in class b that student is the model student what's the difference oftentimes it's the relationship between the teacher and the student as a student that is accepting is believing and separates behaviors from the child what does that mean if we say that a kid is a who gets into a fight as a fighter that's his label if we say a good kid got into a fight he said that the label is a good kid changing the mindset changes everything for a child for an adult it's a human behavior so we have three different types of implicit bias excuse me we have three types of bias we have explicit bias which is prejudice suppressed thoughts or when we believe

037things but we choose not to say them because we don't want to create a star example unfortunately my wife is a cigarette smoker never have been we go into out with friends she doesn't want our friends to know that she's still smoking her cigarettes it's something we don't talk about it's a suppressed thought implicit bias is what we've been talking about now if you notice explicit and suppressed thoughts or conscious behaviors implicit isn't unconscious behavior and they oftentimes lead into microaggressions these are not physical acts these are comments we that are made the way we treat people verbal or nonverbal they fall to three categories insults assaults and invalidations if you notice an assault again we're talking about essentially unintentional unconscious behaviors you know an assault is after telling an anti-semitic joke as the speaker

038says i was just kidding it doesn't doesn't really cut it an insult uh commenting that or implying i should say a comment implying that a woman received her job due to affirmative action an invalidation the ap physics teacher we talked about at the beginning every kid in that class belonged in there he only asked kids of color because of his inherent bias i'm not going to read these these are some of the examples in our society or in schools of ways that microaggressions appear as a as an administrator in two different districts in middlesex county one of the things that bothered me always was when my colleagues didn't really practice the all the names of their kids at things like graduation and mispronounced the name the one time or one of a few times that

039a kid is center stage and we didn't get it right was is it on purpose no but the emotional impact for that kid or his family is still the same words matter i mentioned any a study sixteen thousand teachers were interviewed they talked both black and non-black teachers asking who would graduate from high school who would grad from college you can see what the result is when asked about any specific black student non-black teachers were 30 less likely than a black teacher to predict a specific black kid would someday earn a college degree for white kids it was about the same that's national stuff i'm going to talk about north brunswick soon but that is the same now what's important is this this is at a set out of american university if nothing else we

040should not be demonizing or implicating teachers in this setting or just the adults in general because these are not intentional acts what we need to do is provide professional learning and that support structure so we can change the climate through education ohio state's carbon institute very similar implicit bias may influence the teachers expect expectations for sex for success if you notice that there are two different studies meta-analysis holding lower expectations either implicitly or or explicitly for african-american latino kids when compared to european american or asian children we need to have high expectations for all kids realistic not the same one differentiated but we need to have high expectations for all the consequences of implicit bias are real it robs people of compassion for making connections to victims it makes some people feel defensive when they

041should not be defensive they didn't do anything what do we do our brains did it and we haven't done the work yet to understand it every year it takes about five years i'm still waiting for this this year's to come out for the one the most recent one this is this is from a year ago so the next one coming out will be the 16-17 school year this is the number of instructional days lost for 100 kids for 180 school day school year the two i bring to your attention the second one in from the left are black kids 103 days and all the way at the end our special ed kids uh 68 days it's a lot of days lost how many of those were yeah they were suspended so they didn't get a

042day of work yeah suspensions yeah now the good news is is that every state is making improvements so i don't want to leave you with the impression it's not being addressed because it is the questions become and and that's not a this is not a a a a specific comment it's the general comment that each district has to reflect on how effectively are they doing it and each district has its own results this is this is just from a few weeks ago latino students misdiagnosed with learning disabilities etc when i got to north brunswick camp and i could take that back it wasn't um i was i was there it has nothing to do with my thera not being there in north brunswick i want to make that clear north brunswick township in uh had

043a 22 percent classification rate for black males twenty two percent it should be about fifteen to fourteen percent not uncommon there is a collective action plan from the doe it took several years in order to make those numbers more real the classifications were made many times because of poor judgment and poor data school-to-prison pipeline i'm not getting into the details but there is a school-to-prison pipeline we know that but that's also why there are efforts in middlesex county and gloucester county by the prosecutors offices to use social interventions to use psychological interventions we'll talk about that in a moment data 220 the latest one for education week 70 of school arrests enforcement or for black hispanic kids nationally three and a half times more likely suspended or expelled than white tiers that came out of

044that data the same data came out of north brunswick a few years ago and the same thing is true in other cities it's not one city it's all over the place why because it's inherent bias the belief that black kids were um uh being suspended for uh zero tolerance policies does not ring true the data doesn't support it because the most likely things were my minor infractions like talking back but this goes back to that escalation effect i talked spoke about a few moments ago where the educators are assuming worse and they are more harsh in the way they uh address those issues so it's a major contributing factor of disproportionality in our schools from an academic viewpoint as well as from a a social emotional or a student management viewpoint this is work i'm

045sure it's going on in your district it's just a matter of doing that analysis of who is classified and and the rationale for it as i mentioned before in gloucester middlesex county they are trying to not use complaints at the prosecutor's office as long as the victim agrees and that's a key statement so as i said several years ago two teachers came to me they told me i was i was the assistant soup in north brunswick they said we have bias in our high school they had done a a triangle study to demonstrate that north brunswick evolved very rapidly in 1990 although this is the high school population the district population is very similar it was a 75 percent white district in 1990 at around the same time new brunswick went through urban renewal they

046rebuilt new brunswick tomorrow and they took down blocks and blocks of public housing the good news is is that other communities diversified the bad news it was done in a very rapid unstructured way and caused a lot of stress on other communities who were not ready for the change however if you look at those data north brunswick has been a minority majority community for over 20 years now not only the high school but the entire community and you see where those numbers are in terms of 22 25 31 and 22 at the extreme rate so 2013 although the black black and hispanic kids comprise 50 percent of the population they were 80 of the referrals and when you start looking at the numbers at the top 31 48 versus less than a thousand there was

047bias of that and i'll explain that soon too but look at the special ed black kids at the top top row 28.1 suspension rates extraordinarily high so what did north brunswick do in a very brief moment a five-year path of professional learning a five-year path to eliminate remedial classes at the high school 45 poverty rate in that high school and a directed belief that more kids could be foundations is remedial ap and honors we know what they are there was a belief that more kids of color could qualify for those cp or just college prep or above classes remember i talked about the bias of low expectations this is 250 staff at that high school 66 percent said a white kid would take an ap class 75 percent an asian kid would point for or

048one staff member said that it was likely latino kid would .8 or two so it was likely the black kid would i'm not here to demonize her to criticize one adult in that building i want to emphasize that they were doing their best based on the tools they had at the time when it came to basic skills it was the reverse 65 percent of black kid would 67 percent of the latino kid would seven percent said an asian good 13 said a white kid would the question always becomes how many of those kids were put in those classes not because of uh of academics but for other reasons so there was detracting over a four-year period uh we were successful they had bridge classes there are no remedial classes in the high school instead what

049you can see and i'm off against the numbers but you see increases in college prep and honors not so much in honor and ap at that time and the same thing was true in geometry so through bridge classes through concerted efforts professional learning parent academies etc a change was made it's much more difficult to have the top leadership either the principles be diversified there just as not as many candidates um however they've been able to do that it was much easier i mean that in a very positive way for those sub-administrators to get experience and move up so yes so the supervisors the vice principal center there was more of a diversification there we're getting short on time but these are some of the examples of their successes that continue today and my my partner

050my former boss brian zakowski just retired as a superintendent if there are needs to reach out that's his contact information and then sid dawson and knows they were the teachers who actually did this work and really they were the key people that started changes in north brunswick by doing a study that they verified we had issues these are some of the things that you can and should look at i'm sure you already do quite frankly uh when you look at your various reports and i'm talking about central office in particular i'm sure they're doing this work already next steps is professional learning it's parent academies it's your your board policy manual you're entitled to have it checked for free by by school boards to ensure that it's up to date and reflects current policy data

051review the asset mindset cultural responsive teaching a responsive classroom pbss cooperative learning are all critical things for our kids again with the data reports and then finally there are four ways that we can reduce bias one is the cultivated awareness of them taking those harvard implicit bias assessments having difficult conversations about them as you're doing this evening it's working to increase empathy it's ensuring that our communications are empathetic it's about looking at the data and acting on it where appropriate ways to increase our empathy increase our empathy to practice mindfulness and not only to develop cross-group friendships but more importantly our kids should see us talking to diverse people in the halls etc so that our kids see those exemplars in those models so if you're human you have biases the question to ask ourselves

052is not do we have them but which ones do we have these are some readings that came out of the new jersey school boards association equity council as well as from the work being done in north brunswick and that really concludes my comments and i encourage you ask any questions or any comments at this time too thank you mr delusion i'll open it to the board now for any questions for mr delisha mr gillette uh thank you thank you for the presentation um i'm not sure i understand if you explained um how the brain is doing this how the brain is derived i mean he said a little bit about the 11 billion stimuli or whatever it is is it um sort of looking at um people as being in a group and using some

053stereotype to pre-judge the person what it is initially is this is that actually every thing you hear or see is absorbed that's what it is so your brain is trying to make those connections so it i i can't tell you what it's doing or specifically but it's looking at whatever you're seeing or reading or hearing and trying to make connections to make sense of it to interpret it so some of that stuff is raw information unfiltered and some of it has been filtered or vetted so the brain is using racial or gender or some other type of stereotype to make it to make a judgment i'm not going to use that term it's using unfiltered information why won't you use that term it's just not an appropriate term why mr delighted if you want to

054talk about terms there's no need to that we're talking about a specific topic here it's not about being a stereotype it's about unfiltered information okay why does unfiltered information lead to bias well if we have unfiltered information that means we have not analyzed it so if we analyze it through through our lenses and if our lenses also do include that type of filter then we have a better i think what you don't want to say is that we should be in this district and across this country judging people individually and not as part of groups i think you don't want to say that for some reason why don't why wouldn't you want to say that uh mr gillette that is that has nothing to do with what we're talking about this evening nothing at all

055we're talking about the way people acquire biases that's an individual issue that we're talking about sure i i gotcha i think individually we should be judging uh judging others as individuals wouldn't you agree yes i would agree with that but you're going to you're trying to take us down a pathway which i don't believe is is is fruitful because what we're trying to do here instead is to look at the information in an academic viewpoint and it's not about stereotypes it's not about the things that are conscious it's about what's not conscious it's about what has not been filtered it's not been interpreted very different can you recommend someone else that we can have speak that might um dispute some of these um findings of yours these are not my findings this is research based

056on the research of others is anyone to dispute sin well i i will say share this with you i would suggest no i have not read anyone who is disputing what we're talking about i know vox did a big uh story in 2017 here to vox the big big story in 2017 uh saying that the iat basically didn't work do you think that the iat test is valuable and it works let me put it this way we know that we can always look and find those anomalies or find negative information however we also know that uh you're stating something that's unsupported what did i state that was unsupported you're quoting somebody else is saying something it seems to me quite no i have to find the references there quite frankly i'm not sure what your

057concern is maybe you could be a little more specific no i'm i'm done with you thank you you're quite welcome thank you mr gillette i'm ms nurse i just in terms of the research you said a lot that it was subconscious not conscious decisions how was that measured and all of this research like how did the researchers know that it was subconscious and not conscious decision making i i did not delve that into the research quite frankly we're just talking about the results thank you miss nurse thank you mr delusion mr oliver and then miss stats so just just one question i had is many of the data points you brought up and i saw some dates from 1990 and 2000 i mean that's old data yeah the nba was there was from night from

058all wanted o4 i mean the most recent data that i saw up there was 2017 that's cool there was also 18 up there but that's i mean it's a different world today than it was 2017 or 1990 like is there any new data that we could look at um i will be happy to furnish you with somebody quite frankly it's the same data because it's not been addressed because what the well the other part of the data is is that when it is addressed then it doesn't become a bias anymore and then one other statement that you made in the study which i found pretty interesting was the ratio of female to male diagnosis in people with the autism but yet the data shows that the autism gene has carried four times more four to

059one ratio in males versus females so is that that a number skewed by that fact now what as i also suggested to you based on that same research was that because females have the ability to analyze the behaviors of others and and and implement that behavior and as it gets through time they're being diagnosed as a secondary piece for autism being on the spectrum they're seeking help for um anxiety and depression see i i don't i don't see that that i do a lot of work with autism autistic kids and that data just to me that just makes no sense whatsoever you're entitled to that opinion thank you thank you mr oliver miss stats and we do have executive session coming up so and then mr kid one what the heck stats first um i'm

060just speaking from my own you know personal anecdotal experience um uh before i retire i was a math teacher before i retired a few a couple years before i retired uh the new jersey said that we had to eliminate non-college prep courses and in retrospect i don't know if that was to address the disproportionate number of blacks and latinos in uh non-cod prep courses um uh many of my colleagues and i were dismayed by that it just seemed like an over overly simplistic solution to that issue and again from my personal experience i don't want to throw anybody else under the bus but a lot of my colleagues we ended up lowering our standards in the college prep courses and hopefully we weren't being biased towards anyone but um we if we hadn't we would

061have had a lot more failures of kids of all genders races etc so it just seemed like a overly simplistic uh if not lazy solution to a problem um and that concerns me that we were uh disadvantaging just uh disadvantaging i don't know if i'm saying the right word all of our students instead of trying to address these two one of which is that there's a recognition i believe at the state level uh that we need an increase in cte classes we need an increase in um opportunities for kids to earn those credentials in high school there's actually a commission which has just begun uh appointed by the governor um it came out of one of our task force reports uh uh we have there's a representative from asa the superintendent's association there are four

062representatives from uh county and four-year colleges in new jersey and then as a representative from the new york school board's association and what the what the movement is is uh is to have support structures for dual enrollment not just for college credits but offers for cte programs for next year getting back to your specific question in that district what they did was they had bridge classes so that there was a four year span to really ease kids into it and then they continue to have differentiation and other support structures i i understand the position you were put in at that time unfortunately you um mr kid oh i just wanted to suggest to uh mr oliver that uh if i'm not sure if there is an autism regime but if there if there is one

063that's seen is honestly much more likely to be seen as uh correlated rather than causated of autism symptoms uh and so the any implicit bias around diagnosis is going to impact the how correlated that gene could be with autism if you can see autism in people who don't have that gene that are female or male so the actual um the actual uh the validity of research regarding that is impacted by the implicit bias as we're talking about here in terms of uh society of how people are recommended for those diagnosis because if you have people who are women being recommended for diet uh for possible diagnosis less than men and there's a correlation scene among those men and there's this gene then it impacts what is seen as the cause of autism you know what

064i'm getting at all right thank you very much for the comments to my board members and to mr delusion thank you very much for that presentation appreciate it very much have a good evening thank you [Applause] um it is now 704 and we will um take a motion to go into executive session still moved sorry i i was going to read it but thank you whereas the open public meetings act chapter 231 of the laws of 1975 provides that a public body may exclude the public from that portion of the meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required as permitted in section 7b of the act resolved by the board of education of the township of hillsboro and the county of somerset in the state of new jersey as

065follows one the matters to be discussed are student disciplinary hearings and a settlement agreement two the matters discussed in executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists and may have a motion in a second thank you mr marini thank you mr oliver all in favor and we are now an executive session we expect to be back at 7 30. thank you um and welcome back we are back now from executive session apologies for the delay [Music] mrs nurse here mr oliver here is the pulsifier here mrs statz here and mr trujillo here we have a quorum thank you um maybe now please rise for the pledge of i allegiance allegiances thank you um i'd like to acknowledge the correspondence is listed and give um and then go

066into committee reports and actually before we begin i would just like to remind board members and and welcome to ms forfana um if um you could speak into the microphone when you're speaking so that the audio recording can pick up since i actually start with ms stats if you don't mind with the municipal irons report okay thank you thank you mr hill the municipal alliance met on october 15th and uh we obviously discussed a variety of issues uh one of which was uh the young adult support group um uh four four people signed up for the series of uh meetings but only two showed up and we are committed to trying to address the needs of that population there was also a pre football game ceremony regarding red ribbon week that dennis alliance attended on

067friday october 15th there were reports by the high school sat counselors regarding they were concerned about uptick in anxiety and social issues but the students are glad to be back in school several in-person programs have been put on hold but they're looking forward to when visitors are allowed in the building so they can make these presentations and that's about it thank you mr hill thank you miss miss maroon if you would give the um education report thank you sure so the education meeting um occurred on november 3rd um you see the bunch of it that is on the agenda for tonight is the ap computer science which is a new course that we discussed um there's book adoptions that are listed on the agenda and the nursing service plan that we um again is also

068you can see it on the agenda a number of items were also discussed we discussed class sizes in the high school online courses and we also moved the disposal of textbooks to november 22nd we discussed emails and misleading information um about respondents to emails we also started our discussion on the calendar for 2022-2023 and we also were provided update on the academic teams competing thank you ms maroon are there any questions on the committee reports before we open it up to the public okay seeing none then i will now take open the public comments for items on tonight's action agenda only oh sorry there was no we did but there's no no we didn't it's next tomorrow there's no minutes that's okay so we will now open it up for public comments on the action

069agenda only we very much welcome input from the public during board meetings there will be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do so if they're attending in person during the first public comment period members of the public may comment about items that are listed on tonight's agenda before the board votes during the second public comment period members of the public make comments on any school or school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the district as per biola 167 before you state your comment you will be asked to provide your name and address there is a three-minute time limit on public comment please understand that

070our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instances where the board believes that there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comments there may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or asks a question about personnel or hiring decisions highly note that the open public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompass therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session and if anybody is i'm planning to to make a public comment if you would please spell your name for the record to allow for the easier taking of the minutes thank you okay seeing no comments on the public agenda i will

071now close public comments on the public um on the action agenda and turn it over to the superintendent oh sorry um miss i will now open it up for the board comment ms stats sorry i didn't uh use the earlier opportunity but i am still concerned when we talked about a class size in the education committee i was concerned about the you know several lots of class sizes that were in the high 20s or 30 plus in the high school and in third and fourth grade there are some class sizes that are 25 26 students and uh i'm disappointed that that was not addressed as far as well it was not resolved thank you miss stats any other comment from the board okay seeing none then i will turn it over to the superintendent for

072the action agenda [Music] thank you mrs trujillo we are going to start with the superintendent recommends a motion to affirm the october 25th 2021 agenda if you recall we had it we canceled that meaning so let's start with that one and then may i have a motion in a second thank you mr oliver thank you mr kid oh mr marini thank you um any discussion seeing none mr mahmoud if we could have a roll call mr gillette yes mr kid yes mr marini yes mrs maroon yes this is nurse yes mr oliver yes mr pulsifier yes this is stats yes mr hill yes thank you the superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the education agenda as follows motion to approve travel related expenses the affiliation agreement with rvcc the motion to approve the

073fiction books is listed motion to approve the 2021-2022 nursing services plan a motion to accept the safety grant funds that's education thank you i may have a motion in a second so moved thank you mr marini thank you ms nurse ms nurse thank you any discussion seeing none mr mahmoud if we could have a roll call charlie mr gillette yes mr kid yes mr mourinho yes this is maroon yeah this is nurse yes mr oliver yes mr polcifer yes this is stats yes and mrs trujillo yes thank you the superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the human resources agenda as follows 10.1 to 10.14 motion to approve retirements and resignations and i'd like to congratulate uh mrs biddoff teacher of fifth grade on road who's been with us since 2003 a motion to

074approve transfer change in assignments as listed as well as the revised leaves of absence motion to approved a revised leave replacement teacher and revise the first eight hours motion to approve the revised mentor motion to rescind a contract motion to approve leaves of absences as listed as well as appointments motion to approve a student teacher to approve our turnkey trainers for the school year motion to approve six-period coverage and pre-approve extra coverage and motion to approve extra coverage i think you may have a motion in a second thank you mr oliver thank you ms maroon any discussion ms stats uh just um [Music] want to express my uh well i guess congratulations to ms juhas uh but also disappointment because she is a strong uh special education teacher um so be a loss for our

075district uh but i wish her luck thank you miss stats any other comments seeing none if we could have a real commercial mr gillette yes mr kid yes mr marini yes this is maroon yes this is nurse yes it's the oliver yes mr pulcifer yes this is stats yes trujillo yes ocean pass the superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the operations agenda as follows 11.1 to 11.5 motion to approve an agreement for participation in coordinated transportation services for the 2021-2022 school year motion to approve the out-of-district placement and a settlement agreement as listed motion to accept the donations and approve the bylaws and policy for first reading as listed i think you may have a motion in a second so moved thank you mr marini second thank you mr gillette any discussion okay

076i just wanted to point out that on the biowas 143 and 167 they were discussed in governance last week and the 143 is just to align with our election of board officers and then 167 is part of a discussion that will the other part of board meetings is in 164 which will be discussed in a future governance committee meeting and hopefully brought to the floor so we had a first and the second oh mr marine quick question this is i think for mr gillette you may know better than anybody else i raised a question during one of our sessions about bylaws are we prescribed to do two readings of something that's mandated by the state so i think the question was we always do the first reading second reading are we required to do both

077yes even if this has to be it's through your bylaws no all right so if we amended the bylaws do we have this seems a little bit of a waste of time if it's mandated by the state to go through too or you know that's a good if our bylaws didn't require us to have two readings could we only have one would that be permitted i think it could be done i don't know if anyone that does that i don't know is that anyone i don't know of any board that does that i think all the boards typically will do uh two readings um so which is typical because you do the first reading you see if there's any comments you see if there's any revisions and then you have a second reading but uh

078but for something that doesn't it's from the state can it even have revisions yes there there are some that like um if you get policies either from for example new jersey school boards or strauss has made one of those policy services they often will tell you this is a mandated policy and you need to enact it but there's often choices that you have in terms of what you can and can't do there's certain minimum levels that you have but there are other things that you can choose to do or not choose to do sometimes that that two reading structure is helpful to tease out those issues okay i was just asking for a simplification and reduction of unnecessary steps but if it's required so be it correct thank you mr marini any other discussion seeing

079then mr mahmoud if we get a roll call mr gillette yes mr kid yes mr mourinho yes this is maroon yes this is nurse yes mr oliver yes mr pulsar yes the stats yes and mr hill yes ocean past thank you mr mahmoud and now i'd like to turn it back to the superintendent for the superintendent's report thank you i'd like to start my report by welcoming everybody back after a nice long weekend the weather certainly cooperated with everybody fall is no doubt here and winter she's right around the corner as evidenced by the frost on our windows i would also like to take a moment to remind parents and students that for families that may have traveled last week or have travel plans for the upcoming holidays please be aware of quarantine requirements for

080our unvaccinated students travel includes anywhere outside new jersey pennsylvania new york and delaware quarantine is seven to ten days if a student tests negative three to five days after travel they are required to quarantine for seven days if a student does not get tested they are required to quarantine for 10 days if a student tests positive they must stay home for 10 days after the positive test the district continues to follow the cdc guidelines for travel please cooperate with these guidelines although we all look forward to the loosening and relaxing of restrictions we must remain vigilant keeping our schools open full day five days a week and the health and safety of our of our unvaccinated students must remain our first priority i've received quite a bit of feedback on the decision not to allow

081public participation at fall performances again i request that parents students and staff remember that we knew as we open schools in september that the priority was to keep schools open unfortunately with this in mind it was also shared that it was a possibility that not all activities would be able to resume their typical procedures i continue to collaborate with the local health officials and our school physician on these decisions as noted in the cova dashboard shared with community we still continue to see an increase of covet 19 cases after extended days off from school or following holidays i expect to see this trend through the upcoming holiday season folks make no mistake we carry the weight of every decision we make each and every day for 1400 staff members and 7 300 students we know

082that these decisions do not make everyone happy and i understand that while it may seem inconsistent and may be inconsistent every situation is looked at individually there may be inconsistencies however there is consistency in trying to ensure everyone is safe we've also been consistent in the promise to reevaluate and adjust and adjust decisions as time moves forward and we've done so discussions i have had with the new jersey department of health local department of health district physician etc indicate that their predictions for an increase of the number of coveted patients will continue throughout the holiday season before stabilizing during winter there are decisions these are decisions that i'm happy to spend time with because it means we're in school however if we don't remain vigilant and we allow the process and don't allow the process

083to unfold based upon the situation at the moment of decision making then school will close and we won't have to worry about making these decisions and i don't believe that's what anyone wants nevertheless as additional information is provided we'll continue to share the decisions the decisions are made at the time that information is presented that changes daily at this time i'd like to announce that we have agreed to approve academic teams to participate in in-person competitions however all health and safety guidelines must be followed and by that i mean all hillsborough township health and safety guidelines must be followed if a school that our students are attending has a less restrictive guideline they are to follow hillsboro's guidelines not the school's guidelines due to the tenuous nature of procuring adequate transportation for all off-site extracurricular

084events waivers may be necessary for transportation to some competitions the district is not authorizing any overnight trips at this time let me say that again we are not authorizing any overnight trips at this time as shared in today's covid19 dashboard update i'd like to share that the hillsborough township health department in conjunction with greenbrook family medicine is holding a vaccination clinic for 5 to 11 year olds on sunday november 14th the clinic will be held at hillsborough high school from nine to one to ensure adequate supplies registration is required school districts across the state have been asked to host and share information surrounding vaccination sites this request goes through the same processes and any other facility usage requests including need for insurance things and things like that from whoever's hosting it hosting a vaccination clinic

085does not speak to the boards or district's endorsement of vaccination or vaccination status that's an individual decision this is the utilization of a public building in the midst of a public health crisis it is a pleasure to announce that two hillsborough high school students vanya medina and elizabeth labouf were selected out of 350 applicants to represent hillsborough high school as members of the new jersey all-state chorus membership was extremely competitive as each voice part only accepted the top 18 scoring individuals both students sing soprano 2 and will represent hillsborough high school at live performances in november and february congratulations to the raider marching band who earned first place claiming the u.s bans state championship for their division on october 30th with their 2021 show the haunted the band earned the highest score out of all

086the bands in attendance across all divisions as a result of the impacts on students due to the pandemic the new jersey department of education is awarding the district funds to support student learning mental health we are seeking public input on the utilization of funds to mitigate the impacts the pandemic has had on schools and students academic social emotional mental health please visit the website beginning tomorrow actually i think it's it's already up there because we've gotten some some input to provide input on identifying specific needs in our community and providing ideas on how these funds could help resolve them finally on behalf of the board of education as we commemorate veterans day this thursday november 11th i'd like to extend our sincere gratitude to our military veterans who have served in the united states armed

087forces if you haven't already had the opportunity to drive by the township municipal complex please take a moment to drive by and view the field of honor display of american flags as part of the flags for heroes initiative sponsored by the rotary club of hillsboro it's truly beautiful site there's a veterans day ceremony at the garden of honor on thursday november 11th at 6 p.m thank you mr trujillo thank you dr antunas and i would just like to make a note to the board that the in a reminder that the negotiated agreement between the hillsborough education association the board of education runs through june 30th 2022 and as per njsba timeline recommendations the board will begin planning for negotiations and i'd like to announce that the negotiation committee members will be mr pulcifer who will

088be the chair ms stats mr gillette and myself to begin the process and i would like to turn it over to mr to the board for any comments mr marini uh yes so this was uh announced via communicated email um i just wanted to say that i'm disappointed this is not a comment on the abilities of the individuals included but we do have two members on this negotiation committee that did not run for election and are not going to be on as of january so it does not seem like a responsible choice to knowingly have only about a month left before the terms end to bring in individuals who will not be on the board most likely to see this to closure you can assume that this is going to be addressed in in about

089a month's time thank you mr marini for your comments i do appreciate your thoughts and sharing your thoughts on that as we discussed um earlier just between us that um i had reasons i thought about this very carefully and the points that you brought up are are good ones they're valid i think that on balance the reason i chose mr gillette and ms stats who will not be with us on the board next year mr gillette and myself will um is that i feel like the the four are the strongest to start mr gillette go ahead i'm so sorry i'm sorry you're being great i apologize i apologize mr pulsifer and um so and so i felt that this was the strongest i'm sorry mr prosper all right miss nurse i just i too wanted

090to share that i did have the same conversation and in that regard especially speaking from experience on the other side of the table that i find it frustrating that when we have to wait for a change changeover of the board it takes some time precious time away and but we did discuss that and i understand your reasons but i i did want to note that i shared mr mourinho's feelings thank you ms nurse and thank you go ahead mr marina and just to continue the the reason given was that we were endorsed by the hea we received no financial backing and because i was a good candidate i was told that it would not be appropriate for me to engage in those discussions but that come january that would change which is a curious idea

091that six weeks from now my uh beholdeness to the aga for saying i was a good candidate would then magically disappear so i i i am disappointed um by this decision especially since guaranteed two of the four members having this discussion will absolutely not be on the group come january which means you could have a 50 50 decision split on steps that were taken up to that point where those two new individuals do not agree with the actions of the two individuals leaving so you're leaving the board in a potentially pretty negative position where you have new members come in and completely disagree with the two members that were here before and their approach to this discussion and i think it's in the best interest to give us the best first step forward with the

092hea in negotiating these agreements so i recognize mr marini you're you're your points and to your point about being endorsed by the hea i think that in the sense that what difference is six weeks make that that's a fair point except for that njsba in their training has has often said that perception is reality and so previously the recommendation or actually it was a guideline right i think the sec the school ethics commission there is no there is no preclusion for people who are endorsed however however the appearance and so the previously the school ethics commission had barred candidates who had taken or not taken who had been endorsed by the association from participating in negotiations and so as i made the decision it was important for me that whatever contract is agreed upon between

093the board and the association that it's viewed as fair by the larger hillsborough community and i recognize there were as i've spoken ms nursing yourself there were no perfect candidates for the for the for the position because the last election cycle three three board members were endorsed and three board members are leaving which there's just not a lot of choices so miss nurse i also just wanted to clarify that my intention of saying this tonight is not because i wanted to be part of that i'm eligible to be on the negotiations committee but um you know in terms of perception equaling reality i don't worry about that so much because i just feel it's we made decisions based on the good of our goals so um i would more concerned about who would be on

094there to make this run smoothly uh without disruption thank you thank you ms nurse mr marini yeah and in turn the the individuals of hillsborough voted for us to participate in such activities so i think the decision on who's on the board and who's capable of having those discussions was something that was overwhelmingly voted on in the previous election and therefore the the non-rule that you're referring to should not be taken into account when selecting this you should pick the best people that can help drive this negotiation to closure as quick and as painless as possible so mr marini i with all due respect i do i didn't think about what you said and as board president my job is to select members of all committees that i think will be the strongest and in

095this particular case we disagree on who those members are in the new year if we are still in negotiations the new board president will then appoint the open seats are there any other comments from the board before i open it up to the public all right so i will read the statement again and actually before i read the statement just to remind the public who is here that the board of education's role is policy planning appraisal and communication and is not involved in the day-to-day operation of the school district this board meeting is where the board conducts its business in public and this public comment period is open for you to express yourselves on any topic that you think is of importance to the community and for the board to hear however it is not

096a dialogue so with that we very much welcome input from the public during board meetings there will be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may just do if they are attending in person during the second public comment period members of the public may comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district as per bilo 167 before you state your comment you'll be asked to provide your name and address there is a three minute time limit on public comments please understand that our public forums are not structured as question answer sessions but rather are offered as opportunities to share your

097thoughts with the board in instances where the board believes there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comments there may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or asks a question about personnel or hiring decisions kindly note that the open public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompassed therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session and if you would line up at the podium if you have a public comment and please spell your name for the record thank you hi my name is robin griffin my address is 8 crestwood avenue and my comments i want to talk about the decision to change the fall play to be a non-in-person event um the students were just informed of

098this and the play is two weeks away from now they're not able to have appropriate ticket sales they're not able to prepare properly for this change we don't even really know what the change entails also you know parents weren't allowed to help with set building the kids had to do everything by themselves there's no explanation as to why this decision was made and it's the social and emotional health is compromi of our children is compromised because they are seeing this um inequitable treatment towards the theater students our district here on saturday hosted a um they hosted the central jersey section two championships for gymnastics where we had five outside teams come along with our team so that six teams came to compete in gymnastics indoor with the fans with us with an audience no limits

099all fall we had volleyball we had um i don't remember what the other oh and well in gymnastics no fan uh no limits masks so i guess at the minimum i just don't understand why the students are not allowed to have the play indoors and why at minimum the parents can't even come to attend the play and why there's no explanation for the kids as to why this is happening and how athletes are allowed to have an audience and students in the theater are not thank you mrs griffin hi my name is ellie verbaist and i've been teaching or a teacher at hillsboro township public schools for 15 years i love my job and i love working with the students and staff at triangle school every year teachers are required to take six hours of

100turnkey training according to the district's help desk site the turnkey training program is designed to utilize the amazing talent experience and innovation of hillsboro staff members to provide flexible relevant and targeted professional development to district peers and colleagues i went on to read about some of the courses that are offered this year under the diversity equity and belongings category one course is titled me and white supremacy what part one white privilege and here's the description although we don't always recognize or like to think about it white privilege affects our everyday lives and interactions in and out of the classroom in this session you will learn more about what white privilege is and how it has impacted your life experiences personally and professionally by examining ourselves we have a better understanding of how to change our

101behavior another course was titled me and white supremacy part 2 like fragility and there was another one titled understanding unconscious bias this description was most of us are offended at the thought that we have implicit bias most people quite explicitly stand firmly against bias toward anyone unfortunately our explicit thoughts and values do not preclude us from having biases against others that are not part of our group in this turnkey participants will gain an understanding of the basics behind how our brain functions processes information and how unconscious biases are almost inescapable and then there was another course titled lgbtq safe zones parts one two and three the target audience for these courses and these are just a few is any grade level teacher to be honest i was shocked at the amount of courses i saw

102that revolved around these controversial topics after quite some time i was able to find six courses with a few open spots that covered topics i felt comfortable applying in the classroom but i'm sure some staff may have to take these courses even if it's not their top choice because these turnkey trainings are required as a parent of three young children i would want to know if their teachers were taking courses that covered similar topics like white privilege or unconscious bias i would also want to know if their teachers were then expected to incorporate these new ideas into their curriculum a member of the tech team told me that parents are not informed about the content of these courses and that the board of vet is not informed about the content either i'm sure so some

103members are aware of the content but i think in order to have open lines of communication between the district and community this information should be made available to the public to me these courses sound like they are coming from a politically driven agenda thank you for your comment um it's just as a reminder if we could just spell your name for the record thank you all right so this will be short all right my name is matthew cowan drop my phone k-a-l-l-e-n-s i live at 744 township line and i'd also like to address the decision to not allow for a live audience for the place of this uh coming fall you know with the the students have spent many hours after school and on weekends rehearsing the parents attending sex excuse me sir if you

104would just put your mask back on i'm fully vaccinated too um no problem the parents have made sacrifices for their children to be able to participate in the performance there are currently no restrictions on large indoor group activities save that masks are recommended if we are allowing live spectators for sports why are we not going to allow a live audience for the play this impacts not just the performance but the entire performing arts department but they are not allowed to have a live audience the financial deficit to the department would effectively bankrupt them and thus impact all future performances i ask that we allow them to have a live audience so that students can perform as intended with the body of parents love a body of parents and loved ones enjoying the performance and supporting

105their children thank you [Applause] um just if we could pause for one moment we'll move the um hi my name is christine i n k-r-i-s-t-i-n-e gibson g i b s o n 511 hopeland court i just wanted to express along with others my disappointment and frustration regarding the recent decision to ban in-person musical performances in the hillsborough public schools i've been very cautious throughout the pandemic and until this point i have felt overall that our schools have been reasonable in their approach to minimizing risk but this decision makes no sense and is not only unfair to the students and families of musicians but also detrimental to the entire music program in our schools i have two daughters involved in the music program one here at the middle school and one at the high school both

106have thrives in the musical environment and thankfully my older daughter just finished a state championship marching band season this is all thanks to the dedication of the music staff to provide students with the best experience possible in the most difficult of times my younger daughter however has been in bands since fifth grade and has never yet performed in a concert we've been looking forward to her finally being able to perform this year alongside her peers but it seems now that this will not be a possibility at least for the foreseeable future the guidance we received today via email explains that no in-person events will be held and there will instead be a virtual concert while these pre-recorded virtual concerts done last year were a nice compromise due to the uncertainty of the times we're now

107in a very different situation in terms of public health our students are back in school bands are practicing in person many students and family members are vaccinated and people are congregating in public spaces more regularly even than last spring tonight's meeting case in point furthermore this decision is not in line with those made with regard to sports and other activities the bands at the middle school and high school are already practicing and will continue to practice indoors with proper precautions including distancing masking when possible and the use of bell covers on instruments i see no reason why these students cannot perform on a stage as musicians do if they can perform in a classroom if the issue is spectators which i suspect it is i see how this might pose a different risk but i'd

108like to point out the following indoor sports such as high school volleyball and now i'm hearing gymnastics have continued to play indoors throughout the fall spectators were limited in number required to wear masks but were not banned completely i expect this may continue to be true for upsports why can we not allow a limited number of mass spectators for musical events as well our gyms and auditoriums are certainly large enough to accommodate even two students per two guests per student which is far fewer people that are currently crowding into our unmasked cafeterias at the high school and attending our football games with zero social distancing in place doing the in-person concerts may mean breaking them up into several smaller performances for example maybe the concert band and the wind ensemble at the middle school can

109perform back to back or on separate evenings allowing smaller performances and a smaller audience it may mean adjusting the space you use using the high school auditorium or commons or another space that can accommodate a larger number of guests but i think we owe it to our music students to be creative and find ways to give them the opportunities that our athletes are already getting even more perplexing to me is that the guidance that we received from arts ed new jersey which was attached to the email about this decision is in direct contradiction to what the district decided this document which was sent via district email proposed no restrictions on indoor performances including audience size and that maths are to be worn at all times yet we've decided to ban all indoor performances our music

110students are just as important as our athletes performances is the heart of what music is all about performing on video is not just the same i fear that doing this making this decision will not only deprive many of our students of a chance to develop a lifelong love of music but that it's going to have a lasting impact on the high school music program a number of my daughter's friends at the middle school have already dropped banned because of the lack of opportunity to perform again i'm in favorable favor of reasonable precautions for invisible performances but this complete ban is unfair nonsensical and inconsistent with school policies and i urge the board and superintendent to reconsider thank you thank you thank you for your comments [Applause] susan irwin i-r-w-i-n i reside at 13 highland drive

111good evening i'm speaking tonight on behalf of the hillsborough high school choir parent association and there'll be two others that are as well we understand a decision has been made to not allow an in-person performance with a live audience for the upcoming concert and we are extremely disappointed with this decision given that the choir program is part of the curriculum and not an extracurricular activity and live performances are an integral part of the educational experience we believe it is important that the students have the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience for those students who are pursuing an education in music many of the college music programs ask their applicants to identify their performances as part of their college audition process so this could potentially impact the applicant when they are compared to

112other students from other schools there are currently 6 out of 11 seniors applying to colleges pursuing a career in music part of the application process isn't it is an audition some of these students will be performing live during auditions for the first time in front of an audience since january which puts them at a disadvantage to students from other schools who've had those opportunities and we're going to continue with another member hi my name is christine vice c-h-r-i-s-t-i-n-e vice bias and boy i-c-e and i live at five vanderlight road in hillsboro and i'm continuing um what's what season began looking at extracurricular activities that have occurred at hillsborough high school since the pandemic hhs theater performed in the spring of 2021 with a limited audience at a time when not all students were eligible to

113be vaccinated and many adults were in the midst of being vaccinated in addition both indoor and outdoor sports have taken place successfully since the fall of 2020 with spectators but the hillsborough high school choir is still being denied the same opportunity these events include this saturday's girls varsity gymnastics njsia sectionals meet hosted at hillsborough high school where attendance was not limited nor was social distancing enforced and i know because i was there in addition if we look to surrounding districts including the neighboring montgomery and bridgewater school systems they are planning for in-person concerts the cj-mea region choir concert will also have in-person practices and an audience at their concert while the nj mea allstate trouble chorus has planned for the scene in addition on october 14th a letter was sent to all new jersey arts

114educators administrators principal superintendents executive county superintendents school board members and health officers from arts ed new jersey the unified voice for arts education in new jersey this letter states and i quote currently there are no prohibitions on indoor performances for schools it then continues with recommendations for performances such as social distancing masks etc which would be we would be happy to comply with when looking at the cdc guidelines the cdc states that and unquote school-sponsored sports and extracurricular activities provide students with enrichment opportunities that can help them learn and achieve and support their social emotional and mental health prevention strategies in these activities remain important and should comply with school day policies and procedures people who are fully vaccinated can refrain from quarantine following a known exposure of asymptomatic facilitating continued participation in in-person learning

115sports and extracurricular activities students should refrain from these activities when they have symptoms consistent with covid19 and should be tested the cdc never recommends to refrain from having in-person audiences when having performances thank you [Applause] thank you sorry um my name is allison lanningbeater i live at 80 westcott road um continuing on what um the other two ladies from the choir had a choir parents association had mentioned um i just want to reiterate a few more points we realized that covid has been the reason for eliminating in-person audiences from indoor performances but when looking at the coven numbers from mid-june when the spring musical performed with a limited in-person audience to now we continue to be in a moderate covet activity level according to the somerset county department of health and the latest data from

116today november 8th has listed somerset county is having the highest percentage in the state of fully vaccinated people at just over 72 percent more and more people are eligible to be vaccinated including now children ages 5 to 11 which should further the case that it is safer and growing safer to have in-person audiences for indoor performances following of course all coveted protocols and safety measures the high school administration has had 18 months we've all had 18 months of this to figure out a way to let the choir perform for a live audience the students have missed their spring concert back in 2020 their live holiday concert in 2020 and a live spring concert in 2021 mrs matthews has done an amazing job with virtual performances but it's time that these students are able to showcase

117their talents in the way that their peers have been able to do at sporting and other extracurricular activities in the end you have to remember that the hillsborough high school choir is an academic class and by denying the students the opportunity to perform live they're being denied part of their education the decision of an in-person performance shouldn't be whether to have it but rather how we can do it safely and we as parents are willing to work with the administration to come up with an acceptable solution please reconsider thank you [Applause] uh good evening my name is kelly erwin k-e-l-l-y i-r-w-i-n and i live at 13 highland drive i'm a senior at hillsboro high school and i'm the department manager of our student-led choir council i have been a member of hhs choir since my

118freshman year and i'm currently auditioning and applying for music education programs at colleges as i hope to become a music educator as a student i would like to provide perspective on what a performance that is in person means to me when i walked on stage i could feel that nervous energy and excitement as i peeked to see who was there to watch i would make a mistake in the craziness of nerves but i would compose myself and keep going this ability to persevere while singing is important unfortunately we have been unable to have an in-person concert since our last concert in january 2020. as a student auditioning live for colleges in the winter this experience with the pressure of an audience is vital to my success and i'll audition other students from other districts will

119be put at an advantage and be given spots in a program because they have this experience and i practice perseverance which is unfair to me and my peers additionally performances are part of our core curriculum but how can we be following this curriculum if we are unable to perform for an actual audience we are not an extracurricular program we are a class who has worked hard to be able to showcase our hard work and talents furthermore we as performers feed off of the excitement and energy in the audience this is what creates an interactive and impactful performance not only are the performers impacted by this experience but with a live audience those in the audience can also be affected sometimes the strong emotions performed cannot travel through a screen but they can impact someone sitting

120at the back row who feels the raw and pure emotions that music can communicate as students emerging from a difficult almost two years and dealing with a pandemic music is something that connects us it is an essential part of who we are performances help us navigate the audition anxiety and performance anxiety and allows everyone to set reasonable goals for themselves and the choir itself which is an important aspect of social emotional learning arts ed nj who we have been following for advice in our musical department has even stated that there are no limitations related to indoor performances at schools if we continue to ban in-person performances we are taking away these experiences for the musicians and the audience members if we continue when will this community ever perform we need to keep the arts living

121and we cannot do this if we are confined to recording after recording music is more than sounding pretty it is about communicating a message and creating a meaningful and impactful performance for an audience and the performers i urge you to reconsider and allow for hhs choir and all the other performing groups to have their concerts and performances in person thank you thank you for your comments this my name is amy mclaughlin a m y m c capital l a u g h l i n and i live at 2205 jamestown common most people have a really strong reaction to getting up in front of a crowd for some people it's abject terror but for others it's the best experience of their life performers crave the audience response performing in front of an audience is a

122critical part of the music curriculum at hhs and the kids need an opportunity to practice that last spring and over the summer there were imperfect uh in-person performances allowed why are we going backwards the fall play funds help to support the spring musical and if they're not allowed to have an in-person audience there will not be ticket sales to support that is the board prepared to replace those funds to allow the spring musical to happen we're allowing academic and sporting teams to join in person why are we not allowing our musical students the experience of having an audience the kids have missed so much during covet and i do applaud the superintendent and the board of ed for how far we came my kids are certainly really happy to be back at school and choir

123has been a haven for my daughter who's a freshman we are pleased that you're willing to reassess ongoing but it's not going to be soon enough for some of the key events in the fall if we wait till january more people are vaccinated and it's really an environment you know we're willing to be masked social distance we're just asking for you to give us an opportunity to see our kids perform thank you thank you hi my name is rosa sowers and i live at 69 meadowbrook drive and um i spell my name rosa last name s-a-u-e-r-s and i have a daughter who is a freshman at hillsborough high school in the theater program and we have recently learned that there will not be a live audience for their performance of puffs and this is extremely

124disappointing to both the kids as well as their families who are looking forward to seeing their hard work for some this will be their last high school performance live audiences have always been important to the theater for many reasons especially now when both kids and parents have suffered isolation and depression the actors feed off their audience and their enthusiasm and it's not just the same performing without an audience it is my understanding that sports such as gymnastics volleyball etc are allowed to have spectators both inside and out there is no social distancing or a reduction in the amount of people allowed into these events how do we explain this to our theater kids what is the rationale for discriminating against theater in favor of other events last year's musical was allowed in person with a

125reduced audience how it was determined that how how was it determined that this was less safe now than more people are vaccinated and they have a clear understanding of the facts that masks save lives we are gathered here tonight in a room full of people how is it that this is allowed but families may not gather safely to see their children perform these kids worked incredibly hard and devoted many hours other districts are having their shows without restrictions other than masks the arts bring people together and that is their purpose although it can be argued that there are not less important than this meeting or than sports i will even venture to go a step further i will suggest that they may be more important your the arts give of ways to many who wouldn't

126otherwise have one we hope you reconsider your decision and allow these kids a chance to perform for their family and friends it is just the right thing to do and i appreciate your time and consideration thank you good evening my name is joe trubulski resident of hillsboro at 36 fox chase run but i'm also the principal of hillsborough middle school and i rise tonight as well as the president of the hillsborough principals and supervisors association before i speak to this issue i would be remiss if i didn't also lend my voice of support for the comments that have been shared this evening with regard to uh performances and our and our kids who are in the performing arts and i certainly welcome additional dialogue about that issue and how we might be able to address

127some of the points and concerns raised tonight but i rise tonight in all these capacities as a resident principal and president of the principles and supervisors association as i am deeply troubled this evening by an action that took place under a directive that is my understanding was made by a member of this board of education to censor a display in the commons of the hillsborough middle school a display of african american cultural and historical pieces literature and african-american icons in the arts athletics academics and community service but also included elements of social justice and social injustice in our american history with regard to african americans from slavery through the civil rights movement to contemporary issues around policing equity and justice this display that included bulletin boards and three showcases was created in collaboration with our

128school librarian and our student organization hms cares that is the club for anti-racism and equity in schools whose students you may recall spoke eloquently at the board last spring about the importance of this board committing itself to ensuring educational equity for our students of color and whose faculty advisors spoke eloquently at the new jersey department of education's equity in action conference this summer about their very work this display included an element with a point of view around the very real issue of policing practices social justice and equity in america and that image was censored today and removed over my objections now let me be clear i hold in the highest regard the brave professional and dedicated members of our community that serve nobly and honorably in law enforcement here in hillsborough and across our country

129but no one not public officials educators or the police regardless of how high our esteem may be are above criticism criticism that is raised within appropriate educational contexts in civil discourse and academic settings even where it may be provocative or controversial it is abhorrent to me that any public official including a member of this board of education if you'll indulge me would use his or her authority to advance an agenda in censoring the views of others in an academic or any other setting what happened today if you will dishonored the work of those who defend our communities and our constitution what happened today was an affront to critical thinking academic freedom and the freedom of expression of our young people you open this meeting as i do every day pledging allegiance to preserve the rights

130of liberty and justice for all and i remind students all the time of the awesome responsibility they have to that pledge for themselves and others tonight i rise to publicly condemn this act of censorship that was perpetuated today in the removal of this image in the context of that larger display that served only to challenge our thinking around policing in america and i call on the board to recommit itself to preserving academic integrity and the free and critical expression of ideas and most importantly of all to listen to the voices of those raising concerns for social justice and in opposition to those who would seek to silence them thank you thank you [Applause] good evening henry goodhue 16 laurel drive hillsborough education association be a bit all over the place with a couple of the

131things to address um the comments made by miss statz uh were on point and necessary i think you know the board is discussing many things we've heard you talk about budgets and over the last couple of meetings we've repeatedly heard about class sizes and the fact that in many instances we're over um we have not heard you talk about the fact that at almost every board meeting now for at least three of them we've lost at least one special ed teacher and we haven't questioned why our special ed teachers are leaving or why any of our teachers are leaving for that matter we also haven't discussed the fact that surrounding districts are increasing their substitute rates and ours remain flat where they are and yet we bemoan the fact that there's an inability to have

132coverage so districts are doing little to our district is doing little to address these needs not realizing that perhaps some of them are connected we're losing people because they're stressed out we're losing people because of the lack of coverage because of what's happening on a daily basis there yet the conversations are not going to that place so i urge the board to reconsider um any conversations that they're having regarding budgets and take a look at the current budget and any prospective ones and think about how we can fully fill every staffing position that's necessary as well as allocate for the ones that are needed um i also would like to lend my support to what the students and many parents brought up tonight i think you know i'm not going to reiterate what they said

133those points were made far better than i could make them what i will say is that this district this board our staff has done a good job finding balance we've stayed open when other districts have had to close buildings we found ways to allow students to start returning to some degree of normal we've found ways to provide some degree of equity in those decisions with as evidenced by the actions you took tonight with academic teams so i know that we can find some way to make things work and i would urge you to please do the same for this i think working together we could find a way to allow students to perform as well as keep everybody safe which you know is one of my primary goals and i know is yours as well

134and i had no intention of speaking on this but being that i'm following dr trubolski i find it absolutely disturbing if any member of an elected position especially a board which is apolitical exerts their personal beliefs to influence or administrate the board and if that is in fact true then i hope the appropriate recourse as ascribed by the njsba will be followed and that that will be addressed thank you thank you mr gupta hi my name is dina albanese d-i-n-a-a-l-b-a-n-e-s-e my address is 328 zion road i don't have anything written down i'm and i will be short and sweet i'm here to show my support for the performing arts my daughter is a junior she's in theater she's in choir heavily involved um you mentioned earlier i wasn't even going to speak but a few

135things popped into my head when you were saying earlier perception is truth right now i can't speak for all of the performing arts students but i know my daughter and a few of her friends who i've spoken to the perception is that there's bias against them or that that they're not cared about because they see as again everybody else said the sports are allowed to have people there even in football games it's outside but they're short of the shoulder they're packed in there um and i just want to reiterate again my daughter's looking to pursue a career in fear it's making it very hard she you know covet hit her freshman year the end of her freshman year and it's still kind of ongoing she's junior now they need those live performances they are being

136somewhat you know missing part of their academics in that area so i'm just here to show my support i know you guys are doing your best to keep our students safe so i just want to make sure you know that i appreciate that and i know a lot of the parents do just hope you'll reconsider and we can figure out a way to social distance like we did in june thank you thank you is there any other public comment seeing none then i will close public comments and turn it over to the board for any comments mr gillette and then ms nurse all right uh thank you i had a couple of things i wanted to say first on the um performing arts uh live performances on so i'm not gonna uh well let me

137put this right there the decisions on that are totally in the purview of the superintendent but i did did have a comment to make about it i know um in some school districts given enough time um for like something like a school play they're able to use some type of service to like sell tickets uh for streaming but i don't think there's even enough time to do that at this point so that's that's what's disappointing to me that um in the that there may not be enough time even for them to do like sell tickets through a streaming service and do something so that was disappointing to me the other thing i wanted to mention was um on the teacher that spoke about the turnkey training i know um i know for a fact that

138her views she's not the only one with those views she's not on the teacher with those views um i think it's kind of courageous actually for me to come up and uh speak here tonight um and and yes the board doesn't know the content of the training but i i have to just have to say because it's true uh back in april in the weeks or maybe in the week leading up to the budget vote i did specifically ask administration if training of this type would be budgeted for and be provided to teachers this year and i was told no training of this type would not be provided so there you go that's all i have to say on that thank you mr gillette ms nurse um i too know that the decisions about live

139performances is in the hands of the administration here but i do have an opinion on it i i have always been conservative in in terms of safety um i think that is our number one priority but we are living in safer times we're opening up more and to have certain events that allow for indoor spectators and not others is very bothersome to me especially when we have kids with all different passions i really think we do have time to reconsider and do something that keeps everybody safe but allows for live performances so i hope that administration can talk about that um very soon um in terms of the turnkey courses like mr gillette said we do not know um the specifics on that but i would ask that if you know being a teacher in

140a neighboring district i know how hard it is sometimes classes close and if this is mandatory training but we are putting uh staff in a position where they're not comfortable taking certain classes that is problematic so i'm hoping that there's an avenue for those staff members to reach out to someone in administration and have them do something else in lieu of that or raise the limitations of other classes to help everybody feel [Music] valued and their feelings regarding this we do not want to put or i do not want to put anybody in an uncomfortable position um and the whole uh issue about what was censored at the middle school what is news to myself and probably a lot of the board members um so if there is a way to get an explanation about

141what exactly happened or what was censored that would be great if not tonight if we get an email in that regard i would appreciate that thank you thank you ms nurse miss fufana then mr oliver then miss stats um so i understand that i'm looking at a lot of these issues from a student's perspective and i know that there was a comment made about controversial subject matters but i think again like i had mentioned at our last meeting that these programs were only established to better our education and also that the fact that they are uncomfortable shows why they're so imperative that they're fundamental to the understanding of these teachers and once those teachers have a firm grasp on these issues then they're able to foster a positive and more inclusive environment um for themselves

142and for students and additionally um i just wanted to talk about um in person performances and that it is very important to consider that students pursuing musical careers are detrimentally impacted by this lack of opportunity and i think allowing in-person performances is just the one i guess sense of normalcy that a lot of us are allowed to have this year i'm not a member of choir or um you know a live and in person performing extracurricular but i do see that universally we prioritize athletes over other activities at our school so i just think that's something to take into account thank you thank you ms fufana [Applause] mr oliver so i'm going to try to keep my comments brief tonight but that's going to be a little hard to do so you know i know

143a cup the last meeting was several weeks ago we had a lot of parents came in and spoke to us about academics not being able to travel it was the first time the board was aware of it we received some emails about it we asked that the education committee look at it we looked at it we made a decision they're not allowed to travel busing is a continued problem we have a lot of issues with bussing apparent waivers we're going to try to figure it out i lost count you know 10 11 12 13 people came up and talked about performing plays choir first we heard of it with some emails i'm hoping the administration can take a good hard look at that come back with a good solid answer and accommodate because it is

144very very important it can't be a lot of fun i'm not a singer i could tell a couple of jokes now and again but telling it to a tv screen or a computer screen is a lot different than a live audience so i'm hoping we could quickly pivot and look into something like that i want to thank the triangle school teacher mr gillette and i have talked a lot about you know critical race theory we've had parents come in and talk about what's being taught in the class we're told it's not being taught in the class but it keeps popping up its ugly head but the last subject and full disclosure i am the board member about the poster that was in the middle school so full disclosure john oliver i am the board member

145so i was given that from several individuals in town that founded inflammatory and when i saw a picture of it taking out of context that one little snippet i also found it inflammatory so as a board member and an elected official i asked the administration what is this about and they were going to look into it so i have no problem with expressing views i have my own personal views as everyone else out here has their own personal views we're not allowed to have them portrayed out at a board meeting right we need to be independent but there's a fine young gentleman sitting there in the corner with a badge on and a gun at his side who puts his life on the line for us every single shift there should be and i hope

146there is in that display case a counterpoint to show his dedication and his commitment to the job to keeping us safe i don't know the answers to that i'm still waiting for answers to that so if that was taken down that wasn't because of this one little board member's objection that found it inflammatory i just wanted some answers so we need to go back and we need to look at what we're doing and how we're portraying things because to your point as educators as elected officials as board members as police officers we need to look at both sides we don't need to give a view we need to give both opposing views and let our young students let our children make their own decisions for themselves so i find it very disturbing that someone feels

147that they were censored from this one little individual board member i wanted some answers and i'm hoping we'll get some answers and i've asked this to discuss in more detail tomorrow at a hr meeting and hopefully dr trabowski will get some better answers on this thank you thank you mr oliver ms dots well first of all um what ray said you're you're amazing um there are some things i'm not going to bother saying because you said it so much better than i can um but full disclosure um i've been a volunteer artist for the hhs theater program for several years including this year for puffs i understand everybody's concerns um and i really admire and respect uh dr antoine's concern for safety that is the highest regard uh regarding everything for the past uh almost

148two years um but as far as in person performances it really makes a huge difference especially with comedy and that's what puffs is a comedy you know uh uh hearing the laughter applause and applause for any kind of performance in person performance um which is uh a big part of uh learning even not just for the ones who are comfortable performing live but especially for those who are uncomfortable having that experience with a live audience but the auditorium i think does lend itself to uh excellent opportunity to enforce distancing um but as dr intuna said earlier she is open to uh reevaluating it and i'm i she has been uh flexible as you can see with the recent decision regarding academic teams so i'm confident that she will continue to uh re-evaluate this situation thank

149you thanks thank you miss dance ms nurse i just wanted to say uh specifically to mr oliver thank you very much for clarifying at the middle school and i think you just really uh had a fine example of our perception is reality um discussion because this was very unrealistic uh that it was censored and brought down because of one single board member um so thank you for taking ownership and explaining to everybody um you know and i think it just speaks to your integrity about being honest and communicating so thank you very much thank you miss nurse miss fifana i'm not um trying to scrutinize anyone but in regards to what like took place in the middle school i think that from my understanding the showcase was there that was there was a form of

150representation and not inherently controversial and i understand you know the importance of allowing students to have their own opinion and not be biased because there's only one side being um on display but i think that in regards specifically to african american um accomplishments and and culture that i think we have to look like as a community how we define what's inflammatory and what's simply just foreign to people based on their own personal experience and i do understand that you know some of these topics are inherently controversial but i think as far as diversity and inclusivity those things are just necessary and uh vital to our school community so i think that's something to consider thank you very much mr gillette yes so let me just say i i don't think uh thank you john for

151speaking about the um uh uh item at the middle school but uh i don't think you i mean the point of it was that you were following up on concern that you received from constituent and you did then you filed the procedure you went to the superintendent about it and asked some questions about it and that's that's i mean that's basically it um and i i would have done the same thing if i not knowing anything about it go to the superintendent and i don't think the superintendent uh was a was aware not not that superintendent is aware of every display in every library and uh superintendent she did not have an immediate answer i wouldn't expect her to she's not aware of every display but she went out to find some information about it

152yeah and um so thank you for um putting the facts out there thank you thank you mr gillette mr oliver and i mean and thank you and i appreciate the support i'm not looking to hide behind anything i'm i mean i'm the one that saw it i got it from some constituents and made an inquiry we had a little bit of a robust and maybe comical at times discussion about this a governance committee and and again we came up with the conclusion that somebody may have took taken this picture and took it out of context right so it could have been just taking out of that one example could have been taken out of context if we were studying world war ii there may be a snippet of something in world war ii that could

153be taking out of context that's part of a much bigger display so it was just simply an inquiry what context was it portrayed in and why it was there was it part of a study program what was the message and if there was a message was there a message from both sides to make again the students have their own bias their own determination of what they thought was a racial inequality or a racial equality just an inquiry that's all it was and i'm still waiting to hear and we will get to the bottom of it we're going to discuss it again but we'll we'll get an explanation on it thank you but thank you mr oliver and mr gillette and that's my last comment i'm just in part that inquiry i think we should find

154out why the middle school principal was informed that a board member censored his school project how did that happen i'd like to find out that answer to that question too thank you mr gillette ms stats actually i think you're making a good point um it almost i feel that it could be possible for board members to be less inclined to to speak up about any kind of concern they might have in in fear of being thrown under the bus when in fact um the board no board members were part of the decision regarding any action taken regarding all a part of any display thank you miss stats and i'll just make one last final comment i could assure you it will never stop me from speaking my mind and bringing up those points so and

155i appreciate that but it is a very good point maybe some other board members or some individuals may feel stifled by it please don't feel stifled by it bring it to our attention i am so glad that everybody came here tonight and talked about choir because it gives us an opportunity to look into it and and try to help try to remedy it and again we'll you know we'll look at those things but i appreciate everyone's comments tonight thank you mr oliver mr kidd i assume we're going to have an update about what's going on in middle school i still am a little unsure about some specifics so i'm looking forward to protecting either an email or another private update board members but separately regarding choir performances if it is possible to safely administer performances

156this fall with an audience at any level i strongly urge the administration to do so thank you mr kid mr marini i want to make sure everyone else is done with that topic before i change good okay um just just a comment uh you know for anybody who may think we don't have one of the greatest districts uh out there um week in a week out we do get students that come up and speak at the podium and they are perhaps the best speakers of everybody in the room so i just want to thank the students that come up and and speak their piece they do it better than i do and um for any of those students listening feel free keep coming to these meetings um represent yourself because you'd be very proud of

157how you've developed and how you present yourself with these meetings thank you [Applause] are there any other comments from the board okay if not then i have just a few comments that i wanted to let the public know because this conversation that we've had is very very nice and very robust conversation at six o'clock earlier this evening which was live streamed the board had board training from njsba actually on inherent implicit unconscious bias and i believe the subtitle was what we think we don't think we think something like that and so is by vincent delucia and so if you're so inclined it is available on hillsborough's youtube channel and then i also wanted to remind the public and i and also thank the students and and the parents community members who spoke about the performance

158and as i think miss stats had said with respect to the superintendent is doing her number one priorities keep schools open and i think that we we've seen it's october no it's november november 9th and we have been in school full-time five days a week as people had as a community ahead had asked for right that we had planned all summer for and so i understand the frustration with the inconsistencies or the seeming inconsistencies with athletics versus performance arts i i do and i think we've heard the board does also and i think that with all things covered there's a lot of inconsistencies i think dr intune has even acknowledged that in her superintendence report and so the superintendent has and we've all heard the how important it is and i think we already knew

159how important it is so we absolutely appreciate you coming out tonight to express yourselves i'm confident that the administration will get further details about the logistics and and see if it is possible no guarantees right and no no promises but dr antonis has been true to her word that she would reconsider and so i'm confident that she will hopefully we'll have good news soon but i as i said no promises seeing no other board comments then i will take a motion to adjourn second thank you all in favor oh my god you're adjourned thank you very much we'll see you in two weeks