001we'll rise please please allegiance to the flag in the united states of america and to the republic which is that [Applause] here alan here john here tracy owen here doug here barbara here stephanie joe here al here jesse [Music] turn your mic on please okay noelle here is noel here i'm here okay joshua tom i'm sorry uh jesse indicated that he will not be here tonight and josh will join us later okay ladies and gentlemen the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the vision of this act the riverdale regional board of education has caused notice of this meeting
002to be publicized by having the daytime and place thereof sent to the record the ridgewood news and the town news newspapers the constituent borough clerks and borough libraries as well as posting in the school district's principal's offices faculty rooms and board office according to new jersey public law 2001 chapter 226 the smoking or use of any tobacco product is strictly prohibited anywhere in public school buildings or anyone's public grounds including but not limited to the parking lots grassy areas and athletic fields violators be subject to a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars okay thank you tom i will read the mission statement the mission of the riverdale regional school district is to provide a safe student-centered environment in which each student is valued and respected to challenge each student to reach his or her
003potential to nurture every student's intellectual social physical and emotional growth to provide a healthy work ethic a passion for learning and a respect for oneself and other to develop responsible citizens for our diverse community and an ever-changing world to continue to involve our community in an active partnership to provide all students the opportunity to achieve and exceed new jersey student learning standards and the new jersey core curriculum content standards this brings us to the public comments on agenda items only mark will facilitate any questions on agenda items only you please raise your hand or add a comment [Music] no comments anything more okay uh that moves us into the student member report uh noel i believe you're the only one out there do you have anything for us tonight um i don't have anything to
004report okay um my report i really don't have anything for tonight other than the fact that we did put out a letter about a week ago concerning the schedule the new schedule that started a week ago today and i am a believer that everyone should advocate for your children ask questions but please do so in a respectful manner we receive plenty of emails both positive and negative and i just would ask that you be respectful in any kind of communication you send to the superintendent or the board that's all i have for tonight so patrick i'll pass it to you uh just two items i should be better at this uh just to as i've done in the last couple of meetings an enrollment report um the first week that we had in-person instruction at
005the middle school for cohort a we had 188 students uh that were present uh for in-person instruction and in cohort b we had 206. in uh this week or last week that concluded on friday the 13th for cohort a we had 179 students and 193 for cohort b so the change there is relatively uh small nine students at the coordinate and 13 students at the cohort b unfortunately on the other side of the high school when we opened uh for the first week we had 402 students in cohort a and 415 in cohort b last week we concluded we had 198 students attending cohort a and 239 students attending a cohort b which is a change of 204 students for cohort a 176 for cohort b i can report that today we had 150 students
006that attended the in-person instruction which would have been cohort a at the high school and as we all know the middle school was 100 virtual due to some covert exposure that took place uh secondly i'm also um i'm also happy to be reporting that we have additional special education students that are now attending school four days per week but that brings me to my second asp which is the letter i released earlier this evening regarding a two-week closure for school as the middle school is aware i had communication yesterday regarding a staff exposure at the at the middle school today we received the confirmation of two student exposures as well all three are unrelated to each other so after consultation with the local health authorities and in light of the other infections that we've had
007at the middle school we've crossed over the line for a for a temporary closure of two weeks which would go into effect tomorrow and that would then close the building we could through december 1st we also have we have a virtual day on december 2nd so in-person instruction would return on december 3rd at the high school similar um similar numbers we've had uh in the last week uh or this week which is only monday we had two additional confirmed cases coupled with the cases that we've identified in the past week we've crossed over the time where the exposure has penetrated the facility thankfully what i'm happy to report is at this point we don't see any transmission from the facility back out to the community in other words communities bringing it into the building from
008a variety of different places community includes students staff members etc we also have another potential exposure at the secondary at the high school with a staff member so that puts us into this zone where we've had to mix with our where we've crossed over the line of recommended closure just so that people understand river edge has its own health department so we contact contact and consult with local authorities over there or adele contracts with the bergen county health department so we contract when there's an exposure at the high school we deal with the bergen county health department there was a recommendation included in that to shut down all activities which includes athletics and co-curriculars for that period of time that school is closed unfortunately we nearly made it through the entire fall season but were
009unable to do so and not that it's any comfort there were three additional high schools and school districts in bergen county that also experienced the rise in covid which is resulting in enclosures in those districts as well which are occurring as we speak so unfortunately we are in a place where we have company but it's not the company we wish to keep so having said that that concludes my report we'll jump into the committee report alan you have anything on budget and finance no no i did not okay sorry i was unmuted uh how about doug facilities and security uh no we have not had another meeting since uh the last board meeting okay and john community relations and technology we did meet recently we continue to look at um additional options for technology and
010to see if we can continue to assist during this hybrid mode now that we're going full remote but no major things to share okay thank you uh i know curriculum and policy have meetings scheduled for next week correct claudia um yes we do for policy we're going to probably be working on virtual meeting schedules but i know with the governor's new uh decreasing numbers that's going to change the stuff that we've already started working on i'm sure um and curriculum we are meeting next week and that will discuss i believe we'll start discussing new classes for next year okay classes for next year we'll start talking about that oh yeah okay that's on our agenda okay that's all we have okay thanks uh let's move into the consent agenda do i have a motion for
011consent it's claudia i'll make a motion okay second also it's done okay does anybody have any questions or issues on the consent agenda tom when you're ready please [Applause] [Music] okay yes yes john john yes tracion yes barbara yes stephanie stephanie's out joe yes but tom i need to obtain a 9 a the me the minutes and only for the october 26th meeting since i wasn't present how yes okay that brings us to our first vote under number 10 personnel e appointments number three it is recommended by the superintendent that the board approved the appointment of brian pepe as high school principal tenure track effective january 15 20 21 or sooner to june 30th 2021 at appropriated salary of 165.000 the appointment is contingent upon receipt of proper certification academic records and satisfactory background reference
012checks i have a motion uh alan with the motion do i have a second i'll second it john john thank you john and welcome aboard yes we have voting does anybody have any questions or issues here okay tom when when you're ready please claudia yes and brian i know you're listening so remember go from good to great alan yes and welcome aboard john yes and uh very happy to see a new principal at the high school tracy allen yes and we're expecting great things doug yes and welcome aboard yes welcome uh stephanie is still not here correct yep joe yes and welcome aboard brian it out yes and welcome back and good luck welcome back now i'm going to have it in my head thanks uh that brings us to our second vote um let's
013see number 13 finance and district operation h the superintendent at the request of the board sector secretary recommends that the board accept light item transfers and the adjustments as listed in the financial report for the month ending october 2020. may i have a motion please this is joelle i'll make that motion okay joe thank you alan i'll second it does anybody have any questions okay tom when you're ready gloria yes allen yes john yes tracy owen yeah doug yes barbara yes joe yes hello yes okay i may have a motion to bring items from the executive gender forward to the regular agenda i'll make a motion it's claudia i'll second it it's joe okay joe i'm just going to recap some of the items that are brought over it is recommended that superintendent board approve
014appointments for the following riverdale staff members to work additional schedules so and this is for a math teacher that is beginning a maternity leave we're sending the appointment of an extracurricular advisor we send an appointment of the assistant boys basketball coach and a resignation of a building service employee rocco patifio a step up the guide for one of the teachers special education teacher two salary adjustments for a tech department another leave replacement for a guidance counselor school counselor uh a replacement for the uh assistant boys basketball coach uh jeffrey wilson to the position of extracurricular advisor to the jazz band and then a new hire in the uh tech department [Music] does anybody have any questions regarding any of these executive items that are brought to the regular agenda tom when you're ready please claudia
015um yes to everything except e2 and i wish nothing but the best for rocco he's awesome he's going to be well missed alan yes john yes tracy allen yes doug yes barbara yes stephanie still isn't present correct this is correct joe yes and now yes okay so that brings us to old business we have a presentation tonight from an anti-racism group are you folks ready for your presentation hi yeah we're ready okay except the presenter it would help with the feedback thank you thank you um hello everyone my name is elizabeth hassell i graduated in the class of 2015. we dropped a link for our presentation that we created so if the board and everyone who's present would like to just uh click on that they can take a look at it so i'm a
016part of riverdale for blm a diverse multi-generational group of parents students and alumni our group came together after the murder of george floyd by police in may and grew into a larger conversation that centered around our education system and the changing toxic environment at riverdale in june four former riverdale students were involved in creating a survey to address the culture within our high school the survey overwhelmingly described instances of racism homophobia and anti-semitism performed by students and faculty and it was given to superintendent fletcher along with three short-term solutions which is on slide five of the powerpoint if you're looking at it in mid-july we created a petition which now has over 1100 signatures and which generated a large amount of support from our community this petition has five main demands including decentering whiteness in
017the curriculum hiring teachers of color yearly training for teachers and assemblies and a zero tolerance policy for any racist or discriminatory acts which is on slide six uh two current riverdale students recently shared a document that was a compiled uh events and social media instances that has happened at riverdale during their time here we are here because this is still a toxic culture at riverdale that affects the entire community and we need to work together to create a long-term solution and move forward so i'd like to introduce serena barr and felicita castianus who will share some of their own experiences here at riverdale my name is serena barr class of 2019 and i'm here to tell you about my experience at the riverdale school district as a biracial half black half jewish woman being of
018jewish descent i was very disgusted disappointed and scared that a swastika next to the words hitler is my hero was drawn in the boy's bathroom along with kill all the jews being written in the girls bathroom in the same week in early 2017. since these anti-semitic hate crimes were swept under the rug by the administration it gave leeway for students to be openly anti-semitic hearing a jewish teacher being called a stupid jew holocaust denies giving their unwanted opinion and from a personal standpoint having a penny being thrown at me and being told to pick it up now comes the anti-black racism random students would touch my curly hair without my consent or i would get i would get told to go brush my hair as a joke white male students would fetishize the body of
019a black female student in front of faculty every single year i've attended riverdale i would get mocked for my jamaican heritage from both students and faculty along with both students and faculty once again mocking two black students from the same grade and calling them brothers even when they're not it's hard for non-black teachers and students to understand my frustration and pain having at least one black teacher or teacher of color or making sure the board implemented anti-racism training for faculty in the petition would have made my high school experience better mr fletcher and the board please think about the future of your black students and students of color because your decisions directly impact your students and the culture at riverdale history has its eyes on you i thank you for your time i passed this
020presentation on to felicita costianas hi everyone i'm not sure if you'll remember me but my name is felicita costianes and i was a student board liaison for riverdale before i graduated in 2019. two years later as a student at boston college i'm very grateful for my time spent at riverdale but this gratitude is what brings me here today to address a toxic culture that has been tolerated for far too long in reminiscing on my time spent at riverdale a walk down the yellow locker hallway could sound like dude you're acting like a don't be so gay sitting in the corner during lockdown drills you could hear oh we can't see you with the lights off we're waiting during the first few minutes of class before a teacher gets up to begin maybe you can hear
021white students singing each word including the n-word of the new drake song just before they turn their heads back to the black students as if to dare them to react or in the parking lot bending down at the sight of a quarter on the ground would often be met with oh you do these are real stories real quotes and they're absolutely unacceptable alumni of all backgrounds call themselves numb to it feeling the need to act a certain way in order to mask their identity to evade humiliation masked by sarcasm unaddressed comments like these have produced the riverdale that we know to be infamously discriminatory racist and toxic we are all here because we believe in riverdale and its ability to do better so we ask to please be taken seriously because no one should have
022stories like these to tell i now introduce micheline parry innocent thank you i'm a river edge resident and a parent our children have taken action to reveal the impact of how racist anti-semitic homophobic xenophobic and misogynist comments and actions continue to negatively affect them and the learning environment in our community school the intentions of these actions are irrelevant those feelings of our children can no longer be dismissed we must stand together as a community to help take proactive and positive action towards change possible solutions have already been proposed in the alumni petition and supported by over 1 100 members of our community as next steps after this meeting outlined in slide 8 of our presentation we would like the board to create a task force composed of teachers current students alumni and parents that will
023work to oversee immediate and long-term changes we understand and are sensitive to the current economic realities but are adamant in our belief that the that there are steps that can be taken towards a safer and more inclusive school environment that would currently not require monetary commitments additionally in the spirit of long-term change we also ask to be invited to the next curriculum meeting thank you for your time i now pass this presentation to elizabeth styles history teacher at riverdale hi good evening everybody my name is liz stiles i teach social studies at the high school i wanted to start off by thanking the students both past and present who have attended these past few meetings for coming and speaking their truth sometimes we forget that they're the ultimate reason why we're all here and why
024we work as hard as we do um we should all be grateful and humbled by them that they took their time to remind us i want to offer my support and my time to help this group affect positive change in the school that we all love so much thank you thank you all for your attentiveness and time and we now welcome all reactions comments or questions does anybody have any tie it questions good okay uh unmuted can you hear me yep okay i want to thank all the students present and past who've come forward this evening uh it is certainly a difficult thing for all of us to hear especially for me as a superintendent of the feelings that you've expressed as you know i met with several of the students over the summertime i
025think it was in early july regarding the initial uh concert the initial petition that was brought forward and that was out of out of respect for the students that we have here past and present and to know that their pleas do not go unheard so the responses to that first petition that came forward which were for three we're sharing of resources for our staff and our students for some professional development for our staff which unfortunately the sharing of resources was done the professional development unfortunately was overwhelmed by the public health crisis that we're dealing now with now and then finally the issue of a club that was to be related to this issue and what we've done as far as to direct all our co-curricular activities to examine citizenship in some way shape or form
026and how it pertains to a variety of different issues not just the ones that were mentioned this evening so the additional items that were brought forward on friday which i received in an email and all the board members received we will just continue to take under advisement and move forward however i think it's important for everyone to understand that there is there's never an excuse there's never a situation where it is okay for a student to feel the way that they do and it's just unfortunate that that some of the actions that we have taken particularly regarding the one incident that was talking talked about earlier with the swastikas in the bathrooms i think there was a very a very public response issue and unfortunately with confidentiality issues that go into place it's unfortunate that
027we can't explain every action that's taken because it involves another student along the way however as i said before there's never an excuse for this type of behavior and we will take the additional items under consideration as we move forward and it's nice to know that we have a teacher who's willing to step forward and help guide the effort thank you patrick do we have any other old business or slash new business anybody okay we'll open it up to uh public comments if anyone in the public has anything please hit the little hand button and mark ms liberto hi yes thank you so much um hopefully i'm unmuted um i'd like to invite anybody interested in participating with team freedom corps who's currently participating ywca with their 21 day racial equity and social justice challenge
028every day for 21 days they post different um articles and videos that challenge the way we think and want the kids to participate in you know reading these articles watching um these videos listening to podcasts and reflect on their own personal experiences and how um we act impacts the people around us um also identifying you know discrimination in many different forms uh and just how we can become more socially aware socially responsible so again it's the 21 day challenge with the ywca and the teen freedom corps is actually actively participating um in this challenge we had our first meeting today to discuss the um first four days of challenges and how it impacted um you know their point of view their perceptions and where they plan on going from there so you know i'm very
029proud of this particular team and i invite anybody else who's interested to participate i can send them the information any other comments please joan ingram hi yeah i just wanted to clarify the schedule that the students will be following for the next two weeks when their virtual is the new hybrid schedule with that lengthy um break for lunch that correct that is correct any other comments please raise your hand ingram okay vanessa yeah i actually had another question just speaking to um the curriculum so i could be wrong but there was a deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction last year and i'm just wondering um is that post going to be is someone going to refill that post if so when and if not where is that funding going so specifically that funding was directed
030towards a different supervisor we added a supervisor of special projects and staff development who's trained to help with the virtual aspect of instruction that we anticipate having for quite a while we've had already and we'll have for quite a while and we will consider so we added we took the money from that position to fund the other one um and then we'll consider uh continuing to look uh at other administrative reorganization as we've developed a new budget okay and just to piggyback on that you know um i think that's a good smart move that you did that because of all the you know difficulty in learning these new platforms um i personally having three students at um in riverdale between the middle school and high school i see some and you know some gains and
031using different kinds of platforms like near pod platforms that are more engaging for the students so they're not just looking at a powerpoint listening to the teacher and then going off to do their work but i don't see really a great increase so i'm talking about you know eight teachers times three kids 24 that's a decent representation so does the um administration have some kind of timeline for when they expect teachers to kind of begin using and implementing some new technology uh well we just deployed uh two staff over the last couple of weeks uh and i really mean over the like the last two weeks i think we announced it for the middle school past monday some additional equipment that can be used as webcams and microphones in order to help provide a more
032robust in-person like if you will instruction so i i think that as that equipment gets deployed and as people become more familiar with it it will be a little bit uh it should be a better experience while people are participating virtually vanessa bernal hi thank you so much um so i am part of the um group uh that the presentation for tonight um so i just wanted to understand um is it being considered uh for our group to join any of the curriculum meetings um i understand that you felt mr fletcher uh and the board that some of um you know what's been done so far has helped but um we would really like to see you know a lot a bit more of what we have presented to you to have a bit more
033serious consideration uh most importantly as i mentioned you know joining the curriculum committee meeting i appreciate that and i understand exactly the question uh as what i what i indicated is that we'll take all of that uh under advisor we've just got those requests on friday so need an opportunity to review it and to take a look at it and see how we can best implement you know some type of input process that sounds reasonable and i appreciate that there's no way i could expect for you to you know have an answer this evening thank you my other question you're very welcome and my other question is which has kind of baffled me when these incidents do occur why is it that there have not been any assemblies for the children to bring them all
034in and just you know go over with them guys this is not that you know it's not to point out anyone or shame anybody but this is not the way that we treat each other um they're there six hours a day five days a week or more sometimes you're their family um they shouldn't be treating each other this way where's you know you have a wonderful message uh mission statement on the website they need to hear it i i i can't you know give you a a a good robust answer to the question of why uh you know we don't have assemblies every time something like that happens or what i can just try to indicate that you know what what we've been trying to do is to support students in a variety of different
035ways over the last a number of years with uh with uh uh programs if you will that bolster all kinds of uh support for kids and i and that's unfortunate there's just no way to say it and unfortunate may not be uh the best description or the best adjective to use with this but it's still it's it's just uh it's just so disappointing that even today after you know years of trying to uh promote students to treat each other with dignity and respect that we still have students that feel this way and um sorry uh so i i it's unfortunate for me because i've had i've had the pleasure of working in uh five other school districts or four other school districts this being my fifth over 35 year career and it's unfortunate that in
036each one of those places that i've been over 35 years i've experienced something like this why it's so entrenched and why it is felt that way i don't have a good answer to and i can tell you that all the efforts that we've had and we just have to do better as a as human beings we have to treat each other with dignity and respect no matter who we are no matter where we are no matter what we believe no matter what we look like we just have to treat each other better with with dignity and respect and i i don't have a good answer for that i don't of course this is a very difficult topic to um you know to to to address in one evening i mean this will take some time
037and i don't mean to you know take the floor right now but i just want to let you know that you know we have been reaching out to friends in other districts other districts are working on this as well you know we would not be alone we could create a network with other bergen county districts trying to make this work better because they're suffering as much as our students are here we can do better yes we can yes we can thank you so much okay we have a written question from alex plitnick of class of 21 if we know that none of the cases were spread through school or via sports why are sports getting shut down uh as i indicated uh the yeah i'm sorry let me let me go back up we don't
038know that uh it's not being spread through sports and as a matter of fact we do know that that there have been private supporting activities which have resulted in positive tests of our student what i am trying to indicate is that we haven't had a transmission from the school outward at this point we did in the summertime have five students that tested positive who participated in the athletic program and unsure as to where all those transmissions come from however most specifically the reason for your answer is that once we cross over a certain threshold of exposure and positive cases and in all instances we confer with the health departments and the recommendation from the bergen county health department is that when you close for covert related uh health reasons you close everything down mary john
039wilcoxen mary john you have your hand raised you're going to mute your mic i guess uh lisa milordo yes um does this change apply to the lld classroom as well uh unfortunate at this point yes okay uh somebody asked a question pasek valley was closed for coveted related reasons and still kept their athletics going so how were they able to do that was it based on the case numbers it is my understanding that pascack valley closed because they didn't have enough staff members to promote their activities i'm sorry to have run a safe building i know that we they were closed for two days last week and i know that we played them i did reach out to the other administration up there to determine that our students were safe prior to their participation with
040pascack ballet so my understanding is that they closed because they didn't have enough staff to operate the building and a written question from jody esquenazi will the wednesday schedule stay as is yes the current schedule that we have of four four days of hybrid vis-a-vis and virtually on wednesday it will remain in existence your healthsteader yes good evening um i feel like my question is a little trivial given the uh heartfelt presentation earlier um you know my empathy and my heart goes out to them as a staff member here at riverdale um you know it's it's upsetting to hear that that was people's experience while i was involved so having said that um i guess i know mr graf you had made it clear at the last meeting this is not a question and answer
041session i don't mean to have it turn into one i read your letter as well i guess i'm here to urge um whether it be admin or the board or in conjunction to try to come up with a solution given that we are going virtual to this schedule um i know many people were upset with the hybrid schedule like the new one november 9 schedule um i get the fact that everyone sees it through their own lens and that's okay right you have to try it to figure out what works and what doesn't work um and that's okay um in july the rdea informed the board that this schedule um was a substandard schedule um but was okay because you had 50 capacity i mean you had to deal with this schedule because of that
042um we discovered very quickly everybody that the straight a wednesday schedule was really really tiresome we switched this new schedule um and i guess my disappointment is november 16th and we're going to be rolling out a hybrid schedule that we're going to be working on virtually which was designed to get students back in the building and more contact time um so i guess what i'm asking um not as a response but as a request is um parents and teachers certainly the teachers and the students should be heard on how to develop a virtual schedule that will service one the students and secondly the planning time for the teachers because this schedule does not do that and you heard a parent earlier um she wanted some innovation for her sons or daughters i'm not sure you
043know what gender they were um however um it can't be done or it's very very difficult to be done in the standard by which um my members are used to a custom providing and so i really just want to make sure and i really i'd like to be in the room or have my other teachers in the room so that we can figure out a schedule that works if we have to stay virtual beyond you know the next 10 or 15 school days so that was all we have a written question from liz styles or comment uh thank you all for your time tonight does the boe have any questions or comments for the group about the presentation uh this is stephanie hartman i i came in late i'm sorry and i came in without
044my computer so you hear me from mrs o'neill's computer um and uh my question is actually back to mrs liberto in speaking about what team freedom core is doing and if perhaps at the end of the the 21 day challenge maybe some of the students can write down their thoughts or write down things that open their eyes to or actions they wishing to take and share back with the board i'd be interested to see how their perspective changed and what they you know what they feel maybe could be useful here so um i don't know if miss alberta's still on here but if not if one of her colleagues could pass that along i would appreciate that and i uh always think that i was at the teach-in over the summer and i always thank
045all the students for wanting to change the environment that they're no longer in and making an impact for others so appreciate that i actually i am still um in the meeting and i'd be happy to provide feedback and speak to the students about presenting at a later board meeting we also have an active teams page where the kids are going to be posting um their their process uh throughout this experience because it's going to mean different things to different students and i think that's part of the um the best part of this is that getting perspective from all different angles and getting to hear each other out in a safe environment where they can be supported great thank you i had one comment al uh this is john samuel i want to thank the group
046that also presented there's a lot of material to digest and i just want to reiterate what uh al mentioned the board president in the last meeting if you don't have an active dialogue from the board to the public that's because that's how we operate on the board that doesn't mean uh board members don't hear you guys we do operating committees we meet in smaller groups uh in order to deliberate and talk about these things and i can tell you i personally do hear everything we do bring it to our committees we do discuss it we do discuss it with the superintendent and and you know once we understand it we do take action so i do want to thank you guys i want to encourage you guys to also reach out to the mayor and
047council in each of the towns this is not just in the school this probably is happening in other places and it requires a partnership with the parents it's not just the school so the school needs to create an environment where this is not tolerated but this really needs to be a community partnership and you need to build that awareness also with the rest of the governing bodies which is the rest of the school districts the mayor and council in river edge and oredel and they have direct reach into the police departments and other areas where this awareness could be more broadly shared all right we have a question from silva anna christina if all students are learning remotely until december 3rd why are we not using the full day wednesday hours for the next two
048weeks to maximize the instructional time for all our children um as i as i indicated when i made the recommendation to the board regarding uh the change in schedule that if we had a short-term closure which is defined as the two weeks that we would continue with the existing schedule however we would continue also to look at other options as we move forward unfortunately i i remain concerned very concerned about the numbers that are in the community regarding regarding the penetration of the virus into both our communities i remain hopeful that we will find a way out of this so that we can get back to a more normal opportunity for schools uh but with the current restrictions in place uh as i indicated we're just gonna follow this current schedule for the for the
049two weeks and remember there's a break that's involved in there too so but we will continue to look at other options i am in contact with other school districts i am in contact with other school districts throughout bergen county and i do know that there are are different versions of schedules that we can continue to look at john ingram hi yeah i just wanted to um you know respond in part to i think it was mr halsetter um who spoke about um you know the teacher perspective also you know you spoke about the students what's best for the students from the parent perspective um what's most important for me and for many parents that i speak to is to have the kids um get instruction from the teachers unfortunately it's not in person right now
050or won't be for the next two weeks but to get as much of that instructional time in as possible and while i understand what you're saying certainly teachers definitely need time to plan and for professional development um teachers had that big chunk of time prior to the hybrid schedule where they did have um plenty of time to work on planning and to work on getting to know these different platforms that i mentioned before pair deck padlet flip grid lots of technology out there and i personally didn't see a huge up cut tick in that and therefore i would prefer them to have that that instruction from the teachers any more questions or comments i see a comment from silva and christina while our children continue to learn remotely they need more instructional time not less
051i'm very concerned about the long-term effects of unfinished learning due to lack of instruction anyone else uh the question is uh is wednesday november 25th still half day and if so what is the hybrid schedule for that day uh yes uh wednesday before the 25th which is before thanksgiving and there's a wednesday prior to the holiday recess we are looking at that in order to try to make sure that we can balance the destruction that takes place between the other periods that occur on the monday and tuesday so there will be an additional information coming out regarding those two particular wednesdays and we have a question from julie lippold of orodel would there be a consideration to continuing the remote learning for two weeks after thanksgiving my concern is that people will travel for the
052holidays but not adhere to the 14-day post-travel quarantine and send their kids back to school we all have that chip we all share that concern and that was an item that was in the bottom of the letter that i released today i i remain hopeful and i and i want to say specifically that for the most part our student and parent community have been very responsive very forthcoming with possible exposures testing etc i encourage that to continue i recognize that the holiday period that's coming up will uh coupled with the fatigue that we all feel and coupled with our desire to have some normality in our lives may cause other opportunities for exposure i just hope that everyone will maintain that forthcoming ability and let us know should there be continued exposure i don't know
053what's going to take place at the state level the governor had a speech today where at his news conference where he indicated that uh there's some other things coming down limitations on in person gatherings both inside and out there's a going to be additional a consultation regarding uh fall or i'm sorry winter sports uh which i know will take place over the next couple of days and we just all have to hang in there and uh um be uh be cognizant that it's a fluid situation we have a comment from fiona flynn class of 21. i personally am very concerned as well as as well about the long-term effects of keeping students on their computers this long it is exhausting to learn virtually and both teachers and students can benefit from the half-day schedule since
054it allows students to focus more on the educational time they are receiving and spend time away from the computer before homework and or after school jobs we have a comment from rita cookson of riveredge does each subject offer hard copy textbooks or are most of the textbook digital versions i'm looking at this as a way to maybe reduce screen time we we rely heavily almost exclusively on online textbooks that are available however we do maintain classroom sets in each of the areas in each of the buildings and we do maintain additional books for students that may have special needs i would just direct you to the building level regarding uh that kind of a a question mike toda thanks i'm a teacher at the high school but i want to comment as a parent of
055freshman football player in particular i just want to thank mr nelson and all the sports all the coaches for all their efforts during this crazy fall season you know the shutdown unfortunately means the end of that so i just want to thank them publicly for all their efforts i know every workout and everything that kids went to was a big benefit to the kids so i just want to thank them any more questions or comments hey mark i see one of those further up in the chat uh some were answered by jeff i see a comment here from suzanne flam i know there are many parents that feel more instruction is optimal but virtual computer learning on their laptops for this many hours is and does create burnout not all parents agree with the full
056day schedule virtual schedule i too have spoken with many parents that feel this way and i do hope this is considered if virtual learning is necessary moving forward past the two weeks thank you very much for considering all and i can only imagine how difficult your job is the four half days and one full day virtual should also be considered it assists with protecting from burnout any more questions or comments that's it okay so then as we close i would just like to uh wish everyone a safe uh thanksgiving season thanksgiving is a uniquely american holiday where we all get to celebrate let's hope that we all celebrate safely thank you all thank you patrick uh do i have a motion to adjourn i'll make a motion it's claudia second i'll second it's daddy all
057in favor hi hi stay safe everyone nine o'clock tom