001Mr Daren would you lead us in the flag salute I pledge Ali to the flag United States of America stand Sunshine Law statement all requirements of the open public meetings act have been met for this meting meeting of the Board of Education of the burough of ordell notice of this meeting was filed with the record and town news and all persons requesting such notice Mrs noran would you read the mission statement yes uh the orell public school district is dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of educational Excellence through comprehensive Innovative curriculum and instruction yes the the mic is on turning turning louder is that better okay well I'll start all over again the orell public school district is dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of educational Excellence through comprehensive Innovative curriculum and instruction the district is committed
002to providing opportunities for social emotional and academic Discovery to Foster curiosity courage and character our goal is to prepare our students to become lifelong Learners who are self-directed resilient productive responsible citizens thank you roll call the RO got hold that down on the rooll Mr Del Greco here Mr Daren here Mrs Downey here Mrs Moran here Mr nutlin here Mrs Walker here Mr Walsh will not be here Mrs noran here Mrs Nichols here at this time I'm going to make a little bit switch in the order of our meeting and I'm going to do my president's report before I open the floor to the public for agenda items only I want to apologize for my voice first I have been sick and I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to attend this
003meeting so we will see how it goes this evening uh first point of business Miss Trisha Lions ask that her email be added to the official record so Mr iell I'm going to give you this I ask you to add it to our meeting record I would first like to thank the ordell PTA the greatest PTA in the state of New Jersey for all they do the oldest the largest and the greatest for all they do for the children at Oro Public School the executive board and all the volunteers put in countless hours for the benefit of our students and the Oro Board of Education would like to thank you for all your time effort and commitment we greatly appreciate all you do for Ops when the author visits were first announced by the PTA
004parents started to reach out to the board with concerns regarding subject matter after our last meeting parents again reached out to the board with many encouraging the board to approve these visits as a board our number one priority is our students we want all of our students to be able to attend and experience these fun activities our students look forward to to these assemblies they are very excited to attend as I stated at the end of our last meeting the board was waiting for additional information which we have now received as I'm sure you are already aware the pta's facility uses usage resolution has been placed on this evening's agenda on a different topic included in some of the emails received by the board were questions regarding policy and building usage I was hoping our
005attorney would be able to join us this evening but unfortunately he had a prior commitment to another District I'm going to ask him to attend a future meeting where you can hear his hear answers directly from him we will notify everyone when we know the date in the meantime any questions you may have please email me or the entire board in closing I would like to remind everyone that all the board members seated up here with me are volunteers we live in a small town we are your friends we are your neighbors are we perfect no at times can we do things better yes but I can attest every board member is committed to the students at Ops and every board member dedicates many hours of their time for the sole purpose of making Oro
006Public School the best it can be I want to assure you the board always has our students best interest as our number one priority when making decisions at this time I'm going to open the floor for public comment on agenda items only we are going to start with a 30 minute session um I guess we can say three minutes per person to start if there's a lot of people we may have to limit it there'll be a timer Mr Darion are you going to time I would like you to give um each individual 3 minutes and a 30 minute warning when you come up to the podium if you could just state your name for the record clearly and I think there's a form for you to fill out with um your information so um
007whoever would like to start please come forward hi my name is Shasta clinch and I'm a co-chair on the pta's author presentation committee I want to thank the board of education for your time not just for tonight before all you do volunteer work can be thankless and underappreciated but it is vital and I'm sure you do it not just for your children but also for the benefit of all the children in our community I thank Mr mangle Amanda Harrison for all the effort that has gone into bringing authors to our school as well as the PTA leadership for their support and resources when I told my children why I was coming here tonight they didn't understand but they know that I am an author and I have written children's books and they wanted to know
008if a Board of educ Education might vote to prevent me from speaking one day and I told them I don't know but this is not about me as much as my stomach is telling me otherwise this is about our students in my family we Foster a love of reading and in my work in the ptaa I have tried to share that love like you I agree with your mission statement through the amazing authors who visit this school I want to Foster opportunities for social emotional and academic discovery the process for the author visits begins in early October and we work hard to bring amazing and talented people to our school Ops and the p and the PTA have hosted numerous Award winners including last year's calicot winner the Cala is one of the highest Awards
009a children's illustrator can get these presentations are about teaching our children about the other side of books about their creation and sparking their imaginations and curiosity and if we're lucky our kids will feel INSP ired perhaps to even be authors or illustrators themselves if that isn't a way to prepare our students to be self-directed resilient productive responsible citizens than I no longer know what is and it makes me sad to think about the future of this program what will happen if we as a community tell our children that authors are not welcome here thank you for your time [Applause] good evening my name is Arena bakosi and I'm the current president of the orell PTA I have a daughter in fifth grade here at Ops and I have a freshman at riverdell high school a
010son allow me to provide a brief background of how the orell PTA services this community the orell PTA has been serving this community longer than any other PTA has served in the state of New Jersey we have 35 committees led by 97 committee chairs over 900 members and hundreds of volunteers who dedicate their time and effort so we can deliver quality programming to our children the Orel PT 's mission is to promote elevated engagement create fund for students and their families support the school community and support local business we provide academic community building and fundraising services to the children family and community of Ops because of our many incredible volunteers were able to provide an abundance of programs such as grade level and special area grants steam Fair book clubs book fair family mentoring school
011supplies school photos Fall Fest Winter Wonderland holiday Boutique coordinating a daily lunch program memory book student directory and much more author visits is part of this quality programming which the PTA has proudly sponsored for years author visits help promote excitement about reading among the Ops Community it's an amazing opportunity for our kids to meet award-winning authors and illustrators from a variety of backgrounds to learn about their creative process while fostering the students love for for reading and Inspire them inspiring them to pursue their own creativity as mentioned the PTA has been sponsoring author visits for years the PTA follows a standard operating procedure when running this program or any other PTA program as a former internal auditor I understand the importance of creating and following Sops in order to run a process successfully whether it
012be in business or in a school setting the author visit sop describes how the author visits are facilitated by the PT committee chairs this involves researching accredited authors coordinating with faculty and arranging logistics for the visits the Ops Library staff provides a list of suggested authors that span across the grades the committee chairs then attend the Glenrock Book Festival to gather more information about the prospective authors sometimes authors who were asked but could not attend in the past are also Revisited and added to the list 30 seconds the committee chairs are in constant communication with the Ops Library staff the list of prospective authors is then narrowed down based on author availability and affordability the final list of authors is then sent to the school administration committee's board executive link and the PTA president this
013robust process was followed this year and every other year the PTA has sponsored this event I hope by providing you with some background information on the PTA and highlighting the impact it has in our community you will understand that our PTA is here to bring quality programming to all our students thank you and we do have to cut for everyone behind you thank you thank you very much thank you for your [Applause] time hi my name is Kelly Castro I'm at 521 milder place I'm a a prior president of the PTA and I'm just here just today to speak about the importance of the collaborative working relation relationship our our school our PTA has with the school that relationship along with significant effort from a large number of engaged volunteers who work in good faith
014in this situation as shusta and Reena mentioned following their sop and working with the school librarian and other school Personnel is what allows our PTA to execute at such a high level thanks to these dedicated volunteers and that good working relationship the PTA can provide a wide variety of services programming events and resources our es all which enhance the students education and create fond memories of their Ops years not all ptas are able to do that since not all enjoy such a good working relationship with their school board and administrators situations like this can dis disengage volunteers and impact that good working relationship both which are vital to the PTA in our school Community as I tell my kids there's always a solution thankfully we have a committed Community who have shown that they can
015do amazing things I know the PTA and the Board of Education come to a fair respectful solution thank [Applause] you hello my name is Parker sh Hussein and I'm a student at riverdell high school I graduated from Ops in 2020 the reason I am here today as many others are is due to the vote about author presentations to make sure that I am fully informed before speaking I watched the last Board of Ed meeting where author presentations were brought up in a separate vote I also read about each author their books and their presentations this confused me as I couldn't understand why an author talking to students about their book would be an issue when all other activities passed the only possible reason I could find is the author Chad cell who will be presenting
016to grades 3 to four is gay his book series The cardboard Kingdom revolves around 16 children who transfor transform cardboard into costumes and go on magical adventures a concern for many is about the sexuality of one out of the 16 characters it is never explicitly stated that the character is gay simply implied he dresses up in a sorceress costumes and has feelings for members of the same sex this shouldn't be an issue in the first place but if that is uncomfortable for anyone a reminder that students are not forced to read to read the book but rather listening listen to the presid presentation from the author is important Chad cell's description of his book is when I talk to kids I explain how I work how I make my work and how every student can
017use creativity to overcome challenges in their own life and Tackle their own incredible creative projects with which is also paired with a drawing demonstration what is inappropriate about this if we are Banning a book because a boy dresses up in a girl costume then why for example aren't we ban in Captain Underpants a book in the school library where a man dresses up in underwear at a school are we concerned that the students will come to school dressed in their underwear this may seem like a mockery a joke or funny but in reality it exposes the true intention of banning this author from coming discrimination and censorship one of the themes that has really stuck out to me in my time at Ops is diversity and inclusion everyone has always felt comfortable and safe overall
018if this author is not allowed to come visit these students what message will the send that lgbtqia students are censored and that they aren't including this vote is about more than just the author but about the representation of students and the future thank you no the Applause is taking part of the 30 minutes so it was wasting time hello my name is Charlie toag Leon for those of you that are unaware I'm a foure student at Ops in my time at Ops I felt the school had trouble making sure every student felt included when I heard that many were opposed to Chad cell coming to Ops based on his sexuality and the fact that a boy in the book wants to dress up as a sorceress I was shocked it's clear this is not only
019about the content in his book but his sexuality as well in his book the cardboard Kingdom kids are in an imaginary land somewhere that they were able to be themselves in a safe and imaginary space in no way are kids being persuad to be Tau about sexuality the fact that this even comes up make me makes me angry I feel almost as if we were taking a step back in our community by not welcoming all people I also feel it as offensive to Chad cell who knows he would not be welcomed solely based on his sexuality in my time at Ops I felt like an oast because I wasn't like the other voice had someone like Chad been a visitor been a visiting author maybe I would have felt maybe I would not have felt
020so out of place I endured Relentless ridicule about being gay and have and and having some support would have made a difference for me I hope the resident I hope that the residents of ell and the board make the right decision and decide that sexuality should not dictate a person thank you my name is Jas gaches and I am currently a senior at wdel high school and a co-president and co-founder of rival's gay straight Alliance I have lived in aidel for over 10 years and graduated Ops in 2019 I am here for the same reason that many of my peers are here fa over the vote allowing this author to visit during my time at school here I vividly remember some of the author visits and how they enhanced my love for reading and my
021passion about books and I'm grateful for every single author visit I got to the chance to attend for those of you who have voted against Chad cellc coming to the school I ask you why have you read his books have you looked at the program he is planning on presenting because I have and all I see is an author promoting creativity and free expression maybe things have changed since I have attended this school maybe teaching kids to be creative and to accept others is no longer a concern of your or maybe it's because there's an illusion to queerness in his books but then I ask what is wrong with that is teaching students to accept others regardless of how they dress or who they love no longer a priority at Ops is realizing queer is
022helping queer students realize that there isn't something wrong with them and that there are people out there who look like them and that those people should be celebrated no longer a priority of you guys I hope that you guys make the correct decision today and allow this off to Vis to visit to spread his messages of creativity and fostering creativity and acceptance in the students at the school thank you and have a good night thank you good evening thank you for having us here my name is Maggie kleene and I'm a proud parent in this school district and I'm here with my two daughters I'm Tessa Klein and I'm currently a junior at Riverdale High School and I graduated from Ops in 2020 and I'm Julian Klein and I'm currently a sixth grader at Ops
023in Miss Kennedy's class and we love Ops its teachers and the community we've built here and that's why we're here showing support for a multitude of authors and books to be part of this year's authors visits schools should be a place of learning and open discussion and for this reason we trust this board to make decisions that reflect the values of inclusivity and intellectual Freedom that our town holds dearly as a student at Ops we've learned about Panther pride and being kind to one another I look forward to your making a decision that ensures that all students feel seen respected and free to explore their identity and beliefs thank you thank you hello let make it for a little taller person uh thank you for my name is Lori Graham I have two children at
024Ops like everybody else I'm super thankful for the PTA the teachers the administrators the staff and the school um thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today to share some some concerns that have Arisen over the past few weeks as Miss noran stated the mission of Ops is that we are dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of educational Excellence through comprehensive Innovative curriculum and instruction the district is committed to providing opportunities for social emotional and academic Discovery to Foster curiosity courage and character instilling these values in our students ensures that we are fostering empathy understanding and a sense of belonging within the school Community inclusion diversity and acceptance are some of the core values being taught to our students on a daily basis through Ops Circle or open circle not only are we teaching
025our children these values but we expect them to model these values as part of their School Community as part of the curriculum the op Ops and the PTA have brought in authors to share and discuss their books in age appropriate ways with our children as a collective team the PTA and school leaders have recommended Julie long author of the truth about dragons Chad cell author of The stupendous Switcheroo series and New York Times best-selling author Tracy Baptist to meet with our children each of these authors brings their own unique message of Hope courage and curios studies show that children are more likely to develop a lifelong learning Lifelong Love of reading when they engage with books that resonate with them by incorporating D diverse authors into the curriculum students are provided with a chance to
026engage with different writing styles storytelling techniques and themes at the last border Ved meeting on February 12th it was suggested to separate the approval of these three author visits and then vote on them individually to the Casual Observer it seems that there were other conversations that have occurred regarding one or more of these authors that have not been shared with the public these actions have created several questions number one why is any one or all of these authors being separated out from the others two what information was the board waiting on or did they receive to inform their decision to approve or decline each author and three what message do we as a school district want to teach our children about inclusion and acceptance it's important that all children are exposed to diversity in order
027to teach them the value of acceptance of people that are different than they 30 seconds thank you thank you hi I just want to start by thanking the PTA and the board um my name is Kelly Leia and if you don't know me you may have seen me before I'm the mom who every morning at drop off guides her third grade son up to Ops while he has a book in hand Miss posos I think we bumped into you a couple times I'm sorry about that every morning he's immers Le in uh in his graphic novels there're one of his biggest passions he went to a graphic novel Camp over the summer so it's no surprise I first learned about the upcoming author event from my son he spent the last month coming up with
028questions he wants to ask the author when did he start how long does it take him to draw them he can't believe he has the opportunity to ask a graphic novelist these questions to a 9-year-old this is a big deal and all of the discussion around this topic this past week I think one of the things missing is the joy that this PTA event brings to the kids each year when I learned that voting to approve the author visits via facilities requests would be on the agenda I wanted to understand why there hasn't until tonight been clear messaging from the board after research I would gladly welcome my son to attend and learn about the creation of graphic novels and learn about stories of incl inclusivity orol and Ops often highlight the importance of community
029which is why I think so many people choose to live here a community is made Stronger by differing opinions and I believe all ops parents should have the right to make individual choices for their children parents regularly make different choices about what activities their child participates in during the school day I've been asked to approve or deny various activities regularly it's always my choice whether it's a PG movie related to their reading a field trip we always have options I respect anyone who wants to opt out of this event as I hope they'll respect my choice to opt in because I truly see the value in it the thing is if you vote Yes parents should have an option or an alternative to opt out but if you vote no that means the boy board
030makes a decision for every single parent taking away my ability to choose and I think that's what brought so many people out tonight taking away my ability to choose without a clear reason or transparency is concerning voting no implies alignment with one group of parents over another which I believe May contradict the boe's code of Athletics to represent all I know being on the board is a significant unpaid commitment and I really do appreciate your time but if the board's time is precious it's important to focus on existing concerns from the community and not create new ones in a recent poll in The orell Advocates Facebook group the need for transparency class sizes safety and special education are just a few of the top priorities from over the 170 170 responses 30 seconds as far
031as tonight I'm hopeful your minds aren't made up and that you'll listen openly to all the opinions being expressed while it may seem small you are setting the tone if you represent one set of voices of oral parents or all of them I believe in the idel community different opinions in all and I hope that tonight you make a decision to represent all of us thank you thank you I have to move this down is nobody else as short as me okay hi my name is Lisa torag Leon I have three children who graduated from Ops I have to tell you I'm floored and quite frankly disgusted that the issue of even voting down a visit from Chad cell is even being considered if the issue here is that he's gay or that the character
032in the book a boy who wants to D dress up as a sorceress then we really need to take a step back and understand the message Ops in our community wants to be put out there for everyone do you really think this author and character in a book is going to put ideas in these kids' heads people do not choose to be gay or transgender or nonb or any part any part of the LGB btq plus Community it is not a choice it is who they are and they should be accepted for that I raise my kids to be accepting of everyone and let me repeat this everyone you may not understand how someone is but guess what you don't have to understand it to be accepting of them you just have to accept people
033for who they are no one should be ridiculed or left out or not allowed to visit a grade school because of who they are the fact that there can be such narrow-minded people in this community and school who feel a gay author and a male character in a book wanting to dress up as a sorceress shame on you for even thinking this is a problem my my son was a gay boy at Ops and I can tell you he was ridiculed from the time please hear me from the time he was here up until High School he knew when he was here that he was different he may not have known exactly why but he knew wouldn't it have been nice to have a visit from anyone he may have felt he understood imagine how
034that may have changed things for him thank you hello my name is Maggie harer I'm here to give you a slightly different perspective my daughter graduated from Ops 23 years ago and she's now an opera singer and she in her husband are traveling all over the world singing opera one of her favorite things while she was at Ops were the author Gatherings and being able to invite one of her favorite authors to come to speak to her friends at Ops is a memory she's never forgotten I'm an honors literature graduate from Brown University I am professionally a director producer and writer and I've been appalled at the increase in discussion of book Banning uh one of the things Mr Rogers said in his speech to the government when they were trying to take money away
035from uh Sesame Street and from the neighborhood excuse me um was that we owe our children honesty and one of the things I learned by being an 18-year Girl Scout leader of girls from idel was that they know far more than we think they do and I remember a particular camping trip when they were 11 and I used to sleep in the tent with them so they were safe because we were out in the woods but I would pretend to go to sleep so they would see feel safe to talk to each other and I never betrayed that those discussions but but one time they were talking about doing it the these are fifth graders and I was frankly stunned because I was surprised that at that level they were already talking about it 23
036years later maybe it's earlier at any rate I listened to what they were saying and what their questions were and I wrote a letter to all of my parents not revealing the girls or that I'd heard them talking about it but simply saying this is a discussion at orto public school that is going around and if you haven't had that conversation with your girls yet maybe now is the time because you don't want them to learn it from fourth fifth and sixth graders at the school and interestingly enough one of the parents wrote to me and said well my daughter's not interested at all and we will have that talk when she's ready ironically that little girl was asking more questions than anybody else in the troop I didn't say anything I didn't contradict her
037mother I just said a prayer and said please be moved to talk to her soon cuz she's very curious I guess what I really want to say is that was 24 years ago and I would say by now kids are probably learning with the internet far more than my daughter learned when she was at Ops but if you think they don't know everything about sexuality and and gay people and LBJ gtq you're you're missing the boat here and what books do is it gives you a learning opportunity to discuss with them your own values thank you for listening I hope you keep it open at Ops thank [Applause] you excuse me I have a long last name my name is Jim lerone I live at 524 Birch Tree Lane I suspect I have a longer
038relationship with this school than anybody in this room I graduated from this school in 1967 my mother was on the school board at a time when very few women were on the school board in the 1970s I sent my children here in the 1990s my wife was on the school board also in the 1990s and my grandson will start here a year from September so I have a lot at stake here and the parents have done a wonderful job tonight but this is about a lot more than the parents even more than the students and in fact it's about our entire community and what kind of a community we want to live in and what kind of message we want to send to our children our neighbors and to people outside of Oro about what
039our values are and I think it's interesting that so many people have referred to the mission of the school that Katherine read at the beginning of the meeting those things tend to be pretty empty words in most people's eyes you put those together because you're forced to by a consultant or you have to because of a state regulation and once they're done you don't think about them very much but this one has some good words in it I mean I like to think that my experience at ell Public School turned me into a person with curiosity courage and character those are great words I like to think that I'm selfed self-directed Excuse me resilient productive and responsible and because of that I have to conclude that based on reading the family student handbook before I
040came here tonight that you really have no choice but to approve this program you've got a non-discrimination affirmative action policy which states that no pupil enrolled in the district shall be exec excluded executed boy that was shall be excluded from participation in denied the benefits of or be subject subjected to discrimination in any educational program or activity of this District based on race color creed religion sex affectional or sexual orientation national origin place of residence in the district I like that one that was a new one to me 30 seconds social and I'll finish when I'm finished social or economic condition or non-applicable disability the superintendent acts as the affirmative action officer and may be reached at a phone number now I understand that the superintendent has recommended this program the policy I just read
041makes it clear that the programs that the school sponsors are supposed to I'm sorry we do have to cut cut no let me finish my sentence please you can finish one sentence thank you it'll be a very long sentence no one sentence because there's somebody behind you and we did set we did set we did set the we did set the qualifiers before we started I understand so they're they're the same for everyone okay you want everyone to have this well I'm going to have to think because you've limited me to one sentence the fact is that what we decide tonight and I challenge you to make it a un unanimous decision because the message that needs to be sent to the students to the parents to the community to the country right now and
042the world is that orell stands for the values that were in that anti-discrimination statement and the only way that we can do that clearly is by approving this program and learning the correct lessons from it so that we don't have this kind of a controversy again and that the energies that are going into this meeting tonight can be used to do good things for the children of the town instead of just fighting over I I have to cut you hello my name is live oh you know what press the press the button to start it again because I had to cut it oh I have to do technical assistance too um I'm my name is Vanessa hosin uh I live at 253 Atlantic Street in orell New Jersey I um was a frequent flyer here
043at the board of ed meetings for many many years we Dorothy and I go way back um and so uh as well as PTA and many other uh parts of the community um that I was involved in and continued to be um I think that our students who are here tonight have done such an amazing job at articulating so many of the reasons why this community and this board need to do the right thing which is not even to be having this conversation frequ uh frankly but since we are to go ahead and improve this I do not have anything prepared this is so deeply from my heart that I really don't have to so I want just first acknowledge what an amazing job they did and that they all took time to organize and
044come out here and speak up for their students um when I moved here about um wow so long ago now like 15 years ago um you know I am a person of color my husband is a person of color we alone made up a large portion of the diversity in ell and um just our little family and uh we did not always have the best experience wasn't always the most inclusive community for us and so but still we continued to try to embrace people to promote diversity we've done so much in this community and when I say so much I mean class parents my husband and I both class parents we coached both of us lacrosse and soccer I am a girl scout leader he was a boy scout leader um we have volunteered endlessly
045through the PTA running the pizza committee the science fair for years um that I co-chaired and and so I have been in many many aspects of this community and I've worked really hard to make it a more inclusive place to make it a place where people accepted and knew about other cultures other languages other experiences and this is such a hurtful thing that we're talking about now that we are going back 25 steps in this community if we are considering not allowing this so I just want to say that this is not about anything other than discrimination and censorship that's what it comes down to it does not there whatever other issues you want to bring up or entertain that is the bottom line and this board and this community need to decide where we
046want to land in history in this community in this nation on those issues um 30 seconds thank you I um just urge you to please make the right statement make this community be one that it can be that we have worked really really hard to make it be and keep us moving forward and make a statement about what idell is and where where we're going and I really hope it's in the right direction thank you thank you Vanessa I didn't finish hello my name is Jen abavo I have two students here at Ops I stand before you not only as a concerned parent but someone who truly believes that education has power power to shape our children the issues surrounding the refusal of the PTA sponsored author visit raises significant concerns that deserve not only
047transparency but dialogue as well there has been no clarity as to the particular issue was with the author visits if there were concerns there should have been discussed openly with input from both parents and Educators transparency is not a privilege it is a responsibility for those who hold positions of power decisions that impact our children's education should not be made behind closed doors especially when they affect opportunities for both learning and growth all of us should be mindful of the choices we make particularly when those choices have the potential to send a very powerful message that certain experiences and identities are less valid or worthy ultimately reinforcing a stigma within our town and worse here at Ops at the heart of this discussion however should be the role of literature and schools books serve as
048both windows that offer children perspectives beyond their own experiences and mirrors to see themselves reflected in these stories if you want to raise our children to be kind compassionate and capable of navigating an increasingly diverse world we must not shy away from stories that challenge in Inspire and perhaps broaden their understanding of course we do not all have to agree and we will probably never all agree but the solution to disagreement is never silence it is conversation schools should be places where difficult conversations happen where differing opinions are met with discussion make no mistake if we shelter our children from perspectives we personally do not align with we are not protecting them rather We are failing to prepare them for the world that they are certain to inherit with that mind we must also hold
049those in positions of power to the highest ethical standards the decisions made here should be based on what is best for our students and not personal ideologies or outside pressures when choices are made that limit access to literature guest speakers programs that promote inclusion we must ask whose interests are actually being served finally we must remember that our engagement matters the education of our children is not just in the hands of the administrators and board members but the parents as well we must continue to attend meetings ask hard questions and demand accountability our children deserve an education that is Rich and diverse I urge the board tonight to reconsider this decision to engage in open dialogue and to prioritize the values of inclusion intellectual curiosity and ethical leadership I do appreciate your time and I
050grateful to our incredible PTA thank you thank you hi my name is Amy Syracuse Amy a blast from the past do you know how many times this woman has yelled at me over the years oh welcome Dorothy I wasn't G to bring that up but I'm glad you did I'm happy to see you so my name is Amy Syracuse I am a proud parent of two Ops graduates I am actually a former author visit chair for the PTA and I am here tonight um not because I can really add anything to what has been said already it's been articulated incredibly powerfully how important and worthwhile this author visit is and I absolutely support it but I do want to talk a little bit about the elephant in the room and I'm glad you brought up
051Dorothy that we are acquainted because I sat before this board preco advocating for transparency and Broadcasting Board of Ed meetings little pressent don't want to Pat myself on the back but you're welcome um I'm here I'm here Dorothy and friends because I think there's a problem with how this was handled I've read the New Jersey school board association's ethical guidelines I've read the ell Public School Board of education's policies and I know the role of the elected members MERS of the Board of Ed is not to dictate author visits yes there is absolutely a worthwhile component in the building facilities use paperwork and that is legitimate but let's be honest that's not about content and I think what has happened here is a little bit unnerving and it feels like it was done in a
052way that was meant to be a little invisible and so Jim lerone has spoken about the importance of learning lessons and I hope that's the message you walk away from this meeting you have an outstanding community of parents who care you have an outstanding superintendent who knows how to do this job and you should let her and her wonderful staff who are eminently qualified to educate our children do their jobs without interference thank you Amy hi my name is David Levan and I live at 640 blow Val drive I have a daughter in fifth grade at Ops first of all what a remarkable town we have that's the first thing every single person here from the board to the people who spoke to the people who are listening have been polite and respectful we are
053living in challenging times we have the news here and on the news you see towns that are just falling apart or screaming at each other and that's not what's happening here so what I'm asking is for that respect to continue I have a question it's a very simple question why or why not if you are deciding that this author and I don't care it doesn't even matter what the subject matter is stand your ground be brave enough to say why you're voting for it or why you're not voting for it be honest if you have a compelling reason why this author should not be here let us us know let us know what kind of person you are to make that decision and what motivates you to make that decision let every person in this
054room who has been respectful to you have the respect to understand what and I'm not going to make your I'm not going to make an assumption about what your reason is but what is your reason is there a good reason why this particular person should not be allowed to share their EXP experience and their creativity with our children it's a simple question if you can't answer it you have to vote yes thank you thank you is there anyone here who wants to speak on any other agenda items any other agenda items that anyone wants to speak about okay so we went about almost 50 minutes so I'm going to close the session we thank everyone for coming we thank you for um speaking who we really want to thank though is our our former and
055our current students who came we appreciate you coming back especially our sixth grader thank you all right I'm going to turn the floor over to miss boio for her superintendent report good evening I'd like to begin my report tonight by wishing Miss sham and our Odyssey of the Mind team good luck as they in the regional competition this weekend I look forward to wearing my maroon in gold and beaming Panther Pride as I cheer them on Panther pride has been on my mind a lot recently we have so much to be proud of in this community in fact I've been a wee bit reflective of my time at Ops lately I recently remembered my second day in the district as assistant principal the superintendent principal at the time called me to say she decided I
056would be the conduit between the administ ation in the PTA I had a meeting scheduled in an hour with the PTA president during that meeting which happened in this very room that PTA president shared an analogy with me she said she saw Ops as a stool with four legs one leg was the Board of Education another leg was the administration another leg was the staff and the final leg was the parent Community with the PTA at the Forefront when those four legs are solid and United the stool will be strong enough to support all 800 students of Ops as I was thinking about this Ops stool recently I realized that in January we recognize the Board of Education during school board's appreciation month in the past I annually post on our social media sites to
057recognize our principles and assistant principles on their appreciation days in May we always joined together as a community to recognize the educators of Ops but what about that fourth leg what about the or lpta I did a little research and it turns out there is a day in September that recognizes PTA volunteers well I missed it so I'm choosing today to be my own personal PTA appreciation day over the past 13 years the Orel PTA has donated over $ 300,000 worth of programming and materials to the orell public school district and more importantly to the children of Ops this has included 25 different author visits educational programming such as the cashew marionettes the history of rock music weatherman John Marshall Prismatic magic Star Spangled American Laser show and numerous anti-bullying assemblies to highlight a few
058they've worked hand inand with Administration always asking how can they support District goals when the district placed interactive projectors in every class room it was the PTA who joined that effort and donated $9,000 for the purchase of document cameras to work in conjunction with those projectors when the district decided to purchase laptops for every teacher it was the PTA who donated $10,000 worth of Apple TVs ensuring teachers could seamlessly stream lessons for their students when the Board of Education proudly took on the task of renovating this Auditorium it was the PTA who donated $50,000 to update the stage lighting and speakers ensuring a higher quality experience in the newly renovated space other donations have included hydroponics gardening materials for the steam lab a chrome built cart for the library digital cameras yoga classes and Robotics
059equipment to be used for lunchtime programming from bottle filling water fountains to 3D printers the list goes on and on and I know we have more work coming up but the schools and District's relationship with the PTA is about more than just money it is about a partnership that enables dreams to become reality that dream might be experimenting to find the perfect slime recipe a Lego board on a wall 800 white ribbons made to recognize a schoolwide day of peace with one call whatever the request has been the PTA has always responded the same way we'll figure it out bring us the dream will make it a reality whether running our lunch programs or creating experiences like fallfest the Orel PTA has always had one goal to work in conjunction and collaboration with the school
060for the children of Ops they have never asked for a thank you which is likely why I never thought to look for a day to recognize them countless articles speak about volunteerism being down around the country people today are just so busy there is no time they say the one group of individuals who has never said we're too busy is the Orel PTA so on my own personal declared PTA appreciation day I would like to thank the PTA volunteers I have worked with especially recognizing the PTA presidents I have worked personally with Nancy Shapiro Jennifer Larson Jennifer K Kate Booth Kelly Castro Nicole pearo and Reena busowski the collaborative relationship between orell public school and the orell PTA is one of the very reasons each and every one of us should be Panther proud that
061concludes my report okay moving forward business administrator report Mr IIA Pell we had our preconstruction meeting on the airdale HVAC project that will be taking place this summer uh the contract has also been uh sent out to the contractor so that project is Project is moving forward um and that concludes my report thank you Mr iell move to minutes we have the review of February 12th if you have any questions or comments please contact Mr iell uh we need a motion to approve January 22nd so moved do I have a second by Mr nutland any questions call the question uh the role Mr Del Greco yes Mr Daran yes Mrs Downey yes Mrs Moran yes Mr nutlin yes Mrs Walker yes Mrs noran yes Mrs Nichols yes uh committee reports Mrs noran would you take
062administrative sure um I'd like to uh present item A1 one do I have a second second by Mrs Walker any questions call the question on the role Mr Del Greco yes Mr Daran yes Mrs Downey yes Mrs Moran yes Mr nutlin yes Mrs Walker yes Mrs Mrs noriam yes Mrs Nichols yes buildings and grounds Mr Del Greco yes I just would like to say we had a meeting um February 19th and we spoke about uh the construction updates that Mr relli mentioned we also talked about the backfield maintenance and um favors and with that I would also like to introduce B1 through B5 do I have a second I'll second it second by Mrs noran any questions call the question facility use item B1 Mr Daran yes why are you saying B1 it's a consent
063agenda B1 through B5 Chang it no that's what he presented what' you present B1 through B5 yeah B1 through B5 Mr Darian yes Mr Del Greco yes Mrs Downey yes Mrs Moran yes Mr nutland yes Mrs Walker yes Mrs noran yes Mrs Nichols yes curriculum Mrs noran uh yes we uh have not had a curriculum meeting lately and I believe we need to set one up um if we could get some dates possibly okay we'll work on that okay um Finance Mr Daren I yes I like to introduce items uh D1 through d10 D9 and d10 are new additions so uh please pay close attention to some of those figures um that's all I have I'll second it Mr Darion second by Mrs noran any questions on finance technology call the question on the role
064Mr Del Greco yes Mr daram yes Mrs Downey yes Mrs Moran yes Mr nut yes Mrs Walker yes Mrs noran yes Mrs Nick yes uh delegate report Mr Walsh is on here Mrs noran do you know if anything's coming up I have not heard I I've been a little okay yes you've been a little busy so okay uh Personnel Mrs Walker thank you um we have not had a meeting this past two weeks but um in light of that I'd like to present F1 do I have a second I'll second second by Mr Del Greco do we have any questions I will ask my standard question did the leave go through our attorney it did call the question Mr Del grea yes Mr Dar yes Mrs Downey yes Mrs Moran yes Mr n yes Mrs
065Walker um I have a question that I just noticed from my my preliminary one we had on the preliminary one to vote for substitute teachers two substitute teachers I don't see them on oh yes I do I'm sorry yes okay voted yes yes Mrs noran yes Mrs Nichols yes policy Mr nutland we'll be uh discussing uh a meeting coming up perfect uh public relations Mrs Downey anything on the website do we have to do I don't have anything to report anything to report m m BOS sorry actually the website portion has a a solid draft that we can meet um I am waiting still on the app portion however I will reach out to Mrs Downey to set up a meeting so that the board can see that initial draft okay perfect it was looking
066good last time I thought um okay open to the public for any topics we will limit again to three minutes per person you cannot give your time to another person Mr Darion would you time good evening board members teachers and parents my name is Amanda Harrison and I've been a resident of this community since 2022 as a parent of two students here at Ops one in the fourth grade and one in the sixth grade and as a member of the author's presentation committee I'm compelled to speak out after listening to the discussion questions on book selections I'm disheartened and angry within the past two weeks my youngest son was was a victim of racist comments a classmate asked him who the black man who saved America was and my son responded Martin Luther King that
067student Then followed by the reen action of the assassination of Martin Luther King to my son leaving my son traumatized this isn't an issue for the principal teachers or PTA to solve alone I'm stand this is okay thank you okay this is a much time as you want to talk okay thank you this is a parenting issue teachers are here to educate our children in math science Reading Writing and historical events not to teach manners respect or what not to say or do yes they are here as reminders ERS for those actions but definitely not to teach them while my son cries at night fearing for his safety and my old son wishes he could have been in his little brother's place we're here debating book selections and authors it's time to redirect our energy
068towards addressing the real problems racism hate speech and bullying we need to work together to create a safe and inclusive environment for our children Mrs Holly and Mr Warner have been helping my son feel comfortable and safe as best as they can I urge you all to do the same we can all agree to disagree with civility about what books we may want to expose our kids but one thing we should all be able to agree on is that our school building and this school district should have zero tolerance policy towards racism bigotry or threats of violence against any student no matter that background you may be wondering why I bring this issue up tonight after all I said this was a parenting issue first and foremost and not a teacher issue but so much
069of what happens in our school comes from the work done by our Board of Education members if I bring this issue up excuse me if bringing this issue up makes parents aware of what's happening in our classrooms then perhaps I'll be able to get the board's attention so they can help Ops teachers and administrators reinforce that hate has no home in this school district one last thing I'll close with put your child in my son's shoes tell me your reaction tell me what your reaction would be tell me how you would feel about this traumatizing event happening to your child thank you you got a standing ovation so first of all I would like to thank you for the courage to come up and do what you just did it was extremely Brave of you
070to do this I am highly Disturbed as at what you said I want Miss BOS to set up a meeting with you and your husband and Miss Boos and myself first to start just so we can hear what you have to say you can give us I know nothing about this so I want to hear what you have to say and I'm assuming Miss Boos wants to he if you want to bring someone else with you that's fine and then from there we will move but I want you to know you are heard and I appreciate you coming up because if parents do not come and tell us things we will never know thank you so I really appreciate it Miss Boo's office or Miss Bo is gonna going to reach out to you at
071some point we will set up a meeting bring any information any other people you want to and we will meet okay thank very much I really thank you for coming thank you okay good night I guess while we're feeling kind of mushy I'm G to say something had I been on my game last meeting and I wasn't I will admit it I should not have let the agenda item go on when we were waiting for information unfortunately this has been blown into something way out of proportion your board members up here are not bigots we're not homophobes we are not racists we were literally waiting for information had I been on my game and I apologize for this and I apologize for the issues I have caused in the community I would have tabled the
072motion instead of abstaining so I apologized for that to all of you and that's all I can say but we did get the information we voted and I hope everyone leaves here um happier tonight is there anyone else that would like to say anything anyone else want to yell at me I'll give Amy Syracuse another run let's go Amy come on oh I shouldn't have said that they're [Laughter] coming I promise here to y'all it's just really to reinforce the message we spoke about last week just make sure the mic is on yeah Katarina saviano 150 Oxford Circle uh Vanessa Vega Gonzalez woodlanda so again we want to thank you all for the opportunity to speaking with you guys we know we've emailed you guys about the crisis management framework I've had discussions with Mr
073nutland about what I would like to do together and I think we should really focus on putting together this framework here um this framework should include but not be limited to self-reporting mechanisms without judgment this would allow children to self-report issues that they see within school with no biases this would ensure that all is taken seriously and handled in a compassionate way prioritizing the students emotional well-being we are of the understanding that there should be severity levels of this crisis management ranging from low medium and high with a specific criteria for each level what's critical to this management is the response protocols clearly outlining the actions to be taken at each severity level including communication protocols Key Personnel roles and emergency response procedures training and drills even for substitute teachers a planning for training staff
074conducting regular drills to ensure preparedness for various crisis situation resource allocation as well as post- crisis evaluation methods for evaluating a response to crisis and implementing improvements for fut future preparedness Vanessa and I have came came up with documents that we would like to share with the board of education for them to lean on and hopefully we together as a community can develop a crisis management framework that works for all students of Ops thank you so much thank you thank [Applause] you hi I'm Marie anelli um both of my children oh thank you after um came through Ops and I'm very grateful that you were all here um and for all the teachers I don't want to speak like does anyone want to speak I totally don't want to speak but I think that words
075are really important and um we're talking a lot okay we're talking a lot about some big issues and I think you know some of our words we're talking a lot about tolerance and acceptance and these are are really important things but I don't think that those words are enough um you know I'm an educator like I said my children were lucky enough to come through with so many wonderful educators and I don't feel like any educator looked at my children and said you're tolerable I don't think anyone looked at them and said you're acceptable they looked at them and said you're wonderful and as an educator every child when I get down and look in their face like I'm trying to project to them you're wonderful so I think we have to go further than
076tolerance and acceptance and just be oriented toward remembering that we're in this Elementary School and these are young young people and they need to be seen as wonderful and that's all I have to say thank you so [Applause] much good evening my name is Sheila O'Hare barrows and my children have been long out of the school for a while but thank you for their great education um I just have three questions and I'm not certain if you can answer answer them but I'm going to ask anyway I will just tell you it's not a question and answers we probably will not but we may get back to you perfect thank you um first of all would you be able to share with the community at some point in time the information that you were waiting
077for before you made your decision um may I ask or get back to me at some point in time why was the book that the author was supposed to speak about changed and finally um you broke the agenda items up on your on your or as being separated by author yes and then they were voted all together and I was wondering why that was changed again I don't expect an answer now I just want shockingly I can give you some answers us I can't so the last going to write my address down yes please take your time thank you um so this evening's agenda you're wondering why it was B1 B2 B3 supposed G I had actually asked for it to be on there because we could have left the other way but I didn't
078know I didn't know what board members were going to do and I this way it's just easier you don't have like last time Mr Dar made a motion to pull it out I just wanted the Motions there so if someone wanted to say I yes to all I pull out B1 I just didn't want to have to make another motion pull out it was there's no reason other than that I didn't know how people were voting so I just wanted to make it easy um the um info we were waiting for was was basically subject matter because we had heard concerns from many parents in the community so we had just asked the superintendent get and we didn't have it so that's all it was we got it there was no issue and why the
079book changed I'm going to let Miss Boos respond to that because that's not the switch to the stupendous Switcheroo actually had to do with as I was doing further research into the books the school library Journal aligns Theo uh the cardboard Kingdom to grades 4 through 7 and Mr cell is speaking to third grade the stupendous Switcheroo actually has grade three through 5 not having read all of the books I lean to the experts in the field in the school library Journal is one of the experts I lean to so I actually through the PTA people asked Mr cell would he be willing to switch for that reason exactly it had nothing to do it had to do more with the recommended grade level bands for the books thank you very much I appreciate your
080information thank you for coming isn't it Miss BOS isn't it basically true though they don't even read from the books because they're having such a good time with the authors like what happens in yes I what I've learned through this is we've never truly articulated what an author visit is and so people equate that with what happens at a reading at a bookstore that you know the author comes in and they start to read the book our authors are not coming in to tell us about their books Mr mangle and our library has already done that we use this as an opportunity to teach about the writing process to excite kids that they too can be writers what's the process a writer uses if time permits um they may read from the book you will
081see that much more often in the primary grades they actually I've rarely seen authors in the upper grades because the content of the presentation is so rich and we are talking about 45 minutes good evening everyone my name is Nicole chello I am a lifer I moved here at five years old um I had two children who went through Ops I too went through Ops I am a girl scout leader I was part of PTA I did the book clubs I was a class parent every single year that my kids were here um I am the chairman of the board of health for idell and I just want to say I came here expecting to be really angry and I am so effing proud of every every single parent but even more so the kids
082who stood up here not only do you rock but you shared your voice and we are leaving the future to all of you and I am so proud thank you not seeing anyone else we'll move to old or new business any need to go to a close session hopefully not Hallelujah all right I move to aour do have a second all in favor I thank you all for coming we appreciate it come to more of our meetings