001evening at 6 30 p.m and I'd like to call the March 30th meeting of the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education to order Mr Burnside please take the Roll Call board member Nubia Duvall Wilson here board member Regina Heckert here board member Bill Gifford board member Alyssa malaspina here board member kawi telesford here board member Arun vadlamani yep board member Courtney Wingfield here board president Caitlin willetter here thank you please take note that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner a written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2 30 pm on January 6 2023 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood in South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record Star Ledger and the Village Green tonight's meeting
002is a little different we will start with our usual updates for our business administration and superintendent and then we will begin conducting candidate interviews for the vacant board member position there are eight incredible community members who have submitted their application and these folks will publicly be interviewed by the board this evening please note as a result of the candidate interviews this evening we will not be doing our monthly committee sorry committee report readouts however this information has been made accessible to all of you on our website and where applicable our committee chairs have included their readouts as well let's get this meeting started with a beautiful performance from the South Orange Middle School small string Ensemble thank you so much for being with us here with us the stage is yours try this out okay
003um hi I'm Nora and I play cello for the South Orange middle school early morning chamber orchestra this evening we have a select group taken from the orchestra here to play to a piece called turbulence by William Owens we'll be we've been working on this piece as part of our study of Music written by modern African-American composers turbulence explores many Lively driving accented rhythms as long as being a great balance of edgy dissonance and Harmony within the piece we've worked very hard to prepare this piece for you this evening and we hope you enjoy it it will also be conducted by our very own 8th grader Nate Kramer instruments are killing sorry all right okay [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] hi this is here today [Music] let's give it
004up one more time for the South Orange middle school tomorrow thank you guys [Music] with that I'd like to make a motion to enter into executive session at 6 37 pm to discuss attorney-client matters personnel and student matters the link of the executive session is estimated to be 75 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business where formal action will be taken may I have a second second thank you board member malastina all in favor the vote appears to be unanimous we are now adjourning to closed session thank you [Music] and good evening everyone and thank you for joining us tonight please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands
005one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all up next on the agenda is the student representative update Noah um please proceed uh I saw on the agenda that the recognitions went before yes please do the recognition Okay yeah all right so for the submitted student and staff recognitions for March 2023 the first one goes to CHF senior Jack Barnett who has recently accepted into the U.S Air Force Academy Congressman Donald M Payne Jr presented Jack with his nomination to the academy and said that he knows Jack will be an outstanding addition to the academy so congratulations to Jack Barnett so next uh we have two more Columbia High School students Riley wallsman and Lillian Leto this year's 27th annual student photography show saw two Columbia High School students recognized for their artwork
00610th graders Riley walsman and Lillian Leto were selected by independent juror Colleen gutwin O'Neill to receive judges awards at the Pingree hot sitter Gallery in February moving on to Lindsay minor congratulations to Lindsey Miner a senior member of the CHS fencing team who came in second place for the state of New Jersey in the EPA Division and it's not in here but she also recently just committed to Temple defense at the division one level so congratulations to Lindsay congratulations to CHS student Madison Stevens who finished second in New Jersey in the shot put event at the njsiaa meet of Champions moving on to the CHS Jazz Ensemble the South Orange Performing Arts Center hosted the annual concert of the Columbia High School Jazz Ensemble it was the culmination of a year-long collaboration between sopac and
007the CHS Band program and it was the first time the CHS Jazz Ensemble had played at sopac grammy-winning jazz guest John Lee Freddie Hendricks Mark gross Jackson Jackson Carl Latham and Alex Collins visited the band during rehearsals to give a master class and coaching with students as they got ready for the performance as part of the collaboration partnership was made possible in part by Linda Baird director of community engagement and Community engagement education at sopac so next moving on to to more Columbia High School students congratulations to Sally Shoop a junior guitarist and member of the CHS Jazz Ensemble at Columbia High School who successfully auditioned and placed first for the 2023 all North Jersey high school region Jazz Ensemble special recognition and thanks to arushi badlamani a junior pianist who also participated in the
008auditions next we in our final uh student staff recognition we have um three students at the Delia Bolden School uh Patrick Siegler a fourth grader and two fifth graders uh analiva papowski and Zora hamberlin guevla from Delia Bolton Elementary School we're selected to have their artwork displayed in Newark for the Essex County Youth art month of 2023. so congratulations to this one's sport recognitions okay now we'd like to make a motion to approve the board minutes of the executive session and regular meeting minutes from the February 23rd 2023 meeting do I have a second second all in favor great so now we will kick it back to studentrep Noah morose to give us the student representative update thank you and good evening again so as we roll into April our academics and extracurricular activities throughout
009our district are continuing to bloom and caring from the winter months I wanted to begin with a quick recognition to our teachers at Columbia High School currently instructing AP courses and currently preparing their students for our upcoming exams Saturday marks one month until this year's AP exams begin courses that with a high score on their corresponding exams yields college credit these courses and tests are challenging but as my AP Calculus teacher Mr Joseph Lucetta says I'm not here to give you an a I'm here to save you and your parents five thousand dollars I have multiple teachers as do others who are giving up their spring break time to host study sessions for students to achieve higher on these upcoming exams I want to say thank you to those teachers and ensure that the members
010of our community and our board as well are aware of just how hard our teachers work in this District in this section and Beyond but in the same neighborhood of tireless dedication I also wanted to highlight and congratulate the cast crew faculty advisors and volunteers of this year's CHS show something rotten after hours of the cast and Crews hard work I was lucky enough to see the show both in the in-school preview and the first Saturday it premiered and I was thoroughly impressed there's a reason that our shows are regularly being visited by Broadway stars to watch they're just that good we had the entire Broadway cast of the actual show of something around or a lot of the cast is something run actually come and see the show and if you weren't able to
011make it out this year whether that be to scheduling conflicts or that they were nearly sold out every single show I would highly recommend seeing it next year and I believe one of the leads is actually here in the audience too uh Scott if he wants to raise his hand up foreign Scott did a great job so but last month Vanessa and I also touched on increasing transparency with the student body over frequent code yellows and fire drills in the Columbia High School building and what I'm happy to say that transparency has increased slightly the lack of security in our building is still heavily present we've provided details in the past um more in-depth in private meetings rather than public meetings with members of administration in the board the same issues are are still present
012we're grateful for the increased transparency but both Vanessa and I Look to continue working with members of this board to stopping security incidents before they happen and we'd be happy to set up meeting times over the month of April um on whatever schedule works for any board member who's willing to have any sort of in-depth long-commer station and I know that's been a priority for a lot of members on the board this year so we look forward to continuing to improve on that aspect but as our spring months uh continue to progress and Vanessa in my own time on the board continues to come to a close we're looking to grow the role that we hold over the last three months uh in this role we hope to visit as many of our elementary schools
013in the district as possible bringing their concerns to this board similar to what we've done with our two middle schools our goal is for the next two student reps to step into this role and have an easy transition into representation far beyond the walls of just Columbia High School and with that unless we have any questions here at the Horseshoe table that concludes our March 2023 student representative report do you know what does the board have any questions okay seeing none I will now turn it over to Mr Burnside and Dr Taylor for their respective updates thank you madam president and good evening to everyone and thank you to our student rep for doing a great job as always I'm going to forego my update we have a newsletter coming out tomorrow we had a
014water School estimate update just a couple of days ago so I'm going to forego that because I know we have a busy meeting and uh pass it over to Mr Burnside for some important updates foreign thank you Dr Taylor so I'm going to start with the construction update the Seth Boyden School continues with the existing fire alarm system adjustments they're beginning the HVAC building management system computer owner training We are continuing with the basketball court installations with weather pending we're completing the upper gym HVAC startup and we're continuing punch list items at the Tuscan School we're completing the window metal panel trim pieces that overhang the metal installation on the HVAC units we're continuing with existing fire alarm adjustments and we're continuing with a paved play field area weather pending and at Delia Bolden we're
015just down to a few punch list items at Clinton Elementary the repairs in the auditorium were complete with a we installed a new carpet there and it just needs a final cleaning the HVAC contractor is continuing to do the piping layout in the new area the electrician working inside the new building on miscellaneous ladies items is ongoing the masonry contractor completed the exterior CMU block and the interior classroom CMU partitions are underway the Pullman contractor is working on water lines and connecting roof trains the electrical contractor is continuing to work with the Masons and the roofing installation is approximately 90 percent completed the roofer is going to return in two weeks to finish the parapets once the brick is uh completed it's a South Mountain Elementary School we have the electrical finishing with a lighting
016and devices we're completing the painting we're completing the ceiling grid and visual display boards are 95 percent hung we're installing uh I'm sorry the bathroom fixtures are completedly installed and we're beginning the courtyard concrete and pavers as well as the exterior entrance signage at the annex work continues on the electrical for lighting and devices the bathroom fixtures are completed we're continuing HVAC ductwork the casework is completed we have the visual display panels completed and the curtain wall and glazing is completed at the Underhill spill under Hill Sports Complex we're just down to some punch list items and we're connecting the rest of the PA system and the exciting news is the the milling and Paving is going to be completed over spring break at Marshall and Montrose our project was awarded at the March 16th
017board meeting and the pre-construction meeting was held yesterday at Columbia High School our bid advertised on February 27th and bids are due on April 12th and the South Orange Middle School in Maplewood Middle School the bids were advertised on March 23rd and the bids are due April 25th one more update on Maplewood Middle School for the gym the second remediation contractor has visited the site and is working on submitting a proposal to us the HVAC equipment that will need to be demolished in order for the abatement contractor to remove the asbestos ceiling and just to clarify something that happened at the aborta school estimate meeting regarding the price gouging and the transportation industry the cost that we shared at the board of school estimate meeting is an estimate of the bid that will go out
018when the routes are completed the price used as a result of the bus driver shortage bus shortage and the price gouging that was referenced is impacting the estimates there is no bid yet because the routes are not yet finished and price gouging is an industry problem right now unfortunately regarding field trips right now field trips are happening and busing for them is separate from courtesy transportation and actually the parents are already sharing in the costs this is why field trips were not mentioned at the board of school estimate presentation hazardous routes and policy 8600 hazardous routes are and always will be part of policy 8600 they are to be evaluated regularly and no matter what the mile Mark is for the expansion of courtesy Transportation any child walking on a designated hazardous route will receive
019transportation and an update on hazardous Transportation I'm sorry hazardous route study the Hazardous study currently is still being performed the engineer contracted to contact the study met with the South Orange Police Department yesterday along with School administration and some fft committee members there will be more meetings scheduled in the near future including with Maplewood Police Department these meetings will provide more data and insight for the engineer to complete the study and that's all I have thank you so much does the board have any questions for Mr Burnside okay please allow me to read the board president statement for the record the school board meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public oftentimes it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very
020little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the Board of Education it is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with Administration and the superintendent to assure that the members fully understand the matter after the committee discusses the matter it is then shared with other board members for consideration only then is it a place on the agenda for board discussion and action at a public meeting the board will now conduct the interview process for the vacant board member position in accordance with bylaw 0143 as mentioned earlier in the evening we have eight
021incredible community members who have submitted applications for this role on behalf of the board I wanted to thank these individuals for volunteering their time unique skills and perspectives to serving on our Board of Education with that being said I wanted to spell out the process for everyone the board will ask you to prepare an opening statement roughly three minutes and we've selected three questions this evening that we plan to ask all of you each candidate will be given 10 minutes in front of the board we ask that the candidates manage their own time as the clock will be set to 10 minutes so that all candidates have equal time with the board we will ask all candidates to leave the room and we will call on each of you in alphabetical order by last name
022to come before the board for your 10-minute interview we also ask that our candidates act honorably and refrain from watching fellow Canada interviews via our social media platforms thank you to all of you and I will now ask candidate Shawna Anthony Hendry to please take a seat at the podium and all other candidates if you could please leave the room and await your return thank you all and good luck [Music] all right may I [Music] remember happiness thank you so much Shona for for joining us if you could start with your opening statement around why you'd like to serve that would be great thank you very much good evening everyone my name is Shona Anthony Hendry um I am seeking to serve on the South Orange Maplewood School District board um because I am of
023service I have 17 years in education I'm currently serving as a director of education at a charter school in Jersey City and so my entire career as well as my personal life has been dedicated to serving communities in general not only in South Orange Maplewood in the past in Newark and also in Middlesex County through my sorority so um My overall goal in in life is to serve and I believe that with my experience as well as my um just my my life goals for service will be of use to the boarding thank you hi Shona hi um what is the biggest challenge facing the district today and how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges okay if I'm understanding the question correctly what are some of the biggest challenges
024facing the districts today and how will I be able to support with those challenges um being that I'm currently in a school and running actually multiple buildings in my role one of the current challenges is uh really rebounding from the pandemic and all of the academic deficits that are taking place at this time um unfortunately that's going to be a lot slower of a process than I think any educator would have envisioned and so knowing that that's something that's challenging districts at this very moment the goal is to make sure that I'm able to support with you know providing suggestions or even um having some experience with different curriculum choices or different types of strategies any types of programming resources Etc that I might be able to offer to the district to help combat that
025that challenge that districts Across the Nation are actually facing at this time thank um hi hello I have the second question is are curriculum an instruction meeting the needs of all of the all Learners please explain um if I might actually clarifying question are you asking currently in South Orange Maplewood School District um great question um I currently do not know the curriculum that is being offered in South Orange Maplewood School District um although I'm a resident and I have been since 2009 my position has me in Jersey City um full time and so I have not been able to stay abreast of the co the curriculum and instruction that's taking place in South Orange Maplewood however I am dedicated to learning more about it and making sure that I am fully aware of the
026curriculum and instruction practices in South Orange Maplewood and be able to offer my support thank you hi Shona hello I've got the third and last question what skills and perspectives will you bring to the table that will positively help us Advance our goals as a district great question um being a director of Education you have to wear many hats um so I believe that being able to really take a look at what's being presented and be able to make judgment calls and decisions based on that information is going to be a skill set that's required to help Advance the board and all of the different goals that are being set forth I do believe that being very unbiased and really kind of looking at everything for what it is and making sure that decisions are
027being made accordingly and those are those are skills that I have to implement daily in my role and really making sure that what's being done is in the best interest of the students in the community so I believe that first and foremost those would be a skill set that I would be able to bring to the board and be able to advance the goals of the of the district you have a question from student rep morose hi and thank you for your interest in joining the board I shot a quick question uh and correct me if I'm wrong I believe you said you were a director of it [Music] okay foreign okay I sorry Shauna not a problem okay thank you okay so with that you you've concluded your interview thank you so much we
028really appreciate it and we ask that you step outside and we'll be reconvening after we interview the next seven folks thank you thank you so much for having me thank you foreign thank you next person we will be interviewing today is Jeffrey Brennan we'll make sure can we put the 10 minutes back up on the clock oh it's good okay thank you um Jeff Jeffrey could you please start with an opening statement on why you want to serve hello my name is Jeffrey Bennett I'm a husband father of three 16 year resident of South Orange Bicycle Explorer South Mountain Trail Walker sometime Bocce player fan of family trips to offbeat places librarian K-12 Public School grad and former board member in this District as a board member from 2012 to 2015 there were certain overarching
029goals for me that motivated what I did these this included first closing the opportunity Gap had working for marginalized populations and then plus the need to listen to parents and teachers false beliefs that we should avoid one-size-fits-all policies and frankly that since our school tax rate is a half point above the state average that this was an overtaxed community and we had to be careful with the community's resources as a board member in 2023 I've continued these objectives plus incorporate ones such as the need to restore trust after a tumultuous three years and mitigating the Teen Mental Health crisis I was a very hard-working board member who did a lot of research for the board and who never missed a public meeting I was actively involved in passing the access and Equity policy the g
030t strategy protocols for teach NJ and adopting the Common Core I supported efforts to hire more African-American teachers on Foster culturally competent teaching I worked for inclusion across Dimensions from allowing home school students to participate in sports at CHS removing heteronormative language and registration forms to special ed I was not successful in overcoming administrative resistance I'm proud that I was early in recognizing the problems so the readers and Writers Workshop and said we needed to embrace phonics when we adopted the Common Core I argued that we should teach history and science coherently instead of just assigning non-fiction passages on random topics I was also concerned about the growing demographic imbalance of Gene Boyden and the other elementaries when I was chair of Excellence inequity we devoted much time to considering what the process of renewing
031voidance magnet should be or even adopting a district-wide integration plan because of our desire to listen and learn before deciding we organize with a Boyden PTA and all Boyden meeting when the boarding Community taught us so they wanted more resources for Boyden more money for the PTA and more promotion we listened after the resignation of Brian Osborne I was part of a superintendent search Campaign which I could talk about more in a different setting in Special Ed I know we need to insist on best practices and good staff but also provide an adequate budget we can talk about faith CST inrs for hours but without sufficient Staffing even perfectly designed strategies can't be implemented hence I strenuously tried to keep the budget in order to simply be able to pay for the teachers and power
032professionals kids need special ed and General Ed on the state level I became successfully part of the campaign for a fair and rational distribution of state aid in New Jersey all right this is a Boe member and post board as research director for the fair funding action committee an hour for 2023 again my overarching goals would be what I mentioned above but there are some discrete policy changes and District goals I believe we can realistically make in the eight months that I have on the board I see the triple i as a work in progress I would equip Transportation shouldn't be thought of as entitlement but as a core part of the integration program supporting families in hardship and stress is an integral part of making the integration plan stable not chipping it away I
033also think that there's a lot of misunderstanding about how the triple I works and that the triple I micro site must be updated accordingly a favor changes the policy 5124 for weightless and hardship transfers going forward and if there's a consensus for it a controlled Choice with the same plus or minus five percent seed control we now have would produce the same integration but with less hardship savings to the district and even free up early care and Aftercare spaces as someone who has personally been through a lot of difficulty in stress or stool School Logistics this year I think we must change policy 8600 for hardship cases this year starting in mid-spring and I've written and printed a hand carried resolution to accomplish that hopefully in writing District goals I would argue that we need
034one around making our transportation Network more efficient including parent Transportation contract is a win-win to save money and help families who would be eligible for a bus but who could rarely use one um Jeff thank you for your consideration we just want to make sure you have enough time to answer our questions so the first question what is the biggest challenge facing the district today I think you've mentioned some already but you could reiterate how you how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges thank you um the biggest challenges for the district are things like raising student achievement um helping with the Teen Mental Health crisis um but those are policies those are overarching goals that there's not a discrete policy solution to those are policies we've been working to
035for a very long time you know raising student achievement closing the outcome Gap that's something we've been working at for more than a generation and that's something we're going to solve a fortune with time and many many distinct policy changes um there are certain policy changes which I think are do lend themselves to dispute policy changes meaning it's in the board's power to change a policy and help things Transportation be one of them you know we left a lot of kids like kind of out in the cold this year and a lot of families in hardship and stress and even kids walking very unsafe routes to school that is something that the board has in its power to amend we also have to do this in a budgetary responsible way I'll be honest and say
036I don't think the 1.8 million dollar estimate that came out for the cost for busing 1.25 to 2 miles is really accurate I think that the tax increase should be smaller than that because we have a very inefficient bus Network um I also think that we should have a integration plan more like Berkeley's so that would include a hardship transfer process and a waitlist transfer process um and I think that there are some some newly emergent things like a board member Mouse Mina mentioned I think last month that there's a g t audit coming up that's something I'd like to work on whenever we have the results of that um I think we always need to work on curriculum too um to have like a more coherent structure for Content learning in the elementary schools
037at least thank you Jeff that leads into our question very well um is our curriculum and instruction meeting the needs of all Learners please explain um I would say no like we have unevenness and in you know outcomes so I would say that actually that would indicate that in a way we're not um seeing this through the lens of my son who's in fourth grade like he learns very very little science and history and when he does learn something in science and history it tends to be very random you know like what he learns one week doesn't have anything to do with what he learns like two weeks from now I would like to have something you know a bit more coherent um you know I'm a fan of like Edie Hirsch who wrote like
038you know the core knowledge sequence you know he says like you know we have to build content coherently step by step you know in units that like relate to each other um for the high school level I think that the high school has you know big outcome gaps like you know you can still attend you can still tell what level class it is just by looking at it so we have to do more to support kids so they are ready to take the more advanced classes um that actually starts the way I'm Advanced like at elementary school I think we should use more phonics in a more serious way than we do um the high schools like classes for High Achievers I think are very strong like we have over 20 AP classes they're only
039like a couple I would wish that we would add I don't think we have AP economics um I don't think that we have a very good foreign language program we have less foreign language in the Middle School level than any of our peer districts we have two years of foreign language in the middle schools and our peer districts have two and a half years or three years and oftentimes they start foreign language in a more serious way on the elementary level so to answer your question in some ways yes in some ways no but will always be kind of tinkering towards making it better people that will put Advance our goals as a district while I was on the board of ed from 2012 2015 and when I was on the board like the administration
040the board were structured differently so I would see things differently you know in my time on the board we didn't have as many administrators but we did have an assistant superintendent so I wouldn't necessarily change things but I'd see things in a different way we had a different committee structure sometimes we had different names for the same committee um like we had now you have cni and my day was access it was excellence and Equity but we also had a Communications committee um we did not have the concept of an executive board we had the first and second vice president but there was no concept of an executive board and I've noticed some dissension around like executive board membership I have a lot of institutional knowledge you know I've been through like a lot of
041I've been through three superintendents multiple Bas you know multiple board attorneys and everything so I see things from a different um a different perspective informed by you know long involvement with the district I'm a very very good researcher I'm very enthusiastic about it I think I know state aid better than anyone else who's not an employee of the doe if I were on the board I would work very hard I would persuade the board to pass a resolution to equalize the local fair share tax rate because right now it's very uneven it goes from 0.8 percent to two percent and we are on the losing side of that oh thank you so much Jeff we really appreciate it thank you thank you [Music] okay hi Shannon how are you today hi good evening good uh
042just a reminder we're going to set the clock for 10 minutes um so if you could please start with an opening statement on why you'd want to surf that would be great I don't see a clock it's coming all right now we're good if you could please start your opening statement and why you want to serve that would be great uh can we I'm I'm sorry may I ask I'm having a hard time seeing can the clock be in a separate window please for an accommodation thank you I appreciate that thank you uh well uh good evening uh thank you for the Board of Education uh for uh having me tonight so I'm not going to go into great detail about myself you have a information that I submit an application but for new board
043members and for the public to know I had the opportunity and the honor and privilege to serve in the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education from 2018 to 2021 where I served as first vice president during my course and tenure I had the absolute honor of champion student leaders being able to uplift student voices being able to implement inclusive policies such as our LGBT transgender student policy Suicide Prevention policy also uplift our student Dating Violence policy during my tenure as well also championed Universal Pre-K also championed being able to update and expand our special education department and bring it online and be able to up champion and support creating a policy the committee as well to help us oversee policy and a continued work during that time also I was on the board to oversee
044the long-range facility plan the implementation in the start and help us get to the beginning parts of our intentional integration initiatives as a board member I was always somebody that was collaborative and as a critical thinker very much engaged in wanting to do collaboration and building relationships not just with fellow board members but our district colleagues and also our student leaders and representatives as well that was really important for me I'm doing my time on the board I felt it was really important to be able to bring foundations and bridges in order to better serve our community as a whole and in order to uplift in-board service I feel truly passionate about the fact that our board service on ourselves is that when we are here as a horseshoe it is not US versus them
045it is not one side or another side but we are a collective Unity we are a collective community of Diversified Voices That should be at the table but be able to have the same achievement and goal in mind which is putting our students first that is my Prime director prime directive and goal and everything that I do and since I've been rolled off of the board I've stayed in engaged with the Board of Education our district sharing resources information uplifting student leadership and voices and in the work that I've done it extended on the board leaving the mark when I served as first vice president Essex County School Board Association and was elected by our Essex County School Board colleagues to serve on the state level representing somsd for the first time on the New
046Jersey School Board Association so those types of benchmarks led me to have an additional skill set along with my 20 years of service within the education and education policy Community having experience inside a classroom in school administration and also and Community leadership as well being able to take those skill sets and add them in addition to our toolbox here as a board member to help us grow again to put students first thank you um so uh thank you Shannon for being here what is the biggest challenge facing the district today and how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges so I think everything's intersectional and everything's interconnected if our students in Hungary they can't learn if our students don't feel safe and welcome at school they can't learn and they
047don't come to school if our students don't feel heard and seen they may fall off the chart and we may lose them in our schools and it's all tied to student achievement it's all tied to the climate and culture of our school district and our community where our students come first it's all interconnected if our students don't feel safe and welcome if our students don't feel as though they are part of our Collective Community if they don't feel seen and heard that they can't find at least one trusted adult that they can count on to help support them then everything else falls apart so our number one priority and our biggest priority in a district is our students they are also our best thing about our district and our community thank you is our curriculum
048and instruction meeting the needs of all Learners please explain our curriculum instruction I believe is increased for the better since we were able to adopt and do a realignment to ensure that all of our curriculum is posted and ready in one place and our in a tired of a data collection and when that happened that allowed for greater access of curriculum for not just for parents and caregivers to be able to know what's happening and see everything online but for parent for staff and teachers to be able to better see resources does our curriculum need Improvement yes are we on a path to do that yes do we need to create curriculum that is actually not just meeting the bare minimum and benchmarks and making sure it's inclusive we need to go beyond that and
049making sure we're building in actual academic support systems in a Full Circle of Care so that curriculum and instruction that we're providing is accessible not just to some students but every single student hi Shannon um you kind of touched on this in your intro but um what skills and perspectives will you bring to the table that will positively help us Advance our goals as a district sure so one of the district goals in our district as a board goal right is to continue our njsba certification which is something that in when all of our school board members here the colleagues you make sure you take your training and coursework and go above and beyond and for myself when I've changed Master board member certification the only board member that was able to do that going
050above and beyond those duties that would help with that additionally I also have got in jsba leadership certification as well and my better commitment for that as part of the toolbox and I bring with that my policy my background and the work that I've done on the local state and county level with a clear understanding also what's happening on a larger level in the federal educational landscape and knowing in those contexts that we've been able to make on the county and state level to bring it back to SMSD thank you so much Shannon those are all the questions we had prepared and we really appreciate you coming and interviewing for this role thank you so much thank you thank you Caitlyn Jones has decided to not participate good evening good evening will how are you
051I'm good my computer chose a funny day to run out of toner but here we are still yeah yes we're going to put 10 minutes up on the clock and just gonna wait for a thumbs up from Keith Joe can I just ask a point of clarification yeah because I know that there had been an email that it was going to be three minutes for the opening and then 10 minutes of the question answer um I'm not sure what everyone else is oh sorry we're doing 10 minutes total so three minutes up to three minutes of opening remarks and then three questions got it okay thank you great thank you so much great so we'll we're ready to get started okay so will if you could just start with an opening statement on why you
052want to serve that would be great great thank you good evening my name is Will Meyer I'm respectfully seeking each of your votes uh from my appointment to the Board of Education why should you appoint me well first I'm the devoted father of two kids in our district I've got a second grader at South Mountain and a preschooler at Montrose I'm deeply invested in our community I currently serve as vice president of policy initiatives for CPAC and I'm also a co-chair of programming on the South Mountain PTA and serve on the pta's nominating committee I have very relevant professional experience I've worked for the past two decades advocating for students with special needs I've spent my entire career speaking with parents about their battles with their child's Public Schools parents who had no choice but
053to pay for a lawyer to fight on their half and here in town I have conversations week in and week out with parents dealing with similar issues in our schools but of course you've all heard my stump speech before as you know I ran for a seat on the board just a few months ago and in that process I saw firsthand how Board of Ed candidates and perhaps applicants get lumped in with the perceived factions and voting blocks that dominate the narratives around the sport and I think that's unfortunate and I think the community agrees so I'm hopeful that your appointment vote tonight is about finding commonality and not perpetuating divisions because otherwise I shouldn't be your choice at various times I know that I've been in agreement with every single person on this diocese
054and at times have disagreed with each one of you as well uh if I join the board it's going to be to vote my conscience based solely on how issues are impacting our students and families and I would hope to align with as many of you as possible in those votes and my desire is for every discussion every action and every dollar spent to be focused on our students not ourselves and I would join you in that spirit I'm also ready to get down to work as you know I attend every board meeting I read every document I stay till The Bitter End I have a legal eye for detail on the patience to untangle tricky issues I'm up to speed with everything public the board is working on and I'm ready to support and
055oversee the superintendent's work to achieve our annual goals and address our challenges and to be sure we have challenges our schools are literally falling apart our finances are stretched to the bare limits our academic achievement scores are not where they should be from elementary all the way up our high school urgently needs more help especially for our Black and Hispanic students our special education kids and our English language Learners and we need to fix transportation and figure out how to pay for it I don't claim to have all the answers but I have some insights and I'm ready to put in the time to keep us moving in the right direction I would be honored to join with each of you to put our heads down and continue the work required to strengthen our district
056for all our families thanks thank you will what is the biggest challenge facing the district today and how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges that's a great question I think there's there's big challenges from a few perspectives right uh we have seen our um our finances are are so tightly stretched and we have so many priorities right we uh have our long-range infrastructure plan we're spending a tremendous amount of money fixing our buildings but we have so much more that needs to be done in deferred maintenance uh we have an integration plan that is hugely effective so far but we do need to provide greater transportation and as we saw on Tuesday there's a lot of unanswered questions about how we're going to get that to happen we need
057to expand the curricula that we are using to make sure we're using uh modern techniques to work with our students finally bring back a standardized phonics instruction for our students uh and we still unfortunately are facing massive issues in our high school with de facto leveling uh and and poor rates of achievement among many of our students as I mentioned before that's something that um we need to provide more support in the high school but that also is an issue that we need to look down at the lower grades and make sure that we are adequately supporting so um and finally obviously I have a a true passion for working with our students with disabilities and their families and we are unfortunately failing many of them uh we need to be doing a much better
058job at collecting data tracking data to understand uh the specific pinch points we have and making sure that we have programs in place that are supporting all of our students so that we're sending fewer students out of district there are fewer families who are unable to get the services they need even evaluations from our board and to make sure that all of our students are equally successful my experience in special education is absolutely going to be relevant in helping to guide us and have an informed conversation with the district on hopefully the special services committee and or the curriculum instruction to make sure that we are supervising our special services well and keeping a close eye overall on uh the the budget in figuring out having interesting Solutions with the District of here how we're
059going to figure Transportation uh and a number of issues that are you know important in the district thank you you sort of touched on this but um is our curriculum an instruction meeting the needs of all of our Learners please explain uh all of our Learners it's probably not I I think we have a good start you know I'm very pleased in the last couple years we've deployed our Atlas uh online system so that everyone can see the curriculum that is in place um unfortunately having that online means that you can go through you can find the things that aren't in place it was a recent discussion at CPAC about how much we are providing students with uh instruction about awareness of special needs uh and uh if you look in our curriculum at least
060what's online there's virtually nothing there I think that we need to be doing a better job at working at English language instruction for our early grades I'm happy to see that we are improving our math curriculum and I cannot believe how much money curriculum costs so I recognize you can't we can't just go out and pick up a new Ela curriculum but strengthening our services there would be really important I'd love to see a more structured use of Orton Gillingham reading instruction which of course is the gold standard among many uh in the special education Community for working with decoding for early readers uh if we were to take that methodology and expand it so that it was generally used by all the teachers in our early grades I mean that could provide such Rich
061benefits to all of our students not just the ones that wind up running the gauntlet and finally receiving special services give hi Will hi what skills and perspectives will you bring to the table that will positively help us Advance our goals as a district well so you know I I am a lawyer and I apologize to everyone because it's uh look there are there are skills that I uh have for sitting down and and nitpicking through you know I really enjoy at the 48 hour mark before our meeting we get all the uh the policies released in in picking through and seeing uh what is changing what Provisions are in there what definitions are not quite defined right I think um that attention to detail is an important one look I am not barred in
062New Jersey and I am not a lawyer for the district for sure but having that eye toward looking at things and being able to interface well with Council and uh knowing the questions to ask to make sure that we are you know following council's advice well and um you know developing adequate policies that's one piece uh I am uh someone who likes Reaching Across the aisle if if you look at my text thread the number of different people in our district that I talk to right now I I want to talk to everyone you know I I really want to to the degree that there are riffs or divides on the the board I really want to be a collaborator because I think that's very important in making sure that in our committees and behind
063closed doors as well as on the dice that we are collaborating and working well um I think that is a talent that I have uh and listening I don't need to come into a room with the right answer but I want to leave with it and so trying to figure that out those are a couple of the skills that I have in addition to substantive knowledge that I have from working from a couple decades in education speaking with who knows how many teachers psychologists administrators these are skills that I can bring that I think would help strengthen the district as we listen to our district administrators listen to our teachers as well as our Union listen to our parents I spend my entire day every day listening to parents the board is the eyes and
064ears of the community as a policy making body we are making sure that we have a district that is reflecting our communities needs out of a school system and you can't do that unless you know how parents are doing and I'm very privileged to be in positions right now where I'm hearing from a lot of parents and and some of it is very good not all of it um so bringing both of those I think would be a help thank you so much will that's all we have for you today we really appreciate you coming into interview for this position thank you so much all right thanks to all of you as well [Music] hi next up we have Shayna Sackett Gable Shayna thank you so much for joining us we're going to put 10
065minutes up on the clock just looking at Keith to make sure we're good okay so we'll start with an opening statement from you Shayna if you could please tell us why you'd want to serve that would be greatly appreciated thank you okay thank you good evening I'm Shayna Sackett Gable Maplewood resident mom of two somsd students thank you for having me and more importantly thank you for your service on the board of ed so as you well know the Board of Education provides oversight to one of the most important and largest operations in our community and this requires a deep knowledge and deep respect for the community and its stakeholders and as the ultimate stakeholder I am seeking to fill the open position on the board after growing up in South Orange I returned to
066the community as a teacher and parent for 13 years I worked as a teacher at Seth Boyden Elementary School demonstrating my commitment to somsd students I presented math nights mentored new teachers co-taught inclusion classes piloted a new math curriculum wrote curriculum demonstrated lessons from my colleagues served on the Seth Boyden Title One committee and so much more if appointed to serve on the board I will bring my pedagogical expertise in stem in service to of Dr Taylor and of assistant superintendent Ann Bodner of Curriculum by focusing on policy goals that will strengthen students learning outcomes in the district I no longer teach in the community but I continue to demonstrate my commitment to service I served on the Seth Boyden PTA as a teacher liaison Bridging the parent and staff communities while co-president of the
067Psalms HSA I supported uplifting our equity and inclusion liaison to a voting member and adding a parent coordinator to represent the voices of Guardians of children in the multi-age self-contained classes currently I am co-president of president's Council I listen intently to the concerns of parents of all SMSD students at various levels and bring those concerns to The District administration all the while I have upheld a healthy respect for District staff so that we can move forward together productively I believe wholeheartedly that my work and volunteerism in slmsd qualify me to serve as a member of the school board I seek this position without any political aspirations I just bring a voice strengthened by my demonstrated unwavering commitment to our students who I believe are the heart of our community I'm excited by the challenge of
068working together across differences so that we can live up to the promise of our district and as a resident parent educator and volunteer I value our District's strengths and devoted in would be committed to supporting the board's work as I have supported our students throughout my years of service thank you Shayna nice to see you what is the biggest challenge facing the district today and how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges well I think one of the biggest challenges in our District's Community is that um we often are all we all often want the same goal for our students but how to get there is often a divisive point I hope you're all okay up there so um so I think um continuing the work that you've started doing
069to strengthen uh strengthen academics at the high school I know that's one of the district's goals and as well as um the restorative justice work K-12 that the district has been doing I think academic achievement and social social emotional outcomes go hand in hand and I think the work that you're currently doing support those outcomes thank you um is our curriculum and instruction meeting the needs of all Learners please explain that's a great question um I mean I I know from the presentations that I've seen that Ms Bodner has made and um currently it something doesn't seem to be connecting for all of our students because of the disparities in achievement across demographics across schools and so on so I think that I know there's a possibility of a new math curriculum in K-5 and
070I think with my background in that area I would be able to you know provide some input on the strengths and weaknesses of different curricula out there and just support the work that the district is doing hi Sheena what skills and perspectives will you bring to the table that will positively help us Advance our goals as a district well when I started thinking of applying for this position which really hadn't crossed my mind very much but when I started thinking about it and the more I sort of talked through it in my head I thought well I think I'm a very um even tempered person who can think logically listen to perspectives think critically and um really intently and I think that my work with president's Council has demonstrated that because I've had to listen
071to a variety of voices and I know that sometimes it's hard when the loudest voices are coming at you and it can be difficult to to hear those who who aren't coming forward and so I think that my ability to listen and to to keep a broader View and on the bigger picture will add value could add value to the board thank you so much Sheena that those are all the questions we had prepared for you really appreciate you coming to interview with us this evening thank you so much hello good evening hi good evening thank you just stating for the record we will be interviewing next Suzanne Ryan hi Suzanne how are you today I'm doing well thank you good um we're going to put 10 minutes up on the board I think just
072looking for a thumbs up that we're good okay great good all right Suzanne if you could start with an opening statement on why you'd want to serve that would be great sure um first of all I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening um as I was planning my lesson for tomorrow to teach my AP Lang and con class um the lesson was building rhetorical knowledge using Kairos and it hit me that the ancient Greek concept of Kairos can be applied to service on our Board of Education as well um Kairos is a time when conditions are right for crucial action taking advantage of or creating a perfect moment to deliver a particular message Kairos is seizing the day responsiveness Kairos is the notion of situational time a specific time
073distinct from calendar or clock time it refers both to opportune moment for persuasion and to the knowledge of what is appropriate fitting for a particular occasion um my perfect chaotic moment is now um and I would like to deliver this message my reason for putting my name forward to serve here it is all about the children I believe in children I always have I serve 25 years in Maplewood South Orange school district and I'm in my 43rd year teaching um I believe that everything that we do on this board of education should be distilled down to the children every decision every deliberation that must be done respectfully must be with the children in our district in mind so I'm here to pledge that if I am chosen I will serve the children and serve their
074families who send them to our schools each day they deserve the best I have also said that South Orange Maplewood School District can be The Shining Light or a Beacon of Hope for the country we truly can be children get one shot at their education one K-12 experience one experience here K-12 and somsd it must be the best they deserve the best curriculum that is proven to work they deserve the best facilities that are safe and inviting they deserve the best staff to attend to their needs and guide them through their educational process College and Career Training begins in kindergarten we have no time to waste we must get the job done it takes grit it takes determination it takes boldness and the ability to look at the issues that are in front of us
075so that is what I would bring to this board so as we address that which needs to be addressed no matter how difficult it may seem we must dwell on what needs to be done we must also dwell in joy because Joy is what we have in our community joy in our children only then can we seize that Kairos moment and transform our district one child at a time before you know it we're changing the world and you can say well how do I know it I've been doing it for the last 43 years I would greatly love to serve with you thank you thank you Suzanne what is the biggest challenge facing the district today and how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges I think the the greatest
076challenge we have is our curriculum I think when I look at and those that know me um I am a person who believes very strongly in a systematic and explicit way of teaching reading when I look at our reading scores in this district and I see the children that are not doing well and we could say a failure rate I think that that is unconscionable I think that the curriculum that we use and I realize that the board does not designate curriculum but we give that service and we give those ideas and we give that mandate to our administrators particularly our superintendent um I think we need to do better and I think we need with all that's out there to prove how we teach reading it needs to be done correctly I believe the
077teachers need another issue that's related is professional development we've got phenomenal teachers they were my colleagues wonderful people here wonderful wonderful teachers they need to support the scaffolding and the curriculum to do those jobs thank you I think you've touched on this but um is our curriculum and instruction meeting the needs of all our Learners please explain um I believe that it is not at this point um I know that there has been um an academic achievement gap for years at one point in 1981 the academic achievement gap between white and black children was at its least 1981. um and then what happened was this movement called whole language which morphed into balanced literacy and it goes on it's this moving Target and as soon as that was embraced the Gap has widened and we
078have that issue here I think there's research out there there's plenty of research that shows that that systematic explicit instruction we'll get our children where they need to be and I think that that's crucial at this point because reading is the essential skill because you learn to read but it is reading that allows you then to learn in all other content areas hi Suzanne hi what skills and perspectives will you bring to the table that will positively help us Advance our goals as a district oh wow I've lived here for 39 years um uh I I'm a teacher so I bring the educational I completed all of my doctoral work and educational leadership and management um while that was completed so I'm an ABD so I have that as a Wellspring of knowledge that I
079can bring to it I've worked in the community as a volunteer I believe wholeheartedly in making sure that we remain stably diverse um I think that there are ways that we as a community need to come together and I think that my being a volunteer whether it was a Girl Scout leader whether it was working in my neighborhood associations I was a co-chair of the community group called friends and neighbors and I was co-chair of the social action committee which was the precursor um to the Community Coalition on Race so we were the agitated agitative group that really pushed Our Two Towns to say if we don't do something we lose our diversity and if we love our diversity we have to work hard for it and um I think I bring that to the
080table um I believe wholeheartedly in getting all members of the community together and I've done that in in various capacities I'm a communicator I communicate well so I think that would that would pretty much sum it up okay those are all the prepared questions we have for you this evening so yeah that was quick right um thank you so much for coming we really appreciate it thank you hello everybody I know you're tired good evening hi just for the record we have our last interview will be with Miss Johanna Wright so thank you so much for joining us we're going to put 10 minutes up on the screen and just looking okay great and so miss Wright um if you could start with an opening statement as to why you want to serve that would
081be great foreign my experience and my ability uh to pick up on things quickly is gonna try I'm just gonna try and serve me well but the most important thing that I have to bring to this vacancy is being able to hit the ground running uh and not only that the institutional knowledge that I have is vast it is impossible for me to sum up nine years on this board that I have served on in the three minutes that you have given me so I like to also say that I'm only three months removed from board service and I feel obligated to come back and serve I am eager to help to bring everyone together and collaborate during this busy budget season where I have experience as a past Finance facilities and Technology chair uh
082we have the boards goal setting work which I am familiar with that needs to be done as well and the multiple challenges facing the district over the next eight months when you bring in an interim it's best to bring in a person who has a broad range of experiences because this is not a situation where inexperience is an advantage having sat on others on the other side of this table uh viewing and doing the same thing that you're doing right now I know how difficult it can be but I also realize it's best to find a candidate that can get up to speed quickly and add value without the need to do a lot of training I fit that bill and that is why my name is in the Hat hello thank you Johanna what
083is the biggest challenge facing the district today and how will your service on the board influence how Learners face those challenges wow that's a great question if we have a challenge is not in the in in um what we're doing it would be in the district goals so I say that our district goals are our biggest challenges that we have today and you all know what they are thank you um is our curriculum instruction meeting the needs of all Learners please explain we know that our curriculum and instruction is not meeting the needs of most Learners we know that from the data that has been given we know from the teachers the instruction in our students we have a lot of work to do there um hi Mrs Wright what skills and perspectives will you
084bring to the table that will positively help us Advance our goals as a district I think I explained that in my um opening of the things that I bring to the table are vast by words my work my votes are all memorialized and policies online and in news clips for all to see uh so other than that I bring 35 years of experience as an educator uh close to a decade as a board member and again I'm ready to hit the ground running and get things done those are all the remarks that we had prepared all the questions so thank you so much Miss Wright for coming in and interviewing for this position and that can concludes all of our interviews for the evening so thank you um sorry just moving okay so thank you
085to all the candidates we really appreciate your time with us this evening the board will now adjourn to a closed session for roughly 30 minutes to discuss the candidates that were interviewed and the board will reconvene and proceed with business where formal action will be taken I'd like to make a motion to adjourn to a closed session for the aforementioned reason do I have a second second all in favor the vote appears to be unanimous so we are now a journey to closed session thank you for your patience [Music] thank you [Music] investigations [Music] thank you or something [Music] okay um is everybody yeah [Music] um [Applause] [Music] okay thank you everybody thank you for your patience um so now uh we will start the process of nominations for the board vacancy um so I'll
086ask my board colleagues do I have any nominations for a board member for president um uh sorry board member Wingfield I'm so sorry it's okay uh Board of President I'd like to make a motion to nominate uh Shayna Sackett Gable do I have a second second thank you um do I have any other nomination foreign for Johanna right second okay do I have any other nominations on the table this evening board member tell us for Dr telesford I'd like to nominate Shannon cuddle uh do I have a second second so are there any other nominations this evening going once going twice okay nominations are now closed and so we will be calling role in the order in which the nominations were made thank you Mr Burnside please build back on look I don't see him
087I just want to make sure we're not voting without him he's trying to get back on so if we could give it a second seems like he's you there bill I am here okay sorry this is roll call for the nomination of Shana sacagable board member Duvall Wilson no board member Eckert no board member Gifford no board member Mouse Pina no board member telesford yes board member valmani yes board member Wingfield yes board president with letter no motion doesn't pass this is a motion for the nomination of Johanna Wright put president with a letter yes board member winkfield no board member of islamani no board member tell us her no board member Mouse Pina yes board member Gifford yes board member Eckert yes board member Deval Wilson yes motion passes okay thank you so much
088um I'm gonna hand it over and congratulations to miss Wright um I'm gonna Patrick could you just explain the process thank you right so the process is that they have to undergo criminal background checks uh typically that occurs within 30 days of the appointment or election I know Miss Wright is a past board member so for her there's going to be an archiving process it would be as simple as contacting the chru and getting the fingerprints approved through the archiving process but generally speaking it's the current policy that in my recommendation that board appointees not take their seat and start voting until they've gone through that process so it should be short she should be able to start participating very soon and just so everyone's clear on this as well the oath does not have
089to occur in public anybody that can administer Oaths can give the oath so that could occur with the business administrator with myself or anybody else that can administer it oath it doesn't have to occur here thank you Mr Carrick so we will now begin our first hearing of individuals and delegates this evening thank you for coming in person and dialing in by phone the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education certainly respects that you've taken the time out of your busy day to address the board at tonight's meeting we value public involvement in our school district and we are eager to hear what you have to say the board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening each individual will be
090given three minutes to speak please do your best to stay within the time afforded to you the first public comment period is usually limited to one hour in the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes all inputs shared with the board of education has taken very seriously and will inform future deliberations and work by the Board of Education in its committees we request that you please state your name and town of residence for the record so the first person up is a student Vicki Johnson sorry sorry Vicky I thought you were a student I'm sorry what was the problem sorry I I said that you were a student and I apologize for that I'm sorry Vicki oh that's nice okay my name is Vicki Johnson and I've been the resident of South
091Orange for 30 years and I've also been a adjunct um Professor for 25 years at a community college I have two children that graduated from Colombia high school and they both received the positive caring and nurturing environment for learning now my granddaughter attends Colombia I am very disappointed disgusted and shocked at the present School environment and culture my granddaughter has an IEP and has experienced three separate incidents of psychological trauma since December 2022 including bullying harassment psychological threats physical harm which has created a hostile environment she was given marijuana brownies by a fellow student at Columbia and was taken to Saint Barnabas hospital by ambulance to the emergency room for treatment on 12 13 2022 and my daughter was sent two bills and the district was notified of the bills and they refused to pay
092this is unbelievable to treat a student and parent with such disrespect she is presently assigned home instruction since January 2023 because of continued physical threats she has never received any regular class assignment or textbooks only worksheets on canvas without any instruction as an IEP student the home instructor is not employed by the South Orange Maplewood district and needed textbooks and other educational resources to provide a comprehensive educational plan for my daughter and the home instructor have contacted the IEP case manager the IEP supervisor and the assistant principal multiple times and as of today 3 30 2023 no structured written educational plan of care no textbooks have been provided the home instructor is limited with the level of educational resources she can provide without certain worksheets and textbooks from the district has missed and I'm emphasizing
093three months of school three months of school please tell me how to be able to make this up it's unbelievable it hasn't as a as an IEP student feels invisible like no one cares about her at South Orange Maplewood School District she has been neglected by the Columbia Administration including the assistant principal and the special services IEP staff the South Orange Maplewood School District provided no communication no accountability and takes no responsibility for the educational needs of Sydney as a IEP student this is unacceptable insensitive behavior for a school of higher education to perform on this level especially for IEP students is this the law Vicky Vicky thank you so much for coming and I'm so sorry to cut you short but your time has lapsed and we really appreciate you coming forward I would
094appreciate if in closing yeah there is a meeting with the IEP staff the I with the uh assistant principal from Colombia and also a board member to make sure her needs are being met before I pursue this further okay thank you very much thank you Vicki we really appreciate it thank you so much uh the next person up for public speaks and I apologize if I pronounce your first name wrong is um yaakov scheinfeld Board of Ed good evening good evening my dear daughter was a wonderful caring creative artistic child her name was Sophia scheinfeld we lived here in Maplewood New Jersey in South Orange for the past 33 years today she would have been 29 years old but she committed suicide on August 6 Sophia was transgender then was called Sam August at age
09517 Sophia indicated to us that she is in the wrong body and not female I was I was shaken upset and very very concerned the more I read the more I concerned the more I was concerned I was and it was I'm sorry 2010 I've asked to meet Colombia principal at the time Dr Lilly Lobby I've got no answers to my questions and uh concerns Sophia was 100 influenced by peers at her school friends in parentheses who were activists in the group that probably formed in high school we never promoted it in our family um Sophia said to me don't you want me to be happy she said to me I objected fiercely two years went by with her not talking to me it's very hard it was a very hard um now Sam August
096went to uh College she removed her breast in a hospital and took a list of hundreds of medications that I have here but we don't have time I only have three minutes um her appearance changed her facial changed the voice changed and her demeanor changed Sam was not happier just actually sad and withdrawal I'm not saying she was never happy and she may have thought that she did the right thing for herself I don't know the loss of Sophia to Sam was very painful to me as a son to both parents who were Holocaust Survivors as Hungarian Jews Sam took their life alone in a hotel room on August 6 2021. why am I here I had no idea then and now that the school district of South Orange and Maplewood has almost like a
097transgender task force and I read your your uh almost seven pages of the protection and the needs that they need um I find it dangerous I find it morbid and I sincerely and I think that it is scientifically unproven agenda and I know quite a bit of where it started I'm not going to get into it but I'm asking you the board members I'm asking you um why is such a theology and cult-like sorry um the time limit the time has lapsed each individual person gets three minutes and I have four person sentences please I waited three hours to be here okay just give me three more seconds okay please okay okay thank you I am appalled by the focus this body this body gives to gender issues that do not belong in these walls
098of learning I come from a place where learning was math geography and so on I don't understand it and just a few days ago a person of the same killed six people and now four more thank you thank you very much and there are four more thank you yaakov we we really appreciate you coming no I don't like okay and your time your time is up sir please no no but I'd like to know I'm sorry but we can only afford I want to know where do I take it further because I want to I want you to listen to me before it happens yeah I just want to explain that the board we can't have direct dialogue back and forth with members of the community but please feel free to email the board or
099email um Administration with any questions so thank you so much yaakov we really do appreciate you coming this evening um up next we have Joshua einyart I'll get a timer I'll do my best to stay on track good evening my name is Joshua enyart and I've been Ela teacher at CHS for 15 years since 2013 I've been the only journalism teacher sometimes leading five full sections that were past capacity with more than 30 kids in a class for eight of those years I was also the content advisor the school student newspaper the Colombian from 2014 to 2020 a consecutive six-year streak the newspaper was awarded first place in the country by this classic press Association a National Organization that assesses thousands of newspapers from across the country since it started in 1915 the Colombian has
100earned significant local and National accolades including recognition from the Essex County Board of chosen freeholders Columbia University and even the national Media Group NBC the paper was staffed by writers and editors who took the journalism course former grads who took the course and are on the editorial board often went on to pursue the field on higher Academia as well as professionally American University Temple Queens UMD Syracuse UPenn and Colombia are just some of the campuses that supported the continued study of Journalism from many former CHS kids for example Adriana lowenkron and Sarah Baraka both class of 2018 even went on to become editors in Chief as seniors at UPenn and Columbia respectively some of them has also worked at our local media Outlets like the Village Green all of them started that Journey with the
101journalism course at CHS in October of 2022 current Ela supervisor Jane Bean folks unilaterally dismantled the course for next year leaving it is that only senior only half year course that Awards the students no ELA graduate graduation credit this was done without any input or discussion from the only journalism teacher in fact it wasn't even given the courtesy of any notice as the first mention of these changes came to me two months after she had made the decision she said in untruth that UC schools did not recognize the course as applicable credit for admission when I provided her with an email from the associate director of admissions from UC Santa Barbara explicitly stating that this just wasn't true she dismissed it told me to be quiet and repeatedly said that the ship had sailed this
102took place at a recent department meeting in front of a number of my colleagues if indeed the ship has sailed the established and fully functioning curriculum will need to be completely Rewritten this will cost time and money valuable resources the district is already short on I urge all of you here tonight the community the board the superintendent to ask yourselves if this is just I ask you to consider looking at this matter on your own to see if this decision can be undone I ask you to consider the future of the decorated century-old student newspaper that has always support been supported by the journalism course will the Colombian be able to survive I ask you to consider the future I ask you to consider the upcoming students experiences navigating one of the district's most important
103Flagship departments will there be any more future hatred on low on crowns or Sarah barakas who can represent the best of us and who we are at institutions like UPenn and Columbia will we be able to support local journalism like we have like we have been in the past if this change is not undone are they deals and values we pride ourselves on having actually being represented in the current departmental leadership through decisions like this or does the community deserve better I think they I think we all deserve better thank you thank you so much Josh so that concludes the in-person public speaks so we'll move on now to our audio public speaks and the first individual who registered is Eileen pizuro hi can you hear me yes okay um just one second um I
104am speaking I'm just trying to find my email one second okay um I'm speaking about uh a resolution which I believe the board is voting on tonight it's resolution 4431f and my understanding is that this resolution states that the district will cover legal fees for board member Elisa malisfina at 250 an hour as I understand it malisfina acted against the advice of taxpayer-funded District Council and did not recuse herself from voting on the transportation settlement her insurance company then denied her claim after an Ethics complaint was filed against her for failing to recuse herself and she is now asking the district to foot her bill when she acted against the District Attorney's advice Miss Mel's Mina confirmed that she was conflicted herself during the July 18 2022 board education Board of Education meeting when she
105stated I'm conflicted moving forward with busing or intentional integration so I will not be commenting I cannot comment or do not vote on anything related to it just that the public should understand obviously there's a conflict of interest here and conflicts of interest are particularly concerning in terms of ignoring counsel it isn't merely that she's ignoring the best advice or she's willing to take that risk it's a declaration of choosing one's own interests over that of the board and it seems that the insurance company insurance company believes that took her actions outside of her capacity as a board member I believe the risk she took was to us all as as for whether this vote was part of the settlement or not going against Council was Reckless you can't risk you you can't you can
106take that risk yourself but don't expect to take that for all of us the district paid for that lawyer and we don't have to pay for another I ask that the board members consider this conflict of interest and board members malaspina's poor judgment in ignoring that legal advice the district should not have to pay for legal counsel to advise or defend her after she publicly stated she knew that she needed to recuse herself and then did not against the advice of legal counsel that the district had already paid for that is entirely ridiculous and inappropriate thank you for your attention to this matter and I hope that you will consider this when you vote thank you thank you Eileen the next audio public speaks is Ronnie Schwartz hi can you hear me hi are you
107able to hear me Ronnie we can't hear you all can you hear me now a little bit better but if you could be louder that would be helpful but we can still hear you better than before okay thank you um thank you I'm here to say that resolution 4431f is a terrible use of taxpayer funds the district taxpayers already paid for legal advice and though board member malispina may be entitled to indemnification by the board paying for it twice because she didn't act in the best interest of the board the first time is beyond belief we are in a budget crisis we cannot pay our teachers and staff enough in comparison to neighboring districts the roof needs to be replaced at MMS teachers at Columbia High School had Amazon wishlists to buy books this week
108We are failing to provide required services to children with special needs our children are suffering a mental health crisis and need more Social Work resources we have an inexcusable achievement Gap and the Board of Ed and the board of school estimate are considering an unconscionable tax increase to pay for transportation for students who are not legally entitled to it and while I would support a subscription-based transportation service with fees covered for children who qualify for free and reduced lunch I do not support paying thousands of dollars per child for transportation that is not required while we have all of these other deficits so although the Board of Education may be required to pay for these legal fees the communities should take note that it is a horrible irresponsible use of resources thank you thank you
109Ronnie and that concludes our audio oh sorry we have one more that he just spoke yeah okay thank you so um oh so Dr Taylor did you want to respond to anything thank you madam president and good evening again to everyone and thank you for those who took time out of your evening uh to share your concerns uh with us during public speaks um our team and I we take Kobe's notes and um also also try to offer responses when appropriate after public speaks um is Vicki still here did she leave okay we'll we'll be sure to follow up with that circumstance I wanted to interject just to not share so much information when identifying her grandchild because that could threaten her confidentialities we may modify what's on our YouTube page for that just to
110protect that student's confidentiality um regarding the journalism course and the shift in curriculum I know that that concern was raised to miss Bodner our assistant soup for cni and she has been reviewing that matter and we can give the cni a committee an update on that uh with the you know a more uh detailed review um regarding the gentleman who spoke about the passing of his daughter and his objection to our lgbtq support um I must say I disagree vehemently and that's been demonstrated through our commitment to support all of our students in particular our most underrepresented uh students and that is a record that I'm very proud of as a superintendent and so while everyone has a right to free speech I also have a right to disagree with that speech those are all
111of my responses thank you so much Dr Taylor um now we'll transition to the action portion of the meeting so Dr Taylor the mic is yours thank you thank you madam president I'm just verifying uh the resolutions that we expect to be severed this evening from my notes those resolutions are four three four sorry four four three four four four three seven four four three nine and four we have also two hand carries that will come after the formal vote did I miss any of the severed resolutions bar member valimani um I was looking at the policies that were put up for second reads and some of them seemed to have disappeared of the site between last night I saw it and this time I saw it like for example 7440 was set up for
112second reads and it's not there anymore and so I guess my question is how do you want to I'm willing to take this you know make it easy and kind of figure it out there are a bunch of things that are not ready for for photo for the second release like three three two one there's no redlining your promise redlining is there for many of them so how do I go about making sure they're pulled out so I can vote no on their secretary do you want to sever any of the so I guess I don't see any on the second reading and adoption I don't see policies three three two one no you said seven seven four zero right seven four four digital is gone and it's not on the list oh okay so
113I don't I don't think we're voting on that this today uh three three two one three three two one is on there so you want to sever four four three three six e for for conversation yes and five four six zero they were all there last night I I went through each one anyway maybe one remembering field sorry have any been withdrawn have any of these have been they've been put on the website and then pulled back not that I'm aware of if you look at it revisions okay I mean if I believe you sure every time every time we have an update the board is giving that update and what's what is changed is noted on the update um I don't have a way of verifying what was taken down but I would also
114agree that everything that's here is what you're voting on this evening whatever it was there previously I would disregard at this time so sorry uh bummer Wingfield just really quickly I just wanted to confirm so you would like to sever four four three six e which is policy 3321 3321 the okay Dr Taylor okay um so board member Link Field um I'd like to sever 4431f [Music] okay we will sever four four three one I will repeat again uh board members thank you on my list to sever are four four three one f four four three four four three six e four four three seven four four three nine any others thank you Madam president seeing none I would present to the board for consideration resolutions 4428 through 4439 noticing the exceptions of those that
115have been severed second okay I guess someone else right we're in discussion okay so we're in discussion for four four two eight three four four three nine with the exception of the severed resolutions does anyone have any thing to say about oh board member Ecker and then board member valimani yes um so I had a question or just a clarification on 4438 which is the school calendar for the 23 24 school year um I just want to confirm I'm reading this correctly so for next school year the last day is now June 20th I believe that's a Thursday that's correct that is a Thursday wonderful um I just want to say thank you Dr Taylor for listening to the concerns brought up by many people in this community parents teachers some fellow board members uh
116in changing the last day of school um you know while this school year is not up I would encourage you to continue to evaluate if Monday June 26 is still necessary as the last day of school for the current school year we've not used snow days I know that right now that the Friday before Memorial Day weekend is a give back day while I do respect that I'm sure many families have plans then um it would be interesting I would be curious to see if maybe we survey and they would actually rather have that day as a school day and Monday the 26th as not the last day of school thank you thank you so much thank you no duly noted and um one thing that we share with families who have reached out to
117us with that concern was a was first of course acknowledging that concern um but also helping folks to understand the amount of planning that goes into some of the events that are planned for that Monday um some of the you know long-reaching reserves of materials and and things that are used for some of the common living activities that are already planned for that day and we certainly understand and acknowledge um the the challenge that some folks are having with their family obligations and we um I think that our reflection on this upcoming calendar reflects that and for those who don't know when we create our calendars we bounce them off of several different stakeholder groups including our ptas and hsas our partners at so many uh Partners in ASCA and of course our Board of
118Education gives us feedback as well and so we're definitely always open to improving thank you [Music] does anyone else have any comments specifically about resolution 4438 before we go to another resolution that we're voting on no okay um board member of avamani and then board member malestina actually I had an identical question so she on and he answered it so okay okay board member malaspina I just Viper um everybody that the policies that were pulled those four the seven four four zero which you were asking about board member live Milani was pulled and so was eight four two zero and two two six zero from from after first read we pulled them and they're going back to first read uh so they were not on this agenda so just so you know no I understand
119but they were there last night so you know I I can also help I'm assuming that you know there's going to be some sanctity of you know keeping things constant as opposed to aging at the last minute which is I'm glad you pulled it out because they were obviously on my list of things that I would want to revisit again but it would be nice if there was some kind of fun well I don't know maybe there's an update I'll look for your email and confirm that it says that these have been pulled out hopefully thank you and also for three three two one that was a new Strauss SMA policy so there's never been one before so there's no red line because it didn't exist before foreign exactly and the other the other two
120were pulled because of Need for more discussion thank you okay thanks just to clarify one more time I mean there is no need to save our four four three six e thanks so we're in the middle of discussing the previous motion so it'll probably be easier for us just to keep its effort and then we can just move forward thank you do any board members have any additional questions or comments regarding 4428 resolution 442-8 through 4439 with the exception of the resolutions were severed okay um not seeing any other questions let's close discussion and take roll call thank you board member Deval Wilson yes board member Eckert yes board member Gifford yes board member miles Pina yes board member telesford yes board member valmani yes board member Wingfield yes board president what letter yes motion
121to pass thank you board members the next resolution for consideration is four four three one F do I have a second second okay now we are open for discussion on resolution 4431f board member Wingfield yeah I think the question is directed at uh Mr carrig can you explain to us because on the resolution at the bottom it says that um that the reason for the request for the attorney fees to be paid is that the insurance Council which normally covers board members um rejected this claim can you speak to why that rejection occurred have you heard directly from um the Insurance Council or yes so when whenever a claim comes in you submit it uh to your insurance company your insurance company then does a coverage position and the insurance company in this case did
122a coverage position letter that was issued to the district on March 14th and the reason for their disclaimer is they have a policy exclusion under both their coverages coverages A and B the disclaimer says a claim shall not include any action arising out of and number two is a complaint or filing with the school ethics commission so this policy that was uh where the claim was submitted they sent back saying they have a specific policy exclusion and so that is why they are not covering it can just ask a follow-up real quick um I guess my follow-up is that we've had board members file ethic charges against other board members in the past and those those claims have been covered by Insurance Council so I'm curious if you can explain why this one was not
123so this one is related to the policy that they interpreted um I did in the time frame we were in exact uh up until now ask for the policy coverage letter that was sent last March and that was also a denial for the same reason I'm reading from it right now this is a letter dated March 17 2022. and it also is a denial of coverage denial of coverage for whom yeah in summary for the reasons discussed above the policy does not provide coverage for the claims made against the insured in this one the insureds were uh Mr Joshua Miss Wingfield Miss Ciders Miss cuddle um miss Mr Saban Miss Bergen and Miss Maney so how is that inconsistent with the coverage that we've received so I don't know how you've received coverage because this
124is a denial letter so I I I wasn't the board attorney in 2022 and so I don't know other than I see a disclaimer of coverage here okay thank you um sorry before I take any questions I just wanted to ask our attorney to walk through board member identification and our bylaw um which I think I have up here which is bylaw0148 if you could just walk through that that would be helpful thank you so your your Bilo Amir is a statue okay the statute is njsa 18a 12-20 which essentially provides for indemnification of board members that are sued uh whether that be in a in a civil claim or an administrative claim which is what a school ethics action is um when the conduct that issue arises out of the performance of their duties
125as a board member um and so in looking at at this particular case the issue came down to a vote and a vote generally speaking is a duty of a board member and so for that reason the coverage position that we gave was that a recommendation for coverage the school ethics acts interpreting case law does not require that the board member win a case it's just that whether or not it was an act in the course of the performance of their duties and it's a mandatory statute that uses the word Xiao which is mandatory language meaning that it must happen um and so that is why this recommendation was was put out there um we've looked at the complaint itself it relates to a vote that is something that that board members do and so
126we believe that the statute does apply and in that respect then um the board would be obligated to indemnify the board member um the board does this in many other facets there are similar statutes that apply to teaching staff members and administrative staff members so even when in those circumstances coverage might not apply they have similar language that says if the ACT arises out of the performance of their duties then in those circumstances the board is required to indemnify so this is a similar circumstance um I mean just to read some case though real quick the statute protects both successful and unsuccessful litigants so again it doesn't require you to win at the end to be covered um that's the general reason why thank you very much um board member of adelamani is the price
127in line with all the other lawyers that we take care of I mean we pay for uh so the prices in line for what a private uh attorney would cost to handle a school ethics matter so Insurance um gets lower rates because they give volume to their panel of attorneys um and so they get a discount for that um most private attorneys in New Jersey probably charged in a neighborhood of 350 plus for private Council public entities generally pay a little bit less and so at 250 an hour that seems pretty reasonable tell us heard yeah I guess I'll just say that um I feel as if we're paying twice because we much much more of a comment we pay for legal advice and then now we're paying for extra legal I guess defense when
128and it's also going to be higher than what we actually pay for our own Council and so I think that is just a disservice to the taxpayers former Ringfield and this will be your yep um so Mr Carrick that's definitely news to me because Insurance Council has been paying for my defense for the last 18 months um so I assume that if that's an error that we'll be prepared to foot the bill for my legal expenses as well um but I also want to be clear while board member malice Mina is giggling over there I just want to remind that she's the reason why those costs have been incurred by the district for filing those charges and you know most of you on this diocese ran on some version of a platform of putting students
129first and I fail to see in any way shape or form how allocating these resources at a time where our district is so desperately in need of focusing every single penny where it is most needed and that's with students that we think that this is a good use of resources in particular when one of our members directly ignored the advice of counsel and put our entire board at risk as a result of that action um so I just again the con Financial consequence of not complying with bylaw 0148 would far away the financial um cost of what we're we're discussing here and as discussed the Board of Education shall indemnify board members in accordance with law when they are functioning and acting in the course of their performance of their duties as a board member
130and I think we have to comply with our bylaws and there is a lot of information that cannot be shared here but we do have several lawyers all of whom wait into this particular situation and there were varying opinions so I would just like to say that as a board member you are able to manage your own recusals and in acting as a board member if you choose to vote that is within your right you're an elected official to do so um so if there's no other comment outside of the concerns around the finances with this particular resolution I think we should look to close discussion and this will be uh board member valamani and born Dr telesford and then we should probably go to vote so what president what you just said was pure
131speculation I mean there is no way for you to know what would cost more or less right now the only thing we have in front of us is the cost of the lawyers you're speculating what would happen if somebody sued us and you know the cost of so Allah that's the spirit speculation so let's not go after that right second thing is you mentioned you did mention that you know we got you know we got advice from lawyers who seem to agree with what you're saying but clearly that was not the case before I mean I know we can't talk a lot about what happened in private but that's not consistent and that needs to be part of the record and you know maybe if maybe board member balance could explain some more I mean
132maybe she has the right we're not allowed to yeah do you have anything else to add because we'll go to Dr telesford I'm from Michigan okay so so I just wanted on the record that we've had multiple lawyers over the last three three years and who have given different advice and it's in our best interest to follow the advice of the lawyer who we have not the one we wish we had or another one who comes in future that's that's what I want to leave on the record okay Dr telesford I just wanted to Echo that um we can talk to many lawyers we can talk to Saul Goodman if we want to but we have one board Council and that's who we should be listening to is our board Council and not saying well
133many people said this that's a very wishy-washy statement we have one board Council and we should listen to whatever their clear advice is that's all I'll say thank you so much and so I will defer to our board Council who's giving us advice um and one thing I I did with like Mr Carrick to clarify in your opinion I don't know if you can give it but is it fiscally responsible to identify to comply with bylaw 0148 yes I believe so it it you will be exposed to a claim then for failing to indemnify which would have its own costs associated with it revised on the person bringing that claim and then the person that you hire to defend that claim okay board member Wingfield are you saying that the risk would be that board
134member Mal Espino would sue the district for costs incurred as a result of this that that's what's at risk yeah of course okay thank you right which is just so I'm clear that's a permissible thing that is not a disqualifying action there are a number of cases over the years where that has occurred because a board has refused to indemnify and the commissioner then makes a decision as to whether identification is appropriate on their statute or not this is the last um so so you do agree that there have been cases before where board members have not been indemnified clearly you just mentioned that 100 absolutely but not in a circumstance like this in my opinion that's that's the advice you're giving us but you do want there are many many cases when that happens
135okay not many many cases there are some cases where the commissioner has found 18a 12-20 did not require indemnification but it's do we have a count of how many there are put here's what I would say so this is how the the commissioner has phrased it the purpose of the statute is to make manifest the implied power of boards of Education to provide for the legal defense of a member of the board who is sued individually for some action taken by him or her in furtherance of his prescribed duties this combined with the liberal approach approach to be taken in applying the statute causes in this case to us to concur that the board member was entitled to reimbursement it's a liberally applied statute well close to such discussion on resolution 4431f Mr Burnside if
136you could take the role thank you so much support president with letter yes board member Wingfield no board member vadalamani no board member telesford no board member Gifford yes board member Acker yes board member Duvall Wilson yes motion passes to say I recuse myself I I figure thank you board members the next severed item is four four three four do I have a second second okay yep we are now opening discussion for resolution 4434 um board member miles Fina I'm just trying to understand the process is there a way to approve all but one or do we have to just not approve at all the way your emotions are written It's All or Nothing okay thank you any further discussion on 4434 closing discussion we will move to a vote Mr Burnside board member Deval
137Wilson yes board member Eckert yes board member Gifford yes board member miles Pina no board member talisford yes board member of adelamani yes board member Wingfield yes board president with letter yes motion passes board members the next severed resolution is four four three seven do I have a second we are now open discussion for a resolution 4437 we can't speak about it because this is a confidential matter so with that we will close this discussion and move to the role board president will let her okay so yes board member Wingfield yes board member van lamani yes board member tell us heard yes board member miles Pina yes board member Gifford yes board member Acker yes board member Duvall listen yes motion passed thank you 4439 do I have a second we're now open for discussion
138on resolution 4439 which any questions or comments or shall we move to voting okay Mr Burnside welcome to close discussion if you could take the role thank you board member Deval Wilson yes board member Eckert yes board member Gifford yeah it's board member miles Pina board member telesford yes board member patlamani yes board member Wingfield yes board president with letter yes motion passes so there was a request to sever 4436e and so it's easier for us to vote it now instead of taking it back so uh 4436e do I have a second second okay we're now open for a discussion on resolution 4436e seeing no questions or comments we'll move to a vote Mr Burnside board president whitlater yes board member Wingfield yes board member of adelamani yes board member dallasford yes board member miles
139Pina yes board member Gifford yes board member Eckert yes board member Deval Wilson motion passes board members we have two hand carries that are coming around now I know at this point yeah [Music] board members you should be familiar with this topic we'll put forward a resolution now for four four four zero A and B do I have a second second we're now open for discussion on resolutions 440a and four four zero B any remember questions or comments okay seeing none we'll close discussion on resolutions these resolutions and put it to a vote Please Mr Burnside board member Duvall Wilson yes board member Eckert yes board member Gifford yes board member miles Pina yes board member tellsford yes board member of money yes board member Wingfield yes board president with letter yes thank you board
140members for your patience your last hand carry is four four one coming around now thank you Mr Burnside board members you should again be familiar with this resolution um I present to you four four four one do I have a second second seeing no questions or comments we will close discussion Mr Burnside can you please call the roll on resolution 441 president what letter yes board member Wingfield yes board member of idle Imani yes board member telesford yes board member miles Pina yes board member Gifford yes board member hackard yes board member Duvall Wilson yes motion passes to our board president that concludes our report thank you Dr Taylor we will now begin our second hearing of individuals and delegates this evening I'd like to begin by thanking you for coming in person and dialing
141it by phone the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education certainly respects that you've taken the time out of your busy day to address the board at tonight's meeting we value public involvement in our school district and we are eager to hear what you have to say the board does have time limits by policy and will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening each individual will be given three minutes to speak please do your best to stay within the time afforded to you the first public comment period is usually limited to one hour and the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes all inputs shared with the board of education is taken very seriously and will inform future deliberations and work by the Board of Education
142and its committees we request that you please state your name in town of residence for the record we have one Shannon cuddle okay Shannon cuddle hi good evening again um I also just want to uh thank you for your time um and during the interview process and also uh thank the other folks that came out tonight it's public service and congratulate uh Miss Wright on another round um what I do just want to take a moment to say pause um we know that our School District in our community has always been an inclusive diverse and welcoming space and we have made that value commitment as a community and as a school district boldly because we know that it matters we know that when we do that it saves lives it changes lives and our commitment
143that we made as a board the commitment that we make to each other in our communities are interconnected to how we support our most underserved and underrepresented students that are struggling across our community whether it be food hunger or whether it be students that are struggling with academic success whether it be students that are struggling with home and life balance whether it be supporting students that are homeless whether it be supporting lesbian gay bisexual transgender lgbtq plus Youth and non-binary youth we have made a strong commitment and I want to thank you for that and thank our two talents and community and even you as board members and our superintendent Dr Taylor I'm very proud that we are a beacon for other school districts across this state that they have known to go to to
144get support to support all students and families in our unwavering commitment to that is vitally important that we stand tall especially now with all the anti-lgbt rhetoric that we're hearing across the country right now our youth are hearing it our families are hearing it our teachers our staff are hearing it online and offline and now more than ever we need strong Boards of Education like yourself individuals allies and administration teachers and staff that are standing up for youth lgbtq plus Youth and all youth right now that are under attack I want to thank us for doing that and continue to be models and also be able to highlight the fact that when we do this work we do it collectively together and doing these things collectively together make us stronger make our students stronger and
145make our community able to be such a model that it is to be able to welcome the diversity of our greater communities into the fold and that is strong and important and with that being said I think it's important also to mention that tomorrow on March 31st is the international transgender day of visibility it's held every year and our students will be taking and participating tomorrow as well and a national walkout that's happening across the country and also in states across the country you're going to be seeing folks speaking out I would encourage you all national International transgender day of visibility tdov is the acronym is a day of Hope celebration of our transgender and non-binary students and families hope for the future and understanding our history thank you thank you Shannon okay we don't
146have any audios additional audio speaks so that concludes our public speaks for the evening and thank you to everyone who came this evening to address the board and again to all of our candidates who interviewed this evening so now we will move on to new business and wanted to see if there are any items up for new business um just a reminder that new business is a time when board members can bring forth topics that are of such urgency that they must be dealt with in that meeting and that new business topics brought before the board should be in the form of a result of emotion to take action so Dr telesford I guess I just wanted to point out that I'm still confused by what we're doing on policy because we had this whole
147process of how you're going to have redlining that process was going to be changing and I have I've gotten no clarification from I guess what we've released in the media and then also within our policy committee and I was hoping that we could actually have the discussion today but we didn't have committee readouts today and uh Dr tellsford are you looking to take action this evening um I guess I guess I'll make a motion that we continue redlining in our policies oh sorry thank you for remembering field so now it's open I guess for discussion good night I'll I'll read the part of the readout that was um added to the agenda um and I think is now included on the website so it talks a little about that um give me one second let
148me pull it up for us but it does talk about I was in the policy committee like you were and we discussed redlining and the desire to continue the process we were waiting to hear back from the administration about they were looking at um different technology softwares and all of that and we were waiting to get a report back from them but no we have all made a commitment and it is included in the policy committee readout to continue some form of redlining so I don't um I want to be put into a position where we are um voting on a resolution where it's not fully written out because we're not exactly sure how we are going to redline yet because we haven't heard back from the administration but we there is a commitment on
149the board in the policy committee to keep some form of redlining in there Dr Taylor do you have anything to add please sure um so we checked in with our policy chair and informed him that we had um that the policy team the internal District team had done some experimentation with multiple digital options and we weren't satisfied with the outcome and just to be as plain English as possible when we were using those digital pieces that were designed to do that for you big chunks it were missing in the output and so we're looking at other options working with our I.T director Mr bonds and the policy team and we expect to have an update for our chair right after spring break to see if we can find a digital answer for this question okay
150so um board member Duvall Wilson motion to table this discussion I don't think we're ready to have it and I don't feel comfortable with a board voting on something when the district is still evaluating and needs to provide a solution so I motion to table this thank you that motion so a motion to table is like is an interruption motion it takes precedence so now the motion to table it goes to discussion and vote [Music] okay so we'll move does anyone have any okay uh board member of adlamani and then Dr telesford here go ahead no I find it amazing that and I wasn't going to participate in this discussion at all because you convinced you assured me that you know redlining was going to happen but now that you want to table this it
151just seems wrong you're tabling it because you don't want to discuss it that's just no no no no no we didn't finish discussing the previous one before so if you had all you had to do was wait five minutes and not try to table it and and kill it because well you have the five words to kill it that's exactly how you sound so if you if you can maybe take it back we'll finish discussing it and then we can come to a reasonable uh you know conclusion to that Dr telesford I was just going to say that I was well am I allowed to talk about this motion or are we going to our accounting talk about tabling because in the readout with you said that there's going to be some form of redlining
152the the main issue was that the digital processes did not work well and the direction and the attitude was well then we'll just not do redlining there was not this commitment to redlining it was we'll do a digital form or we're going to abandon the process and since a digital form did not work well you did not want to do it and so I think it is very important the community understand why that that we stick with redlining and that this some form of redlining maybe some things are missed and the attitude was well that's going to be up to the community to figure out and that's what I'm calling attention to okay um I also would just like to have Dr Taylor kind of step in here um because I I do recognize that
153the motion on the floor the original motion was brought to the table by a member of the policy committee and this seems like an ongoing conversation happening in policy and yeah yeah I wouldn't want to speak for for our chair but I can share um just the the ongoing conversations that we've had around um we've had straps that's made our policy uh vendor who's also of course a well-respected law firm come to our policy committee to talk about you know their privacy their their processes and the unintended outcomes and consequences of making significant changes to the policies that they provide for us and we also spoke about um the uh just the really significant effort that's needed uh to go through and do such detailed redlining and I think that that's where we ended up
154with our responsibility as Administration to share with the policy committee at their next meeting um what if any digital answers we could find for this that we thought would be suitable and that's kind of where we are now um I think that um from my recollection there was definitely a commitment to provide for to the board the previous policy and the proposed policy and the question now is what Assurance can we give to the board regarding the previous work done on those policies and that's the question that we're trying to solve uh so actually I'm looking at the Roberts rules a motion to table is not debatable so it's called for immediate vote okay so motion to table Mr Burnside foreign yes board member Eckert yes board member Gifford I think he's left we lost
155him board member Mal Espina yes board member telesford no board member valamani no board member Wingfield no board president with letter yes motion passes the requirements at seven how are you going to talk about something that hasn't been figured out yet any additional new business for this evening okay seeing none I'm now going to close new business um with that I'd like to make the following motion the Board of Education will meet in public session on Thursday April 27 2023 at 6 30 PM in the district meeting room 525 Academy Street Maplewood New Jersey immediately following the opening of public session the board will move to go into closed session in the superintendent's office at 525 Academy Street in Maplewood New Jersey as well as using an online video conference platform to discuss Personnel matters
156within the attorney client privilege legal negotiations and other matters that may arise and require discussion to be announced at a later date immediately following the closed session the Board of Education will meet in public session estimated to be 7 30 PM in the district meeting room 525 Academy Street Maple New Jersey in person utilizing an online video conference platform which will include hearing of individuals the community can view the meeting by following the steps which will be listed on the agenda and if there are members of the community who would like to attend the meeting in person please note that masks and social distancing are optional in accordance with the guidance received from the local Doh and the CDC action will be taken may I have a second second all in favor that appears to
157be unanimous um so Mr Burnside I would now like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting on Thursday March 30th at 11 50 PM may I have a second okay all in favor meaning is adjourned thank you everyone enjoy the rest of your evening