Mahwah Board of Education Meeting July 28, 2021

001well mrs barbara is beginning the live streaming of the meeting and bringing in anybody who's participated remotely for all the board members as well as for any members of the public who are going to be speaking this evening uh please use the microphones we are in the conference room tonight not in the high school auditorium the acoustics are a little bit different here so please utilize the microphones bring them close to your mouse when you are ready to speak for members of the public as well uh there is a sign-in sheet for those that are speaking of you and kindly write your name and address on the sheet on the desk near the microphone when you are ready to come up and speak later later members of the public that attend will be asked to

002follow the same procedures all as all other visitors to our schools a little bit all right hold on a second those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website additionally the board meeting will be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting may do so via zoom the webinar id for this meeting is 853-7557-4158 and the required password is 088 169. mrs go here mr cobler here mr da silva here mr denise here mr gallow here miss monaco here dr morty dr park here and mr kuzmarski here adequate notice of agenda of this meeting is provided for the ridgewood news and the record specified at the mall board of education will meet on july 28 2021 in the administrative offices new jersey the copy was filed with the

003township clerk please rise for a salute to the flag mr denise of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands all right we do not have a need for executive session this evening agenda questions please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda as a matter of fairness you were asked to look at your questions to know more than one and your remarks in a little longer than three minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you are here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question please have

004a motion to open the meeting to the public mr desilva secretary ms conoco anyone with agenda questions agenda questions only come to the microphone if not there'll be another section for public comment all right seeing that if i get a motion to close this question it's conoco sent about district okay superintendent's report welcome back to tutorials thank you now first i want to say i'm really excited that this is my first beat meeting as a superintendent thank you very much is that better no no is that better yeah perfect i just wanted to say that i'm excited this is my first meeting uh here in my role as superintendent just wanted to thank the board of education for this opportunity and i'm really excited to serve an amazing community like mamawa along the line of

005the work that's being done this summer this summer has proven to be productive and a successful one thus far we've been hard at work preparing our schools for the new year while connecting with the local agencies creating relationships and providing a wide variety of learning experiences for our students as it pertains to community connections we remain committed to connecting with our community and surrounding districts working together to ensure that we're providing a high quality education for all the following collaborative experiences have either occurred or are scheduled on july 26th we met with our parent advisory council as well as our re-entry committee the different groups we were able to gain feedback from last year and suggestions for the upcoming year we also sent out a stakeholder survey that was distributed to all of our parents

006our teachers and students 6-12 that focused on various aspects of the 21-22 school year we have 1600 responses thus far we will share all of the results with the community the survey will close tomorrow we sent out a reminder today so please remind your neighbor that the survey is out it's closing tomorrow and we will get all of that data disaggregated and shared with our community as it pertains to the new year we wanted to thank the msf we were working with them this summer there are two exciting events for our elementary students on august 31st they're going to be there's going to be an elementary play date at the elementary schools this is an opportunity for our k-3 students to come together and enjoy each other's company before the school year and get to

007know each other again also there is a kindergarten get-together on september the 10th that's an opportunity for all of our new kindergartners to come together on our school playgrounds and just have a great time as a group our new principals are going to be at the k3 level we're going to be reaching out to the community uh to do a meet and greet with the principal and finally we're putting together welcome back walkthrough videos that we're going to be going to each of the buildings at that time we're going to talk about the work that's taking place but also interviewing different staff members or administrators and really try to create an excitement for the school year as it pertains to curriculum and instruction we shared in the spring that we remain committed to provide a

008comprehensive learning experience for our students throughout the year but also in the summer we are able to provide four academic experiences and a number of fitness-based camps for our mawwa community we will share a video recap of these programs at the next board meeting in august i'm happy to report that over 600 students took part in the following programs our summer booster program um in that program it's a four week program our teachers worked on multi-sensory strategies for reading and writing they reviewed math facts and problem solving techniques for our k-8 students weekly theme-based experiences that range from patriotism to nature to wildlife into sports during this time they engaged in various curricular and steam based experiences to strengthen their proficiency in their grade level matter we're proud of the students for maintaining their stamina

009and coming each day with a smile on their face and we give a big thank you to all of our summer staff for our all of our summer staff for all of the programs we also have boot camp the boot camp program was a new addition to our summer program this program opened to all k-6 students we held two two-week sessions each each day the students spent half of their time working on math the other half of their time working on ela the goal of this program was to review major concepts from the previous year in a collaborative and fun setting the students were encouraged to make new friends learn about their peers and have fun working as a team our extended school year program it was a tremendous success this program supported students with

010ieps the students had fun learning creating and exploring topics both at school and in our community the esi program provided reinforcement instruction using multi-sensory techniques for students grades pre-k through 12 our youngest learners explore topics such as the life cycle of frauds butterflies and plants teachers paired literature with extension activities such as planting seeds float and sink water play and hands-on experience about life on the farm our elementary students explore dine stores and how to be a paleontologist math facts vocabulary development and creative writing was reviewed daily the students also participated in cooking like art and study activities our middle school students i'm getting there our middle school and high school students created research papers about endangered animals that they observed at the zoo they learned how to create budget using advanced math skills generated

011a weekly menu and cooked delicious culinary delights we would like to thank the mawa fire department for visiting explore the fire trunks we also like to thank reedus and sonny and tony's and especially the mawwa public library for letting for helping us select books another experience is camp invention this is definitely something that i'm excited to share with all of you this is a brand new program for all of our incoming first through sixth grade students camp invention is a full day experience where students engage in activities that incorporate hands-on exploration and steam projects we have students leading we have teachers leading the students and high school volunteers to help facilitate all the interactive and fun projects and activities with our students camp invention is a program that can help build confidence problem solving power

012and enable our children to make their own creative mark on the world we ran yet again our mawa summer music program that is in full swing students from from every school in our district starting from betsy all the way up to the high school came together each morning to learn from each other make music together some of the learning ranged from piano guitar ukulele and other band instruments for the very first time and some are working on just keeping up their skills to prepare for the school year last but not least is our game time camp that was run by our elementary pe team they put together this first time camp the program was open to all malwa students entering first through sixth grade groups were split up by grade so that students were able

013to socialize and play with their friends at their own grade level each day the groups rotated through four of their favorite games some of the highlights included relay races castle ball bucket challenge wiffle ball and star wars tag there are a number of specific sports camps as well ranging from softball to tennis to track so we're very very proud of the number of offerings that we were able to provide to over 600 students over this summer so that is that is just an update there and mr kazamarski if i can just read something specific to um content covered at previous meetings conversations surrounding equity inclusivity acceptance and respect have taken place at previous board meetings discussions surrounding critical race theory have been in media and have been brought up here at previous board meetings this

014is a separate topic from equity inclusivity and acceptance that we teach in our schools as i stated in previous meetings and what is worth repeating we do not teach critical race theory here in mawa it is important to share information specific to our history our focus and our progress forward equity inclusivity and acceptance are not new to education state mandates have been put in place as early as the spring of 1994 where new jersey governor whitman signed into law the new jersey holocaust education mandate a bill that required the inclusion of instruction on the holocaust and genocide into the elementary and high school curriculum of every public school in every district in the state this focus is specific to issues of bias prejudice bigotry including bullying through the teaching of the holocaust and genocide in

015grades k through 12. the amistad mandate recognized the integral part african-americans have played at every turn in this nation's history the amistad bill which became the law in 2002 calls on new jersey schools to incorporate african-american history into our social studies curriculum in the state enacted the chapter 6 history of persons with disabilities and lgbt persons included in middle school and high school curriculum a board of education shall include instruction on the political economic and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people in an appropriate place in the curriculum of middle school and high school students as part of the district's implementation of the standards most recently chapter 32 bill 4454 beginning this year each school district shall incorporate instruction on diversity and inclusion in an appropriate place in the

016curriculum for students in grades k-12 as part of the district's implementation of the standards the instruction shall highlight and promote diversity including economic diversity equity inclusion tolerance and belonging these mandates describe the scope of what the state requires but is not limited there when we speak about transparency the district showed its commitment to this we invited the entire district including parents teachers community members and students to build our five-year strategic plan called the mawa blueprint during that process we had hundreds of stakeholders share their priorities on what we need to do to ensure that we are developing successful contributors to our ever-changing society among the priorities was the focus on putting learning experiences that allow our students to develop into respectful aware and inclusive citizens this means when sitting in a classroom or out on

017an athletic field one needs to understand that the person sitting next to you no matter color creed sexual orientation or ability deserves your respect statements in our strategic plan include cultivate a learning environment that creates empathetic learners appreciative of our diverse community and communities at large are eager to understand the individual experiences of their peers and recognize and value the human rights of all people think globally about educational impact and how students can use their knowledge beyond the four roles of the classroom rooted in inquiry diverse perspective self-advocacy and civic engagement at its core we want our students to feel valued respected and they have a hope and that they have a home here in malwa this is what we're committed to do and what we will continue to do [Applause] uh yesterday good evening

018everyone a couple things to report on in the business office we are getting ready prepared for our annual audit our auditors are scheduled to be here at the end of august for one week and then coming back the end of september to finish up any misleading items that they may need to attend to at that time also i have an update for players of the board because of the length of time between this meeting and our next one you may see some correspondence for me regarding one particular project that is currently in motion along with the township library uh need to communicate with you in between meetings maybe the necessity of that library paving project encroaching on a portion of the board's property we've been in communication with the township about this they're aware of

019it however the paving schedule of the township may dictate that i reach out to you in between now and this board the next board meeting so i wanted the members of the board to be aware of it we've already researched it the facilities and finance business committee of the board has reviewed the project they support it and you may be hearing from me in between this meeting and the next regarding that that's my report from this event great thank you very much thank you the agenda is correct doctor dennis thank you very much so we have a retirement on this evening's agenda agenda item 18k miss eileen fay miss faye has taught for 15 years as a teacher of business from high school through her work ms faye has instituted our honors accounting 2 class

020with dual enrollment through fairly dickinson university served as advisor to future business leaders of america served as advisor for our hope club which is an acronym for helping our peers every day as well as a member of our core team through her work ms faye has helped relationships with colleagues and students her priority is because of these relationships that miss faye has forged what will make her so very missed in our district we wish for all the best in our time and lastly i just want to give a brief update i'm asking um we've been discussing masking at previous meetings and we know that there is a lot to consider before making a final determination regarding mask wearing for the upcoming school year since our last meeting and most recently i'm sure most of us

021are aware that the american academy of pediatrics and the cdc both shared guidance both organizations recommended universal people are masking for all teachers staff students and visitors to k-12 schools and we know that there are mass mandates through a series of executive orders by the governor and as we know the reason we don't have an answer quite yet is because the guidance is ever changing regularly and we await information particularly from the new jersey department of health as our community is aware we also sent out a survey as dr editorial um just shared to garner apparent feedback reporting mask bearing and um we're all aware that he sent out a follow-up reminder yesterday encouraging the completion of this survey we are at a place where there is not an argument that we haven't heard from

022either side we're receiving a lot of emails um whether it be for a mass being optional for staff and students or math being mandatory for staff and students but as we stated before no decision has been made all reopening information for the upcoming school year will be shared at our august board meeting thank you thank you man thank you very much uh president's report i just have a just a quick thing i know dr de toro uh mentioned all the things that are going on this summer i i've heard from a lot of parents whose children have been involved in just about every one of those things you mentioned uh including my own in the camp convention which has been a just a great week um absolutely sorry about that um but i just wanted

023to say uh it's great to see all the things going on um the fitness camp run by rpe teachers has been has been wonderful i've heard nothing but great things about it um it definitely uh kind of felt uh filled the void than where the township kind of fell short and have a wreck sorry about that but just between that and then seeing everything going on with the captain's practices you see coming back marching band looks like somewhat of a normal summer we have a community corner which i know leslie looks forward to every meeting july's disability pride month it's set aside to recognize those with disabilities that made a contribution to our communities tonight as soon as the sun goes down the township is hosting their movie night at commodore perry i think they're

024showing tom and jerry [Music] on august 21st the township is also hosting their inaugural cornhole tournament uh at comma repair at noon uh you can register i think you can find information on the website on the township's website as well as on facebook uh there is a parent academy coming up on september 14th you can find information uh through the mma as well as on the district website you can register online it's uh regarding vaping and um timothy shoemaker is the presenter uh today's also that and dennis likes this part today is also national milk chocolate day this is a good one first chocolate bar was created by swiss chocolatier daniel daniel peter with henry nestle the founder of nestle so happy national milk chocolate day uh that's all i got wow thank you very

025much anyone else dr murphy uh we've learned so much from you on behalf of instruction and curriculum i just wanted to report that the committee um which is myself mr coughlin miss saccone mr gallo met with dr bobino today to sort of uh meet and greet get to know each other and to start talking about instruction curriculum for the upcoming year um dr detour also joined us briefly and i think we're looking forward to a very productive and collaborative year and we look forward to working with dr vivi now i also just wanted to say on behalf of instruction curriculum that we're very appreciative of your statement dr victor and we also support looking at equity and inclusion and making sure that all kids feel included and welcomed in this district so thank you thank

026you very much any other board committee reports all right board member remarks official comments or on reports or other non-agenda items mr cowan so this morning i want to thank dr vivino for allowing linda zaccone and i to make a visit to the camp invention program over jk dara samuels who's running the program is a dynamo and the students and the high school students who are doing the volunteer work over there are doing a remarkable program and i think we have 115 students involved in the program this year it's a first year i think from our initial experience there's much hope to do it again next year and to expand it but unfortunately when lyndon and i were there we were right after a break but we still saw the duck chalk which was a

027experiment in a trajectory and math and then we also saw some electric vehicles going down the hallway and there wasn't a kid who didn't have a smile on their face and it was a great experience and it was great it was great to see the high school students involved with the younger students you can tell the younger students just loved having them there thank you any other board members okay seeing them on to old business uh can i get a motion to approve the minutes of the june 30th uh telephone public meeting ms conoco seconded by dr markey leader mr mr kaplan yes mr de silva yes mr denise yes mr gallo yes miss conaco yes dr morty yes dr park yes and mr kizmarski yes all right new business we have resolutions 17 a

028through s please get a motion um second by mrs saccone mrs cohen yes mr coplan yes and all but i'm abstaining on 17n thank you mr desilva yes mr denise yes mr gallow yes except i am i'm standing on 17 g conoco yes dr morphy yes dr park yes and mr kuzmarski yes 18 new business personnel we have resolutions a through bd so please get a motion to approve mr denise seconded by dr morty mr cone yes mr kaplan yes and thank you to all the volunteers for the band program mr de silva yes mr denise yes mr gallow yes miss congo yes dr morty yes dr park yes and mr kazmarsky uh also i'd like to just thank our volunteers as well as wish all of the coaches good luck in this coming year

029all right public questions or comments other participation at board meetings is an accordance with bylaw 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make comment on educational issues or school matters of community interest as a matter of fairness you are asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks are no longer than three minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you are here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes um i see a whole bunch of people here tonight before we go i just want to make this quick announcement people may speak at the microphone and only at the microphone

030if not you will not be recognized answered and perhaps asked the lead i also ask that you'd be respectful for anyone asking for speaking at the microphone and we're all here for a moment but please get a motion to open the meeting to the public mr vasilva second [Music] third street malla i just have a few things i would like to comment on um the first is the issue of masking and as parents we all care about the safety and well-being of our children as well as everyone else's children so if clinical trials or data cannot be produced it shows that there is a clear and present danger to or from our children meaning that there is a risk of them contracting and spreading the virus to family members teachers or other people then the

031correct and logical answer has to be a resounding no to masking now there is a very divisive issue going on of vaccinated versus unvaccinated people it's not a coincidence and by the way unvaccinated people have made a very personal medical decision to not accept an experimental gene therapy into our bodies and we have been unfairly demonized and painted as selfish and ignorant of the so-called science so if you follow the science and took the jab but now you're being told that you could still contract covid and at any given moment you have to resume masking in order to protect yourself would you have made the decision to be injected with an experimental gene therapy in the first place so looking at all of these things collectively it becomes a clear and logical choice why my

032family and i choose to remain unvaccinated and my final comment is on another possibly even more divisive issue and that's the issue of diversity equity and inclusion just like everything else in life change always involves giving up one thing in order to embrace something else so regarding the diversity agenda what is it that we are giving up maybe diversity equity and inclusion is the reason that students attending higher institutions are now less tolerant than ever before or maybe that those of us who hold traditional views on marriage and other issues are simply dismissed as bigoted or homophobic or that the diversity movement confuses rejection of personal views with rejection of people in particular which shuts down differing opinions healthy debates learning from one another and mutual respect among people so for those reasons among many

033others diversity inclusivity and equity has no place in the academic curriculum and should be a personal discussion between parents and their children the only topics that teachers should be presenting to our children are the ones that we the taxpayers say they should be presenting to our children reading writing and arithmetic not sex ed socialism and racism thank [Applause] you hi everyone this is janine janssen i live at 129 east lofort i am an inclusion and diversity director at a large pharmaceutical company and i have been actively working with many of you on the efforts around inclusion and diversity that are supportive of the strategic plan and i urge you to stay the course and i am delighted to share that the active conversations that i have been having with all of you have been very

034supportive of people of color of women and of the lgbt conversation when i think of the lgbt conversation there is a serious threat to the social emotional well-being of our children they are more likely to commit contemplate suicide at least three times the rate of other youth they are five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to other and 40 percent of transgender adults have reported a suicide attempt and 92 of individuals reported suicide attempts before the age of 25. i understand that this is a very serious issue around suicide and when i think of even one child being put at risk in the balance of education it's even more important that we have an inclusive open conversation the mandates that dr katora has mentioned around the amistad and the other curriculum pieces are

035of the utmost importance so that all of our children are welcome so people of every difference are welcome when we have diverse individuals in a room we produce better results at 36 we have a real wage gap when it comes to women and the amount of women who have left the workforce at 82 cents of the dollar when we think about that how do we prepare our children how do we prepare them to navigate a diverse workplace and have them be successful when our children are successful when every child is successful entering the workforce in the school and when our student our teachers are encouraged that professional development around these issues and the curriculum advances with the efforts of dr bovina dr detorah that is where we will see those returns come back to all

036of us so i urge you to stay the course to support the strategic plan i actively participate in the diversity committee and parent committee and these structures have given me insights into the different ways you are evaluating the curriculum and i am thankful for that and i urge us that continues those conversations i'll leave you with this as we continue to meet each other where we are and we evolve if we are not evolving you're not creating a true environment of inclusion one person not being included one student that has a huge impact on everyone on students that are diverse or not and for every child we're excluding we're putting up barriers to their success they're the economic recovery and that's when we're not being inclusive if we're not supporting everyone's fullest potential i urge

037you all to continue to be allies to actively listen engage and support all of our students at every single level it is of the utmost importance thank you [Applause] hi everybody good evening my name is patricia barcella one baby bridge road so i just want to start off by saying a few words in support of the board's increased focus on diversity equity and inclusion as part of the strategic plan as an experienced corporate learning professional with a master's degree in educational psychology and a parent of three children in the elementary and middle schools i like many others and firmly invested in the quality of our children's education and i find it refreshing that the board like so many other school districts in bergen county and across the nation has made this an imperative that will

038qualitatively improve the student experience for all children in malwa while there is already a focus on these matters within the mahwah schools this increased effort goes a long way to validating the importance of acknowledging the uniqueness of each child in our district and valuing their perspectives and experiences by creating a community of tolerance and respect so i really support the work that you all are doing while the schools can never perform the role of parents in this regard the role of educators cannot be undervalued or understated studies have shown that outside of the home schools play a vital role in shaping our children's minds and impacting lives instilling a code of conduct that emphasizes respect and tolerance for all is a critical component of students educational experience teachers are there not only to deliver classroom

039instruction but to do so in a way that helps students learn that encourages them to think critically that inspires them to ask questions and builds their confidence resilience and self-esteem diversity equity and inclusion is a fundamental aspect of this holistic approach to building these strengths when people hear the term diversity and inclusion a lot of images and concepts come to mind people think about the things they can see like skin color hair texture facial features religious affiliation and even one's ability or lack thereof what oftentimes goes unspoken is the hidden diversity that you may only find out about after you've learned about a person's background and it's upon those things that you find commonalities so it could be things like personality type social habits family status socioeconomic status and other dimensions of identity so this

040concept of dei is really all about accepting and promoting people's visible and invisible differences in the broadest sense it's about celebrating those traits which make us unique while cultivating harmony and respect for all people i just want to close by saying that we opened the session here today with the pledge of allegiance and i couldn't help but stop and think about those words we are one malwa we are one nation under god indivisible we all have a pledge to to fight for unity and justice for all and let's all remember that no matter what side of the road you know we we may sit on that the end goal is that we want all of our children to have rich and impactful educational experiences here in malwa thank you allison theodora one hour now please

041i don't know where this conversation's become and people are coming in with red things mine is more of a question because we want to talk about diversity i sat in on those meetings we sat at the table and i think last board of ed meeting a lot of us were shocked when we heard that all of these things in the curriculum were coming from that meeting because i sat there and i know other people that were in the audience that night sat there and we felt the issues on the table were not what then you guys presented as the diversity equity and inclusion curriculum so from a parent's perspective i just want to know what exactly the curriculum is i think as a parent we have a right to know we're not saying our children

042shouldn't be exposed to things we're saying we should have control over what our children are exposed to and when we speak about diversity you know i've served on hsos i volunteered in schools for many years my son's now entering high school so you know this has been since he was in kindergarten how do we get on these committees because i was never asked to be on a committee about curriculum i know someone mentioned they were asked to be on a curriculum i find when we put together these committees they're hand-picked of like-minded people where's the people that feel differently so that you can have diversity and inclusion about what our views in this town are and what we want for our education for our children thank you um let me start off with the first

043part of your question the first part of your question was that this the strategic plan has significantly changed our curriculum that is not the case so let me let me kind of go backwards before you go forward um in the in the statement that i made we talked about since 1994 there's been an effort to start to embed different opportunities different learning experiences in our curriculum those learning opportunities range from what takes part in morning meaning at the elementary level to what characters are on books what authors we're selecting and just what themes that we're providing there's no diversity curriculum um we spoke about that at the last meeting um confusing because i still didn't get that after i left the last meeting i'm sorry so um let me let me share then we do

044not have a diversity curriculum okay what we have is a focus utilizing our current subject matter it's not a replacement of it's it's in combination with that we're affording our kids in education that number one they're able to see themselves in the book they're able to see themselves as an author of the book and they're able to see their experiences that they live on a daily basis while they're learning there is no specific curriculum it's the experiences that we're providing along the lines of developing curriculum we don't have we don't have committees of outside parents as parents with someone when you finish first mr we don't have somebody we have we don't have people developing our curriculum our curriculum is developed by our administrators and our teachers we run it by our curriculum committee then

045it's put put into practice we have we have talked to a number of different organizations whether it's parent advisory council other different groups and they have made suggestions along the lines of these are the things that we think would benefit our students so i just wanted to provide clarity that there's no curriculum that's specific to this matter okay it's a focus of providing a diverse experience how about getting diversity on those parent advisory councils because i know at one point my husband and i was talking to you and i think mr fair and he was um asked to sit in on some medical advisory council which never came to be because i don't know if you just don't want him because you know what his point of view is on it or you know truly

046that that no longer had a meeting mrs theodoro that was a conversation with i believe dr fitz that i was not a part of um that meeting um along the lines of that that was not a committee that was put together so your your husband was not excluded along the lines of the parent advisory committee i i i can assure you that there are a number of different diverse opinions on that committee some that are pro this is we're doing some things well and and to be honest with you and you're right there's significant value in a different perspective and we appreciate those perspectives so please know that we're not shying away from any opposing perspective because that only makes us stronger so there's there's not intention to we're not picking x person because they

047have a different viewpoint because that really flies in the face of that committee creation we have 3 000 students in our school we have a lot of parents to pick from um it's not intentional to say miss smith is not on that committee so how are they picked how are you making sure that those committees are diverse we ask not only our central office administrators we ask hso members we ask msf members we ask administrators at the school building to pick parents that are not on those committees so there's not just one-size-fits-all if you're the hso president you're in it's if you're if you're a parent in gw that's not an hso president you're in there too there's a lot of people how do you verify that you have diversity on those committees when you're

048picking someone like say okay there's six spots for hso presence and now we're picking six other people how are you managing to make sure it's a diverse committee then i think just just the selection alone of all different groups there to be honest we don't do a survey to parents of what your opinions are and then pick accordingly um so to be quite honest just the diversity of the age groups that are selected the schools that are selected so it's more school and age group not educational um values or i also want to be clear that not everyone who but not every parent who has been a part of our task forces or any of our councils have been completely agreeable we've had parents who have disagreed with us have provided a different perspective and

049has been helpful so it hasn't been a group of like-minded parents in every single committee thank you thank you hi good evening my name is danielle ryan i live at 22 river view terrace in law can i just ask you to lift the microphone um apologies for coming up earlier this is my first meeting thanks come september i will have my eldest child entering the mahwah school system he's attended full-time preschool except for the three months his school was closed during coven anyone with young children in the school setting knows that this is the perfect storm for picking up germs and bringing them home over the years we've had plenty of sick days but that all ended in june 2020 the daycare reopened and masks were not mandatory for students staff wore masks and students

050were given the choice from june 15th 2020 which is when the school reopened until june 15 2021 neither of my children in a daycare setting were sent home for being sick nor did they catch anything not just cobit i'm talking pink eye common colds bronchitis all the things that are in a daycare setting with all the extra precautions of diligent cleaning having the air filtration systems in place an extra washing of the hands by students and staff i would argue that the students were healthier than ever i urge the board to take a much deeper look into the numbers that are out there without being swayed by scary words like outbreak i don't think we can deny the fact that language is being used to manipulate and invoke fear and give up on our freedoms

051an article from north jersey this week stated that bergen county has eight active outbreaks in nursing homes but then they further broke it down to mention that it was 11 residents and 12 staff members so that's 23 infected total people and it's being classified as eight separate outbreaks that's ludicrous to me infection rates among school children is very low when mass requirements were still in effect we could wear a mask and walk 10 feet to a table sit down and dine mask list yet the students of mawa were required that they couldn't wear they couldn't remove their masks for meal breaks i applaud the school system's attempt at keeping everyone safe but entering a second full year possibly masking has a much greater negative effect on the well-being of our children than the virus itself

052staff and students along with their parents should be able to make their own choices given free will teachers and students can be more than welcome to wear masks if they choose but forcing a child especially a young child to wear a mask all day is not in the best interest of these children it was stated via email they mentioned we took the survey that we would not only be going by the cdc guidelines which were updated recently and why i'm here um but that would be also um i'm sorry uh that i wholeheartedly hope that that remains to be the case governor murphy is still stating that he's leaving it up to the districts to decide and please unmask our children have full in school learning our children lost a year of their childhood due

053to a virus that largely does not affect them an innocence was lost and they were forced to hear about world's problems on a scale that isn't suitable for their age it's time to get back to being a kid masculist and playing with friends in a normal way my child's five he's not eligible for the non-fda approved vaccine nor children under the age of 12. so are they to be masked indefinitely not only i'm talking uh my children are all young but going forward with older kids high school kids we live in a world where everybody's just like i am right now on a screen all the time we need to be in person we need to be having those normal relationships again uh so once again i just urge you to really look at all

054the facts new jersey's done a great job with vaccinations we were told we do a good job we can all go back to being normal and and now we're getting we're hitting the reset button or we're on the bird of hitting it thank you for your time alexandra township berkeley township clark township clearview township clinton whole snack fair long frankly real quick just i don't mean to interrupt you just name it for the record uh rachel but i'm not going to give my address since you guys post this on uh youtube and i believe that my right not to disclose my address thank you freehold uh holdum howell jackson lacy little silver marlow medford i mean the list goes on and on i mean i'm well i'm more than happy to read all the towns

055but i have 68 towns here and that's just what i can compile in a short period of time i know there's more that have made masks optional so if you're a parent you want your child to wear masks god bless you amen go for it if you don't those parents have the right to choose that for their child i'm asking you and i'm trying to understand what the hold up is um i understand we had this survey that went out i know you answered some of my questions already about that survey but my question is what do you plan on doing with information from the survey how is this going to be what you base your decision on how much weight does it have the survey was sent out a little two weeks ago or

056last week and we wanted to understand what the the public feeling is on this topic that that's important in our in our thought process of making a decision but it's not the sole indicator of where we're going to go so along the lines of what dr fair said um in the next coming weeks we're going to continue to take a look at what's out there along the lines of what the new jersey department of health is saying and all the other agencies are saying um i can't give you uh the specificity of um it's it's this much way you're that much weak but what i can tell you is you know we want the community to understand that we're we're listening the best that we can we want to want to want to understand what's

057the scope of the people in the community who don't want masks optional or want to be messed because there's two separate sides so that was really the the heart and the purpose of the survey that's why we wrote in the letter and we tried to make it respectful and not something that's going to put people off it is not the sole indicator of where we're going to go but it is important to us okay and then um so mamawa did apply for some government funding or i don't remember what it was called where we're supposed to get some money to help uh with the cleaning and all those other things so it's also my understanding that when you accept that money and i don't know if you've received it or how that works but we

058also are then have to comply with having to wear a mask and um so i just want to know if i'm correct in my understanding i also understood that it to me masks until 2023 um so i was just wondering if you can enlighten me or help me understand this a little better if that is the case and yeah let's think about that did you see any of that guidance with that yet no no what you're referring to was the extra money that we have received from the federal government um it's coming in different forms there's no requirement that says if you accept this you must do this the purpose of the money so far has been to close in the learning gap that has occurred over the last school year is to help improve

059the schools and provide an overall healthier environment for the students and for the staff as well as surprise some other purposes too and as you said addressed some other of the mitigating costs that we've had over the last week but there is no requirement saying that if you accept this money you must do this one particular item it's a general um area that you could use the money in not for a specific purpose okay thank you i appreciate the clarity um that's it thank you very much phil ross one man a road now what we're faced with is a government that has been moving the gold post on us if you remember first it was two weeks and everybody locked down did everything you know matched up gloves everything for two weeks and then it

060just kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed and then they said okay you get the vaccination you're all good so everyone runs out gets a vaccination and now we're being told something different okay uh you know i went and i pulled up some statistics and a lot of stuff is on the cdc website and and also this information is available on peer-reviewed journals uh in 2018 almost 4 100 children were killed in car accidents in 2017-2018 flu season an estimated 600 children i'm talking 0 to 18 years diet from the flu and for the 16 months of covet does anyone know how many children died i mean what one death is is horrible and we know that i'm not don't think this wrong but does anyone know how many children died 397 okay one twice

061that died from pneumonia during the same time period okay so if you look at the 75 million children that we have ages 0 to 18 in this country you have a 0.00053 percent of dying from covet and then during the peak of copen in the 12 to 17 year old the hospitalization hospitalization was point zero zero zero two one percent with zero deaths so if we're putting these mass mandates in place that's a consideration if enforcing a vaccination onto children is something that's being considered who is this for the protection of is this for the protection of the children these statistics these numbers are insignificant in the scope of things and everyone who's taken statistics knows this so uh are these is this information being put out because it's very available and if you want

062it i can give it to you and you can distribute it but i don't think people are are being apprised of this situation and these numbers i mean and if you look at the if you look at the negative effects as far as mental health and how mental health was brought up previously during april to october 2020 now these are increases in mental anxiety hospitalization so forth treatments the age group 5 to 11 was up 25 12 to 17 up 31 these are increases during those periods and 18 to 24 of 25 percent uh i can't attribute it all to mass i'm not going to say that but mass are a contributing factor and so is all the fear porn that's being put out we have to get these numbers out there now has anyone

063has anyone on the board gone in and looked at these numbers has anyone delved into this are you speaking about the numbers of deaths of children i'm speaking to the percentages that were that we had that i mean look at how is this affecting how is this for the protection of children because that's what we're here for right we're here for our kids right okay we're all here for our let me just share with you in terms of the difficulty in terms of making these considerations um turn around can you hear me yes right now let me just speak to you about the many considerations you stated 397 deaths of children in 16 months i understand that if we have one on our watch that's one too many i shared in my statement that we've

064seen the arguments on both sides right and there are valid arguments on both sides we understand that i need to share with you the reason last year we were masked with one there was a mandate and two because one death is one it's too many for us here so so i just want you to understand that's where we're at at this point we also recognize the cdc has shared guidance we understand its guidance we're also awaiting the new jersey department of health because that that is the rule of law for the state and public schools so the reason we haven't made a determination yet is because as you know i think you stated earlier in your statement things have been changing every two weeks right so we're waiting to get the most information that we

065can in order to make an informed decision for our kids that's it okay granted and i did i do want to make sure that i prefaced my statement with one debt is too much but we have to put it into perspective you know we're talking about actuaries look at the fact that the fact that 4 100 children died in car accidents i mean are we going to go and ban people from driving their child to school i mean there's something called actuaries and with the actuaries it's it's an assumed risk you have to assume risk every time you walk out your door and look i'm talking when we're talking about the deaths at a percentage of 0.00053 that's extremely low and and more than double of that of that a number was attributed to pneumonia

066eight or nine children died of pneumonia and you know we're not discussing that we're not discussing these other things so these are the questions that are being raised and i you know i like to see these percentages be addressed and it just seems like nobody's bringing this information to the forefront so that will help you know in order for us to make a a reasonable rational decision anyone else thank you [Applause] hi megan casella i'm a mall resident and i can give you my address privately if you'd like it but again i also don't want to broadcast on youtube i would like to say that i'm not going to go through a whole lot of numbers from asking but just like anything with car accidents kids cancer and the science is always moving so same

067with covid i wouldn't want to put my kid in the same car seat they had in the 80s but i put them in the one they have now and i'll probably look back on it later i'm like oh my god i can't believe i put them in there in that the same thing's happening with coving we're learning more every day and with this delta variant i'm not willing to risk my kids health i don't know yet if they have an underlying condition i don't know about not to mention kids are getting sick without it yes there are numbers that more kids now are getting felt that are getting coveted from the delta um strain and that they are spreading it even vaccinated people can spread it i would still get the vaccine again knowing this

068because just like the flu you have to get it every year yes there are deaths from the flu maybe we need to ask for the flu too i'd be all about that but i'm not willing to risk my case or any other case lies just because the data is not 100 there or the science is still developing i don't know why you would want to air on the side of caution rather than just unmask everybody i love my kids smile i want to see them smile all the time but they don't care if they have to wear a mask and i want them to wear a mask so that wasn't really was up here to talk about but i did want to put my voice in there secondly i would like to talk about the

069diversity and equity um someone up here before mentioned you know teaching what the taxpayers want well i know a lot of taxpayers who want it i know from just certain events that a small group of us and mawa have put together then we have a lot of people who are interested in this just our the mall's first pride event had brought over 500 people out in support on a thursday night when they didn't have to come when they didn't have to support we had people come and and thank us because they didn't think maul would ever do something like this we had students come out and talk and say for the first time they felt welcome in their community that they didn't feel welcome in their schools but now they felt welcome in the community

070because there is you know a lot of bullying and and harassment going on in school underneath the surface that you might you know none of you might see and it's terrifying sending my kid to the school and my kid is not your your typical you know run-of-the-mill kid he presents a bit differently and i am terrified to send him with you know people who think that it's not necessary to teach about this and that you know that he could not feel welcome or that he could be bullied and again that he could commit suicide and if you have parents who are supportive you're less likely which is awesome but if you have a community that's not you're still have a high risk of suicide and that's just in the lgbt community i cannot stress how

071much this town needs us and that we have seen more and more people come out in support of this and i'm really really saddened to see that there's part of our community you know our mawa connects our moral a proud community that do not want to see everybody get the same treatment and want to see equity in our schools or taught in our schools julie conte 88 island road i'm just here to give maybe a different perspective than most people can see i'm lucky enough privileged enough to spend so much time with the most precious gift any of you can have and that's a child and i teach first grade by the way and i just want you to really consider this thing with the masks and at best please don't make them wear them

072at worst please make it optional and i'll tell you why it breaks my heart when i walk into a classroom filled with six-year-olds and all you can see is literally their eyes like this and they're scared eyes because it's scary for them when they look around and they see people in masks and they're looking through a big plexiglass and they're not allowed to get up near each other and they're not allowed to share their things and they can't read your face you can't read their face and they can't read what's going on around them and i please it's horrifying it was tears in my eyes every day no exaggeration and if you could only see it for an hour i guarantee you you would feel the same way and we spoke about seeing their smiles

073at this camp i couldn't see their smiles they couldn't see mine when i thought that they did a good job they could barely hear what i said because of my muscle voice so many times i had to bend down near them and say even though that was against some of the regulations because we're not supposed to be that close bend down near them and say honey i'm so sorry i cannot hear you can you speak louder and then they wouldn't speak because they felt like they were saying something wrong or they were afraid to speak louder so please please just take this into consideration i beg of you at best no masks at worst please make it a choice thank you [Applause] my name is andrew and like others here i i wish to protect

074my privacy i wish to speak on two topics uh the first mask and then the second uh about the inclusion and diversity context i come to you as a uh i come to you as a certified interior structure of a firefighter in the state of new york and the united states the nfpa and osha define a hazardous environment as an oxygen level of 21 right now with every word i say carbon dioxide fills this microclimate in front of my face and very quickly lowers my oxygen level inside where where my mouth and those are down to 19 and a half 18 and a half percent if that were the level of oxygen in this room the school would have a very significant safety issue and would be sued quite heavily when you consider the thought

075of masks consider this consider that we are artificially presenting a low oxygen environment to our children their ability to learn decreases their ability to focus decreases and i know that there are many there are many things to consider in all of this please consider that one regarding the second topic that seems to be very popular today i am in an interracial marriage with a woman who immigrated to this country i feel that i have to tell you this to protect myself from what is bias and fashionable thinking these days and to protect myself from hate of the beliefs that i have the largest single lynching event in this country was perpetrated against italians irish have a long and undocumented history of bias against them and slavery of europeans is ongoing yet these are not parts

076of our history or the discussion it's clear that the topic itself is biased and poorly formed mahwah school system chooses to replace factual instruction in math and science and technology with subjectivity and a new form of bias these are not topics that are these are not topics that can be hinted at or stitched into other curriculum these are topics that must be taken head on and complex that they are complex and they are nuanced so my question to you is why will the milwaukee school system not take a light touch and allow the parents to instruct their children on these sensitive topics how will mawa protect those who are currently viewed as unconsciously biased like myself for instance how will you protect how how you protect those who are now the targets of this new

077shadow of bias and racism thank you i'm great glad you put that up because that's a lot of that and crown and incredible race theory and white shaming okay so what i've shared on a number of occasions and i'll share again today we don't teach that we don't teach anyone that to be to be embarrassed of who they are or embarrassed of history or anything like that so along the lines of how do we teach it we start at the low level with kindergarten we start to talk to each other about what it is to be kind and respectful to each other and that happens at the morning meetings and different things along the lines of hitting it head-on it's all age-appropriate so whether it's the content in in a book that the ela teacher

078or social studies teacher talks about or whether it's an author of choice those are things that are overtly taught into but that's stuff that's ongoing so you're absolutely right as we continue to work in this field as we continue to do it we need to make sure that we're doing it right and we need to train our teachers to make sure that they're enacting this curriculum or this type of curriculum that it's not a curriculum the the type of of content is probably a better word is in taught in school not curriculum i don't understand your question if how is content taught in school not part of the curriculum i didn't say it wasn't part of the curriculum i'm saying what's not you're saying that it's not in the curriculum it's not a standalone curriculum

079and to be quite frank this like as i shared in the past this is something that we've been doing for years so this this new push that's out there has not is not specific to malwa and it's not something that we've been writing curriculum this summer that's going to change where we are and where we're going it's something that we've been doing for years and we're going to continue to do and it's something that along the lines of how do we protect people who are seen as bias we protect everybody and we're going to make sure that everyone feels valued and respected as i said my statement so then it might surprise you then that when my son came to me and uh and asked me after being very upset on the last day of

080school or near the end he said uh daddy what are what are gender barriers and i said where'd you hear that he said uh well our teacher asked us what t-shirts we should make for field day and i raised my hand and i said i think that the boys should have red arrows and the girl should have green arrows and everybody yelled at him and his teacher yelled at him and said now cyrus stop raising gender barriers i see his name being written down i was afraid of so he came out of his classroom and he was completely perplexed so what i'm asking now is how since you won't tell us what we should expect from the school on these topics should i schedule some time with my son to understand what he's being taught

081and then try to give him his parental perspective any situation that took place in the school i'm not aware of but i strongly recommend if something took place in school that made your child uncomfortable i really urge you to reach out to either the teacher the principal to address it so i can't really speak about it and i did it because i'm afraid thank you so much [Applause] jen wood 120 airmont road um i just wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work i am currently a teacher i've been in the classroom for the last 17 years in a new jersey district um and we as teachers need to advocate we as admins we as superintendents we need to advocate for our students masks masking children does not affect them socially or

082emotionally i see it every day i'm in the classroom i see them the children don't see the mask you as adults see it i'm at a camp children come to camp take their masks off they're asked to put them on when they get on the bus they have no problem putting their masks on on the bus coming off and taking it off they come into a bunk to get changed they put their mask on they take it off same in a classroom rules are put in a classroom the children follow the rules teachers model it's not a problem parents are looking at it differently the children themselves in an elementary k-5 building are not having problems with it i've never seen a child cry i've never seen a child have a hard time putting a

083mask on i think that their eyes can show that they're smiling it's important that we make sure that we protect our children the best that we can i commend mama and all their hard work with curriculum a five-year look ahead is amazing i think that we as parents know now where we're going towards we're not asking for answers right now things are not being put in until they're able to be written up more importantly professional development for teachers and all of this equity and inclusion is so important because curriculum is constantly changing teachers need to be informed and i applaud all of you for informing your teachers and working with them so that they know how to deliver the curriculum the appropriate way uh louis lotito 44 only road model new jersey i'm gonna follow

084up i've been in classroom for 22 years at the high school and one of the first meetings i came to and i said that's all i saw where are the eyes kids sad these are high school kids depressed anxiety and you guys have a mic and we asked you to turn it up because still here back there right and that's all i heard in the classroom was charlie brown so at the elementary level yes it is completely different completely different we're trying to teach kids to do what converse how are you conversing with this odd again i'm looking around the room you want to wear a mask go right ahead that's your prerogative if i don't want to work that's great i've seen some of you around town no math but when here it's a

085dog and pony show yeah and i can say that i'm a teacher i can say it i'll say it and look here i'm looking around the paper masks don't work like i told you last time you touched your face god knows how many times yes i'm sorry yes but they don't work when you're touching your face constantly you're better off pulling it down and talking and if you're worried about september what are we doing in september full day seven at the high school 7 20 to 2 17. has that been determined yes yes okay it is if we're concerned in a couple weeks magically it's going to come up this clove it's going to come it's constantly changing here we're packed in like sardines why but we're going to penalize our case no one's six

086feet apart we're about next to each other looking around your mass doesn't work your mass doesn't work if you got back saying great didn't get vaccinated great that's up to you don't care don't care but and i will say this if anything happens to my kids wearing a mask eight hours a day from health i'm coming after you microphone thanks so much hi i'm ann armand 522 mountain road um i've been in the school system since lenape meadows i just graduated this past spring um and i just want to share my support for the for the um diversification of the curriculum and everything as i said i've been in the school system since lanape meadows i'm a proud mexican immigrant i came over here when i was two with my family um since middle school

087i've been receiving comments um about my ethnicity um calling me illegal you know all the basic racist comments that you get when you're an immigrant when you're mexican didn't get much better in high school received the same comment in my history class one time you know student called me racist i went to the bathroom i just didn't feel okay the whole rest of the day um and the teacher didn't do anything i'm pretty sure they heard but they didn't do anything same thing in high school again then later the year and here um received a girl questioning my my legal status with no evidence nothing simply because of my ethnicity making comments towards me asking me like oh if i became legal during blah blah blah presidency just completely inappropriate comments um when you're in

088a predominantly white school you don't understand it really unless you are a student of color or unless you are an lgbtq plus student any group of minority you don't understand to the full extent what it's like not seeing any representation for yourself in the school system none of it it's just it's not the same for your children if they don't struggle with this type of stuff it really doesn't do them any harm to learn someone else's story it does more harm to not teach those children those minority students about their own history their own stories share with them their representation than it does to teach your own child you're white probably cisgender child someone else's story um i just want to say um so many of my lgbtq plus friends i'm glad for them they've

089been able to come out and be who they truly are now but um sadly it's had to come after graduation with fear of bullying and just other harassment comments from other students so yeah i just wanted to share my support for this i really hope any discouraging comments from the adults here don't push back the progress that has been made um this is a step in the right direction i hope like any other little girl in the future whether she's mexican or an immigrant or just any other minority can see herself represented in the future curriculum and just you know feel like she has a place in school that's all and hi i'm kate vivella at armor road first i just have to say those comments were so beautiful i almost sat down because how

090am i gonna follow that um um and before i get started on what i wanted to say i just want to give a public thank you to any of the mawa teachers that might be here or watching it's been a really tough year i have three kids who were in betsy um one will be at jk next year and they all love school um even though you know they were a mask i had to say my kids personally didn't care they sometimes forget to take it off in the car but they love school so much they love their teachers they're doing the camp invention right now and they could not love it more they come home so excited and thrilled so thank you to anyone listening for that um i want to talk about the

091diversity inclusion topic it's really important to me not only as a parent of three young kids i also have a phd in school psychology and i train school psychologists this is something that's really um in the forefront of the field so it's also very important to me i don't really have prepared remarks like some of the more eloquent speakers here but i think that everyone in this room can agree that respect is a very important tenet that we all want our children to learn and we should all remember that we're talking about families of malwa here mall is a diverse town we all want to respect each other respect each other's families and we want children to be able to respect themselves and see themselves in the community so i really want to support the

092diversity and inclusion uh priority that it sounds like you guys are putting forward even today anti-lgbtq slurs are some of the most common tactics of bullying in schools it's no surprise that more than 50 percent of lgbtq kids still report that they don't feel safe in schools which i think is is way too many uh and student victimization obviously has you know really you know poor impact on mental health but also on academics on absenteeism and schools that promote lgbt diversity and inclusion see improvements in all areas not just social emotional factors but also in absenteeism and academics and this is across grade levels and across all different kinds of students that was reported in a 2013 article i believe in the journal of the school of violence uh and again i just like to

093close saying that you know we're we're all talking about respect and i think that some of these issues are really going to help all of our children regardless of their identity or their family's identity uh thanks again [Applause] hi brooke gaslow 552 adirondack court almost all lgbtq students 98.8 percent heard gay used in a negative way at school 75.6 heard these remarks frequently or often and 91.8 percent reported they felt distressed because of this language the vast majority of lgbtq students 86.3 experienced harassment or assault based on personal characteristics including sexual orientation gender expression gender actual or perceived religion actual or perceived race and ethnicity an actual or perceived disability only 19.4 percent of lgbtq students were taught positive representations of lgbtq people history or events in their schools 17 had been taught negative content

094about lgbtq topics students who feel safe and supported at school have better educational outcomes lgbtq students who have lgbtq related school resources report better school experiences and academic success unfortunately all too many schools fail to provide these critical resources compared to students in school without an lgbtq inclusive curriculum lgbtq students in schools within lgbtq inclusive curriculum were less likely to hear negative words views toward them and feel unsafe in school and this came from glsen's 2019 national schools climate survey according to the panorama equity and inclusion survey students who got better grades also have more positive experiences of diversity inclusion in schools students experiences of race and culture at school depend on their grade level this is seen as going down as grades increase however we should continue to increase teachings because learning doesn't stop

095one of my children has seen racism against a friend in our town this is the stuff of the time of segregation not mawa 2021. we do need to teach our children that everyone is equal regardless of race or sexual orientation for those parents who want it taught at home what are you so afraid of as far as i know from attending board of ed meetings fairly consistently for the past eight years there really hasn't been too much trouble with the curriculum why with this curriculum the only possible reason you don't want your children to learn about this is because you don't agree with the notion of equality for all our schools are not going to teach things beyond the grade level of the children they are teaching this is merely meant to make all children

096more accepting of others words or words and actions or actions our children learn from the adults who teach them the definition of public is in part the community that is all the people of malwa and as far as masking goes as a speech therapist in the schools you would think masking is like the worst thing for our job which it really is however it's something that i'm not willing to forego and my students are not bothered by it at all so yes really but they're not bothered by it [Applause] for those that really want their mouth scenes they come in with clear masks so you can see their facial expression they do make those um and also as a parent of a child who had covered the children's version um and would doesn't is afraid

097of being unmasked i would want i would hope other people would understand that the children do need to be masked because it does spread [Applause] any folks my name is duke colts i live on third street my question for you what is the specific training that our mama teachers get regarding diversity equity inclusion thank you more trainings formal training for diversity has yet to begin the work along the lines of and that's something that we're looking into right now to see what's appropriate for what's to come along the lines of of the work that's in the curriculum we've already talked about what that was the thing with that entail but alumni is a formal district by training we have not had formal district tax free so there has been no diversity equity inclusion for any

098of our miles or malwa educators the only training that the model educators have taken are self-selected trainings we have not brought in a diversity trainer for our district so nothing last year or the previous years all while you've had these policies in effect correct that's correct okay thank you very much um just one more comment too you know for the most part i think everybody here is for you know the history of the holocaust you know african-american lgbtq we don't want to see anybody harassed or hurt but one of the problems we have is with the lack of transparency okay because i mean you guys tell us it's in the mandate then it's in the curriculum we asked for content he said there is no content it's as appropriate by grade level you know usually

099we can ask you for something like hey what's going to be an esl it's going to be a map this year and you can give us something concrete real content and the lack of transparency on what it is is the real crux of the issue there's nobody here i i don't think there's a soul in this room that wants to see any kid hurt there's not a soul in this room that wants to see a kid hurt in any way okay we want people to be equal we're living with people the problem is the transparency and then when you say you're not doing things and then our kids come home or we see it on the computer right next to us that these things are coming in we call up and they're dismissed oh that

100wasn't supposed to happen oh that was an after-school activity wasn't supposed to happen and over and over again these happen maybe it's because we're actually paying attention now you know but it's the lack of transparency that we have a problem with okay i just want to make sure that's loud and clear because everybody's living we want you guys do so much phenomenal stuff as a school i mean it's it's fantastic but when you have an important topic that people care about whatever it is and you you lack that transparency that's when people are going to get upset and now people are getting labeled different things and this is like a bad situation man you know and we're just trying to say we want you to be more forthcoming with us about it and there are

101other people who have inquired with you too at higher levels and you haven't been able to give them an answer either and you know that's all we're looking for so please next time if you could present us a little bit more with what trainings and some of the content thank you [Applause] bottom line is transparency and i appreciate bringing it up because i want to speak directly to that being that we have you know 13 grade levels here in the school and we have a number here can you hear me out along the lines of the work that we have in school and the curriculum we have in place it runs across a large number of grade levels and a large number of subject areas there's nothing to hide there's nothing to hold back specific

102to our curriculum if anyone would like to know more about our curriculum i strongly recommend that you go to the building level or the supervisor where your student goes and they can go through the different experiences that your child will take on it's very difficult to make a presentation for an entire district on the scope of the work that's being done so as i shared earlier today the work happens in a number of different subject areas and obviously spans all the grades so a presentation would not do it any justice so the specificity you're looking for which i understand i strongly encourage you to go to the building level and they can talk you through where your child is and the experiences that they're going to have all right all my name is ari i'm

103a bergen county concerned resident i reside in franklin lakes there's uh too much to talk that in three minutes but i would like to say this this country is the most diverse country in the world believe it or not people immigrated to here from every place on the surface of the earth there is a reason why there's no little new york in odessa or little chicago in milano or little los angeles in seoul there's a reason why there's no saint louis in guadalajara in new mexico or in israel foreign when you teach that diversity it has its merit but it focuses on what we are and tagging us by definition that's a very dangerous thing to do it is beautiful but what's more beautiful and what you're here for is board of education is to

104show the diversity of mind where we're all different and we all are allowed to our mind and where two people speak together and meet together and share ideas together that's where love shows that your innovation shows that's where real things happen and matter and when one thought exists there's no diversity there that's a recipe for disaster anywhere you can look at the close history far history or just look to decide on some other nations having said that i would also like to say that when we teach physics nobody cares that isaac newton was gay or not we care about that every action has an equal and similar reaction and we don't care that einstein was jewish or that whoever was whoever right it doesn't matter what matters is what they brought to us their teaching

105their innovations and their ideas that's education and that's your job not indoctrination thank you very much hello i'm trisha dubois i'm a parent of two fifth graders i live on whittier court i had a prepared sheet to speak to you about but really what i want to do is thank each one of you every board member every administrator and every teacher my children are entering fifth grade they have had nothing but an excellent education whether it be academics social emotional physical they have done well they did great with the system you set up they wear their masks if they take their masks out outside that's great but i want you to understand that it is appreciated by most of us i don't ever question anything that you teach my children if i disagree with it

106i go home and i talk to them about it that is the appropriate thing to do and i say that as a school psychologist i am also the person who investigates bullying and i am the one who works with children going to hospitals so thank you all for all that you do and i trust everything that you have done and will do for next year thank you okay with that uh thank you