Mahwah Board of Education Meeting June 16, 2021

001great thank you so much this meeting of the mall board of education is open to members of the public to be physically present members of the public that can attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools 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 eight two five eight seven one one two seven one zero and the required password is seven four seven 74788 to allow for adequate distancing the meeting location has been changed to the mawa high school auditorium 50 ridge road mr bleecker roll call please mrs cohen coplin mr da silva mr

002denise mr gallo here miss conaco here dr morty dr park and mr kazmarski here adequate notice of the agenda of this meeting is provided to the ridgewood news and the records specifying that the mile board of education will meet on june 16th 2021 in the mau high school auditorium 50 ridge road maui new jersey a copy was filed with the township clerk you'd all please rise for a salute to the flag dr morathy if you could lead us pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we will be moving the executive session to the end of the meeting as there's nothing to act upon in this agenda so with that dr fitz

003do you have a report for us yes i do have a report i'm very pleased to report that our schools are in the closing down mode they're arranging for the end of the year school activities they include the following promotional activities award ceremonies graduation activities and other events at each school but i want to report tonight on a wonderful and a never to be forgotten activity that i had a chance to participate in and it was the senior prom the staff arranged for this venue to be on the football field with a beautiful white tent and literally a marble dancing floor the background of the quiet mountain surrounded us and gave us a magnificent view but you could not realize the beauty of this setting until you saw the children on the dance floor and

004the quieting and the going down of yonder's son that damned the light so well for the kids to have an enjoyable afternoon so i want to pause a moment to express real appreciation to the principal and to the staff with the imagination the creativity to design an event that thought about children giving them the opportunity to engage in activities that they had been denied for almost 24 months and they had a chance to come together and have a wonderful closing out of the school year that's my report thank you so much all right mr bleaker okay uh thank you very much i'm going to begin my report as i have the last few meetings with just highlighting a couple of asterisks and additions that were added to the agenda after it was posted on our

005website earlier this week all of the additions are within the section 18 of the agenda the first of which is 18 m also 18 o and p these are some adjustments that have been made to the extended school year program the booster program and the self-contained summer program that happened over the year these are adjustments from the last appointment at our last meeting been an appointment as well item 18 t on the agenda a modification addition to the booster program formerly title 1 summer program for paraprofessionals identification of the paraprofessional rate of pay for that program and the last asterisk in addition to the agenda is with item 18k additional appointments and changes that were made for the 21-22 school year in addition to those asterisks a few other comments for this evening personnel items

006agenda items 18 a and b i want to thank miss cheryl ambrose and miss nicole solomon for their work in the business office i wish them well in their future endeavors i especially congratulate cheryl on furthering her career in her appointment as this business administrator in another district congratulations cheryl awesome [Applause] with that i also wanted to welcome agenda item 18 i nicole sweeney to the business office i also wanted to give the board an update at our april board of education meeting we approved the auctioning off of some surplus inventory through the gov deals auction website to date we have auctioned off approximately 14 items uh bring 24 000 back into the district through that program thank you very much that's my report tonight thank you very much mr fair we uh yes so

007my report has two parts so the first part um really important part we are honoring uh this school year's retirees uh we have six who are here this evening um of the 11 who are who are actually retiring so can we have the retirees stand up in your places yes mary it's all part of it she rolled her eyes uh thank you so tonight we honor our 11 retirees who after the close of this school year will be on a new unique journey of their very own we thank each of you for your service some of your work we know on the everyday is not highlighted and honored so overtly as it is tonight if you are a teacher you enlighten students with new information in your respective content area if you are a paraprofessional

008you assisted in the delivery of that instruction if you are a school counselor you served as an advocate for children if you are secretary you assisted in a critical way with the management of school operations what is not so obviously celebrated on the everyday may be what you have done beyond your formal job responsibilities it's the affirmation you've given to our students through your comments of support and inherent hard work it's the passing hello and purposeful connection you have had with students know that you may very well have been the reason a student felt worthy and able because of your interaction when they may have not initially felt that way about themselves and for that reason we applaud you we put together this brief video to serve as a memento that despite this school year

009being unprecedented or so very different or the hardest we've ever endured this is a tradition celebrating your service to this district that is too important to us to be deterred by the obstacles that we have faced this year [Music] suzanne it is with great pleasure that i wish you all the happiness in your retirement i hope that you are enjoying this time as you embark on this next journey and please know that you will always have a home here at lenovo suzanne it was truly an honor to have worked with you for four years you were a joy an inspiration and a motivator to all of our students i hope you are enjoying your time at home i hope you're spending some time with barbara sitting back having drinks and reading a good book i

010wish you all the best in your future [Music] hello everyone my name is billy bowie i'm the principal here at joyce gilmer school good evening i'm ashley adams and i'm the assistant principal at jk we truly are a family here at jk so when one of our family members move on we feel it in every way this year we have more very special people moving on to new adventures pepe gardner we already miss your sense of humor we hope you've enjoyed your time that you've gotten to spend with your new grandchild and we thank you for all that you have done over the years while at jk kathy depotto we appreciate your laugh and the energy you brought to our main office it made you come to work that much better every day and we

011wish you well i can't wait to be invited down to the shore me too jackie patty thank you for your dedication to jk i'll miss our morning check-ins and talks and you will always have a special place here at jk especially in the library we hope you get time to enjoy your new grandbabies and find some time to relax and last but certainly not least mary scaleri we can't say enough about all you've done to support the students and staff of mawa your advocacy for fair professionals and your commitment to your students day in and day out it's what makes you special we're going to miss your smile and we'll miss the way you comforted us every single day thank you all for everything you've given us collectively you have all dedicated 70 years of

012service to the students and families of mawwa thank you for your commitment to the children you have served and thank you for your friendship and the love you have shown to your students and colleagues over the years you will be missed bye good luck grandma poe ridge middle school is losing three integral parts of our collective team this year um beth marin debbie de socio and sue crachman sue's already started her retirement and we wish her so much joy and so much happiness as she begins that journey with her husband you've been inspiring our students in reading and helping mrs matulovich out so much over the past 26 years and we are just so grateful for your time and for your service [Music] the library was definitely your happy place uh brought together your love

013of children your love of books um i think it's also fair to say in addition to helping students find a great book you also help staff members uh staff members were always around your desks popping in during their work day to talk about work talk about family or maybe something that they were going through we are really going to miss you beth i don't even know what to say you have been my partner in so many ways over the past 10 years and i'm gonna miss you so much thank you for all you've done for our school our students our teachers me and your colleagues you have truly been a mentor to so many and a guide for so many students and you will be greatly missed and i wish you well in all your

014travels with ken [Music] you know you are a rock star i tell you that all of the time you've helped me out tremendously in my transition to the ridge you've been the rock for our school counseling department you've also been the rock for many of our students one thing that i always appreciated about you beth was that you remained open to new ideas uh even if you wanted to kick me sometimes uh and sometimes you did kick me um but but if if it could help a child you are always there to jump in and figure out how to pull it off debbie same thing i i really don't know what to say you are the definition of having coverage for me you've been here since the day i started you've done so much for

015our school you keep us in line on a daily basis i don't know how we're going to manage without you i really don't but i wish you so much peace and relaxation and happiness in your retirement you have more than earned it please enjoy your family and your grandchildren and i know we will be seeing you still in the future debbie it's been my honor and privilege to be your partner um all of rampo ridge middle school was processed across your desk at some point whether with substitutes covering all of our classes our budget uh welcoming our new staff members et cetera the list goes on and on you were involved in everything you were a leader of ramaco ridge middle school you were the ultimate professional uh and i am very much going to

016miss you love you all thank you for all you've done for our school we will miss you come back and visit [Music] to our mhs retirees we are so proud of you so excited what we wish you the absolute best in everything that is to come enjoy to mike zandanella thank you for your years of dedicated service to all populations within this building and the science department to laura kandoff thank you for your service for many many years to all students in our social studies department and through interact and to laurie vogt thank you for your dedication as a paraprofessional and in the end of your career as our attendance clerk at law high school we wish all of you health happiness and peace [Music] congratulations suzanne i was i was i cried when you

017were there so um thank you for that uh so we'd like to you know call up each of our six retirees who are uh here this evening we'll start with our joyce comber school jackie patty we have something to to give to you thank you do you have any final do you have any words for us too nervous all right thank you next we have mary celery [Applause] yes this is the apple yes do you have anything to share i know you have something to share with the with with the community no i would love that mary are you sure yeah you've the microphone um i want to thank everybody for this and for the 19 years that i've served in this district um it's been a an honor and a pleasure to have worked

018with all the children all the faculty the administrators here um i have grown so much as a person when i first started i never knew what this trajectory would be but this is one of the finest places that anybody could work and i thank all of you for that opportunity as a paraprofessional it's a kind of a tenuous job you're not sure sometimes where you fit in the mix but um let me just say that my ability to work with the teachers and learn from them and understand how important it is to be a team player in this adventure of education is really um an amazing amazing gift so i do thank you all thank you kyle thank you cheryl thank you mike and lisa and and i can't thank mr fair more than he

019has been a champion of all paraprofessionals and i really really have been honored to work with all of you um and where's billy and ashley wherever you are for your kind words i am very very honored and i appreciate this my apple thank you thank you uh debbie de socio from rappo ridge [Laughter] thank you everyone it's been an honor and a privilege to be in the district ramapo ridge has been my family for a long time we've laughed together we've cried together we've gotten to know each other we've been through good times we've been through bad times but we always stood together as a group and there isn't another group that i wouldn't want to stand with and i wouldn't want to stand next to so i appreciate them i love them all thank

020you for giving me the opportunity to work with them sue craftsman who's also from the ridge she was already started in her retirement there you go thank you a few words as you said i've already started right is this one it should be on okay so i already did start i left a little bit early due to certain personal reasons um i'm i was there 30 years and nine months so it's a long career and i miss my people i miss my books i worry about my library but um it's i got a lot of happy memories so i thank everybody it's been wonderful thank you soon beth maron school counselor from the ridge and who also has spent an entire career also at the high school as a special education teacher thank you um

021i have been so lucky here at my wife had two wonderful families the high school where i started um mike and i've been more than so many years together um teaching the kids at the high school and it was such a wonderful time for me but then mawa allowed me to grow and i got to go down to the ridge and find another family and i love them and it's been a wonderful wonderful ride here um helping the children in wawa have meant the world to me and i will miss everything about it but i'm ready and it's going to be another great journey so thank you all thank you thank you and last but certainly not least mike zandanella the legend from wawa high school [Laughter] so 1988 moment this year my fiance and

022i bought our house shortly after got married and a month or two later i started teaching here 1988. five decades spent 33 years 13 070 trips up and down route 202. i did them out thank you uh thank you retirees um that's it for my my first report thank you so much thank you we'll be back to you soon okay um president's report i also just would like to uh congratulate all the retirees um i know some of you from my time here so uh good luck to you all and god bless a couple quick items before we get to a nice presentation um i just would like to say congratulations to our varsity softball and baseball team on their state sectional titles while the the games after that didn't go as planned um it

023was a great weekend especially when the girls beat ramsay which is always a great weekend they definitely deserve just a great congratulations they were exciting games and they were fun to watch um and they had a great season so good for them um i would like to just uh jump off of dr fitz and said the the kudos to john pascal and his staff and the committee for putting on what looked like an amazing prom um you know i'm glad they had a prom but to have a prom on our football field just must be the coolest thing ever at least from my perspective but it looks like they had a lot of fun it was really elegantly done but good job so just it was really awesome to see um so we're here we

024have uh some special guests here tonight hi kids so these uh these kids are from jk they participate in the new jersey state perennial math tournament they were led by mass specialists from jk and maureen schaffner and if you could uh come up and we have some some presentations for them and and whatnot you grab a microphone i think and we can announce them and you can kind of explain kind of a little bit what they did yeah just for you yeah grab that mic uh so our class um dr bowie encouraged us to participate in the perennial math competition and our teams did very well our fifth grade team was first place in the national competition so i'd like to call them up we have rishi desai ayan khatib they were the first place

025teams and dr bowie that big trophy is for them so that is for you why don't you all hold it and if your parents can get a picture we also had oh [Laughter] quick all right we also had some of our fourth grade students also competed in the national math competition and our teams came in sixth place and second place and i'm very proud to say that jay ballara was first place in the individual competition and the rest of our team we have timothy liu lou and nandanee shah they were our second place team and then our fifth place we have karshnama and we have robert paulie [Applause] [Laughter] there we go [Applause] all right thank you so much absolutely absolutely i just want to say thank you everyone for supporting but a big round

026of applause should go to ms schaffner so these students are going to set the stage for what mawwa can do you're going to see them really fly but good students have great teachers behind them so it's really important to recognize them so thank you mrs shaffner for your commitment and passion to your kids great thank you so much um that is my report so we're going to go back to mr fair sure presentation do we want to um see if these fine children wanna you can go if you'd like um i don't know and all right in our retirement of your homework and whatnot please enjoy your faculty as well please thank you for being here thank you for allowing us to celebrate you thank you thank you have a great night great job thank

027you all right guys hey thanks mike [Laughter] can i go can i go thank you thank you have a great night that's joyce kilmer man getting it done mike if you're going to use that uh if you're going to use that one just make sure it's on i'm actually going to do squat too okay all right we're going to go uh just a touch out of order before agenda questions um we are going to send it back to uh mr fair and dr tuttoro for a quick presentation um which is pertinent to agenda questions anyway so you guys go right ahead sure all right so this evening we're going to be uh presenting on uh the lea plan for safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of service so a copy of this plan is

028found on our website it's available to the board of ed members at your your seats we also have uh copies outside next to the agenda if you don't have one it is available for you so before beginning the presentation we felt it was best to really speak to how far we've come right um when we first started the school year we didn't know when school would be able to look like this again what's great is we believe that we have turned a corner with regards to the pandemic so on the right we have classes being conducted outside at betsy ross school we have field day or game day at gw in the center here and as we all know since we communicated it to the community via a letter home we also piloted a lunch

029in our school district on the left-hand side we have lenape meadows students so what we've been able to do is follow the governor's guidelines or orders in terms of relieving students of masks while outdoors or when there is excessive heat so we've been able to take advantage of of that toward towards the tail end of the school year um as uh mr fair spoke about there's a lot of exciting things happening across the district and these are just some of the many things that each of the schools have created for these special moments for the students we know it's been a very challenging year for all and to have just that little break or that little moment with their classmates is really really special some of those breaks include ramapo ridges on the left-hand side

030they had spirit week some of the themes that they had were like superhero day or camouflage day and walking through the halls to see the kids excited to see their teachers dressed up or their their peers dressed up was just a really special moment on the right this is one of the many performances that took place this year i know that the high school just finished out a number of concerts and and other performances to play this is the ramapo ridge uh play um so this is something that we we greatly greatly appreciate um mrs uh miss walter and miss dorak for putting that together for the kids a number of parents reach out to saying how special it was during this difficult time to put on that special moment this this is uh sorry

031we're missing slides so um this is mawa high school who um uh mr kuzmarski has already mentioned uh has had a an epic prom um one student said it was the best prom ever it was also their only prom attended but uh it also was perfect weather um we've had our baseball and softball teams uh becoming state sectional champions which is which is pretty awesome also so as we transition into um looking at where we are currently um and looking forward to september um the lea plan for safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services served almost as a statement of assurance that the school district will open and we will follow protocols set forth by the njdoe and the new new jersey department of health this plan is due to the new jersey

032department of education by june 24th so school districts were given a three-week timeline to complete this plan and we've been able to do that obviously it will be adjusted based on input this plan essentially delineates practices and procedures that we have already been acting since september 2020 when we opened for this school year as we have shared in an email to the community yesterday this plan is not our whole detailed re-entry plan for the september over the summer we expect to be provided with additional mandates that will allow for us to adjust our protocols as is required all that information will be shared with the community in august i just want to reiterate what mr fair just said i think there's been a lot of confusion around this plan um obviously the first that people

033think is that this is a plan for return so this is our last and final i just want to repeat that this is not our last and final this is an obligation that we had to put forth understanding our current conditions obviously those conditions hopefully if if it continues the way it is we'll be continued to be flexed and with those adjustments we are going to make sure that we're making alterations to our plan as we have done thus far specifically with masking specifically with eating and all the things in between so please understand for the people who are here and the people who are at home our goal is to get back to normalcy as quickly as possible we're very very proud of the things that we've done so far but we know that

034there's still work to be done that being said it is fantastic to see our kids outside with no masks it is fantastic to see the smile on their faces and we're very excited for the day that that will take place in the school and and we're looking forward to that guidance coming out and we just wanted to take a couple minutes to educate everyone on the esser funds i know that this term's been thrown out and i want to make sure that everyone is aware of what this is this really has to do these the sr3 obviously is the third grouping of funds that have been that are being sent to the district esser one we used for our return a lot of that was used for the mitigating measures uh along the lines of

035uh getting our school situated whether it's plexiglas or the different cleaning protocols extra staff and all the things in between we currently are in possession of sr2 and we are going to be getting sr3 funding this lea plan is connected to sr3 funding because the federal government wants to ensure because there are a number of schools that are still not in session that our schools are going to be coming back not only are schools going to be coming back but they're going to be following the guidelines that have been set forth that being said that's why our plan's in place we wanted to take a minute to um to allow you to understand the breakdown of the breakout of these funds the funds are earmarked for specific things in our district and our district functioning

03680 which we'll talk about on the next slide is really specific to our facilities and uh professional development and hr decisions 20 is allotted to academic learning loss or academic supports um specific to summer enrichment tutoring extended school day and different things in between to make sure that our students are not only academically supported but socially social and emotionally supported as well so there's a number of things that can be utilized with those 20 the next slide starts to detail the large amounts of things that the other 80 can can really be fed into to date a lot of it has to do with facilities but as you can see pd is also a piece of this of this of this money also engaging in other health protocols to make sure that our school is

037situated so transmission does not take place again we've been extremely fortunate this year that we have not had knock-on wood any transmission in the schools and that's really specific to all the other things that we tried to put in place to safeguard for our students and our staff but we wanted to make sure that the the public understands that this money is coming in what this money is going to be utilized for and obviously we have kyle correct me if i'm wrong until 2023 to utilize these funds again esther one money has been used already to get us up and running but that's our two and s or three funds have not so simply put what what this lea plan uh requires of us is very similar to the road back plan from last summer

038there's a review of mandates as set forth by the new jersey department of education and the department of health which includes things like mask wearing physical distancing hand washing and respiratory etiquette along with facilities cleaning all mitigating measures that we already have in place here in the district and we will continue in our partnership with the hackensack meridian health keeping america safe program to review these procedures moving forward this plan also requires us to address students academic needs in terms of their continuity of services address students and staff's social emotional needs as well as food services which again we we currently have programs that we are going to continue to grow so as we close out this year i believe we have four days left um in the in the current year we obviously we've

039been preparing and we continue to prepare for our 2021-2022 school year we wanted to share with you with all of you here and at home exactly what that's going to look like specific with the central office staff our administrative team and as needed engaging our community and our staff we're going to come together we're going to reflect on this year and really see what went well and what did not go well what we have is specific to mitigating measures that we need to continue to utilize and what we are allowed to to put by the by the side also there's a number of different things that are coming down the pipe from the new jersey department of ed uh we're going to get into that in the next slide but we need to make sure

040that we're aligned to every aspect that they share with us to ensure that we are operating successfully in our school district we will continue to reach out to our stakeholders to gather information specific to their feedback along the lines of this year both academically and socially we understand there are a large number of people that greatly appreciate the things that we're doing we also know that there's things that we need to reflect on and refine so those those that feedback is is crucial for us and our planning process along the lines of designing our opening in september we are planning once all the guidance is is is brought to us and we're able to digest it and plan we're looking to do something very similar to last year that in august that we share with

041the community the detail that we had in the august meeting last year of what this year is going to look like sound like and feel like again it is our hope that the different protocols continue to flex and we can get back to our sense of normalcy as quickly as possible we're grateful for what where we where we've come we know there's still a way to go we post we posted this letter just to shine a light on our current reality this letter was crafted by the bergen county principals and supervisors association and it's really attached with a large number of other districts and counties who drafted this open letter as well this letter really highlights the inconsistencies the lack of clarity and the incorrect things that are being sent to us it also talks

042about the unfortunate divisiveness that is being created due to the lack of clarity that that's being given to us specific to mandates and other expectations it's truly unfortunate that there haven't been consistent clear mandates given to the districts because what's happening right now is it's creating a divide between the districts and the community which to be quite honestly is very very unfortunate because it's our job to work as a team to make sure that we're supporting our students i show you this letter not because i want to do anything other than mawa is not alone in their frustration mawa partners with all the districts in bergen county they also partner with many districts around the around the state to say that we need more we need better and we need clarity and with that we'll

043be able to to drive our school forward in a successful way as i said before i'm very grateful for the year but we know that there's ver there's frustration that's out there and please know for anyone who's frustrated we understand your frustration we we have the same frustration and we want to make sure that we're doing right for all the the difficult reality is we have to follow these mandates the difficult reality is these mandates are put forth because they want to ensure safety for all we've been very fortunate this year along the lines of health and safety and i'm very grateful for that and that's something i would like to continue as a future leader in this district that being said it is imperative that the state starts to give more clarity along the

044lines with regulations and not give a regulation and walk it back and that's our that's our unfortunate reality right now so as we've always done we're going to be posting this has already been posted on our website we've uh shifted the the tabs title from reentry 2020 to reentry 2021 as we will use that tab to post all resources related to what we're working on over the summer we will also supplement that work with communications uh to our parents and our families in the district um but essentially what what this plan is is this plan is really again a statement of assurance that we are going to continue with our mitigating measures as required by the state and um for those schools that have opened so there are school districts who have not yet opened

045or just recently opened so um it's much more simple than i think um some people perceived in terms of their responses to us if i can have one one more thing and then i'll stop talking um the the part of this lea plan was to open it up to public um we were able to send out the plan uh we were able to put that email um as as correspondents please understand everyone who did send the email uh we have read it and reviewed it and we will continue to utilize that moving forward let me just kind of talk about the themes um thus far in the plan there is a significant frustration due to the masking and the masking mandate so i want to acknowledge that in a respectful way and understand that those

046are the things that were said in the email there were others that obviously shared their appreciation for the work that's being done um and then there's just others of what's next what's next year really going to look like because as we all know that lea plan doesn't have the detail in the granular nature that we're really looking for specific to next year let me speak to the first right now along the lines of the mask mandate we put a caveat in that we will change according to guidance we had to create the lea plan specific to our current reality we have flexed the plan the the governor made the announcement to say that we are able to flex masking outside which we have done they also said that you can flex masking inside if there

047are heat issues this is so much better than the other one in our district and in surrounding districts i understand that the mask mandate that came out was masks are off inside and outside so people moved on it a large number of districts had to walk that back because of the caveat because they adjusted it the next day to say due to heat that's when you can have it off inside we have air conditioning so unfortunately we can't have masks off inside so i just want to have a clarity on the guidance was given for outside everyone can take it off inside you can take it off if there is a heat issue if air conditioning we do not align with that mandate just so you're aware um i know some people um are still

048staying true to it that's unfortunately not the guidance that we were given so we have to only go with the guidance that we were given so i just wanted to put that on the record of what the masking current masking mandate is that's it just uh can i just ask a question or make a comment on that um with respect to the plan itself it is due on the 24th correct yes so due by the 24th um i speak for myself and and not the board but i would i would simply ask that that you you know you have the email address for comments um there'll be comments here tonight i would ask that you at least wait a few more days to take into account all the comments before we actually press submit that

049would be that would be helpful so all right thank you so much uh moving on to agenda questions uh please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda as a matter of fairness you were asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks 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 were here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of the public participation will be limited to 15 minutes please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question please have a motion to open the meeting to the public mr dasilva second by dr morphy yes agenda items only [Music] hold on we're

050gonna get you gonna get your microphone like i have one here i have a question about the lea plan and i understand that you know there's a different plan that's coming out in the summer and i thank you dr dettoro for clarifying that i do think it's confusing when you see it you don't know i guess my question having seen other ones from other districts from friends that i have is this like the worst case scenario plan or is this what has to happen all next year no matter what [Music] the the plan that we have in place is specific to our current conditions as our current conditions change then obviously absolutely the plans change please understand we're looking forward to the conditions changing and we're looking forward to the guidance i just want to

051know if you're bound to this by the state or by the federal government then thank you for asking that question no we are not okay um it just because it's written today in june does not mean that september it has to be that way so thank you for asking that question thank you and mrs theodore i think that was this this plan is also primarily for the districts who have not had these mitigating measures in place like we have i understand i just want to make sure that this was like the you know not the bottom line this was just what we need to present at this time and it's a moving document for you thank you yes and to that point doesn't have to be revisited every three months three months yes yeah every

05290 days it has to be revisited absolutely hi i'm michelle sullivan in 10 stonewall court i have a question on the lea too but nothing specific about it i just wanted to know if those funds are because we accept those funds are we there forced to abide by the guidelines that they set forth um along the lines of the guidelines the the guidelines that have been set forth by the cdc or njdoh that's what we are going to be following um along the lines of going against them to be quite honest with you i'm not comfortable with breaking away from the njdoh guidance or the cdc guidance so it's not so much that um you know we have to do this it's we feel obligated for the health and safety of our kids to follow

053this guidance because we've gone through this year um and it's been successful specific to health and safety with the virus we're not at a place to decide to go away from it um and to be uh to be honest i don't know other districts who who are as of right now um but we're not comfortable to do that yet okay so the fact that we accepted this money in no way ties us to what they say that's that's really what my question is so if we accept this money from the state or the government whoever sent it and they say you have to keep masking all through next year are you allowed to go over and above that and say we're not comfortable doing that anymore because we're at a place where we're comfortable moving

054forward and then can they come back and say well you took out kind of like green acres remember green acres when they can come back and say you took our money therefore you have to comply that's what i'm trying to find out i don't want to i don't know not what you're comfortable with i want to know if we're tied to these rules because we accepted money that's all i want to know i think the way that the le plan is situated is we put together a plan that's aligned to our current reality and then they they do allow us to change specific to the guidance it does not speak to the fact to say if you go against guidance then this money is is is not is not provided so maybe kyle you can

055answer that a little bit further that granular detail i'm not aware of we can look into it but i don't have that information at this time the second agenda item i had a question about was the esy field trips um i think it's great they're able to go on field trips i notice they're scheduled after uh the school gets out for the rest of the district i'm wondering if any other kids in our district will have the opportunity to have a field trip this year this time this current year because the esy field trips are scheduled in june and july over the summer so i'm just wondering why that gets to go on a field trip and the rest of the school doesn't well those field trips are primarily focused on life skills so esy

056stands for extended school year yes those are first are special education students that um are part of that program so when we think field trips um they're not going to dorney park they're going to sites where they're learning social and life skills they're going to the turtleback zoo absolutely they're going to the bowling alley and the movie theater yeah so part of that program requires them to enter a facility engage with workers um okay and i understand so the short answer is that the rest of the kids in the district don't get field trips um for the remaining four days of school at all this year there were no field trips this school year no no okay and my third question um i had brought this in my last question on the agenda i just

057brought this up two other times i noticed that you gave a really nice presentation for all these young children here um there must have been at least 15 of them they had a lovely photo op all stood together and i would like to also point out that there are many kids in here or parents of kids whose children won awards at the high school and the rich and who were never acknowledged they were they sat they sat in front of a zoom screen repetitively my daughter had to get her french pin in 98 degree weather outside because she wasn't allowed to eat in the building because you're all afraid and yet you had these kids lined up here close together for a photo op and all these other kids are getting nothing all zoom french

058zoo arts zoom track zoom sitting there in front of their screen saying oh wow congratulations reading their name this is the second board of ed meeting i've been to where you have had numerous children in here sitting in seats next to each other up in front cozied up taking a picture and you have 16 and 17 year olds who have worked their butt off for 10 years in this district who got nothing nothing and i have brought it up i have bro i've brought it up three this is time three this is time three and you said you would look into it and you still didn't look into it because my daughter came home sweaty last week on a tuesday because she had to sit under a tree because no one let her eat in

059high school that was her french pin meeting that she got for being an honor student in french not a fourth grader a tenth grader got nothing that's only comments on the agenda i'll be back on the other hello lou theodoro one hour now place um my question is more about the length of the school day because governor murphy came out and said that school it's gonna be mandatory that you're gonna be going full-time school next year but is the are the hours that we're in right now is that considered full-time in terms of next year when we've truly turned a corner with the pandemic and we're in the green in terms of the cali index no so the app so the hours now that we're in would not satisfy a full-time commitment next year well

060right well right now it satisfies a full it really does satisfy a full instruction well i mean i understand know even i have to but miss dr theodoro our goal is not to have this schedule in perpetuity that's what that's exactly yeah no absolutely not i think we've made that very very clear with every single presentation that we are looking to get to some sort of normalcy i i understand but we too do not want to wear a mask but we are obligated to do so i understand that but the the issue is that this year for example numbers obviously improved a lot in the last um two months you know cases down over 90 percent you have hospitalizations down more than that and yet we still haven't returned to what i would consider or

061even what you work but your answer what you would consider full-time schooling a lot of hours education hours lost this year by the students and our students on a national level because most of the schools in southern um states are in school full-time master or otherwise our student our students get left behind and i know you guys are trying to make it up over the summer and that type of thing but you don't get those hours back so i'm just trying to pin down whether next year this would fly or if it's going to be real full-time school um um with the schedule we had prior to pandemic that's what we were hoping absolutely um i just oh sorry rachel hold it for now uh rachel kirk uh 27 roxbury road um so next so

062the fall does the bell schedule look like now or does it they get out at like say three-ish depending on which school they go to well again we're looking to to have the schedule look and feel like it did pre-pandemic right but we're also waiting for additional guidance from the new jersey department of ed and the new jersey department of health which is going to make us adjust our protocols prior to september yes absolutely okay so that's still up in the air so i should assume it's well everything is up in the air unfortunately okay just going forward thinking forward like right now i should be assuming the current spell schedule for the fall no no no i want everyone to be clear right now and we spoke about this said i appreciate you bringing

063this up that we spoke at this about this the previous um board meeting what we really wanted to do was make sure that we started to infuse foods which we have done which i didn't get a chance to speak to um earlier today with a high school and middle school had their lunch today they're also having it tomorrow was a tremendous success the elementaries did the same thing our numbers are right are very very strong in a positive way right now we feel as though this is going to continue our expectation is next year we're coming back full-time okay all right so then um so i haven't seen any emails come through that any kids have had covered or contacted which is amazing yes awesome so you know new jersey has a population of nine

064million people in total up to date we've had 224 cases as of today bergen county has over 900 000 residents and a total of 25 cases as of today um and that's where we've been roughly fluctuating for the county um and of course like i said we've had zero reported cases here in mawa so um almost and so then almost four and a half million residents are fully vaccinated which is almost half the population and in bergen county 500 000 are vaccinated which is more than half of the population which is probably why we're not seeing any of these cases coming through the school now i understand that you want to wait for the cdc to or whoever the department new jersey department of health to make a decision about taking the masks off at

065school but i mean we're really going i mean the trajectory is amazing here and i think you know given this these statistics you know i think it would be helpful i know that for the lea some schools are making it a parental decision whether you want your child to be masked or not and i think giving it putting the power in the parents hands would be a more op would be make the district and the parents and the children a little happier and have more confidence than you guys sitting there telling us we have to mask our kids and waiting for the cdc when i think the evidence the statistical evidence is there so i would really appreciate it if you guys would consider trusting the parents to make the decisions that are right for

066their family rather than you guys telling us what's right for our family i i understand this is not a question of a guideline or a decision it's really the governor's executive order which they they clarify for us that it's still in fact school children so it's not a question but then how come other school i'm sorry to cut you off but like how come other school districts are making in their lea program uh it optional for the mass i guess yeah so like there are some school districts that qualify for exemptions that we don't qualify for but the the bottom line of the matter is the executive order that the government that the governor put out there they again we've got the memo a week ago that says explicitly it's still in effect for children

067in school so as soon as the governor decides to lift that now we have some lettuce well why do just a question though why do other school districts have honestly i don't know but we we also know that there are districts who don't have upgraded facilities don't have air conditioning and there are those excessive uh excessively hot environments where the relieving of the mask can take place that's not the case here do you know what this what the cdc and the new jersey department of health is looking for in order for us to do away with the math so so this is where i think we are at right now so cdc is guidance new jersey department of health and the governor's executive orders we are mandated by that's the difference between all three that

068we're talking about and i believe that we they have required us to keep masks on students and staff members because primarily uh students are a cohort of human who is not even eligible to be vaccinated right so so i i think that's where it's coming from but i think that that's where we are right now again we've talked about over the summer if guidance is adjusted we will be adjusting what school looks like in september excuse me someone was at the microphone thank you well yeah i mean that was my next question you can ask the question use the microphone that's perfectly fine are we are our hands going to be tight and that we're going to have to if we want the masks off our kids that we're going to have to get them

069vaccinated is that what everyone here is looking for can i can i jump in for a second i just i i just want to make sure that everyone has their understanding correctly everyone here is not making the decision i want everyone to be very clear we have to follow the orders that have been set forth so when people come up and say when are you going to decide the decision there's some decisions that are in our hands and there are other decisions that are not to speak to the other districts that are not following the guidance we can't speak to that what we can speak to is we're obligated as mr fair said to follow what has been set forth when it's flexed you're absolutely right now the conversation's different if they change the mandate

070and we say no we're holding firm that's a whole different conversation but what i can tell you is we're looking forward we're looking forward to seeing our kids without masks i need everyone in the audience to understand that we are not someone who wants to go on top of what we're obligated to do okay well you all right so a couple weeks back i sent you an email asking you if you would write a letter on behalf of our students to the governor like other stupid superintendents had been and you told me in support of getting the masks off our kids and you give me a flat out no i won't do that so if you're really interested in getting the masks off our kids how come you're not advocating to our government to get

071those masters the advocacy that we're putting forth is what i just showed up top and all the other groups that were a part of it and it would also help if you wrote a letter to the governor asking and any board member too you guys can write those letters i've been writing those letters it would really go a long way to help us get these masks off these kids so if you're really interested in that please write those letters be invested in this with us we need your help well i said my piece thank you thank you come on thank you hi margie murphy i just wanted to address one thing on the the lunch at the ridge i only say this because i asked my daughter when she got home today and it's it's

072the pictures you showed are not exactly what's happening there um my daughter said she sat in study hall in an assigned seat that they have no choice of like even who's around them to talk to so i think i don't think it's fair to say it's been a success they've done it one day lots of kids were complaining that the food was absolutely disgusting that was provided it was some sort of old stale pizza lunch thing she had brought her own lunch but besides the point i mean sitting in a study hall in a room in assigned seating which is what she's been doing all year is not how we're envisioning lunch to go so i'm not really sure it's fair to say because three kids at betsy ross got to sit outside on blankets

073to say that lunch was a success in the school in those in the you know back to school program or whatever it is we're trying to launch so that image was a class yeah well in fairness to the older kids it wasn't lunch she was eating at 10 22 this morning um you know and so even she said what's the point because it's i just got here at eight o'clock you know so i don't really think it's a fair assessment to show everybody that that's this was a huge success when it was one day at the middle school in high school and i know some of the high school kids said that they couldn't even find a place to sit and eat because it's so overcrowded and if they want to take their mask off

074they have to be away and it's like this whole so i'm just saying that's my only point on this was i don't think it was it gets a little too soon to say it was a huge success at the older kids age in fairness to them all right well [Music] phil ross one man a road moa uh i've been a mawa resident for over 23 years one of the major attractions for me from bawwa is the diversity of the population as a parent and coach i've had the pleasure to work with athletes in the junior development programs all the way up through the high school the athletes and their families represented a varying group of economic racial and religious backgrounds everyone gets along famously never have i been witness any bigotry for any reason this

075is one of the great aspects of mawa the athletes the parents all work together for a common goal the development of our children and our programs my son was a member and captain of the mawa high school track and field team my older daughter also a track and field member was the president of the mala high school gay straight alliance for two years my two older children learned their morals values and religion at home where it should be learned parents have both the privilege and the responsibility to teach our children this is the right of the parents to afford this opportunity not the schools as i understand from reading recent email communications diversity inclusion and equity will be part of the upcoming curriculum along with critical race theory this is a dangerous and harmful road

076to travel i'm probably a bit older than most of people in this room and you know when i learned about the atrocities and horrors of slavery the emancipation proclamation the abolition of jim crow laws is part of american history critical race theory is based on false propaganda developed by sociologists personal cognitions not facts while i'm of the opinion that no one should ever be prevented from participating in an activity club sport organization based on the race gender sexual preference religion etc that diversity inclusion and tolerance are cornerstones to a successful society we must remember that so our hard work discipline and meritocracy as a college professor at a local community college and one on an online university i'm privy to the communications on a daily basis and i have gone through some of this training

077in the past six to nine months there's been an increasing amount of lectures workshops and presentations regarding this crt training and not only has the notion been prevalent on college campuses but has also infiltrated major corporations as well the idea of wokeness is being promulgated and anyone that offers a contrary opinion they are condemned as racist fascist homophobe transphobe or some other type of expedient fold label if they are popular enough the canceled culture crowd rears its ugly head and they are unabashedly attacked i've had students of mine from varying ethnic backgrounds confide me regarding the bullying they are subject to when they express their beliefs and refuse to march in lockstep with the royal crowd this does not end there they are ostracized on social media and other outlets because they don't support the

078wilderness critical race theory promotes racism and segregation these specific aspects prompted the enactment of the civil rights act of 1964. we're going backwards critical race theory into eight levels of whiteness as espoused by the proponents such as ibrahim kennedy and barnard hess do nothing but promote racism and division critical race theory supports the notion that whites especially white heterosexual males are the oppressors and that people of color are the oppressed how does this not demonize a whole group of people martin luther king's dream for his children for them was to live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character martin luther king promoted meritocracy this has been deemed a racist ideal by the proponents of the critical race theory the notion

079of social justice what does it really promote by continually putting forth the message that certain groups of people need to be given advantages preferential treatment and lower standards what does that do isn't that akin to promoting the soft bigotry in the form of low expectations doesn't that demean minority students by telling that they don't measure up what message are we promoting are we trying to rid ourselves of racism if we are we should consider what morgan freeman said when he was asked you want to stop racism stop talking about it is our goal to end discrimination in the 2007 opinion offered by justice john roberts the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race by adopting critical race theory we are not heeding the sound

080advice we are obsessed with identities in this country everyone has a label this type of hyphenated american that type of hyphenated american all these identity politics and intersectional check boxes where does it end you know i had the fortune of going to brazil a few times and as i looked around the cornucopia of racial and ethnic backgrounds represented the sea of faces i saw indigenous peoples those with european descent african asian mixed races etc do they consider themselves african brazilians or italian brazilians or japanese brazilians no they are all brazilians that's it they love their country their flag and the athletes don't kneel when their national anthem is played critical race theory is not the answer many school systems in new jersey have stricken the divisive program from the curriculum and other states have flat

081out banned the program there's a great deal of growing pushback of many communities that do not want the seeds of marxism plant in the minds of their children consider that our educational system as a whole is not a decline in the united states as of 2018 education rank was 38th in math and 24th in science the united states rankings have been falling at international standards over the past three decades why is this do we want products of equity and educational outcome building our bridges and performing heart surgeries while we're trying to figure out how many different types of bathrooms we need these other countries are leaving us in the dust how is the society are we to survive our schools are here to teach math science language reading music history how about cursive and vocational

082skills i'm gonna have to ask you to start wrapping it up it's been about five minutes now uh well i actually um uh my wife said i could use her time and i'm also i'm also looking for the resolution you're speaking to on this section well you know i saw this i saw this come through and you know i've been through this and um you know i just want everyone to know what it's all about and it's and it's very important we get this information out okay because a lot of people have no idea that this is going on mr president i think there's uh i'd like to raise a point of order the uh a gentleman is speaking to an issue not on the agenda perhaps should be deferred to the second question we

083are all americans we have different skin tones religious backgrounds and sexual proclivities but who cares we are all americans in the same boat together we better start rolling in the same direction we'll continue to expend a lot of energy and go in circles bruce lee was asked how he identified himself in regard to his ethnicity and national affiliation he replied i identify as a human being because under the sky we are but one family it just happens that we look different the presentation of alternative lifestyles to young children is often extremely confusing my 11 year old came home from school speaking to pansexualism i do not know for sure that she picked it up in school but she did discuss his affiliation with her friends why is this happening let our children be children they

084are confused enough with all their hormonal changes changes and other stressors and are very susceptible to suggestions so what are the results why is this philosophy dangerous free speech on college campuses has been stifled mothers are now referred to as birthing persons disrespe disrespect and mistrust of the police we have a six foot five 250 pound man playing on a women's community college basketball team not only taking the place of a biological girl but putting the much smaller athletes in danger we have school calendars that don't no longer list holidays about memorial day president's day as far as the children are concerned today will be another snow day void of any meeting the pledge of allegiance so dutifully recited by dr bowie at jk is under attack by the rhetoric espoused by the critical race

085theory coke conducts seminars on how not to be white new york city schools and white students have been subject to the eight degrees of whiteness and being instructed to own their white privilege columbia university just conducted six different graduations based on gender economic standing race and sexual identity we revere artists like cardi b and megan d stallion and shunned books by dr seuss the division of polarization of children on the differences are outright demonization and dehumanization of some of these white students lack of appreciation for the greatest country in the world the mentality of victimhood is promoted not self-reliance and independence the danger resides in focusing on differences between people jealousy hatred envy demonizations pit groups against each other it's the old divide and conquer philosophy consistent with socialism and communism our one common element

086is a history of the united states the traditions that we as americans share not where we come from or how we got here just the fact that we're all here now and need to focus on our commonalities while appreciating our differences the bottom line is our children need to be educated on the subjects that will provide them with the tools necessary to compete on a world stage math science language skills etc moral ethic and religious matters should be up to parents of the children not the school system our school systems are for education not for indoctrination this country is built on independence and self-reliance not on government dependency and handouts we are not a group of scared dependent peoples we are the land of the free and the home of the brave it's time to

087embrace what our country made it great so why am i bringing this up because i i read that are we going to adopt critical race theory as a curriculum in schools are we no we're we're not adopting critical race here at no point do we send out any communication that's aligned to any of that um what we have sent out has been aligned to our strategic plan specific to uh diversity inclusivity and acceptance so what we've done this year is taking a step forward along the lines of celebrating the different things as mr coplan has over the past couple months of the different awareness and appreciation months we've also worked with our teachers and students uh to make sure that the the different texts that we have that we're offering um are diverse along the

088lines of authors and characters in the text that that really resemble the population in which we serve um but at no point you know when you talk about critical race theory especially what's in the news right now it's a very dis divisive type of experience that being said what we're doing here in mawa is really embracing as you stated in your um in your statement uh the the rich diversity that we have in front of us and what we want to make sure that we're doing is uh building our children to have respect understanding and appreciation for all of all the things that we bring to the table um and allow our students to feel comfortable in their skin as well as making sure that there's conversations about this is how i feel and this

089is who i am so there's you know when you look at critical race theory especially the arguments are happening in the news there's very extreme conversations that make people feel belittled that being said our purpose our value here is to make sure that every single child is respected and they're given the appreciation that they deserve so nothing was sent out by us at least from my department uh specific to critical race theory um and i'm really excited about where the direct district is going because it echoes the voice of our community because our community at our strategic plan meeting really called for uh this work and to make sure that as you said you know the the positive interactions of our students continue and the negative even though you haven't experienced it there are negative

090interactions that are out there and we want to make sure there's always going to be exactly and we want to make sure that we're building our youngsters uh to to it as a firm foundation of appreciation and acceptance i appreciate that you know i just wanted to make sure that because i just want to make sure that this critical race there was not going to be put in as part of our agenda because i've been through the training and um it's very divisive any adjustments any adjustments to our curriculum is run by the curriculum and instruction committee and then and and then put to public thank you very much thank you let please get a motion to close the public no does it have to do with the agenda okay then lda is part of

091the agenda correct yes it is okay thanks ben hi i'm tom murphy 16 north railroad avenue um the funds we're talking about how much are they sure uh for s or three it's just under one point five million dollars okay it's on 17 j is the exact amount okay we ran out of agendas so i don't have an agenda oh um yeah it's as mr um what i would for the public comment to put on for lea is this you know i understand the mass and everything else and deep the department of health guidelines which are as frustrating for all of you as it's for anybody who lives in new jersey it's not clear it never is you can't even google what the guidelines are right now because it hits you to the nj.gov website

092covet it yeah the social emotional that's if if if there's something i would ask for as a parent in this district is our focus is on the social emotional in the next in to head to the lea plan and to be more specific on the social emotional i would like to see our facilities opened up in the fall for extracurriculars again with 1.5 million come in maybe we we encourage the extracurriculars from everything from the tmysb rent that is charged to the scouts make the buildings open for everybody again let wrestling come back let bastard let basketball come back with parents let everything come back to normal and use some of the funds for the social emotional well-being of the community the school obviously our students are the ones participating in scouts and sports and

093all but let the parents come back to the basketball the high school basketball games let them come back in that what i have seen in the last few months is kids being what we've seen who's ever been at the ramsey malwa lacrosse game the softball games this is where normalcy is coming back and it's beautiful we agree it is absolutely the best thing and i think we need to build on it and sports has been the best you know but most kids in the districts don't participate in sports as they get older there's band there's orchestra there are all these things the plays bring them back in person broadway's coming back in september 14th school starts five days before i'm sure we can you know drama club and all we can spend some of the

094funds to make sure this room is ready for a performance up there we can spend the funds to make sure the parents can come in when the fall comes as long as you know what rate of transmission is the number we're supposed to be looking at continues to be below one hopefully it's fractional to that by then there's more get vaccinated so i just asked as a parent to support the social emotional to support the extracurricular activities i think that the in person is the most important thing that what i've what i've witnessed for i coached track on the wreck level and i could tell you last summer we did a four weeks of track program here the kids were scared there were kids who sat like basically fetal position on the fence fast forward

095to last night we had our second last practice everybody is they're running hills with a smile awesome i don't know any kid who run a hill before smile before but they're together they're running they love it and i see it you know in every sport so that's i just asked social some emotional sports are my example but everything you know sports epidemics the extra clubs many of the field trips again let kids be kids i know esy from experience last year you guys experimented with some things that worked well and you know it was a test run of what we could do during the school year so if you got anything throw it at esy kids i know one there and uh we'll uh you know let's get the social emotional so thank you thank

096you thank you very much thank you all right [Applause] this is in regards to the la as well my name is uh cal spy 75 walnut street in mawa um you've all made it very clear that um you're trying to abide by state guidelines and i appreciate that the place that you're in between the state between the parents and it's not easy to obviously make everybody happy and you want to abide by the state guidelines and make sure everybody's safe i understand 100 um i guess my question is that at what point when if if uh your community or if you pull the community and the majority of voices say that they want these changes whether it be masks or everybody in school whatever at what point are we are we able to as a

097community say no to the guidelines and say no to we understand that this is what the state is saying but our community as a whole the majority if if that's what the polling says said that they they would prefer this for our for our children so my question is at what point can we say no to that if the community is backing you up that way unfortunate unfortunately we are we have to follow mandates so when it comes to the new jersey department of health or the new jersey department of ed we are required to follow those mandates we're hoping that through the summer there are changes i understand that you want that we all want that we but we are required to follow those mandates even if you're if the majority of the community

098i would encourage more people in the community to go to the new jersey department of ed to advocate if that's how they feel because we are taking our mandates from the new jersey department of ed thank you um two quick points the the districts that have lifted mass mandates now they're doing it under the one of the ten opportunities that you can lift mass mandates is if it's at um it could be the um general deterrent to the general health of the student and that's what the districts that have lifted even some with that have air conditioning has decided to lift masks and that's what they're that's that how they're getting around the mandates as you speak so it is possible if we really wanted to um the question i have though is about plexiglass

099because it is mentioned in the lea and i would encourage you all to look at the science behind plexiglass because it's there are no studies that show that pisces um is a good mitigation factor but i thought that the state had gotten rid of it the new jersey department of health and farm education had no longer mandated but there actually is science coming out now that it impedes air flow and actually could be worse for the students than um not having anything so i just urge you to look for that just as a point of order thank you thank you very much i'm david boyajian 82 wash drive um you'll forgive me if i read from notes it's been a long day this is in reference to new agenda item k obviously the plan for

100your safe return to in-person instruction i'm a physician who leads to medical practices in lower manhattan i'm concerned about the conditions that led to the invention of a masking practice that i've never heard of namely the mask down bite mask up chew policy that is happening as recently as today per feedback from the children neither of the three entities referenced in your safe return plan nor any medical advisory board or organization in this country recommends this in fact the new jersey department of education specifies that masks are not to be required while eating in its road to recovery document which has been posted online all years you know yet we and mawa are apparently doing it why is this not advisable number one frequent manipulation soils the masks and renders them ineffective as a barrier

101and number two partial airway obstruction when somebody is attempting to swallow can put you at risk for aspiration so this practice may be well intentioned but in my assessment it's a creative and potentially dangerous act of medical adventurism and i have a curiosity surrounding the quality of medical advice that you've been getting this year and i would ask you to have the same curiosity as you consider the specifics of your practices this summer we can hope for clarity from our government but i'm afraid that's somewhat naive perhaps there should be an oversight committee comprised of medical professionals who might also be parents of school children in the district that can help advise mahwah public schools and keep it on track in this regard and i'll end with a question if you could tell me in

102what ways has the district sought guidance from medical professionals and interpreting mandates and setting policies this year and next year surrounding masking and other mitigation strategies in school we we all have we've actually met with um stakeholder groups so one of those groups is uh comprised of medical professionals in the mawa community so we met them met with them two or three times throughout the course of this past school year i asked what group that is it's a medical professionals group that is comprised of parents in in in the district the group the group consists of nurses our district position we also have parents in this district there are physicians as well so there are a number of different people in the medical field that we have to run all of our art decisions by

103um specific to the mask manipulation piece i'm not sure what school that is but to be quite honest that was a conversation that we had when snacks first came in to be i know that that was brought up that has been changed so i will address whatever school you're speaking of because when i was speaking to when i i know it was one day so i'll talk about my one day that i saw the ridge in the high school i saw hundreds of students without their masks on and they were eating they were not manipulating their masks but i'm not going to say all of our kids that's not taking that's not happening so i will address it if you would kindly share with me sure yeah i heard that that happened in malwa high

104school um today so so if what i will do is i'll speak to to john to john because john and i walked the the different places there was one here there was one at the auditorium there was one in the cafeteria i heard him give the directions to all of the students allowing them to drop their masks while they're eating he did say if you are not eating and you're just here to hang you do have to have your mask on but along the lines of while you're eating there was no reference to you have to drop it eat chew and go so i just want to let you know that was my experience here but again i don't want to say it for everyone we'll address it if that's it if that's the case

105thank you thank you very much thank you okay can i get a motion oh hold on is it about the agenda okay come on down lost internet and oh here you are and here i am all right you have optimum problems 44 only road in malwa oh question the plan you said has to be resubmitted every 90 days when is the plan actually submitted to the state so it's originally submitted june 24th so 90 days after that we're going to revisit it yes so july august and september specific to the lea right exactly but i i don't want you i don't want to confuse and the the process that does not mean that if things change in between those days we're held to the next group we can make adjustments as things come through i'm

106glad you asked that question it's not it's here it's locked until it's open again there's going to be rolling guidance that we are going to follow and we will make adjustments accordingly all right that's beautiful it's at the very least 90 days all right that's what i was did not you know i want to make clear that i understood that we had we were locked in this 90 days now we had to revisit it in 90 days before you know it we're into the fall rolling into the winter and these things have to stay on um other things i you know we talked about mandates and everything i'm a teacher i've been a teacher for 22 years every day i see kids in the classroom i'm not in this dish they're in another district and

107the blank looks on their face because there's no interaction with kids nothing and it's hard to get them to even talk because they have this just as a teacher to listen to i don't have a mic they don't have a mic they're sitting behind some type of plexiglas and that's all i hear is the charlie brown won't want want want and that's it so we really have to maybe not follow what the state says and you know what we can't all be obliged like well the state says jump off a branch are we all going to jump off a bridge absolutely not no no got kids in sports and the thing is i scratch my head and a lot of coaches well i'm sure you scratch your head also you warm up with your mask

108on but you go play without no mask whether it's basketball baseball football but the one that really blows my mind is wrestling please can we just wake up with that can we just stop and you know let's let's put two and two together doesn't equal five sometimes two and two does equal four make it simple same thing lacrosse math goes up for the draw mess comes down for the after the draw kids play they touch you know somewhere along the line we really have to go after the state like you said as a community yes we do but we need your help to say enough is enough and that's what i'm asking that's all i really have to say thank you thank you very much can you can you come back in the next section

109next six months no next section and just like two seconds please we have another open we have another public sessions i just had to comment on that just just because of the nonsensical rules for wrestling they were allowing people to wrestle but not shake hands what science is that based on what science is that based on science fiction okay so we we should go against this guys you know we're we're coming to you for your help okay thank you thank you thank you very much all right can i get a motion for mr latito if in the lea there's specific language it says an lea must periodically but no less frequently than every six months through september 30th 2023 review and as appropriate revise its plan so that's that's what we're working under and obviously

110we can do it more frequently that's the minimum requirement all right the motion to close music published by mr kaufman all right board committee reports anyone mr gallo no report all right mr koppling you're off oh sorry dr morty no wow brett you're all that's on go ahead all right uh um one congratulate the future problem solving teams are the sixth grade team plays eight in the international conference i believe they're the only team to model that place and they were up against other teams from all over the world so congratulations from this cabrella and that team from ridge um [Music] i also want to congratulate miss carell again for today a entry into the new jersey school board association and u.s army uh 2021 from the virtual steam paint challenge uh our team's place

111and um to our [Music] on june 19th 1965 major general gordy ranger announcing the optical effects of the united slavery in court presidential federal holiday and the u.s house is planned to vote on a next week malwa's inaugural 2 15 celebration will be held in saturday at 11 a.m and combo cherry view on june 24th there will be a prize celebration and commodore ferry as well at 6pm um father's day sunday is your friendly reminder you want to get started um [Music] um this coming week we have a lot going on uh eighth grade promotion is monday tuesday for example wednesday i want to congratulate all those that are moving up the kindergarten i'm very grateful i don't get them either i want to send out a very special congratulations my daughter and all my

112classmates for finishing up their middle school years they got that over board member remarks additional comments and reports on other non-agenda items anyone all right seeing none moving on uh number 16 old business minutes uh can i get any motion to approve the minutes of the may 26 2021 public work session action meeting mr gallo second about ms conaco mr bleaker cohn mr coplin mr da silva mr denise mr gallo yes miss conaco dr morty dr park and mr kasmarski yes 17 new business we have resolutions a through a a uh can i get a motion to move those please sorry mr the silva seconded by dr morty go ahead test the main lines that are coming in they're responsible for those however once they transition from those main lines they cross over the meter

113and they are in our buildings they're our property to maintain to serve and to test ridge we are looking in the art room to replace some of the storage unit storage cabinets that will require some of the tiles to be removed and some of the tiles do do contain asbestos so we are we do need to do a formal abatement to properly remove those over at george washington we are replacing in kindergarten classrooms some sinks they're in the classrooms and again some of the material with the countertops was identified to have asbestos within it as well as some of the um the fittings around the pipes underneath to properly remove those we need to formally uh abate it before we replace it this summer thank you any other questions before we vote no miss wickham

114carl mr cohn mr coplin mr da silva mr denise mr gallow thank you mr gala miss conoco dr morty dr park and mr kuzmarski um i will vote yes on all and abstain on item 17d for the school resource officer while i fully support this program and officer jack and the great work he's done as the town administrator i'm on the other side of that contract so i don't want to have any appearance of conflict so i will abstain from d noted thank you 18 new business personnel we have resolutions a through qq can i please get a motion uh mr gallo second bye mr denise eddie yeah go ahead comments [Music] that's when you show up thank you anything else comments all right mr bleaker okay mrs cohen mr coplan mr dasilva mr denise

115mr gallo yes miss conaco dr morty dr park and mr kizmarski yes all right 19. back to public questions or comment uh public participation of board meetings is in the course of bylaws0167 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 now your remarks no longer than three minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group in your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes can i please get a motion to open the meeting of the public mr da silva second

116goodbye mr coplan we are open to the public michelle salesman 10 stonewall court um i have a question first of all regarding the plexiglas um i have students i have twins at betsy ross for their lunch they have three students sitting on each side of a bench and plexiglas surrounded them will that be the process for next year since that was what was done during the pilot will they be eating that way next year i think we have to look to see what what guidance we get over the summer i'm hoping that the numbers of covet cases decreases like it is currently okay um then i'll steer you to some metrics about cova cases there were 1200 cases this year in the schools there were 1.4 million public school students for a total of zero

117.0008 six that's how many cova cases there were this year the mortality rate for the age group zero to four was zero percent the mortality rate for five to seventeen was zero percent the mortality for eighteen to twenty nine was point four percent so clearly we don't have a numbers issue so you're saying that there's a chance next year that my boys at bexy ross will be sitting at a lunch table with a three side plexiglas class around know this final decisions have been made for next year what we did we put that in place for this year we're going to assess over the summer and make a final determination you'll have exacts about next year in august okay and also for around corridor students meeting at individual desks like they did during the pilot

118in the cabin in the library at the cafeteria in the library or will they be allowed to utilize the cafeteria again same as the the last we put together this specific plan as close as we can to next year but it's our hope that the students are eating in the cafeteria but i don't want to make a statement in june and then have to have it adjust by august but all that detail will be coming in august so we were told that the plexiglas was no longer considered a mitigating factor and that no study showed it was effective so if we are having to use that next year would that be a change in that course because that was the reason that we were given for not opening school full day was the plexiglass couldn't

119be used as a mitigating factor i don't understand your question can you please repeat that sure we were told that plexiglas was no longer considered a mitigating factor and it was no longer it was not shown effective and it was no longer encouraged by the cdc and that's why we couldn't have a full day of lunch at school because they couldn't have lunch we suggested using plexiglass and we were told we couldn't use that plexiglas so it was plexiglas next year if it's utilized considered now to be a mitigating factor who told you we couldn't use it i was told around coverage that that was no longer considered a mitigating factor and therefore that's why part of the reason we couldn't have lunch i'm not sure who told you that but we utilized plexiglas in

120our current plan so yeah and yes um at the six um at the 912 level there was also plex less that was utilized in the cafeteria um so i'm not sure who shared that with you but um along the lines of our our model we used it again that's going to be in the slide that's going to be something that we're going to be taking a look at we are aware of the the evidence or research that you share and all that's going to be put into place when we reflect on the plan okay so we won't really know what lunch looks like until august guidance comes out that is correct okay and at this point we also can't commit to a full day of school either because of guidance on the lunch recess and

1213pm dismissal that's not 100 guarantee right now for next year all of the details related to september will be shared in august i mean i'm just wondering how wyckoff pulls it off in may i mean they don't have there's no mandate saying you can't go to school all day and there's no mandates that you can't have lunch the only man that i'm aware of is the masks in school which doesn't dictate the length of the day it just says while you're there you have to wear a mask ms salzman i to be quite honest with you with all due respect i don't know but you know where to go from here of what we have shared with you thus far we've shared with that we want to be full day we have not said at

122any point that we don't want to be full day we also have shared that we want to make sure that we're we're getting rid of the masks as soon as possible so all the comments and all the questions i understand the frustration that people want exacts as of right now we have four days of school left and we're going to do our very best to make sure that we open up as the director of curriculum instruction and the new superintendent i want to open up so if that gives anybody any comfort or confidence i hope that does i want to open up so but i also understand that things change every single day so in absolute in june for september i'm very weary off but what i can tell you is if by chance this

123continues in this positive direction we will be opening up in september okay i wasn't tying masks to the full day i was just wondering why we didn't have a full day this year i realized they're two totally separate things the kids are in school full day do have to wear masks because it's a state mandate so that was more than my point was they were not linked my last question is more of a comment um i have not seen my daughter play in person for band since december for my 16 year old who i'm sure you guys don't spend a lot of time thinking about um you stole her first love her primary extra clicker activity and her quote-unquote sport i'm thrilled to see sports back i think sports are great i've played sports my

124whole life what i see when i pull into the high school are buses packed with lacrosse players kids doing high fives kids playing on fields kids having fun and running around while my kid has not had a concert in since december of 2019. can someone please tell me while the band and the our kids have been completely left out of this reopen well i've had to watch her on zoom for not only her induction ceremonies but for all her concerts where they make them get dressed up at seven o'clock in the morning and videotape them so i can sit at home and watch them but there can be a bus full of lacrosse kids piled on top of each other that's my question i mean i think that has been the issue right conflicting guidance

125so sports has been guided by njsi aaa right that has allowed for requirements just for sports um in terms of the arts i'm looking forward to september i mean that's all i can tell you looking forward to these kids have lost a year and a half of their life their kids who graduated out of here having been first chair in instruments and never got to play again in front of a single person there is no universe that that's fair none it's the same way that you're saying that the schools that don't have air conditioning their kids are allowed to take the mask off does kovan know that the school doesn't have air conditioning if the disease was that terrible you wouldn't be taking your mask off period it doesn't say i'm gonna go to a

126school that has no air and look these kids don't have mass on either the masks work and need it or they aren't it's the same thing with the sport my daughter has to wear a mask both my daughters to cover their nose while they shove an instrument in their mouth have you ever tried doing that try playing a clarinet or a flute i'm sure you've seen these masks they are disgusting they can't even breathe in them but they do it because they love it it's the only chance they have to play yet because sports are held to a different standard they can run around and play freely and breathe a novel concept but the band kids look like they're suffocating with a belt horn spaced apart playing into a zoom you've lost an entire year

127and a half of kits kids have dropped out they're trying to get them back at the jk and ridge at the younger grades because they lost complete interest because they had to sit at home in their bedroom and play their instrument i know sports are important and run this town but there are a lot of kids who rely on other things than sports for satisfaction and for the love of their craft and i really hope that there's some big changes in september for these kids because i'm really getting sick of seeing my bergen county band level flute player on zoom thank you i agree with you thank you please get a motion to close mr gallo second bye sorry dr morty all right at this time we are going to go into executive post session

128to discuss confidential matters personnel matters and such um there'll be no action when we return so in effect the meeting's over i thank you all for coming and your comments all right can i please get a motion to go into executive closed session uh mr coplin second by mr denise thank you very much