001good evening good evening i'd like to welcome everyone to this public works session of the mahwah board of education due to the current government declared emergency this meeting of the board of education has limited availability for members of the public to be physically present procedures for members of the public that wish to participate in person opportunities to email questions and advance the meeting can be found on our website as an alternative to ensuring transparency aboard business and guidelines by the new jersey open prepared services the board meeting will also be available soon remember members of the company may also call into the meeting using uh phone number one seven seven eight six during the public portion of this meeting members of the public will be given the opportunity to participate verbally with the board all
002participants must provide their name mr mr collins here mr disillus here mr denise here mr gallow here mr kizmorsky adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the ridgewood news and the record specifying that the law board of education will meet on november 11th 2020 in the administrative offices city ridge road in new jersey a copy was filed with the township clerk everyone please rise firstly to the flag um miss zach would you like to lead us and if i could please ask everyone to please stand afterwards and remain for a little moment of silence thank you 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 agenda questions please limit your questions at
003this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda as a matter of fairness you were asked to limit your question no more more than one and your remarks to no longer be many minutes if you were here representing a group please identify yourself and your position in the group you are here you are here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 10 minutes please specify the resolution thank you gallows second by dr morphy doctor do you have a report for us this evening is we value our partnership with our entire school community they've been most responsive to us our mission is to meet both the academic and social and emotional needs of our students and to educate them to become productive well-balanced
004responsible citizens who respect individual differences and diversity we are far on the way of accomplishing that mission nothing is more important however than the safety of our students and our staff we are taking every precautionary measure that we can take so that we can accomplish this task of keeping our students and our faculty safe we're participating in all of the school events that we can participate in according to the guidelines that we have provided we are proceeding very well under the given circumstances that we are living with daily uh yes i do two uh two items to bring to uh members of the public that are attending or participating uh through the zoom webinar there are two items that were added to the agenda subsequent to the agenda being posted earlier this week for a
005matter of record and for the benefit of those that are attending electronically i will read those two agenda items into the record the one is item 15s this is an additional conference workshop item uh it's on page six of the agenda uh miss allison bowden to attend conference workshop aac training for the paraprofessional part two date uh to attend is december 1st the amount 75 the other agenda item is agenda item uh 16g this is an njfla leave of absence resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the malwa board of education approves a leave of absence for employee number 4757 effective retroactive on november 10 to february 5th 2021 using njfla from november 10th 2020 to february 5th 2021. uh those are the only two items that were added subsequent to the
006agenda being posted earlier this week the other item uh to report on is the superintendent search process um after our last board meeting the members of the board met in executive session with members from our path solutions the firm that is assisting us with the superintendent search process uh that process is going to be beginning very shortly there will be an ad for the superintendent published in the newspaper beginning this weekend uh star ledger on sunday november 15th uh it would also be run again on november 29th and december 13th the window to submit an application is going to be beginning again this weekend when the ad first runs december 18th will be the final day to submit an application uh for superintendent then in january after our board reorganizes we will then have some
007interviews scheduled uh to continue the process yes i do uh the first is an announcement of a retirement for pepe gardner who is an instructional paraprofessional at joyce kilmer school um she's been with us for 18 years and two months on the surface uh if you know pepe she is no nonsense um beneath that no nonsense there is a heart of gold uh and the most caring person uh by her everyday actions perspective and genuine concern for her students and colleagues makes her shine pepe has an extraordinary talent in working with struggling learners she always goes above and beyond her assigned duties with the goal of fully supporting the needs of her students thank you for your years of dedication and service to the many students and colleagues you've connected with during your years here
008supporting students in malwa pepe you most certainly will be missed and we wish you much luck in your new adventures with family and friends and especially your new grandchild um a special highlight to our male high school guidance department megan beatty stacey mandel reihan jaleel our new school counselor jesse strzok uh joan stewart uh along with the assistance of nancy mariani and denise wright uh and led by dominic leott our director of guidance uh our november first applications are out and we had 126 seniors submit 553 early action applications and in addition uh 60.5 of the class have already submitted 1022 applications so we are proud of the department's efforts uh we are proud of our kids and we wish great success to our students uh during this application cycle all right the next piece
009is a follow-up to our november 4th email um that was uh submitted to our model community uh from our administrative team that was titled uh phase one in review but the purpose of this notification was to provide our school community with our work today and some families have reached out with concerns regarding um our considerations to close so while we do not have intentions to close our in-person learning but we do understand that we are in a public health-related pandemic uh and due to this due to this reality our school district must be cognizant of all things related to school operations including uh kobit 19 data reported in and around the bauwa area and we must also properly staff our buildings and follow the governor's executive orders so um with that said we have been
010meeting with our school nurses regularly and just last week we met with our district physician along with all uh seven of our school nurses to review the status of our schools currently today we can report that no identified cloven 19 positive cases have been transmitted inside any of our school buildings so that's great news um and what is optimal and what is worthy of note is we have a system and a cleaning procedure in place that is working and our students are learning so so that's great news uh from a safety perspective we are scheduled to meet with our medical stakeholders group um which is uh inclusive of our school nurses and district as well as medical experts um and professional doctors and registered nurses um who are parents in the model community so uh
011that meeting is taking place tomorrow um at this time we will review our current safety measures and practices to see what is working in district uh what is working effectively while also seeing where we can ever improve uh from a curricular perspective um our parent advisory council will be meeting next week which is exciting for the first time and it's been created to include a cross-section of parents that will be comprised mostly of three representatives from each school building uh to meet periodically throughout the remainder of the may 28 2021 school year and uh the purpose of this group is to discuss curriculum and instruction social emotional learning and the student experience both in person and remote and um mr kaplan may be able to speak a little more when we get to our board
012committee reports as this was a genesis of our work with the community relations committee all right and lastly uh agenda items 15 z and agenda items 15 aaa speak to donations so uh as we move into fully remote or hybrid learning experiences we recognize that there are students in our community who are in need of technology to assist with their learning from home our reopening plan refers to this as the digital divide and as a school district we are required to address this divide and it's something we want to address so agenda item 15z speaks to and sincerely thanks mawwa champions for the children which is a local community organization who understood this need and is working to provide technology to children in our local area through donations and volunteer opportunities in order to provide
013computer hardware and software capability to promote children access to their required scholastic experiences dr d pascual mr lockwood both have backgrounds in technology they happen to be in our audience welcome thank you for being here and have led efforts to receive technology device donations which are then prepared and cleared for our kids approximately 30 devices have already been done donated to the district and our technology team is in the process of identifying families in conjunction with building leadership who need this technology the most the devices will be in the homes of students to support our online learning platforms and initiatives uh and to donate portable technology and devices uh we ask that our community review uh this organization's website that is found in our reopening plan so uh we thank dr b pasquale and mr
014lockwood for taking on this initiative um it's more than just an initiative uh dr d pasquale set up a tent outside of mawa high school i sat out there and retrieved laptops it's not just getting the laptops it's cleaning them out making them uh ready for our kids and we really appreciate uh that it was a ground tourist roots effort that was it came from a really sincere place um so thank you um agenda item 15 a a uh highlights mr duffield who is a resident uh of mawa as well and a parent in our school district he serves as a safety health and environmental manager for nestle nespresso usa and just recently mr duffield was able to secure 30 apple ipads from his company espresso that will be in the hands of our students
015and we thank mr duffield too for his thoughtfulness in serving as a partner to our district so while we recognize that these efforts um do come from an authentic place with no expectations and spotlight uh these gentlemen highlight what it means as a community um that we are truly in this together and i think that right now more than ever we need to be reminded of that over and over again uh we would like to provide these gentlemen uh with small moments of appreciation uh as we honor them with uh we have framed all of our city letters like this and uh also we we had pens inscribed that had the model logo and we obviously placed in bags a whole uh a whole bunch of mahwah swag so um dr fitz and i will
016thank you very much mr fair for that report and thank you very much for all the donations we really truly appreciate it um all right i have a report this evening you just call it up on my phone here mr john pascal principal of the mawa high school announced today that the following announced the other day that the following students have been named commended students in the 2021 national merit scholarship program joshua t bernstein matthew a brand down here jenna h han christie corcovacos joanna lee varun yu patel matthew d saguerria proti sophia m smith kyle s springer yeti z and jessica h zing approximately 34 000 commended students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise although they will not continue in the 2021 competition for national merit scholarship awards commended
017students placed among the top 50 000 scorers of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2021 competition by taking the 2019 preliminary sat national merit scholarship qualifying test so those being named commended students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success commented a spokesperson for the nmsc these students represent a valuable national resource recognizing their accomplishments as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation we hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success so congratulations on this important accomplishment and we wish you continued success in the future and the other a little bit of information i'd like to share with you again mr john pascal principal the
018mawa high school is proud to announce that two members of the class of 2021 have been designated national merit scholarship semi-finalists oliver j wang and zachary s hawk are the recipients of this honor they have been named as members of the top 16 000 students from the original pool of 1.5 million juniors who took the psat in 2019. officials of the national merit scholarship corporation announced the names of approximately 16 000 semi-finalists in the 66th annual national merit scholarship program these academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7 600 national merit scholarships worth more than 30 million uh dollars that will be offered next spring to be considered for a merit scholarship award semifinalist must fulfill several requirements advanced to finalist level of the competition over 90
019percent of the semi-finalists are expected to attain finalists standing the more and more than half of the finalists will win a national merit scholarship earning the merit scholar title so congratulations to oliver and zachary on this wonderful achievement and that is my report for this evening yes mr bleecker okay uh one item that i uh forgot to mention during my report uh a follow-up item as a super intended search uh another aspect of that will be a survey that's gonna be sent out to the community uh that's expected to go out sometime late next week mr cochlin i'll be quick um i'll just jump on what dennis had reported on the current advisory council i wanted to thank dennis for spearheading this this is something that the community relations committee discussed a couple weeks ago
020came up with a mission statement and quite honestly dennis took it and ran with it so thank you dennis we're looking forward to the meeting next week uh we want to also want to thank dr fitz for his support uh for this committee as well as all of the volunteer parents that have been asked to participate these are all volunteers who are taking time out of their day to help us and uh our hope is that this is a committee that we will be able to continue uh beyond the school year so thanks thank you again and uh we'll report next meeting and let everyone know how that mean he went fantastic do we have any other committee reports for this evening [Music] um all right instruction and curriculum i just um i just want
021to give an update um on some things that started over the summer um in a preliminary fashion um and things that we're continuing to work on so um over the summer there was some preliminary conversations with members of our community and uh dr de toro myself mr fair and we started having some conversations about looking at certain issues related to diversity equality inclusion things like that um in our school district um so uh we decided that we would kind of have some preliminary meetings mr coplin um also a member of community relations uh joined us and dr fitz when he um joined the district um and we've had two or three meetings basically just talking about um pieces related to some of these themes one of the things that we were waiting for and hopeful
022of is that we would be able to use the strategic plan and the malwa blueprint as a jumping off point once that was approved by the board and um very not surprisingly that was approved by the board last week in our last meeting two weeks ago um so we're now at a point of perhaps expanding um this group um we i think they've named it the mawa diversity equality and inclusion council members of central administration myself mr coplin members of our school community and i think they're going to now dr detouro has also invited some curriculum supervisors to this meeting uh and perhaps principals and other representatives we're still kind of working that out um anyway so i just wanted to update the board that uh these are things that we're looking at we're hoping
023to tie pieces of this to the elements of the strategic plan which is again our guiding force um and we do have a few members of the community here um and they're going to share a few words at the end are in public participation so just wanted to update the board as to where we were okay policy has um six policies on tonight's agenda for first reading the first one is policy 1620 administrative employee employment contracts this policy has been revised in response to a recent new jersey appellate court case that involves public notice and hearing requirements for an administrative contract that is rescinded or terminated by the board before it is due to expire and the parties agree to new employment terms a board of education not in bergen county rescinded an existing superintendent's
024contract and provided the superintendent with a new contract but did not provide public notice or have a public hearing this action was challenged and the appellate court decided that public notice and hearing is required under these circumstances as a result policy guide 1620 has been revised to require a public notice and hearing in addition to abolishing the superintendent salary caps and several other revisions related to abolishing the salary caps next um policy on our agenda is policy 2431 this is athletic competition and there's a regulation that goes along with that 2431-1 emergency procedures for sports and other athletic activity this policy and regulation has been revised based on a new law that requires the school districts that include any of the grades 6 through 12 to establish and implement an emergency action plan for responding
025to a serious or life-threatening sports related injury sustained while participating in sports and other athletic activities the plan is required to be revised annually and updated as necessary the title of the regulation has been revised to align with the language from the new law and outlines all requirements placed on the school districts the next one is policy and regulation 5330.05 seizure action plan policy in regulation 53 30.05 have been developed to address the requirements of a new law that outlines the school district's responsibility in caring for students with epilepsy and seizure disorders the new policy regulation requires that a parent of a student with epilepsy and seizure disorders submit the student's seizure action plan developed by a physician on an annual basis to the school nurse the seizure action plan is a comprehensive document that
026includes information regarding the student's seizure history and treatment the school nurse shall then develop an individualized health care plan and an individualized emergency health care plan for the student and is updated annually the new law also requires the school district to coordinate epilepsy and seizure disorder care at the school and ensure that all staff are trained in the care of students with epilepsy and seizure and disorder including staff working with the school-sponsored programs outside the regular school day the next one is policy 6440 cooperative purchasing this policy has been revised to reflect changes that govern the public school contract law cooperative purchasing and joint purchases by school districts this was um there were language changes that included updated definitions for lead agency registered members cooperative purchasing system and joint purchasing system language was also removed
027risk policy that was redundant the last one is policy 7450 property inventory this policy was revised to more accurately reflect the definitions of equipment and supply the revised policy also includes language to make distinctions when recording property inventory in the district also an outdated new jersey administrative code citation was removed um that's it thank you john good sorry about that so in the twitter feed daniel palway had two posts math about math league and she concluded her um post with sort of a string of the mathematical plus and subtraction and vision and so on so i just wanted to highlight that because she is a person who is on fire with meth and her use of the nomenclature of math and highlighting this is about a post about math league and that there are 48
028students in the district despite the pandemic are going full hard on with athlete and it's a shout out basically to danielle and to the 48 students who are doing uh who are participating in math league this year but the other thing i wanted to talk about was pepe gardner and at the end of pepe gardeners when we get these resignation letters that's in the packet to the board members but at the end of her resignation letter to the board she had some very complimentary things to say specifically about dennis but i think she probably could have said about that about any of her colleagues so i don't mean to no i don't mean it that way i just don't want to i think what she was reflecting was yes your unique contribution to her but
029also to the fact that so many she said this thank you dennis for all you do you make a difference and don't isn't that the best thing that we can be said about any of us and i'm reminded in dr fitz's opening remarks about all the people who have to make our district work and they are making a difference and i just wanted to recognize them and that this staff member who's left us you know is one of those people that every day came in to make a difference in our students lives and especially in these trying times um you know the people are doing that every single day uh is remarkable and it's something we should have a lot of gratitude for so i don't want to i didn't want to embarrass dennis and
030i don't think i broke any confidentiality with pepe but i think it was just worth noting that um that this is so important so it's my hallmark card but i always get moved by those those retirement letters that have those personal comments so thank you dennis and thank you to all your colleagues i will mute myself okay there we go i think i'm good okay okay may i have a motion to move on old business mr coplan second by mr de silva mr speaker could you please take roll call mr cool mr coplin yes this is dissolved yes mr denise yes mr gallow yeah miss conoco yes dr morty morty yes and miss barron yes all right now i have new business open sorry uh new business a through a a may have a motion
031to proceed on that mr gallows seconded by miss conaco forward benders have any remarks or comments on any of those items before we proceed uh just another uh thank you to uh the people involved in the donations between nespresso and uh champions for children what a what a what a great what a great commentary on our own community most definitely thank you okay could you please take roll call on those items mr bleecker this is cool mr kotlin yes this is the silva yes mrs denise yes mr gallow yes doctor morthy doctor yes and miss baron and miss baron yes now i'd like to speak new business personnel a through n we have a motion to proceed on those items this is a cone signed by doctor mulligan you have any comments on any of
032the items numbers before you see we're good to go yes mr dasilva yes mr denise yes mr gallup yes ms conaco yes dr questions or comments now the section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes may i please have a motion to open to the public mr dallas just give us your name and your address and if you're representing a group that you're in yeah yeah um pardon me just uh before you begin there's one comment that did come through the chat i just want to read that first it's a statement okay um statement this is from miss uh ruth davis employee of the district uh supervisor of um instructional technology regarding number 15 [Music] i would like to express my sincere thanks to dr d pasqual mr locke mr delco the generous
033donations we're currently working to identify the best placement for this donated technology and i'm excited about the progress we have made so far in collaborating with members of our special ed department to move ahead in providing assistive technology to meet the needs of our students thank you ms davis okay okay hi good evening everyone my name is nadia khan i live at 692 wyckoff avenue in malwa i think you're supposed to give your address but thank you thank you okay perfect if not everyone knows where i live now so i am a mom of two beautiful children in the mawa schools they attend george washington school um i am also a member of our newly formed mawa diversity equity and inclusion committee we are so excited to be here myself and my colleagues and we
034are really looking forward to partnering with the board of ed and with the rest of our committee to doing some amazing important work um we're basically we are a group of parents and residents who are passionate about creating a community of respect and equity in our children's schools we are inspired to take action to ensure that malwa students have an educational experience that addresses inequality but also promotes diversity and inclusion for all of our students we honor the beautiful uniqueness of each individual and we embrace diverse backgrounds values and points of view to build a strong inclusive community that prepares every single one of our students for life in a 21st century multicultural society we'd like to ensure that equitable diverse curricular are incorporated in all of our marvel public schools that includes and centers
035the experience of historically marginalized communities including but not limited to race class sex gender sexuality physical or mental ability age religion national origin or ethnicity and immigration status in short if i could say we want to create a community or help to build on the wonderful community we have where every mawa student feels seen and represented in the school community that they very proudly call their own and we want to thank the board of ads the members of our community that we've been working with um dr fitz mr coughlin dr murphy dr dettoro mr fair and all the members of the diversity equity and inclusion council for your support and your partnership we can't wait to continue doing some wonderful work together thank you thank you very much thank you hi everyone hello hello good
036evening my name is janine ting janssen i live at 129 east slopper and bala just to be sure i am um a parent i have three young children at betsy ross i've had active conversations about diversity with our principal with some of the teachers and many of you and i'm very excited to be here to continue that conversation on behalf of the council for myself i have 14 years of hr experience i am a senior director of inclusion and diversity so diversity is near and dear to my heart and i show that in my professional and personal life and volunteer a lot with their youth and just help first-gen students attend college so that's that's my calling this is what i'd like to do i'm really excited to be here and support this effort with
037our council part of our objectives are aligned to the key tenets of the strategy of the plan that was just approved and we're pleased that we're already focused on many of the tenants that we hold passionate and our goals are the strength in the plan with all the expertise from the parents the board and all of our administrators because we know that it's our core values of supporting respect determination that we have and we want to support our students to be successful and with that we would like to align with the curriculum and instruction efforts enhance the k-12 academic curriculum to reflect greater diversity of perspective specifically from historically marginalized community as a society we have an opportunity there and as a school i'd really like to see us move forward and i think we
038have a great opportunity to do so with the plan social and emotional wellness is another keen tenant and we want to improve the social emotional support around racism and education for justice and we're looking forward to having this conversation lastly and our community connections we want to help the community support these relationships create an environment that is welcoming and affirming for all particularly for these students of these communities so we're excited to be working together in partnership and solidarity and really just to have a positive impact in our community so as parents we're here to volunteer offer ourselves with our expertise and really just have more conversations around this really important topic so we thank you thank you good evening everyone my name is patricia barcella and i reside at one babbitt bridge road in
039mala so i just want to start off by saying that i echo the sentiments of my colleagues on this council and i'm very proud to be part of this exciting initiative while historically marginalized communities have have made significant progress over the years i think um we all just sort of admit that there's still uh more work to do so i i fundamentally believe that the inclusion of positive diverse perspectives in our curriculum literature and media will help raise awareness and create an inclusive culture where all students feel welcomed and celebrated for their individual uniqueness um and there are many benefits of a diverse and inclusive education as you all educators know um students become more empathetic they gain a better understanding of history and people they become more open-minded feel more confident and safe and
040are ultimately better prepared for a diverse workplace as a mawa mom of three young kids they attend gw and joyce komar who have roots in the caribbean and american south and as a corporate professional in the field of learning and development it's important to me that our children have equal opportunity to flourish to thrive and reach their bad given potential in a nurturing environment so with that said janine and i are super pleased to be part of the parent advisory committee working in partnership with all of you and we will keep our council informed as we continue to make progress on our mutual objectives welcome the input of members of the community as we help bring the strategic plan to life thank you thank you anyone else is there anyone else on our chat mr
041bleaker no um no miss no more questions and answers in our chat i do not see any of those members of the public attending uh through zoom uh no hands for questions or comments uh okay okay may i have a motion to close the meeting to the public mr cochran's second by um dr morphy okay um i need a motion to recess to executive session mr de silva second by miss conoco um we're going to be ending the meeting after our uh our executive session all the action is going to be taken at the executive session so everyone is free to leave us around and watch us come back thank you all for attending i appreciate it [Music] we will end the meeting as well for um those that are logged on electronically again no
042action to be taken happy executive session thank you