001good evening everyone adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press the Middletown patch and the Middletown Township Public School District website and the posting of such at the August T minor administrative offices in each elementary middle and secondary school website in the district roll call Mrs cetti here Mr donlin here Mr gimo here Mr heon here Mr little Mrs tacco here Mrs Wright here Mr Capone here Mrs minu here all right I need a resolution to go into executive session so move all in favor I oppose abstentions okay we're going in don't I abstain why are we going into executive why because we always do no we always do but you always tell us why we're going in oh I don't have the agenda I'm sure Personnel
002matters I'm sure it's matters of personnel Food Service I don't want to make it up reading it off her book it's on the agenda it's on the agenda I'm gonna make it up wow Food Service before and after care volleyball in Middletown and Personnel matters thank you than you hi hi extensions those we're going in good evening everybody how is everybody tonight we're glad to see an audience tonight welcome to everybody online adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press the Middletown patch and the Middletown Township Public School District website and elementary middle and secondary school website in the district roll call Mrs cetti here Mr dlin here Mr gimo here Mr heer here Mr little here Mrs tobacco here Mrs Wright here Mr Capone here this
003minu here can everyone please rise for the flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for stands Nation God indivisible all righty we're starting out tonight with our presentation of the Strategic plan C strategic plan okay are we ready strategic plan all right you go first is that you good evening everyone um so we just got to take a little bit of time to to kind of give an update on where we stand with the Strategic plan the fiveyear plan um I'm sure everybody remembers there was a lot of community input um into developing this plan some of you are looking at me STS let me introduce myself first I apologize that was your my name is Pat Rell I'm one of the assistant superintendents here
004um so I just want to give you a quick update on um where we stand and we're going to go through um cental office personnel as far as where we stand with each of our objectives and goals and some of the evidence to show where we stand and U obtaining those so the first one committee led by a board member we were on it I was on it not now not this year we can hear [Music] you so goal one um was the continue commitment to Student Success by promoting social emotional um Wellness in objective one we had two objectives here objective one was the Middletown Township Public School District will Implement in devel a developmentally appropriate plan to support the social and emotional needs of each mtps student staff member and family including curriculum
005programs and activities and I'm not going to go through each of um the listed evidence here artifacts but a couple of things I wanted to highlight um this year to better support our students staff um and families the district developed a framework and Pathways uh which was a flowchart that formalized the process in which social emotional learning and uh mental health supports are accessed by the students and staff and this is a tiered model um and this model starts at the top um and runs down to the bottom so it's the at the very top is tier one and then the hway down to the bottom of tier three um dealing with individual students needs um the district also increased its use of suet 360 which is an online platform that provides social emotional learning
006in both the classroom based and student driven experiences these are aligned with the CLE framework and competencies of social emotional learning we've had that in the district at the high school level this year we implemented it at the middle school level um and we've had a lot of great feedback from the building level um and the middle school students as far as the implementation of Suite 360 uh we continue as a district to work with CPC and Riverview crisis unit um to continue to look at the evaluation process um and the intake process of when students are in need of higher care that we can't you know they have to move on from our support staff here in the building to um a higher level of care we have regular meetings with CPC and River
007crises Center to make sure that we're aligned we're collaborating so when the students do move into that next level um the foundational supports are already in place and they're prepared for the next level uh as a district we worked with ESS effective School solutions to provide professional development for our staff we had two over the last year they were virtual uh dealing specifically with the pandemic the first one was um an opportunity entitled supporting Student Success success stress anxiety and mental health during covid-19 um and the second one was an implementation of the nurtur heart approach to find greatness in their students and like I said both of these professional developments were offered online to our staff throughout the district um and the last one that I wanted to highlight was our mental health and
008Community Resource page on the district website um has been updated we've added additional resources to that and we have a dedicated covid-19 Hub um that that families can go to and there's a ton of resources available there um from Mental Health social emotional housing uh food resources anything that families may need during this pandemic there's a there's a dedicated spot right on our District web page uh the families can access that and the last one up there is uh the ninth grade seminar curriculum um this is a new course that's going to be offered to our freshman next year um and that is uh developed by a group of counselors and teachers and it's based specifically on the New Jersey Department of EDS social emotional learning competencies so again that'll be a course that all
009of our freshman will take moving into next year good evening everyone my name is Matt Kirkpatrick I'm the district director of student support uh services the district under goal we're still under goal one here objective two is the Middletown Township Public School District build and Foster a school climate that supports the social emotional needs of all the students through schoolwide programs initiatives and activities our district recognizes the importance of addressing the social emotional and the mental health Wellness of our entire School Community we have expanded programs that we currently are running and we've also implemented new programs in order to support not only our students but our staff and our parents as well this is just this is just a list of a few of the different programs that we've implemented across the district this
010year I can run through them quickly for you responsive classroom considers the social and emotional well-being had it yeah sure turn close sorry okay good okay so responsive classroom was initially in elementary school we've implemented it in the middle school as well it considers the social and emotional wellbeing on our students in the classroom virtual support groups have been happening throughout the pandemic some schools have developed a social emotional chart Charter with feedback from school staff and students to recognize what they think is the biggest need from a social and emotional standpoint in the school virtual counseling classrooms have been going on there's a virtual calming room for students where they can go in and pick different resources for supports and again these this is mixed it's not all at one level or one building
011it's mixed between our elementary our middle and our high schools restorative practice helps us dis deal deal with discipline end conflict in a more student centered manner Middle School ESS Mr Rell mentioned Middle School ESS it used to be at the high schools it's still at the high school we' expanded to the middle school as well we have air dogs program that's pending that will bring service dogs to our district very excited about that secret Sidekick is a program that pairs up teachers so they can support one another motivational Mondays is just a way to get students going in the beginning of which can be a difficult week uhal social emotional code of the day we typically have quotes throughout the school year helping motivate students and staff we've expanded our Suicide Prevention resources in
012our high schools giving the uh physical education Health teachers more resources to support the students there's a staff Wellness Choice board at the high schools that allows staff members to pick and choose which topics they need to talk about for Wellness during that week better space Hub is a hub that is for students to pick different Wellness topics for support the art of resiliency and integration is a six week week program that they have at High School North with different videos and supports for staff and students to pick from take te breath Wednesday just helps us get through a difficult week when we hit hum day virtual learner Twitter account is a good way to have our virtual learner stay in contact with what's going on in the schools and Middletown High School South had
013a random kindness padet where students and staff members were able to post different things that they've done to help one another I just wanted to also mention that next year we are going to be implementing a virtual not a virtual a screening form so we can screen our students a universal screening form to see to gauge the wellness of our students in in the schools um we're also going to be offering professional development for parents on mental health and we're going to be providing professional development for staff on Mental Health trauma and also Crisis Intervention and assessment thank you not sure Michelle T District director of special education go two is our increasing equity and opportunity to ensure the needs of all Learners are met so this is our inclusion and Equity goal which we
014have three objectives I I won't read through all of them but there are so many things that we are do to equity and inclusion that I hope I didn't miss any or literally add to them just a little while ago we have so many things going on there are new digital resources in a number of the subjects and what that does is support differentiated instruction it gives students different opportunities for engagement for assessment kind of in line with uh u a Universal Design for Learning there are diversity and inclusion activities in chemistry and physics with an expansion of an appreciation for people with disabilities the lgbtq plus people and bip increasing multi-sensory methods of instruction in reading and writing some of these will duplicate on other slides so our elementary teachers in special education are
015trained in Project Read and then our middle and high school self-contained teachers are trained in linguistics and the purpose of that is to provide these multi-sensory methods of reading so that they are able to work more efficiently with their general education peers as we move more and more students towards opportunities for inclusion we do a lot of work with New Jersey Coalition for inclusive education if you were able to join us on May 4th we did a presentation um All About inclusion and our um expansion of inclusive opportunities co-hosted by the district the Middletown Township friend of the learner New Jersey Coalition for inclusive aded and monair States University Center for Autism and early childhood mental health we all co-hosted it together if it isn't on the website it will be soon um we have
016a lot of work going on with Dr ferus and Temple University uh Dr Meg young is the district liaison for that and there's a lot of equity and inclusion work taking place there and we have ongoing meetings and discussion with child study team case manages regarding inclusion and the Continuum of Educational Services next slide please so objective two is all that PD to help us expand our inclusive opportunities we have a lot of professional development that goes on our power professionals they had a video training in September and actually when we meet probably every six to seven weeks with new Paras they also do the training which does include in it supporting students fading support So students can be more included with their general education peers there's going to be targeted PD for the sixth
017grade um teachers in science and social studies that's going to be Project Read to help the students be able to apply multi-sensory literacy skills to non reading meaning science social studies and non-fiction um passages in curriculum talked about the project R trining there was also Project R trining for Alla CST in February by Amy Wallace one of the rdts reading development teachers we are going to be training additional rdts so the rdts are the reading development teachers and they uh work with jened tier instruction going to be training quite a number of them in Wilson reading level one and then we had a number of Staff members administrators teachers CST participate with njc and their spring conference on March 19th and also in upcoming June 28th Summer Conference that's open to anyone so if you
018just go to njc's website um they have a whole conference going on on June 28th okay next slide this continues our um objective two so if you were able to join us or if you've heard me speak other times about the inclusion grants so through njc's work with NJ doe many schools in the state of New Jersey applied for and received uh different grants for inclusion in Harmony prek and Leonardo K5 we were awarded systemic change Grant so that's three to five year so the whole Grant process to move the schools more towards inclusion um we're happy to say that they do think I might have that other the next slite applied um for the upcoming year to be part of a systemic change cohort and Middletown Village has applied for technical assistance which is
019another kind of Grant through inclusion um and and we do a lot of work with them the cop is for the administrators working on the inclusion Grant um back to Dr Ferguson his Temple University um cward who work with us on Equity teams the science teachers have received PD in various Gizmo Virtual Lab activities so that's an app that they work on and we had uh one of our special education attorneys met with the child study team in March 2021 just to go over the legal requirements for least restrictive environment next slide and our objective three is promoting a positive uh climate and culture of acceptance and appreciation for diversity and inclusion within our schools um you may have heard about uh the morning meetings that um is very inclusive for our students there's read
020alouds coming that are going to be used as part of the K5 curriculum that's coming um again we did have our presentation it was on May 4th and will be up on the website we continue to work work on our inclusion grants as I said Bay Elementary has applied for 3 to five years systemic change grants Middletown Village has applied for a technical assistance grant we won't know until we receive we won't know if we receive them until probably beginning of July but even if we don't receive them we're taking what we learn through our grant work for Harmony and Leonardo and and we are sharing it throughout the district the Autism Awareness acceptance virtual class classroom has various readal out and resources for staff and students that was a big part of our autism
021awareness month and then we have bab's empty Heroes Cafe initiative so Babu has this um Heroes Cafe initiative where they take orders for Beverages and deliver throughout Babu Elementary School they've recently teamed with new M so that we can expand it to some of our classes in new mmed and it's it's almost like it's like a junior of the No Limits Cafe where they do donate some of their profits and um that was kind of like the kind of the incentive to develop the the B MD Heroes Cafe think that's my last slide Chris Michelle can I a question is there any um any uh expansion of this to the high school for the Community there hasn't been really anything going on with so we want Cafe Brew Crew is kind of similar thing I
022don't know if you're familiar with Brew Crew at High School South but we can't wait to get that back off the ground so we should have that back off the ground it's kind of it's kind of a similar thing as to what they're doing with the heroes Cafe okay and that's gonna be starting at back in September we should definitely have it back in September yeah we're looking forward to it I personally go to it I don't know it was a great program I don't know what happened to it it was great but um the kids right now there hasn't been anything like that for right definitely looking to get back to as much as we possibly can in September thank you good evening everyone my name is Kim pus I'm one of the um
023assistant superintendents and with me here is Dr carrian he's one of our uh curriculum directors the director of mathematics k12 and um on behalf of the the curriculum Department team and all the teachers that we work with to craft and draft our curriculum and and implement it we're here to talk about some of the things we've done this year to support goal three of the district strategic plan which was to continue our commitment to Student Success Through personalized learning personalized learning has been a Bedrock the foundation of our um district and our curriculum and our instruction for several years now we find that it really does facilitate true learning meaningful learning for all students that it provides differentiated and targeted instructions specific to students needs as well as interests and we know that that's what
024will keep them engaged and learning and be able to apply with their uh learning in the classroom to real to the real world so Dr caran is going to talk about um our first objective some of the evidence that we wanted to share with you tonight for this effort and the first objective was to ensure more consistent practice and facilitating personalized learning was really focus on uh becoming more efficient and effective in analyzing student data uh with them as well with students and analyzing their own data to drive that personalized learning hi everyone good evening so in grades 2 through 12 we've adopted the link platform through which teachers are able to get benchmark assessments to see what students are learning what they mastered and what they might not yet have mastered and through that
025process teachers create Choice boards they give students their own assessment results so that they can create their own goals and keep track of their learning in that way the link at assessments are given in ela and in mathematics will take them from grade 2 all the way through Algebra 2 and Ela 11 and um as you might know there's a link at Parent Portal so if you're interested in seeing how your students are doing on these assessments um I think information was communicated out earlier in the school year about that we also use the achieve the core coherence map this is an online site where if if a teacher wants to see what foundational skills are important for the current skill that they're teaching they can just click on the grade level standard and it
026will fold them back to the previous skills and standards students need in order to be able to master the current standard this was something that was released about a year or a year and a half ago and we've been finding a lot of success with this and plan to use it moving forward into next year where unfinished learning will be our priority um other things we've been doing I ready Diagnostics in ela to support acceleration of growth by providing students reports that address learning gaps while also enabling all students to access grade level learning and then we also the FP I math assessment kindergarten screeners and teacher toxy training which is mandated by the and this may seem like uh a lot of assessment we really do embed it into our natural teaching and learning
027experiences and more importantly this year it really served as um the impetus to how we were able to strategically identify what were the primary core foundational skills we needed to um impart and expose students to while especially while we were working um in that cybrid Co hybrid cohort model um and that really is what kept our district on Pace um our students on Pace for meeting grade level expectations so the second objective under goal three was to increase Equity with regard to opportunities for incorporating student interests reflection and ownership while also empowering them to become creative communicators capable of collaborating to address local and Global issues with the support and involvement of our parents now the parent piece was a little difficult this year although I think our teachers were very creative and how they
028engag parents and kept parents informed with what was happening in the classroom um we saw some great examples of that uh but I think what Dr Carri is probably going to focus on is our efforts to really hit the interests of students which is something that we always have an eye on so our curriculum department has been very busy this year working on new course offerings and updated course offerings to what we already offer to provide students with those opportunities and interesting coursework that they would like to take some examples are listed on the slide we've had interest P projects aligned to New Jersey student learning standards and the new K to5 social stat curriculum which include a climate change project sustainable development goals project and a Civics Action project in 2122 we will offer
029some new high school electives including modern Global issues and power Prejudice in The Human Experience course that was done in conjunction with Kee University Thor e freers this year conducted a soci pilot Civics project addressing a local issue and the feedback from that will be used to revise Middle School social studies curriculum to align with the new njsls there's also a new challenge based curriculum developed for K to 5 gets and talented where students will complete interest based challenges Endor spark projects in six week Cycles um also in math next year we're having Algebra 2 pathway program so students will be choosing the type of alge to that fast aligns with their uh post-secondary interest we have a stem version for students to wish to study pre-calculus calculus and Beyond and a non- stem version
030for students who like to become more data literate okayy and our last objective um I guess considering that we had finalized these goals and objectives uh or zeroed in on them prior to um the current health emergency it was appropo that um our third objective CHR just go forward one thank you was to extend personalized learning in the virtual setting by utilizing strategies methodologies and resources they're appropriate to provide learning experiences most importantly that Balan technology use with other action oriented opportunities um that personto person uh experience that we want our students to engage in so um think Dr K's going to explain some of the things we've done this year whether they were um related to the way schools were operating this year or how we expect to be able to expand upon uh
031these virtual resources to students moving forward our teachers were extremely flexible adaptive and Innovative ISS year with their use of technology in the classroom in the absence of regular feasto Fe everyday type instruction being employed a variety of methodologies including Choice boards virtual breakout rooms to work with students and to partner them up with other students who are either in the room or out of the room um we had the Imagine Learning Program used in elementary for both math and for ELA so that students had some type of adaptive program to work with um outside of the regular classroom instruction for on the high school end teachers of advanced placement courses had the opportunity to use the AP classroom this is a platform put out by the college board that contains released exam questions videos
032and supporting materials so that students can be sure that they're accessing appropriate rigorous content throughout the course of the Year also we're very excited about Esports Esports teams were launched by student leaders and etex at all five secondary schools dur in this past school year and that's an Endeavor we're looking to expand upon next year thank oh another slide Chris you move forward um in the science area we had the savus realiz program in chemistry and physics so students have a variety of resources available through that website science 9 to2 will be incorporating pivot interactive virtual La activities that involve some guided inquiry which is in line with our personalized learning goal and then in the Arts and business areas we have a variety of culum updates including um updates to the standards career Readiness
033life literacies key skill key skill standards and more individualized anchor standards in those elected areas thanks I think Mrs ohagen is going to give everyone an update on where we are with go four which was our Community Partnerships thank you my name is charen I am the district Director of Human Resources and instruction and and a Middletown lier um I have to tell you when we began the Strategic plan the concept of a pandemic and the impact it would have on the entire world was not a molecule than any of our of our Persona so to say that we decided to recognize the importance of fostering a partnership with the community as well as strong parent student educator relationships that makes common sense of course we would want to do that but never have I
034been so proud of our community and when I assessed all of the things that we've been able to do whether it's the school district the Middletown Township committee the Middletown Public Library I it's really th eye opening to see all of the projects that are under under way to support our students um the first objective was to build strong collaborative Community Partnerships to support Student Success just a few pieces of evidence and again if I've left anything out here that's key I apologize there was so much to call through to pull out examples of evidence that I may have left something important out and I will be glad to add it if anyone wants to share with me but the uh miltown Township Health Department was vital in helping us with our health planning as
035we struggled to get back to full day inperson learning um the Middletown Public Library it could not have come at a better time where they provided support for students and parents including opportunities to do virtual research it was a homework Health hotline they created a program for teachers bag where teachers could phone virtually and collect access to digital books and lesson planning they had many virtual programs that kids could go online and experience the database access alone was is something that a a college and university in the days long ago would not have had access to um and they also are they have a program called the reader children's readers advisory where kids want to go on and fill out a Google form because they want a suggestion for what's a new book that might
036align to something that they're reading and hopefully they're doing a lot more reading now um they can do that the second objective to implement methods to methods and protocols to support our student social emotional well-being through resources provided by Community Based programs I'm not going to read all of them to you they're there they're powerful and I think the last one at the bottom is what I'd like you to really focus on all of these programs they provided counseling they provided Consultants community care for students and Families in Need completely ongoing through Co through Co they found ways to morph their services and to provide them virtually or to provide places where they could safely connect with people I mean they have really stood the test of being there for our community so I'm extremely
037proud of you okay next slide okay objective three to maximize opportunities that are Rob School Community Partnership to support an open line of communication but this just changed this was bulleted before something happened to this anyway I'm gonna go for my screen because I know I've got everything on there so we now we had the partnership with the DNA which was totally and completely amazing the way it helped us to get staff that wanted to be vaccinated vaccinated um the Middletown Public Library right now is in the process and what a time to be doing it is um starting the 2021 Time Capsule project and they're looking for people to offer suggestions what should be in a time capsule to cover and include what happened in the year 2021 they also have a great tales
038and tales summer reading program where they have service dogs work with students and they are planning to have a lot of their services available in person once we get to the Summer pory Park again offering great resources um the Middletown Township Department of Public Works has been very busy they have created a recycling educational tour that's going to be primarily focused on K1 and second grade students where teachers can bring their students to the recycling department and learn all about recycling uh the Middletown Township committee um gave a lifting award to our High School North Heroes and also mayor Perry and some of the administrative officers from the police department went to Bay's Heroes Cafe that Dr T and just spoke about before and actually visited with the students and shared some of the products
039from the cafe there's a Weekly Newsletter that the township puts out called Middletown matters and the district puts out called mcps Pride that highlights many of the accomplishments of students in the district and the community at Large um Cen Hall has just finished a university AC accessible playground the Middletown uh EMS at Flores post is seeking to expand and add new members and just this past May 5th Middletown hosted a mental health panel that brought together representatives from many different areas of social emotional learning support mental health support and they have created a resource a Google doc that's been broken down into file by subcategories so people can go in and look for targeted support regardless of what their need is during this very challenging time it's really quite quite impressive very proud of them
040I think that's it okay thank all right here goal five go talks about ensuring Financial stability to ensure quality education for all students and that for all students is is an a statement about equity for students and you'll see that Equity kind of runs through almost every single one of our goals um in our strategic plan um you're talking about inclusion you're talking about personalized learning it's all based on being Equitable um in our education and Equity doesn't necessarily mean equal but it means that students get what they need to achieve to their Highest Potential so the first objective is to increase effic efficiency in alignment with the New Jersey personal facility adequacy guidelines as well as state federal funding guidelines in order to manage student enrollment which is class size and personal uh and
041Personnel Staffing to ensure all students receive a thorough and efficient education so what we did this year is and and this we've done this in the past we just did it more uh was more P pointed targeted and more of it this year was to Target our Title One schools um to reduce class sizes by adding more classes more staff so we brought those class sizes down that was a goal of ours this year um but we also we didn't stop it's Title One schools we also used some of our budgeted money and our sr2 pandemic relief money funds um to do the same thing at our other schools our non-title work schools um we also use use that money to increase opportunity for inclusion through additional staff and professional development um and also Staffing
042to provide the targeted interventions to students in need of remediation as well as those you know to enrich the the students that uh for enrichment next one goal uh objective rather number two is to implement the curricular special ed social emotional curricular programs as well as District strategic plan initi isid in alignment with state and federal mandate to ensure all students receive a thorough and efficient education in the least restrictive environment so this is talking about the the the programming um you already heard about this at the middle school um we were lucky enough to be able to um Institute the ESS its H social emotional program for our middle school students um was like late winter early spring that we we started that program there so so we're in a tier three program right
043now because students schedules were already set they already been going to classes all year long so what the tier three is the the students during the day reive uh really intensive um therapies and and you know forl and and for mental health it also has a parent component a parent involvement component um to that next year we're looking at a tier four program which is a more structured schedule for the students with even more um intensive uh therapy and the parent component as well for the past few years we've had something um called Unified sports it wasn't a course it was an activity and it brought together um students with special needs um competing on the same team with students without special needs as athletes as equal athletes um in an intermural league and it
044was a wonderful it still is it's just a great program um the students love it the coaches love it parents love it it's really wonderful so this year it was expanded or the idea was expanded into a PE course where students could elect to be in this PE course where they're you know working every day as co- you know as co-students as peers whether you're a special needs student or if you're not a special needs student um so this is something that that you know we're really proud of and I think it it really is successful and we're going to keep that going for next year um and am's gonna come and finish this and then finish goal six and goal six is our last go thank you on Amy Dary on the business administrator
045for the district those of you who don't know me the third objective under go five is to efficiently identify and allocate Financial Resources to implement state and federal mandates and programs in equable Equitable manner across the district so as we were preparing our 2122 budget uh we were uh cognizant and we did incorporate into our plan the various pandemic related funding sources that we have uh that have become available to us and the needs that they could address uh that we would need for next year's budget that was all taken into consideration and we do carefully look at each Grant to make sure that we are maximizing what we can use those funds for some of the grants intersect as far as being able to charge the same types of things to those grants and
046there are some things that only particular funding sources so we make sure we're maximizing all that a couple other points we just wanted to make sure everybody would understand that when we're using us these funds we do need to avoid using these funds for things that are not pandemic related or they're not a one timeon costs we don't want to start incorporating These funds into our operating budget and rely on them for costs that will continue beyond the pandemic so we are looking to Target temporary interventions uh or one-time cost such as improvements to our facilities that are needed and so forth so it's important to do that the state a cuts that Middletown has been experiencing over the past few years they are still happening uh our budget was uh our state a was
047cut for next year again so we have to keep all these all these things in mind our finances have not looked exactly the same as they would uh without the pandemic going on you know we have had Savings in some areas we don't nor we save on we've had some additional cost so we are looking at all of this in totality to see you know where will be after all of this activity subsides go to the next slide Chris so goal six is talk talks about our investment and stewardship of our infrastructure for Student Success our first objective being to create a plan to ensure that our facilities have adequate and appropriate space to implement current curricular mandates and initiatives assessment of our facilities will be done in a strategic and efficient manner and will
048consideration of facilities advocacy guidelines including common and multi-use spaces a recommended security improvements and recommended health and safety improvements so one of the key tools that districts use to plan for their facilities is their long range facilities plan every District's required to have one it has to be approved by the New Jersey Boe it must be updated uh in fiveyear intervals we did just recently update our long range facilties plan in 2020 which would take into account all of our buildings and identify needs over the next five years but in reality it would be five years and Beyond because the amount of work that's included in that long range facilities plan is not something the district could possibly budget for or fund over five years but it it does prioritize those needs um based upon
049uh time frames so we did just update that in 2020 also our facilities and finance committee uh got an update from our architect and Engineering Consultants just targeted toward our hbac systems a couple months ago and that committee has begun discussions uh to work toward planning to developing approach to address those needs over the next five years we've done a lot of things those of you who come to our meetings or look at things regularly we've done a lot of uh projects under with Grant funds from the state we've done an EIP plan and Energy savings Improvement plan we've used other funding sources to fund things and we have to look now to see what we're going to be doing going forward objective two is to develop a master's facilities plan that allows the district
050to focus investment in campuses uh that are uh suitable for long-term continuing use so we did we have worked with a consultant over the past year wrapping things up right around the holidays uh for the first phase uh to identify and develop preliminary scenarios to address enrollment imbalances and potentially to allow for targeted facilities improvements across the district what the consultant was charged to do was to explore alternative configurations to meet strategic planning objectives consider short long-term Alternatives and to facilitate consensus building around preferred alternative and layout steps for future planning for further planning and implementation so we did uh talk to uh like I said the consultant and we did come up with some preliminary jumping off points for future consideration and it was based upon a rubric that the strategic planning had put
051together uh we have not moved into another phase on this work yet but we do have that work and uh you know the board and and committees will continue to look at that to see what the possible next steps may be that's the last slide is it so that concludes our presentation on the update on the Strategic plan for 2020 2025 it's hard to believe we're almost you know a year into it already so we're a little bit more but it it is a fiveyear plan there were many things listed in it and you know we will be updating everybody periodically probably about twice a year on the pro on the process and the progress that we've made on the plan so thank you all for your attention leave it on Amy I'm gonna do
052a superintendent update leave the mic on yeah I just wanted to also add to that that this was a very unusual year and you know I'm just impressed with the work that our administrative team has done despite the restraints or constraints that we've had um to face this year and how our Focus has had to be on reopening but still they've managed to um move forward with the Strategic plan and we hear a lot of people say nothing's been done on a strategic plan and and I think what they're thinking a strategic plan is is um dealing with the en enrollments or the imbalance of enrollments in schools in the district you know and different schools have you know larger enrollments maybe too large of enrollments other schools have lower maybe you know they could
053use students in them um that is just a a portion that's just an OB objective on our on one goal for our strategic plan the Strategic plan really is much more overarching for meeting the needs of our students moving forward um so I I just you know want to make it clear to everybody I mean I think it was clear to everybody that you know we are working on this and we are making making progress on this um the only other thing I have for the superintendent update and I will not belittle it belabor it rather because uh you all got the letter today but I I just want to remind everybody that starting tomorrow outside maths are not mandatory um when when you know students and staff and and parents are outside um and
054also the health forms are no longer going to be collected in the morning so um just wanted to make sure everybody knows that and I guess that's it all right we'll start with committee reports legislative uh we didn't me this okay technology Mike Daran we did not have a meeting this month uh Miss miniz we're probably gonna be not meet until the middle of July Mr suak do you have anything you want to add to technology like to add is this this month's agenda sorry da you might have you might actually have to come up here so that the mic it's here right here does he need always got one there only thing I'd like to add is on the voting agenda this month is our summer internship um we had another large turnout of
055applicants for the internship from both high schools I think there's a total of 35 students applied um except eight of them three are actually returning from last year um High Flyers last year want to return so they're on the agenda for this month what's the grade levels just uh 10 11 12 and did we take them all taking eight eight eight we have a we do when we get the applications in like on my team we go with the applicants and then we interview them um it's the hardest part because a lot of interviews dist are great um but we just don't have the amount of work and then supervision to have kids on our team so we we come down to eight this year thank you student services Deb yes thank you so our
056committee met uh this month the full committee and I believe it was in the March meeting when we were talking about the expansion of ESS the effective School uh Solutions program it was offered to us by Dr tieman to have the uh program administrators come in and actually talk to us um about the program about the expansion but then also about what they've been able to do over the past year so that was our meeting that we had on May 13th um I know I greatly appreciate I think the rest of the committee uh greatly appreciated the opportunity to actually talk to the program administrators and see the uh amazing work honestly that they were still able to do this past year despite uh the challenges obviously with being first locked down and all virtual
057and then coming back in a hybrid situation so um ESS has been with the district now for six years um we went over the existing programs that are in the high school um and what I thought was really impressive was listening to the actual uh statistics on the susex of the program so far this past year and I think one thing to note um is again I think this was discussed in a prior meeting uh before but we actually were very successful in keeping a high number of students who would have most likely been placed at of district and I think actually one or two were at some point actually back home in their home schools and in the community here um which is wonderful to see because we would like to have our students
058here along with their peers and the other thing too that was really interesting to note was the program directors spoke about over the past year in seeing the national average in basically grade point averages being decreased and if I remember correctly in in some of the notes that I took the national average seem to have decreased almost to about 20% whereas here within our own programs this past year we saw the grade point averages of our students enrolled in the various programs increase by 15% really showing the success obviously of the program here and also watching the students continue to flourish and really do well with all of the wraparound Services um we also saw despite the fact again of the challenges over the past year year we saw a 70% decrease in absences in
059these programs which as we all know with the services that are being provided to these students the connection with all of their teachers and their therapists and counselors and the like were still really there and maintaining these really important relationships for our students so overall it was really great to see we then were able to discuss the expansion that is going to be happening in the middle school we just went over that actually a little bit in the Strategic plan right now the administration did want to actually start implementing some of these services for the middle school again building on the success that we've had now in high school so it right now we're doing that tier 2 style programming this was implemented actually at the beginning of this month and then we will be
060moving to the full tier three program again in the start of July um we also discussed uh the possibility of actually having ESS come to a future board meeting to talk more in depth and give a presentation to the community um I think that was agreed upon I just don't remember if that might be the June meeting or the July meeting I I don't remember if we actually set a date but that will actually be coming up uh in the near future and the other thing that we spoke about at our meeting was again something that was discussed in the Strategic plan presentation just before is the start of the air dogs Therapy Program which is really exciting um to know that we're going to be piloting uh a therapy dog program throughout some of
061the schools uh the staff members are being identified of those who have pets and are willing to go through the very rigorous training program that does need to take place before we actually start the pilot program um and so I'm sure there'll be more information coming about that over the summer as we prepare obviously for the next school year to try this pilot program out we were then able to have a cpag me meeting yesterday morning um we were able to go over the various programming that will be happening over the summer um not only for esy but also other types of programming for both General Ed and special ed students um looking at intervention programming but then also trying to uh roll out a more topic specific Camp style program um I think there
062will be more information that will be coming out about that very soon as students who are potentially eligible for these programs are being identified now um we continue to talk about the disproportionality citation and then more importantly about the work that Dr Ferguson was now doing uh with Dr Young here in the district and creating the equity teams talking more about what the equity teams will be focusing on as that work continues uh over the summer and then we talked more about uh inclusion and the work in the grants that are being uh facilitated now through njcie sort of where that is with both schools both Harmony and Leonard and then the eventual roll out very soon of having parents come on to those committees as well as we move forward with that work thank
063you Dad Melle did you want to add anything no I think that covers it we can decide when we want to have effective School Solutions come to a workshop meeting you know and I'll be happy to say I there a lot going on with June we do have coule things but we can talk about what want to do July or August I just have to say was very impressive especially um you know we talked about maybe looking into the elementary schools because of the pandemic there's going to be you know a huge need for that and they were very uh committing on that so I can't wait to hear what they would be able to do for us so yeah we'll set that up all right facilities and finance yes okay so we met on
064May 4th we spoke about facilities budget project 2122 Walter kill reviewed the 2122 budget projects with committees and detail the projects that will be starting when school ends the projects include floor replacement and a specialist abatement at nut swamp Elementary School the generator hookup at several schools flooring replacement at Harmony Elementary School replace of alarm panel at Thompson Middle School the APR wall tile replacement at River Plaza and naing the painting throughout the district and air duck cleaning at High School North and South uh District also received the NJ doe approval for the h roof c unit replacement project that wouldve done at High School South this summer the committee also discussed the high school bubble refurbishment including options for different types of flooring surfaces that can be incorporated into the project um lastly the
065annual appointment for main meeting uh Mrs Dary distribute a list of hanger Professional Service appointments that will appear on the May voting meeting agenda the committee was informed of uh other annual items such as approval of purchasing Cooperative designations of official District items Etc also appear on the May agenda and that may 2020 voting agenda could be reviewed as a reference other items discussed were confidential with possible litigation so we will speak to everybody when that is free to be speak spoken about thank you Jackie sure so we have a few policies that we're going to have on for H first readings on our May 25th agenda one of them is a new policy on therapy dogs which relates to the program that Dr tman just talked about and uh Mrs Right so we review
066the new draft for the policy and that is available for review uh we also talked about uh revisions to our employment of support staff members uh policy and a new policy for Family Leave which will actually replace a few of our existing policies and will incorporate new changes in the law that have uh come to pass with the pandemic and so forth regarding family Le we also talked about in general our policy 1648 which is the restart recovery plan policy uh just talked about generally how this policy May evolve going forward uh we are going to be awaiting guidance from the New Jersey doe and other NJ guidance such as executive orders those changes between now and when schools start in September we may need to make updates to that policy uh we'll have a
067second reading on this month's agenda for the policy 24155 student surveys analysis and other evaluations uh we also talked a bit about the policy uh 5250 ex excl U today excusal from class or program uh and talked about you know whether there needed to be any revision to that policy or just updates in procedures and we also talked about policy 2240 controversial issues uh the committee didn't feel any changes would be recommended to those policies but we just talked about you know how they would be implementing and that was it thank you curriculum and instruction John sure I Kim I'll take a quick shot then I'll let you guys get into the actual curriculum um the uh the team uh shared the student data um achievement data that was shared with the uh New Jersey
068Department of Education I think as most people know the nlas aren't being done this year that there will be a start tests done in September to see where students are um the state did require that data be submitted by categorizing student scores into three groups below grade level on grade level and above grade level um grades three through 12 were able to the team was able to um acquire that information from our link it based on the Form B tests that were um administered in February um this is the same data that we had a presentation in March it's not quite how we normally look at the data or how how the uh standardized tests look at it but this is sort of simp a simplistic way the state wanted to see it um the
069grades K through two um there was a different way that those were um collected because they're not link it they don't have those type of tests so they use they use information like font of panel um reading Running Records and um so that information was provided to the state uh in addition to you know there's a on the voting um agenda there's going to be I think it's 36 either modified or new curriculum um we went through those but the administrators um highlighted some areas where um let's just say that are maybe um um socially Hot Topics Maybe um they the administrators continue to review and revise curriculum our curriculum guide in order to ensure that um these topics are explored in the course curriculum they're appropriate for age and development of the students um
070and also that they're in compliance with the state mandates um a lot of this has to do with trying to be balanced and fair in a manner that allows students to CR critically evaluate Concepts and for lot form logical conclusions um there's one course that that that that Kim and team will talk about tonight an elective course an honors course power Prejudice and the human uh experience it's an honors class um talking about how adding that to our curriculum will help us meet a lot of these uh a lot of these mandates so um from what we've been told in terms in the committee um a lot of these State mandates aren't just adding to social studies uh curriculum there's as you'll see there's um various different um requirements for like for art for the
071Arts in terms of presenting you know art from different cultures and things of that nature so the belief is that we can we can meet those requirements and in order to really find a place where students have an opportunity if they like to talk about deeper social issues for for example the current environment that we live in there's an honors elective class that they can take and they can have those discussions in a in a atmosphere where the teachers are prepared to have those conversations and where you know the class is designed that way so Kim I I I apologize I know you have some I think you have some folks there who uh will probably talk a little bit uh a little bit more detail about the curriculum so with uh respect to the
072two High School elective courses that Mr little was just referencing um I just want to reiterate as Dr carrian said um they are based on a student survey that we administered last year um because we were replacing Antiquated coures and electives at the high school and the students um chose the topics of power Prejudice and The Human Experience and modern Global issues um as topics of they would like to explore in school so these courses as Mr little suggested um are for upper level students they're exclusive to Juniors and seniors only um because they can include some controversial topics that we want students to be mature and prepared developmentally um to talk about they are electives so students um will have an understanding with their parents of the topics that are covered in these courses
073uh prior to uh participating in them so the power Prejudice in The Human Experience course um it's actually a course that I taught about 25 years ago much more updated probably by now um but uh it's a course that is um actively used in many districts uh such as freeo Regional where I implemented it um and Jackson just to name too uh Princeton we also looked at their curriculum so uh the committee who was formed um under the guidance of our director of social studies Dr Morales they did review the curriculum that um some of these districts are using right now that they drafted they use the guidance from Kane University who we're looking to partner with so students taking the course can earn dual enrollment credit uh which means that they'll earn college credit
074uh that can be applied to one of their liberal arts requirements as a college student and um we we basically tail it to our needs as as for Middletown and what we aimed to do was create a course that one supported student interest but also allowed us as as Mr little suggested to show that our district is in fact in alignment when we uh go through the qac process in three years with current um legislation such as the Amad law lgbtq Holocaust and the diversity and inclusion um legislation that was recently uh enacted so these courses um again they do explore topics such as um racism uh genocide uh um and other types of discrimination um whether that women um different ethnic groups uh that can lead to um robust conversation let's just say so
075the idea of the course is to present these topics in a very um objective manner so that the students have to use their own critical thinking skills formulate their own opinions about these matters um that's what we want to arm our students with whether they're entering the workforce immediately after high school or into college or trade school they're going to be presented with um instances where they're going to be a where they're going to have to show that they can express their opinions and in a thoughtful manner um objectively so um that is one of the main goals of the course is so that they can hear these controversial topics deliberate over them for themselves and uh formulate ways in which to present their opinions um in a thoughtful way the modern globals issue course
076is much more of a current events type course it looks at um issues that are uh being being addressed uh worldwide um such as poverty climate change um and other types of um more relevant topics to today so um I would say that's probably less of a controversial course although who knows where the students will take it um in their conversations and their discussions um the other courses that we're introducing um spread around uh the different subject areas Dr carrian mentioned um and he's been talking about at the last couple meetings we have revamped our U math sequence at the High School level um we're also introducing um new uh Arts curriculum such as Music Theater dance uh many of our um world language courses have been updated this year including Elementary Spanish uh for
077next year and chemistry health physical education AP Literature so in all of these courses across all different subjects we've made sure we've made an effort teachers and the in the Committees have made an effort to ensure that we are in alignment with all new legislation and the most recently published New Jersey student learning standards thank you Kim can you just mention one more time I know we I know I know this but and just let let folks remind folks about what the math um the sequence changes I know um we I know we had a whole presentation on I know it's been discussed in a board meeting just a just so folks in the audience or who are watching can be reminded of what the change is sure I'll let Dr carrian do that sure
078so we are switching algebra one and geometry all incoming ninth grade students will either honors geometry or regular geometry and and we had several reasons for doing this uh one of which was to create a greater coherence across the math sequence the eighth grade math course prealgebra does end with a lot of geometry so it's a more natural progression for students and they can apply what they learn in F algebra in context they can work in the cordin ne plan they can you know practice their linear equian solving skills in a geometric context then at 10th and 11th they'll have algebra on followed by Algebra 2 back to back so there's no more um middle year of geometry even two years you know under the current law that we have so there'll be one continuous
079algebra study for our students and and a major reason for that Not only was it vertically aligned better but the SAT test the act and also our State graduation assessments are very algebra heavy so we felt that moving the algebra courses to grades 10 and 11 when the students take these Assessments in 11th grade made more sense and and would help our students achieve at higher levels um the other two items on this month's voting agenda um we are very hopeful that next year our students will be able to start participating uh and attending field trips so we have the field trip destinations for 2122 um which are our already approved sites but we have to reapproved each year um or the board does and also the renewal of our Link at subscription um for
080our data warehouse in our assessment system that they house for us thank you and I think that the math sequencing is is is amazing um also want to thank all of the uh committee members who made videos and things like that and you know provided a lot of information to the board to explain the curriculum so I appreciate that thank you to all of you okay Student Activities co-curricular Lor we did not meet but I think Mr Anella might have something to tell us about um Alliance I'm actually G rep on the municipal Alliance oh they got they have you they have Mr re turns so there were two main topics that were addressed at the municipal Alliance meeting that took place this past Saturday the first one was a discussion related to project plus
081another successful session just took place and concluded the alliance thank the school administrators specifically the elementary principles and the Middle School principles for their continued support the alliance is exploring the possibility of expanding their program and including eighth graders and seniors there's going to be a committee that's going to include a couple of our Middle School a couple of our elementary principles and one middle school principle to discuss the future of project plus there was also a discussion related to a 5K race that's going to be coming up on August 28th Municipal alliances running there's going to be a virtual and an in-person component to that race it's going to take place at pory Park their team with hope for children the district is going to get involved as well by having students who might
082be interested in volunteer hours get involved with the race so those are be two main topics thank you was there any discussion M Mike dalan on when we're gonna get a presentation you had said you'd like them to come and do a presentation you know Joan I apologize I I might have not asked that again on Saturday morning when I was on I I actually did um okay and they said they would be more than happy to they don't have a time frame um right they have to put some things together um but Mr kpatrick put together you know the summary was really was really good they are thinking about additional um I guess you call courses or or programs for eth grade and something for like seniors talking about binge drinking as they go
083to college but um I I I told them they'd go you obviously go through Mr renell or Mr kpatrick to talk to you Jan and to marelen of when that that would be um you know when that when the best time would be for that they were talking about three week cycles for the eighth graders and two week cycles for the seniors but they did put a committee together they're in the process to discuss it further Matt one are those committees meeting like maybe they should come in after they have more Direction on what those programs are going to be after those committees meet and they have some idea agre thinking maybe summer or maybe September we just put the start putting the Committees together this week so I think it's gonna be a little
084bit Yeah so maybe September something September would be good because everybody will be back to school L yeah okay all righty shared services yes May 10th discussion was put MTH Elementary School the committee discussed potential soliciting proposals for a feasibility study on the construction of an indoor Recreational facility on the site the feasibility study could be done in two phases first determining whether the site is physically and financially appropriate for the type of facility and second surveying the community for input in identifying specific components of the potential indoor recreational fac facility project the committee discussed the possibility of the board of and the township sharing the case of the study the Board of Ed would issue the request for proposal since it's Boe own property uh lastly we spoke about Normy Park the project is
085just about completed there are some minor punch list items to address including the lights thanks Personnel we had in close session um is there any questions in reviewing the agenda for next week okay under um old business does anybody have any old business okay under new business I do have something um we've been contacted that there's some conflicts for our June 16th it was right June 16th board meeting and we're looking to make it on June 15th and we need to see if any board members have a conflict on that it's a Tuesday I'll be away that week J if we can move that week yeah can we do Monday the 14th no conflicts there too yeah Joe and I not available on the 15th of June maybe we need to come up with a
086different date all right we'll come up with a different date and we'll um send it out and we'll discuss it at the voting meeting next week but it's gonna get close to that wait a minute John say the dates again what did you just say the 15th Tuesday the 15th before that you said it was the 16th no our Workshop meeting is on the 14th and workshop meeting was on the 16th 16th 16th it was the Wednesday the Wednesday yeah I got okay J are we looking to combine the two workshop and voting yeah Mar you had mentioned you want to try to combine it yeah right especially since we can't find dates for even one to let alone find it for two I I don't know if you want to go for them next
087week but we go combine the two of them maybe can wait a week to week the 21st I don't know if that helps anybody all right we'll look at we're going to look at a week uh date for the week of the 21st it back a week because there yeah there's yeah there's a lot of gr there's graduations there's all the end of the year facilities that we're all trying to get to because we haven't been able to yeah and there were conflicts for the 22nd so yeah Mrs minues we have the voting meeting on the 22nd we're combining that now is that what the thought is if well the seconds doesn't have conflict no one has a conf if no one has a conflict C on the 22nd we could do that we could
088do that but I would just like to make sure that if we're we're combining it that there's nothing new brought in under the workshop part that we would have to um think about for voting think about for voting because that's the one thing that always throws people if there's something big and then we have to vote on it final by the week before yeah yeah okay all right yeah so we're looking then to combine the workshop and both meeting on June 22nd is that all right with everybody yes good thank you yeah that was fine that's in my calendar already so that's yeah thank you okay so that's what we're gonna do okay um any other new business before I open up to the public comment I just I just want to say that there's
089a lot of people that are speaking and everybody has an opinion and I think we need to respect everybody's opinion nobody's going to agree with each other I mean there you know a lot of people have different opinions I just I'm asking that we respect that and not attack somebody who is going to give their opinion that we don't agree with it got a little out of hand at one point last month and I have to take full responsibility for that we want to hear everything everybody has to say but we also have to respect everybody's opinion so um to the person that I got out of hand I offer my apologies and I will try to do a better job to get a grip on it although we have to remember one thing once
090we get up to public speak and we give our name we can't control what other people say people have a right to speak what I'm saying is I would appreciate if our community would not do that and let everybody have an opinion because like one speaker said last week when this is all said and done and over we all live in the same community and we have to get along and the only way we're going to accomplish something is if we try to work together so um alls I can do is ask I can't um control what people say but um all comments do have to be directed to the board president and from there we'll take it so thank you for everybody who's calling in and everybody who's here with your opinions we truly
091do want to hear them but we do want to make sure everybody's opinion is respected so with that said public comment open we'll start with someone from inside and then someone online does anybody from the inside want to speak let's see want me use this fancy thing again sure you got the green light you don't have to leave your mask up when you're speaking can everybody hear you better all right my name is Jessica Brink I live at acor court moment I'm going to start like I did last week and say I recognize everybody did not choose this role it's a tough one but I also want to remind you and I think it's a bit ironic that we start pledge legance to the flag of United States of America to The Republic right it's
092a republic in a republic every person's voice counts in a democracy it's majority R so we we still have a republic we still matter individually and I just want to point out some of the stuff that just doesn't make sense right if we were all in MJS right now we don't be sitting here without masks on and I know you know R the rules we're just following orders but when things don't make sense we have to ask questions and I know I don't have kids I don't even have a dog in this site but I did go to the school growing up and I as I mentioned last time I was a nurse in another school in this County let's say and what I want to know is who is driving the ship because I
093can tell you it's not the governor it's not the Department of Education it's not the department of health because I worked at another school in this District or not in this District excuse me in this County and things that are going on there are different than things that are going on here so there's somebody somewhere that is applying things differently and I need to know who that is because at the end of the day there's somebody that has to be accountable so I can't understand why okay that's so we have an executive order 175 there were exceptions in the executive order that said if a mask inhibited Health you don't have to wear it if someone had trouble breathing you don't have to wear it so then we trickle down to the road back plan
094and I'll read directly from the road back plan school and districts must allow for social distancing within the classroom to the maximum extent practic practicable um this would be achieved by insuring students who are seated six feet apart social social distancing additional modifications so on and so forth um using physical bar barriers between desks turning desks so on and so forth when social distancing is difficult or impossible face coverings are required for students and face coverings are always required for visitors and staff that's the road back plan when social distancing is difficult or impossible but I'm pretty sure what's going on in schools right now children are having to wear masks all day long even when they're behind plexiglass even when they're outside does this stuff make sense okay then we have Middletown's policy all
095staff m visitors will be required to wear face coverings while on campus in District facilities students must wear face coverings at all times unless doing so would inhibit the students health so how do we jump from the road back plan to Middletown policies that are different it doesn't make sense roadback plan also lists exceptionals accommodations for students who are unable to wear face cing should be addressed according to students needs in accordance with laws and regulations the Constitution scares our god-given right to free so I don't know how forcing masks on kids is in accordance with law and regulation let's see couple other points I just want to make and then I'll Qui it down critical areas of operation recess and physical education from the road back plan not one sentence in their references of
096face covering why are kids wearing face coverings outside I don't understand kids are all day long get your mask up 6 feet apart kids are being reprimanded all day long who is keeping the employees in check the ones that are forcing a mask over a child with special needs kid pulls it off someone puts it on that's assault unless you have consent from a parent that's assault I want to know who's keeping the staff in check because the kids are being kept in check all day long like boot camp but who's keeping the staff in line I want to know so somebody's taken us to another level and I know we're saying it's the governor we're blaming on Executive Order 175 I know we're blaming on the Department of Health we all the other people
097but I'm gonna need a name and I'm gonna find out the name because somebody has to be held accountable these kids are suffering and clearly in all the discussion about the social emotional needs of kids that's going on we know it's an issue it's going to eventually come to bite Us in the butt I'm just asking you I know you're doing I know just in the last three days four days since our meeting things have changed and I appreciate that we've all talked about it we all appreciate it but this was wrong from the start you don't take somebody's rights away and then have them jump for joy because you're giving them back you need to really start looking at this stuff thank you we're gonna do online Kelly hi everyone uh it's nice to
098see everybody almost everybody back in person I'm sorry I couldn't be there tonight um a couple of months ago there was some discussion about having some someone from the New Jersey school boards Association come to a board meeting and uh give a presentation kind of to outline the responsibilities and duties of board members and um kind of clarify those duties in comparison to the administration and just kind of lay out the the the rules of how everybody works together what the board members do and I was just hoping that that is still something that's on the table um I think it would be really beneficial for the community to to get that presentation um you know I hear a lot over the last couple months um speakers at speakers calling in things on social media
099thanking board members for certain things that have been done when it really isn't things that fall under the board but rather the administration um so I I think there's just a general not a full understanding in the community of what the board members are responsible for so I I just hope that that's something that's still on the table um especially in a couple of months we have another election coming up would definitely help voters um in that way um so uh again I just hope it's something that's still on the table that we can have someone come in and do a presentation like that thank you have a good night everybody thank you Kelly okay anyone from the inside my name is Michael Craig I live on uh reneer Court I just have a question
100on the curriculum you said there was going to be a elective class power and Prejudice someone say that Mr great you have to address your comments and let me just be this is not like a question answer session it's it's your opportunity to make a public comment oh okay so there's a power and Prejudice elective course I think I heard I was just trying to clarify but uh I was questioning who determines the validity of the content and where is it coming from for example Does it include a group social abilities and lack of taking advantage of those abilities these are important as to not give students a slanted view um that would be basically counterproductive to their critical thinking or problem solving I think social skills Family Values parents and Role Models have to
101be taken into consideration I think giving an giving an elective class and not anybody knowing the content and then as a senior sending the kids off to college could be indoctrinating the kids into the way a teacher thinks or the way the material is given I for one was somewhat offended in the beginning of the year when a teacher had took it upon herself to put the BLM agenda on her desk in a classroom and it was subsequently taken off so I want to make sure that the kids aren't just being given some sort of propaganda and shoved off into a college and we don't know what they're being taught so I think before that gets implemented or the kidss take the class somebody really needs to review the content of it and the validity
102of it thank you you somebody from online hi everybody VI P hi VI Middletown New Jersey um I'd like to uh thank the administration for um I guess it's this Monday doing away with the health forums I think um the teachers have had enough to Grapple with um and the additional Administration um being eliminated um will be a a great help for them um also very supportive of the therapy dog um project um if you need a model Henry Hudson has had a therapy dog for um years now um and it is actually um the dog is trained and maintained by a um somebody that lives in Middletown and has children in the district so if there's ever a need to um compare notes um on the uh um as it relates to um um
103uh an area that wasn't touched on too deeply and I hate to use this word but redistricting and and looking at the inequities between um the different schools schs um I heard one of the speakers talking about if the kids are socially distanced and not wearing masks um at Thompson we have 800 kids in the building there is no way those classrooms those classrooms are not socially distant um so I think people need to understand that and they weren't socially distant at the beginning of the school year I think over 50% of the classes were not socially distant when we started in September because of the um amount of kids that are in the building so we haven't really looked um or at least the public has not seen information the last time we talked
104about the new builds um I look at what's happening at palav they're going up the last time we had a discussion with the public we weren't even sure what school we were going to Zone that to there was a question is it going to Village is it going to Harmony where is it going to go and I would like a commitment from the board that if they're not going to address some of the over crowding in the different schools that there is a commitment that if there is an issue and there is an overcrowding in one school that they do not use the special education self-contained classes to make room if there is overcrowding in one school that requires something to be moved or shifted around the entire District should be moved and people it
105should not be on the backs of special education um classes on that side I also think it is is quite an inequity that children cannot go from their Elementary community and and go along with their Community into the secondary level Thompson has no self-contained classes so those kids leave their Community they head off to Bayshore then maybe join them back at South or you know wherever it may be so we have you you know and again uh wonderful the ESS program is coming into the district for Middle School I think very supportive great thing but again it's housed at at Thorne all the special programs everything at Thorne and Bayshore there is no diversity um at Thompson and and I hope you guys keep that in mind um when you're looking at this project thank
106you thank you ver someone from the inside the is there green light on it it'll takes a couple seconds to turn on hello hi my name is Alexander go I go to Thor Middle School I'm in seventh grade I have an i AP and I also have dyslexia I'm a student an athlete I started in softball and field hockey this year this year school sports have been a little different with covid-19 my sixth grade year and seventh grade year were both ruined by covid-19 I've been having a very hard time with this learning this year school has been a little different I try my best to make out of it but I just can't wait till it's over I believe unmasking us is the right thing to [Music] do also Al during the school year
107a lot of the rules just didn't make sense like you can sit on an airplane shoulder to shoulder to shoulder with somebody and have your mask down and eat with a total stranger that you've never even met before but then you can go to school and you have to S I sit farther than six feet with a kid that I see every single day to eat lunch on our laps we have to eat on our laps I feel like we're in jail but at least jail gets tables we have to eat on our [Music] laps for a gym we don't even have to have gym anymore we just have to sit in the lunchroom and everything is different we when we can go outside we can go outside but if it's it not a nice
108day out we have to sit and try to play a board game or something six feet apart this isn't what school should be also teachers have blocked my school my Chromebook this year at school to say put your mask up but I just had gy the class before and I have really bad asthma and I can't breathe and they don't understand that I try my best and I'm I'm not trying to be difficult I've also got written up this year because my mask go underneath my nose and I try to explain to them I can't breathe and please send me to the nurse this isn't fair we wear a mask during gym this year running around but the CDC claims it's not good to wear a mask running around doing physical act activities so I
109don't understand that either 3 weeks ago I went to the nurses I almost passed out from my mask I couldn't breathe at all because I did yoga in the class before which is a lot of breathing and it's also not good to breathe in your own carbon dioxide this makes no sense why are they doing this putting us through this why I think this is not good for physical standards with the kids with mask my brother he's in first grade at new mama he doesn't know his friend Smiles he doesn't know what facial like it's sad and this is what they're putting us through at least can you consider maybe when we get to our desk with the Pepsi glass around us having us take off our mask to see sort of our friends this
110isn't what I want to go through but I really hope you consider unmasking us or at least when we get to our desk with the plexy glass thank you thank you online no more hands rais is there anybody else inside that would like to speak it's not g to light up is it turning red yeah you got give a second just don't turn it off when you're done just stick it down person hello my name is green seninsky I'm from 15 Kenneth tce East I'm a proud parent of three amazing girls in the school district I first like to thank you for your hard work to get us back to full school days I know this was not an easy task but you guys did it you got together and used the mess of the
111guidelines that was given to you from the state and you figure it out now many districts in New Jersey can stay the same which makes you all leaders in these unchartered orders for other districts I know there is only so much leeway you were given through the executive orders but when the time comes when certain guidelines become less restrictive we're asking you all to continue to be leaders and to make decisions driven by data I know lunch has just resumed where the children are obviously taking their mask off inside so let's use that data to make decisions that is best for our children if there continues to be zero in school transmission with lunch added to the day and there is some leeway in the state's verbiage you're are asking the board and administration to
112make masks optional throughout the district we're not saying to other parents that if they're worried about their the health of their child they cannot wear a mask you have every right that do so because it's your child and this is America all three of my daughters have speech eye at peace they need to see each other other people's mouths as a model to reciprocate specific tongue and lip movements to produce words and sounds they are very blessed to not only have incredible teachers and administration at our home school and we also have wonderful speech therapists who are working with our girls but a 20 to 30 minute session twice a week is not enough for therapists to work on imitation while their own mouth is covered they don't need more services staring at a therapist
113masked up or behind Plexi L they need to see faces and mouths of their teachers and peers many students with speech IP struggle to carry over targeted skills in natural conversation with peers and teachers now adanced in the mix and it's making making it aund times harder for them to generalize these goals from their speech sessions as a special education teacher working in the autism setting for over a decade I saw firsthand how much children in Special Needs depend on non-verbal cues to not only communicate but to make judgments on how they should be feeling and how they should react now imagine taking that away from them they're being robbed of their god-given right to communicate now being an early advention therapist I can tell you how masks are impairing children's of all ages social
114and emotional development children need to see faces of adults and their peers to understand emotional signals that will impact their social skills their whole life imagine all this damage being done because of a piece of cloth as per the FDA masks are designated as experimental and for emergency use with no longterm safety trials for everyday use of children we know it's going to be hard we know we will face criticism but it's time for all school districts to push back at Trenton which we know where the ultimate battle is we are ready to take it to Trenton and to fight and to regain our parental RS which we should never have lost to begin with but what we want to know is what are you going to do in the meantime we need every single
115School District's support in Trenton as parents yes we have a voice but the voice of boards of education and administration across the state will have an even bigger impact I will be more than happy to forward an email to all of you from the superintendent of schools in Central Regional School District I believe it was is today to Governor Murphy pushing back on the newest mask mandate and that's what needs to happen for people in positions of power help us fight we can do this together I'll leave you with this question will you continue to be leaders and fight with us together thank you for your time and God bless hi it's Michelle Collins I have two kids at South I want to say thanks for addressing the circus that went on last week during
116the public comment um had I not been listening though I never would have heard it I sent an email to all of you after the meeting last week and I only received a response from one of you and it wasn't the president of the board um I understand that you can't predict what other parents are going to say but after a parent borderline threatens another parent in their public comment and mentions their name three times um I think someone should have done or said something had I been witnessing this in a school district where students would treat other students in this way as a school psychologist I would have written up a hid report honestly um I truly hope no parent is ever treated this way at any future meeting and you know I just
117don't even understand what this woman was trying to do I don't even know who she was I've never met her before I don't know what she's after me about but I think it's pretty shameful thanks thank you Michelle anybody else from the inside is there anybody else online I think so sry I don't think I need the mic okay so anyway first of all I want to say thank you for allowing me to speak I'm here for two reasons number one I wanted to say thank you to the board for all year being such a great partner and resource for me in dealing with these insane mandates that we've had to deal with from Trenton and J I'm gonna disagree with you a little bit I think at best a lot of these mandates have
118been very confusing from trendon and a lot of the boards of it struggled to comply with that and I'm I spoken an anti-mass rally last week I'm going to Trenton tomorrow in fact I have to apologize for all the D because the governor is now going to sign a bill I'm gonna vote against it tomorrow that will extend 15 of the very worst executive orders into 2022 so um this is not over by a long shot what I want to do is ask for your help and your advice on what I can do to help and Tren to help you guys unmas these kids I had a parent show me a picture of her daughter with rashes behind the ears what she seventh grader or something like that from being forced to wear a mask
119all and I'm not even sure if it's the Middletown I don't think it was the Middletown School District but this is sort of a wide ranging problem that we see in in school district after school district my my email is full with parents saying we have to unmess these kids they're in second graders who who are second graders they're young children and they're being forced to wear these bed spreads over their face then you have kids who have medical conditions you have kids with asthma I know some uh a medical professional told me about a young person at the end of the day he took off the mask it was full of blood and the child was afraid to say anything all day because you would get in trouble for taking off the mask this
120is what we're dealing with so what I want to do is be your Ally and be your mouthpiece with Trent and I know I'm friends with many of many of the folks here on the board and I want to say in front of everybody that you've been great to partner with and I want to continue that and I want you to be feel free to tell me whatever I need give me as much ammo as I can go in there with the guns blazing because I will do it um I introduced a bill that would prohibit vaccine passports and prohibit discrimination against anybody who doesn't have a vaccine who's not wearing a mask all of this stuff we have to draw a line in the sand enough is enough we're in month 14 of the
121twoe flatten the curve and these kids I hear it every day and it's gut-wrenching it's gut-wrenching when you hear these parents saying my kids are are miserable you see suicide rates up you see mental health problems substance abuse you name it and this is a big part of it so first in closing I want to say thank you for everything you've done I think I couldn't imagine doing what you've done this year it's it's remarkable and also extend the hand that I want to be a partner with you folks and do everything I can to help you number one get rid of these mandates not two weeks from now not two days from now but tomorrow and I will go to Trenton tomorrow and I'm going to run my mouth on the floor like there's
122no tomorrow and I'm going to do it for you for [Applause] [Music] them Mrs minues is there anyone else online minues someone from yes MZ yes who would the last speaker did not identify himself can you please tell me who that was or tell us who that was did you come up yeah sure Jerry schaffenberger I'm the assembly men from ld13 sorry about that thank you okay did you you can hear me can you hear me okay my name is am linos I'm from Charline Terrace I have two children in Middletown schools I'm also a speech language theologist so I hear you and a public school in middx county and I hear what everyone was saying and has been saying about the critical thinking about our children learning and I'm saying we're not critically thinking
123we are not using those critical skills that we're asking our children to use when we're sitting in different when it's okay for them to go outside and play with each other soon as the bell rings they're outside playing with each other on masked thank God and having a good time but then it's not okay when we're all in these four walls and I feel like the public school is being targeted it's the four walls of the public schools that keep coming up with having to be masked and it does not make sense as everyone has repeatedly said today that our critical skills were not using them if they're outside playing after school all day long all night long with each other and being happy not getting sick because they're not sick they're not sick they're
124healthy healthy individuals they're healthy children that their faces should not be covered our faces should not be covered but their faces should not be covered but as a parent that should be my choice I respect your choice if somebody wants to cover wants their CH child to wear a mask that's fine we're asking for our rights back as parents that is what's been taken away and that is what needs to be given back to us our right as parents it just does not make sense my eight-year-old little girl loves school and cries every night before going to bed and I give that girl a lot of credit because you watched CU she didn't break down and she cries every morning going to school and doesn't like school she loves school she loves her teachers she
125loves her friends it's MTH and she's afraid as everyone has said she's afraid of getting in trouble I do not make her wear a mask or we together and I had to convince my 8-year-old that she wasn't going to get in trouble walking into a store with me her parents and she wasn't going to get in trouble by someone said I'm your parent I'm the only one who can get you in trouble nothing's going to happen to you as long as you're with me they should not be afraid they should not we should not be teaching our children to not listen to their parents they have to listen to Authority but when Authority is telling them the wrong thing we need to step in and we need to tell them what is right from wrong
126and this no longer makes sense if it ever made sense it definitely does not make sense anymore and again um with everyone I commend everybody for doing the job that you did if I did not live in middl town and I lived in another town where you guys didn't push for our kids to be in school and my kids have been in school from day one my son has an IEP he's been in five days since October and I'm blessed and I'm happy to be a part of Middletown and I'm proud of the job everyone is doing but as everyone said every district is doing different things my district is doing different things than Middletown District my husband's district is doing different things than Middletown districts so there are not mandates they're not the mandates
127is up for interpretation because everyone is doing different things so when is it that we as a town and a community going to step up and stand up for our kids and our parental rights not saying amass those who don't want to get amased make it parental choice of who is masked and who is not mased again we talk about discrimination we talk about equality this is not this is not it this is making everyone do the same thing when it's not appropriate for everyone and I work with special ed so I know equal is not fair is not equal equal is different for everybody and this is not not this is not what Middletown should be about so thank you thank [Music] [Applause] you anyone else inside see no H hello hello got woke
128us up my name is Frank Molina and I am new to the community I won't repeat everything that um others have said but definitely some really good points made by parents and others about the masks and you know I just want to say that um over the last 14 months we've learned a lot about the pandemic about the virus about how the virus impacts children and how it doesn't impact children and it seems that we have been kind of stuck with the masks stuck with the say and you know while we've learned a lot we're not really pushing forward with the rest of it and [Music] um I just want to ask the Lord to try to think creatively and I'm trying to think creatively I've sent emails to you I've sent emails to you
129know others in in the district and I'm learning about a lot a lot of things but I just want to ask you to try to think think creatively and innovatively on how we can push young L and push this forward so that we do have options just like others have said it's really important that as a parent we have an option whether or not we want to mask our child thank you thank you [Applause] friend all right so no one else up to speak I'd like to make a motion to adjourn back into Clos session should announce what there is no we're going to be discussing um some contract matter some contract matters and no action will be taken in favor I oppose abstention thank you everyone for coming out Shar your yeah e I'd
130like to make a motion to um end the meeting so move second all in favor I oppose extensions good night Deb