12.17.20 Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education Meeting

001yeah dr kulikowski okay go ahead good evening welcome to the scotch plains fam with board of education public meeting this is december 17 2020. this is the public session mrs sarathake will you please call the roll mrs bauer here mrs boroff here mrs brody here mrs mitchell here sorry mrs ceriani here mrs williams present mrs winkler here mr murray here dr kulikowski yeah quorum is present thank you mrs saradacki please join me in the salute to the flag ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone prior to coming out into public we had our executive session an ad executive executive session we discussed the personnel agenda the

002legal status update uh questions regarding alyssa's law compliance and meeting format we have some additions to the agenda as well that were added after december 14th they are letters to the board 12 bus gov deals with information added 17 bus the security grant for schools 18 bus hague service corporation installation the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests will be discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the scotch plains family board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the board of education offices located at 512 cedar street scotch plains

003new jersey such notice was also provided in written notice and forwarded to the times the star ledger the township clerk of scotch plains the borough clerk of fam would in the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings as adopted march 26 2020 now before we have the instructional update dr mast and the board members would like to say a few words dr mast you're muted joan good evening everyone over the last several weeks i've been conducting daily outreach phone calls to parents i want all of the parents who took time out of their day to speak with me or to write to me in listening to your concerns and hearing about the experiences of your children i have gained valuable insight tonight i want to emphasize that i and the board of education are committed to

004the january 19th opening for hybrid learning by january 19th it is expected that we will see a decrease in positive cova cases after the conclusion of the holiday season to have a successful reopening i am asking everyone to please follow the health and safety guidance established by the department of health which includes mask wearing and not planning or attending indoor gatherings under normal circumstances the holiday season is a time to gather with family and friends for celebrations steeped in tradition this year is different it has to be i know that the pandemic has brought many challenges and losses more than anything i know getting our students back to school will give us all joy together we can do this when we return for hybrid learning there will be enhanced communication processes in place we are

005committed to sending timely communications when we learn about a new positive case which may result in a need to quarantine or the closure of a classroom or school building this will allow the community to be aware of the daily rhythms of cases thank you dr mast at this time there are board of ed members who would like to share their reasons that they are looking forward to sending their children back to school board members who would like to go first mrs boroff jump in um you know i think it's it's sometimes it's easy to to forget that we're also parents and um just like you know the members of our community we're dealing with the the same stresses of being working parents at home and having our kids home um you know my daughter started

006ninth grade this year so i'm just she the socialization is just really important for her this year this is just like everyone else i'm looking forward to sending her back and you know um pandemic and this was just it's been a really hard year for us all so i think that with confidence i think january 19th comes and i will uh gladly be driving her or over to the school for her first day back in in person thank you mrs boroff is there anybody else mrs mitchell thank you dr kolakowski um thinking about that question why am i looking forward to getting the kids back to school i you immediately think about so they can see therefore i immediately thought about so they could see their friends in-person instruction um the separation between home and

007school and seeing classmates but as i thought about it a little further there there are a few other things that came to mind so first going back to school i think marks the end of a really tough time and singles to be signals the beginning of better days for all of us we did do it we got back and with all of our efforts we'll continue on this path back to the normalcy but i'm also excited for the stories when the kids come home about what happened in the hall or you cannot believe what happened at lunch or the hellos that drop off or the wave at the carpool and the calling up the stairs mrs or mr so-and-so is here come on or the conversations about the physics lesson or the policy theory that's

008discussed over dinner or the 8 pm mom do we have poster board that's that's coming back these are things that i didn't think i would miss but having had this time and going back i realized this is this is our community and these are the experience of school and most importantly i'm excited to get my dining room table back good luck to everybody thank you mrs mitchell mrs williams thank you and while i echo the same things as my fellow board members my i have a sixth grader and an eighth grader and i know it's not normal for them to be home with me so i struggle with sending them back to school because i have enjoyed listening to the teachers in class and we don't get that opportunity so it's nice to hear them

009in class listen to them have band and just really pivot that's a word um a new word and really dig into some of the challenges that they face while at home in front of the computer but they're doing well but i know it's not normal i know it's time for them to go back but i am going to miss having them at home for a little bit longer and listening to their teachers and you know some of those things that we've been doing for the past nine months but i i know it's time so i'll send them off with a little tear in my eye thank you mrs williams mrs winkler yeah um similar to mrs williams my my son um i've been really enjoying having him at home and and um being able to

010bond uh in some of the time that we have together but um but i know that he's missing school and i know that he's missing seeing his friends and i know that um he feels that he hasn't developed the same sort of relationships with his teachers by now that he would have if he had been in person with them and um and i do think it's best for him to be back at school and um and i've wanted him to be back at school since september i you know it's just it is what it is um so we're we i am looking forward to him being back i i think it will be wonderful when when the kids are back in the buildings i think that the students want it and i think that the

011parents want it and i think that the teachers want it and um we're all working to get there thank you mrs winkler there any other board members that wish to make comments mr murray aaron i don't want to i don't want to belabor this in similar points i think it's you know like my son's a freshman my daughter's in sixth grade um the two of them need to need to get back to school yes 100 um because they need to get out of this house um but they have you know i've been i've been pleasantly surprised and how creative they've been in staying engaged with friends um and and friend groups even at their age um so while you know i know the in-person hybrid is going to be very different than the traditional um

012experience um i think that you know you know to karen's point you know maybe not the same hallway conversations as they're kind of you know walking through with their masks and things but um just to be in a different physical location um will definitely be helpful so you know definitely encouraged by that and you know and i applaud all the work that's been done up to this point um and i you know truly want to thank all the parents in the community um for you know stepping in and helping and being a part of this understanding that this pandemic is not something that you know we were looking for and that's not something that you know anywhere in you know in the world was looking for but you know we said in the beginning that

013we'll get through it and i think that you know we've proven that as a community we can come together if we need to and i think we really need now is the time and when the kids get back into school january 19th i think it's going to be a great a really great thing so thank you great point to end on thank you mr murray all board members made their comments then we'll move on to the instructional update and the first instructional update is full sports recognition for the varsity girls soccer so dr kolakowski i would like to introduce mr ryan miller to help us launch the very significant celebrations that we have this evening by all means dr mast mr miller uh good evening everyone thanks for uh allowing me some time here the

014the fall 2020 season was simply amazing i started off in a place where i think there was a lot of trepidation there was a lot of uh doubt whether we were gonna get through it uh on a day-by-day basis we kind of scheduled games and said okay we hope we get the next one and then we hope we get the next one um we took a risk in in going out there with the sports programs and it paid off in dramatic and spectacular fashion all of our programs exceeded expectations and when i look at uh the performances of our athletes i'm in awe when i look at the performance of our coaches who took a chance and said yes i'm gonna put myself out there yes i'm gonna coach they were simply amazing they're an

015inspiration to all of us they were a daily inspiration to me and i can't thank them enough i was very proud of having them as the athletes of the weeks i think it was long overdue to acknowledge and recognize them in a variety of ways when i think about risk i also think about the way that coach pd coaches coach luke petey our girls tennis coach was named the coach of the year because all his program did was go undefeated uh come in second place in the counties and when hopefully the only regional title in the history of the state of new jersey and his singles the three singles players were in incredible um the doubles teams filled in and mixed and matched but luke will always give his credit to his athletes uh because

016that's what great coaches do but luke's ability to say yes go take a chance and support the athletes is everything you want in an education-based athletic program he embodies what we need to be and we need to aspire to be more like luke and i can't congratulate him enough for being named coach of the year uh when it comes to the girls soccer program this is an annual event for us which is fantastic i feel like every year since i've been here i got to get a tie on come out and talk about the girls soccer program coach kevin ewing is a model of consistency a consummate professional and simply an outstanding human being he's endured a lot he goes through a lot and it's not an accident that the girls soccer program is a

017perennial contender in the state county level it's because of the dedication and hard work of coach healing and it's also because he knows how to get the most out of athletes and when you have people like coach pd and people like coach ewing you know you're in a great place and you know you can wake up every day and and have confidence that our athletes are going to be treated well it would be wrong for me to really talk a lot about the girls soccer program when coach ewing is sitting here and i really would prefer uh for the accolades of both korean light as well as the entirety of the girls soccer program to turn this over to coach ewing to say a few words about that program that's a cube i got i

018was trying to get my uh my mic on uh well first i'd like to thank the board of ed uh dr mass dr mcguire for honoring uh the girls this evening um i also want to thank uh robin broadbent for organizing all this it was a lot of behind the scenes work so thank you very much robin you know also one more thing thank you so much for like looking out for the whole entire school district because you guys made some difficult decisions this year and they weren't always accepted but i do feel that they were the right decisions so to the board of ed thank you very much the girls were outstanding this year they had to sacrifice a lot to make sure that they had a season they were mature but beyond their

019years in terms of dealing with this situation um they played extremely hard in practice uh they followed all the rules that they were supposed to for the most part um you know they were very uh talented team um they were exceptional had exceptional work ethic and that led to them being very successful this year and i'd also like to thank mr tiedemann who's my assistant coach coach maynes who's the jv coach and mr higgins who's the freshman coach because without them none of this would be possible and i don't know uh mr miller if you want to talk about corinne light and what she received recently or you would like me to i would love for you to jump on top of that one coach okay um so you know a lot of the kids

020uh received individual awards this year corinne light leah claremon like camacho a bunch of other girls did too corrin light was selected as an all-american just recently by the united soccer coaches association of america it was the second time corrine has received this award she wanted as a sophomore and then last year she got a regional american and then this year she was all-american again and i think it just says a lot about her ability you know she's going to go to lehigh university to play soccer but beyond being an exceptional soccer player like the way corinne light and faith price and holly nelson led the team led the girls you know was outstanding what they did the the whole team was great and i was really proud of everything that they accomplished if we

021didn't win one thing um just the fact that they were able to have the whole season and be you know as successful as they were i mean it says a lot about the 28 girls that were on this team so thank you very much and just one closing note and then i will stop talking our girls soccer program was one of the few programs in the county if not the area to go through without having to cancel a game because of anything we did and i think not only the athletes the coaches but but also the parents need to be commended for really adhering uh and listening and i think if we follow their model we're going to be in a pretty good place in our community so again congratulations to everyone and thank you

022so much for this time tonight well thank you mr miller for coming out as well as mr ewing and mr pedia and all the team members that have come out as well so i'd like to read the resolution for the girls soccer team for the 2020 whereas the 2020 2021 scotch plains fanwood high school girls varsity soccer team had a remarkable 2020 fall season allowing only four goals to be scored against them and achieving a record of twelve one and one and whereas 2020 2021 scotch planes fanwood high school girls varsity soccer team became the union county interscholastic athletic conference finalist for the 15th time in 16 years a run of success that is unparalleled in the state of new jersey and whereas the scotch planes fanwood high school girls varsity soccer team won the

023union county conference watching division was ranked the top team in union county by nj.com and finished the season ranked number four in the state of new jersey by nj.com and whereas the scotch plains fanwood high school girls varsity soccer team won the east regional group f championship in dramatic fashion with a 4-0 win over the top-seeded toms river north on sunday november 21st 2020 and whereas the 2020 scotch plains family high school girls varsity soccer team exhibited outstanding talent dedication and teamwork throughout the season and was led by head coach kevin ewing and assistant coaches matthew tiedemann lauren maynes and joseph higgins now therefore be it resolved that the scotch plains family board of education recognizes and congratulates the 2020 2021 scotch plains fanwood high school girls varsity soccer team and their coaches for their

024outstanding achievements and wishes them continued success in all future endeavors congratulations everyone now i'd also like to read the resolution for chlorine light whereas the scotch plains fan with high school girls soccer has an outstanding tradition with many valued players few have achieved the level of success as chlorine light and whereas corinne is a four year letter winner for the girls soccer team and her talent has helped lead the team conference county sectional group and regional championships and whereas corrine late has been recognized as the team offensive most valuable player the union county girls soccer player of the year the north two girls soccer player of the year and the top 20 player in new jersey and whereas kareem light has been named to the first team all county group four state teams in and

025whereas korean light has been recognized by the united soccer coaches of america in an all-american as an all-american for the 2020 soccer season becoming one of the few two-time all-american honorees after receiving her honor in sophomore year and whereas along with her accolades on the field karine has served as a union county njsia ambassador and the 2020 homecoming queen for spf hs now therefore be it resolved that the scotch planes fanwood board of education recognizes and congratulates corrine light for her outstanding achievements and wishes her continued success in all her future endeavors congratulations karine that is just outstanding and not to be undone we also have a resolution for mr petey [Music] whereas in his third year as the girls coaches head coach petey has been named the girls tennis coach of the year by

026nj.com and whereas luke petey has been a math teacher at the scotch plains fanwood high school for 16 years and whereas coach petey combines dedicated preparation and passion for the sport to motivate his athletes to outperform their own expectations and whereas coach pd's 2020 girls tennis team achieved a record of 15 and zero and earned second place finish at the union county interscholastic athletic conference tournament and the regional girls tennis championship and whereas luke petey's outstanding coaching the first second and third singles players were individual county champions and whereas overall the remarkable accomplishment of earning a regional championship is overshadowed by the extreme focus coach peady placed on the overall health and safety of our athletes and in short he was prepared to not play if the athletes were not guaranteed the utmost safety whilst

027performing now therefore be it resolved that the scotch plains fanwood board of education recognizes and congratulates coach luke peady for his outstanding achievements and wishes him continued success in all future endeavors congratulations congratulations on outstanding accomplishments to the team to karine and to coach peady if anybody would like to take a few minutes to make any comments please do so at this time any of the team members want to make any comments karen mitchell karen mitchell go right ahead thank you dr mast sure i just wanted to quickly first of all congratulate everyone and also tell them that their performance is not only important athletically of course but at this difficult time for the community and for the country at large a bright light like this is even brighter so not only do you make

028us proud as raiders for your athletic ability but for your leadership and positivity and giving us something to cheer for in a time where everyone really needed it so thank you double for that thank you very nice mrs mitchell thank you for your comments anybody else like to say a few words mrs winkler yeah i want to congratulate coach petey um that's fabulous um it's wonderful to uh i know this is your i think your third year coaching the girls and um it's impressive and it um it's just a wonderful achievement and it reflects nicely on our district and um and we're really proud to have you here so thank you very much um i want to congratulate coach ewing and the girls what a fantastic um season this was uh crazy season with all

029of that's going on with the pandemic but um but you guys are amazing you you prove it right on the on the pitch every time and um and corinne amazing congratulations to you and um and good luck to all of you girls thank you mrs winkler well thank you all for coming out tonight to hear the resolutions be read we appreciate your taking all your time and uh at least you didn't have to leave your house to come to out in the cold to the meeting glad for zoom okay if there are no further comments then i'd like to move on to the next area in the instructional update which would be the environmental safety management core yes doctor dr richard lynch is going to join us [Music] dr uh can you hear me okay

030yes okay great so uh our i'm just gonna take a few minutes and just sort of review uh an overview of the of the work that we've been able to uh do in conjunction with the district staff to ensure that the classrooms and and other areas of the buildings are as safe as possible for the reopening as you know uh the the district contracted us to come out and to do an initial heating ventilation and air conditioning assessment uh in line with the various guidelines for covid reopening that have been put out by the new jersey department of education along with those guidelines described by ashrae and cdc and uh and other another regulatory uh and governmental bodies we um we were on site initially on september 11th and 14th and during that period we

031inspected and collected ventilation system flow measurements from approximately 178 classrooms throughout the district in each of your in each of your buildings and we were looking for issues of airflow filtration outdoor air introduction rates and other factors that would be able to be considered to make the classrooms as safe as possible based on the preliminary findings there from the september inspections we we identified a number of issues that we thought could be improved to make the the classrooms as safe for students and for teachers upon return to in-person instruction and um and we and we we made some recommendations uh to improve uh outdoor air introduction we identified some rooms that had some issues with fans and dampers and other sort of mechanical issues there and we also made some recommendations related to layout and

032and some other factors those recommendations were taken by the district and i'll and i'll and i'll let uh let the district describe some of the things that were done there uh when i'm completed but between september and october the district uh uh endeavored to aggressively address the recommendations that were made and then dr mass asked us to come back out in november and to re-measure and to re-look at a subset of the rooms where we saw the problems or the concerns to be most significant and in november we came back and and and looked at a subset of the rooms that we that that we initially inspected as well as some others and um and what we learned what we found was that the the act the actions on the part of your facilities department

033under the leadership of dr mast um were dramatically uh effective uh what we overall what we found was that uh air flows into the classrooms outdoor air introduction rates into the classrooms uh increased as much as 50 to even a hundred percent over in some cases uh our initial measurements on average uh air flows increased by roughly 300 cubic feet per minute in the remeasured rooms after the extraordinary work that your district did and so we were very very pleased to see that and it shows the kind of commitment that you have there in scotch plains to making sure that those sites uh that that you're that your facilities are as safe as possible and uh what i'd like to do is uh before wrapping it up maybe pass it back uh to you to

034describe uh what was actually done so thank you dr lynch we we we work with both you and we also work with the e.i associates and from both lists of recommendations mrs saradacki is going to share the work that has been done mrs saradaki i'm ready so this is a ventilation assessment update of what we've been working on [Music] back one slide [Music] overall summary every single classroom and office in the district has been inspected and remediations have been addressed a follow-up inspection by environmental safety management corp took place on november 10th you just heard from dr lynch about that his this reinspection ventilation measurement revealed a substantial increase in classroom airflows most full-size classrooms are projected to support an average of 12 occupants per classroom during the pandemic while meeting the ashrae 62 guideline

035of 15 cubic feet per minute outdoor air per person some of the projects we have worked on all unive later motors have been repaired or replaced where needed all dampers have been set to 40 percent minimum outdoor air introduction outdoor dampers on the unit ventilators air handling units and rooftop units have been repaired so mechanical equipment can provide mechanical outdoor air ventilation to do this we repaired pneumatic air leaks for all schools with the exception of two at the high school reconnected pneumatic lines to actuators repaired or replaced pneumatic actuators and components for all schools where needed with the exception of four at mcginn repaired or replaced electronic actuators and components reconnected or replaced actuator linkages inspected all room thermostats and other controls replaced or reset thermostats where needed all outdoor air dampers for all

036equipment is operational when equipment is on and school is occupied outdoor air dampers are open for at least two hours before school is occupied and two hours after school occupancy has ended this is to ensure that the air has exchanged in the classroom multiple times before students come in and also at the end of the day after the room is empty to have several air exchanges before the room is shut down for the evening we also cleaned all the outdoor air dampers equipment coils have been cleaned which will minimize airflow restrictions we replaced all rooftop and univentalator air filters provided portable air purification hepa units in rooms without windows and new exhaust fans have been installed in toilet rooms where needed work that we still have in progress exhaust fan motors need replacement in the

037locker rooms at park middle school some faculty bathrooms and in various nurses offices we need to bring in an outside contractor once we have a solid inventory on this to install exhaust fans in locations where they do not exist we need to repair the pneumatic air leak at the high school the universe though where that location is is currently working and running with fresh air mcginn has four rooms that need repair to the pneumatic actuators all are working the damper is locked in the open position all have been set to 40 minimum outdoor air introduction our long-term solutions will be prioritized in our long-range facility plan that is a very costly project involves possible replacement of some of our unit ventilators possibly some rooftop units thank you mr saradek [Music] dr lynch all right great

038thanks mrs saradacki uh from uh from that review you can see that the district's commitment to addressing this was extraordinary and i just want to reiterate that uh when we went back out on november 10th we uh were very very uh very persuaded that those efforts were real and that they will uh really be helpful toward minimizing risk of covet spread when folks come back now i want to i want to make one point to you just as a district so that you understand our projections were based on assumptions of of 20 to 25 outdoor air and the district has gone beyond that to even 40 outdoor air and as you know cdc and others are recommending that that you get as much outdoor air in there as you possibly can and keep the six

039foot social distancing wear the masks when it gets to be very cold uh the district may find that uh they need to back that outdoor air from 40 open to to something closer to 20 to 25 when that happens i just want you to understand that the projections that we made were made at the 20 to 25 level so you've got room to back off and and and you may need to do that you need to listen carefully to your facilities folks as we get into the very cold part of the winter and if they need to back those down um they'll be able to do that but i do want you to understand you have the room to do that okay uh so i i i think i think i think it's a it

040it's a you're you're in good shape and i think that um the district's commitment to to the to the safety and health of of staff and students is evident through your work [Music] so thank you dr lynch you know additionally we will hear in our facilities report more specifics later in the meeting and we have a follow-up of these documents that will be posted tomorrow on the website thank you dr mast thank you dr lynch thank you thanks for the opportunity to help well appreciate it greatly thank you okay moving on to our public session if you'd like to make a public comment please go to the spfk12.org to make a public comment please look for the zoom log information and in accordance with the scotch plains fanwood public school bylaws zero one six four

041zero one six five the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments maximum is three minutes per speaker speakers addressing the superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first if time remains speakers may address other matters if you would like to make a public comment please go to the spfk12.org for the zoom login information and when you are up in the queue and it's your turn please state your full name the town in which you reside and if you are representing any organizations please note board members cannot respond regarding concerns of individual students or staff members such matters should be addressed with the superintendent's office so at this time uh miss broadbent i'm going to ask you if we have anybody in the queue wishing to make a public

042comment yes dr kulakowski sarah august okay miss august when you unmute your mic please state your name the town in which you reside and if you are representing any organization hi i am sarah august i am from scotch plains and i am representing the real scotch plains fanwood organization real parents thank you you're welcome go right ahead thank you well happy holidays everybody thank you thank you i hope that all is going well and everybody enjoyed their snow day um i am really here just to wonder what's going on with curriculum and how we're working on curriculum in terms of how the teachers are learning how to improve their curriculum and how they're working as i said i'm doing training right now and continuing for two years in milburn with coyote joshi who is training

043us on how to improve our curriculum in every unit how to work to include all different ways and histories and backgrounds of different cultures and diversity within what we already doing and i truly recommend the district reach out to her um you know something as simple as the new jersey bar association is doing amistad training for free um tomorrow even they're doing one in january that teachers could attend virtually if you go to the new jersey bar foundation's website you can find that um little things that the district could be consistently doing for free um trainings all over to help out i would love to know what's going on um and that's that's about it well thank you for making the comments miss august appreciate you taking the time tonight dr kulakowski our next caller

044is nada evans miss evans when you're ready please unmute state your full name the tan in which you reside and if you are representing an organization please hi my name is nida evans i'm from scotch plains and i'm with the real parents of scotch plains fanwood thank you so i definitely one want to say that i am seeing a difference in the curriculum and some of the book selections you know at the ninth grade level i was wondering if there's any way that the district can publish uh some of the changes that they made to the curriculum you know so that way you know the community can be more aware of the new book selections that are more diverse and have more of a diverse perspective um and you know what grade levels and what

045courses they're in so if that communication could increase that would be really helpful is that your entire statement to this evening yeah i was just wondering if that because i know the curriculum isn't published on the website so um you know i've looked for it i haven't seen it so if there could be some communication to what changes could be made or if you would even publish your curriculum that would be great okay well thank you for your comments and it's out there now to the superintendent and assistant superintendent and i'm sure things will either be sent to you or discussed with you and the district thank you for your comments this evening dr kulikowski cynthia no last name provided cynthia when you are ready please unmute yourself state your full name the town in

046which you reside and if you are representing an organization i don't see that she's moved over dr kulakowski should not be having technical problems there she is cynthia when you unmute yourself please state your full name the town in which you reside and if you are representing an organization okay hold on hi can you hear me i can again please okay great your team got dropped earlier yes presenting an organization cynthia khan from scotch plains thank you um following uh nada i have some questions um in regards to diversity and inclusion um two questions specifically in regards to diversity hiring statuses any improvement on that front i know that the school district has been making an effort but i'm curious as to how many more teachers of color or you know that you are hiring

047or any improvement in processes that you're looking at to you know encourage diversity within the school district question one question two as far as inclusion of students of color in ap classes as a parent of two former graduates of the high school and one that will be there in the next seven years i've noticed that there's a lack of representation in advance or ap classes i've heard that the school district is now you know considering changing policy and looking at things besides teacher recommendations to encourage students of color to get be enrolled in those classes but my question is what other um you know recommendations or what other policies are you putting in place to encourage that with students within the high school that's it thank you thank you for your two comments i appreciate

048your taking the time this evening thank you dr kulakowski i don't see any hands raised in the queue at this moment so dr kulikowski if i could just um take it take a moment in in that round of questioning regarding the curriculum um you know we do hear um the updates from from the curriculum committee um and regarding the the work that we're doing and and the suggestion of professional development those suggestions are actually things that that we have done and are um currently in the process of pursuing so um we have good synergy in that respect um regarding the the personnel hire and the progress that we're making we're very focused on having measurable um reports in that regard and those reports will come out from from a personnel committee report um but it

049is true that um you know we are making progress even even this year um so so we will be pleased to report that out to the public and also regarding the ap classes over over the past few years um we we have been removing um barriers for kids to access ap classes where where kids can elect to take a course if if that's something that that they wish to pursue so um the teacher recommendation though um that's that's often valued it's it's not it does not exclude you it does not exclude a student from taking the course should they want to um dr mcgarry do you have anything to add to those comments based on that group of questioning this evening yeah i just wanted to add to um the work we're doing in professional

050development um we began um having we call them we wednesdays and really this is built upon the internal capacity that we have as a district um evidenced by for example at um scotch plains fanwood high school we have a a um a chapter of barwi which stands for building anti-racist white educators they have a meeting coming up on monday that i'm going to be attending there's 30 members of that group and we have really great internal resources that we are tapping into in order to move forward with looking at things like diversity equity and implicit bias last week was our first we wednesday and we did a study of an article on um using assessment practices for um for building equity um and looking at the kinds of bias that are in our own assessment

051practices and so i've been so impressed by the the faculty and staff at scotch plains fanwood in the last four months since i've been here and their willingness and interest to not only engage in this but to lead this work too so there's a lot of great things happening you probably don't hear about them because we're not sort of a place that that touts the work that we do um and and we're really building it from internal uh and there will come a time when we will bring in some outside resources but um right now it seems to be uh the focus that we have internally is is really building capacity thank you dr mcgarry miss broadbent have there been any other hands going up in this time dr kulakowski there are no hands raised

052okay then i'm going to close this portion of public comment and we'll move on to the committee reports we do have one other public comment session coming up later so do i have anyone that has a committee report they'd like to present please i can go if you'd like mr murray i don't know deb did you want to go with your community relations i think you had your hand raised i i i was just going by the list but you go ahead you can go right i don't care who goes first go ahead you have a few of them i have three so okay something for me so thank you go first so bear with me um two two one of them is is quite long it's the facilities one i'll save that for last

053um we'll do the finance one first so the finance committee met on december 7th we had three three items on the agenda that we spoke about the first was the union county cares grant dollars for scotch plains fanwood so we've we've received an amended amount um from five dollars 230 seventy four cents to two hundred seventy three thousand six hundred fifty dollars so all dollars to be appropriated for the coven 19 expenses it must be appropriated prior to your end um so we're recommending that the board approve the increase of 42 814. in additional grant dollars um second item was uh purchase of macbook airs that was previously approved through lease purchase monies um had to be revised due to a change in the model of the macbook air that was being purchased the original

054approval has been increased by 42 000 so we're recommending the approval of that and then there was three uh additional h um quotes there were some quotes we received for hvac and boiler work the first being to purchase two three-ton rooftop units at park middle school they need to be replaced as their they have cracked heat exchanges so we're recommending moving forward with the lowest bid on that and the second one was a boiler feed tank which feeds all the boilers at the high school we're recommending moving forward with that with the lowest bid and then the second one is something that's going to come up um in the in the near future um we've we've determined that it's not something we need to take action on at this point but it would be removing

055boiler number one and number two and replacing it with one larger boiler so we are postponing that need it's not needed at the current point in time but it will be needed um in the near term so no no no need for action on that so the other two items you'll see you'll see the rest of the items on the board agenda for this evening and that concludes my facilities report i don't know if anybody has questions on that before i move forward mr mitchell evan what would be the benefit of going down from two boilers to one efficiency yes what's the need for that efficiency so the older boiler the newer boilers are more efficient is the way we understand it and the capacity can handle what we need where the traditional older boilers

056[Music] have been there for for an extended period of time and okay they don't function the same way as the new technology and it'll still cover the same amount of the school everything's the same that's amazing technology okay thank you correct okay uh i'll move over to our student activities and athletics committee report so we had a very very um extensive update provided by uh dr david hisey who's the principal at scotch plains fanwood high school and then we had an update from ryan miller who's the assistant principal and uh director of athletics so uh dr heisley spoke to us about the activities uh 2021 activities updates um he has spoken with the pta as well as several senior parents regarding some of the items so he shared with us a list of events and

057dates for the seniors and some other events that are happening throughout the spring that are all tentative at this point um but they're looking to finalize dates in the upcoming weeks and then you know obviously all of these things are pending you know our ability to to be able to do them the first being a food truck festival scheduled tentatively for may 2nd there's a senior awards program tentatively scheduled for may 26th there's a senior picnic attendant olivia scheduled for june 15th there is the senior send-off and car parade um tend to leave scheduled for either wednesday or thursday june 16th or 17th uh the senior prom attend the living schedule for june 18th um you know and if you know one of the things with the senior prom that is being um tentatively planned

058out now is if if it is possible to be held and it cannot be held indoors the thought is to start looking to see if we can do any outdoor planning one of which being potentially on our athletic fields so there are options that are being evaluated from for all of these uh activities if they're if they're scheduled to be indoors if they can be held if they have to be held outdoors where um that might be out able to be done so i'm really getting ahead of some of the scheduling um this year and then there's some lawn signs for senior pictures so that would be the last two weeks of school and then commencement is scheduled currently for june 24th at 6 00 p.m and then mr miller gave an update um on

059winter sports so all of this information is based on njsia data this is not anything that the district has confirmed um that we're approving moving forward with um all of these things these are just the dates that were provided at the time of the meeting so basketball and bowling um the state has uh saying practices can begin on january 11th in competition on january 26th indoor track and swimming can practices can begin feb 1 with competitions on feb 16 and wrestling girls volleyball and gymnastics can begin on march 1st as i mentioned this is not happening in the district until we know obviously have more information and and so on but these are just the state guidelines and then ice hockey um the state was allowing outdoors to begin on the 14th indoors beginning january

0602nd competitions january 15th so the ngsai also sent out virtual contact periods so teams can use zoom and google meets to collaborate with players about at home individual workouts similar to what was done in a two-week period in the fall i believe as well and then um the start date of the season uh they use the start date of the season from the prior start date for the virtual contact periods so um there was obviously this the state has made some recommendations and guidance on some of this a lot of this is not starting or recommended to start until after the new year but um no no decisions have been taken um at this point in time that i'm aware of and dr master you can opine if if there's any additional updates you wanted

061to add to this i think you're on mute we're just reviewing the guidelines and we're watching the dates as as we bring kids back we certainly want kids to be in school and when kids are in school then we can move forward with our athletics program perfect any questions on the on the committee report no questions but i like that outdoor prom idea yeah there's a lot of creativity that's being uh put into this uh to make sure that the experience goes a lot better depending on where we are in this for for for everyone great so i'm going to apologize again this one uh the facilities report is quite long and i'm going to it's got a lot of detail to it some of which was already covered so i'll try to try to

062be brief on that um so we had our facilities report again on december 7th so that was a busy day for committees um we had anthony miranda who's our director of buildings and grounds and pacquiao's our buildings and grounds hvac technician join us um you know we already spoke about the same this is the same items that were in our finance report regarding the hvac and boiler work so i won't go through that again but it was those three items two of which we were looking to move forward and approve um the bulk of the uh the meeting we spent on dr lynch's report so the committee reviewed the december 4th ventilation update from dr richard lynch from his follow-up visit on november 10th the re-inspection um i'm not going to go through all of

063this because uh debbie's uh saradacki covered this uh in her report dr lynch covered this when he went through but i will highlight um some of the other key points in here that every room in the district was inspected um and the high-level remediations that they went through in the in in the other presentation with regards to um the diaphragms being installed the rooftop units exhaust fans and so on so i won't get into that but the esm corporation has shared other recommendations for consideration which i believe have been some of which have been worked through so organizing classroom occupancy and seating which we we have gone through extensively encouraging teachers to keep windows open to increase ventilation um being mindful of that i think that was in all the introduction letters to make sure

064that people are dressing accordingly and dressing warm depending on the weather under the guidance of our mechanical contractor architect maintain minimum outdoor air introduction rates as high as possible ideally 20 as you heard today we're at 40 and we have some room if we need to to move that um disable demand control ventilation clearly we we've heard that have our mechanical contractor determine the maximum filter efficiency which air handling units throughout the district can accommodate which has been completed um install hepa filtering um air scrubbers which was in the prior presentation complete repairs for any non-functioning exhaust fans and bathrooms which we spoke about continue to operate overhead gym and cafeteria ventilation systems which we've been doing um adhere to cdc social distancing cloth faith face coverings um enhanced cleaning and sanitation procedures schedule periodic

065air quality monitoring currently being completed which has currently been completed daily and conduct follow-up inspections repairs and evaporator coil cleaning all of which has been part into the normal into the new routine i think the other thing that's important to note is that buildings and grounds has created a new process for daily cleaning protocols in each of the buildings which is um an additional uh process that was was through you know all of this with regard to additional um cleaning for the for covert protocols so that um was the update so you know in summary every room whether it's a classroom in office has been looked at reviewed inspected and um actions have been taken on those and i believe all of those updates as far as the short-term recommendations and presentation will be updated

066as dr mass alluded to or mentioned earlier on the website by the end of the week or tomorrow so that concludes my facilities report i don't know if anybody has questions on any of that i know we heard a lot about the facilities update today so that concludes my three reports thank you mr murray ms brodie i'm reporting on the community relations committee we had a meeting on december 2nd and we had the pleasure of having regina gannon the pta council president and claudine doyle the kohl's coal school pta president join us and we had a very great discussion regarding the board of ed collaborating more with the pta regarding communications and we all share different ideas and plan on working closely closely together in the future we just have to solidify the plans um

067we discuss the process for setting up focus groups after we have the results of the communication survey the focus groups will be done in mid to late january we also had laurie perlow there the communications consultant so she was going over that process um we discussed um what we what we will preview as far as those results are and it's really just the major points of the first round of results we're going to just look at the major points not every single response and a good good news is is that our community committee is on a regular schedule just like the rest of the committees so we have a whole schedule of meeting dates moving forward which is great and that concludes my report thank you miss brodie does anybody have any questions okay see

068none um the next report miss ariani um i have a rather lengthy report too i'll try to either read fast or summarize um a little bit of it has been covered but um the curriculum committee met on december 8th and we had four agenda items the first is um exciting the proposed edition of three new courses three new fine arts courses and our fine arts supervisor mr wayne mallette came to describe the three courses two of the courses are not so sadly replacing airbrush one and airbrush two which do not have as much relevance anymore so we're proposing to replace them with more relevant courses um the first is global art immersion which is a studio course designed to develop an understanding of mixed media techniques such as clay sewing fibers textiles um and then

069also studying various art forms from different countries around the world so this exposes students to art from around the world um also with a focus on non-western art marginalized voices in art so um you know diversity in our curriculum isn't just about what what texts are being read so i know a few questions in public comment focused around diversity and inclusion and equity and um this these new courses directly speak to that as well um so that's global art immersion the second course is art design and art design survey which introduces students to all the possibilities in the world of design um students actually were asked to take a survey at some point um about their their interests their course interests and a lot of them were interested in fashion design so this course will

070offer um fashion design home design interior and exterior they'll study color theory how fabrics influence design and they'll see the design process from beginning to to the concept to client presentation um this course is exciting also because it addresses job preparedness and career readiness for people who wish to pursue careers in fashion design interior design and even architecture and another interesting component is that it focuses on ethical designing which is a really big topic right now when designing buildings and landscapes thinking about the ethical and moral implications such as green spaces handicap accessibilities and environmental justice that needs to be considered and incorporated the last the third course that's being proposed for approval is ap music theory um and mr malet pointed out that adding ap music theory also adds a level rigor to the

071district's music curriculum it's designed to develop in-depth and broad skills and music theory and um it also provides an opportunity for social emotional learning because students will be composing their own songs and and sharing them and gives them a way to express themselves but the the course um the course um will will help students develop a detailed understanding of music theory create original compositions as i've said understand the influence on culture and society that music has had analyze and understand composers and make informed judgments on their own compositions so those are the three new proposed music courses and the board is going to be asked to approve those three courses uh the next three items are solely informational and dr mcgarry already talked about um we always have a race equity and social justice update

072in our curriculum report and dr mcgarry mentioned that the last we wednesday um focused on the article assessment practices for promoting equity where staff were given an opportunity to come to one of three google meetups to talk about this article and how um how how to avoid bias um in in assessing student work and i think it had i spoke with him afterward and i understand it had a very good turnout so that's very exciting um the third item was about remote learning and teacher observations during this period dr mcgarry discussed the manner in which teachers are being evaluated now and now that they're teaching remotely and the use of a portfolio approach instead of the 22 components of the danielson model seven components are being used um which which are deemed to be critical

073in remote and hybrid instructional models in addition supervisors can do synchronous observations or teachers can record their lessons for review the focus of of teacher review now is in knowing and valuing their students building responsive learning environments and engaging students in in this remote and hybrid learning and the last agenda item was the truth racial healing and transformation partnership which we've also been talking about um dr mast and members of the trht who are also myself being one of them on the curriculum committee discussed our collaboration and partnership with social justice matters the borough of famwood and the township of scotch plains and um our board of ed's contribution to a written document that will go out to the community that summarizes this past summer's listening tour as it related to various areas including district

074efforts to increase equity and eradicate racism and bias some of which we've been regularly reporting about but areas of this report which again is is in development highlight the board of ed's commitment in these areas of equity talks about the curriculum committee's work including professional development uh the commitment to ensuring that students see themselves and others in the curriculum talked about the policy committee creating and reviewing policy with an equity lens the student the new student activities and athletics committee reviewing student participation to ensure that all students are engaged in extracurricular activities and also the new wellness and equity committee that focuses on evaluating existing structures and envisioning initiatives to foster greater equity um the report will also review our district goals which have also been shared previously and so i'm not going to review

075those again about the district task force the board committee the wellness and equity committee we've reviewed the those goals and um the report will also explore ways to create a student pipeline for future teachers and continue to develop deliver and assess lessons that address the amistad law and also highlight persons with disabilities and lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people which also is is a law in our state um so we had a very busy meeting and the next meeting is january 12th thank you miss suriani does anybody have any questions karen mitchell um i i don't have a question as much as i have a comment um stephanie thank you for that extensive report i want to just note of how the curriculum committee is so closely uh following the district goals as stephanie was

076was talking i have the goals with me and i'm thinking wow that that um new course um where it talks about fashion design and interior design gets them ready for architecture completely follows our goal number two of real world connections across curriculum uh the bias training and the teacher review is works perfectly with our professional development it's completely correlated and finally the the incredible partnerships with truth and racial healing and the wellness inequity a wellness um an equity committee talks about um it's parallel for our health and wellness goal um with equity so i really want to applaud that committee for uh their work that is so uh focused and completely on track with them with our updated goals thank you thank you miss mitchell anybody else have a comment or a question from msuriani

077okay thank you miss ariani any other reports to be heard this evening mrs winkler i have a policy committee report i'll i'll give my report now and then later in the agenda when we get to the policy section you'll all know what it's about um the that's it all right so the policy committee met on december 9th um and there were two policies that we talked about um policy 2431.1 the athletic activities policy we met with carla kelly who's been coordinating the field hockey program for us i don't have a specific report about this policy in our discussions at this time but we are considering making some changes to this policy and um stay tuned uh the other policy we talked about was policy 2622 on student assessment um these are changes that are mandated

078due to changes in the administrative code um which shifts the requirement for the administration of a statewide standardized science assessment from fourth grade to fifth grade um other revisions in the policy were few and minor including two references to park that were removed and a few code references that were updated and that concludes my report thank you mrs winkler does anybody have any questions for mrs winkler seeing none uh mrs williams you were raising your hand just to report on um wellness and equity right right ahead thank you thank you wellness and equity met on december 10th and they also the task force task force meant to met today on december 17th um our agenda was number one wellness practices support and resources with virtual seminar on this past saturday supporting student wellness doing virtual

079learning and please mute yourself a virtual equity themed play we also as i stated had our racial equity meeting today and that includes a few of the community organizations um um truth racial healing transformation and to make note of that we um they're looking at scotch plains family as a model um with and making in in in what they do and it's going to be national so that's good news there um community reading for um black hist community reading we're looking at having wes moore or natalie edmond reporting on anti-racism and a mindful looking through a mindfulness lens um as dr mcgarry stated we also had two wee wednesdays and we wednesdays um one was this wednesday and last wednesday one of three google meetings that our staff members were able to attend on their

080own time they discussed assessment practices promoting equity and mindfulness um three and a half hours of conversation i understand we're also looking at in february for black history month um african-american reading celebrating our authors we have read or are currently reading we also discussed strategic planning and our goals we are looking in 2021 right now and that concludes my report thank you mrs williams any questions seeing them thank you mrs williams welcome there any other reports to be heard seeing none then we'll move on to letters for the board uh there were 41 and then additional emails that were sent to the board and they were appropriately responded to by the administrator next we have the superintendent's report dr mast muting please on you thank you dr kulikowski welcome to for 1s we have out

081of district placement we'd like to move that the board of education approves the revised out of district placement for case number 14-11 so moved winkler second ceriani thank you we have a motion and a second any question or discussion all those in favor aye all right any opposed any abstaining motion carries for 2s gifts to the school report move that the board of education acknowledges receipt of the bi-annual report of gifts to district schools submitted by the high school and mcginn elementary school i have a motion so moved thank you mrs winkler second was mr murray yes thank you um any question or discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed any abstaining motion carries for 3s the curriculum approval we move that the board of education improves the changes to an addition of

082the following courses the course name from airbrush to is changed to global art immersion airbrush 2 is changed to art design survey and ap music theory is a proposed new course can i have a motion don't move brody thank you miss brony i can winkler thank you mrs winkler any question or discussion all those in favor oh mrs sarah jack can you please pull the rule mrs brody yes mrs winkler yes mrs bauer yes mrs boroff yes mrs mitchell resounding yes mrs ceriani yes mrs williams yes mr murray yes dr kulikowski yes motion carries thank you mrs saradacki excellent finally the approval of the district goals for 2020 2021 we presented those at a prior board meeting in draft form i would ask that the board of education acknowledges the receipt of the district calls

083as presented on the november 12th meeting okay can i have a motion oh moved winkler thank you mrs winkler can i have a second i can borrow thank you mrs bohr if any question or discussion all those in favor any opposed any abstaining motion carries thank you thank you dr mast uh what about personnel agenda good idea so i would move that the board of education approves the superintendent's recommendations for personnel on the personnel report dated december 17th as we discussed in exec can i have a motion so moved thank you mr murray in a second thank you thank you mrs williams i heard your voice any question or discussion the non-mrs saradacki will you please call the role mr murray yes mrs williams yes mrs bauer yes mrs boroff yes this is brody yes

084this is mitchell yes is it ceriani yes mrs winkler yes dr kulikowski yes motion carries thank you thank you miss saradacki and finally for the personnel report move that the board of education approves the following board officials appointed for specific time periods so our hip coordinator will be kailyn france from december 1st 2020 through january 24th 2021 and then lakendra mcfadden will step in and she will be the hip coordinator starting january 25th 2021 can i have a motion so moved winkler thank you mrs winkler thank you brody thank you mrs brody any question or discussion mrs saradeki will you please call the roll mrs winkler yes mr brody yes mrs bauer yes mrs boroff yes mrs mitchell yes this is ceriani yes mrs williams yes mr murray yes dr kulikowski yes motion carries thank

085you miss saradacki we'll be dr mast and that brings us to the conclusion of the personnel report and brings us to business functions mrs saradaki whenever you're ready yes i'd like to group these if there's no objection no objection i'm asking the board to approve staff training on the superintendent based on the superintendent's recommendations for staff training reimbursements on the report dated december 17th i'm asking for the board to approve kailyn heating and air conditioning in the amount of thirty one thousand nine hundred and ninety five dollars for the installation of new rtus at park middle school i'm also asking as part of 2bus to uh approve kalyn heating and air conditioning in the amount of 79 350 uh for the uh purchase and installation of a new boiler feed and vacuum tank for the

086high school three bus i'm asking for contract renewal with jersey professional management in the amount of the total amount for all three communities is seven thousand eight hundred and seventy five dollars our portion will be two thousand six hundred and twenty five dollars which is a two percent increase over 2019-20 i'm sorry that was over 2020 because theirs is on a calendar year for bus i'm asking for the board to approve an increase of i guess it doesn't show the increase amount it's approximately from 429 800 to 471 800 for the purchase of 350 macbook airs 5bus i'm asking for the board to approve the director and accompany us for the repertory theater showcase which i hoped everybody got a chance to enjoy at thanksgiving um that would be morgan knight as the director for

087500 and mary lou farrell as he companies for 100 to be paid from proceeds six bus i'm asking the board to approve uh an addition additional uh we use pay schools right now for our lunch system and the additional fee of 590 dollars will be able to sell tickets uh provide easy payment for ap exams and all sorts of other similar type items seven bus i'm asking for the board to approve the award increase in the union county cares grant in the amount of forty two thousand eight hundred and fourteen dollars and twenty six cents eight bus i'm asking the board to approve the carry-over funds from two thousand twenty from nineteen twenty two two thousand twenty twenty one as detailed on the agenda nine bus i'm asking for the board to approve submission of

088the 2021 22 ellie grant application for the preschool plan funding in the amount of 49 500. this is normally approved by the board in early spring but the state moved it up three months this year 10 bus i'm asking for the board to approve purchases on behalf of union county union catholic high school and st bartholomew academy non-public school security initiative program agreements this is pass-through money where we receive it from the state specifically for these schools 11 bus i'm asking the board to approve a parent transportation contract uh the payment is 93 dollars per day a maximum payment of 19 530 dollars this is based on days the student is actually driven to school 12 bus i'm asking the board to approve the acceptance of gov deal funds these are sales of assets that

089the board previously approved the sale of and in the agenda you'll see a list of the payments that um the final bid results and the net paid to the district for these assets would be thousand six hundred and seventeen dollars and nineteen cents thirteen bus i'm asking the board to acknowledge receipt of the november 2020 security and fire drill reports 14 bus i'm asking the board to acknowledge receipt of the board secretary report treasure school funds report and budget adjustments for the month of november 15 bus i'm asking the board to acknowledge receipt of the disbursement listings for the month of november 16 bus i'm asking the board to approve the bills for the period november 14th through december 11 2020 in the amount of 4 million 226 800 889.99 um on a note because

090i don't think i've said this recently the bill list does not include payroll it's all the payments aside from payroll so um school security grant i'm asking the board to approve the submission of the school security grant application in the amount of 309 128 18 bus i'm asking the board to approve uh hague security service corporation installations this is the panic button installation required by alyssa's law and this will make us compliant with the law we already have panic buttons in the district but this is uh to make us compliant with the state law and that's it thank you mr sarataki do we have a motion for the business items thank you mr murray thank you mrs winkler any question or discussion mrs winkler uh yeah i just was wondering if you could give us

091just a little bit more information about the local level uh what what they would what service they provide for us uh which item is that the us can you repeat that and please mrs winkler six bus thanks thank you yeah local level llc is the company that um integrates with pay schools we use pay schools for lunch collection some field trips um sometimes the preschool tuition depending on what how people want to pay it's an online uh payment service where people can either write an e-check or use their credit card and what this does is integrate into that for an annual fee of 590. we can also give them our auditorium layouts and we can sell tickets on our own um and we can uh input ap exams for collection um so people can log

092into the same system they're using now and they can go to this portion of it and they can pay for ap exams if they want so the schools don't have to collect the checks that they can just pay through the online system and then a report is sent to the school detailing who is paid for what exam so it eliminates some of the cash and check collection on the part of the school in various instances such as guidance office especially at the high school that's great thank you so much any other question or comment seeing none we've had a motion and a second all those in favor i any opposed any abstaining motion carries thank you mrs saradacki uh policies next mrs winkler hi yeah at this time i'd like to move that the board

093approved second uh reading and adoption of the following policies uh policy 1581 domestic violence and the um accompanying regulation 1581 for domestic violence policy 2422 health and physical education policy and regulation 5330 administration of medication policy 7243 supervision of construction policy 8210 on the school year policy on the school day policy 8462 reporting potentially missing or abused children and bylaw 0164.6 remote public board meetings during a declared emergency these are policies that we had discussed a couple meetings ago and um i i moved that we um approved second reading and adoption of these policies okay is there a second second ceriani thank you mrs soriani any question or discussion all those in favor aye any opposed any abstaining motion carries thank you mrs winkler i'd also like to move that the board approved first reading

094um of the policy that i discussed uh at the earlier earlier this evening policy 2622 on student assessment a policy that has minor revisions removal of the references to the parcc exams updated um code citations and a change of the science um standardized testing from fourth grade to fifth grade okay do we have a second second williams thank you mrs williams any question or discussion all those in favor aye all right any opposed any abstaining motion queries thank you again mrs winkler thank you that brings us to new boyd business does anybody have any newborn business at this time mrs bauer unmute the garden state coalition of schools um met yesterday and the guest speaker was the new acting commissioner um dr angelica alan mcmillan um and there were several board members and dr mass

095there's so that was great um i would say essentially um i'll mention several things she highlighted that have taken place since she took that position but i would say the overall theme was that they're very interested in they're working on a three-year plan they're very interested in input from school districts for that plan of short and long-term goals um but some of the things that she highlighted were that there is a um the doe has created a mental health quick reference guide that's on their website and she mentioned several grant opportunities that they have made available some of those are pandemic related and [Music] some of the discussion was also around things like the vaccines who would have access teachers and students and when when that access uh would be available um schools are in

096the uh 1b group one a1 is uh or 1a is the um uh health professionals and so um there was a lot of discussion about staff and teachers and vaccines and and so forth um there were discussions about um teacher shortages and the impact of some things like the um some of the current requirements to become certified to teach there was also um let's see [Music] reports from the executive so i think that kind of sums up just that they she wanted to say that they want to listen more and work together and want to hear from everyone the executive directors report in terms of advocacy and bills met recently with the governor's office um while the there is a surplus this year um and the state isn't anticipating doing any bonding there's still it's

097still questionable what will be available to schools during the coming year and um i think that's kind of a summary of the things that were discussed a lot around mental health and i welcome the others who attended to chime in and add anything to that but she i i have to say the commissioner seemed very responsive and interested in input and feedback which is a great thing thank you mrs bauer mrs mitchell i was going to save this for the good of the order but i can piggyback off of what nancy just talked about i went i saw a webinar two weeks ago from the garden state coalition of schools about neuroscience the neuroscience of stress and education and self-care uh it was excellent and thank you nancy you forwarded that that on so i

098thank you for that heads up um the the speaker spoke about a lot of things but one message that i think could be useful to any listeners or community is the idea of alice static load which is the wear and tear of the body with repeated and chronic stress i'll say that again allostatic load wear and tear of the body with repeated and chronic stress stress accumulates in the body and unless we proactively work to work that out and comet it can create um health problems and increase anxiety and depression uh so i think with everything going on it's it's something important to consider one example she gave just real quickly was when martin luther king was assassinated he was 39 years old and they did an autopsy on his body and imagine the stress

099his body was under the allostatic load his body was under uh trying to create change in the 60s so um the autopsy revealed that although his chronological age was 39 his physical age was 60. so that is a good example of um taking time for ourselves and the importance of self-care to improve mood memory and overall health good point karen thank you is there any other comments to go along with the garden state coalition of schools that nancy just discussed thank you mrs bauer um then if there's no new business we're going on to continue with other board business and liaison reports does anybody have any other liaison report seeing no one i'm gonna move down to to obb request to attend workshops see no one moving on to three obb memorandum of agreement and

100i move that the board of education approves the memorandum of agreement concerning the adjustment of parent conferences due to covet 19 for the 2020-2021 school year can i have a second second winkler thank you mrs winkler any question or discussion all those in favor aye any opposed any abstaining motion carries thank you everyone okay that brings us to the approval of the minutes we have been presented with minutes from november 12th for both the open agenda executive session and open agenda meeting november 19th regular board meeting executive session and the regular board meeting does anybody want to make a motion to accept the minutes so moved thank you mr murray is there a second second mitchell thank you mrs mitchell uh any question or discussion about the minutes seeing no one all those in favor

101aye any opposed no one's abstaining motion carries and that brings us to the second public comment portion and if you want to make a public comment please go to spfk12.org for the zoom login information in accordance with the scotch plains fanwood board of education public school bylaw zero one six four zero one six five the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments maximum three minutes per speaker speakers addressing the superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first if time remains speakers may address other matters so if you'd like to make a public comment please go to spfk12.org for the zoom login information when it's your turn to speak after you unmute yourself please state your full name the town in which you reside and if you are representing

102an organization please note board members cannot respond regarding concerns with individual students or staff members such matters should be addressed with the superintendent's office so ms broadbent i go to you you please tell us who's ready in the queue hi dr kulikowski at this time there are no hands raised okay um while we give people a chance to um step up i'm just going to review the upcoming minutes so on thursday january 7th 2021 our first uh meeting of the new year will be the reorganization meeting that will start at 7 30 p.m there is no exact week start right in public and then on thursday and that will be virtual by the way for sure the reorg meeting will be virtual then on thursday january 21st the regular public meeting at 7 30 at

103this time it's to be determined but um it's a possibility we may be in public but we will have further discussion at the reorg meeting to see if we'll ready to be public with our meetings again so i go back to miss broadbent to see if anybody has stepped up and raised their hand no dr kulakowski no one has raised their hand okay so then i will um close this portion of the meeting and move on to remarks of the good of the order does anybody have any remarks for the good of the order mrs winkler yeah i'd like to wish everybody happy hanukkah merry christmas happy holidays um happy solstice happy new year you know whatever everyone in the community celebrates different things but i hope that everybody is having a good winter and

104i hope that um that everyone has a good break i hope that all our kids got to go out and enjoy the snow for a little while this afternoon it certainly was beautiful and i guess that's it i was out in it but i don't know if i enjoyed shoveling but i was out and for a while uh maybe we can all listen to mrs mitchell's advice and getting rid of some of our allostatic load over this next break by staying rested and relaxed i i still look forward to a couple of days of doing nothing and just vegging out any other remarks for the good of the order okay then uh can i have a motion to adjourn our last meeting for 2020. [Music] happy holidays happy happy holidays i have a motion by

105mrs williams is there a second thank you second i heard mr murray's voice first all those in favor all right no one's going to pose this one married happy new year merry christmas and everything meeting everyone thank you