11.12.20 Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education Meeting

001we're good Robin go ahead Dr kolakowski okay good evening welcome to the Scotch Plains Fanwood Board of Education open Agenda meeting online and live streams today is Thursday November 12th 2020 Mrs saraki will you please call the role Mrs Bower here Mrs borof here Mrs Brody here Mrs Mitchell here Mrs serani here Mrs Williams Pres M Winkler here Mr Murray here Dr kulakowski here corm is present thank you Mrs saridaki please join me in the salute to the flag 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 an executive session held just prior to this meeting we spoke about the Personnel report the legal status update and le5 which was

002of a personal nature at this time we have an addition to the agenda a added after Monday November 9th which were Leets to the board there were two additional emails received 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 interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Scotch Plains Fanwood 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 New Jersey such notice was also provided in written notice and forwarded to the times The Star Ledger the Township Clerk of

003Scotch Plains and the burough Clerk of Fanwood at the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings adopted March 26 2020 at this time we will have our instructional updates first we'll have the 2019 2020 school safety data systems and Hib for the reporting period of January through June 2020 and the self assessment scores for July 1 2019 through June 30th 2020 presented by Miss Lisa reimus director of special services and Miss Lisa MOA District social worker and District anti-bullying coordinator Mrs rimus Miss MOA the floor is yours good evening everyone as you know twice a year the Board of Education receives a report of the student safety data system or the ssds it combines two State reporting systems the electronic vandalism violence and vandalism system and the harassment intimidation and bullying investigations trainings and program systems

004the data presented is based on five identified categories by the State Department of Education and is entered by anually into the reporting system this data is reported publicly to the Board of Education two times a year the following data is for the reporting period of January to June 2020 so in the area of violence we had three incidents reported in the areas of vandalism and weapons we did not have any incidences reported in the area of substance we had nine incidents reported and Miss Mora will report on the hip cases specifically um but there were six confirmed cases reported via the ssds Miss Mora will go over the Hib reporting on investigations trainings and Report and programs thank you um I'll now be going through um with you the Hib data as well as information

005regarding the trainings and programs in the districts and the remediations and consequences implemented the following data um is from January to June of 2020 as Mrs rimus said there were a total of six confirmed tibs we completed a total of 16 investigation the status of all investigations are completed as recorded on the monthly Board of Ed Agenda One of the components of the law is also taking a look at whether any of our HIV incidents were based on a protected category of the six confirmed cases one was based on mental physical or sensory disability one was based on sexual orientation and one was based on race I'd like to note that there that this is not an unduplicated number meaning one case could be um in more than one protected category all other cases were

006based on other distinguishing characteristic that did not include um a identified protected category all of our investigations were completed by anti-bullying Specialists assigned to each building in addition to that on a case-by casee basis Administration may have also assisted with investigations um you prior did receive a detailed list of cons quences that were um that were provided however I would like to highlight some of the consequences imposed for students found to be participating in HIV included parent conferences um detentions assigned both in and out of school suspension students assigned projects Comm and community service this is just to name a few um there were also a variety of remediations as well focusing on education again you were provided a list but I would like to highlight the different classroom lessons which included um personal space

007using iMessages conflict resolution kindness self- advocacy the impact of rumors and digital citizenship other remediations included counseling referral for both in school and outside resources sensitivity training and also grade wide initiatives there were a number of trainings that focused on the district hi policy and the anti-bullying Bill of Rights as well as trainings to improve both School climate and culture um note in um note additional trainings specific to covid um we we have um programs that we run every spring but when March came uh additional trainings were focused on avoiding ret truma retraumatization in a covid world making schools a place of reflection instead of reaction we also looked at how to handle HIV cases um and discrimination claims um in a in a now virtual world um I'd also like to note that these

008trainings really only are recorded from January to June however so this does not reflect all of the training that staff um did throughout the summer did we just lose her oh hello hello there you go okay I'm back I'm not sure where where I where I got bumped off you froze for a moment did you hear trainings some okay um so the I'll go back to the training part um so there were a number of trainings that focused on our our hi policies and I do want to just highlight I mean you have a full list of the trainings but one thing I would like to highlight is that you know the additional trainings that um were provided once once um uh once the pandemic hit and some of those really were on on supporting

009students on how to avoid retraumatization how to make the schools a place of reflection um we looked at some of the um our our legal response in investigation as well as how to handle um claims in a virtual world um and I also did want to highlight that these trainings really only reflect from Jan to June so it does not include all of the training that happened throughout the summer that staff participated in our programs um continue to have a variety of programs across all Glade grade levels the district continues to provide lessons on anti-bullying responsive classroom behavioral expectations kindness we also have an assortment of programs that um that Foster leadership and Service Learning you'll notice that some of the programs allow ow for our older students to provide peer mentorship to younger grades

010as well even with covid our staff was able to still provide some programming virtually such as morning meetings there was a virtual mindfulness club and all of the different graduation activities um just to name a few that were able to still be done um throughout um April May and June um that covers the HIV part of of our presentation I would like to now move into the self assessment scores um making sure my connection is still there okay I'm still live I haven't Frozen yet okay all right so um is required by state law the commissioner of Education have developed a program to grade schools yearly on their effort to implement the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act this assessment is designed in a rubric form and it's to be implemented as a self assessment so

011there are eight core elements in the self assessment and within each core element there there are one to five indicators in which a school can receive points so points are given on a scale from does not meet the requirement to exceeds the requirement the scores from each element are then added to create the school grade please note that a school that meets all law requirements will result in a school grade of 52 and a school that exceeds state requirements in every single area would receive a a grade of 78 so this is not based on a zero to 100 grading this fall each of our schools engaged their school safety School climate team in completing the self assessment for the time period of July 1st 2019 to June 30th 2020 tonight I will provide with

012you the results of of those scores our school scores range from 67 to 7 4 these scores reflect that our schools Mark themselves consistently in either meets or exceeds requirements in many of the areas and we we believe that this depicts um how we're Mo moving in a systemic manner as a district in our programming and and procedures related to harassment intimidation and bullying um I'll briefly go through each of the core elements um element one the focus that they are grading themselves on is the actual hip programs approaches and initiatives element two um is a reflection of trainings on on the um Board of Board of Ed approved HIV policy um all staff is is trained on that to include even um uh um substitutes um both online as well Lisa Lisa I think

013she's Frozen again Lisa you froze again up to substitutes okay my my uh entire Wi-Fi keeps going in and out here I'm not sure why um okay so I apologize okay um so the element two is trainings um on our Boer vet approved Hib policies we provide both um an online training as well as um many in-person trainings element three looks at other staff instructions and training program so um this this includes the min minimum of the two hours of instruction in both hi our district tends to provide more than two hours of instruction in that area um element four is the curriculum and instruction on HIV and related information and skills element five looks at our HIV um Personnel um mainly that every building does have an anti-bullying specialist as well as an anti-bullying

014coordinator for the district um element six is school level HIV in acent reporting procedures looking specifically how we Implement those procedures and how we report them um on a on a building wide level and then also the element seven looks at our investigation procedures how we actually go about completing in and and following all of the um procedures in place um and timelines and guidelines in investigating and then how we go about actually reporting those findings which looks at that reporting um everything from a staff member being able to report to a principal all the way up to us reporting to the superintendent and to the board of ed um so those are the elements and if you look um uh our final scores is Brunner when when tallying up all eight of those elements

015Brunner had a score of 69 Kohl's 73 ever green 68 mcin 69 um school one had 73 Park 73 Terell 74 and the high school at um 67 again this is um a self assessment so how each school um going through that rubric would feel that they um that they are meeting each of these these um elements and criteria okay hopefully I'm still yeah you're there okay okay um any question questions I don't have any does anybody else have any questions from Miss MOA so so just for for clarification Miss MOA all of our schools are within the range of of passing yes yes all of our school um um the you know our range is from um 67 to 74 um a just a meeting the expectation um would be um a 52 so

016we are in each of those elements um scoring to a minimum of meeting if not exceeding thank you okay thank you any other question or comment from Miss MOA or Mrs rimus seeing none thank you Mrs Rus thank you Miss MOA appreciate it so the next item on our instructional update we are celebrating uh an amazing success of our coaching staff as well as our our student athletes uh Mr Luke py here is is here tonight along with Barbara Joiner to to help us celebrate the the the wonderful record of the girls tennis team so I'm going to turn this part of the program over to Mr py hi Luke hello how are you um everyone hears me okay right yes okay just making sure um yeah this was um an incredible season thank you

017so much for honoring them for their uh Regional group Championship um like Dr Mast I want to start off by thanking just uh the assistant coach Barbara Joiner uh her for her work on both both the varsity and JV teams at this point we have like the best developmental program I think in any of the tennis teams in Union County and she's the reason for that so I'm lucky to have her as a partner in the program um so you understand kind of the magnitude of the team's achievements this year we moved into the upper division of Union County again the five teams we compete against um in the shorten Seasons they've all won state championships they're all perennial powers in the state um I looked it up in the previous 10 seasons before this

018one the Scotch Plains girls tennis team had six wins and 62 losses against the teams that were in this division um this season the girls were perfect 8-0 against these same teams so they had 33% more wins this year than they had in the previous 10 years combined um we were really led by our singles players um it was kind of a legendary season for them I've never heard of other teams even having the success they had um Anna Stuka is our first singles player she's a junior um I believe her record overall in high school at first singles is 60 and six um so she's been pretty incredible since she got here and every year gets better and that's the thing that other coaches noticed about her is that she's always working to get

019better and where everyone else kind of stays the same she's back a better uh level better then we had in singles Dia and DD nawell and I heard they were pretty good players coming in and they were much better than that uh Anna's toughest match All Season at first singles was actually playing against Dia uh for the first singles second singles match on the team that was really the closest match either of them had all year um Dei then at third singles she was probably the best third singles player in the state so between them they had 45 wins um the doubles teams really improved a lot throughout the season at first doubles we had Nikita sahasra bu and Lucy Spitzer they made the state um the semi-finals at counties and they were in every

020match um against the best doubles teams in the state and then at second doubles the counties we had Jon shim and allur manim I'm not saying her name right now maum D sorrya so they hadn't started the season at second doubles by the end of the season they kind of solidified themselves there they won all of their matches in the state tournament and I think the big thing was just watching them have so much fun playing tennis um they were both kind of quiet and nervous at the beginning of the season and to see them out there having fun be aggressive trying to hit their opponent every once in a while with the ball it was really um a lot of fun to see by the end of the season so when we got to

021the state tournament um they really tore through the State Tournament winning almost all their individual matches um the first match was against Cranford on a cold night in the middle of the rainy weather and then cold snck was on this not as bad as the day before but like a 48 degree day which is not good for tennis and they just didn't let anything bother them um I think that was really the difference between us and everyone else this season um then we got to the regional final of like the most beautiful day for tennis ever and beat Middletown South I I think a couple of things really show this team as being different than others um the one disappointment they had was not being able to play against Milbourne who is the traditional power

022in the state and they really felt like they could beat them and they were like no I want to play Milburn I want to play Milburn but in this year we couldn't um just other times I remember at counties someone from another team was crying because of a bad call and and I remember Dia sounding exactly like Tom Hank saying um there's no crying in tennis and it was just great and what's really exciting six of seven are coming back next year um so getting Milbourne is definitely a possibility I'm so thankful for these girls that really other coaches are jealous of Coach Joiner and not of who we get to coach um everyone else talks about like how hard it is coaching girls tennis and all the headaches and we have none we just

023have great group of players JV varsity they want to play tennis they come out and work hard and there doesn't need to be the threat oh you can't miss practice they want to practice they want to be out there getting better so I think both coach Joiner and I are really excited about the prospects for this um future and really happy with what they were able to accomplish this year so thank you I'm not sure what happens from here does um is Joiner want to say anything can you hear me yes oh you can um he Luke um said it all quite frankly um these girls are awesome it's been wonderful to work with them through the years and see them see their growth and as they go on to I coach JV and I

024do help out lot with Varsity I always tell these girls I hate to lose them but I don't want to stop them from getting to the to the top of the game which is Varsity so they played an awesome season this year and they deserve all the accolades that they're getting this year so congratulations ladies thank you Dr McGary were you at the climactic moment in in this season now he's crying you're muted I was and I wanted to share the reflection I have upon the relationship I saw between these two coaches and their players and the team was really something very special that I think they're going to carry forward into next season when we will clearly beat Milburn Dr Kowski okay I'd like to read the resolution whereas the 20120 2021 Scotch Plains

025Fanwood High School girls varsity tennis team had a a remarkable 2020 fall season that was led by Junior Captain Anna schuka who posted an impressive 15 record and whereas the 2020 2021 Scotch Plains fam with High School girls varsity Junior and junior varsity tennis team closed out October with a second place finish in the Union County tournament at HUB steinfield in planfield with individual County Champions at first singles and auka second singles Dia nwal and third singles Diddy nwal and whereas for the first time since 1996 the Scotch Plains Fanwood High School girls varsity team has earned a postseason championship and shall be known as the central east region B Champions with a perfect 110 record and whereas the 2020 2021 Scotch Plains fanw High School girls varsity exhibited outstanding Talent dedication and teamwork throughout

026the season and was led by head coach Luke py and assistant coach Barbara Joiner now therefore be it resolv that the Scotch Plains Family Board of Education recognizes and congratulates the 2020 2021 Scotch Plains Fanwood High School girls varsity and their coaches for their outstanding achievements and wishes them continued success in all future endeavors congratulations everyone than you do I have a second second all those in favor hi any opposed any abstaining motion carries thank you coach Joiner and thank you coach py for your wonderful words and congratulations ladies thank you thank you so much Dr mass for the intro okay and then that brings us to our third portion of the instructional update which is the Strategic goals for 2021 Karen can I just congratulate the the young ladies can I take a second

027oh of course I just want to thank this is our I think most of the board members favorite part of the meeting when we get to to see our students doing amazing accomplishments and I just want to thank the young ladies for coming tonight and the coaches and I was really inspired hearing the coaches speak about um their appreciation for each other and also for the athletes and I think that you really truly set a winning tone for these for these athletes um and and that is that is so important it's not just them getting out and playing it's really the tone that you set as coaches and so I want to appreciate appr and recognize you for that and just honor honor the young ladies for you know every difficult thing that's happening in

028the world right now it I think it makes your accomplishments shine even brighter so congratulations to all of you thank you for coming tonight you for having thank you Miss Sani thank you does anybody else have any comments all right and thank you also Dr McGary for your kind words as well hey then Dr M this brings us to instructional update three for this evening you're M muted can everyone see my screen yes okay great so I am presenting um the district annual goals for the 20 20 2021 school year and I I've I've shared these goals with the board these goals reflect a deepening of our work in in the current strategic plan that sunsets in 2020 so we have a little time um it it not only reflects the deepening of our work

029but also how our work is taking place during a pandemic we will be creating a new plan and a new strategic plan in the spring of 2021 so that will be coming so here is the document that I've shared with the board at this point it it is still a draft document but always we have an anchor goal that reflects the work that we do around um student achievement in in this case it's often reflected on New Jersey standardized test data um so from from there we also have goal one which in our current strategic plan was health and wellness and for for this year we are focusing on Equity we have a number of sub goals within the equity area as well as Wellness so in in the equity area we have formed two

030subcommittees of the board where we have um the board focused on very specific action plans and we have also developed a task force that brings community members into the work along with um students to sit on that task force we have established a a position within the school district that's focused on diversity and equity which is one of our student assistant counselors and we are looking to um begin the work to have our own own pipeline for for future teachers where we are looking to diversify our teaching staff so that the diversity of our student population they will also see in in the in the teachers one way that we want to do that is really find a way to um tap future teachers to uh communicate with them the importance of of the work

031in education and to Foster relationships with them along with our teaching staff so they have early mentors in the work we're looking to partner with County colleges and state universities to see if students who are interested in being future teachers U can take dual enrollment courses and we we are at the the beginning stages of this work but our hope is that as students enter their their college careers and they are interested in teaching that they will come back and they will substitute for us on college breaks as well as um when they get to do field work that they would come and work with us too and when they're ready to teach we we would be very happy to be a for them to consider if Scotch Plains Fanwood is is the place for

032them to serve um additionally we are going to um continue to develop and deliver and assess and assess lessons and curricular resources that address the Amistad law and the new state statute that requires instruction on the political economic and social contributions of persons with disability and lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people for the middle and high school students um some of the work that we're doing in Wellness is to designate a student assistant specialist for each Elementary School this is the first year that we have five student assistant Specialists so they have each been assigned to their own School along with that work we're PRI prioritizing social emotional learning through professional development and curriculum related initiatives and we are developing a structure and process for the articulation of the p12 counseling Student Assistance Program where

033we're taking an overview of our our counseling services to to see you know how we could continue to support it moving forward um in our current strategic plan we have a real world connection across the curriculum and this year our main focus is on technology the pandemic has given us an opportunity to have a onetoone program with our computers so much of much of our work is around that Ono one um not only the fact that the students have them but how we could leverage it for the best teaching and learning um additionally by having the onetoone in order to maintain that we need to have different um Financial forecasting moving forward that that's going to have a different budgetary impli it's going to impact our budget planning differently moving forward um goal three is

034professional development we continue to provide professional development we certainly had um a a focus on helping people people be prepared to teach both in the virtual model and the hybrid model um we have been focused on providing social and emotional learning lessons within our curriculum we've also been focused on Equity with matters of diversity equity and inclusion within that it is also bias training um we are also continuing to build our Arts integration experiences across the curriculum as an approach approach to teaching which deepens students learning learning and engagement through collaborating multiple subject areas with the Arts and um you know there there is an intersection of all of this work in the goals so for example the the professional development work also intersects with the equity work um in our current strategic plan there's

035a community parent engagement this year we're very much focused on our communication um we have been working with a consultant there's currently a a survey that we've asked people to respond the the response rate has been very good to date um and from from this work we are going to have a comprehens comprehensive com communication action plan you know last year was the the first launch of a new website and we want to continue to monitor that to make sure that it is um accessible and a a valuable source for information and in addition to our community parent engagement you we have done quite a bit of pandemic planning um we've had different groups both at the building level and the district level put together our um our restore plan in addition we have um

036identified a head nurse who has been very important in in the work around health and safety during during these times um we have engaged the expertise of an environmental hygienist to determine the best practices in maintaining a health maintaining health healthy classrooms and workspaces and we are all also continuing to to establish protocols regarding the cleaning and maintenance of our our buildings and to have a specific checklist so we we know that everything is being done to keep our our rooms and buildings safe and um finally we have completed a thorough assessment of the district's ventilation and agac needs and we are going to identify next steps that will be reflected in our long range facilities plans based on that work so that's that's where we are with the the goals that we're focused on

037now for this year thank you Dr Mast does anybody have any questions or comments for Dr Mast I know this is a work in progress so I did look at them but I didn't find tooth cone read them you Williams thank you um so the pandemic planning I know that's new so thank you for implementing that um designating a districtwide head nurse is that going to be someone new or is that someone already in our district so so Lisa reimus if you could speak to that because that person has been identified and her work as you could imagine is always evolving every day so over the summer before we opened um for the new school year we interviewed and selected Mrs tomasulo as our head nurse for the district and it is above her duties

038as a school nurse of Evergreen school and she's been working with Dr Mast our school our other School nurses um the the local Department of Health our school physician Dr Kay and our administrative team in not just working on the restart plan but updating and Mr puko I might add um updating our restart plan working on our daily screenings for um the staff and the students and um coordinating our efforts in regard to um contact tracing covid planning um health and safety overall everything that you can imagine from um sharing information um about washing hands to um safely coming into school every day um so Mrs tomasulo has already hit the ground running and has been doing a great deal in regard to supporting our district and and maintaining and and um getting ready for

039the students to be here and to having a safe environment for everyone thank you anybody else have any questions or comments seeing none thank you for the answer Mrs rimus thank you for reading through the goals Dr mast we'll be fine-tuning them soon then that will conclude our instructional update if there are no further questions okay then this brings us to the ne next portion of our meeting uh excuse me next week uh November 19th the annual audit for 201920 will be presented by Kathy mantel of nisaia for an instructional update so at this portion for public comment if you would like to make a public comment please go to spfk12.org for the zoom login information and in accordance with the Scotch Plains Fanwood Public Schools bylaw 0164 0165 the meeting will be open for

04015 minutes for public comments there's a maximum imum of three minutes per speaker speakers addressing 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 and then when you are in the queue please State your full name and the town in which you reside once it is your turn and please note board members cannot respond to individual concerns with students or staff members such matters should be addressed with the superintendent's office so at this time Miss Broadbent do we have someone ready for a public comment yes Dr kakowski Craig peskin do Dr Kowski Miss BR bent if I may just before we get to the first set

041of comments sure um just a reminder I see that we have quite a few attendees and and quite a few hands up already for a chance to speak um just a reminder to the public uh for those who have not been to a lot of these uh there are several public comment periods three public comment periods throughout the meeting um each period is limited to 15 minutes but uh give or take given how some of these go um so if you don't get caught in the first public comment period uh there will be another chance later in the meeting uh just another Point uh order uh each person is limited to three minutes I will be keeping time uh I'm rather lenient when you uh are approaching or hit your three minute I will just

042remind you uh to to please finish up your comments uh also to the extent you have any questions uh for the board the board is not obligated to respond to those questions this is a public comment period time for you as a member of the public to share your thoughts with the board uh either on something on the agenda or just something having to do with the district in general that being said if you do have a question and are for some reason expecting an answer uh please don't pause your 3 minutes will continue to run uh please State all of your questions make all your comments uh and when you're finished um the board will respond if they're going to respond appropriately thank you Dr Kowski thank you Mr sylvestro Robin Robin I can't

043hear you if you have someone Craig peskin Dr kakowski thank you sure can you uh hear me yes I can please state your name and the town in which you reside this is Craig peskin and I reside in Scotch Plains thank you I was also a member of the district restar committee um while I know that we can't keep schools closed forever I think that the timing around opening the high school and middle school to 6th through 12th grade on November 16th is horrible it may have made sense when it was announced in October but it does not make good sense today the virus is Raging in many parts of the US and in New Jersey we're seeing very troubling numbers on October 8th when the school opening announcement was emailed to parents there were

044637 covid hospitalizations in New Jersey yesterday there were 1,827 that's a 87% increase since the decision was made to open our schools yesterday there were over 1,800 covid deaths in the US and if you think back to March during that first seven days we were home when the district was closed there were only 350 deaths for that entire week earlier this week Dr Scott gotle the former commissioner of the FDA said that the epidemic is about to explode and that we are in for some hard months ahead and earlier to today Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that the New York City rate of positive covid tests was 2.6% and that he was going to close schools if it went above 3% the positivity rate in New Jersey was 12% on Sunday four times the New York

045City threshold in New Jersey we're starting to see some districts closing yesterday the Monclair School District's plan to shift a hybrid learning was put on hold because of too much community spread seen Hall University just announced that it is going remote for the rest of the semester starting next week East Brunswick is abandoning hybrid learning until January 11th locally Westfield High School has opened and closed and has not been able to reopen and is now virtual until at least November 30th and right here on our own district mcin elementary was unable to open on Monday because of covid cases on to top of everything I've just stated college students start coming home for Thanksgiving as early as this weekend and younger siblings will be exposed to these college students that are returning from all over

046the country I asking Dr Mast and the members of the Boe to reconsider the decision to open our schools to sixth through 12th grade starting next week Governor Murphy's not going to make the call unless it gets a lot worse he's up for re-election next November so the ball is in your court I hope that the superintendent school administrators and the Boe will be talking in the coming days about the risks of opening the school at this point in the pandemic thank you thank you for your comments Mr peskin as well as the facts and figures that you've brought towards us Amy did you have a question Miss borov no I was just saying thank thank you okay thanks Miss Brent do we have our next participant yes Dr Ki Vicky debeck thank you hi

047Vicki if you please unmute [Music] yourself hi and thank you so much for letting me speak tonight my name is Vicky DC I live in Scotch Plains I have four kids two two who have graduated and two who are still in school one in the high school he's a senior and one in fifth grade before I start I would actually like to thank you for moving us to the hybrid model my fifth grader started this past Monday and as a parent it was wonderful to see him so happy and engaged and connected I have not seen this since early March and it means a lot to me as a mom so thank you my first question is regarding the technology that we're using right now I know my son and many of the kids his

048age mostly with the younger kids is having a lot of issues right now with the Google meets he gets kicked off almost daily sometimes multiple times most of the time he can rectify the situation himself sometimes he's out for 10 to 15 minutes and has to email his teacher to get an invitation to get back in my concern about this is that it's very distracting for him and for his classmates as well as for the teacher I would like to make sure that you know about this and I would like to understand what you are doing to address this problem I'm sorry I'm very emotional my second question is I would like to know by a show of hands from the board members how many of you have kids currently in the district okay thank

049you it means a lot to me I need to understand understand that it's very important to me and I think you will understand where I'm coming from as I move forward as a parent this situation has been unbelievably stressful and emotional as you can see education is a priority in my house my husband and I both agree that education is the most important thing in our kids' lives right now all four of my kids are great students it is so heartbreaking to watch your child digress and disconnect from school both intellectually and emotionally particularly my fifth grader I need to know that the people who are making decisions on behalf of my children's education are feeling my pain I need to know that they are empathetic to what my kids and I are going through

050it is a very different situation for those of us that are living this with our children and for those that are hearing about it this is why I would like to understand how many of you are living with this and living through this like the rest of us parents my third question is again I'd like to thank you for moving us to the H model as I said my son was so happy on Monday and Tuesday I haven't seen him like that since early March and it me me a lot to me but by yesterday Wednesday he was right back to being disengaged and sad these kids need to be in school five days a week if we can do two days we can do five days my third question is when what are you

051guys doing right now to move us towards a five-day model I didn't hear anything in the Strategic plan in terms of timing I only heard things planning for more virtual and I would like to to know what you're doing to move us towards that end thank you thank you for your comments M dbec Karen I I just feel like I have to say for the record that just because we have kids in the district that you know everyone has different opinions about whether kids should be hybrid virtual in school and we are all living through the challenges and difficulties of virtual learning but um I have two younger kids in the district and I don't necessarily you know want the public to think that um my having kids in virtual school right now means that

052that you know I am on board with with one opinion or the other I think I just want to make that clear we're all here for the the benefit of the children to keep everybody safe and to keep education going absolutely whether or not our child is currently in the school or has already gone through the school we're all doing this we're all here we all ran for the board because we are concerned and we want to do everything for the children and for the teachers and I think as we've all shared as board members before while we understand the challenges of learning virtually and you know absolutely the need for kids to be engaged and for their social emotional well-being we also need to understand seriousness of the pandemic and um the risk to

053our students and our staffs being in school so it's not as simple as that have kids in school and you feel that that they need to be in school five days a week I just want to be clear about that thank you that's an excellent point Miss Sani and thank you Vicki also for letting us know that there are some technology programs you know we have to be informed because you know we the instrument is you know the piece of equipment is given to the student and you know the internet is out there if you are having a problem we're not going to know unless we're told there's no way for us to get feedback unless we get a phone call or an email letting us know that there is a problem so thank you

054for that and and and if I if I could add you know the the reason why we have in our our restart plan the hybrid model is that we we need to socially distance so the reason why we have hybrid is because it is it reduces the number of students and we're able to approach and not always successfully keeping students six feet apart um if if we were able to to um bring more students back and have that so social distancing we would we we do recognize that virtual learning isn't ideal we also recognize that the hybrid learning is is not ideal but it does give kids you know the the human interaction with their peers and their teachers to to some extent we we recognize in in a heartbreaking way how how difficult this

055pandemic is we we carry that on our shoulders and and whether we have kids in the district we're we're all Advocates of kids we're we're involved in education because we know that that schools make a difference in kids life um so it is through the lens of risk management it is through the lens of health and safety first and everyone on on on the screen and all of the teachers and all of the parents want the same thing we want school back the way it was pre pandemic but we can't just do that by snapping our fingers we have to do it safely thank you Dr Mast Miss Broadbent do we have another participant yes Dr kakowski Sarah August thank you Sarah go ahead and unmute yourself please hi everybody I hope everybody's doing well

056tonight I um hi yes hi Amy um uh one I'd like to thank Craig excuse me can you please State the town in which you reside I am from Scotch Plains I'm very sorry um I want to thank Craig peskin for what he said I highly agree on the other hand I'm also a teacher in Milbourne who teaches some of those tennis players and I'm very sorry that my students did that to us and I am rooting for Scotch Plains I promise um but I do want to um I mean I came here tonight as a real parent who represents equality and anti-racism and literary diversity in our district who we've been working with you consistently you have continued the progress and you are working so hard on doing so and I do appreciate that

057um I'm looking to see how you are asking teachers while they're in hybrid while we're home while we're all working ridiculous hours as teachers what can they do to add some of this diversity into their teaching are you giving them resources are you encouraging them them how is the curriculum being developed and added upon even while we're home struggling with this as a teacher teaching The Great Gatsby in Milbourne High School I am working to include this each and every day I'm working teaching goodbye Columbus trying to add it in you know I'm trying each and every day to find ways to add diversity and understand different religions and ethnicities and races and to try and teach my students from all over all over you know and I I wanted to know what you're doing

058to encourage the teachers in Scotch Plaines to do that as well and that's it thank you for your comments Miss August we will be having a curriculum report in a few minutes um Miss broadbank can we please have our next participant Dr kakowski Danielle wildstein thank you Robin Miss wildstein please mute yourself please state your name in the town in which you resign Daniel wildstein Scotch blains thank you so now that schools have started reopening for General Ed I was wondering if you could speak to the specific criteria you use in the process in determining what happens when there's a positive case whether it's in the community for a staff member a student or a teacher uh or whether it happens in school um I know we've heard some generalities around that um in the

059past and was just wondering who makes that decision um is it the Department of Health is it the state is it Dr mass is the Dr Mass with the Board of Ed um you know as we've seen with M you know the letter that went out there was one staff member a teacher that was positive and so the entire School shut down for three weeks not two weeks but three weeks um so is it every time there's a positive case whether it happens in school or outside of school is our schools going to be closed down for three weeks is it two independent cases that have to be considered for shutting down the school um what's the difference between shutting down a school versus quarantining a class um it would be great now that schools

060are opening that parents got some specifics around that and I know that there is uh you know guidelines that are followed and maybe it's a case-by case basis but some more Direction around that would be helpful because yes numbers are AB absolutely rising in New Jersey we keep hearing that there's also tons of research out there abroad and in the US that have said that schools are safe and that it is very very rare for children to be spreading it within schools so I just want to make sure that we're making decisions based on research and science and medicine and not based on fear because as Miss demc said earlier education is so so critical I know all of you know that um but I just want to say that again I had such Joy

061today dropping my son off at school for the first time since March he ran to the door and could not wait to get in and I am petrified to know what's going to happen come Monday when he's back to the hybrid model when he literally shuts off he cannot learn virtually and it has nothing to do with this teacher she is a saint she is amazing it is just not working for him so do I just chalk up this year as a year of him not learning anything because he can't connect I understand that pandemic I understand we all want safety but I'm just trying to understand and many parents I'm sure are trying to understand what is the criteria here and it and is it based on fear or is it based on science

062and research and and and good thought behind what we're doing for these children to keep them in school iners learning thank you thank you for your comments Miss wildstein Dr Kowski if I may I can address Le part of that comment thank you so just to clarify the certainly the state of New Jersey and the governor has the authority to shut down schools uh as they did in March of uh last school year earlier this calendar year takes uh my breath away to say that because 2020 has been the longest year in human history I think um that so the state certainly has the authority to do that uh the Department of Health technically has the authority to do that as well um generally speaking how it's been working since schools have reopened this fall

063throughout the state is that each school um the superintendent of that district will consult with the local Department of Health and the State Department of Health Whenever there is a positive case of someone who's been in contact with the school uh and the each department of health will give their guidance and their thoughts uh to the superintendent uh but ultimately it's a superintendent decision as to whether or not to close school again that's in consultation with the local Board of Health U to to date there have not been an uh local orders from the Department of Health the schools but it is they're giving out their recommendations based off of uh their opinion uh based on information about spread contact tracing and things of the like in terms of whether to shut a school and

064for how long thank you Dr kulakowski if I may add as well yes Mrs Risco right ah I it's it's important to know that there are a variety of of um people involved in all of these decisions regarding um closing schools um quarantining it's not just one person by themselves so when there's to walk you through the process a little when there's one positive case the School nurses the school nurse in that building interviews the person who has tested positive and secures as much information to begin contact tracing and working with the local Department of Health and our head school nurse depending on the information that person gives and what contacts that person gives we then make our next decision with the local Department of Health the head school nurse and our superintendent and our

065school principal so in um in various situations it could be as limited as um a a person was tested positive um on a day where they were not at work let's say it's a staff member and they tested positive and they hadn't been at work um for let's say during teachers convention and they did not expose anyone in the school to covid but they tested positive so on a simple level that person is um isolated at home and quarantined in another scenario a a person who is at work can test positive and has a close contact that is defined by um the guidelines from the Department of Health the people incl close contact UM with that person who tests positive are contacted and are then quarantined so if you go on a simple level if

066I were in close contact with a group of people let's say five people those five people would be quarantined for 14 days so depending on who those five people are it it could keep the system going and we would be all back in well everyone except the five people in I who were quarantining would be back um at work and going along and doing what they need to do in a difficult scenario it could be a person who has contact with five people and those five people supervise children in some way and we need substitutes for those five people whether they're teachers AIDS anything like that and then we're looking at the decision of do we have enough substitutes for to cover for those five people and what will be the quality of 14 days

067of those students having substitutes for for that stren that length of time that people will be quarantined so so that's a little bit of the decision-making that goes behind the scenes when when a coid case comes to us it could be very simple to no contact within the district to very complicated with multiple contacts within the district and I think the hardest piece for in all of this for the staff for the parents for the community at large is there there are confidentiality um laws that we do have to follow in regard to to coid positive cases so when a coid positive case happens everyone wants to know as much information as possible as quickly as possible but the person who is coid positive has the right to privacy and if we divulge too much

068information it could identify that person and could breach the confidentiality of that person so in in the balance of community safety we can only share a certain amount of of information because we have to maintain the confidentiality of that person but I think it's important to know that as a whole these these decisions are are complicated and involve um a number of people on various levels both within the school at the district level and at the community level and we are in constant contact UM through our our school Head Nurse um and and Dr Mast as well in calling the local Department of Health to monitor numbers in Scotch Plain and Fanwood specifically um not just within the state um so so that is something that is ongoing and that we're re reviewing but on

069a on a on a simple level to close up there are guidelines from um the Department of Health that are on their website that is on their website that states depending on the color of New Jersey in regard to yellow or orange or red that determines what a school does on a simple level when you're looking globally But ultimately it is a local decision if the governor isn't shutting down schools and going virtual um and encompassing all of those pieces that I described and thank you Mrs rmus I I just wanted to address two two points so so there is somewhat of a flowchart though it it is also very unique to to each case um in in the case of mcin it wasn't just one positive case and we closed school there was there

070was an impact on Staffing and there was also you there was also a community reoccurrence at multiple levels of coid positive cases and as Mrs rimba said considerations you have to take under consideration whether it's a a first Contact or a second contact and sometimes that takes time um the reason why you go two weeks or three weeks it really depends on the spread in that location I don't make the decision by myself at all and I don't make the decision out of fear I make the decision out of what's safe and through the lens of a risk management but I make it in consultation with the Department of Health with our nursing team with the administrators and there's nothing that you want to do there's nothing that anyone wants to do to go to

071this to the place of closing a school I mean the the mcin staff was so excited and so disappointed that that had to happen but it was it was clear to people besides me that that that needed to be the step so these are hard decisions they're exhausting they take hours of communications we're working 247 to keep schools open to keep the virtual teaching as good as it can be I agree with the parents that it's not adequate I agree that hybrid adds something but it also loses something because then you have our teachers multitasking this is all very hard and the way we're going to get through it is if we do it together and I understand that it's hard but it's also opportunities to to help our students persevere to to help them

072understand that there are disruptions in life but we will get back to normal and to keep that hope and to to to to keep using it as an opportunity to learn rather than to to be in despair thank you Dr Mast Dr Kowski yes Dr mcgar this also seems like a good moment for a public service announcement as we begin to open our schools um more and more with hybrid that you know protecting one another um really requires everybody's commitment parents and we talk a lot about transparency and we need parents to be as transparent with us as possible during this time and to let our our School nurses who a shout out to them are working harder than ever in in their careers probably um to keep everybody safe so you know it's a

073it's a real Collective um commitment that we all need to have to keeping our community safe so thanks to parents for taking on that added burden and responsibility and helping us do so thank you Dr McGary miss broy Ben are there any other participants at this time yes Dr kakowski okay Connie nervy hi Connie go ahead and unmute yourself please Connie when you unmute please give us your full name and your town in which you reside please Connie we can't hear you you need to unmute please Dr Kowski and and Robin I think we might be having an issue with uh Miss nery's comment hello can can anyone hear me yes now I can hear you sir sorry uh my name is Matthew nervy um I'm a sophomore at the high school I live in

074Scotch Plains and I just like to thank everybody for letting me speak but I wanted to talk about um the uncertainty of like basketball season and winter sports and so I just think that I can speak for all of like my teammates and myself that this season is very very important to us and we understand that there's like going to be a lot of sacrifices that we have to make just to have a season like I know that me and my teammates will all sacrifice things like we won't see any of our other friends and we'll always be wearing masks whenever we have to and take all the precautions and I think that it's just really important to have the season because it's not really just playing basketball it's really like a support system for

075us and it keeps us healthy and we all look forward to this every year and I just um I know that we all understand the circumstances this year and that the situation is always changing and all of that but I just think that we want the opportunity for the season this year to not get cancel preemptively and just we can you know we'll be flexible with anything that we can change throughout the season just for the opportunity to play like even the littlest bit of playing that will all just be happy with that and I just think overall that this pandemic has taken away a lot from us and we don't want it to take away this and I would just appreciate uh your guys support and thank you for letting me share my perspective

076Mr nervy thank you for speaking I you know originally we had Connie nervy can you please give us your full name and the tal side yeah sorry uh I'm Matthew nervy I live in Scotch Plains and I'm a sophomore at the high school thank you Matthew I appreciate you coming on did your mom want to talk also or this was for you uh I don't really need to talk I think he said it really well thank you and that's F you know you're welcome all students are welcome to participate in Board of Ed meetings as well and I appreciate you coming on and sharing your feelings and you know we really want all the sports teams to play as well you know we've attended the the uh swimming meets we've attended the football games we've

077seen other games and we want you to play too so we just please you know follow the guidelines and and as long as everybody participates adequately you know there's no reason to shut down but we're going by the guidelines that Dr Mass had stated a little while ago is you know we can't say yes if everybody in in town is is coming up positive but you know we're not shutting it because we want to shut it we want you to play too all right we appreciate you participating in the public comment portion of our meeting thank you thanks Dr kowsky we have time for one more comment this period okay thank you Doug uh Robin do we have another caller that we can have yes Dr kakowski Jaden Carter all right thank you hi Jaden

078go ahead and unmute yourself please um hi my name is jayen Carter and I'm a junior here at SPF I play basketball basetball and I first off want to say I'm grateful for Jen can you just tell me where you reside uh Scotch Plains thank you um first off I just want to say that I'm grateful for the lights you guys put up at the football field but now I'm here I'm here to talk about what really been on my mind now like you guys to hear what I have to say before you make your decision um sports are a huge part of who people are and some people attend school just to play their Sports and hopes to play in college I in fact one of these people and I know of many others

079with you guys opening the school in four days you will have over 100 people in the building which I feel is unsafe compared to the people which will only be compared to the 20 to 25 people in an enclosed area I feel if you I feel if you I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm a little nervous okay take your time I feel if you open the school in four days it will lead to more cases and US shutting down and leading to more problems in our community rather than just letting us play I'm just begging y'all to let us have a season even if that means having no fans or whatever else y'all feels necessary to keep us safe we're willing to do and we make that sacrifice as a team as Matt said um I

080think we're just all eager to play and just have fun as a team and as a family and I just hope you guys realize that and which team are you on oh the basketball team basketball thank you well than Jaden thank you for your comments and thank you for participating in the public comment portion of the Board of Ed meeting I appreciate you taking the time and as I just told Matthew um we're very happy that you are getting to play when you can play when it's safe we want you to play we don't want to stop Sports we did didn't want to stop the play last year uh because we appreciate going to the events we'd like to see all the students fully engaged and you know we feel for you we want you

081to play thank you okay uh Doug how are we on time now sorry about that uh we have about one minute left so uh your your discretion Madam president okay Robin if there's someone ready we can take them sure Dr kolakowski Amanda Hughes thank you Hi Amanda hudes Scotch Plains New Jersey okay I want to thank um Lisa first that was really very good explanation and communication sorry sorry Amanda can you hear me yes you you were saying Lisa and then you cut off oh I said first I wanted to thank Lisa for the excellent communication and answer to what Danielle had said earlier because oftentimes we don't get an answer and I really appreciate that we're getting more answers today so thank you for that if it can be communicated in an email or

082a letter to all parents where we don't have to be asking that would be amazing um Dr Mass had said um risk management and kids having two days hybrid as being beneficial but the people who are getting coid who are spreading Co are not getting it from school it's from the outside activities that's the issue I have firsthand seen all this I saw it at Starbucks the other day with 30 kids outside hanging out without masks on just hanging out together I've seen it a lot of teenagers of other people I've seen it with adults I've seen so many people hanging out close together without masks not about school in school they're sanitizing more they're being super safe so I agree with Danielle that so much is based on fear I think that I would

083love for that to change I know that was stated that it's not based on fear but we can each have our opinions obviously numbers are going up as more and more people are testing I totally agree that I would love to all be able to work together on this but I think unless things are being communicated a bit more and when I say a bit more I mean a lot more because right now there's really no communication to any of us about what's going on and why unless we are on these meetings um if we can have a better communication both ways then of course we can work together on this because I wrote notes through that button that you asked us to no response still you guys told us to go through that button

084no response and my second point is right now I've noticed with a middle schooler there's a lack of focus on certain things that I really think the teachers should be noticing the teachers are fantastic but there are certain things that are happening that I don't know if they realize that are very important for instance cahoot is a game being played which is wonderful because it's a fun way for people to learn however when someone's naming themselves instead of their name something like my mom is gay that not be acceptable and the teacher should see that should notice that and make a very clear statement that that person that is not acceptable and that will not be tolerated certain things are being missed because it's virtual and imagine someone that person's parent was gay that is

085bullying that is not to be tolerated so I want there to be a recognition that certain things are being virtually that wouldn't be in person and that that has to be looked at that happened last year virtually also where my son was sent a pornography link nobody noticed he didn't know what it was he clicked on it guess what happened whole family discussion these things have to be noticed so those are two different points and I get emotional about that because that's not a conversation I needed to have with a sixth grader ma'am ma' that is your time if you could just wrap up your comments and I just want to ask I didn't that was it where Miss Miss where did that Coho game play be played that you saw this where it's virtual

086school during the school lesson during the lecture time with the with the that was the student's name that he created or she created it was a boy I believe but created for themselves because they can put a nickname for themselves and they can't spell out gay because it's cahoot doesn't allow but you say G AE so my mom is gay instead of the person's name and I I just want you guys to know this this was a sixth grader you said so so C can I can we just remind people though that things happen dayto day you know on Virtual on in school buildings and I think we had a discussion last meeting that if something happens at the building level or within a classroom you know I just always like to remind people that

087the board is a policymaking and a and a budget overseeing body and if people see things that happen daytoday it is not the role of the board to to um it's actually unethical for the board to to step into the day-to-day functioning of of you know what what is happening within a specific classroom if people I really encourage parents because it is a challenging time right now obviously and Dr Mass said before that teachers Dr Mass did was very transparent right now about the fact that teachers are trying to notice what's going on at home with kids virtually and in the classroom with kids in the classroom their attention is going in multiple directions and it's very challenging for them but if someone notices something that is happening at the building level they should be

088bringing this up with the teacher or the building principal I just want to remind people that that's the case now it as it always has been and certainly the teacher would want to hear that and take direct action certainly yes and and I that's why I was asking if that cahoot was part of a class or something else because I've never heard of it unfortunately and if there is something that is um not right then yes the parent should be contacting the teacher and or the building principal so that it can be looked after so Dr kakowski cahoot is is you know a very popular po program and and students are very motivated to to um use it as a learning tool and and my son plays cahoot and in his and I can certainly

089see you know how it it could go Ary with a nickname and I think um Mrs serani you're absolutely correct the first place to go with that and it would be very helpful is to the teacher I'm sure it would be addressed right there but I I'm sorry to hear that that you know a student made a poor choice and that would um you know that would that would require an intervention certainly um the the other piece that that was mentioned is that the button on the website that you were encouraged to use it and every question that came in was was answer so I'm not sure why that response didn't get back to you I I do have a record of of our response so please give my office a call tomorrow and I

090I will forward the the response to you just the same but it seems like you know we're having some type of um disconnect in our communication and I I do I do know that we will work best if if you recognize that I am not trying to avoid communicating with anyone and as someone said before we might not be of the same opinion I am not making any decisions from fear but you might think I am um and the best way that we could get to the truth is is is to talk so please call my office and I will show you the response that I did answer and um I I could talk to you more about my decision making not being based on fear but being based on facts and science and health

091and safety thank you Dr bis I was going to ask you about the questions I know usually you get back to everybody very rapidly from those questions so that's why I was quite surprised that something didn't get a response well thank you for that compliment Dr kakowski there was a time where it was very difficult because it was a tsunami of communication that I've never seen in my life and I was doing my best but clearly it was it it wasn't it wasn't quite adequate I needed to to learn a new way to to swim but I think I'm there I think everyone who who reaches out to me they they they they do do get a response and if you don't you know it's an oversight perhaps your email gets buried in my box

092that happens and I feel I feel terrible if it does so then just call my office please because I am not avoiding you I am trying to be very transparent and you know again the most important thing is we're working together thank you thank you Dr Mast and thank you for your comments um that will close the public comment portion of this this public comment portion of the the meeting there are other opportunities later in the meeting for more public comments so next we'll go to committee reports and we have several committee reports on so I'm going to go down the list tonight um and ask for community relations first if possible okay met on November 4th and it actually was um not a very involved meeting this time what we did discuss was the

093scope survey that went out to the parents and the staff in theu and the community on November 2nd um and as of Tuesday November 3D we had uh the family surveys we had 405 the staff surveys 176 and the community survey 19 and so far there's been some positive comments coming in so far and that really our hope is that we get both positive and negative um so we can be more informed on how we move forward because we we would really love people to really just be as brutally honest as they can be we we can take it but we really want to know and uh our next meeting is December 2 okay does anybody have any questions from Mrs bro I'd rather they be honest rather than brutally honest [Music] but all right

094thank you Miss broy curriculum next please okay mine is going to be longer than Debs I'm sorry I'll try to speak quickly but our curriculum meetings are always chalk full of wonderful information um so my first agenda item is a collaborative project that I wanted to report out about about um the University of Pennsylvania's graduate school of education is collaborating with um one of our science teachers Lauren dinola and Lauren came to discuss this project so I'll read a little bit about it um okay the project is an initiative through the University of Pennsylvania it is supporting students epistemic practices with scientific systems the the first part of the project was called biograph and um it was a partnership between researchers at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania and it aims to develop a better

095understanding of how teachers and students can be supported as a complex systems curriculum is integrated into high school science classrooms the initiative offers students the opportunity to learn biology in a holistic rather than peac mail way using um virtual simulations and allows for them to be done well they could be done in person but they've been done virtually since March um for example in one simulation students were simulating ecology experts and had to determine how fish in a pond were affected by by various cultivations of the land how fish affect other organisms and other such simulations students were able to explore patterns through these stimulations simulations the project offers a meaningful way to open discussion and tie Concepts together um and the Biograph project is now completed and the next phase of the collaboration is

096called detect and that will enhance the integrative science curriculum and Mrs Dina Cola actually um kind of um we really recognized her for this in the curriculum committee but she received the honor of being asked to be a facilitator of the program as a teacher expert and a design collaborator on new simulations so that's something that's really exciting for our district it shows how Innovative and um um how Innovative some of our our teachers are and um I I also wanted to point out that teachers are using these simulations and this program in more than 50 countries around the world so she really has she she and this program really have quite an impact worldwide um okay and then this um G Faria who is our supervisor of K through2 science was also um present

097at the committee meeting and shared that the whole science department has gained a great deal from participating in these collaborative Endeavors okay the second piece of our curriculum I have been reporting out for the last several months that each month we are going to talk about the district's efforts in race equity and social justice so this this month's update uh was about how our district implements the Amistad Law And for those who are not familiar the Amistad law um and Miss Noel Baxter who is our social studies um curriculum supervisor came to talk to the committee about this and the the Amistad law um in New Jersey requires districts to teach the history of the African slave trade um and slavery in America and the depth of the impact of this on society as well

098as triumphs of African-Americans and the significant contributions that African-Americans have made as well as to continue to make the de make in the development of our country so the Amistad Law requires that this history be infused throughout the social studies curriculum in order to provide an accurate complete and inclusive history our district social studies curriculum is focused on big questions and ideas rather than the specifics of events and dates it is idea focused each grade social studies curriculum is adapted for the following it's centered around Big Ideas Concepts that help students understand the world around them uh essential question questions it engages students in critical thinking about the Big Ideas utilizing evidence from a variety of resources um content course proficiencies and recommended units of study provide the broad scope of the content to be

099covered in each course and grade level the instructional plan where teachers determine how to engage students in the study of the big idea the essential questions and content and choose relevant case studies and examples and then um the last part of the curriculum is supporting teachers through professional development resources and pilot lessons so in fifth grade students begin to learn about the slave trade and those who were brought involuntarily to the Americas and the impact of slavery on the Africans and then this evolves throughout Middle School the big ideas and essential questions that the middle schoolers um study are who has power who has rights trying to understand how slavery was used to obtain power over others was created for profit and encouraged by racism and becoming more conscious of the impact slavery had on

100the colonies in the United States on the high school level there are many courses that deal with the Amistad law New Jersey Amistad law US History 1 US History 2 Global perspectives there's of course racism genocide and the Holocaust and that course has a heavy focus on present day racism um and then the Amistad law is also infused throughout other elective courses it's also reflected in some of our in our arts and literature courses um more recently the inclusive curriculum initiative in New Jersey guides that the district must focus on various identities and perspectives including contributions from lgbtq communities and those with disabilities so that's um one piece of um of that agenda item another is that we talked about Dr McGary um starting up we Wednesdays um and Wii stands for wellness and Equity

101so in the Wii Wednesdays staff will have opportunities to come together to discuss various topics related to Wellness and equity and this is based on the success of the professional development that I reported out on in September that occurred at the beginning of the school year for staff um and teachers were so engaged by those discussions on um race inclusion and Equity that they request they wanted to continue those conversations so that will be um we Wednesdays uh let um by Dr McGary and um in another initiative to um move toward Equity more equity in our district Dr McGary is currently reviewing the demographics associated with enrollment in our AP courses he's looking at the last four years of data to understand Trends and patterns and to continue to identify strategies to make these courses

102accessible to all students who may wish to take AP courses and to help those who opt to take them to be successful when they do access to these courses has already been made more flexible in terms of prerequisite courses GPA and teacher recommendations students can now get waved in if they don't meet previous requirements we want to ensure from an equity standpoint that we're recognizing and nurturing potential and students earlier and preparing them to be successful in these AP courses when they choose them um so that is this month's report on Race equity and social justice um just the last the last piece that we discussed in the in the um curriculum committee was um Dr Mass District goals uh focusing on Equity technology communication pandemic planning and professional development which she already went over

103in the instructional update and our next meeting is December 8th thank you missani does anybody have any questions or comments Karen Stephanie thank thank you Dr kakowski Stephanie thank you for that report um one thing you mentioned that really struck Accord with me is the I is idea focused culum and what that says to me is that we're preparing our students not to be memorizers and spinning out facts but thinkers and being able to take an idea and Infuse how they feel about it and execute and actually one of the benefits of the virtual platform is that I'm able to hear my children with their teachers and with their peers and obviously my my children it's a small sample size but I can attest that that's working they're not just saying it the answer is

104a the answer is B the teachers are encouraging conversation based on fact and that's due to the curriculum work so thank you it's more about the bigger Concepts and not about the events and the dates and you know even in science too we've talked at past curriculum committees how we've moved more toward problem-based learning and you know helping kids understand the bigger Concepts and problem solve and and um it's it's an important part of of the learning in our district so and preparing them for real world so thank you for that work thank you for your comments Miss Mitchell Stephanie do you have anything else anybody else have a comment or question from Miss serani okay then we'll move on to the facilities report please sure so facilities committee met on Monday the 9th um

105there was five items that we spoke about the first being the completion of the Bronner gymnasium so that that um has been completed and Potter Architects will be um around uh this week was expected to be doing a punch list culinary arts class with the high school is complete with the exception of some flooring repairs that need to be done by the contractor masonary work at Park Middle School including a punch of punch list items are completed as well um work continues on the ventilation um systems in the district so the univent cleaning has been completed and Dr Lynch was uh expected to be in the district on Tuesday to reassess the cross-section of the rooms and currently obtaining a second quote for rooftop units that require replacement at Park Middle School as well as

106obtaining quotes for getting additional fresh air into the park nurse's office so hopefully that'll be on the agenda in the in either the next or the December meeting and that concludes my facility's report thank you Mr Murray any questions from Mr Murray I wonder if um I could just expand upon Dr Lynch his visit he was here I I believe it was um last was it was it Monday or Tuesday it was on Tuesday okay and and Amy Winkler and I followed him to do the cross-section of rooms um based on the the previous assessment of those particular rooms um Amy would you be able to speak to the work that we did that day yeah sure um uh based on um the original assessment that Dr Lynch had done uh he created a list

107of uh Rooms To Go back to to reevaluate now that um a number of a number of adjustments have been made um are you may or may not have heard my previous reports on on our systems or you may have read some of the reports that we posted from our our contracted um our Consultants who who helped us on this but um our our hvx systems are uh sort of a hodgepodge of different things in different different rooms throughout our buildings um some of them are quite old uh a number of them were installed in the 50s and the 60s um some of them the maintenance crew are are not as old as the systems that they're working on um the Crux of the situation in most of the rooms and most of the schools

108are the unit ventilators um unlike a more modern building each of these ventilators is an independent unit there is no system connecting them together where we can just make adjustments from a central office or a or a computer screen um they are all individually controlled so um in a number of the the the upgrades that we made to these systems the adjustments that we made for the most part was opening the outside air dampers so that uh there would be a flow of air from outside the building coming into each of the rooms um in some of these cases the the system itself the the damper controls are are not functional and in those cases the the damper had to actually manually be opened and set in an open position in other cases it was

109a matter of just adjusting controls um but almost every one of the the unit ventilators needed to be opened and adjusted in one way or another in order to get them to um to be set so that we would have sufficient outside air flow coming into the classrooms um so we were evaluating uh the air flow from the systems one of the other things we found in our initial assessment was that um even when the dampers were were quite wide open um there wasn't a lot of air flowing through the unit ventilator and out of the unit part of the problem was that the coils inside um were gunked up for lack of a more scientific term for that um it is common practice for our our um custodial and maintenance Crews to to use

110a vacuum to vacuum out the the coils and the insides of the the unit ventilators but um this required much more intense involved um amount of work because of all the the years of accumulated dust in the system so they used um compressed air to blow the systems uh to blow out the the coils and get all of it out I believe that in in most or all cases they also used some sort of a chemical solvent to remove uh material that was accreted to the coils and um and then placed them back you know closed up the the unit ventilators again so we went in and we measured and we found that in many cases the air flow is almost like almost like they were new like back to what they were initially designed

111to for uh in terms of how much air flow was coming through the unit ventilators uh which was a huge difference from what we had seen the first time when we did our um initial evaluation thank you Miss Winkler appreciate that any other comment or question thank you Mr Murray appreciate your report uh moving on to finance then okay um we met on the the nth as well what we did is we reviewed the budget assumptions and the guidelines for 2021 we we reviewed each item and then the final product is what was sent out to everybody earlier on uh Thursday November 19th like Karen had said earlier the finance committee will meet with caralina Janus zanis I'm sure I butchered her name and I'm so sorry and Katherine mantel from nisia to review the

112final audit um we're going to meet together and then we meet alone with C Katherine mantel and we have the the ability to ask or any questions that we feel necessary and then there will be a presentation to the full board on the audit results and we'll be asked to vote on the budget that night so that it can be filed by December 5th if there's a delay then it will get pushed up to December 17th and we also discuss the impact of chapter 44 and uh that concludes my report thank you Miss Brody are there any questions or comments from Miss Brody thank you Miss Brody seeing none we'll move on to negotiations update no negotiations update then moving on to Personnel nothing for personnel any policy uh yes I have a policy update

113thank you Miss Winkler the policy committee met yesterday and we discussed several policies which you'll see later on the agenda um for approval for first reading but at this time I will give you an update on um on what we discussed and what some of these policies are about uh so policy 1581 and regulation 1581 uh for domestic violence um these are revisions to an existing policy um and the creation of a new regulation both of them are mandated uh the policy was essentially Rewritten to be in compliance with updated State statutes the changes make it more obvious how and where employees experiencing domestic violence can get assistance um and code and statute citations were updated as well the regulation was created in order to outline the requirements of the uniform domestic violence policy and

114the New Jersey Safe Act uh then there's also policy 2422 health and physical education um these revisions uh are to an existing policy and they are mandated this policy was updated to include the requirements of three new state statutes as they pertain to the health and well-being of students um and code and statute citations were updated as well policy 5330 and regulation 5330 administration of medication these revisions to the existing policy and regulation are mandated policy and regulation were revised to include the requirements for the administration of hydrocortisone sodium succinate um for adrenal insufficiency which is also known as Addison's disease um and cod code and statute citations were updated as well policy 7243 supervision of construction uh the revisions to this existing policy are mandated uh revisions address the criminal background checks required for

115contractors and their employees working on school grounds including designating a liaison from the district to the contractors who will be responsible for obtaining these background checks and um code and statute citations were updated as well policy 8210 school year uh these revisions uh to an existing policy are recommended by Strauss Esme the revisions include stating that the minimum duration of the school year shall be 180 days and stating the statute for that uh stating that the board will approve the school calendar by May 1st and expanding the circumstances in which the board can alter the calendar um and code and statute citations were updated as well policy 8220 school day uh is revisions to an existing policy and they are mandated the policy is revised to indicate the board will annually approve the school calendar

116uh which includes days and times schools are in session including for shortened days and the code and statute citations were updated uh policy 8462 reporting potentially missing or abused children these revisions to an existing policy are mandated the revisions include the requirement to display a poster in every school with clear and simple information about the department of children and fam State central registry in a hight trffic area clearly visible to the public in an area accessible and widely used by students and the code and statute citations were updated for that as well and then finally bylaw 01 64.6 remote public board meeting during a declared emergency uh this bylaw is new um and it is mandated so the bylaw Maps out the requirements applicable to remote board meetings during an emergency as addressed in state

117administrative code and statutes um our next meeting is yet to be determined but it will like L be sometime soon we have several policies that we're looking at um and the recommendations for the board are that uh we approve first reading of these policies regulations and bylaws uh when we reach that point in the agenda thank you Mrs Winkler are there any questions or comments for Mrs Winkler seeing none thank you Mrs Winkler for your report okay strategic planning there's no additional information since our last update that we were going to be waiting till the spring uh Student Activities and Athletics yes uh we met on Monday as well um for for this committee so we had a couple of updates in that meeting first being um we had an overview provided by Christine Lockwood

118who's a Student Activities coordinator so in her role she looks at new clubs seeing when they're meeting leing with Club fundraising um doing Flyers providing feedback to groups also works with other club advisers when they're doing activities um she was asked about which clubs could come and share their works and good learning so she recommended the student council students concerned for the needy and sexuality and gender acceptance and yearbook um so we're looking forward to hopefully seeing some of those groups uh later in the year we had a total N9 update um regarding the balance use of facilities priority given you know there's never you know has not been a priority given to any one group um we have some co-ed participants in different groups in different sports such as bowling and then we I

119only have two pay to-play Sports left right now field hockey and boys volleyball and the only sport that we do not have which is listed with the njsa is fencing and then Mr Miller came and spoke about fall sports or winter sports rather sorry um he spoke around facility based Sports such as bowling swimming and hockey and then the other sports being done in in house basketball wrestling indoor track and cheering um he went through proposed uh protocols however um you know his his his main comment is we're following the science and winter sports is not off the table at this time which um you know they're still working with the njsa on specific guidelines regarding that um and so at this point um we're we're still not um saying that we're not having Sports

120we're waiting for additional Guidance the another thing that he did mention is that we also have a way to stream games in the gym um through um one of our applications so um if there is an opportunity that we are going to have you know indoor activities and the likelihood of of having Spectators is probably minimal so but there will be a way to stream those games um to to to to everybody so that they can see them so that was the um Student Activities and Athletics committee report for Monday thank you Mr Murray does anybody have any questions or comments from Mr Murray seeing none thank you for your report Evan and wellness and Equity good evening good evening so I have two reports to share um the Board of Ed the committee members

121met last week November 5th and we discussed um anti-racism and healing circles that we're going going to have monthly speakers addressing any topics of anti-racism un fortunately you know Dr Mass mentioned annual goals which wellness and Equity has been a part of the annual goals for a couple of years now fortunately with the support of our community groups which we've partnered with real parents social justice matters trht we have the support of these Community groups that are helping us get um get to our goals and meet them um November 12th just today around 5:30 the task force including those um Community groups we met together and we discussed um we we had we hired five Student Assistance specialists in our five elementary schools we have a designated position that's focusing on diversity and Equity Dr

122McGary um like Stephanie mentioned U is doing the we Wednesdays which we're very excited about and we also have a tool that we um addressed today the logic modeling tool and that is specifically addressing concerns that have come to our attention regarding systematic racism and address how systematic racism operates within our school district um we also discuss bringing more representation in our school district um what's our long-term plan um addressing a lot of our alumni returning and retaining those um alumni in the our teachers in the school we're reviewing the process we're put supports in place so that we can retain those minority teachers and we also looked at recruiting efforts as well um we also talked about curriculum which Stephanie also mentioned and um you know fortunately we've also been working with community relations

123so that we can get the good work out that we've we've been doing and that concludes my report thank you Mrs Williams any comments or questions from Mrs Williams one thing I wanted to add um first of all Tanya has been doing such a great job chairing this committee so thank you Tanya for all that work and organizing the meetings um but what's so interesting about the logic model that Dr McGary introduced is that it starts with an assumption so it takes all participants and people working on this to really dig deep and say where are we before we try and fix what are we trying to fix based on an conscious bias or misinformation from the past so I just thought that was really impressive in a thorough way to go through which increases

124the chances of real change Nancy um I just uh wanted to ask U Miss Williams about the healing circles and uh can you tell us more about them on November 5th last week we talked about having speakers that can come and monthly address um the community and talk about um anti-racism or any other topics of discussion there'll be you know hubs of hubs of conversation that we can have open dialogue that um that we can feel comfortable having so the community would be invited yes great thank you looks like we lost Karen yeah so I'll uh I'll step in until Karen rejoins I think she had a technical issue so are there any seeing no other committee reports we'll move on to letters to the board the board received three emails and one thank you

125note the appropriate administrator responded um one email was referred to Executive session which Karen mentioned earlier when we started so now we'll move on to the superintendent report Dr Mast thank you Mr Murray for 1s I move that board of education approves the corrected 2020 2021 District calendar to include 183 student days rather than 182 student days it was just a miscount of the calendar I'm back I don't know what happened we just jumped out there on the superintendent report Karen Dr Mass was just going calendar I just don't know if we're voting on that or not it doesn't have an A so moov Winkler art that's what I want to ask are we voting on that tonight because that was uh for next week's vote okay so so we will vote on that next

126week thank you all right uh thank you for taking over during my absence there um so that was just a correction there was no real change to the calendar was just the the count was different right that's correct and we're voting on it next meeting yep okay sorry you can continue your superintendent report Dr mass please um that concludes my superintendent report okay thank you Dr mass then would you continue with the Personnel agenda then I'd be happy to I I move Board of Education approves the superintendent report for personnel um that we report that we that was reported on an exec this evening Mo second any question or discussion Mrs Sarah Jackie will you please call the role Mrs B I'm sorry Mrs Brody yes Mr Murray yes Mrs Bower yes Mrs borov yes

127Mrs Mitchell yes M serani yes M Williams yes M Winkler yes Dr kulakowski yes motion carries okay thank you Dr Mast and thank you Mrs saraki next that brings us to the business functions Mrs saraki uh yes the one item that we would like voted on this evening is um the training 1B us um I'd like the board to approve the training report dated November 12th so moved Winkler thank you Mrs Winkler thank you Mr Murray any question or discussion for Mrs saridaki on One V want seeing none all those in favor I I any opposed any obain aing motion carries the other items on The Bu under business functions are 2 bu us um and that's after you hear the annual audit um asking that you accept the audit 3B us is um the

128are the budget assumptions and guidelines which were sent out to you I believe yesterday and I'll be asking for the board to acknowledge receipt uh there's minor changes from last year that you'll probably want to look at for B us um I'm ask I'll be asking the board to acknowledge receipt of the security and fire drill reports for the month of October five bu us I'll be asking for the board to approve the following participating schools for non-public school Initiative Program agreements um 6B us I'll be asking that the board approve the purchase by the jccc uh for their non-public school security program in the amount of $2,898 7B us I'll be asking the board to acknowledge receipt of various dispersement listings for October 8 bu us I'll be asking the board to acknowledge receipt

129of the board secretary report the treasur of school funds reports and the budget of Judge AJ the budget adjustments and 9B us I'll be asking the board to approve the bill uh for the period October 24th through November 13th thank you Mrs sarahi thank you okay that brings us to policies Mrs Winkler yes so at this time I would like to ask that uh the board approve first reading where on I first reading of the following policies and regulations and bylaw this Amy this says for next week are we doing this tonight I thought we were going to do first reading tonight it it's usually at the second meeting of the month okay okay then at next week's meeting I will be asking for the board to approve first reading of those policies I discussed

130earlier this evening okay thank you Mrs Winkler okay other board business is next 1 obb liaison reports is there any report for affordable housing seeing none Garden State Coalition of schools there's a meeting next week if people are able to attend thank you Mrs Bower it's Wednesday is it not at 3:30 actually the time has changed they're going to try the morning morning uh to see if they get better attendance so I believe it's at 9:00 a.m. I can send you an update a reminder please do thank you very much Mrs Winkler I was just gonna ask if she could send that to all of us yes absolutely thank you thank you Mrs Winkler thank you Mrs Bower uh Municipal Alliance committee Mack miss Brody I know you did send us an email with the

131uh links uh regarding um was it covid testing no it I I sent us the big notice from Karen steel yeah from Mac right that's why I'm asking I don't remember what it was exactly um honestly I'm sorry um but what I've been doing is as Karen has been sending me things I've been sending them out they have not had any meetings oh okay thanks for letting us know because I didn't know that they were not meeting I I know usually they met at the board office right but with this I wasn't sure if they were doing some some Zoom meetings not that I'm aware of not that I've been notified of okay well well thank you very much you're welcome um then that brings us to New Jersey school board okay uh PTA Council

132president's Council we are not meeting till the end of the month uh Pete uh SPF shared services I do have a report for shared services thank you Mrs Winkler shared services met this morning um at the meeting we uh the meeting began with our Dan Mason from Jersey Professional Management telling us a little story about a neighborhood party that had been held recently outside with social distancing with masks but now the host has tested positive for Corona virus um he meant this story as a little warning to us to just keep that in mind that numbers are going up um then we had an update from Scotch Plains uh that the municipal building is open to the public but not many people are coming in um they have someone who takes temperatures at the door

133employees do self assessments before coming to work each day uh testing is available for the employees Kan University does free testing on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays with an appointment but there are also remote testing sites throughout the county that are available uh for testing without an appointment uh from Fanwood we heard the update that the municipal building remains closed to the public um and will be closed even to employees uh in the very near future as they are going to begin cons instruction uh that should take a few months um mayor Smith reported out a little bit about his Wellness challeng is being modified to include Corona virus safety this year including wearing masks social distancing quarantining when necessary um he noted the recent spike in cases uh even locally and he continues to record

134his daily video with updates for the community um Dev saridaki noted that the schools require daily checks of staff and students um these these checks are self-reported using a Google form um Anthony Carter reported a bit about Recreation uh basketball he said that the rec commission has decided to cancel basketball this winter because of the increasing number of cases um fall Sports have been running with safety measures in place and there were some positive cases uh but it doesn't seem to be spreading during their practices or games uh he did note that he had seen uh number of spectators at these events uh who are not following safety guidelines um so we then I gave an update uh similar to the one I gave earlier this evening about our our HVAC um work that we've

135been doing um I did note that due to several positive cases among the school population in mcin that uh mcin School is closed uh until November 30th we have had a number of other cases in other schools in the district um that have required smaller uh groups to quarantine as well um what else uh we talked a little bit about um what we're looking at in terms of our HVAC more long term um and that the the repairs that we're looking at would be uh whether we we will replace the unit ventilators or try to upgrade them in some way um or just adding additional rooftop units with heating air conditioning and ventilation capability um each of these options is rather costly and we're really going to need to look into what's the most costeffective

136thing uh that will give us the best um air flow uh within different parts of different buildings um there was a police update from Chief Conley who stated that they're in sort of a holding pattern um they he he was under the impression that they would be teaching the lead program uh which you would know um perhaps as dare formerly it was the Dare program um it is a drug and alcohol resistance uh education um and he thinks they'll probably be teaching that virtually um mayor Smith not noted they had recently set up a community policing unit in response to comments received during the trht listening tours um the community policing unit is trying to plan events that would be outside uh in light of the pandemic um they are thinking that in the near

137future they will probably have something they're hoping uh called Coco with the cops um he also congratulated Chief Conley the Scotch Plains Police Department was recently re accredited and uh apparently this is accreditation that not not all police departments in the state have only about 160 do so uh that was a nice accomplishment for them um in terms of downtown Redevelopment uh mayor Smith noted that the court was going to move probably to a virtual platform and that a whole new Municipal Building uh will be designed um and it will probably it will possibly be a combination uh municipal building and Public Library um Kathy Mitchell from uh Fanwood noted that the um that the Fanwood library has received a $3.5 million Grant from the state for redesign uh and Fanwood I guess will put

138in I guess she said will put in the other uh 3.5 million uh to to build the to build it uh and so they were excited about that um senior citizen update C uh Kathy Mitchell noted that uh they have not met since March um and many of the senior citizens don't have access to platforms like Zoom but uh a number of them do and they are in the process of trying to set up a zoom meeting uh to see how it goes and how many people will attend in the meantime the senior coordinator has been communicating with the seniors by telephone uh our next meeting will be January 13 and that is the end of that report thank you Mrs Winkler does anybody have any questions or comments for Mrs Winkler seeing none thank

139you Mrs Winkler um truth racial healing and transformation no report we meet again this Sunday we haven't met in the last two weeks thank you Miss serani um Union County Educational Services Commission seeing no one Union County School boards Association Union County School boards Association met last week I um I have no idea what I did with my notes from that meeting but I will tell you that uh we had a presentation from a woman representing the um the Marines recruiting office uh some somewhere in sort of South Central New Jersey um I thought it was Fort Dicks was it the joint Fort Dicks Maguire um base that's where I thought she was from I don't think it was Fort Dicks I think it was somewhere else but but near near there not too far

140it was she was from Captain from the Marines yes yes and um she gave a presentation about various uh things that they offer to students in terms of uh college scholarships and and things like that um and then after that we had a bit of a sort of a open discussion about what uh different districts are seeing in terms of um in terms of reopening of their schools uh this fall it was uh there there was no specific topic for for the for the meeting uh usually we have a speaker come and and speak for some time on a particular topic but that was it for this meeting yeah the main thrust was the military and having that as a a viable option in order to pay for college with only a four-year commitment whether

141it was the reserve or or full-time and she was giving some specifics of different careers it's not just military type careers but you know health careers uh you know anything you can think of there's a military occupation that goes along with it so that instead of students just going and paying their own tuition and taking out student loans that they con consider doing a military career and having the military uh make the payments for the education yeah and she talked about the various skills that they would gain that would uh be wonderful on on um resumés yeah that would transfer into you know civilian life once they did their Commitment if they chose to leave if they didn't make the military career she was a very good speaker well thank you for for providing that

142information Mrs Winkler um for 2 obb are there any requests to attend workshops seeing none we'll move on to the approval of the minutes at our next meeting we are going to have minutes from October 15th open Agenda meeting and its executive session and October 29th regular board meeting and its executive session up for approval and at this time we'll move to our second public comment if you'd like to make a public comment please go to spfk12.org for the zoom login information in accordance with the Scotch Plains Fanwood Public School bylaw 0164 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments the there's a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business would be heard first if time remains speakers May address other matters

143and if you would like to make a public comment please go to spfk12.org for the zoom login information callers should State their full name and the town in which you reside once you are unmuted please note board members cannot resp respond regarding concerns with individual students or staff members such matters should be addressed with the superintendent's office at this time is Broadbent do we have someone ready to make a public comment yes Dr kakowski Ryan Wall okay hi Ryan please unmute yourself hello um my name is Ryan wall I live in Scotch Plains I'm actually a senior at the high school um a four-year varc player and a two-year captain for the girls basketball team I just want to Echo what the boys were saying before and say that we understand the risks of playing

144and we're hoping for your support to continue the winter season um I was comforted by the safety protocols and appreciate all the work that you guys have put into making our school safe um I think I can speak on behalf of all of the winter sports specifically the basketball teams um when I say that we're really hoping the district allows us to begin our basketball season I know each and every one of us will be willing to make sacrifices and follow the regulations we need in order to continue the winter season so thank you well thank you for making the comment about the sports and as I said before we would all love to have the sports continue at this time but we will be monitoring the safety and we want our students to be

145safe get their education as well as have fun and do their sport thank you so much for having comments at tonight's evening Miss Broadband do we have um our next speaker Dr kakowski Craig peskin has his hand raised again thank you Mr peskin please state your name and the T in which you reside once you unmute okay yeah I don't know why you can't see me but are you able to hear me yes okay it's Craig peskin from Scotch Plains thank you just a quick question for Dr Mast I'd like to know if uh we're telling our Scotch Plains Fanwood families that if they have a college student coming home from a state on the travel advisory list that they should not be sending younger siblings to school for 14 days I know there's other

146schools in New Jersey that are following this rule thank you so so thank you Mr peskin we are going to be sending out a a communication within the next couple days regarding you know the the safety protocols around the holidays um and travel and you know college students returning Etc but thank you for highlighting that need thank you for your your call Mr peskin and thank you for your response Dr Mast uh Miss Broadbent the next person in the queue please Dr kolakowski at this time no one has their hand raised okay well we'll give that a moment and I'll just review the upcoming meetings um the upcoming scheduled meetings are Thursday November 19th which is next Thursday for a regular public meeting 7:30 for executive Session 8 8:00 for public it will be held

147virtually Thursday December 17th we will have a regular public meeting at 7:30 for exec 8:00 for the public portion and again that will be held virtually on Thursday January 7th of 2021 that will be our annual reorganization meeting that will be held at 7:30 that is just the public portion uh it is to be determined what whether we will be in person or be virtual we still have to make that decision we'll see how things go over the holidays and then Thursday January 21st our regular public meeting will be uh 7:30 for exac and 8:00 for the public portion and again that one is to be determined Miss Broadbent are there any uh callers ready now uh Dr kakowski there are no hands raised okay um then at this time I'm going to close the

148public comment portion and move on to the remarks for the good of the order Miss Williams thank you so I just want to commend Park Middle School today my son and I went in for the walkthrough made the appointment saw Miss Dr um I can't remember dumes dumes smiling face behind the mask and he walked his schedule A and B and you know saw one teacher that ran to the door when she saw him in the um the officer so it was it was a very pleasant experience I just want to thank Park he's looking forward to Monday I'm a little sad because I did enjoy having him home and listen listening to the teachers and you know making him French toast in the morning and I'm really going to miss him so I mean

149he's he's off to school he's ready um he said he's going to miss me also but I just want to say um you know whatever this decision is even though I'm on the board of ed whatever the decision is you know I respect that and whether he goes or stays that's it and I also want to um say happy dwali um to everyone that's celebrating may you be filled with contentment and happiness thank you Mrs Williams um I I know by your voice that when you were at Park Middle School you felt that feeling that Park Middle School feeling there's a special feeling you get when you are on a campus there I know when my son was there I felt it too it's a very special place it is and this is my third

150child going there and he's in sixth grade he's excited um so I just want to commend everyone and everyone stays safe and healthy and wear your masks and wash your hands and yes look for those smiling eyes behind behind behind the mask you can't see the mouth but those eyes are smiling too Dr dumes was really smiling to yes she is thank you Mrs Williams um who else has a comment for the good of the order I I I would like to follow up on on um Mrs Williams comment okay Dr mass then we'll have Mrs Mitchell okay we we certainly have been been recognizing how how happy kids are to return to school and um I just I just want to reiterate in our restart plan we said that we need to be ready

151to to to Pivot and to and to be nimble and you know the district team is monitoring the community spread and recognizes that we could need to shift instruction as needed it could be to go from virtual to hybrid or it could be to go to hybrid to to full back um that isn't in the near future but we're always looking at the data to know which which format of instruction that we need to do um to dat SPF is in the moderate Regional risk and when you're in the moderate Regional risk that's when the map is yellow as Mrs rimba said earlier and the hybrid model is is still um able to be implemented you know the way the numbers are trending in the state indicates that we could be moving into the orange

152area so I just I just want everyone to know that we are watching that but we're not looking at just the state Trend we're looking at the the local Trend so when I talk to the Department of Health I know what's happening in in Scotch Plains and particular because the State numbers are averages and we could reflect those averages we could be doing better or we could be doing worse but at this point we are yellow and those new numbers come out every Thursday so we will know where we are again next Thursday but from today till till next Thursday you know we are we are in a place where we we could move forward with the hybrid model also recognizing that we have to do all of the safety pieces that people are mentioning

153and not only that you know if people are coming in from out of state or if you're visiting people it's it's very important that you're always acting like you could be an asymptomatic coid carrier or the person you're talking to could be because that's that's what's happening when we're getting these cases it's because people have been with someone and they were they were fine in that situation and then it turns out that a person is positive and then you have a first Contact and then it starts this whole domino effect so whenever you're whenever you're encoun having any type of social situation you have to act as if you you have cut Co or and or the person who you're who you're interacting with does and and that might sound fearful but it it isn't

154it's just the the way that we keep our numbers in in the place of yellow and in staying in the places of yellow that keeps us in the place of hybrid and moving towards the place of green which would be fullback um but right now the way that the numbers are going in New Jersey it's going from yellow to Orange and if that happens to us here we're going to have to be ready to go back to Virtual um so we have had 31 positive cases in in Scotch Plains Fanwood since since September and that that means that we had 31 positive cases while we've been virtual and we've also had to do 84 quarantines based on those types of positive cases so those numbers are very disruptive it didn't disrupt instruction because we were

155virtual but as we open up when you start quarantining teachers that's what's going to close down classrooms and it it's going to be a roller coaster ride as we've seen in the districts that are near us that have been open you could see that you know Westfield and Cranford those two uh I I'm most familiar with you know they've been opening and closing all along so we have to be ready to do that as as we begin to open and and we are but I need everyone on this this roller coaster with me thank you Dr Mass thank you um if people are nervous about sending their students in do still have the option to remain virtual do they not that's true okay yes thank you and Karen Mitchell you also wanted to make a

156comment for the good of the order yes thank you Dr kakowski I wanted to Echo the sentiments that Tanya said I my son went to fifth grade today for the first time and that Joy was felt and the happiness was there but we aren't in control of the pandemic and the numbers so an important message and I heard other parents saying was how happy the kids were to be back shows the resilience of our students they haven't been in school for eight months and the community that the teachers were able to continue on the virtual platform was evidenced by them not skipping a beat going back so I I implore everybody who's listening to continue that message that let's enjoy it when it's there but there so much out of our control right now that

157no matter what comes our way we're still a Raiders community and we are still Raiders Nation but we have to be safe things again things are out of our control but um you know Bravo to the teachers for creating this opportunity I didn't I didn't see children scared to go back or unsure they were happy and if we have a situation where we have to stay home they'll be happy again we will get through this as evidence by what we're seeing now thank you Mrs Mitchell are there any other comments for the good of the order seeing none then can I have a motion for adjournment so moved Winkler thank you Mrs Winkler second borof thank you Mrs borof um any question or discussion about this I didn't think so all those in favor I

158I any opposed nobody's abstaining motion carries we are adjourned good night everybody