001okay we are back in public session and we do not have any board correspondence tonight um next up superintendent's comments so um before i share my comments uh my prepared comments for tonight i do just want to acknowledge um the tragedy that occurred in texas with the unfor this the awful school shooting that happened earlier today we do have a very robust security team at the high school as well as a school resource officer that is a member of the warren police department um but we will have increased police presence tomorrow just to make everyone feel more comfortable we have no reason uh you know for any increased concern here but we do know sometimes you know these types of things um affect everyone differently and and cause alarm in people and our hearts go
002out um to the families and all of the the students who are experiencing the loss there um it's absolutely awful um and it's something that you know as educators we continually um reflect on when when things like that happen regardless of where they geographically happen to see um you know what we can do to to make sure that something like that never happens here and thankfully our board is very supportive of our the safety and security plan that we have at the high school um so okay moving on to some other happier topics uh i do have just two uh recognition uh items that i wanted to mention to the board so as you know our robotics team has had a very successful year a very successful season and our robotics advisor mr p ponzio
003was selected by the njte nominations committee and it's the new jersey technology and engineering educators association as the recipient of the 2022 image award the 2022 image award honors individuals within the membership of njtea that make a special effort that results in positive reflection of technology and engineering education outside of the profession so it's really well deserved recognition for mr ponzio in terms of his contributions and uh and really how he has steered our robotics program um to the success that they've achieved and then um also and mr morrison i believe when he was president of the somerset county school boards association was really the person behind starting the somerset county school board's unsung heroes award and it's a program that they started um to recognize a senior from each of the county's high schools
004um they're students who make outstanding contributions to their schools and communities but who are often overlooked by traditional student education uh student recognition programs and so gianna verlezzo was this year's recipient uh you know what i actually had a picture of us whoops that's not important um and let me just this because we had we surprised her with uh recognizing her for this i had this all set up for our last board meeting here we go oh there we go so and her classmates were very excited so it was a nice uh a nice event to recognize her normally they have an in-person uh ceremony i think because of the this was a little earlier this year because of the pandemic they still aren't doing that where we've actually hosted it here for the county
005um so i just want to share that with the board she is actually graduating this year she is such a tremendous member of the school community i think almost every staff member here knows her because she is always smiling always saying hello to everyone in the hallway she always asks after my son quinn every time i see her but she's a real um firecracker and ball of energy for the school community and just a lovely person and actually i think carol she mentioned that she knows you yes um so she's she really is a tremendous member of our school community we're gonna miss her when she graduates so um thank you so that is all i wanted to share okay um i don't have any comments um other than i'll just update that because of
006the um not all board members are here today um the strategic plan update that's on the agenda under reports and presentations is going to be moved to september likely because we already have one scheduled for our next meeting okay business administrators comments madame president i have no comments for tonight okay so students reps thanks janth mammon a senior has been selected as a winner of the bristol-myers squib company scholarship as part of the national merit scholarship program senior student jaelfu is being offered the national vanderbilt university scholarship senior student leo fu is being offered the national merit rutgers scholarship jay harrison a senior in our social justice course has corralled the majority of the students in social justice to organize wachong hills regional high school's first pride day and walk for love to raise money
007for the trevor project the trevor project is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lgbtq young people the event is scheduled for june 4th in the afternoon at tozier field senior student reagan miller attended and spoke at the facing history board meeting in new york city on april 27th she was recognized for her upstand for her upstander of the year award logan abby a junior is competing in the national gymnastics championship this weekend in texas for school events the english department and the folio literary magazine hosted this year's coffee house on tuesday evening may 10th in the performing arts center there were 13 students who performed original poems and original songs as well as covers of songs with their own accompanying accompaniment on piano electric and acoustic guitar and a ukulele english
008teacher mike porter opened the event with a musical performance and english teacher maggie violet burnberg performed an original poem under ms violet burnberg's leadership the evening events the spirit of collaboration celebration and support for performers for athletics baseball has a record of 13 to 9. the warriors are gearing up for the state tournament stay tuned for schedule updates when the brackets are published later this week boys golf the season ended well with justin by austin liao and brian buckle qualifying for the njsia state sectional tournament with five scores of four or better girls golf the team enjoyed a robust successful season as they participated in the red devil invitational qualified a team for the qualified team for the skyline conference tournament and was represented at the nj si double-a tournament of champions freshman season wise
009ranked third in the state and placed second in both the county and conference championships and took seven seventh place in the nj s double a tournament of champions jillian gatos was ranked in the top 20. for softball record is 19 to 1 the powerhouse lady warriors are taking the season by storm although falling to hillsboro in the summerset county championship they came back to win the state tournament quarterfinals again hosting hillsborough our number one seated team will host number four seated bayonne on tuesday 5 24 at 4 p.m in the state semifinal game the jb the jv team took home the colonial jv tournament trophy for the second year in a row for spring track and field the boys track and field team has a lot to brag about the season and winning the somerset
010county championship for the first time since 1966 is at the top of their list the boys and girls team will continue to compete well into june with both individual and team meets for boys tennis the team advanced in the state tournament against phillipsburg and will play at westfield tomorrow good luck to all of our warriors teams who are still competing thank you um and that's it right in terms of student representatives yes okay thank you ryan you can stay or leave have a great night thank you ryan okay and we are now enter the first opportunity for public comment the first public comment period will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second comment period will be open to any topic all comments are limited to five minutes do we have anybody
011for the first public comment period uh i guess john so good evening board of ed members my name is nora and i'm a student and one of the founders of the watchung hills muslim hindu jewish coalition also known as the interfaith coalition as a recap for those who may not be familiar i'd like to go back to the spring of 2021 over a year ago in light of the national movement towards diversity equity and inclusion and coupled with the board's board of ed's strategic plan for dei a student-led and community-supported coalition of religious minorities was formed one of the main goals of the coalition was to establish days off on aid and diwali because and only because of an upcoming religious holiday aid was around the corner a request to have no tests slash homework
012on aid and while he was made the intent was always to have these days off so when the request for no test slash no homework was not granted we moved on to our original intent which was to have the days off from school this request was made on may 17 2021 one year later the coalition's request for days off has gone unfulfilled the board's solution to the days off request was to conduct a survey to count the number of minority families not students but families in the district the community and the coalition considered this a wrong approach unlike other boards of ed there was no community outreach to collaborate on a solution instead a subcommittee of the board decided to count minority members to arrive at the conclusion that we already knew which is that
013we are in fact minorities and because we are minorities this somehow disqualifies us as students from equitable access to education and allow me to clarify what that means because the last meeting we attended a board member who ridiculed a student for having the courage to come to the podium and say that they felt penalized for celebrating their faith and why would a happy why would a student be happy with no tasks and no homework and that's not what we asked for that was not like full original intent why would they feel penalized the answer is simple and any watchung hill student can tell you you miss a day of instruction a day of learning good luck catching up and if it's an advanced class you're really stuck no amount of copious note-taking from your friend
014makes up for the nuances taught in class it's why so many religious minority students will not take the day off for their holiday it's why despite many of us who have who having fasted for 30 days there were no celebrations there was no joy and there was no joy for the families and no joy for the students we had already presented a petition to the board of ed with over 900 signatures doing a survey was not a bad idea the problem was the questions asked in the board of ed survey so today we are here to present the results of an independent randomized multi-grade student-led voluntary survey at the wachong hills high school several hundred students were surveyed and we had a fairly even spread of students from every grade and a balanced representation of
015genders two questions were developed and reviewed for bias under the tutelage of professors from nyu and the graduate school of education at upenn it should be noted that u penn graduate school of education is ranked the number one graduate school of education for the second year in a row we went to the experts my name is ryan i'm a junior at wachong hills the two questions were as follows do you agree with the following students and faculty should have the right to observe religious holidays without penalty agree or i do not agree do you agree that watching hills high school should provide both students and faculty with eid and diwali of school-wide holidays for religious observance in addition to existing school holidays agree or i do not agree the problem with the previous survey put
016out by the board is that it reinforced that numbers should be the sole determiner of access and equity a problem that no minority could ever overcome let's look at this problem from a different lens consider a different minority group those disabled students at wachong hills and consider if the ada the americans with disabilities act did not exist today under the current board of ed's framework those minority students would not be accommodated because their numbers are too low and that is a litmus test that the board has created consider another framework what is the sentiment of the student's population and what is it that students have led this survey to uncover how many would support these days off 30 the results are in and i could not be prouder to be a watch on warrior students
017give their resounding support with over 97 of the students supporting equitable access to education and supporting eid and diwali as school-wide holidays i want to thank the student body for their participation and for restoring my faith and reinforcing that we are one family i want to thank my teachers my community and all five towns academia which did not hesitate to answer questions and support us when the system said no change is hard it's not the first time people have fought hard to maintain the status quo the civil rights movement women's voting rights people in positions of power have always said no but the people say yes and today this generation will fight harder for change and fight harder for equity that's what warriors do once the statistical analysis is completed we intend to publish and
018report these results to every possible media outlet and publication you say our numbers are too small but 97 percent in support of eating diwali say otherwise one thing is clear watchong hills students the teachers union community churches national organizations student clubs and the minority community are all in alignment the only outlier is the board of education we invite you to join us by implementing your key strategic dei initiatives by making eden diwali school holidays thank you hi i'm rohan i'm i live in greenbrook and i'm a junior a little while ago i was looking back at my diwali photos from a few years ago and i was looking back at all the fun times i had but i couldn't seem to find my sister in any of those photos so i asked her where were
019you she told me she had to study for a math test the next day she had to value a mere number a grade over spending time with her family my sister now graduated was a student at none other than watchong hills i'm not up here asking for sympathy for her i'm up here asking for a change we can't go back and change my sister's previous experiences but we can change these experiences from happening again sure you guys made some changes regarding tests homework on religious holidays but what message are you really sending it sounds like you're trying to meet in the middle not a tree of true equality i don't come up here for a compromise i come up here for a change i want my religion to be equal to all of yours thank
020you hello sorry hello my name is isha nagpal and i just graduated watching hills this past year that was my brother rohan i am now a freshman at rutgers university and in this past year i have attended rutgers and i have seen a humongous transition between the amount of understanding and value of our culture at rutgers as opposed to here because as my brother mentioned there were many years where my family conducted prayer ceremonies and um celebrations of our holidays where i was not able to be a part of because i didn't have the opportunity to do so i am not i am not mentioning this as a way to attack or accuse in any way but i do mention this to invoke a realizat a sense of realization that there needs to be a
021change in this matter while we can't go back and undo those experiences as he mentioned going forward it would definitely be it would definitely be a matter of inclusivity and a matter of inclusivity and uh progress sorry um to if we could see this change brought to light thank you [Applause] is um so there's a certain addendum items that um does anybody have any questions or comments about those in particular although i think we've discussed the indent i just have a question on d7 sure why do we have dependents uh up to age 31 when most most health care and the federal law is 26 why are we paying for dependent to age 31. when you um look at the the rules under the affordable care act there is a provision for dependent under 31.
022the rules are [Music] more strict as to who can stay on until they're 31 so for dependents who are haven't reached the age of 26 yet they can be married living somewhere else they don't have to be in their parents household and they stay on until the end of the month in which they turn 26 31 is more restrictive where it has to be a dependent who's in the household unless they're away at a college or graduate school program and the benefits terminate at midnight when they turn 31 so it is a provision under the affordable care act most companies don't ever allow that i mean everything ends at 26 so why do we why are we paying for that they may be allowing it um they're not my son just turned 26 and was
023cut out i mean immediately at the end of the month and my husband works they're termed at 26 even here but they can take their own independent policy under our group with health insurance as a dependent under 31 so they don't remain on their parents actual plan they get their own plan it's similar to cobra but slightly different we do no they well they they receive rates but no you're correct peter they get billed fully for the the monthly like cobra we're not contributing to their premiums right right we're not for that reason we don't go we don't have a lot of takers because that's expect it's expensive if you look at the numbers no i know they're the other the individual pays for it we don't okay i was just going to read a6
024since it hasn't been put out to the rest of the people um you mean the walk-in sure sure so we've got a walk-in agenda item a6 which simply resolved the board of education approves a legal settlement for the berkeley heights board of education okay all right any other questions and comments on addendum items right moving on action items madam vice president i'd like to move resolutions a one through a6 any questions or comments from any board members on a1 or through a6 okay roll call please miss barone yes mr burnberg yes fallon yes lee yes mrs yes abstaining on a1 adam scary madam vice president i'd like to move resolution b1 any questions or comments from board members on b1 okay roll call please you know what i'm gonna start with michael mr burnberg mr
025fallon yes scarlett miss lee yeah rasa name is bro uh yes sorry adam vice president i'd like to move resolutions c1 through c21 any questions or comments pertaining to c1 through c21 from money board members saying none roll call please mr burnberg mr fallon yes alec lee yes rasa and miss brown yes promotions carrie adam vice president i'd like to move resolutions d1 through d17 any questions or comments on thank you any other questions or comments on d1 through d17 okay we'll call please mr bernberg yes mr fallon yes alec lee yeah rasa and miss bro yes we are now at our second opportunity for public comment good evening my name is alien riaz and i'm a junior here at watching hills i want to start off by asking you a question how do you
026feel when you're on a religious holiday you feel self-relief relaxed calm happy you're with family but as us muslims and us minorities where we don't have our religious holiday off we feel like we're under pressure for not going to school we feel like we're missing out on something we feel guilt so why is it that us minorities have to feel like that is it because we're not significant but do we not also have religious needs that we need to fulfill just like everyone else see this school in this community states that you show diversity where is it because it starts off with us it starts off with us minorities so not giving us this religious holiday really proves where our diversity in this community really stands so we're asking you to join us and help
027us out show the community that we belong here that we are present and that we matter thank you [Applause] anybody else public comment is open okay seeing none i'm going to close the second opportunity for public comment any other business okay i just want to thank everybody for coming tonight and sorry we gonna do the strategic plan we'll be back in september with that no it won't be till september it looks like yeah the agendas will be put out but that's what it looks like that just our next meeting will be students presenting um on projects related to you know that are part of our strategic plan goals and honoring the retirees so my close public comment period so i think you should just email us now okay all right um can i have a
028motion to adjourn all those in favor aye thank you everybody thank you i have a lot of experience