Winslow Township Board of Education Meeting 2/8/2023

001foreign thank you foreign regularly scheduled for a meeting today is Wednesday February 8 2023 public notice of this meeting was given to all board members and Associates in a newly stated January 30th 2023 adequate and electronic notice of this public meeting has been provided specifying the time the place and manner in which this meeting is being conducted it was advertised in The Courier Post posted in all the Schools administration office the municipal building the library quadruple center Edgewood Acres Allentown and the Roosevelt Township Post Offices and this is our mission statement the mission of the Winslow Township School District the large diverse and lower community is to educate all students to become independent lifelong Learners critical thinkers and caring and confident members of their Community The District in partnership with the community and in their

002time in a cooperation and mutual respect will provide an academic environment which values excellence and diversity encourages students to strive for personal excellence and assist them in acquiring the knowledge skills and attitudes necessary to contribute positively to a rapidly changing world roll call please Mr dreading here Mrs de Zeta not president yet not at this time Miss Martin president Miss Moore president Mr Thomas president miss Thomas present Miss Peterson president and Miss Pitts President we have a quorum thank you community our nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all yes uh Madam president members of the board in the community I understand that there are some concerns in the community about a very disturbing video that was filmed at the Winslow Township High School before our meeting begins I want to take a

003moment to address that incident I want to make clear on behalf of the board and the entire Administration that the behavior demonstrated in that video was simply unacceptable such Behavior cannot and will not be pollinated by the Winslow Township School District while I am prohibited by law from addressing any specifics regarding any personal actions taken by the district I can inform you that the teacher is no longer employed by The Windsor Township School District also why I am similarly prohibited by law from addressing any specific student disciplinary matter I want to inform you that all discipline impose upon any student in relation to the incident in question is presently under review by my office let me be clear we hear your concerns and we share your concerns such Behavior simply will not be tolerated under

004any circumstances by the district while I'm sure you can appreciate that the law does not allow us to comment further on this incident I felt it was necessary to provide this update before starting on me thank you yeah moving now board members Mr Thomas 2022-2023 District goals number one student achievement continue to implement best practices for delivering instruction to students utilizing all available and appropriate instructional models this shall include a short articulation at all grade levels throughout the district B focus on Innovative classroom instructions at all grade levels C ensuring all students have equal access to equipment and resources needed to facilitate and promote student learning in any setting D evaluation and updating all District programs including Athletics and extra curricular activities e accountability of all District staff two continue to Foster safe and positive

005School environment that's conducive to teaching and learning today focus on building relationships among staff and families that will result in increased learning and more effective instruction promote communication and feedback opportunities B emphasis on collaboration with all District stakeholders C promote an inclusive diverse and compassionate learning environment three Market our strips and achievements to all stakeholders to increase capacity for greater apparent caregiver Community Support a continue with our public relations marketing plan B continue to work with the various advisory committees in the district C focus on refining our communication methods to better Market our school districts thank you Mr Thomas Awards and presentations yes Madam president of the boarding Community we have three presentations this evening we would like to start with Chief uh rickberg Township Windsor fire chief for special referendum election for chief hello

006all right oh it's a small enough room I think I'll be all right um Madam president board members Dr Phil Pete and other school um officials and members of the community uh thank you for having us out here um I'm also here with one of our elected officials fire commissioner Robert maskey and we do want to discuss shortly a um presentation that was provided to the community on a referendum for our operational budget um much what you deal with when you deal with a what's called a two percent cap on our budget that was imposed about a decade ago and after almost a decade of it um finally the names of the community the Roman community in Windsor Township uh one we're struggling a little bit obviously on some finances and some other impacts that

007we're having right now um I'm going to say this in the beginning so I don't have to keep saying it or accommodation fire department um so we have career firefighters and we have volunteer firefighters as well we have tremendously awesome awesome people that are volunteer firefighters we just don't have enough of them anymore and much like you've probably seen other uh organizations in the township or elsewhere volunteerism is on a decline let alone on something that's intimately dangerous to their own life to do something for free communical diseases like we've experience in the last couple years and all the requirements from the state of New Jersey and as an example when I became a volunteer firefighter in 1991 I only had to go through 72 hours of school that same fire academy now is about

008220 hours just for the entry level and now everything else that you want to do if you want to be an officer in the fire department career volunteer you have to take 140 hour program you want to cut cars you know it's all about requirements and certifications in today's world due to the litigious nature and people needing to be educated on how to do things obviously there's economic impacts in society who's working two jobs who's running children around to different events and all that stuff and again it's my children were getting older you almost needed that organizational chart because this one had to go to dance and this one had to go to cheerleading and you can tell I have all daughters so we were all over the place so all these impacts over the

009last uh 23 years have really now started hitting this agency in addition to again much like school system or the police department or EMS our calls for service that demands on us have an increase we do about 2 000 calls per service a year a couple years we've reached 2 000 calls per service a year we provide fire and rescue and non-transport EMS uh we work with Winslow EMS when they need some assistance to do those kind of tasks um all of our career firefighters and some of our volunteers are certified emergency medical technicians to do that so those impacts have taken this from a department uh 30 years ago that have had 140 Volunteers in it down to about 35 to 40 active volunteers spread across a 60 square mile Community including Navarro Cesars

010because we are we do a shared service agreement to provide them5 protection because they don't have a fire department so we we do shared service um as you probably get information on the fire marshal also so I see all kinds of plans of building and construction coming through here and I estimate I'm not saying it's a scientific fact I estimate that there could be about another 8 000 residents theoretically in this town in the next five to seven years uh second row which is when you think that area is built out there's uh additional Apartments coming there's probably nearly 500 Apartments coming there's a development on the books that's maybe 900 homes there's more coming down from 73. uh there's warehousing coming to Sicklerville Albion uh here in the Cedarbrook section and uh down in

011the Winslow area of Winslow Township so we're trying to get ahead of some things that are impacting us uh we struggle with uh responses at times when we have two units on and the waiver structured is we have one career staff unit 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days out of our second world Firehouse and Monday to Friday out of our Waterford Works Firehouse we have a crew that's there for 12 hours a day and at night time when we can stamp it we have a Duty Crew program uh where the duty crew our volunteer Personnel sit in the firehouse they train and do other stuff they're there from six to midnight and then on the weekends from noon to midnight when we can staff it unfortunately last year we had to

012cancel 100 uh plus or minus of our duty crew because we just couldn't put a crew together you know people again have lives have commitments we still have the one company that's on duty 24 hours a day seven days a week but that one company of four firefighters is responsible then for all the calls in the town that we struggled another capacities we we have statistically identified that when we have two Crews on duty for emergent type qualities and Science House buyers tax and rescues things like that we average a response time in eight to nine minutes which is a little higher than I would like but in a again a committee this large things like that that's kind of acceptable on uh the National Fire Protection rating um when we go down to the

013one crew depending on where that call is in town we can see a response time of 12 and 15 minutes and and by definition that's unacceptable uh we've gotten to where we have gotten to and I propose at the board of fire Commissioners that we go out for additional stamping so we are asking about for um to exceed our two percent cat we're asking for about 1.9 million dollars because we have to go out to the public to exceed the two percent cap um and with that not only do we want to increase our staffing and put the other company in whatever to 24 hours a day there's other things that have impacted our budget again to much like the school board or the township fuel expenses has gone through the roof again more demands

014for calls for service at a higher rate it hurts your bucket um we have shared service agreement with Windsor attention they do our Fleet Maintenance work now we've saved a tremendous amount of money but they can't control the prices for parts for the apparatus um our apparatus are very complicated very expensive so we we have we want to set in our mechanics uh it's our responsibility to get certified to work on emergency vehicles and take their abilities higher to save more money in the long run again through shared services um we get as long as we can out of our capital projects so like a fire truck is a capital project versus operational um which is good because the average fire truck that we just replaced was about 650 000 that's an average we have

015one or two in the town that are about 750 000 but we do keep our apparatus for 20 years or longer and you know that's something to be said with the way we maintain it and the way our clean people maintain the trucks um but that's again a capital expense um that goes out a separate question um so we're looking for this assistance we're looking to increase our maintenance line items some of our training items to maintain our volunteer incentives because we can never be a 100 paid fire department where we're too big too much goes on we provide significant incentives for our volunteers to recruit annual payment and we're probably almost Second To None out there I'll say it probably twice the close to 250 000 goes to them like I said if they're

016sitting in the firehouse they are allowed by federal labor law to get a stipend to do that and they should so we provide that stipend uh we have what's called a low sap program uh which after you're here for so many years it's almost I don't want to call it a timing program but if you can take the money and invest it we provide the money they could do that um after they're invested after a few years and the longer they stay the more opportunity to grow we provided uniforms we provide them uh with all the same training that the paid firefighters get because they have to do the same job it's just that it's getting harder because of these hours involved and I can tell you is somebody who holds many certifications it is

017a challenge for me to maintain that um some of the things that we've seen Financial impacts especially with the pandemic is the fact that our turnout Pier 11 is our code and our hands they have a 10-year service light no matter what anybody want to take a guess which is the goat and dance class somebody throw a number out make me feel better all right well they're about three thousand five hundred dollars just for the pants to outfit a firefighter air Pack Radio our radios not high Choice it's not what we get but we have to be compliant with the county each radio is four thousand dollars our air packs are uh ten thousand dollars if we had to replace them today so it's very costly to maintain this equipment to get this equipment we

018test them every year we we we're a good I feel we're good custodians with the equipment but again just like here just like any Corporation there's Financial impacts that we have with this two percent cap we just can't compete with um two percent for us is about 95 per 100 000 of new money if you will which sounds great um but you know when your workman's comp goes up 23 000 your health care goes up this amount or whatever utilities how do you compete with that so this referendum is uh really here to address a lot of needs of the fire district and again the fire district is separate from the minutes Valley much like the school board is it's designed to put firefighters in there to reduce our response times um our A1 service

019is outstanding in Winslow Township with Zoe Ms but they do 7 000 calls a year the closest hospitals that they transport to are virtual authorities and uh Jefferson in Washington Township their round trip could be about an hour and 20 minutes with a patient let alone the wait times in the hospital so another benefit like you said we're certified EMTs other life-threatening calls go out now we can consistently respond to those as part of a pre-planned response program working with winsl EMS so we can get there and begin that basic life support life sickness sustaining process um obviously the advanced life support we get there and do what they do which is above all of us and then once we get an ambulance whether it's Winslow or an out-of-town animals um you know they can

020transport that at the appropriate facility and again we're just looking for the opportunity to better serve the community in this town that keeps growing I will never stand here and tell you that we will not lose a house I will never tell you that unfortunately through an accident or to apply but we'll never lose a personal because we can't control the timing and everything that goes into it but we are just asking for a proper opportunity to serve your needs I can't tell you how many lives we or other agencies have saved in this community um we've walked into homes in our meters for carbon monoxide are going through the roof where those people didn't call 9-1-1 would have not woken up the next day but it's us securing the gas or securing the appliance

021and ventilating that gas that makes it safer than getting the gas company out there you know we've come kind of almost a jack of all trades uh in today's society to get called for all kinds of things um no please don't use like Chicago fires or reference to what we do that's kind of not realistic but that's what we do so we're just again asking and we know that at this time right now with the economy and things it's a hard task probably looked at this for over a year going back and forth what do we really need what do we do and some people were like you should ask for less and do less at this time we felt that this is an important topic the transitive Community the trends of our volunteer uh

022impacts and other things we want to ask the question one time we want to set this fire department up for success in the future and not have to keep going out to the community and nickel and Don you've been committed with constant questions from the fire department on a ballot um I'm not going to go into it but I have some material in the back that shows you some of the tax impact at the the high range uh of 450 000 house here in Winslow Township it would add about a quotients in the handout about 320 and so not to minimize where this is at but for less than the dollar a day your fire protection is nearly doubling we're going to be able to minimize our response Times by almost half in most cases

023on a consistent level obviously we can't help the storms and weather and multiple calls or services are going to impact things like that um the average household went down to there's 176 000 so again we're probably looking at 120 to 140 uh impact rates but again we want to come out one time it's a one-time increase and then the following year our budget stays at that uh additional budget but the two percent now picks back up uh to where that is so yes on our budget it would be a 37 increase and I know nobody likes to call taxes we're the smallest little slice of the pie in Winslow Township's tax chart and we are at four percent of the overall taxes that are out there so it would be an impact to our budget

024only not the overall tax budget here once a Township and I know that was a concern by a lot of people and a lot of people putting out misinformation at their taxes are going up 39 ours would be uh but again it's for Life Safety hopefully you can understand where we're coming from I appreciate the opportunity if anybody has any questions I don't want to take up too much of the meeting time I'll be more than happy to ask questions if somebody wants me to hang around or you can call our fire district office and ask for me 609-561-4225 and again there's some literature on the back table I appreciate the time thank you very much if I may uh I just want to congratulate say thank you because I know you just don't put

025out fires you're at all the community events whether it's Juneteenth the rest of this physical day you're there I always see you at all the committee meetings zoning board meetings and planning board meetings which we didn't talk about so I just want to thank you for your participation in the community and you got my full support yeah I mean our philosophy every day not just on somebody's bad day so you will save us at every event obviously we're really good friends with Santa Claus it was a couple years we've got a bit with Professor the Easter Bunny but I got to be a bit much uh but you know we really we want to be engaged we want to be engaged with the youth we have a fire Explorer Program also I I wish we

026missed it not plug that where uh young men and women from 14 to 18 can come and join the fire department uh through the scat Association and uh you know if it's for every five we only gain one person that goes and becomes a volunteer environment uh that's still a victory for us but the bigger Victory Is There is five or ten uh children that are kind of involved in something or around people that we think are good examples and we take them to put the police department and this is what they imagine taking to the Coast Guard we came to the different places as we can but it's people as children that are getting in trouble somewhere else so we appreciate that thank you sir appreciate the words probably because a little um my

027family we had to call because our um radon detector kept going off and this is two o'clock in the morning we didn't know and we called them within minutes you guys went out to the truck in the car and uh speaking I'm it's interesting that you should let us know how much that coat and that those fans cost because I was actually surprised to see a young lady with the man a female client and what she had on looked as if it was way more than she did but she came to my house and checked everything out and so it was a bad family so but again thank you so very very much again yeah and uh you know I have again outstanding men and women people of all Creeds uh young old I mean

028I'm very proud of the fire department we have a lot to be proud of it's just we are usually on the helping side of it this time we're kind of asking for some help and we need it so thank you and again the election again is uh it's uh the absentee ballots kept going out right so people should have them um the election is physically at the Cedarburg Firehouse um the 18th of February from two to nine so Saturday February 18th from two to nine at the at the firehouse thank you thank you next we have uh Mr Dion Davis Director of Human Resources for HIV and SS um Township School District's full safety data which includes information for the district weapons violence vandalism substance abuse and harassment conventional bowling Theory incidents for this period

029of September 1 2022 through December 31st 2022. so these incidents for this reporting period are as follows or whoever's in your folders you should have a chart which outlines the summary of school safety data for report period number one School number one HIV there were five alleged incidents three confirmed for a total of eight HIV incidents there were zero incidents of weapons zero violence zero vandalism and zero substance abuse for a total of eight incidents at school number one number two one alleged incident zero confirmed for a total of one HIV incident zero weapons zero violence zero vandalism and zero substance abuse for a total of one incident School number three zero alleged incidents two confirmed incidents for a total of two HIV incidents zero weapons zero violence zero vandalism and zero substance abuse so

030they had a total of two incidents for that report hearing School number four zero incidents for any of the categories School number five two alleged incidents two confirmed incidents for a total of four total HIV assets zero weapons there were 11 violence that were categorized as six bytes and five assaults zero vandalism zero substance abuse for a total of 15 incidents is 12 and 5. School number six three alleged HIV incidents four confirmed HIV incidents for a total of seven there were zero weapons zero violence zero vandalism and zero substance abuse so there were total step incidents of slow number six for the report period the Middle School 21 alleged HIV incidents eight confirmed HIV incidents for a total of 29. there was one weapon incident which was the ninth violence there were a total

031of 31 characterized as 20 fights two threats eight assaults and one false public alarm zero vandalism and four instances of substance abuse they were all marijuana so they had a total of 65 incidents for that report period and lastly the high school seven allege HIV incidents three confirmed HIV incidents for a total of 10. there is one instance of a weapon which was a knife violence there were 17 characterized as nine fights seven assaults and one false public alarm zero vandalism and five distance of substance abuse all of them were dealing with marijuana so the high school had a total of 33 of successful support periods so our totals for HIV it was 61. for weapons there was a total of two violence a total of 59 vandalism zero substance abuse and I for a

032total of 131 incidents with this before period one which covers the period is a Terminal 1 2022 through December 31st 2022. thank you today the support members Mr Davis having presented that before tourists could be a b any questions from us today just before I call for a motion to improve any questions thank you foreign motion to accept the summary of school safety data report period from September 1 2022 to December 31st 2022. second move by Miss Martin session by Ms Moore hearing no further questions all in favor aye aye any opposed thank you motion family at this time we're going to have a New Jersey school boards Association and board ethics training Mr Teresa Lewis well good evening good evening Miss Louis how are you it's good to see you always good to see

033you you know I was halfway here and I went not to confirm the notification so I remember my last conversation with you and I said okay we moved back do you mind if I hand out a copy of the code and just for the year for the information of uh attendees here um Miss Lewis is our field service rep from the New Jersey School Board Association which is the academy that teaches us certifies us Keeps Us on any of you um policies um she's our go-to person so welcome Terry well it's good to be back so um part of the reason I'm here tonight is to satisfy one of your Cusack responsibilities because that means that annually the board has to have a discussion over the code of ethics and that's what I brought and

034that's what's in front of you and since I have worked with you for a long time and there are a lot of familiar faces there um I'm not going to cover all of them I'm just going to kind of hit some highlights for you as we go along so that you can record your discussion in the next so let's just talk about ethics um in general uh the code of ethics is actually part of the Epic statue um it was put in there in 2021 I'm sorry 2001 it's not 21 2001. in 1995 the actual epic statute itself was established code of ethics came nine years later so why is it out there because as a school official you have the honor number one of serving the public interest and I think that's wonderful but

035you also essential that your conduct as members of the Board of Education hold the respect and confidence the code of ethics to Simply outlines the guidelines that you need to stay in between in order to maintain that trust and respect of the public now I talked about the statute and I'm going to cover a couple of things quickly before we do the code of ethics um the school ethics commission that was established in 1995 under the ethnic statute they are the ones that would hear any ethics complaints they also established mandatory training requirements for Ward members and the mandatory Financial disclosure statements that you have to fill out please remember that um one of the quickest ways to get kicked off the board is to not fill out your financial disclosure statement and that's really

036just asking where your sources of income come from in any personal relationships that you might have in the school district they don't answer excuse me they don't ask you for numbers that's number one number two if you really want to get the ire of the school ethics commission up is don't take your mandatory training I know everybody here is very diligent about taking theirs but I would agree Miss if I didn't mentioned to you make sure that you stay offline um there is I believe a change coming in the ethics uh statute or the regulations probably the Reds the rest that is going to decrease the amount of time that you have to take mandatory training so stay tuned you're okay this year you have a year to take your training but come next year

037some of that may decrease to like 90 days so we'll have more information on that out on that later I just wanted to put that little bug in your ear right now that this year you have a year next year thank you any questions on that they even have any questions about their mandatory training right now before I so if you're a new board member you have to do governance one if you are in year two of your first term you have to take up two which is finance if you're in year three of your first terms you have to take governance three which is a student achievement program and then every year that you are re-elected or reacquainted you need to take governance for which is a legal update so let's turn to the

038code of ethics here and I'm only going to go over a couple of the um a couple of the tennis and the first one I always point out is the first one yeah sorry question if you're a new board member and you've already taken governance one is it okay to take governance too and will you get credit for that if you take it in with your first year no that you don't have to wait or you have to wait the school ethics commission doesn't because we've had people ask you know I can I can take these like once a month and we're like no they don't like you to do that they have a particular way that they want it done they do make an exception because at the end of at the end of

039the year like in October you could take governance to at workshop and be a little early but they don't want you to take it anymore thank you so I guess it's a reporting function with them uh trying to figure out you know who is uh who's behind it who's not so they try not to mix them apart here so the first tenant I will hold and enforce all laws rules regulations of the State Board of Education so as a board of ed we cannot do anything that is against the law and when I say the Florida bed that is all of you sitting at a legally advertised meeting with the Quorum of the boy so once you're here and you're taking action you can't do anything that is contrary to statute executive orders court orders

040anything that's ordered by the government you have to stay on the right side of the law I always like to go down to see this is one of my favorite ones because if you really want to know what your responsibility is as a board member this is a good tenant to go to I will confine my board action to policy making planning and Appraisal three important words policy making planning and Appraisal and I will help the train policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by that I always like to point out that last statement because it's really not our job as board members to go out and ask people what they think you know if we need to know particular information that we direct the superintendent to say

041get us information on how people are going to be affected if we change this policy to X or give us information as to what's going to or who's going to be effective if we change this policy to why so it's not our job to solicit that but it is our job to make sure that that information comes to us questions um it says to bring policies and plans only after the board have consulted those will be affected by that so it seems like we're the one I know that's what it seems like but it's not and that's why I always cover it because our job as board members is really not to go out and ask people and say Hey you know we're getting new playground equipment what do you think of this what do

042you think of this what do you think of this because then we'll have nine different people I'm sorry ten we have a student rep down there then we have 10 different people uh coming back and saying well I talk to these people and they said this and I thought you'd never be able to make a decision so we always need the communication piece up to the administration so that they can send it out and bring it back and say what is the information that we've collected to help you make this decision it's not support members um d this is always one of my favorites too and I have a case here that's going to exemplify this one I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools put together with my fellow board members

043to see that they are well so our job is oversight and I'm John who's also probably making planning and Appraisal let's look and see but our job is never to administer ever to do the job of someone that is paid in the school and that's the way I look at it someone is paid to do that job it's not our job uh e um this one is really important and I have another case that involves this but last year when we looked at the 21 and 22 we looked at the 21 cases he came up a lot um both in the any any advisory opinions and also in some of the cases that came down I would recognize that Authority left the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take any private

044action that may compromise the board um the one case that uh really kind of exemplified this um last year was a it was a social media case and sooner or later we knew that they were going to start hitting and they did they were about three but this particular social media case uh involved a gentleman that was on the board that on his personal Facebook page was posting derogatory comments about the Muslim population it so happened that there was a very large contingent of the Muslim population in that school district people brought this up and they said it was just right to free speech the only problem was there were so many people at the meetings and it caused A disruption and there was so much disruption in the school district that somebody actually filed

045an Ethics complaint around the eve and it was found that he violated because of his private action the compromise the Lord so that did come out in that case we were kind of shocked but they said you know you have to really be careful what you post um questions on that Okay g I will hold confidential and I always point that out just because a lot of the things that you deal with are confidential matters we're an open public session right now so whatever we discuss here you can talk about later but when you're in closed session or executive session we consider that Vegas and what happens in Vegas has to stay in Vegas and you can't talk about anything there until it's time that it's brought out to the public if ever there are

046some things that you're going to talk about in the executive session that will never make its way out you know student matters Personnel matters some of the other things that you do there if you're purchasing land or something that will eventually make its way out and last but totally not least is my favorite which is always J um I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on complaints at public meetings only after failure of an Administration administrative solution so we like to think as board members that we're problem solvers but we're really not our job in that way of art is extremely easy so if you have complaints they go to one place and then that person is charged with taking care of that issue if for some reason there

047isn't it the person doesn't like the answer that they got or there wasn't a solution only then will it come before the board I'm sorry but as a board member I always thought that was really nice because it wasn't my job to deal with it and I know that a lot of times you're out in public and the public does approach you and think that that is your job so it's incumbent upon each of you to kind of educate them and say thank you for sharing this with me I can sympathize with this but you need to take this issue back to the school and follow the proper chain of command until it finally reaches us questions so far I have a question so are from representative school boards as you know we also represent

048municipalities and utility authorities and the operations of those governmental systems are a little different in each instance um for example it's not unusual for a municipality for an elected council person who had his own Department to deal with the internal workings of that department those employees report directly to him or her and um then they bring the recommendations say they're in charge of water and sewer as opposed to streets and roads they all have sort of an assignment the job is then to bring that recommendation from the people who were on the front lines day to day back to the governing body during public meetings corridoring committee meetings and have those discussions and make decisions one of the hardest things I find that board members not just no ones But continuing ongoing is the role

049as it relates to the employees in the district um so I'm going to ask you the question I know the answer I don't want you to answer and if you could address it I think it would be good so this board of nine has responsibility for how many employees in this District I know the answer does anybody want to volunteer one yeah and if I want to talk about Mr Davis or deals with something with Mr Davis how do I go about doing that Mr Davis being our HR director so if you want to talk about Mr Davis not happy with his hiring practices or who he's been recommending those kinds of things Mr Davis I have a problem with you you know here are my issues so as board members we can't address staff

050members like that that's not our job so you hire them they're employed by the Winslow Township School District but it's important to somebody else they don't report to you you have one employee and that's the superintendent everybody else works for the superintendently so if you have a problem with you know Terry Lewis if I work for your school district then you need to go to the one person that is your employee and say hey look can we talk about Harry I don't like the information that she's giving us I know whatever it is but it's not our job to address it either with another employee or in public not again I I just have found that it really is a difficult concept to grasp and I advise with people that have too you know I

051get elected okay I'm going to come in I'm going to do my job I'm going to better the schools in it what do you mean to tell me I have only responsibility for one employee in the set policy that's it as you know that is it so everything that you effectuate has to flow through the superintendent if you're not happy with what the superintendent does that should be reflected in his evaluation correct correct and if you are happy with with the situation with the superintendent is doing that should be reflected in the evaluation as well that's the mechanism that you have to express any deep discourse or praise that you may have for that one employee the only employee that board members have responsibility for correct yeah you know and I'm glad that you you

052mentioned that because I think it's really hard when you're a board member um to really figure out what your what Your Role is and once you do it is so much easier and you can get so much more accomplished and if we take the Personnel out of the equation because we don't work with these people every day we see them on a very periodic basis no we're not the person that's there at seven in the morning until six at night and and dealing with audience so we have no firm basis to make any type of a decision on whether that person is doing their job or not we simply can't who said something yeah I have a question sure so are you saying there should be no engagement at all with any influence it depends

053by what you mean about engagement I'm asking you to Define that so should there be any engagement if you are in committee meetings and you have someone that has been designated by the superintendent to be there you know talking about curriculum or security or any other type of issue yes you're going to engage with that person absolutely but you go seek them out outside of a committee meeting or a board meeting no thank you so again I'll answer to your question and I it's fun really it was a rhetorical question um I have an issue with Dr potee any problem with or in the district is my almost soul and exclusive method for dealing with that is picking up the phone and saying Dr Petit I have been showing me to speak to you about

054or can I call Dr carcamo or a principal or somebody like that what what as a as a board member what can I do to effectuate some change or some things that I would like this can change so no you need to call Dr potee because he's your employee so if you want to affect any change that goes through it now that being said there are 10 of you and you have different ideas and you have different things that you want to accomplish so those are accomplished when you start talking about goals and things that you want to happen we always say it takes like five friends on the board you and four other people to get something done so if you want to uh and I know you have a drone program so want

055to use that if you think that a drone program would be really good here when you're in your committee meetings those are the times to talk about those okay no so-and-so has a drone program over here the kids involved in it is that something that we can do goes through committee or it goes through Dr Poteet or a combination of both you have four other people that agree with you and guess what that's how things is being done that's one single board member you can't do anything I have another question all so say for example you receive an email from an employee other than Dr Boutique are you supposed to respond absolutely 100 no you know what I would do is I would say thank you for your concern I'm forwarding your email without a

056concern not a concern not a concerned another picture thank you for your concern thank you for your interest thank you for your so for example if I'm recording this to Dr if Dr Carl promo sends us an email all the Boardman as a board member you shouldn't respond okay that's a little bit different situation that would go through your communication Norms I mean is it normal for you to get emails from Dr Carla yes okay and that's as a representative of the superintendent how far does that go down the chain could we get it from Dion Davis too and again that's part of your communication chain so if if Dr Cote has said you're going to be getting emails from these people and has given that permission that's fine he's never said clearly never said

057but you start getting emails from these people so how do you so I mean how do you the question is when you get them because we get them we get them how do we respond or do we respond that's the question do we respond and that is a very good question without knowing what the content is I if I could just put some input into them most of the communication that we get from other administrators in the district has to do with um uh disseminating information to us uh it's not really anything we probably could carry on a conversation but it's when they communicate with us and they do it's for informational purposes really open okay and I would say if I may um I mean this is a concern that I have and I'm

058sure you're you're aware and a great if Dr carcamo were to send out an informational piece where all the board was copied and somebody hits a reply all that that then becomes as you know a potentially a public illegal public meeting because you're discussing the business of the district um so it's very important that that it's for informational purposes only to accept that you review it do you have any questions you would speak to the board president or to Dr potee under that circumstance but the last thing it's more likely than not that unless you get an individual email that you know has been authorized by the superintendent either at a habit course or he tells you from his high-ranking administrative staff which would be Dr carcamo Mr Davis or Mrs Boyle then there is

059a high likelihood that you should think twice or call me before you respond to that you think that's a safe answer Terry that is a 100 safe answer thank you Jerry what I should say with regards to one of the situations no situations but a um a way which we also operate and I don't know that other boards go out the district too several years ago we established what we call um for the one of the better word um School Representatives or School Liaisons um it was it's just because we have eight buildings and there's nine of us and so therefore the cheer um any board member is quote-unquote assigned to a particular School a good choice and basically you're there to um let the the principal know that if there's any information that as

060far as events and things like that that you would want to bring back to the board that um the board members there but it's not as if we're because they're they're employees as if as a board member that we're telling them what to do it's just to let them know that we're there if they need this and it's again it's nothing that's that you'll find at State policy something that we developed give you about eight or nine years ago so it's not your message to it's not your job to bring back messages instead of adopt this school kind of thing yeah so you're attending some of the inventions and everything so that each school then has a board member representative there so the people perfectly fine but like you said you know it's not our

061job to you know we can bring back hey look I went to school number four and I went for the concert and that was absolutely wonderful uh but we're not going to talk about anything else because they have principles and all those that's their job doctor do you have something because I will no I I just wanted to uh elaborate on the leadership team members sending the board members and messages or whatever may be I would say nine times out of ten or in almost every case of that information has not been disseminated without my knowledge and it's already it's in in almost every case it's a situation that's already been discussed with me and they have that free hand to say they make that information there are some instances where they may vicinity some

062information I may not be aware of these seasonally of this standard operational procedure they don't have to come back to me year after year for the same thing that they know they're responsible for to disseminate that information so uh I'm comfortable in knowing that the leadership team members if and when they do disseminate information I'm comfortable with the fact that I know that what it is and if it's something they've done as a part of their dating the operation time it is something relatively new they've already passed by me before whatever and then kind of in light of that because it's okay to respond so I would still direct this is just me but I would still direct my response to the superintendent so if um you know you leave this meeting and tomorrow Dr

063poteen says Dr Carter would you please say something about the curriculum for fifth and sixth grade health standards to the board so you get that well if you still have any questions I would still go through Dr Poteet and say hey thanks for this appreciate it I still have a few questions here's what they are I would say Dr potty the board President right that's it because you've got to watch that fear of a reply situation sorry my last point would be if I met um there's a there's a I sense of frustration in the board frankly with their inability to level with the public I'm just gonna say it what it is nothing that is trying to hide anything but that it can't can't talk about people can get up and say whatever they

064want right we ask them to respect others we have this little thing we read before public session you know don't attack anybody that's here any District members any employees that type of thing um you and I you and I know that if somebody wants to get up and say something about someone they're going to do that and that's their First Amendment right to do that and while we ask you not to I can't stop you from doing that so I can't talk about personnel and I can't talk about the status of student matters so someone gets up and says a lot of stuff some heavy stuff and the question that I frequently get is what can I say and I say you can't say anything you can say I hear what you're saying been what

065I frequently say because it's a person no matter because it's a matter that's in litigation or threatened litigation because it's a student privacy issue probably most important of all under herpa as you know Federal privacy laws that we feel powerless to convey a message back and that's happened more frequently not just in this District but in the other districts that my firm represents the the tenor of school board meetings as you know has changed drastically in the last three to four years and it's not getting better and it's very difficult for the board to sit up here and listen and hear a complaint of someone that's dissatisfied with something and not be able to respond but I I try to explain as best I can and maybe coming from a different voice would help if

066Dr Pete's job to deal with that individual correct me if I'm wrong and you think about the feet let them know what you think about it doctor but Dr potip needs to handle the parent the teacher the child it's very very difficult if a parent calls you to immerse yourself in that situation or tell them what you think as an individual and the only reason I bring these things up is to because it's very hard to resist that temptation of responding right but uh I don't do it because I want to do it I do it because I have to protect you under I'm protecting you under the wall and I protect all board members irrespective of their views or opinions that's my job is to keep you out of trouble so when I when

067I speak about those kinds of things it's done for the purpose of making sure we follow number one uphold it and force all those regulations of the State Board of Education right we cannot talk about a child we cannot talk about a Personnel issue we can't we do it closed properly noticed in rice um but that gets very frustrating for our board I think and then and in other words I represent too more and more we're seeing that more and more someone comes up and they want answers we might know what the answer is they may be totally off base and we can't say frustrating it is and also may I add it also um I think it makes the public think that we don't care but they don't realize that our hands are tied

068so that's just what we did right and I agree with you I would agree with you there that's a very good yes they don't understand that you can't respond on some of those but I always look at it as a board member I am a protector of the kids that are here and they deserve a right to privacy so their information is not coming out on my watch and so are the employees they deserve their privacy it is my job as a board member to be able to protect that and then balance that with what the public wants to know thank you for your interest I am listening to you unfortunately as custodians of staff and as custodians of students we can't impart any of that information and here's my question can we say guess

069what you said uh this young lady said yeah and and I you know I've I've tried to do that in those situations when they come up it's very difficult I said look now how many times they've said I know you want us to give you an answer just a couple weeks ago and detailed to them in an executive session but I can't there's certain things I'm not going to be able to tell you you're not going to like it and I'm sorry it's not a lack of caring it's a lot of empathy and carrying on this board so don't take their silence as being indicative of a lack of caring who just can't say it well like I said my question the way she said to that book you know the way she said it

070she had content with it and it was a little more softer and I just wanted to know I'm just making a point here I mean she said it in a way that it seems susceptible and she didn't talk about any other subject matter and she got you know she had some compassion with it so I'm asking what the statement she said is unacceptable statement yeah true so I asked and those and it's really hard and each situation is different and you know and you feel badly because these are your parents you know generally that are in front of you but you still have to put on your board member roll back and you are custodians of student privacy and also of your uh staff members and you have to look at it like that and

071balance it with you know the compassion that you should have when someone is extremely frustrating questions answers I like this stuff this was a good session we should go on the road yeah I would make it look good thank you Terry any other questions on epics notice I didn't cover any uh relationships that you might have out there and I don't do that because you have a board attorney but I guess just for everyone's sake you should know that if you have a relative that is employed in the district any kind of relatives by Blood matter adoption you should talk to your solicitor and find out what you can and cannot participate in as far as board decisions and then if you are also a member of the NJEA where you have a member in

072living in your household that is a member of the NJEA you should also talk to your solicitor to find out what your limitations are in making decisions here have a nice little handy chart that addresses those you know that chart I'm talking about I know that's the best chart they ever made because you have everything you need to know every time the SEC and we all run back to it yeah it's true well super I enjoy being here tonight um do you know that you can reach out to me uh Kim where are you Kelly I owe you a phone call I'm working on it yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you very much um looking at our agenda I know that under the awards and presentations that there is no number four

073that I've added in number four and I would like to remind that's why I've added number four it has to do with um the CAC membership if you can recall the last time we met we had sort of a kind of introductory uh presentation question answer with the those in the community who have stepped up to be a part of the citizens advisory committee and if you can recall we yes uh everyone to submit an application by certain deadline I think which was I believe January 6th However unfortunately uh there was one that was overlooked and that was Miss one to God and she's here of this evening and and true to what we said last board meeting um to stand up um and and um if you have any questions for us if you

074want to tell us a little bit about yourself even though um you've already attended our first CKC maybe I just wanted Miss Martin up to rebuild that full disclosure on that this morning uh somebody saw this journey uh would you like to just tell the board a little bit about yourself or are you um are volunteering your time for the citizen advisory committee how long you've been here good evening everyone good evening um a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to be a part of the community Advisory Board um my name is Wanda glad and I've done Captain I've been building Medicare and work for about the last 35 years four years of my life I started working with you as early as when I was in Youth in high school when I was

075on the drug Alliance um program in my high school uh at Washington Township where I was helping my classmates not become addicted to drugs so I started my humanitarian work way back when I was youth myself I joined I wanted to be a part of the community Advisory Board to be a person that can come from the community and come to the board and give you the cares and concerns of the parents and or and also the students of the things that are happening the policies that you are making that you're voting on and um be a voice for them and try to get many more of them out here and also um have you had a question at the community the community Advisory Board sounds advisory committee citizens Advisory Board um in regards to

076what's the difference between parent engagement and parent involvement um there is a difference between parent engagement and parent involvement parent involvement means anything that's happened in the school you participate with your children when you do the parent engagement you're actually coming toward meetings you're actually they're more influential with the community and with the Board of Education you're being a part of the policy changes within you and your children so there is a difference but nowadays that we know in the society many parents are two parent workers so I work many many hours and they can't do what I do where I don't work for anyone so I'm able to come out here and represent from my eight grandchildren that are part of Westville Township Schools so if you have a family member that can be

077engaged then we're going to try to get them out here and do a parent support group to get more parent engagement from Community advice report I'm working on it with a couple of um the members already but um I'm here to be a service for the community not just with a board of education but also for the children in our communities because education and their achievement and academic activities success those beyond the high school it goes to college and it goes to life and we need these children that are in our schools right now to be successful to be sitting across the board right here where you are one day already are the president of the United States are running their own corporations one day and the only way we can do that and that's

078if we're actively involved and their academic Excellence coming through Winslow Township Schools board members do they have any questions for Mr Ms Claude if not I'm gonna ask for emotion to to accept the appointment of this law to the citizens advisory committee motion motion to accept one blood into the THC second movement second so further questions all in favor aye any names thank you we'll see you at the next meeting board members movie now and are interested correspondence for giving any correspondence across this evening no matter president thank you um [Music] at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve the following um minutes from our meeting of the Board of Education are regularly held meeting which was held on Wednesday January 25th 2023 Open session is there a motion motion to approve meeting

079minutes for Wednesday January 25th 2023 Open Session second move my um Miss Martin Center by Ms Moore will give you any questions or comments hearing on roll call please Mrs dreading yes Mrs Esposito yes Miss Martin yes Miss Moore yes Miss Kansas yes Mr Thomas yes Miss Thomas yes Miss Peterson yes and Miss Pitts yes the motion is Carrie thank you Miss Boyle at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve the minutes from our regularly held meeting which was held January 25th 2023 closed the session is your motion promotion to approve the meeting minutes of your board of education on Wednesday January 25th 2023 closed session second move by Miss Martin second by Miss Moore and you turn the comments for questions yes Mr Thomas yes Miss Thomas yes Miss Peterson yes and

080Miss Pitts yes the motion is Carrie thank you Miss for removing our board members to our community courts at this well I'm going to reverse it I'm going to ask Miss Shania to go first our student representative um hello everyone good evening board members good evening good evening my name is Shania sharp I am the student representative for those of you that don't know um of my report this evening I would just like to take this time to highlight our Athletic program um they're doing a wonderful job right now um I want to say congrats to our sixth signed and committed girls they are seniors Gabriella Robinson Cameron holness Katarina Shadow Brielle Brown Sierra Wiltshire and Sarah Simmons um we will be having our girls basketball senior night tomorrow um and I'd like to say

081congrats to Hope with her hopeful hopefully her 1 000th career point tomorrow at the senior night game and then the boys senior night will be next Thursday the 16th both are at five um 5 p.m if you guys would like to attend um the girls track team is going to States along with the boys track team they're going to States and Nationals and they are looking for sponsors if you guys know of anybody that can help out you guys can help out um they've greatly appreciate it so um yeah that concludes my report for this evening thank you thank you oh and then these mics are like really cool we need to we need to know that so thank you so much moving land board members continuing with the award Community course will there be

082a report out on our athletic committee import out of our athletic committee yes Madam president um and I even cover some points um the boys basketball the team is competing for spotting the state playoffs February February 11th is the cutoff date to determine if they will make the tournament their senior night is February 16th which is next Thursday girls basketball hope Goodwin is currently uh five points away from a thousand wow it is anticipated she will achieve the Milestone Thursday versus Hatton Heights at Winslow who game is at 5 15. the team is projected to qualify for the state playoffs foreign [Music] the senior night is February February 9th that is tomorrow evening the winner cheer team their senior night is February 16th the boys track team they play second in the group three South

083Jersey sectional Championship seven athletes and the four five four hundred leader Relay Team qualified for Brooklyn State Championship the team placed with the most points overall at the Olympic conference meet and Will are waiting all all conference honorees girls will attract five athletes and the four by four 100 meter relay while it's work qualified for the group three state championships wrestling They concluded their team competitions Friday uh February 10th with the match versus Clayton our three female wrestlers will compete in the girls South Jersey girls group regionals 10 male wrestlers will compete in District 30 champion that's their senior night was February 1st and that completes my report thank you Miss Martin any questions or comments on that report appointment yes that was an outstanding report from both our committee persons and our young lady

084I just want to add one thing to that report uh our basketball team went into a history making uh Camden high on Monday uh playing basketball okay but don't well just anytime you go to our history of that kind of be on that type of national stage it's a compliment to our school to be on the national stage along with them and I just want to say think about how we fell short but could be that outstanding job any other comment thank you moving now to our education committee would there be a report no report at this time we will be meeting this coming Tuesday the 14th at 4 pm via webs thank you Mr Stevenson we can be reported from our diversity equity and inclusion committee not at this time thank you Miss Thomas

085but did we report out of our marketing committee okay thank you okay so the marketing committee minutes are in your folders it's really the same as what I reported the last time I just wanted to think that we will meet next on uh February 22nd at 3 pm via Zone I thought it'd be a report out of operations committee yes yes the operations committee met on Tuesday January the 31st 2023 at 5 30 pm and attendance for administration committee person which is myself it's espedito also an attendance for Miss oil Miss Chico and Mr Mills and the five home items were discussed 1 20 21 2022 Capital project status Firearms School one two and three the punch list items were have been completed by DEC electric and the project is proceeding to close out Firearms

086School five and six the punch list is being reviewed an update to send to mjf outstanding items are the installation of speakers strolls and the stair towers and in the gym the additional work will require the approval of a change order by the board which would increase the contract by 4836 dollars security alarms in the high school and middle school the project is 100 100 complete we are waiting for final inspection air handler School number six the contractors uh for last year have confirmed that HVAC equipment is to ship in early February they plan on completing the majority of the work during spring break weather permitting walk in refrigerators freezers box boxes at school three four five and six Levee construction will start working on school four and six starting on February the 6th 6th

087they will begin on school three and five on March the 1st revised of the circulation pumps and repairs and painting of the middle school projects this was scheduled to be open on January 31st 2023 all bids for both projects came in over the amount budgeted 20 21 22 annual comprehensive Finance financial report the exit Conference was held excuse me on January the 30th the Sixers did well the state has not released all information required to complete the report however if we file before March the 17th 2023 we will not be penalized for a late falling under Q set New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum Cruise act the district is scheduled for cruzack review beginning Wednesday February the 1st 2023 documents have been uploaded we have also compiled records for their review 2023-2024 school budget development

088the 2023-2024 budget software is now available principal and department heads have entered their budget into the district software scheduled meetings with each principal and department heads will take place shortly since we do not anticipate additional state aid with courts Rising across the boards the 2023 and 2024 budget will stretch tight we will have to be very conservative in order to develop a balanced budget that will meet our district needs the meeting adjourned at 6 26 pm and the next meeting is scheduled on Tuesday February the 21st 2023 at 5 30 on WebEx any questions or comments on that stuff when our operations may be forced you moving now to our policy community and then I'll just make this very free the policy committee that held a virtual meeting was January 26 20 23 at 5

089pm members present with myself uh for president Mr W Esposito back in the others Mr Joe Thomas and Dr um carcamo and Dr Poteet superintendent the policy committee reviewed the following bylaws committees and regulations that board members you will see the whole list of them they're in our agenda tonight for first reading all policies are existing policies with the exception of regulations policy of Regulation I'm sorry number 2425 which is the emergency virtual or remote instruction program which is a new mandated regulation which accompanies policy number 2425. the bylaws policies and regulations included new wording new statute codification and alignment and clarification of terminology to the existing policies and regulations the committee approves moving all bylaws policies and regulations forward for first meeting which is at our meeting tonight um the committee also decided that

090all government board members would receive an electronic copy of the strikeout uh copies and a hard copy of the approved policies after the second reading Miss Esposito disagreed and felt that a hard copies was not needed the meeting ended at approximately 6 15 PM would there be any questions or comments about the policy committee meeting I'm just kind of clarification Miss Esposito yes yeah um what I what I my comment was that we didn't need a copy of the final copy if we were provided with the strikeout we didn't need both all right I I suggested that we were provided with the strikeout copy so that the board members would be able to see visually the changes that were made okay so we will change that to say that you agreed you disagreed with the

091providing both copies right but that you felt that it was would be sufficient enough to provide the board members with the uh strikeout copy yes okay thank you and I just want to say that I appreciate getting the strikeout copy electronically because you know the trees so I mean thank you it was more moving out citizens advisory committee Ms Martin would there be anything you would want to report out on that yes okay um citizens advice did have their first meeting uh Dr Petit and Miss Pittsburgh a court president for President um we had um very engaging conversations and I'm looking forward to working with the new members that we have on board for this year our next meeting is March 2nd at 7 pm in the administration building thank you board members still on

092page two at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve the superintendent's report as it begins at the bottom of page two and continue through to the middle of page seven is your motion motion to accept the super superintendent's report a second move by Miss Martin second by Miss Moore would there be any comments or questions yes um Mrs Fishman president if I may uh number 19 uh I was informed by Mr Davis of the Bears um I'm sorry page five page five number 19. there's some issues in reference to the individuals who are listed so I'm being asked to table of Table 19 Table 19 until we to the next morning okay any other further comments or questions with regards to the superintendent report thank you at this time I'm asking for a

093motion to approve the superintendent support motion to approve the Supreme yes superintendent Report with uh number 19 on page five being tabled okay yes Miss Esposito yes Miss Martin yes Miss Moore yes Miss new Evans yes Mr Thomas yes Miss Thomas yes Miss Peterson yes and Miss Pitts yes motion has Kerry thank you Mr I'm moving now board members at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve the business administrator or secretary's report that begins as the father must page seven and continue through continues through to the top of page 12. is there a motion motion to accept date to approve the business administrative board secretary's report second move by Miss Martin second Obama's Moore at least for the comments or questions hearing unroll call please miss dreddy yes Miss Esposito yes Miss Martin

094yes Miss Moore yes Miss Nieves yes but I need to have seen from item number 12 on page nine Mr Thomas yes Miss Thomas staying for page nine number 12. Miss Peterson yes and Miss Pitts yes motion has carried thank you Mr movie now board members at this time I'm asking for a motion to prove the Personnel report as it appears on the bottom of page 12 and continue through to the top of page 15 is there a motion let's get to approve the Personnel report oh and suggested by the superintendent begins on page the bottom of page 12 and goes through to page 15 at the top second moved by Miss Martin September sworn any further comments or questions hearing a roll call please Mr Ed yes Mrs Esposito yes yes Miss Martin yes

095Miss Moore yes Miss Me Evans yes Mr Thomas [Music] it begins and ends on page one is there a motion motion to accept the Personnel report and recommendations of the superintendent that begins on page one and ends on page launch of the addendum second move by Miss Martin second by Miss Moore any further comments or questions hearing that roll call please yes Mrs Esposito yes Miss Martin yes Miss Moore yes Miss the Evans yes Mr Thomas yes Miss Thomas yes Miss Peterson yes and Miss Pitts yes thank you for moving now board members the open public records at request Mrs Boyle yes Madam president between the period of January 20 2023 and February 2nd or we responded to four Oprah requests the first one was from Miss Tracy Smith and she requested the meeting minutes

096from the clove session held on Wednesday January 4th uh those minutes were supplied uh Miss Smith also requested the closed session meeting from January 11th those were supplied however any records that are under litigation or Republican you're not able to be held motel or supplies were redacted we received a request from one screen selections they wanted records in regards to an RFP 2023-06 they ordered the big tabulation and digital copies of all submitted proposals by participating vendors those records were compiled as filing and we received a request from Smart procure they wanted purchasing records from July 28 2022 to current and they were looking for purchase order numbers and if not used comparative substitute is acceptable they wanted the invoice the encumbrance or a check those records were generated and also supplies thank you Miss

097Moore moving down board members to informational items that's supposed to yes yes uh Madam president members of the board I have several information items um ladies and gentlemen if you can recall at our last school board meeting a parent uh came to the mic and stated that our wrestling team was treated in a disrespectful manner at one of our at one of their recent wrestling matches by one of our neighboring school districts do you recall that situation I did have an opportunity to talk with that parent so that she could give him specifics in turn I did call the superintendent of that school district and um he stated to me that he would investigate the matter speak with his athletic director the coaches of that particular team and there's one point that I wanted to

098to make is at every sporting event there is an announcement made and it's called the sportsmanship public service announcement and then defines how you should conduct yourself as an athlete or as a spectator we do that several times during the course of our games and is required through the prosecutor's office uh because it's the spectators as well as the participants should be promoting Goodwill uh he stated that he would be uh talking with those individuals who are responsible for reading that announcement but not only reading it to make sure that those individuals who were participating and Spectators fulfill the requirements of that announcement I told him of course I was satisfied with that um I've been knowing that particular superintendent for over 10 years and um I was comfortable in knowing that he would pursue

099that matter and address it so at this point I just want to follow up and let you know that I did pursue that as I promised and I did tell the parent that I would do the same foreign I have some information I want to pass out first to the board members this is a drag everyone I want to do one more let me just take one and just passed yes they have one more please are you ladies and gentlemen in the superintendent's report you approved uh the guest speaker that I'd asked to come to the school board uh one of the things we have been emphasizing this year as you well knows parent engagement and uh we believe that parent engagement is essential in front of the success of our students and the school

100district I also and I want to correct because I did give Miss Moore some incorrect information on the date I mentioned the 22nd for our town hall meeting but I remember we never do Town Hall meetings on board meeting nights the 22nd is a board meeting tonight so our town already March 15th in between school board meetings as we normally do what I have in front of you ladies and gentlemen is a young lady her name is Dr Kara I Eva I sat in two Workshop sessions with this individual on mental health and social emotional learning she's excellent presentative present presenter in my opinion and I think um one of the issues we talk about a lot is mental health and social emotional learning but I don't think a lot of people understand what it

101is and why it should be addressed so I did a contact Dr Eva and that was one of the reasons why I was somewhat hesitant in in being able to come up with the top topic because I want to make sure we were able to confirm her date and time and her availability so ladies and gentlemen we are going to have our second town hall meeting on March 15th at the middle school in the Middle School cafeteria um Dr aivea will be discussing mental health and social emotional learning uh the fly you have in front of you is our tentative draft but it is uh functional so if you scan that code barcode there you'll get uh Dr uh iva's bio she is a professor at Roman Roman University she does family presentations and workshops

102across the state and other parts of the country and I think she'll be excellent for our parents we're going to start advertising this starting tomorrow to give us a full month because we want our parents to come out and engage and be able to participate in what mental health is what it does how to identify it and social emotional learning how you can work with your children at home what it is and um how you can incorporate some of these ideas and suggestions at home so that's going to be a town hall meeting I felt that we need to do something a little different something a little more for parents something that they would get something out of as opposed to our standard type town hall meeting so this is uh our second phase of

103our parent engagement parent involvement we want that parents to come out so we're going to be doing of course um robocalls we're going to have this information at each School of course it'll be on all the schools websites and any other ideas and suggestions that the marketing committee can give us to get the word out we are hoping to fill that cafeteria with parents um that evening so they can take advantage of this information I think she's excellent in what she presents and I think she's very interactive and I'm hoping that her parents will come out and take advantage of this particular service any questions at this time just this morning when when this is finalized that's the case this is in the final draft yes can you please I absolutely will thank you and

104uh Mrs Esposito I know you sent a question do you have any questions or clarification or anything it's important oh okay all right um so we're looking forward to it um and I'm hoping your parents will come out and we'll do whatever we can uh to continuously get the word out I think it's a valuable opportunity for our parents and for our community um you don't necessarily have to be a parent to participate um my next information item uh Camden County is hosting a public hearing here in Winslow Township on Monday February 13th at 6 pm at the Winslow Township municipal building um they had received uh monies and of course the meeting of course the Windsor Castle municipal building in the courtroom they've received a proposal for uh Jake's Place it's a playground for

105meetings so you can hear about um the kinds of things they want to do in that new Brooklyn Park location on Ariel Road and Leon Manor Drive uh the scope of the project is that they pose you create the following new facilities at new Brooklyn Park an inclusive playground for children for all abilities a concept plan showing the proposal changes in the preliminary cost estimate can be found on the Camden County website so if you're interested the meeting will be Monday February 13th at 6 pm at the municipal building all right we also have a Camden County town hall meeting coming up uh that meeting is scheduled for February the 16th of that town hall meeting if you go to the Camden County website uh it's By Invitation Only if you're interested you have to

106log in and uh register in advance however it's going to be held in the blood doodle senior citizen 33 Cooper Folly Road here in Atco Congressman Norcross will be here uh Louis capitolelli uh Canyon County Commissioner director Paul Moriarty the assemblyman and I own of course Marie Lawrence uh Windsor Township mayor so it's a town hall meeting your government your neighborhood your voice the asking for those who are interested go to the Camden County website RSVP in advance uh because I think the bus do percentage can only hold but so many so if you don't register in advance uh but it will be live stream so uh I promised the uh the township that we would uh support down and making sure we announced that at our earliest meeting last but not least on March

10722nd uh which is our second meeting in March um we will have our future chefs competition again remember years ago for those of you who were board members we would have schools five and six young people participate and then future chefs project through cedesco and then the finalists will be at our meeting they will be preparing meals uh for your taste and for you to judge which one of those individuals will be the winner of the future the chef project it's a very inclusive very competitive but it's a fun project the young people look forward to it of course we have not had it for a couple of years because of Kobe so it is back um so um this is Lily and Mr Watkins are pleased to know that we are able to host

108that again Madam president board that concludes my information items for the city thank you Dr protein movie now board members would be a V and the old business that you would care to discuss at this time anyone all right moving on new business board members would there be any new business that you were here to discuss at this time there's just one um item that I would want to bring to your attention board meeting a board members I've received an email that talked about the uh I think it was Miss Moore I think you sent us an email that talked about the ad for the spring festival as we know those of us because that's not unfamiliar to us wait I'm sorry oh I'm thinking about my grade school I'm sorry it's very Musical and

109so uh they do a great job with the program and usually uh in the past we have as a board submitted um an ad and Miss Peterson usually does helpful for the graphics on that but what I'm asking what I need to know board members is whether or not we are in the agreement that we will submit in that um I'm not sure what the price of course would be but I just need to know here agreeable to that can we do a full page it's totally up to us but the motion thought I make a motion that we do a full page and put a spring musical program second moved by uh Mrs Moore that we do a full paycheck for our spring musical second Vibe Miss Martin any further comments or questions can

110I ask the coach that's a good question I did forward that um give me a minute I can tell you thank you it is a full page is 75 okay we'll pay 75 that means divided by nine each of us oh 10 divided by 10 so 750 from each of us okay any other questions before I ask for hearing them no more questions all right roll call please on that motion Mist ready yes Mrs Esposito yes Miss Martin yes Miss Moore yes Miss the Evans yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Miss Thomas yes motion is Carrie thank you thank you for moving now um public comments thank you madam Madam president certainly um public comment and Winslow Township Board of Education highly values the input of citizens in making important decisions that affect

111the children of our community you believe in the rights of citizens to observe board meetings to ensure that all of our citizens have the opportunity to attend board school board meetings and offer comment and to ensure that the board can conduct the important business of the district we ask the speakers follow the guidelines for making public comment regarding public comment the board secretary will recognize those individuals in the audience who wish to make comment we'd ask that you kindly respect the following procedures one all members of the public attending school board meetings must treat each other and the board with respect to State your full name and address before addressing the board great please limit your comments to four minutes four in the event you do not get an answer to your question submit your

112questions to the Board of Education with your name address and telephone number where you can be contacted your questions will be answered within a reasonable time and number five individuals offering citizen comment are not permitted to make personal attacks on any District employee board member or other testifier or member of the public Glory good evening and again my name is Jersey um two items that I was going to present to the board I'm gonna wait until after March 2nd CAC meeting so I can discuss it with them and come up with the game plan because being a part of your sport I want to commit that I don't want to bring problems I want to bring the solution so our recommendation for a solution so I'll bring those after that meeting um but there is

113a question there is a question I do have I'll make it real fast in regards to the athletes that just received their um full scholarships on Sunday I want to congratulate them first but I have a question for the board um for the NCAA requirements for the for any athlete to get a school scholarship to college do and you all know the the requirements for um athlete to actually be eligible when they're eligibility eligibility starts when as student athletes they have to leave it be prepared to start I'm preparing for that great for our SAT scores yes so right now I see six young ladies that made it with athletic scholarships we have about a large amount of athletes student athletes that played Sports throughout the whole school year including football players some football players

114that made it all the way to the states for the school didn't even make it to to school so my question is what accountability are we holding these coaches that are there firsthand with our athletes to make sure that they're getting their core courses completed or they want to write four course from ninth grade on and are they keeping up with their GPA average because many parents start their children off as young as six years old five years old and these programs that we're paying 100 plus dollars to have our kids in the Little League programs and hope that one day the day will be good enough as an athlete as even a student athlete to make make it to the high school level to get a college scholarship to make it to the next

115level to help pay for that cost when my son got his my son's got their five-year scholarships to college at that point years ago it was 250 000 now what eight nine years later I know college tuition room and board and all that is way more expensive so let's help our kids continue to have that that academic excellence and be able to qualify for your scholarship so we can get more colleges back at Winston Township to get our kids opportunity to excel in life not just be here getting state championships for the high school because beyond that life goes beyond here but if we can't set them up for Success there's no need to even allow them to be on these athletic programs and that's basically all I have to say was that a question

116the question is I know the answer into the NCAA rules oh right now I know the answer we are setting the standard when we talk about dress codes the cell phone codes and all the different standards and policies that we're putting out there's one policy that I don't see being that's been in my opinion and there's no no fast being thrown at anyone under sports but in my opinion academic Excellence is not one of the things that we're making sure that we're cracking that with to make sure our kids are successful to go past High School period and we need to make sure we elected the board my vote didn't end at the poll my vote continuously as long as whoever I voted for on this board it lasts as long as you're in that

117seat and I as as a resident of Winslow Township that had grandchildren in our schools will fight for these children to be able to have the best educational opportunities that they can have and why can't we do it here in Winslow Township we need to do it here in Windsor Township we are a Township of mainly of color right now and we have a big responsibility to our kids to make sure they have the same opportunities that Cherokee Cherry Hill Eastern and all of you other schools that they're saying quote-unquote have a better educational system no better than ours looking at our state results so we need to we need to get put the metal to the kettle and make sure this is happening not just for our student athletes who are bad colleges offer

118all kinds of scholarships and we need to make sure that our parents can get their kids in the scholarships and be able to afford their children to builders College if we can help them through educational programs and that's my fight right now all right Mr Gold we uh we applaud your position as a matter of fact um you're probably one of a few parents in the years I've been here that come up here and argue with us about a student achievement I applaunch it I brought you I applaud you because that's first and foremost and I think beyond anything else that is what we should be doing um NCAA eligibility requirements start when they are in first grade even though the grades are accumulated started in ninth grade 9 through 12. it used to be

119your grade point average is dependent upon how high your SAT scores it was a slotting scale the higher your SAT scores the lower your GPA can be however flip side is the higher your GPA than the lower your SAT scores but when I say lower I mean they don't have to be as high they sort of balance each other out in the past two three years schools are using the SAT and acts options you don't necessarily have to have a high act or SAT score you don't have to take them which means that this is an opportunity for even more young people get in school because now all you need is your grades the things that you are working for every day of the year so if you can get let's say a 3.0 if

120you can get a 3.0 you almost guaranteed and if you have any Talent as an athlete you almost guaranteed to get a scholarship um that brings me back and I don't ever want anyone to feel uh that we are going to um push this off on anyone other than ourselves because if a parent does not engage or get involved with us with this we still have the responsibility of making sure those young people get the academics that they need in order for them to be successful it would make it easier for us if we could collectively work together so that this academic achievement issue becomes one that we are on the same page with but I I applaud you absolutely it is the number one thing and I don't care how good an athlete if

121you are as you've already pointed out if you don't get grades you're not going to go anywhere and it's been proven year after year after year after year there's so many young people out there uh applying for schools it's almost like if you're an athlete you come a dime a dozen they can go get 20 more people just like you but we need to understand that so yes I I support you 100 we need to do a better job because I've seen a lot of our athletes who have the potential but then don't succeed because they didn't meet the academic requirements so yes I am 100 behind you 100 for you I I applaud what you said uh we're going to continue to do our part best we can and I'm not advocating Perfection on

122our part we still have a lot we need to do but I think uh with your direction and get more parents to support us get involved we're going to get this thing taken care but I I appreciate your comments for years you have to also look the Common App has changed back years ago there wasn't a combat the parents need to be aware of how they uh put together their common act and they need guidance it's a lot of work students I know in the past five years I've had students that asked their parents if they could come and work with putting a package together they were successful they did get scholarships but it takes time because common app is different when you talk about athletes we also have to keep them healthy we want

123scholar athletes but they also have to be healthy because it's a group that's out there that's a lot and the demand for athletes you can have a hundred people playing they're looking now in the ninth grade they're looking now in schools are looking at them now and inviting them out so that's something that they have to take advantage of too and sometimes we have to look at a community we may have to have those um coaches come in from the highest um college level to look at our people because they cannot go out there Penn State is looking they've been looking to step down so uh and those are ninth degree and don't get me wrong yeah everything that's been said here we're doing we have provided now the common ad has been in place

124for a number of years we have college nights uh accountancers are doing a lot of work with that individual students as well as the parents we have to get more people to take advantage of the resources that we have available so it's not like we're not doing it sure we can always do more but the the resources are here the resources are plentiful we just have to take advantage of the resources that we have available in the school district you've got you've got to come out um instead of you go up there at the high school for college night you can't go in there when you have four or five people uh we're missing a lot of opportunities and whatever it is we need to do to get to get people out but all the

125services we talk about all the resources Windsor Township High School have those resources they're providing those Services sure on the flip side we have young people going off to college uh every year some of the most impressive colleges in the country 90 of the youngsters who go to college for Winslow go for academics okay I mean we sure we have a lot of athletes but the academic students are the ones who are the overwhelmingly Georgia students who are going to school uh but yes our athletic situation needs to approve uh because we have too many young people who are athletically inclined not taking advantage of the academic program so we need to clean it up and uh you know do whatever we have to do to get it right but I appreciate the copies I

126have a comment to that as well um I know I have a question because I know we we have Athletics we know the wins and losses of each individual team we know whether they're 13 and 1 or 2 and 10. each individual team and I am trying to abstain that information because I want to know the GPA of each individual team and I was wondering if there's something we can do because I've been having a problem getting that type of information I want to know the GPA of each individual athletic team so we can make assessments and make decisions based on that to make sure that our coaches and everybody are in tune with their academics and keeping that in the Forefront well let me address that um the coaches are in tune with the

127academics and yes coaches can do a much better job um we don't just make that a responsibility coach we make the responsibility teachers we don't do team grade point averages we do individual grade point averages that has never been required to say what is the team's grade point average now colleges do that for a lot of reasons because they have to show graduation rates and all that but each coach know the individual GPA of every kid on there on their roster they have to make sure they're sitting down working with them to make sure they are eligible in order for them to participate they have study homes they have a counselor that's responsible for the academic programs and the NCAA eligibility requirements the the athletic directors responsible for making sure that they have that eligibility

128individual information as well as weekly or monthly active assessments that the teachers the young person will go to each teacher and the teacher have to indicate throughout the course of the semester what is that child's GPA so sure we have individual gpas for every individual student but we've never asked known as the njsia asked for team gpas that's not something that's available because it's never been asked for but individuals we can go down tell you everybody who's playing on the basketball team what his GPA is sure it's just a matter of calculating all the gpas combined but we've never asked for it I'm just putting in the request for it is it possible am I in a position to answer that not if it's not already done any Oprah request anything you ask for if

129the document doesn't exist it's not a responsibility for someone to go out and create that document provided so at this point no it's not available because the document doesn't exist so now Mr Thomas um do you have further questions or do you have further requests no I mean it is a document to be looking like that document is a parable or it's it's information that should be shared and that's the answer well it's not about or should it be shared I mean we're not withholding evidence or anything of that sort it's just that it's not available [Music] have never stops that's what I like to see okay all right we have as I said before we work on an individual basis we know what the GPA of every student in every program right that's how

130you monitor their success we monitor each individual in order for them to be academically eligible through a semester from seeds of the Season you must have a certain GPA as required by the njsia right I do understand all that but but Mr Thomas is saying is it possible that we can indeed get what he is actually doing okay if you want uh the athletic director to create that document then it's a matter of her creating the document because I'm familiar with what Mr Mr Thomas respectfully is is discussing when you make that request is an overrequest as a as it was considered a request by a private citizen of all says that you do not have to create a document that does not already exist and as you saw tonight with our Oprah request and

131what Mrs Boyle receives in her office there's a Litany of information and we get a report as to what that is um so as a citizen making an Oprah request there a document that doesn't exist is a perfectly legal legitimate answer to provide however as a board member if you asked the superintendent whether it would be appropriate or whether you could make available to a board member a document obviously with no names involved what is a general rule what is this team's average GPA versus this team's average GPA that is an appropriate request for a board member to make of the superintendent it's just the problem is when it when it's a public issue it comes from a member as a member of the public under the open public records Act been under that scenario

132it would be a very bad precedent for the school set to start creating documents of every open request we make because Miss Boyle would be overwhelmed in her office uh preparing documents that don't exist that's why that exemption exists in the wall but as a board member uh you know you heard Dr poteet's response he can make that available to you if the board is requesting it and then the request is made and it seems as doctor put you it's amenable so okay so no further actions required we'll consider yeah okay perfect all right we do have somebody else please yeah we got to go down the whole list I I know but you guys was talking about what I was speaking but you wouldn't have right field for what my whole body was okay

133because it's not just GPA it's also for courses that they need to take absolutely so if we GPA can be the most basic remedial classes and they can pass a GPA on the football field so if they don't have the four course they're not going to make it into college yeah now we have a list at the high school that each child is giving that tells them these are the courses you must have in order for you to be the inner Scholastic Athletic Association requirements for college for example they may say you need three years of English you need two years of math but they'll specify what English is what maths what Sciences what social studies what uh and we we as a district make up that list send it to the NCAA they look

134at that list and they approve those classes and then send it back to us and say these classes are approved by the NCAA and therefore if your students take these classes then they will need the NCAA eligibility requirements as long as they pass the course so that's the track that we're on yes we that's been in place for quite some time of course good evening uh balcony Hall to get my money Sicklerville New Jersey I mean I have three items one I come to the Cassie I'm the president of the National Coalition of 100 black women Southern New Jersey chapter I would like to advise the board that we are releasing Our Lives into the top scholarship as a member of Winfield Township I don't have it is unlikable knowledge of last year foreign leadership

135development and gender equity in the area of Health education and economic empowerment again the scholarships allow and not only do they receive a monetary value they also receive a laptop the Rubik includes not only grades and academic involvement but because we are a non-profit the movement includes volunteer service I know that because of the pandemic that has um affected a lot of our young lady but we stick by that so before I leave tonight if you would kind of let me know whose hand this goes in because I would hate to live here yours yes I'll make sure you get it I would hate to live and not see any of my girls foreign number two March 15th I commend you on this subject matter expert my question is is being presented to the parents

136well the staff the teachings staff also participate in this so that they can work tangent with the parents you need to protect the particular mental health areas I'm sorry I'm sorry I was putting my email address down to hand it to us so we should make sure to give it back to me I'm sorry what was your question again and reference 15th in the subject matter expert you have addressing the parents at the Town Hall yes will the education staff well this school district also have access probably on a separate training so that they will be able to work and tend to the parents for these conditions are recognized yes well our teachers have already begun receiving training in SEL and mental health so that's been ongoing uh when this go out the invitation we're

137going to invite teachers parents of everybody you can come out but we just piggybacking on the training that we are already providing in our schools for our staff many of our teachers have already been trained all right thank you and third after studying through the efforts of the board my last concern will go to the appropriate individual thank you and if I could say Margaret it's good to see you it's been a while Madam president that concludes those that have signed up there are no callers at this time okay thank you so therefore at this time is amazing promotion to a general public comments most important public comments second move by Ms Martin's second Partners Moore all in favor anyways thank you yes Madam president there is a need for an executive session in accordance

138with the requirements of the open public meetings act the Winslow Township Board of Education will be entering into an executive session on February 8 2023 at approximately 9 15 PM of the nine exceptions that permit us to enter into executive session I would cite number one um which would be matters of confidentiality which would be student privacy under FERPA which is the federal student Privacy Act and I would anticipate that that executive session would last approximately 30 minutes I frequently underestimate that I'm going to take a chance to make that tonight okay thank you at this time when members of asking for motion to approve our uh moving into executive sessions motion to approved going into executive session second movement second by Miss more any comment no questions on that if not roll call please

139just dreaded yes this is Miss Martin yes Miss Moore yes Miss Davis yes Mr Thomas yes Miss Thomas yes Miss Peterson yes yes