smack table good evening everybody how are you welcome to evening to the calwell West Caldwell Board of Education public conference meeting the board met an executive session tonight Monday June 17th at 6:00 p.m. in James Caldwell High School room 105 the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Personnel litigation miscellaneous and old business matters the meeting has been advertised and is in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law the matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required and formal action pursuant to said discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been invited tonight the public conference meeting is taking place at 7:13 p.m. please forgive our tardiness um in the James cell High School cafeteria the Board of Education meeting will be streamed live but all Community questions and comments will be welcomed here in person the calwell West calwell Board of Education public conference meeting is also in compliance with the open public meetings act and njsa 10 col 4-6 also known as as the Sunshine Law notices have been sent to the progress cwell New Jersey The Star Ledger Newark New Jersey and tap into West Essex notices have also been posted at the Board of Education Business Office Harrison School building Grey Street West Caldwell and have been delivered to the clerks of the burough of Caldwell and Township of West Caldwell for posting Brian can you please take the role yes student representative mine Alberta Miss D Martini here miss ly deerson here M Mack here Mr dimola Miss Gro here so we have four voting members present we have a quorum great before we start the Pledge of Allegiance I'll just ask everyone to send some good vibes up the hill Mr danola just left executive session to go coach the girls 14U softball team in their championship game versus the hillbillies so good luck our 14 you girls okay send a good vibes to Chris up the hill okay if everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay Brian is there any Communications for the board this evening there were none okay great so we're going to move on to the superintendent report tonight we have several uh recognitions for our retirees and some milestones so I'd like to start with the Milestones first um I'd like to congratulate Miss Maryann Rivera District nurse coordinator and Wilson school nurse for her 25 years um and dedication to the [Music] district and I'd also like to recognize Mr John tinman who is a teacher of health and PE at James calwell high school for his 25 years wo and I'd ask Mr Lincoln and Mr Devon to come up and present them with their pins thank you so much Rivera if you could come up Mr timman if you could come up the pins are right there I don't have my camera to take a picture you want to take a picture take a picture sweet a Oh [Applause] yay doing thanks she's soet [Applause] yay [Applause] for so cute now I'd like to recognize some of the retirees to help me do that first I'd like to invite up Mr Lincoln to the podium good even good evening everybody uh Dr Conlin Mr McCarthy the board uh guests which consists of family friends and colleagues thanks for all coming out um I'm going to start here by something that this will sound familiar to Mr uh hello children was that okay where are okay there there you go um so if you've ever been to the bottom floor of Wilson school on a Thursday or a Friday you would probably have heard Miss Zilla open up her class like that her children would always respond um in uh the same sing song manner it was just a wonderful way to get you know an a report established with your kids um tonight I'm here to acknowledge the many years of dedication and service you've given to the students of Wilson school um as somebody who mouthed his way through fifth grade chorus uh it is not easy to get a group of young people to come out of their shells and actually sing um but you manage to do it every single year that I've seen uh those kids perform um and they walk off those risers glowing so it's a really tribute to the work that you did it's important work um I'm not sure if everybody knows this but Milla spent time at Wilson's school and then she also spent time at Lester C no eer right down the road uh selfishly Wilson would have loved to have had you all five days a week um but in reality that just means you got to touch twice as many kids' lives and and make an impact on them so on behalf of Wilson school and Lester C no eer we're grateful for your service um we wish you the best of luck in your retirement and we will definitely miss you thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] I'll give it the apples at the end so um I'd like to invite up uh Mr Adam to recognize our next two retirees good evening everyone tonight I'm very honored to acknowledge the careers of a couple of wonderful Educators from Washington School while I've only know them for a brief period of time I am thankful and proud to have been able to work alongside them so let's start with Miss zevan Miss Lisa Zan I know she's around there she is Miss zevan is a special education teacher who has dedicated 28 years to the Caldwell West Caldwell School District she has taught in multiple buildings Washington I know Lisa is your favorite right it's okay you could sit you're retiring now it's all right um prior to working here she taught in East Brunswick as a private school as a p at a private school for 10 years Miss Zan has been an advocate for her students she works in their best interests and she will always engage in conversation on their behalf and we are very thankful for that in her retirement Miss Zan has shared that she will be spending time with her family who live out of state she's also hoping to do some traveling aside from that I also know that Miss EV will continue to work with children in some capacity thank you Miss Zan congratulations on your retirement wishing you all the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] best another retiree from Washington is Mrs Joan jobes Mrs jobes has been a fifth grade teacher at Washington in school for 17 years and she has taught all of her years in the same classroom I can only imagine that you're finding uh many many things as you clean out your room prior to going back to school to become an educator Mrs jobes worked in marketing but we're just so glad that she explored Elementary education and we got her over at Washington Mrs jobes is a teacher who works tirelessly to support her students she collaborates efficiently with the fifth grade team and is a leader among her colleagues what I appreciate most about Mrs jobes is her calm presence and willingness to tell it like it is and she's done that a few times this year right Miss jobes in her retirement Mrs jobes plans on doing a lot of traveling reading and spending time Outdoors the thing she is most excited for though is becoming a grandmother for the first time this October so congratulations Miss jobes thank you for all of your service to Washington and the district I wish you the very best in [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] retirement I'd like to invite up Mr bolo to recognize his two retirees good evening everybody tonight I am here to honor two remarkable individuals who contributions have left an indelible mark on our community these two individuals I have the honor to speak about have a combined 60 years in education so I apologize in advance for the length of each one it's hard to sum up 60 years in just a sentence or two first let's celebrate inz morrisy the Cornerstone of the gcms art department for nearly three decades in's tenure has been marked by a profound commitment to nurturing creativity fostering collaboration and leaving an indelible mark on both her student students and the broader Community her meticulous design and painting of scenery for both the middle and high schools spanning over two decades have enhanced school productions and enriched our cultural tapestry she was also the driving force behind the creation of the Grover Cleveland Middle Schools make a difference mural that reflects her commitment to leaving a tangible Legacy her active engagement in the broader Arts community and collaborative Spirit within the school have further solidified her Legacy including her role as cooperating teacher for over 20 student teachers at monair State University as well as her participation in the Arts educator Advisory board at Monclair State admidst her professional achievements inz cherishes the personal connections she has forged within the district from making lifelong friends to gaining a cousin through marriage her time at gcms has been punctuated by moments of warmth and camaraderie that have enriched her experience immensely as she barks on her next chapter her greatest Legacy Remains the thousands of students she has inspired and empowered through her passion there are many things she's looking forward to in retirement she gave me a really long list so I cut it down she she is excited to spend time with her husband Chris and her son Griffin although he's currently attending school at Arizona State University and loves Arizona she is looking forward to continuing to develop her own artistic style and continue working on some projects at home while converting a spare bedroom into to an art studio she is planning a slightly delayed 60th birthday trip to Italy to visit her sister and brother-in-law while hopefully getting to visit Paris with her mostly this is her favorite one she's looking forward to never having to commute two hours to work ever again thank you inz for all you do for gcms and for being the Cornerstone of our department for over 30 years you will be missed [Applause] [Music] next let's recognize Dena Larson whose dedication to education and music has been nothing short of exemplary I was fascinated to learn that Dena originally began her career looking to become a traffic weather news anchor on the radio she was approved for a major new New York news station but ultimately decided that it wasn't right for her and ultimately landed here in Caldwell in 1990 she began as a general music teacher at Lincoln School she was also assigned to teach sixth grade chorus and sixth and seventh grade General music classes at Grover Cleveland by the time she was tenured Dena was teaching General music at Washington and Lincoln School was the director of both Coral ensembles at gcms and she's been doing that ever since although Dena has been doing great things in Caldwell since 1990 she's also been very involved outside of school until she started a family she performed extensively as a v as a vocalist in area churches and in choirs as a member of the New Jersey symph Symphony Orchestra chorus she performed at NJ PAC the State Theater in New Brunswick and at the Trenton war memorial she had the chance to backup notables including Melba Moore Christopher Cross and Suzanne ishn she also sang backup with Mary J BL and was asked to work with her as she began to break into the recording artist industry she also had the privilege of singing at the man Center in Philadelphia for the inaugural Marian Anderson award program and was hired to sing as a chorus member in the New York Pops concert at Carnegie Hall amazing she is proud of the many students that she has sent to the New Jersey school music association region chorus concerts over the years it is truly competitive and we have had students participate every year and all of them have reported back how incredible of an experience it was for them Above All Things the most important job she's ever had is being a mom her son Paul is currently a sophomore at Morris County College majoring in journalism and her daughter Anna is about to graduate high school she will attend the University of Delaware in the fall as a Psychology major major her husband Paul who retired from the school district in 2020 2 and Dena are very proud of both of their kids Dena is most looking forward to not having to take work home with her and having a much more flexible schedule thank you Dena For All You've Done For The Music Department in the calwell West calwell School District your dedication and contributions are deeply appreciated [Applause] [Music] [Applause] soet I'd like to ask Mr Devin to come join us just good evening everyone um Miss press I have the honor of speaking on behalf of Miss press this evening but I found out today that although she's got a super outgoing personality she's a little shy in front of groups so I thought you could stand right here while I speak and there's the C there's the camera you can wave to everyone streaming out there while I speak better to look at you than look at me okay so it is an honor to represent the faculty administration of jchs and thanking Miss Mary and press for her 21 years of service to the district and to to congratulate her on her retirement teaching is a second career for Marian who left Private Industry in 1999 to take a Science teaching position in Patterson before transferring to the Caldwell West calwell School District in 2004 Miss press will be remembered for her positive attitude and her smile even during stressful times she is a ray of sunshine in addition her passion for Science and love of nature is evident in what the students probably best know her for the animals in her classroom Turtles snakes and lizards housed and nurtured in room 314 brought biology to life Miss press is also known for not only stressing the importance of service um and one's responsibility to others but for modeling this in all that she does for the past 10 years she has been the Key Club adviser at jchs where she fostered a culture of service to our community she also has a reputation of being extremely supportive of her students and for her dedication to The Faculty at jchs especially in the science department where her supportive nature transcends the norm and reaches the level of maternal providing strength and inspiration especially to the younger members of the Department thank you Marian for putting your heart into creating mean meaningful learning experiences for your students and for modeling a passion for Science and service we will miss you next year and wish you all the best in retirement [Applause] congratulations thank you very much really it it's been a wonderful run here so I'm I'm proud to say that I worked at James Caldwell High School [Applause] so and now I'd like to ask Mr McCarthy to please join us at the podium Mary Jan truka professionally known as MJ to many has served the calwell West calwell School District as a confidential assistant to the business administrator for uh 22 years I'm told almost 23 years during my three years in a district Mary Jane has been my right-hand woman that kept me on task with the plethora of things that we are responsible for retaining in our business office Mary Jane's work hours in the in the business office are until we get it done there are no real summer hours as such Mary Jane and I are often the last two persons to leave the haris of school at the end of the day her responsibilities include Transportation contracts food service contracts and free and reduced lunch board agendas and minutes and insurance to name just a few items I could go on and on that's enough about her job description let me tell you about Mary Jane what I admire the most about Mary Jane is her Integrity she cares deeply about the district she cares deeply about her co-workers she cares deeply about our students most importantly she cares about doing the right thing Mary Jane will be missed by those who she worked closely with at cwell West cwell and by me We Wish You a long and happy retirement with your husband Mark there's no pause there for any reason since you live nearby in Verona our hope is that you will stay in touch with your callwell Westco family congratulations and best of luck in your retirement Mary Jane [Applause] [Music] [Applause] going to take a two-minute break that was our last retire oh sorry yeah no no no that's okay just before we give we take pictures and give out our apples which was started by Marie Lan Frank uh I just want to say that Brian just said it perfectly I was going to say something else but he just said it perfectly when he was talking about Mary Jane and said how the best thing about her is her integrity and how much she cares and I think that's the thread about all of our retirees today they gave up listen Patterson East Brunswick Channel 7 News which we never know I mean uh you know um marketing it was their loss was our gain for all these years and uh it's heavy tonight to say goodbye to all of you you've really made a very big impact to all of us and uh I speak on behalf of the board to say that the debt of gratitude that the families and the staff and this board of education and those before us have to you is just immense and I I wrote down this quote before I came in today that said behind every child who believes in themselves is a teacher who believed in them first and wow you all have a line of children in front of you and Mary Jane you have a line a line in front of you as well so on behalf of all of us when I used to teach preschool we never would say goodbye at their little promotions we would sing to them happy trails to you and we would say until we meet again so happy trails God bless you all and congratulations on time well served enjoy your future retirement and please come back to visit us because we sure would love to see your faces okay one more [Applause] round okay so take a quick break and we'll do our apples and our pictures and then we'll move on with the boring stuff e e e e e e e e e e e e e e conin or is that everything or that concludes my superintendent report okay so [Music] um this is a conference meeting so I'm just going to peruse the agenda we're going to save all comments on and off the agenda for the end of the meeting if that's okay I'm just going to quickly go through it we are going to move on one action this evening okay um uh when we get to that it's going to be in curriculum so once I go through the agenda we're going to go back um the board is actually very happy to announce that we are going to vote tonight on the teachers uh contract um which we are very happy to announce that is done so the board is going to move to vote that in this evening okay so if you'll look through we're going to have next week we'll have committee reports um we're going to have things on curriculum and Technology hi um we're going to do our liip 3-year plan which is our um bilingual plan for ESL students that we're required to do um we're going to do our remote virtual instruction plan which we're all also required to do as well field trip FBLA is going to be going to the American labor Museum on July 24th so we're going to approve that we have some Personnel stuff um just going through like the highlights everyone can read I'm sure don't have to go through much it's all still Personnel extended school year our treasurer's report Finance you'll notice there's a lot of Transportation contracts here Transportation contracts for our special education students uh Project Graduation um transfer of funds we're also going to next week accept a donation from the Kanas Club um for donation tables for the Butterfly Garden at gcms the Kanas Club is a great partner to the board we're very grateful for that we have usage of facilities for things going on in the summertime um the coolest thing about the high school I think is that it never rests not even in the summer it's always busy busy with activi which is great um we have some policies that are going to be going through as well and I think that's pretty much it for right now so before we go to public comment I'm going to just pass it along to Terry who's our chairperson of curriculum and Technology to move on the teachers contract this evening going to make a motion to approve item 7e on this evening's agenda under curriculum and Technology the memorandum of agreement for success accessor Collective negotiation between the cwell West cwell Board of Education and the cwell West cwell Education Association for July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2027 great and can I have a second a second fantastic Brian if you could take the role yes Miss D Martini yes Miss lindie Jefferson yes Miss Mack yes Miss Gro yes zero motion carried fantastic okay now we're going to move to public comments for anything on or off the agenda just going to go over the rules public participation shall be governed by the following participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name and address statements are to be limited to three minutes duration participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer please note that boards use the public public comment period of the meeting as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or a cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board this evening will be resolved boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his designate the presiding officer May interrupt a Warn and or terminated participants comments if they exceed the a lotted time or are objectively obscene particip may be civil liable for any obscene defamatory defamatory or slanderous statements made during public comment that being said would anybody like to come up this evening and address the board on anything on or off the agenda yes on hi everyone um my name is Abby Thomas 28 nolwood Terrace I have a first grader at Jefferson I have an incoming kindergartener and then two more kids who are going to eventually go through the Jefferson School System and I'm here on behalf of many first and second grade parents many of who are here in the room to express our concerns about class size um and formally request additional support for these two grades at Jefferson so my son's class has 25 kids the max number per District policy um with only one teacher the other classes in these two grades have 23 24 25 there's one inclusion class as I'm sure you know per grade um and those have two teachers ideally the solution we'd love to see would be a third like bubble class um but of course we're aware and understand the space constraints so we'd like you to strongly consider at the very least adding additional co-teachers so that each class in these two grades have two dedicated teachers so we can lower the teacher to student ratio and ensure sort of more even distribution of kids amongst those uh classes so and also I want to acknowledge the hard work of the teachers the administration the district everyone wants you know a good working and learning environment for these kids but we feel with this class size it's really difficult to give that one like that personalized instruction that's really needed to set a good foundation um especially as we have standardized testing coming up soon so there's a lot of research out there as I'm sure you're aware as educators of the benefits of smaller class sizes and also the benefits of of co- teing um I can follow up with that we've done a lot of reading on that but I wanted to use this time to talk about a little bit closer to home here in the district so knowing we've had lots of conversations as parents over the years um we knew this was a concern and an issue but we sent out a petition we have 61 signatures in the last few days we also sent out a survey in a Google form to collect um responses and wanted to share the following sort of stats and anecdotes um so we had 34 respondents to the survey 97% said they're concerned about the current class size 94% believe the class size has negatively impacted their child's classroom experience almost 20% of the respondents reported that their children are not meeting the great appropriate independent reading level and from conversations with current kindergarten parents where there's only 14 kids per class this does not seem to be an issue and then 40% of respondents have had to turn to private tutoring um which I was which I was shocked by to ensure that their child's academic needs are being met and to get that one toone time and that attention to grasp Concepts um these parents also reference disruptive behavior increasingly loud and distracting noise levels um inability to focus all due to the large class size um a few specific scenarios I wanted to call out so there's a parent seeking evaluation for their child um for speech and they were told that the teacher had to work with that child um over the course of several weeks before they could do an evaluation but that was very difficult to do in a meaningful way with 25 kids in the class there was another um parent who said their child was diagnosed with dyslexia this year and that went undetected by the district there is a twin parent whose kids both have IEPs um but had to choose one twin to actually get support given all IEP kids had to be in one class and there's also examples of kids who are showing signs of advanced abilities and they're getting distracted and getting bored and concerned about you know how do we keep them encouraged and challenged throughout the school year so I think we all want what's best for the kids it was amazing to hear all of the the recognition of these retirees and how much everybody cares in this community um but we want them to have this solid academic Foundation um in an environment where they can learn and Thrive and we don't feel like they're currently set up for Success right now with these large class sizes um and knowing that this is going to follow them for f future years at Jefferson um so this has been like I said a constant sort of topic of conversation and concern amongst parents we kind of figured let's go and voice this to the board and see if we can get some extra support for these kids ideally you know for the for the fall for next year um so whether that's a bubble class or whether that's in the form of additional co-teachers so thank you for the time and the consideration and we look forward to hearing your response thank you thank you [Applause] Abby if you could send me an email I'd like to schedule time to meet with you you bring the survey and i' invite Mr SS to join us so we could have a discussion on possible things that we could do to make sure your children are supported and get the experience that they are they're entitled to okay so just send me an email I can't promise it'll be before the end of school um but it'll definitely before the second week of July because people are kind of like going all over the place the next two weeks but I know I think I have the first week of July available for me and miss a share the surve yes I if you could share the email share the survey fora email so that way I could kind of take a peek at it beforehand that'd be really great thank you thank you Abby anybody else hi good evening Cynthia Walker 63 Holiday Drive um back in the fall my husband and I were here to discuss the lanyard issue at the Clover Cleveland Middle School um and wanted to see if any consideration has been given for removing that requirement next year given that that is the only school that requires a lanyard or a child to carry an ID throughout the day yeah yeah we've been having conversations with Mr bolo and we are updating the code of conduct so that's definitely something that'll be in discussions for next year so yes anyone else good evening um my name is Terry petaro 23 Holiday Drive West Caldwell I'm here tonight also as a parent of twin second grade students who attend Jefferson School I would like to address class sizes and their impact on our children I would also like to start by saying that my speaking has absolutely nothing to do with our second grade teachers or your teaching abilities I believe they've done the best they can with the resources that they have or don't have at their disposal professionally I am a fourth grade teacher in Essex County and I've had been in elementary teacher for the past 20 years I've taught kindergarten third and fourth grade students so I do have a vast understanding of the educational system at the elementary level while I do understand and I do appreciate cap limits for grade levels at the elementary levels I also know when exceptions can be have been and should be made because not everything is always one siiz fits all when I was a third grade teacher several years ago we had four third grade classes with 25 students in each class at my school there were many special education basic skills social emotional behavioral and academic needs and challenges that affected many of the students in our classrooms not unlike our second grade classes currently here at Jefferson at the time in my district where I taught the district decided it would be in the best interest of our children to hire classroom aids for each of the four third grade classrooms that year and it did make a difference teachers can feel extreme differences when they have a class size of 20 versus even 22 versus 25 students they are much more effective at helping children and spending more one-on-one time and small group time with smaller class sizes it's a fact it comes down to the mathematical ratio of how many days there are in a week and how much time you can spend with small groups of children when there is only one of you I can effectively teach a whole class lesson to a group of 25 students but most students don't understand something fully the first time a lesson is taught in a whole group lesson and they need those follow-up smaller group sessions to help solidify understanding children are not the same they all have differences in learning and different things that they don't understand from the same lesson we have to tailor and group subl lessons to subgroup groups of children when you need to work in small groups which is imperative for the younger years especially you can only feasibly get to one group a week in each subject area if you are managing five groups a week for f 25 students and many students need more than that once a week most students need multiple points of small group and large group instruction to feel confident in a subject area so what happens to those students when there's no more time for them due to mathematical ratios and multiple classroom demands that are above average for a classroom impacting that's learning environment multiply this issue times each of the five core subjects but specifically focus on the building blocks of Reading Writing and math which are the foundations for everything else in the elementary school and above at this point in time my children are second grade students who do not have extra supports in place for them I worry with all the challenges that our grade level faces that all needs of all children cannot possibly be met one of my children is very shy in school and will not ask for a teacher's help that's just him it's no reflection on the school it's just my child I need a teacher to be able to zero in on my child who's on the quieter side and who needs help but may be given less notice when faced with so many other students who are mo more vocal or whose needs may seem greater for various reasons with large class sizes it is harder to zero in on these kids it's easier to identify academic issues and tailor to Children's needs when you have smaller class sizes or at least more adult support in the classroom some grade level years are less challenging than others and even with high class sizes I would not be asking for help if this were an average class with average needs with high numbers numbers I believe our grade level is one of those exceptions in times when we are experiencing a multitude of challenges that require either the addition of more classrooms or at the very least classroom AIDS co-teachers whatever the case may be I think it speaks volumes that so many Jefferson parents are here tonight to address this issue all of those are Jefferson parents I respectfully ask that you seriously consider our needs and our requests thank you thank you ter [Applause] good evening my name is Sandra cabalu I live at 22 Norwood Terrace I have three children in the school district finishing 11th grade 8th grade and second grade I'm also a pediatrician this is my TW this is the 12th year consecutive year that my family has had a child at least one child Jefferson School we have never experienced a situation like this year before my daughter was in the co- teing second grade classroom with 24 students I want to paint a picture for you of the effect that this classroom has had on her the frequency and intensity of the challenging behaviors that surround my daughter this year have had a profound negative impact on her physical and mental health early in the year she was used as a positive role model and her she was seated at tables that needed the most active behavior management this took a profound toll on her one night she shared with me that she was so proud she had found a place in the classroom that she could go cry when she was feeling overwhelmed where no one could see her I had only been notified of the teacher by the teachers once of her crying while she was so proud of this crafty little accomplishment my alarm Bells started going off what was happening in this classroom that not one of two teachers could see one of their students dissolving into tears on a regular basis we addressed this and we moved on then she started to have headaches and then the headaches became daily and now with her medical team that we've assembled we figured out that our headaches are triggered when the noise and Chaos level in her classroom become too much for her to handle what happens in class when she gets a headache she goes into the hallway I've asked her to go to the nurse she doesn't want to do that she goes into the hallway sometimes she's out there with seven other kids that need to escape their classroom at the same time sometimes she's out there with one partner working on math games or a writing piece and sometimes she's out there alone completely unsupervised and what is she doing when she's out there alone she's laying on the hallway way in the school doing her exercises for her headaches we can do better than this she deserves better than this if you ask her about second grade and you really get her talking she'll tell you that she feels like her classmates don't care about each other she does not feel safe in her classroom she feels invisible and I would argue dissolving into tears with no one seeing she is invisible and she feels like she hates school this is what our daily conversation is I appreciate all of the work that her teachers her principal and with the help of Dr Conklin the district will be doing to support her next year but the needs of this classroom and this cohort are too much for the teachers to manage the most hardworking the most dedicated teachers to manage without more support thank you thank you [Applause] I think this okay hi my name is Laura Kavanaugh I live 30 gold place in cell New Jersey um I have two kids at Jefferson I have I don't know if I can do this I have one that's leaving and I have another that I've spent the past three years fighting every single year she's been diagnosed finally with dyslexia IR isn't a place you live it's a place you get referred I have to prove that she's struggling I've have outside resources showing it I'm to believe that it's she'll be fine and that she doesn't need anything I finally have a diagnosis of Dyslexia this year and um we both looked at each other and felt relief because we didn't need to prove to the school anymore that she was struggling and that she needed help I was told when I got to the 504 meeting that they could help with the anxiety she's also in the team talk class at Jefferson she's never been in the team talk class before this year was so much for her to door she could not learn she was out in the hallways I asked for her to be out in the hallways because she could not learn she could not write she could not read it's hard for any kid but for a kid that's dyslexic it's almost impossible I don't want her to hate school she's so positive and she's made so much progress and I don't subscribe to the wait to fail model that we're using here and RTI does not work for dyslexic kids they are always going to need support always going to need support I'm tutoring her at my house with Orton Gillingham it's costing me close to $800 a month to tutor her and when I go to the 504 meeting with a neurologist diagnosing her with dyslexia I'm told there is no services for a child like Abby at our district I find it hard to believe that 20% of kids are dyslexic and that you have no resources no reading program for a kid that works so hard to just be able to read we need to do better she had a miserable year she was also somebody who was used as a positive role model she was threatened with a pair of scissors in her class she was struck in the back and this wasn't what she told me she told me many other things this is the only things that Administration told me this cannot happen she does not feel safe and class and she can't learn there I do not want her in the team class like next year I think you need to have two team classes so you can spread out the children who have high needs and that there could be more adults I really do think there needs to be three classes I'm not sure why we have an elementary school that has half of the CL class numbers or 10 less than ours do I don't know why parents are driving past Wilson school to get their kids to overcrowd at Jefferson from telling them very very exhausted and frustrated treated as a parent please consider our our [Applause] requests anyone else want to come up and speak no anybody else want to come up and speak at all this evening okay before we move to re-enter executive session I want to thank all of you for coming Laura I know it's very hard for you and I thank you and it was hard for all of you um we're obviously going to go back and discuss this it's part of what executive session is about um and we have another meeting next week as well so we're going to stay tonight and discuss and we will continue discussions with Administration um but it's important that you all came here tonight I actually applaud each and every one of you because to come and then have the guts to speak and advocate for your children it's so important you know we don't know these things are happening you know it's not our job but it's important that we hear it because then it is our job to take action on it right and make sure that things get done and that conversations happen and I will tell you like sitting at this table we have children who have special needs and um I can honestly say I I empathize with you Laura uh because I understand what it's like to have a child that hated school and so I I I do get that so um no child in this District should be left left behind and no child in second grade should hate school so that that makes us all up here I can speak on behalf of the board that makes us all that breaks our hearts so as as mothers and you know and just as people because that's not the district we want to lead right so um we're going to discuss this with the administration and again it's it's very very important that you take these that's what board meetings are about you know for anyone tuning in and listening you know this is business right this is the stuff no one cares about it's this stuff that we care about right like we have to hear these things and and you elect us to sit up here and listen right and try to make a change and make a difference so it's important that you come here and you voice these things to us so we can listen and try to make a difference right so that's important so if nobody else everybody else is okay no one else wants to get up and speak please yeah come on come on up hi um I have literally nothing prepared at all um Carrie Reinhardt um I'm on uh clinb back court and I mean these ladies have really said everything but the one thing that that that I want to say and I'm particularly in tune to is we're on we're on kimack and we are just down from all the construction that's going on on Lane um I just want to put out there and for us all to remember I mean we fought that construction for six years in a much different venue but one of the things that we fought almost at every board meeting was all of those kids right there are zoned for Jefferson yeah so we have 112 units half of them at least are multi-bedroom and then that is maybe 50% occupied and we've already seen I believe at least we've had five new students and again I absolutely do not want to delize any of those families they're moving to a good District but we've had five new students this year okay that's F and I at least two of them came from that construction um and we have that about 50% occupied that's 112 units 44 units are still going up this is going to get worse and it's going to get much worse I think um again there are multi-bedroom units that going to be families not professionals so I think we really want to keep in mind that we can kick the can down the road maybe now hope you don't do that but this problem's going to get worse I have a son that's in the second grade classroom he is holding his own very smart kid but um I loved his teacher I but I do thank God he was not in that other class because of the behavior issues in that other class would have would have killed him M um he was on the receiving end of several Hib complaints he was called a racist if anyone knows my son he comes from a two mom household I can assure you that's not the case but he had anxiety for several days from having to go through the Hib process for something that he didn't do and we were told outright he was not at fault but he still had to go through the process which something else I would like to see if if if we can revisit giving Elementary principles the ability to override and not OP out um but um I have another son that's coming into the kindergarten and there's 30 total kids registered so we really need to be able to fluctuate each year and not take we're allowed to do 25 so we're we're we're under the guidelines 25 is can be very different year to year um that's that's all I have to say thanks thank you thank [Applause] you anybody else else before we close I just want to make sure anyone who wants to speak has an ability to do so okay everyone's good okay okay okay all right so thank you again everyone um like I said the board meeting will be here again on Monday evening okay and that will be a voting meeting um and that being said I'd like to ask for a motion to enter executive session at 8:10 p.m. I'll make a motion okay okay and do I have a second I'll second okay Brian can you take the role you're all in favor uh I I all against nay any exensions no motion carried okay so the meeting is adjourned thank you everybody for coming thank you