po president is not in attendance at the meeting as the vice president I will be assuming the duties of the president at this meeting the regular notice requirement of the New Jersey open public meetings act has been complied with and that adequate advance notice of this meeting was given at least 48 hours in advance on May 13th 2024 notice was mailed to The Courier Post Philadelphia inquire and posted on the district's website at this time can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at this time I'd like to turn it over to our board secretary for roll call uh good evening uh Janette Alvarez present Wanda Garcia present NAA Gillespie present Cameron Hudson present Danielle Jackson Karen Merck Maria Perez pres wasi Muhammad nanam de Nelson present okay uh the board will now go into Clos session to discuss matters of the following nature individual privacy and pending ongoing or anticipated litigation contract negotiation or attorney client privilege and disposition of Jane Doe case uh call for a motion to go into close session motion second all in favor okay how long do I have to say yeah 30 minutes about uh should be about 30 minutes thank you okay I call for a motion to come out of close session motion to come out of close second second all in favor okay um we will have reports by each of the student board reps is that right oh okay we won't be having that this [Music] evening so what I just okay um the board committee reports will be by uh Cameron and and will report out from the policy committee and na Naima Gillespie will report out of the teaching learning and student supports committee I was going ask question but it was cool good evening everyone Cameron Hudson a spokesperson and co-chair for the policy and governance committee um I have a we have a few uh policies for that are up for second reading the first one is to update policy 51418 sports related concussion and head injury this revision is needed in response to a statutory update to clarify the term student athlete so that reference includes cheerleader modified language to include inter Scholastic head injury training program requirements and L of athletic head injury program modify parental notification requirement to ensure notification occurs annually among other changes the second update is policy 41111 and 42111 and 2224 non-discrimination affirmative action to include a reference to the New Jersey Law of discrimination as well as to include language regarding how to file a complaint directly with the division of student rights I mean civil rights the last policy uh up for second reading is policy 41175 42175 standards for staff discipline adding a statement that disruptive behavior includes disciplining a staff member or providing a negative assessment of a staff members performance in the presence of other staff or students and that concludes the report any questions board members all right thank you good evening reporting out for our teacher and student learning supports committee held today May 20th at 1 pm was myself board member Merck Deputy superintendent Dana Walker and director of bilingual education Erica Okafor this month we dug into our bilingual programs to give more clarity on where we are in Camden City Schools as of today we have 1,40 students districtwide who are eligible for bilingual program and ESL support 934 students are currently in our bilingual programs and they are educated in five schools K grades K through3 Dudley and Davis K through 5 Veterans Memorial 6-8 and East Side High 9 through 12 currently we have 18 certified bilingual teachers and six teachers are Spanish-speaking teachers who are certified in their content areas the remaining 106 students are spread throughout the district between other schools some with different reasons including parents discretion however all eligible students and families are offered support from our ESL teachers in those buildings the district is working hard to find solutions to eliminate vacancies in all areas including ESL we are encouraging paraprofessionals as well as teachers who are certified in other areas to take advantage of ccsd's University Partnerships to become certified bilingual teachers to help us fill these positions and give our students the support they need and deserve as will be stated in the superintendent report we are happy to announce the newcomer summer program with us having a lot of high school students new to the United States we have created a summer program to help the transition into the US in their new school environment we will be starting with 45 students with four certified teachers and one teacher in charge this summer with the focus on academics Transitions and social I'm sorry transitions in Social and emotional as well as zeroing in on traumatic experiences we would like to thank Mr Delgado for continuing to advocate for our students and offering feedback during last week's special board meeting also thank you to miss Okafor for her commitment to the bilingual education okay thank you board members uh I now turn the meeting back over to the superintendent thank you uh board secretary this time I'd like to ask the board to transition transition down to the front rows for the superintendent's report thank you president present at our regular Advisory board meeting um this month is designated as mental health awareness month uh so we want to take this opportunity first to um pause for a moment of silence and so as we go to the next slide there are uh two young people uh but first I want to just um state that this moment of silence will be for our students collectively in the city of Camden our children collectively in the city of Camden um due due to recent uh increases in violence Nan McCrae uh is a was an East Side High School student um who fell victim to tragedy I've known uh NCoin personally in his formative years Nan was a very kind and gentle young man uh and always spoke with his eyes and he is is going to definitely be missed also Jola foran I'll read to you a statement from our special education department we had the privilege to have Jona as a student from when she was very young then attending Lark and Vorhees Pediatrics she had a beautiful smile and engaged in activities as best she could she will definitely be Miss and we're going to couple these together there's one moment of silence uh on the next slide Mr Thomas E Rowan and then we will pause uh for that Collective moment of silence Mr Rowan was an employee of the Camden City school district for 36 years he retired as the principal of ecdc in 2010 but previously worked as an administrator in the office of special services among other roles during his tenure Mr Rowan played a pivotal role in advocating for the current Martha F Wilson Early Childhood Development Center which at that time was the early childhood development center so much of his work and his advocacy led to that beautiful beautiful learning environment for our young people and now let's just take a a collective moment of silence for all of our children in the city for Nan for jela and for Mr Rowan thank you as we move on to the next slide you'll see our agenda for this evening you'll see a few topics that will be uh discussed and shared with uh the board and those focused topics include rewards and recognition Mental Health Awareness Month teaching and learning updates parent advisory councils and division of talent Labor Relations along with District highlights so as with all of our board meetings tonight we look forward to focusing on updating the board and the public on some of these key [Music] areas and so as we move into the rewards and recognition section uh we are so pleased to uh highlight some very wonderful students and if these students are present I'm going to ask them to stand first to be acknowledged Junior chef chef shiron Reynolds are you here if you are please stand yes give him a round of applause anyway Xavier Bergos from Camden high school are you here excellent excellent Xavier we're proud of you Edwin Roman from Pride Academy awesome Edwin we are proud of you siia Austin Eastside High siia we are proud of you Amaya Tales Eastside High not here today okay thank you Miss Brown and Austin Panara Pride Academy not here and let's give a round of applause to miss AR Leia Brown our senior director of nutrition and now I'm going to tell you why we're highlighting Miss Brown and these wonderful wonderful um students are fresh fruit and V vegetable program began many years ago with our School nurses and today we are proud to share our fresh fruit and vegetable program is operated by our own Camden City School District student ambassadors and student workers let's give them a round of applause I am talking about those wonderful individuals that we just noted the Camden School nutrition team is growing and building a foundation with students Le programs with the help and support of our full Futures Partners we also have a culinary work program with an agreement we have with witson our food service vendor where students are studying to become chefs if you didn't see our own Junior Chef shiron Reynolds from bpla highlighted on CBS last Friday and if you haven't visit visited our farmers market yet stop by Davis School school on June 19th that's June 19th from 11: to 1:00 p.m. and see our young people in action today we want to celebrate our students after receiving their Serve Safe food handlers certification absolutely that's a big deal because that that helps them to gain employability the certification can be used to gain employment and any kitchen and today our students are making a difference right here in our own schools again help me celebrate the success of our students and for our leader Miss AR Leia Brown because this is an amazing accomplishment we are so proud of you thank you for all the work that you do on behalf of our district we're going to move into the next set of acknowledgements the Henry H Davis School is the winner for our attendance trophy for the month of April let's give it up for Henry Davis Elementary School family school and I am not sure if there is a representative of course of course principal monu is here why would I think she wouldn't be here no we are so very grateful for principal montigue and her staff I don't see the trophy am I supposed to be giving a trophy okay we'll make sure that you get the trophy again uh to go to Davis school and and more importantly than the trophy we want to make sure that everyone knows how much Camden City school district is concerned about ensuring that our students are in school every single day um we want to continue to reduce our chronic absenteeism rate and also to increase our daily attendance rate we we are doing a great job but we can do even more so these incentives are to highlight the excellent work of our leaders as well as our teachers our parent parents and our students for improving their attendance so way to go Davis School moving on as I shared earlier this month is mental health awareness month and so on Saturday May 11th Our school-based Youth Services Program hosted the second annual Teen Mental Health Summit this Summit aim to address the significant emotional challenges teens experience as well as bridge the gap in communication about mental health between adolescents and adults session topics included Millennial parenting healthy relationships high functioning anxiety personal identity emotional regulation or disregulation the collect te the collective teens share what's on their mind and that was another topic and then on Saturday May 18th school-based Youth Services program took students to the not all wounds are visible mental health walk 2024 the walk served to bring youth from across Camden County together for the purpose of increasing their knowledge of mental health and the resources that are available to them the walk was hosted by the Camden County prosecutor's office in partnership with camon County addiction awareness task force the governor's Council on alcoh and drug abuse and the Camden count County Municipal Alliance program and we will continue to highlight the efforts those are just a couple of the efforts of our school-based youth services team as we continue to address mental health in our young people next slide so we're going into the section on teaching and learning and I just have a couple of updates here that are very important and so on this first update for New Jersey student learning assessment you'll see the spring 2024 njsla Ela and math testing window and it is for grades 3 through 8 in high school so during the month of May students in grades 3 through 11 have been engaged in the New Jersey state assessment the njsla all districts will be testing students in English and language arts Math and Science currently we are administering the Science assessment for grades 5 8 and 11 we are also administering makeup exams to students who were absent during the administration of the assessment I'm happy to report that in all of our elementary and family schools we are already at or above the 90% participation Mark and in some of our high schools we are also above the 90 90% participation rates at the this time and that is so very important and it is critical because if our students are not present to test then we don't know what they know and what they don't know and so our uh teams have been working together and have done an amazing job to ensure that our students are incentivized and that they know that we want them to be present the remaining testing dates are shown on the screen and we ask that everyone encourage our students and families in our Endeavor to reach 100 partic 100% participation for the school year 2324 as testing continues through May 31st so there's opportunities for makeups if students were not present during the regular Administration and again we want 100% of our students in the district in those tested grades to be present next slide please the district is excited to announce that it has received the competitive advanced placement course course expansion Grant from the New Jersey Department of Education the district was awarded $75,000 to expand AP course offerings in our high schools by providing AP training for teachers mentoring for new AP teachers participation in an equity Workshop to increase AP access for all of our Learners an AP summer workshop for interested students and AP tutoring in the fall of next year we look forward to building our AP program and the opportunities it will provide to our students and this is so very critical not just for the $775,000 that comes along with it but because of the programs we'll be able to implement as I've already shared but it also helps us to achieve a greater level of equity when it comes to what we offer our young people and so we have not arrived but we are moving forward forward in being more Equitable and ensuring that our students in Camden City school district are able to take those advanced placement courses but not only to take them but to be successful with them and to be able to pass those tests so that when they go to college they will have to take less courses in order to earn their um college degree and that will cost that will save them money in the future so again this is incredible and we will continue to go after those competitive grants that are provided by the new New Jersey Department of Education and hats off to that team our curriculum team for working together to ensure that we were able to secure that Grant summer school summer is already Upon Us can't believe it we're getting ready to move into the graduation season so we just want to share some highlights for our families around our summer school offerings here in the district next slide and so our extended school year programming as you can see the dates are listed on the slide uh July 8th will begin our extended year programming and it will run through August 2nd uh those programming dates will be Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. and they will be located at the Catt school for grades prek through through 5 and at HB Wilson school for grades 5 through 12 so each year we offer a very comprehensive program to serve our students with disabilities from preschool through high school to help prevent the summer slide and to ensure that our students maintain the skills they have acquired throughout the school year and to build on skills they will need for the upcoming school year all case managers should be all case managers should be in communication with families regarding students extended school year programming families can register for summer programs by going to the district website and completing the student application to support our district families parents can simply notify their students teacher that they want their child to attend summer programming schools can then schools can then support families by completing the summer school application on their behalf so this um last year there were some photos taken of our students visiting Storybook Land and you see some of that highlighted so we just want you to know that we try to offer a program that's academic but also focuses in on those team building skills and social emotional supports that are necessary and we want our young people to have fun as well and get exposed to trips so again we look forward to offering um a wonderful extended year program the next slide summer Visual and Performing Arts this was a wonderful program that was kicked off last year and each year we want it to grow um I have fond memories of uh when I was growing up going to Morgan Village um School in the summer for the fine and Performing Arts programs and I'm so grateful to Miss Tanya Wilson and the team that works with her for bringing those programs back to life for our young people so that we can instill those Performing Arts um uh experiences of Excellence into them and so again our summer Visual and Performing Arts program we believe that creat creativity knows no bounds and expression takes Center Stage that is why we are excited to announce that we will be continuing our summer Visual and Performing Arts program this year last year's photo highlight as you can see the summer Visual and Performing Arts students toured the Wheaten Arts Glass Museum they watched a glass blowing and pottery demonstration and participated in a tile making Workshop next slide Credit Recovery is also being offered this summer summer and it will be at the same time as the other programs July 8th through August 2nd Mondays through Thursdays and then Friday via Zoom the times for students are 8:30 to 12:30 and the locations are Dudley for Eastside High School students and also Camden high school for any students who uh are on the Camden high campus so for credit recovery program I am confident we will we all share the belief that every child deserves a second chance and that's precisely what we're offering here at the Camden City school district we strongly advocate for middle and high school credit recovery programs recognizing them as essential lifelines for students encountering academic obstacles through our personalized assistance and adaptable learning options to fit the needs of our students our summer credit recovery program enable our students to regain missed credits to maintain their path to graduation and to pave the way for promising Futures information regarding Credit Recovery will be shared with parents by each school's guidance counselor and guidance counselors will be sending you need is now outside please make your way to front guidance counselors will be sent home notices applications and flyers with registration information for students beginning next month parents should plan to participate in the in-person registration which will be held at Camden high campus and Dudley once the dates for in-person registration are finalized they will be posted on the district's website if you have any questions please please contact your child's guidance counsel we want to make sure our credit credit recovery program for the summer as I said before but I want to underscore it again it helps us to make sure that our students stay on track for graduation and so we want to ensure that all of our students are graduating on time so we can have a 100% graduation rate for our students in the Camden City school district and we know sometimes our students May slide back so this is an opportunity for our young people to catch up so if you know anyone who may be behind in their credits please make sure that they are connected with their guidance counselor next slide also so we're offering many programs this summer so there should be something for all of our young people to participate in so our high school multilingual newcomer program is a new program that will be implemented in the Camden City school district this year the program will run from July 8th through August 2nd Mondays through Thursdays from 8:00 to 1:00 p.m. and we will share the location we want to make sure it's a location that's going to be convenient for our newcomer families that will be shared in the very new the very near future and it's for grades 9 through 12 students in grades 9 through 12 so this year again we're excited to announce that we will be launching our high school multilingual newcomer program this program will focus on our multilingual students who are new to the United States beginning with their entry in January 2024 as we know transitioning to a new country May pose various challenges for our secondary students the summer program will focus on both the academic and social emotional aspects of transitioning to not only a new country but also to a new school Community teachers will develop project-based learning experiences that facilitate language development in the four domains of reading WR writing speaking and listening in English they will also provide instructional activities that are content-based and Foster the critical skills of collaboration and communication so please please um share this information and parents make sure you reach out to the school uh to to your child's school to see how you can uh benefit from this wonderful program and the next part of this report will focus in on District updates with regard to to Staffing and Personnel so our Camden connecting program our division of talent and Labor Relations our human resources department continues to strengthen our retention efforts through the staff connections program this permanent initiative is designed to deepen staff connections and investment in the district to date the staff connections program has hosted over 25 districtwide Employee Engagement events with more planned through the end of the school year the staff connections program has received a plethora of positive feedback from both School leaders and staff members and expressing expressing their appreciation and the impact of increased employee morale the following are just some of the feedback pieces that we have received direct feedback from a team member at Morgan Village Middle School highlights the impact of these efforts and I quote on May 1st Morgan Village Middle School staff enjoyed the best salad bar ever thank you superintendent for allocating funds to show the staff our gratitude a team member from Veterans Memorial Family School stated and I quote on behalf of the school leaders myself and our staff I am writing to say How Deeply grateful I am for the opportunity that veterans was given to provide lunch for our school Community we were able to honor teachers this week in a way that we have never been able to honor them before it was a fabulous week and the meals provided were a big part of that and lastly from the team at Eastside High School I quote I wanted to take a moment to express tiger Nations tiger nation's sincere gratitude for your team's thoughtfulness the kind gesture has truly brightened our day so our human resources team has parted partnered with school leaders at each building to assist in identifying best practices for Creative thriving employee centered activities as we near the end of the school year we've noticed a positive impact on the events held I will continue to provide periodic updates to highlight the great work being completed through this important districtwide initiatives and finally we will round out with District highlights so on the first slide shout out to both our Camden high campus and Eastside High girls softball teams as they competed against each other last week at the Camden high field it is always great to see yeah that's it give them give them a round of applause absolutely absolutely you can always feel free to interrupt me with Applause for our young people so don't hold back because they deserve each and every bit of it it's always great to see both of our high schools come together to show unity and great sportsmanship amongst each other it was a win for every young lady involved next slide so as prom season arrives we want to thank the Camden City Firefighters for visiting all five high schools absolutely for visiting all five Camden City school district high schools to share an important message with our seniors drive safely to and from the prom using a damaged vehicle as a powerful example they demonstrated the challenges of rescuing passengers after an accident this impactful presentation reminded our students of the vital importance of responsible driving let's all commit to making smart choices on the road we want every student to have a memorable safe and joyful prom night drive safe and let's make it a night to remember for all the right reasons next slide as we uh take as we honor honored our teachers and I just shared a little bit about that we'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Miss Jaa WN Miss Jaa win a remarkable educator for being selected as one of the Camen education fund 2024 rise Award winners what a great way to end teacher appreciation uh month by acknowledging one of ccsd's dedicated Educators she is deserving of all of that Applause and then some she's a great teacher next slide here we want to highlight um our Career Technical education offerings here in the Camden City school district so so check out our Camden high school our Camden High TV and radio production class visiting our partners at whh y y in Philadelphia they toured professional television and radio Studios and even filmed their own person on the street interviews quick tip did you know that we offer a dual enrollment option in our TV and radio production course these are some of the many CT this is just one of the many CTE programs within our district that offers dual enrollment next Slide the third annual Camden College Signing Day host to be able to leave our school district and make the decisions and choices that are in alignment with their Destiny and so here is the Camden City school district 2024 graduation schedule Monday June 24th uh will be cre ative Arts graduation at 2:00 big picture Learning Academy will have their graduation at 4:00 and Camden high school will have its graduation at 5:30 then on the very next day Tuesday June 25th brim Medical Arts will have its graduation at 2:00 p.m. and then Eastside High School will have its final graduation in the Eastside the current Eastside High School building at 5:00 p.m. on the field and so we're looking forward uh to having a wonderful commencement season and at this time we're going to transition back to the stage where our VP Nelson or design or design will share um uh honor our um I'm sorry we honor our retirees they wanted the ambassadors to get a certificate I'm sorry before we transition before we transition to the stage thank you for your flexibility in advanced board members we're going to call forward I was just given some certificates to share so with Xavier buros please come forward Edwin Roman please come [Music] forward siah Austin please come [Music] [Applause] forward senior direct senior director AR Le Brown is he coming forward or no okay thank you are we coming up here yeah come up here if our board members will join us on the stage and that way we can capture this this memorable moment that's [Music] St round [Applause] one thanks you [Music] okay so thank you Marquette I hope you didn't run all the way from I'm sorry but thank you principal montigue for upholding the wonderful standard of attend today achieve tomorrow and that's exactly what we're doing no she can come on up let her come on up let her come on up let her come on up all right all right no all the way over all the way over really I'm put it is mine on hold on Dr Walker has an announcement Davis is the first school hold on hold on please that needs to be on the mic oh look look at that look at that hey hey which makes complete sense Davis is the first school with 100% participation for the njsla so they've already uploaded all of their documentation big check [Applause] [Music] mark please take a picture come on y'all let's go I don't pictures thank you it's good to be able to laugh with your colleagues it is it really is good but we are definitely so proud please let the staff members and the parents and the students of David School know how proud We Are of them for achieving that 100% participation rate as well as coming to school every [Applause] day you going to share with anybody no I didn't think so [Music] okay at this time I'd like to turn it over to board member Perez so she can announce the retirees thank you I know it's in the way thank you we have Celia Avant a nurse with 32 years and one month Don Corbin star clerk stock clerk from facilities with 24 years and seven months Charlene Johnson teacher Ms English 21 years and one month P Patricia Johnson par professional 33 years and one month William Lindsay teacher Health uh physical education 25 years and Lisa stalak ESL teacher with 18 years thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you so much um and at this time I'll turn the meeting over to our general Council for public comments thank you superintendent I'd like to take this um opportunity to say that board member Alvarez also um had to leave the meeting at 6:50 uh for the [Applause] record the Camden City school district welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings this public comment period is your time to present your comments to the board and the superintendent each person who signed up to comment will have 3 minutes you will be notified when your 3 minutes are up and you cannot yield your time to another person when it is your turn to speak please come to the podium and address all of your comments to the superintendent or general counsel please be courteous to your fellow community members and keep your comments within the time frame allotted so that everyone has the opportunity to speak and at the end of the 3 minutes the microphone will be cut off and we will end your comment we also request that you please conduct yourself in a respectful manner the first amendment is not absolute and the board can prohibit language that is inappropriate or vulgar for anyone whose comments or actions harass intimidate or threaten the safety of any person provide you [Music] we will provide you with a warning or immediately end your comment time we will not interrupt you during your 3 minutes of comments unless we deem it necessary if a member of the public speaks negatively about a staff member Interruption may be necessary to caution the speakers of the dangers of slander after the public comment period is closed the superintendent or her designate will address your questions to the extent provided by law um and I will Begin by calling the uh individual signed up for uh iners public comment this evening the first individual is Jim from camare [Music] [Music] uh good evening thank you for uh giving me a couple minutes um I am Jim from campare we wanted to thank uh the superintendent and The Advisory board for their support La this year uh we had a lot of great events including a l City Event where we had Philadelphia Flyers among others uh come out and teach uh the kids how to play hockey uh this year um we have a bunch of things planned but we wanted to remind everybody to scheduled their back to school physicals and vaccinations if anybody remembers last year we had a little bit of a fire drill across the district getting kids uh eligible to stay in school uh we also want to have a secondary part of that which would be to remind everybody that once school starts you need to get your Co and flu shots also to be able to stay uh eligible for school um if you have any questions or comments please come and join the uh see the new uh camare uh we have flossy uh Canon High's own flossy in the back she is always willing to try to solve your problem and uh we want thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] everybody thank [Music] you the next person signed up for public comment is Jose Delgado hello okay my name is Jose Delgado um again bringing another problem to you I think that's my role uh I come before you to enter a plea on behalf of the students teachers and parents of Eide High School you have proposed that that Eastside High School be demolished without any significant involvement of these stakeholders and the general Community one day we heard that the school was going to be renovated for $45 million and the next minute we are told that it's going to be torn down and a school $105 million school is going to be built before Canon high school was constructed a feasibility study required by the New Jersey Administrative Code was conducted the district favored rehab and the feasibility study recommended de demolition so it was de demolished the comma High School Community was deeply involved in those discussions which were held at the school and in that community no such phib feasibility study was done for East Canon High School unlike uh Canon High School there have been no meetings at Eastside High School with students teachers and community members why would the superintendent announce a 45 million renovation then when without Community input without the required feasibility study decare that the school would be torn down why demolish a perfectly sound building and replace it with a much smaller school again each side is being treated differently the info that I've gathered indicates the following um you uh you have proposing as a uh swing space that 600 East size high school students go to the elementary school for 3 to 5 years East Side High School has 65 classrooms Kramer Elementary has 35 many too small Kramer doesn't have a full gym four classrooms are in the basement which doesn't have an emergency exit there are no science labs teach science teachers will be pushing little cars from classroom to classroom there is no cafeteria or dedicated lunch area the trailers will not be ready by September I understand there is no parking for teachers and staff and there are just a few of the space and safety concerns how would any of us react if someone reduced our living working and learning Space by 50% how do you think the students and staff are going to react to this monstrous reality when they come there in September expressing symp sympathy for these students or saying that you have no choice but to put them into an elementary school will not cut it remember it was you whomever you are created The Dilemma to tear down a perfectly good school without due process and without just cause there are many of you in this room and at home that for whatever reason perhaps laziness or self-interest CH choose to remain silent where is the C CIA thank you Mr dogado the next individual signed up for comment is Kevin [Music] Ruiz Kevin Ruiz from kman Hill um uh as you guys may know that that's one of my mentors over here and and from what I know this guy has been super duper duper duper involved with the education process in Camden for the past I don't know two three decades so when I get word that he's been asking you guys questions and he's not even getting a response it's just very very concerning as a community member that you guys actually care the community that you're servicing by taking the actions that you're taking with Eastside High School you know what I mean like hey this is us here like this is supposed to be us you guys are supposed to you know treat us with the utmost respect with the UT we are you we're in Camden too you know what I mean like you if he's asking questions I hope that you guys know that he's asking questions from the stance of the entire Community because as far as we know he knows best he's been doing it he has our interests at heart so you know let's let's get that together with Eastside High let's get more Community involvement now from uh just minor economics perspective the dollar in 2016 2017 was a122 today dollar the budget for East Side High is already about what 30 million short from what the other high school was C this high school was right here and on top of that the dollar is less so you guys are definitely planning on building a much smaller building not only that not only that are we considering where the city is going the people that are moving here because I don't know if you guys heard but 08105 is the hottest zip code in the entire State as far as as you know people moving in so you know we really got to pay attention to stuff like that we count on you guys to do this for us everybody's got a job to do and this is your job when a Community member that's asking questions for the whole reaches out to you guys it's really it's of utmost importance that you guys get back to him in a timely fashion and the thing is is that I've also you know reached out reached out to the Board of Ed and I just want to say that the support staff is wonderful um but I haven't gotten timely responses from some people up there you know what I mean so I know exactly what he's talking about any secrecy any confusion any unknown factors are only to our detriment and I know that upfront and that's why I came here tonight to make sure that you guys know like Hey we're watching everybody's counting on you especially hey guys on YouTube You're brand new up there and my last 20 seconds from what I know even though you guys can't elect there's a report that you're supposed to do to report the progress of the district a minimum of two times a year when was the last time that was done everybody's got a job to do if you're not going to do it let somebody else do it that's all thanks guys thank you Miss [Music] Ruiz uh next person sign up for comment is Karen brell Luke Kevin good evening Karen belli Luke so piggybacking off of uh everybody I had talked last month about the space um designated for the health and phid um at the swing school so again it's a four-year graduation requirement that space with my experience and tell like if you go into East Side at any given time into the gymnasium you're going to see 150 to 200 students in that gymnasium there is no way that you are going to fit more than 15 adult bodies at one given time for any one activity that we have in our curriculum for those students and to be safe plus the teaching staff so with that being said you know when this plan came to be evolved to my knowledge there was not anybody from health and fed involved not even our department chair or our department or anybody because now collectively we we are talking and we're concerned and knowing after coming here retrospect saying oh well we should have done that we should have done this we should have learned from that going into this there are things that now collectively we can do even though it seems late we should be able to do for instance one of the things that I heard and it's a little confusing and concerning is that the students that are in sports will be excluded from health and fette or from fizet so my question is we as Educators we can make anything work but the problem is we grade according to participation and the kids in my class so how do I grade somebody that is not there and who is in charge of doing that and who's going to put those grades in because it's not going to be us because our job as a certified educator is the grade the participation so if somebody's going to be excluded from something somebody else has got to put that grade in not the teachers we're not going to compromise that um and there was not about the health class because there's only one Health classroom and of course you have four different levels I mean you're talking over 600 students um that have to all get health and all have to get fizzed and again the space is about the size of the stage that you're on and that in fact that stage is bigger than the space that you're asking us to go into so again there are solutions that we did before like the old brim when we used to be bust to a different location um for years you have the busing you don't have to pay for the busing there's ways to schedule where you have whole grade levels do it you know I've been part of that before there are solutions bring us to the table we can we can talk it out we're all about solution oriented for what safe thank you Miss L the next individual we're going to call for comment is Victoria poot don't start my time yet I don't apologize for my grandson he's a baby okay so but this is not his space we weren't supposed to be here tomorrow and he wouldn't be here but I had to say what I had to say thank you for starting my time now hello my name is Miss pad and I am a teacher of 33 years 10 of which I've been at Eastside High School um the current situation as you present it what's going to happen for us in September we appreciate the new building I would rather had it been renovated but you know I guess the people who know know and that's why we're not renovating and replacing but you came to us and said asked any questions I had a lot of question questions my staff had a lot of questions we sent the questions in they were not answered uh one by one some of us have been allowed to go into the space because the reality is I didn't know what questions I had until I saw the space so some of them cannot be overcome without positive thinking and somebody trying real hard I just got a text from my principal and first and foremost I want to say thank you Miss Vega for everything that she's done but I've got a text for her she has found a gym space for us because that was my huge complaint I'm not a fizzed teacher but for the children not to be able to have fizzed for 5 years would have destroyed our culture the second thing however I still need from you is I need some place for the children of Eide High to put on their performances some of you have never seen any of them raise your hand if you have but we do a darn good job with what we have what little we have and they enjoy it we have to tell people you know we going to have to squeeze you in 17 people that want to come come on stage and perform for us uh for the school that space is not going to be able to accommodate that I really really really need somebody to look into that also um there is a space for the Jag office that excuse me not office classro that is unacceptable and I had all these other things on my phone cuz some of my members who did get a chance to go over that's the biggest problem at least department chair should go over and examine this place so that they can come back with s gestions so you can try to remedy them before September because to Jag I I don't think five kids can fit into that space the second part about the spaces is our child study team I literally saw them being told that there was a closet where the shelving was going to come out and there would be two desks where they could administer their test totally unacceptable I don't know how you going to grow this place I really don't but something has to be done to remedy those situations I'm going to bring up the parking cuz my members are concerned because yes it is a drug Hotpot over there and the community maybe we get more police to come out and by the way I'm going to say this every day this campus has eight police cars sitting out in front every day East Side High has one now we really haven't needed the support but I don't know what why you need eight every day but there's eight every day and now we're having in our season and we're having disruptions we'd appreciate some attention paid to Eastside High School thank you so much I still want you to look at the document thank you Miss [Applause] P next person we have signed up for comment is U Miss V ver it says [Music] ver oh you so funny today I messed around and wrote my real name I am Mrs Mari but I blog under the name ofite Neil cuz most of you wouldn't be able to say it anyway but today I want to talk about what I've been doing for the last two weeks see I've been going to the hearing of your former president Minister Wasim Muhammad and I want to say the things that I heard in that courtroom I see why the judge try to ban the public and the photographers it was horrible it was horrible and now we have $1.6 million to pay now what most of you don't know is you go back to June 19th and they could ask for more like2 million more dollars I want to ask this board a question after he met missed three consecutive meetings and we know this board meets twice a month he was supposed to be voted off Clayton Gonzalez is gone he's missed like nine meetings but he's still embarrassing Us in the news media being called the the president of The Advisory Board of the city of Camden anybody that can sit up here and tell you that he wasn't guilty of something is a liar I don't even want to get into what he was guilty of with children in this room the things that I heard was horrible and this school district helped back a lot to keep this man on this board let's not forget in 2016 I walked in here and I said this this man should not be on this board he should not be around his own children letting on ours I had a parent come to me and I bought it to this board that was 8 years ago and nobody listen y'all don't listen to us nobody listen half you was up here on the boorder is still hanging around with him I got pictures of all y'all with him he's still going to Affairs and stuff when you going to cut this man loose and vote him off because it looks to me like um what he did and yes he did get get get convicted of doing things to the individual that you guys are for it if you ain't part of the problem you part of the solution and I don't see a solution up here he is still president of The Advisory Board maybe all of you need to go right with him we don't want nobody like that running in and out of our school thank you Miss thank you miss the next person signed up for comment is amayra [Music] Kane hello the allegations and L ation surrounding the current School Board president past Behavior are deeply concerning and have created a lack of trust and confidence in his ability to effectively lead the school board the community deserves a leader that is free from any past misconduct or allegations of sexual assault creating a sexual hostile environment or grooming especially when it involves our minors Governor Phil Murphy has publicly stated that his his lack of confidence in the school board president's role as a school board president and has called for him to step down immediately now we seem to agree to accept the state mandated curriculum for our students however we can't get on one front and agree that he must go why is that as a parent of a future student in the school district I'm deeply troubled by the idea that an individual as such has the ability or the chance of slipping through the cracks into a p a position of power amongst our children influencing them corrupting them taking away their innocence it is crucial for the school board to PRI prioritize the safety and well-being of all students and staff members by ensuring that those in leadership positions are held to the highest ethical standards stepping down from his pos position as president would not only be the best in the interest of the school district but it will also demonstrate the commitment and the accountability and transparency it is time for the board to take a stand for this community by removing to do by removing him and doing the right thing vote to remove him so the parents and students of the school district can finally breathe we've been holding our breath for long enough the community is United in our belief that Wasim Muhammad continued presence his continued presence is detrimental to the schools District's reputation and our children's safety we urge the school board to take Swift and decisive action to addressing this issue I also want to say two quotes from The Honorable Minister leis Faron the most important Legacy we can leave for our children is the legacy of our example in protecting and honoring women another one the nation cannot rise any higher than its women and children and it is our responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being and dignity as a parent again both of my children with this new preschool initiative you guys have will be starting in the fall and I want to emphasize the urgency in the school board's decision to take action the community expects the board to create a system that solidifies thank you Miss K the next person for public comment is Sean Brown Madam superintendent Mr Vice President Bard um 12 years ago I was on the school board I was chair of the policy committee right after Mr dogado and there was an incident that happened and the school district the school board had to vote on a new policy I remember at the board meeting work session I asked the question out loud I said Can a coach take a student home after waiting for the parent to pick the student up the parent doesn't come and get him up that was the scenario and I remember sitting in the room on the first floor at front and Cooper and hearing people say yes and no at the same time it's complicated you don't want that young person waiting that coach needs to get home too gender may not even have anything to do with it it's complicated Mr Vice President and board I took a look at your policy man and I want to share this and I'm going to send this to um Miss price and Miss Parry Miss Bean in writing to if so you can have it most of your policies uh that are on your website approved by the board haven't been updated since 2022 the following policies I recommend that you take a look at 514 1.4 514 5.6 which is the student Grievous grievance procedure 5134 which is the married pregnant and lactating students policy 1250 42111 2224 there's more 5131 1 51 45.4 411 9.24 and 41922 I would also suggest that Strauss Esme who is typically the original author of your policies which of course you can adapt with legal counsel um they don't have good policies and procedures on this topic I don't think they do if they did they would have already recommended them to this district and you would have already approved them so I suggest that you have a committee that meets a few times that includes a few folks from Center for Family Services other organizations outside of the district that are experts on this review these policies make some updates and we can move on better than we are now I know Miss Gillespie Mr Hudson you know you guys and and I'm sure all the board members are know ways I know about you specifically have already worked on updating polic IES and procedures related to student discipline other things and this is just enhancing that so again I'll put this in writing I thank you for your attention um congratulations ladies on on sitting here you look so nice um and thank you um I just want just real quick the superintendent I know you'll reply thank you Mr Brown the next person signed up for comment is Chris [Music] judge okay I think we're going to move on to the next all the last person uh signed up this evening is Mr Kevin [Music] Waters uh good evening everyone how you doing this evening uh first I want to um say thank you to Miss Brown who uh listened to our students at East Side High School and rearranged some things in the cafeteria so that their lunches would be adequately uh uh wonderfully um uh good and uh plentiful and um just the fact that they her team listened that was good and I did have noticed some changes myself so I appreciate that for Miss Brown um next um just wanted to say something about our our our space in the new building East Side High School I'm with the school-based program and thank you again for acknowledging our mental health um awareness function we are certified clinicians and we cannot counsel in an open setting we must have our office partitioned and environmentally in a way so that our conversations are kept confidential it's the law we don't have a choice in the matter so the space that's going to be provided for the school-based program needs to be adequately sectioned and set up so that our counseling sessions can remain private and confidential um I want to also talk about the E you mentioned earlier about ESL and what you have and the number of students you have I'm going to say this the charter schools which you all some of you may not have been here allowed to creep into our district are preparing to gut us from the ESL program they are preparing their own ESL programs so they can steal not just the money that they keep taking from us but also students and you all are complicit not this maybe this current board in allowing Charters to come into this District to do that to us all right and educational racism I want to equate it to uh some white supremist stuff because but I'm trying hard not to but I do recognize that in your complicit Behavior you have allowed uh entity to come in and Rob us so prepare for that the number of students that we're supposed to take over to Kramer also be prepared for them cuz they all I hear students telling me now that they have been approached by Mastery they have been approached by uncommon and they have been approached by some of the other entities that are Interlopers in our city prepare for that also make a plan to make sure that we lose not one of the 600 students that we have in this District other than they're moving maybe going to a vacational school I'm not I don't have a problem with the vacational school um but those students who want to remain with ESI do not allow plan for yourselves to have a plan of action to combat that thank you thank you Mr Waters superintendent that concludes public comment this evening and I will turn it back over to you for [Music] comment thank you thank you to everyone who came out and to those of you who waited patiently um to hear the responses thank you for as always for advocating on behalf of our young people um that's what we're here to do and we hear you uh and we um thank you for um explaining your concerns and for making sure that we are fully apprised of what those concerns are so I'll just take the opportunity to address some of the concerns of course everything won't be addressed in this setting um it can't be but again we Endeavor to ensure um that we are acknowledging um those voices that have come up at the board meeting today and I will share sh and responses before turning it over to our um board as well for questioning and responses so I want to take the opportunity first to thank Jim I'm not sure if Cam care is still here but thank you to yes hello hello Miss lossy thank you to Jim Miss flossy and all members of camare for your ongoing partnership um we actually our data team actually and for reminding us for of the importance of immunizations and get the word out early about vaccinations because that's something that gets in the way of our students being in school each and every day um and so our data team just met with our School nurses and created a data dashboard for all missing immunizations so we're starting early um now so that hopefully over the summer we can support our families in getting the required immunizations nurses um now have live access to ing immunization records updated on a weekly basis so we look forward to continuing our partnership with camare and expanding that partnership as we are all working together to see what to toward making sure that there are no barriers to our students being able to be in school and to be healthy uh coming to school each and every day looking forward to the continued partnership Mr Delgado thank you for remaining um and thank you for your advocacy uh thank you for coming out also to our special board meeting on uh Monday of last week as well and all of the um opportunities that you share information with us um so again thank you for sharing your perspective and for also sharing your concerns regarding the regarding Eastside High School and Kramer as the identified swing space we're excited about the prospect of the new Eastside High School that will offer learning spaces that meet and also exceed 2024 and Beyond we recognize that of course this change will cause a temporary but sufficient learning environment for our Eastside High School students during the construction project we have done extensive building walks and we are working with principal Vega on a master schedule that will allow our students to meet all of our students a master schedule that will allow all of our students to meet all of the graduation requirements yes teachers will have to park in both the lot and utilize street parking as the previous Kramer School occupants did committees are meeting weekly and we look forward to expanding these meetings our our selects or our senior lead Educators for curriculum have met with teachers in the department and we will continue to open opportunities for additional collaboration we do believe that once teachers and Department chairs enter Kramer reservations will be alleviated in many instances with regard to health and PE classes specifically PE classes we are examining option two for both our Eastside High School as well as our students here at Camden High School uh the Camden high school campus brim bpla and creative arts um clear guidance will be provided on how option to Works successfully in many school districts across New Jersey and again um we thank you for your feedback as in the past um Mr Delgado if we were delayed in responding to you I think I publicly acknowledge that but I think we've been doing a better job of trying uh to be responsive in a more timely manner and we appreciate your advocacy um on behalf of our young people Mr Ruiz thank you for waiting and being here as well for the responses we do thank thank you for your commitment and for Mr delgado's your comment I'm sorry and your commitment and Mr delgado's feedback does not go unappreciated or unrecognized when Advisory Board member Gillespie shared her committee report later this uh earlier this evening she shared information connected to inquiries Mr Delgado raised at our last um board meeting our special meeting and that's not the end of it we are we know that that is just the beginning um of that collaboration that was um asked for if you Mr Ruiz have specific concerns that have not been answered yet by our Solution Center staff please please I'd ask you to reach out and they will share your needs with a person who can also assist and again um thank you for your feedback as well um you did ask also Mr Ruiz I believe about um our presenting out on the ress of of our state operated of the state operated district and we do provide annual updates to um the State Board of Education we had our last one in March and we have monthly meetings with the commissioner of Education just to make sure that they are up to speed and up to dat providing guidance um checking our practices um making sure that we are accountable in that regard so we will continue uh to do so and continue to make sure that information is easily accessible to the public Miss uh burelli Luke thank you for also staying as well um we want to again thank you for your feedback I kind of answered a little some of your uh questions or concerns in my response to Mr Delgado but please know that as we Implement option two throughout the district um we will make sure that our school leaders are uh well trained as well as our families to know what that means and again that's a practice that is replicated in many other uh school districts we do thank you for your proposed Solutions you um provided several Solutions at the end of your public comments and we do look forward to making sure of course that we learn from um the building of the Camen High campus that we are in right now and also um refining so that we don't have to go through any of the um challenges that may have been faced as we open this building so again thank you um for your feedback and also for your proposed Solutions Miss palot [Music] actually not sure if Miss Pat is still here I think she had to leave but I do want to address um miss palot your uh concerns some of them again were answered with regard to some of the Swing space um comments that I made earlier I also um want to make sure that you do know that every single space from JAG to child study team to parking to um uh some of the the performance spaces uh and the gym space that we are working collaboratively with the leadership team at Eastside High School as well as any Community agencies so that we can make sure and the city to make sure that Kramer um has what it needs and if there is a space that's necessary that's not at Kramer that we can um think very creative L to make sure that our students and have and staff have what they need in order to thrive in um the swing space location which is temporary it is temporary it is temporary but our students at Eastside High School do deserve to be in a facility that does not um have to have the same the challenges of HVAC and many of the other challenges that we hear about not only from staff but students so the only way for us to be able to provide our children with the uh space that honors them and our staff members with an educational space that honors them we have to have a temporary um which may seem like an inconvenience but at the end of the day the end product will be a beautiful high school for our young people so we look forward to engaging the community um more we have not opened up those Community engagement sessions because we're very early on in the process so please be on the lookout for more information and there is a site on the school district website that is dedicated to the Eastside High construction please take a look at that site there are frequently asked questions that have been placed on that site by our Communications team as we hear of concerns there was also a QR code that was provided to our um staff members when we talked about Eastside High School as well as our parents and students so that information is is also available there but we will continue to refine our communication efforts thank you Miss belli Luke and Miss VA um Neil thank you for your comments um are you still here V okay thank you um the lights are bright thank you for your comments thank you for um sharing your concerns um we again um want to just thank you for your honesty and for your advocacy and sharing your perspective and we thank you um for your feedback um I want to go on to miss Amir Kain who I believe is still here as well Amira yes Miss Kain is still here thank you as well for your advocacy and for sharing um your concerns and providing your suggestions and recommendations and remedies for moving forward um thank you so much and we're we're glad and we want you to feel comfortable with um your children being educated in the Camden City school district so again we thank you for your concerns and they do not go on deaf ears um Mr Brown thank you for sharing um your feedback your comments um of course I wrote down each and every single policy uh that you called out and want to make sure that we check to ensure that they are reviewed and revised when needed and adopted we will review the policies you shared again to affirm that they have been um edited as Council advises and we utilize New Jersey school boards so we don't utilize Strauss smme um but we do U and then I'm not saying that you said we did but we utilize um New Jersey school boards um in order to make sure that we stay up to- dat and current on our policy so thank you for calling those out and we will um with due diligence take a look at those and uh through our policy committee Mr water Mr Waters you still here Mr Waters he left he did leave okay but for the record thank you Mr water for your waters for your feedback um we do appreciate your feedback and we do have plans for partitions to be added to the classroom that has been designated so you can continue to offer your valuable services in a professional uh and a confidential and a safe space for our young people um regarding Charter Schools we do know know parents um have exercise choices but like you we believe Camden City school district is the viable option for our students to receive a quality education also when um Advisory Board member Gillespie provided her committee report she uh shared information on bilingual and ESL programs and we continue to do so because we know it's very important that we um ensure that um we're continuously improving our efforts we have not arrived but we we've come a long way and we know where we're going so I do want to thank you all for your feedback um and again we look forward to continuing to make sure that we work together on behalf of our young people at this time I'll turn it over to our uh board vice president to um see if there are any responses or questions from the board so thank you superintendent um thank you for the superintendent report uh also i' like to just start off by um thanking all those that have come out this evening um individuals um organizations those that show up uh to our monthly meetings to support our students um and our community um special shout out to a few different organizations I see in the audience CU school and Isam Islamic Center Oriental large one daylight Foundation my D care um thank you for for coming out just to support and um make your presence known uh so there's several things and I I'll just start off um and then pass it over uh to any board members that you know would like to say anything um so there's several things but you know first I'll start off with um I guess our our most pressent issue or one of our most pressent issues um there have been several um questions and statements um about the removal of the uh board president uh Minister Wasim and it's been challenging times you know for all of us um everybody that's been involved um as board members um we aren't judges yet we try to ensure and uphold policy and procedure um in the case of the board me of board member Wasim Muhammad we refer to njsa 18a 12-3 which states that a board member who fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the board without good cause may be removed by it Board of Education makes determination of good cause in this case because there's ongoing litigation we haven't taken any actions so I know there may be some who may disagree or have different opinions and feelings um but because of that we have not because of ongoing litigation we have not taken any actions at this present time is that what you just read is that a part what you just read so moving forward um there are several things so um I think a lot of times you know because we don't announce everything uh people don't know everything that board members do um so I just want to kind of go over and share some of the things that have taken place from last meeting to present so on April 26 uh board members have attended the back on track May 3rd College Signing Day May 10th the rise Awards May 10th Martha Wilson scholarship ceremony May 13th special meeting May 16th board work session some of the things that have been addressed um by staff and students that have been and communicated with our superintendent and her team student disciplinary actions followup appropriate supervisor to employee interactions security officers having the proper supports followup to ensure we are retaining staff without layoffs student altercations and bilingual supports so these are some things that you know don't always get announced but things that we speak and deal with the superintendent and her staff with on a regular basis some issues and concerns that I have that we have which is why I think it's so important for Community to be present we superintendent spoke in her uh superintendent's report about you know some loss of you know loss of some of our young adults um we had three murders um I think 3 days ago um which all of them wasn't students but you know one of the big issues you know is uh losing our youth losing our young adults and that also includes you know some of our students that's involved we have issues with you know fights and and riots that's taking place in some of our schools you know I truly feel that the district is working hard along with our security officers and our leaders to figure out ways to combat those things but we need everybody involved we need Community organizations we need parents we need Guardians and it's a call to action not just because we we've lost lives because we've lost many before but how do we prevent these things from continuing to occur and that's why it's important for me it's good to see people in the audience because on average you know we don't have a lot of participation for different reasons so that's why it's important to see people in the audience and I'm using this as a platform to say we need your help we need your support and you can ask like how can you help being present you know showing up hearing what's going on you don't have to have students in the school district but we all deal with students we all deal with youth we all deal with young adults and all the children our our children you know show up to the different parent teacher conferences you know uh find different ways that we can engage our our kids in the tutoring you know we're still working on you know improving their levels we can't do it alone I know a lot of times we come in and we point the finger and we accept the responsibility because we've you know accepted these positions and we've voted in so we accept the responsibility but we're saying we can't do it alone and we need help from board members to District administration I feel like we're in a time right now where everybody is working hard I'm not saying people haven't been working hard before but you know we're present we have people that's actively involved in their own lanes and then collectively so again you know this is a call of action for me you know for people to be involved everybody can play a part and I just want to thank those that have come out today and those that continue to come out and please don't make this the last time so at this time are there any other board members that would like to say anything board member Hudson thank you uh acting VP um once again just want to thank everybody for coming out uh tonight and your continued engagement my um my uh I just want to address Mr Brown um you know thank you for your service for you know being on the school board I think I try to acknowledge you guys every time you uh show up uh several of the policies that you did mention I didn't get them all I think Sam somebody got them all but uh several of them been updated today they're on second reading but always like anytime you have any ideas for policies or you know um any Community organizations that you think would be able to give some some feedback on you know creating policies or making more robust policies you know you can always let me know and uh that's for anybody in in the community so that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you board member Hudson are there any other board members that have anything that they would like to say going once twice all right so thank you at this time i' like to turn it back over to our superintendent thank you AP Nelson at this time I would like to turn the meeting over to our board secretary to present the agenda items okay um presenting the business office agenda items for approval Financial reports Bill list resolutions I'm asking if there's any questions on the business office agenda I don't see any questions from board members no okay all right thank you than thank you so much and since there are no questions in accordance with the powers vested in the state district superintendent under title 18a I hereby approve today's superintendent's agenda items and business office agenda items and I turn it over again to the board secretary for adjournment uh can I have a call of for a motion to adjourn the meeting motion second I all in favor I okay okay the meeting is over at 7:42 thank you