Thank you. Okay, welcome and good evening. We're call our meeting to order. And if you could please ask everyone to join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Mrs. Sugars, could you please call the roll? Mrs. Sheriffane here. Mrs. Gallagher here, Mr. Greenbaum. Mr. Mayor here Dr. Rood Here. This is Tong. Here. Mrs. Winters. Here, Ms. Stern. Yeah. Okay, public notice of this meeting. Pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act has been given by the Board Secretary on January, the seventeenth, 2,024 in the following manner. Posted notice on the school bulletin board at the administration building. Transmitted to the courier post. The Philadelphia Enquirer and the clerk of Cherry Hill Township. Okay, and we will now move to our Candidate interviews for our vacant Board of Education seat. Board members if you could kindly. Move to your new seat and I'm going to invite up the 4 candidates that will be interviewing. If you could please come to where your Names are. My design. It's been a minute since I've been up at this microphone, so. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for coming tonight. I'm Miriam Stern. I'm the Board of Education President. And tonight we're grateful to have all of you here. We're looking forward to learning about you. Just for a quick tech check, if you can see the microphones in front of you. When you answer your question, if you could please press the button. Lean into the microphone and speak into the microphone and when you're finished answering the question. Or speaking if you could please. Press the button to turn your microphone off. We are going to begin tonight with an opening statement. And then we will ask you a series of questions. We're going to keep it interesting by varying who we start with. And whoever starts. We will then go down the road, the line to your right. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor set the rules for that. And, each person will have a chance to answer the question. So we're going to do a ninety-second opening statement. And you will have 2 min to answer question, the question that we pose to you, up to 2 min. You don't have to take the whole time. And then 90 s for closing statements. So we'll get through as many as we can. In the next hour. Okay. Any questions before we start? Okay. Okay. We're gonna start with Mr. Plan, and but if you need us to repeat the question, please feel free. We're happy to repeat the question, please feel free. We're happy to repeat it. Over the past 2 years, many decisions have been made by the board administration. Please share your perspective on one decision you feel. Oh my gosh. I already broke the rules. Okay. I apologize. Mr. Plan, please start with your opening statement. Thank you. I guess it's a good time to introduce myself. My name is Lee Plan. I'm actually, I guess it's a good time to introduce myself. My name is Lee Plan. I'm actually, I'm 46 years old. I was born not in Cherry Hill but my parents owned a house in Cherry Hill so I've been here since 1978. I went to 4 different elementary schools. I went to Johnson Elementary. I went to Kilmer. Over on the west side, went to Horace Mann and I went to Brett Hart. I went to back and I went to Cheryl East. The reason I went to the different schools is I had a 504. I remember in second grade I had a diagnosis of AGHD and You know, it, it was a little hard at first because you stopped riding the bigger bus and the van picked you up in front of your house, At the same time, you know, I I had a really good experience. It was a little bit hard because I think back in the eightys they moved you around a lot to make sure that you had the right teachers but you know my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Antrim really instilled a lot into me. In fact, she put such a passion for education in to me that currently I'm in my twentieth year in higher education. I work at Rowan University. I'm the assistant director for accessibility service. You know, the thing about disability is that It's a large transition when you're going from IDA to ADA. And my personal experience. You know, although it had rough. You know, moments as a student, you know, struggling in college here and there. It really was my education from Cherry Hill. That put me in a spot to succeed. You know, I chose my wife and I chose to raise our family back here. We're both from Cherry Hill. I have a 10 year old son attending sharp school right now. And the opportunity to. Not only be able to, you know, serve the community. But to be in a position where You know, I get to have a voice. You know, I see students when they come to college. I see students from all over the state. I know the quality of education that we have in Cherry Hill, but I also know there's a lot of areas that we can improve. We can improve in a lot of areas such as diversity. We can improve and access. But I think a lot of it comes down to we have to be able to communicate with each other. We have to be able to sit at the table with people that we may not agree with. We have to be able to have real conversations. And putting our personal beliefs aside and listen. Because when you're able to listen to people you're able to hear what they have to say. And I don't mean listen to respond. I mean, listen to what people have to say, whether it's easy to listen to or hard to listen to. Because we don't have those. Conversations, we're not going to be able to make the decisions that are best for our students, for our children. I think that probably brings me close to about 90 s. So. Miss Frank. Hi, my name is Diana Frank and I live in Cherry Hill and I have 2 children one at elementary and one at middle school. I, so I am a parent and I'm also an educator. For 20 years and I'm very passionate about literacy and having a strong literacy curriculum. Multi-tiered systems of support and all students receiving equal educational opportunities. So based on my professional and personal experience, I see the struggles of students in many different capacities, even with my own children and how important decisions that boards make can affect the students educational trajectory. Moving forward. So I am here for those reasons and thank you for your time. Mr. Norman. Okay, good evening everyone. I'm the COVID Norman And, first of all, I wanna say just thank you, thank you for. Put me over here with this. Were you educated so far I got the pleasure to the talk to a couple so this Fantastic, we should be a counter among them. But to tell you about myself, again, I'm the COVID Norman. And I represent a person in my family who educated education became a vehicle for me. I'm the first one to graduate out of high school in my generation. The first one in my family to go to college, not even talking about the other 6 degrees. So. So that kind of gave me a mission. Part of my mission is to make sure that the vehicle that took me to my success, the vehicle that kind of changed the trajectory of my family. Will also change the trajectory of other people's family, at least those who I get to touch. You know what we do in education does not only affect that individual student. But affects generations. It affects communities. Yeah, one of the things I always tell parents is that This school comes from. The communities and good communities are made by good neighbors. So having the whole neighbor, the neighbors, the community and involved with the school is what helped propel me. Had great teachers, teachers who when I didn't see college as an option or anything, oh I wasn't even thinking that way. Show me that college is actually an option Show me that not only college is an option, but you can be in a position that you can help other people. So part of this is paying it forward. So, and so far, about mission. Feel free to interrupt me because I can't be long winded. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. And is not, is it nigh as ornias? Or neither. Yes. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Hello, for those of you don't know me, my name is Could see a nas and I have been a trio resident for about 19 years now. I'm also a proud Chair who alumni. I went to Crusi Middle School. And Sherry Hill High School West. I have a master's in public administration with the concentration in community developments. I'm a big disability rights advocate as well. My thesis actually was on the issues of employment for individuals with disabilities. And I also currently work with an organization known as Muslim. Which basically helps provide resources for individuals with disabilities. I am a former SAC teacher. I currently am a recruiter for the federal government. I also have 5 siblings. 4 of who are also tray whole nominees. They went to Rose and East. I currently have a brother that goes to Chry Hill East. He's in ninth grade and he's your typical annoying 15 year old but he's one of the reasons that I'm here today. I, through coming through the board meetings as a regular member, I've noticed that a lot of the decisions that are made on the board have a big impact on all of our students. And I feel that my professional and personal experience can really have contribute to help give these kids quality of education and some as someone who really attributes a lot of her success. To the Trayhill School District Material Board. It's just really a way for me to try to give back to our community. And I'm really thankful for this opportunity. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Where are we starting, Mr. Mayor? Where you go back to okay. Alright, so take 2. We are starting at the first question and we will start again with Mr. Plan. Over the past 2 years, many decisions have been made by the board and the administration. Please share your perspective on one decision you feel should have been handled differently. And what you would have preferred to have seen done differently. I'm starts now. We'll start with easy questions. Well, to be very honest. When it comes to pre-K. When it comes to I have a one year old. Well, he'll be one next month. Next week, excuse me. And he's, you know, it's something where He's in daycare now, but I've always There's always been kind of a preschool here, but it's been limited access. There's been a lottery system. It's usually I believe 2 and a half hours in the morning. And it's not a situation where when my younger, my older son, Dean, was 3, 4, and 5 where it was feasible to send him there. I found that to be something that I wanted to see expanded. In the past couple years some fundings become available. And Cherry Hill has expanded its pre-K program. Although I think that that's excellent. And I find that it's a great opportunity. When it first rolled out, I was confused as to how this was gonna be, you know, where our students were going to be attended. Attending. I don't disparage any other community, but when I think about it now, My son bust 3 or 4 towns away just to attend pre-K. I think to myself, is that something that is feasible? Is it something that's sustainable? You know, what will make sure that that education, even though it's pre-K, these are the basic building blocks. This is before they get to kindergarten. And when your students come into kindergarten or first grade, you want them to be on a level. I mean, as an educator, I've always thought that Students don't reach the same level. Until about second grade because we're all coming from different places, different upbringings, different home lives. So the idea that they would be able to go from pre-K in Cherry Hill straight into the school system, I think is excellent. What I'd like to see, what I'd like to learn more about is how we can make it more consistent. How we can make sure that that curriculum is not only accessible to all of our residents. But also accessible to working parents so that they can make sure that their students, and I think that's me. Sorry, not not really a subtle way to do it, so. There you go. Okay. Miss Frank, do you want to repeat the question? Or OK. Over the past 2 years, many decisions have been made by the board and administration. Please share your perspective on one decision you feel should have been handled differently and what you would have preferred to have seen done differently. My children are 6 years apart. My oldest order is currently in seventh grade and my youngest order is in first grade and a majority of my older daughters career was COVID. So I can really only speak of more recent times with the Board of Education that I have really followed it more often and similarly I'm going to go with the way the preschool rolled out. I don't have a student in preschool, so it does not affect me personally, but I do have a lot of friends and within the district that are very concerned with the rollout confused by the rollout. And similarly concerned that the way that their children may or may not. Go to go to the Cherry Hill School or additional schools within the community or be best very far away. It is very confusing and I would like to see the board and reach out to parents more and listen to the parents to determine what would be best for their children. Okay, Mr. Norman. Could you please turn your microphone? That's sorry. Yes, as a parent. Well, at the, parent who has a child in pre-k that actually does concern me and I think that's one of the things that Just was a little jarring when I first. Saw that my child is going to. Oakland for that particular. I thought that maybe there could have been more of a conversation. And, and I think a lot of times what I, what The stuff that I've noticed that happens in Cherry Hill. It seems like there are some period of community vetting that It's missing, you know, we make decisions and we don't necessarily. Had that at least I don't I didn't see that at least I didn't experience that but have that collaborative group of effective individuals. Effective stakeholders, parents. Teachers providers that comes in and say, you know, let's really discuss it and talk about this before it actually rolls out. So, and that's not just for pre K, there's quite a few things. I know at one, at one time I used to serve on the WACP executive board. And there was an issue of a concert. And. The the district wrote our decision and then took backlash and then had to roll back a decision. That stuff like that can't happen. There has to be a, that has to be, I wish there was more discussion that had occurred beforehand and I wish there was more opportunity to have that. And more or less have a unified where it could be the district and the community. Coming together like this is our decision. And it was properly reddit. It was probably, discussed. So it's not, it won't, it won't be as jarring, it won't be as awkward. So. Okay. So in terms of the preschool expansion, we all know that how our our early education is so important for our developments. Statistics have shown that 6.6% of students who actually go to preschool are more likely to go to high school. 18% of those students are more likely to get into college on time and 5.5%. Of those students. Are more likely to finish college. And so I think that with the preschool expansion. It should be accessible to all parents. And the quality of education is also very important in the sense that we need to make sure that our teachers are equipped. To deal to be able to have different methods. Of teaching so that they can cater to the different learning styles of every student. And I think that again, communicating that with our parents. We recently, again, I know that we had a town hall meeting for the preschool expansion and we gave our parents the chance to come in and ask questions and had an information session. In terms of the preschool expansion and gave them a little bit more information and I think that was great. And I think that with a lot of the decisions the board makes we should do that more often get the community involved and get give parents a platform to ask questions that are. Pertain to their students and then, you know, get feedback from them as to how they think that It could be a benefit to them and how they think that it could be made better. Okay. I can the same thing. Okay, Mr. Norman, we're going to start with you on this question. And I'm gonna run a little bit. Make sure we hit the highlights. School board members often spend 10 to 20 HA week on the work of the board and on occasion more. We are expected to prioritize our meetings over most other responsibilities, including work. Family. How will you be able to balance these competing needs? I mean, everything is a matter of planning and making sure that you prioritize. And always, I'm a believer of what's important to you you made time for. And, I'm a person right now who does have some commitments, but I have learned to have always when I have other commitments. You manage them. You, you, you'd be responsible and you know, you understand your limitation. So I'm an educator. I'm educated for 25 years. So I'm familiar with school boards and I'll come familiar with the demand of school boards. So that's one of the things that I that I had to do. I had to have conversations with my family. I had to make plans and see how this is going to be integrated in my life while still being a responsible parent, a good friend, good to myself. As well as serve my community. So, again, it's also about prioritizing planning, making sure I use my calendar on my iPhone. And managing so and then being able to be inclusive too as well as far as bringing my family on board, which is nothing is always good to see. There's research out there that shows when fathers are when kids see their fathers involved, they do better. Okay, thank you. Ms. So, in terms, could you repeat the question? I'm sorry. I should have offered that. School board members often spend 10 to 20 h per week on the work of the board and on occasion more. We are expected to prioritize our meetings over most other responsibilities including work and family. How will you be able to balance these competing needs? So, I think I would agree that you prioritize what is important to you and I have the ability to do that. I, you know, I went, I was, I was a full-time student. I worked full-time as well. So having the ability to balance 2 things at one time is is a skill that you need to learn and I think that the quality of education of our students is really important and I think that I don't think any of us would be here if we didn't think that that was a priority. And so balancing that. Okay, thank you, Mr. Thank you. Not to sound disagreeable, but I don't really think it's a balance. The nature of the work I do, I work in higher education, I work at Rowan. I never work a 9 to 5. It's a constant given take. I'm very lucky. I have the support of my spouse. In fact, She was wishing me luck on the way out the door. I do have prior experience on the Merchantville School Board for the time that I lived in Merchantville. But you know, there are always going to be competing needs, competing priorities. I think it is it is setting yourself a plan each week. I think it is understanding that give and take. There will be weeks that you won't spend 10 or 20 h on board work and there'll be weeks that you'll spend more. But the important thing to do is to keep that in front of you, to be realistic about your expectations for yourself. I do have the advantage that I have a position where I work. I have flexibility in the job that I do. You know, I have the job where I get to bring my kids work. Every once a month and Again, priority, right? Cherry Hill schools are off. What do I do? I'm lucky in that. And it is a privilege and I would intend to use that type of flexibility and support for my family to make sure that the work that I'm doing on this board should I be given the opportunity is prioritized because in the end the work I would do for this board directly affects my children, which again is a number one priority in my life. So. I do see a marriage of it. I think there's definitely gonna be some some weeks you sweat it out. I can see myself getting anxious at times but It's never stopped me before and I don't see at all why that would be a hindrance and my ability to serve on this board. Miss Frank, to me to repeat the question or you got it. Thank you. So I think as parents, we are very used to multitasking. And having schedules and conflicting schedules and such, and I can say that my calendar at home is very color coded. And I have a very good support system with my spouse and my parents are also very involved with my children. So I think It's something that is very important to me. My family understands that. I feel that I'm setting a good example for my daughter's it's important to be in front of things and to get involved and it's somewhat of My civic duty to be here and as I'm here for all children to have an equal opportunity of education. I'm here for my children as well. So it is something that's important to me and it's something that I've been fully commit to and I would not have applied if I had any doubt. That I would not be a hundred percent in. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm Joel Mayor board vice president. I thank you all for being here. Gonna get right into our next question. Is Frank, you'll be first to answer this one. How would you demonstrate leadership? As a member of our board of education. So my current role in my school district, I serve as a literacy coach for kindergarten through twelfth grade and a dyslexia reading coach as well. So at work I am in a current position of leadership and I think it's important for me at work and for me here to work collaboratively with everyone. That everyone has a voice that everyone listens and everyone has respect. Of that. So I think that we all come with different experiences. And it's important to share that and that every one of us here can bring something else to the table. But that It's important to listen. To the people that have that background. And would be able to support the board members and the superintendent. Mr. Norman. Excuse me, I'll give you 6. Alright. In my current position, I work on a child study team, school psychologist. One thing, one of the benefits about the child study team is the shared leadership component. And that the ability to facilitate conversation. My job is to facilitate that conversation and go out there and talk to people, reach out to people to do that. So we can make the best decision for kids. So what do I do in my community? We know the issues. We all, we live here. We know the issues. We hear what's happening in the board member. We hear what's happening in the board member. So what we leadership is in this aspect of it is facilitating that communication between the district and the community. And have those conversations has those tough conversation, whether it's town hall. Whether it's make it take your workshops. Whatever it is, but, do that. And this and And additionally, Part of that is that servant needed mindset. It's like I came here and I decided to do this is because I have a buddy's I have Telens as well as my colleagues up here we have abilities in Talent. And and we leave by service. So hence we we come and say, what can I do? How can I make this better from you? But that's the outreach component that's going out to talking to the superintendent is talking to. Parents having being visible in the schools. And talking to I'm talking to staff as well. And hearing the concerns and making the plan an effort to deal with them. As a collective, as a collaborative. We don't have to have all the answers. We just have to facilitate that discussion to make the answers. Ms. Niaz. So as a community advocate, I do play our leadership role in that I advocate now for a disability rights but I belong to to other communities obviously the Muslim community and the South Asian community and I'm good at, community engagement getting people involved in discussing difficult topics. I'm also good at collaborating with my peers. I think that's very important. Working together as a team and getting insights from your peers to make important decisions, especially decisions that affect the lives of children. Thank you. Leadership. Leadership isn't about being the loudest voice in the room. Leadership's not about being the most talented person in the room. Leadership has to do with active listening, but leadership, you have to have a clear vision. You have to have a shared mission. And when you're in a leadership position it doesn't necessarily mean you're the boss. Doesn't mean you're the leader. It means that people look to you for your expertise. People look to you for your input and you have to be authentic. And you have to have it. You have to have a spec of vulnerability and you have to be able to be accountable. And you have to evolve your opinions. Everything doesn't have to, you know, you don't come in with one thought in your head and one way of thinking. The rigidity is what sinks a good leader. I'm not claiming to be the best leader in the world, but I do know from my own experiences. I've had the opportunity to be led and I've had the opportunity to lead others. It's always worked out best to me when I'm myself. When I'm confident in doing that and when I don't apologize for who I am, but I listen to others and not listen to respond but listen to what they have to say. And that can inform your opinion, that can inform your thoughts. And I think when others see that, and you do have a shared mission. That you are able to lead and, that would be my answer. Ms. Nea is we're going to start with you on our next question. Which is how do you approach making decisions about topics and issues. That are new to you or not your area of strength. Or expertise. So in terms of that, I think that what I would do is look to my peers and look for again engagement from the community to get their insight on the certain topic. I think that, and, instead of the end result, I think that the process of of getting to the end result is important you know deciding who are important stakeholders. Obviously it's our children, the teachers, other essential specialists. And how we can work together to based on our personal experiences to reach a conclusion on a certain topic. Oh, absolutely. How do you approach making decisions about topics and issues that are new to you or not your area of strength or expertise? That definitely will be the case in some areas if I'm on this board. It's been the case in every job I've ever had in my life. Yeah, one of the first things you have to do is you have to get into the sandbox. You may not be the first one talking. You have to do a lot of active listening. When a new topic comes about when a new decision has to be made, if it's an area that you're not super familiar with, you have to familiarize yourself with it. You have to put in the time. I teach a Redison public speaking course and I tell my students you may not be a great public speaker but it's all about putting the time in. It's about preparing the best you can and it's really about leaning on those around you. It goes back to the first question you asked me about leadership. It's active listening. It's knowing that you don't have to be the biggest talent in the room. It's having the faith in the trust in those that you're working with. Just as you'd hope that they would have that faith in you. And that would be my approach. Thank you. I had once asked a similar question to my mentor. And he responded with you have to know your people. You have to trust your people. And I think that's what's important here. And I think it's important to reach out to people when you don't know the answer to reach out to teachers, to community members, to parents, to students, and to hear their voice. And that they will help you then make an informed decision. So. I think one of our colleagues was talking about shared leadership. And share leadership is courageous. In the sense that the quote unquote leader understands that they don't know everything. They don't have to know everything. What they have to do is be able to facilitate the right, the right. Team, right collaboration of people who may know better than who name my name, excuse me, who may know more. Enable to basically help lead that conversation. Not to mention, I think all of us on the stage were researchers. We've researchers. We go, we look, we seek out the information that we need to make best decisions. And then we've, there's a process of vetting, you know, and one of the things I like about vetting out new things or just a thought is when I go to folks who are most affected. And they give me information that I did not consider. So what they do is help me build the best solution possible. So, so that's what we do. So it's important to have that learning community amongst us, staff amongst the community. And facilitate that conversation so we can bring out the every best on different topics and then we learn. Okay, we'll start with you, Miss Frank. Can you share an example? Of your thinking or actions that rose beyond your own interests advantage and or a community you're part of in order to serve the greater good of the community. This might include a time when you went against. Your own community or your greater good. Okay. So I have to say it is something that I have to work through as an educator. I Researched a lot of information on best practice and literacy. I'm very passionate about literacy, having a strong literacy based curriculum. And multi-tiered system support. And this past year my district went through. An overhaul of curriculum. And although it was very exciting, it was also very nerve racking for me because I had something in my head that I wanted for the district. But it was very important to me to listen to the teachers because I'm not in the classroom. You know, I serve as a literacy coach and I'm there to support the teachers and to support the students. So there were times where I had to sit back. And Listen and bite my tongue and try to take on the perspective. Of other people in the room that just my idea didn't mean it was the right idea. And just my research, didn't mean that someone else had researched something else. So that was a very huge turning point for me last year when we did the curriculum overhaul because we had in bobbed all teachers kindergarten through eighth grade. And we ended up splitting curriculum differently between our elementary schools and our middle school. And although I had again something in my head for the middle school, a different decision was made. And now I am in a situation where I have to support them, even though it wasn't perhaps the decision I would have made, but I'm here to support them. And to give them the power to teach that. Thank you. So I can repeat the question, Mr. Norman. Okay, yes, I was kind of long and heavy. Can you please share an example of your thinking or actions that rose beyond your own interests advantage? And or a community that you're a part of in order to serve the greater good of the community. This may include a time when you went against your own community. Or interest for the greater good. Sure, I hate to say that's the story of my life. A very recent issue and I had at my job. Where there was something that Maybe I shouldn't say this. Okay, well, I would say there was there was a decision that was made and the decision did not sit well with me, especially in dealing with the population that we deal with. We deal with a very, very our most sensitive, our most vulnerable population. And I am that voice. I will speak up. And part of that is fostering that type of attitude to go ahead and, courage just not being afraid is go ahead and do something even though you are. So, I did that and did I did face repercussions from that. But One thing that towards them. And one and to my colleagues is that I'll still do it again. So. Yeah, it's been the story of my life and I did that with an education and I did that within my community. They wanted and I say this apartment being in I used to live in Woodland and in women we used to have the most diverse community in New Jersey. And that that's an I was a teacher, so I lived there and I was a teacher there and I wanted to celebrate that diversity. And in the middle of celebrating that diversity, it did not, whereas I thought I will be. Kind of congratulate it. It created wars for me. But again, What I did, I believe it was right. I know it was right. And I did it and I would do it again. And since like I said. Advocate is what I do. I don't mind being a long voice. I don't mind being the only voice, especially when it's the right thing to do. So. Thank you. Okay, this is, Ms. Niaz. Would you like me to repeat the question or you got it? Sure, you're going to read it one more time. Sorry. That's OK. No, it's a long one. Can you please share an example of your of your thinking or action when you're thinking I'm sorry can you please share an example of when you're thinking or actions I'm gonna restart. I'm sorry. That's okay. Make sure I get it right. Can you please share an example of your thinking or actions that rose beyond your own interests? Advantage and or a community you are part of. In order to serve the greater good of the community. This may include a time when you went against your community or your interest for the greater good. So being a, being a community advocate, I think that I'm always putting other people's needs. First when it comes to advocacy for disability rights. I always end up ruffling some feathers wherever I go. And this started when I was an undergrad at Ryder University. I actually kind of had to fight with the Dean to actually get a ramp built in. Our library because there was no ramp and it was really difficult for disabled students to get into the building that they actually go another way recently I had worked with a young girl who was gonna be put in special education through and throughout. So what I did was I got on a call, IP call with the, Teachers, her teachers and the child study team and the parents basically advocated for her needs and said that you know she really only need to be made resourced for math and English and so they did that and they're going to continue to evaluate her progress and I'm happy to say that she'll be mainstream soon. So I think that being community advocate obviously and being an advocate for disability rights and saying that hey why isn't this this place accessible and sometimes people come back to you and say well it is accessible. Well, just because someplace has a ramp doesn't mean that it's fully accessible for people who can't see or people who can't talk or hear. So in the, and I think in those instances I, I had advocated for other people. And kind of, not burn bridges, but kind of made some enemies. But that's okay because it served. The disability community, well. Mr. Pumich like me to repeat it or? I think I can take a. So I had a position at a previous institution. Where I was running a fee for service program, an academic coaching program and and the basis of the program is excellent. I mean, it's it's helping students with executive functioning. It's helping making sure that students learn advocacy. It's helping to make sure, you know, it does all those great things. The problem with it Even though I was very excited to get the job because it's actually a position that put me into disability services directly was that it was fee for service, which meant that those that could pay the fee got the service. Those that couldn't get the fee. Didn't know the service existed. I, you know, I did it for a year. And And in my second year, you start a job, you learn a job, I started to push and I talked to my supervisor and I talked to other administrators at the institution that, you know, this is a great service. We should expand the service. We should find a way to you know, provide this to all students who come to this institution. I was very, in fact I spent time putting together a proposal. I did my research and I was really excited and then the meeting lasted 15 min and I was basically told no. If you like your job, keep your job, otherwise this is what we're doing. It led me to look for a different job to which ironically during that interview the the dream I had existed actually at Rowan University. And their coaching program is accessible to everybody and not only was it something, it wasn't my idea at row when they had done it actually 15 years before I ever got there. So totally somebody else's idea. But I had a lot of knowledge. I was able to instantly go in and start to make an impact. I was instantly able to not only take part in their program, but you know add to it. So, you know, it wasn't a situation where I think I was a hero or anything. Honestly, I think the only person who was negatively impacted I thought was me in the moment, but you know, not backing down, not just keeping my mouth shut. It gave me everything I needed. For the next position I had. I think sometimes when we push against it it prepares us for the future and I am talking way too long I apologize We gave everybody a little grace on these. Okay. Next question. Okay, Missy, I think we're going to start with you. The next question. At times our students exhibit behavioral challenges. What are your thoughts about employing discipline versus restorative practices? So I think that in order to do that, I think that we need to employ our teachers and our other staff members with methods on dealing with certain situations. I think training for such and certain situations is a great way to help combat that. And I think that, getting parents involved and kind of discussing the issue with them and seeing where the student is coming from, why this issue is happening. You know, students sometimes don't. Be bad to be bad. They're actually sometimes to cry for help and to really look into that and try to work together with the teachers and other staff members and the parents to help find a solution for them is I think a good way to do that. Just like maybe read the question or. I don't like the word discipline. Because it's not really a reality. Students exhibit different behaviors for different reasons. A lot of times it's for attention or it's it is as you said. It's a flare. They're looking for help. They're looking for people to get involved and they don't have the tool set or the ability or the support to speak for themselves or the language to use. There's a lot of different reasons students do different things. I think any kind of violence or any kind of derogatory stance or you know harming others or anything like that it needs to be intervened on directly but I do think those interventions need to be collaborative I think Absolutely parents need to be involved. I think that Teachers also need not to be isolated. I think a lot of times they feel like islands. I know when I talk to a lot of educators that depending on the school system. They don't feel supported. So I think that when you're looking for you're looking for consistency You're looking for a good policy that everybody is aware of that is posted, but you're looking for a process that's not just. Punishing students, why are the students acting that way? What resources can those students be given? But how do we also build accountability within those students? Now, their age. Their background. The nature of the incident, that all informs that process. There's no one cookie cutter way, but I think that you have to look at it. Discipline is not going to work. This isn't the 1950. We're not gonna sit there and there's no corporal punishment. Our idea is to build citizens. We're trying to build students. Who can move forward who can evolve and just because I had a problem in fourth grade and by the way I was a discipline problem in high school. I was a discipline problem in junior high school. I didn't hit my stride or realize who I was. Without the help of some really good mentors. And when I got to college, I still wasn't a great student. It was in graduate school, school I hit my stride, but it took a village. So I think we should return that village. Think that makes sense. Don't want to reread the questions. Okay. At times our students exhibit behavioral challenges. What are your thoughts about employing discipline versus restorative practices? I've been in a situation with. Students that have demonstrated. This as well as trying to help teachers now. I think that it has Discipline doesn't work. It has to be restored to practices, but there also has to be a very strong intervention in place for the students. And by that intervention, it's not just having the teacher do a sticker chart. It's having child study teams, psychologists involved, school counselors and social workers and the parents and the teachers and it's coming up with a plan. But it's also really supporting the teacher to implement the plan. And providing the teacher with whatever professional development he or she needs to implement the plan. And I think by creating that. Environment for the student and having the student involved depending on the age having the student involved as well in the decision making process. Is very important. Thank you. Mr. Norman, would you like me to repeat? I'm fine. I'm fine. I kind of believe, I guess I take the position that. This implant is a part of restored to practice or restored to justice. Have one of my favorite psychologist Jonathan Height. Coin the phrase, I'm gonna mess it up butcher it up a little bit. Well, he said without consequences, there is no cooperation. So there has to be a degree. Of one has to feel like they're going to lose something in order for them or they want to gain something that's not necessarily favorable for order for them to actually cooperate and And, just basically continue with the standard. Is set up by whoever the institution or wherever the family institution district is is So I'm under oppression that discipline is not a bad thing. I mean, one thing about my discipline is psychology and There was a deal or part of that discipline is training and correction. And I think one of my biggest. Issue I have with law school districts is the fear of setting a standard and a buy by the standard and correcting our children. Our children are to function. At the end of the day, they have to go out into the real world. They have to be citizens. They have to follow rules. They have to have consequences of their behavior. You go over to speak. Let me get a ticket. That hurt. But it teaches us what? Maybe to be more careful. All right, so it's the same thing. We have to train our students to be productive adults. And part of that is making sure they have effective discipline and effective, yeah, effective discipline and we need effective strategies. Here's a situation. Our country are down to what the last time I checked was like 40% of what we actually really need to go to work in the schools. That's not only affecting the country affecting our towns, in our state as well. And one of the things they talk about is the lack of that, the lack of discipline, the lack of support in the means to maintain the behavior of our children. I'd say last word, we have to have a standard and our standard has to be just has to have that restored to justice part that justice is making sure that people are killed accountable. Thank you. Alright, next question. We will start, Mr. Norman, we're gonna start with you for the for the next question. What kind of relationship should a district and the board have with its community? With its parents and families. Okay, the way I look at it is that we are part of the trust of the dish of our community. Now only trust our community, but our job is to, is to. Just to. Give directions to our district or how to service our community. So we are in between person. Where that where that catalyst that unites the community. With the district. We're up here as a representative of our community. And we're saying basically like this is what the community wants. This is what the community is asking for. As for my district, what they said our kids need. Now we have to marry that to what the goals and objectives of the district so we can be all on one page. So as so as that I think I talked about this earlier. We're facilitators. We're facilitating great communication. Collaboration, an approach that kind of combines our values and the district values. So, so we can basically get our, children into where we want them to be as far as we. So that's our I think that was our role as the board. Is So I think that having open communication with our parents and students is important collaborating with them and making important decisions which is also important and just understanding that at the end of the day we all want the same thing. We all want our children to be safe. All have an inclusive society where everybody is respected and everybody's opinion is valued. Valued and to basically give them a good quality of life but also quality of education. And I think the only way to do that is if we work together in a sense as a team. There obviously the board needs to continue to do its work as a leadership and kind of assuring parents and students that the decisions that they're making are in the best interests. Of the students and a way that they can do that is to continue to find different ways of communicating. The decisions that they're making and encouraging parents to come out and take part in those discussions. Mr. The relationship that we set with the community is the direction our schools are going to go in. We are stewards. Whoever sits up here isn't gonna be here forever. There'll be others that take after after them and after those people. I think that it's very important. That the relationship is open and honest. There are closed sessions because some discussions can be discussed in front of everyone. But in those open sessions. When we're talking to our community, when people are asking questions. Can't blow them off. We have to engage them. We have to be comfortable being very uncomfortable. Because that's the nature of our position. Not all decisions, not everybody on this board is going to agree with every decision. But we have to understand the decision and we have to be able to explain that decision to our community. We have to be able to take input. We have to be able to prioritize. Communicate and sympathize and empathize with those that we serve. Look, my kids go to the, my son goes to the school, my other son will go to the school, but he, they're certainly not the only students in this school. So as a parent, I have one feeling. And as a board member, I'm gonna have to put that aside and sit down and what is the best for this district. We have to gain the trust and maintain the trust. Of our community in order for this board to be effective. Ms. Frank. I think again it's very important to have the collaboration between the board and the community. And including all the parents. I think we have to have transparency. And have integrity in our words and deeds and be open to this collaboration and be open to listening to the hard questions that may come from the community. And I think it's also important that we continue to connect to this larger community, including like town leadership, police, fire, businesses, athletics. I think it's just vitally important. That everyone is in collaboration with decisions that are made because it's all in the best interest of the of the kids, right? It's all in the best interest of the students being successful in life and having this equal opportunity to be successful in life. And I think if we have that, then we can't go wrong. Mr. Plan, you're gonna lead off. On this on the next question. If you could wave a magic wand. What 3 things would you make happen for the district? Beyond addressing facility needs. I wish there was a magic wand. There isn't, but what I'd like to see what I would like to bring is We're all here together, but we're not always communicating. When I would like to see this community do. Have a lot of really honest conversations. There's a lot of topics going on that will divide all of us, but what should unite all of us? The common cause that we have for the education of our children. Because the students that graduate one day will be us. The community, the Board of Education doesn't just run the school district or make the policy for the school district. It sets the tone for the entire town, which affects the towns next to it. It's a domino effect. What I would want to see if I could wave that magic wand is more of that open communication. Course I'd like better facilities but I think it's more important that we're gathering more. I think it's more important that our faculty and our staff and our students and our community members feel connected to each other. Not just go to a board meeting, make a comment, be blown off, go home. Not just I'm on on the board, listen to some comments, go home, do something else. It really requires us to come back to these topics. It really requires us to communicate altogether. You know, the things that I want, the magic wand that I want to wave is I want to see people breaking bread together rather than yelling at each other. I want people to be comfortable telling me something that they don't necessarily think I want to hear. And I would hope that my colleagues and would follow suit in that way. Miss Frank. I'm gonna answer this from my perspective, for my goal of wanting to join this board. And that is. I really want to have a stronger curriculum for students throughout the district. I think that there is a lot of outdated curriculum assessments and I think that it is vitally important that we look at the research. And we make decisions based on the research and not based on you know, how we may feel about specific things in in Inc. I think it's vitally important that we have an equal multi tiered systems to support throughout the district at every school. Every child is entitled to the same amount of intervention. Regardless of what school they attend. And that's our general kids, our special ed kids, our economically disadvantaged kids, our multilingual learner students. And it's not currently equal throughout the district depending on what school you're at. It is different services that are being provided. It is different services that are being provided and that really seriously needs to be looked at so that it is different services that are being provided and that really seriously needs to be looked at so that it's fair. And that really seriously needs to be looked at so that it's fair among among the district. And lastly, again, that equal educational opportunity that we have these programs in place that we have these interventions in place for all our students so that they can all meet with success. They all have that opportunity to meet with success. Mr. Norman. If I have a magic wand, there are some things that, what brought me here. And one of the things that brought me here was. So our special education program. I it concerns me again we're doing with the most vulnerable of our student party. So it concerns me that there are certain there are not parity there are problem with programming. I think that's one of the things that I would I would want as far as to do away with and I'm and I think we can do that I mean just just a matter of being changed and changing certain things. Secondly is, It's not only do I want us to fix the things and fix the ills that we do have. I mean, we're a great school district. We're fantastic. Well, me here, my family here. And I'm pleased and I'm proud. But I do wanna be the star. I'm very competitive. I don't like Morris. I'm being outrinking those. I want to outrank them. I want us to, I want us to be not only a. Just. Great education for our kids. I want us to be the standard of what all other districts should model. Alright, and the last thing. That I would like that I would like is, well, we have talented, we have tons of staff here. And our staff needs to, they are the apple of our eye. And we need to promote them as such. We need to go ahead and showcase them. So we have to showcase our teachers who do on phenomenal job. Let the let the county know showcase the abilities and the skill sets of some of our psychologists, which maybe there's a little bi there, psychologists and other professionals who can ask who is brought to the table, they can solve the issues that we have. And, so those are my 3 wishes. Yes. Sorry. There is a fly here. I'm so sorry. We planted that to distract all of you. And it worked. Could you repeat the question, please? Sure. Aside from, imagine you can't talk about getting rid of the fog. If you could wave a magic wand, what 3 things would you make happen for the district beyond addressing facility needs? So I think that continuing to have high academic achievement. Within the district. I also think that we need to focus on special education and continuing to make that a priority is important. Third thing is community. Outreach. I think with high high academic achievement. I think that it's important to, you know, recognize our teachers. They bring a big part and the success of our lives of our students and basically equipping them with tools necessary to help them cater to each child's learning style. In terms of special education, I have been, I was a student that was in special education. I was put on special education very early on and it took me a really long time to become mainstreamed and it wasn't until ninth grade that I became mainstream and started taking regular courses and I'm happy to say that by senior year I started taking honors courses and so making that process for students that can be mainstreamed. making it easier for them. In terms of community outreach, just different members of communities engaging and finding a common ground, I think that we forget that as humans we have a lot more in common than we think. Trying to put our differences aside and realizing that we are here for the betterment of our children. Every child deserves a quality of education regardless of their background and what they believe in. All right, we're going to do our closing statements. And since you can see we started a little late, we ran over, we're a little bit. Just about an hour marks so. 16 and 90 s, if you would, to please make a closing statement and I'm going to ask each of you to make sure that you let us know why we should choose you. Why you should be our next. Our ninth board member and we will start with Mr. Norman. Alright, again, I want to say thank you everyone. Thank you for those who are watching at home. And thank you for again, being up here with. Some professional toe makers like myself, I don't feel alone. Okay, can you hear me here? What we're doing here and it does give my heart courage to see who's on the panel with me. We are people who are not necessary. We want to do it. We are called to do it. And I think that's the whole thing about being part of a community, a part of a town, is answering a call when your town needs you. And why I'm here is because I have a skillset and maybe my skills that can help. Further what we're trying to do with Chevy Hill and again that what we're trying to do is move children from ignorance. To knowledge move children from being in our homes to being out being productive citizens. And, I, wanna be a part of. Doing that. Secondly, I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry. But, secondly, I would say that, We have we have things that we need to work on and we need to work on collaboratively. We need to work on conversation. What gives me great hope is if, that We have that here. We have a community of people or a panel of people here. Who's talking the same language, maybe different or certain things, but we're talking mainly the same language of moving our district forward. That's it. Thank you. And thanks again. Thank you. His. So I think it's very rare that you find someone that is, has been a Cherry Hill student. So I think it's very rare that you find someone that has been a Cherry Hill student, who was a SAC teacher, and has family ties to the district. And as someone. Who again credits her success to a lot to the trio of school district and cherry hubboard. I think that, again, this is just my way of trying to get back to the community. And I really think that I am a success story in this district, you know, going from a special school starting out and then being able to be the first one to get in to go to college in my family as I think a big deal and I really want to help give our children the quality of education that they deserve, the quality of education that I got as a student here. And I want to emphasize that as a board member, I'm here for all students regardless of race, gender. Ethnicity. Religious background, whether or not what they're sexual orientation is, every child member matters. A retard deserves a good quality of education. Regardless of their background. And I actually do have an action plan that I can share with everybody at the end of the meeting if you would like, to what my plans are for. The coming. Mr. Thank you. You know, I'm from Cherry Hill. And I've lived in California, I've lived all over the country, and when people ask me where I'm from. I say I'm from Cherry Hill. I don't say I'm from East Terry Middle East. I don't say I'm from the West Side. I am from the East Side, but I want to see consistency across the board. I want to see students in Carusi getting the same exact education that those are getting in back. I think that everyone's getting a quality education, but there are disparities. And we'd be lying to ourselves if we thought that everything was consistent across the board. I know that there's people that feel that there's on east side and the west side and geographically there are but as a board our mission is to make sure every single student that goes to Cherry Hill gets a Cherry Hill education. I think it's important to understand that Working for the betterment of the entire township starts with our children. It starts with the work that we put in. It starts with the tone that we set in our school district. That is my singular mission. When it comes to access, I work in disability. I say this all the time and it's uncomfortable for some to hear but disability never discriminates so we can look around and we can see all of our differences and our race, our class, our gender, our religion. Our identity, but when it comes down to it. Disability will affect all of us if it hasn't affected you directly. We all get older. We all have parents. We all have friends. We all have family. Just understand that that is my perspective and I hope to get this position. Miss Frank. I have the perspective of being a parent, for a first grader at a seventh grader and we have been in the district since my older daughter was in first grade as well. So So as a parent, I can see the disparity and I can see the changes that I want for my children. But as an educator, I can see the disparity and the changes I want for all the children in the district. And I think that's where my background of being in special education and reading, I've worked on a child study team, I have a different lens. Depending on what role I've been in and then that enables me to see. But it all comes back to equity. And I think that's what we're all saying. It all comes back to wanting our children to have this equal opportunity. And to and to be successful. So that is, that is my mission. And thank you for your time tonight. Okay, hopefully you can all read this I of relief. And if you join the board, you will never breathe a sigh of relief. So this will be their last chance. We really want to thank you all. I really appreciate how much you participated, your time and attention, your interest and willingness to serve our community. We will be, deliberating. We will have a decision. On or before February the thirteenth. So we have a little bit of time but we will be making our having our deliberations and Mrs. Sugars will be contacting all of you to let you know what our decisions are and then we'll be announcing it to the community and taking our votes. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Okay, we're going to restart our meeting. We start. We're going to continue with our meeting and then we will have our Go on with our usual schedule, so. People have questions. They can come up during public comment during for our questions. Okay. Dr. Morton, we are now at the point in our meeting where we would do board recognition. We don't have any. So now we will move on to our. Presentations. And going to ask. Dr. Morton to take it away with the update that you have. Thank you very much, Miss Stern. And after longer, long ago. With this presentation here that was originally scheduled for January, January, the ninth actually. I'm happy to have the opportunity to just share some information. And some updates with the board about the labor management collaborative work that's been taking place in the district throughout the course of this year. You may have heard the the buzzword LMC being used quite frequently and I wanted to provide some substance about what this is. So we've heard lots of conversation around divides within the district. Practices that may differ, things that may occur in one place, but not in another place. LMC work or labor management collaborative work is our vision and systematic approach to consolidating and bringing things together throughout the district. So great quote from Vince Lombardi, individual commitment to a group effort. That is what makes a team work. Company work or society work and a civilization work. In this picture with these individuals in this rowboat running in the same direction is very appropriate. It's important for everyone in the district to be focused to be singly focused on the same vision and to be headed in the same direction. And that's exactly what we are doing with. Our LMC work. So as we think about traditional labor groups within a school district within our school district here. Various groups. That exist. Obviously we have our Board of Education, which is our umbrella, Central Administration. A chasa which is the association for our administrators chia CGA, which is the association for our teachers, secretaries, and our custodial staff. Each association for our educational assistance. We have a school police. Campus police. Security as well. And typically there is their isolation within each one of these groups. The ideology behind. The labor management collaborative is that there is interaction. With each of these groups and it's a cyclical process in which the communication of infection is planned, discussed. And implemented. Through a collaborative process. So there's research out of Rutgers universities to support this work. Research first and foremost the most compelling piece of the research is that irrespective of various demographic factors or other limiting factors. When this is implemented and implemented well It leads to enhanced student achievement across the board. For all groups of students. Particularly underperforming students. The research points to improve climate. Culture and morale. Climate being how individuals feel about the organization. How individuals feel when they come they come to work. Or interact at work. The culture being that the behaviors that take place on a daily basis and the morale also being the feeling. Is improved trust. Between the various groups. And improve communication. Relationships are rooted in effective communication we know. And improve staff retention. When employees and individuals enjoy the place that they work, when the morale is high. Individuals tend to stay. So our our team we've had principals and members of our district, Mr. Redfern included who have taken part at the state level on cutting-edge work to design. What's called the LMC competencies. So their fundamental beliefs. That have been established in a curriculum that's been established that govern and that guide the overarching themes and thinking of the LMC work. So LMC competencies. You can see him here, but it's the empowerment of participants. A commitment to an organizational structure that fosters sustainable collaboration. It's established in shared purpose. The brokering of knowledge. In other words, the exchange of information as we dialogue and go back and forth. Decisions that are grounded in reflection. Research and evidence. And the establishment of shared purpose and knowledge brokering with community stakeholders. So we heard that just. Not too long ago, right? From, from some of our candidates. As we talk about how we involve community members and our decision-making process. But that's what this encompasses. So here's the structure that we designed this year for LMC. We have a unique structure that allows us to have district level. LMC representation and there's building level LMC representation as well and there's work like I said the cyclical that's taking place and that's going on and that's tightening up the ship and bringing things together now. So at the district level, we've established an LMC district leadership team. This team maintains the overarching perspective and the system wide. Focused on system-wide improvement. It includes our LMC steering committee, includes building principals, representative of LMC building-based teams. And these are the meeting dates. We've had one meeting thus far. Actually, 2 meetings thus far. I apologize. We had representatives from state organizations at the state level as well join us and participate. And thus far, Those who are participated, have mentioned probably. Some of the best interaction and work that they've had throughout many years while in the district. I mentioned LMC Steering Committee. So this this group helps with oversight and planning. Of LMC implementation and includes central administration. Again, the administrators. Teachers and staff, educational assistants. We have Board of Education members present and and a part of this. This committee here and this group meets monthly. And then building based teams. Building base teams have focused on school-based improvement. And then those ideas and that information gets filtered up to the district leadership team as well. But there is global representation of all members of the school community. Administrators, teachers, education assistants, nurses, lady service providers, counselors, custodial maintenance, school security, campus police officers, secretaries, and they meet monthly. Mr. Redfern and I have had the opportunity to get out and visit just about every school and spend some time with the building based teams and it has been refreshing. It's been outstanding to hear the discussions to hear the conversation. And to see how this process is moving forward as we focus our efforts. So this year, the LMC teams have focused on school culture and climate improvement. So students and staff may may recall back in October, we administered a system-wide survey. Survey, actually the survey was given as well in April of 2,023 to the high school west only and then all other schools took it in October. In total we had nearly a thousand respondents. We had an injured 47 staff. Students in grades 5 through 12. Yeah, 4,628 respondents and in grade 5 we had 501 respondents. We had nearly 2,000 parents and community members respond to provide feedback for us. So we acquired a wealth of information as we begin to analyze and to see where we are and what we can do to improve around school climate and culture. Are there 13 different domains that were included in the survey? I will not read them all. This presentation will be posted. So you have an opportunity to see it then. But. Some of the highlights that came out of this. We will come to the highlights. Family support and engagement. Survey very high. Supportive staff and student relationships. Reported very high. Sense of physical safety. Reported high and a student sense of belonging. Reported high as well. There were 2 resounding areas of opportunity for us though. 2 areas of opportunity that were clear. The first being organizational resources and supports. In this area, staff only. Provided feedback in this area. That was the staff. Those those were staff only questions and the domains and the questions covered things such as time for collaboration. And effective collaboration time. Relevant professional development. That is attached to the job role and job responsibility. Enlightening. It provided us tremendous information and we've allowed this to guide. Our conversations with building teams, Stephen as we visited with them. The other area, and this this was surveyed. And feedback and input was provided by students, staff. Parents and guardians as well. The one that came up was an area of opportunity for us. We're negative student interpersonal behaviors. And a negative student interpersonal behaviors just manifest in different ways. Electronic means with students texting and communicating information. Personal conversations and things that may take place. Ridicule about one's dress and attire. Things along those lines. But it provides a tremendous opportunity for us to focus our efforts to begin to unpack this and to engage in some root cause analysis as to why this is occurring. And then to begin to process how we how we build. Strategic plans in each individual each individual building. Moving forward and responding to this. So next step so the LMC team came together in January as I mentioned is districtwide level Analyzed the data. We've had some time to engage in deep conversation, deep reflection. There were questions that were generated from that guiding questions that building-based LNC teams took back with them and that they're now using to have discussions with the staff at large. There are presentations at each one of the buildings, the teams. Doing a presentation for the faculty at large and then each one of the building based teams. Are developing a strategic plan for climate improvement. That's focused and is targeted on their specific buildings. Data. Overall, it's been a great process. I think we are headed in a great direction. It is a different lens on things. Tremendous momentum is being built, I can say. As I said at Johnson this morning. And listen to the team talk. And listen to the team dialogue rather and reflect on their you know enthusiasm and what they had planned to do and reflected from our first visit back in December to Horace Mann and then and then Rosa Middle School. And to see the evolution of the work. I'm excited about the direction that we're moving in and definitely can sense that this is positivity and its consistency. That's being produced. Questions. You might have answered that or mentioned this. I'm sorry if you did, but is this open to anyone as a volunteer based or are people individually selected to be on? That's waiting. Yeah, so, so there are several different committees. That's actually a really good question. So the district leadership team committee. Sort of, forms in a way that allows the principal to identify a member of the building staff. To attend with us as well. We meet in this room. And there's probably about 65 people that cram in this room and we move around and do some different things. It's just space doesn't allow for us to go beyond that number. At the building level. I think there. Think, It's comprised of 10 people or so. In today's group, there were about 6 people that were part of a part of that team. But the intention is that they're going to go out to great level teams and give great levels and opportunity. To provide feedback input as well. For instance, one of the things that the schools are planning. Is to provide opportunities for great levels to come together. During specified time and day and just give them extended time to look at. The data, talk about strategies that have been identified and to provide input and feedback as well. Who's Calgary? Just wondering, the surveys that went out and I guess whatever last spring or October. Did you receive feedback on? What how people felt about the surveys. I'm just coming because I was remembering as you mentioned it as a parent taking the survey I was I almost felt incapable of answering some of the questions right because I don't know what my child's daily existence is. And I also felt Like, I could have answered, well, it depends. For a lot of right so and I was limited as to what I could answer so I wasn't sure if you received feedback about the survey. Well, I did just now. So yes. I have not received that feedback. No, this is the first time that we received it. Yeah, surveys are difficult. If you use like a liquid scale or some type of scale, there's only so many response items that can be included without a becoming cumbersome and I guess somewhat difficult to navigate. But feedback noted. Okay. We'll go with board members first and then we'll go to students. So I just wanted to respond to that a little bit. Miss Gallagher just because I went to the workshop on this. At NJSBA because I was interested in it. I knew it was something that we were doing. So it's a statewide tool that was developed through Rucker. So it wasn't a district developed tool. So you can send them your you can ask if they have, through Rucker. So it wasn't district developed tool. So you can send them your, you can ask if they have, if they need, if they need feedback. I actually, I got to fill it out for, all 3 schools that my kids were in, which was kind of an interesting experience because I found my reactions were very different depending on the school and the grade level. And I think what's exciting for me is that I think something that just came out in the candidate interview, something we've been talking about is the. The differences between the schools in the district sometimes inconsistency when it comes to issues of climate and culture. So I really love that it allows you to pinpoint. The culture and what's going on at each school and what the strengths and the opportunities. Might be and that the reaction to it or the response is also going to be school-based because I think the schools really do depending on. How big the school is and the level and what's going on in the school. They all have different needs that require different responses. So I love how the school teams are kind of going to be able to get this data and take ownership of it and then draft and appropriate response for their specific building. So I'm really excited to see how this grows and what comes out of it. Yes, absolutely. That was the intention. So we have the overarching district focus, but you know, it's important that each individual building have an opportunity as well to strategize and plan based upon the specific needs of that building have an opportunity as well to strategize and plan based upon the specific needs of that building. So again, the LMC structure itself allows for this collaboration and consistency. This year, the focus is. Climate improvement. Next year, the focus can be something else. The structure allows for that. But the beauty in it is that it's this consistency if you think about the triangle, like we're all headed toward the same vision and same art. Dr. Sorry, I'm gonna be difficult. We have a habit of pushing the students till the end, but I disagree with that. I think that they're They're non voting but full members of the board elected by their student communities. In a really would like to just. Put forward that going forward. I really think we should include them during the conversation. And not push them to the end, I think. That does a disservice to us, talking about wanting to hear student voice. So if I can, I'd like to give my time over to Matthew. Doly noted we don't have that precedent yet, but we certainly can work can have that conversation to All row in the same direction. In a parallel way and move to that. But, duly noted. Is there anything else you wanted to add, Dr. OK, got it. Any other board members? And then we will go to students. Mrs. Chafee. Do you have a question, but can he go first? I'll let him go first. So again, it's our president. I'm gonna stick to our president and if we, if we shift we can. But why don't you go for it? Quick question. Do we have, do we have the ability to resurvey to evaluate the efforts that are put forth by the committee. We do have the ability to resurvey. It's not advisable that we do it within the same year. Just because of the I guess the shortness of time you know you want to have an opportunity for the strategies that are identified to take root. However, what we have talked about was we've discussed taking specific strands or specific areas that we're focused on. And then re survey those later on. So high school West did the survey in April. And there's specific things that have been implemented. We want to ascertain how well we're doing. So. It's not gonna be that full survey. We'll take a piece of it. And build. A survey around that. Ms. Wilson and I actually met with the gentleman from Thought Exchange. About a week ago. But a week ago to begin that process and that planning process. Are they board members? So just a couple of comments and then we will absolutely go to our student reps. You'd like to speak. Cause they have a very important voice at our table. So, you know, First I just want to share, you know, have someone who's, you know, somehow 3 years in I'm one of the longer standing board members, which is strange, so strange to me. But, you know, this is truly a very very different way of operating. For our district and probably around the state. This is absolutely like state driven is my understanding and I remember last year when Mrs. Fleischer learned about this and brought this idea idea. Knew that this was coming, wanted to participate from a board level. The level, I mean, I think it's probably one of the things that she most regrets not being part of. Going forward, no longer being on the board. Because of how groundbreaking this is. The level of kind of larger systemic approach to you know, tackling challenges. You know, the siloing that has that doesn't serve this district. This is, this is an absolute. Attack on siloing this is absolutely a way to bring to bring people together from many different competing. Kind of advocacy sides, I would say. So, even though We're all here for the kids. But I think we attack it from different angles. You know, to me the fact that this structure is, is exists and, and Mrs. Winters, it did come directly from the state, I mean, out of, you know, a whole research approach. And I don't know, you know, I think the fact that the speaker that we had for, for the teacher, the new teacher in for the teacher in service and the new teacher training the book that I don't remember the name of the author and I apologize. Brad Johnson, he was the speaker and that was how the year kicked off. That book was shared by, I believe, Well, the shared post some of us last year, his book, which was directly connected to the LMC. There's just this level of like kind of comprehensive approach that for me it's like Quite honestly, it's like what I just feel is like we've been waiting for you. We've been waiting for this type of thing. So for me, I, you know. I don't know, it just it feels really groundbreaking and I'm really excited that we're not that we're one we're not that many districts doing this in the state so I'm really excited that we're doing it. And See a smile on the back of the room from someone who I think is happy we're doing it too. And Yeah, we, we have time. You'll have your chance, right? So definitely let me hear from all of voices. So I'm just excited and I do want to thank So our 2 board members who finished their terms in the end of December, they were the 2 representatives to the LMC. So I want to thank Mr. Mayor and Mrs. Winters for agreeing to. Step into their shoes and take on this work because it's a lot of work. But it's really important. So. There's my comments. I other board members for move on to. Our student rep, Matt, please. The floor is yours. Oh, thank you. Just a quick question. There is the one slide about the student respondents to the survey listed the respondents from grades 5 through 12 and then grades 5 was the grade 5 like a part of the grades 5 through 12 or were they 2 separate figures that like combined equal the total number of student respondents? There was, they were separate. So there were 4,628 respondents. I'm sorry, no, that was together. 46. 28 was the total number of student respondents, 500. And one of which were grade 5 students. Okay, any other comments from student reps or? Alright, well, thank you very much. That was great. Appreciate the update. Very, very excited to see. Where we go from here, tackling straight into some really some of our biggest challenges in our district. So. Looking forward to seeing what. More hands, what is what's this saying? More hands make lighter work. Is that it? Is that it? Thank you. That may, I don't know where that comes from. I just have heard it. So please. I'm your mother. Come from the original, I don't know your maiden name, so I can't say your maiden name, but okay. Alright, and now we go to our correspondence. Do any board members have correspondence they'd like to share? Did any board members attend any activities? In the past week? Nothing that was part of our schools. Okay, gotcha. Alright. Now we go on to our student representative reports and we start with Matt Bentez Ellis. Well, I'm gonna be giving one report tonight, Collins here this time. So starting out with the arts, we had our instrumental in choral concerts since the last time I gave a report in December. And then yesterday, the choir groups visited Rosa and this morning they visited Beck Middle School. Moving on to academics, we've had the seal of by literacy testing over the course of the past few weeks an opportunity for students to get a state recognition of their abilities. Proficiency for another language. Additionally, Mark period T will be ending next Monday on the 20 ninth and that will also be the end of the first semester. For clubs, the activities director Mr. Davis has been working to improve the student club leadership at East. He held the meeting to change procedures and the structuring of these clubs. For DECCA regionals a hundred 17 students qualified for the DECCA state competition. And robotics traveled to Kalahari, Ohio for competition. Very exciting opportunity for them. And SGA, took in trip to TCNJ for the state, student government convention last week. And they're also planning to hold a to create a gratitude wall where students will be able to post inspirational messages for the members of the school community. Moving on to climate and events. We held Unity Day at East where members of the West and East community came together to discuss. Their experiences at the high schools. That we also had a college assembly where returning alumni spoke about their experiences in college, gave advice about budgeting, their experiences with clubs, managing time, and all that important information. All the grade levels have met for the start or for the end of the second market period where a class officers and grade level principles spoke to kind of see how the year is going so far. The freshman dance has been rescheduled for this Friday. And the sophomore dance will be February ninth. And yesterday, a number of E students had the pleasure of serving on the Superintendent Student Advisory Committee. Where they spoke with both West students and Dr. Morton about their experiences and gave insight into. Student voice and the climate at those schools. The makeup date for the snow day will be February sixteenth. And moving on to sports, the East Boys and Girls Bowling Teams both had a big win this week over their division rival Kenny County Tech. The boys are now second in second place in their division and the girls are in first place in the Olympic American division. Shy out, led the way with 2, 215237 and 236 games. Dimitri Kamare sealed the, come from behind with the wind in the final game with 3 strikes in the tenth frame. And Leanna, Liscano led the girls with the 5 7 one series. We also had held a sports captain's lunch for winter sports. For captains to come together to talk about their experiences as well as their leadership. And finally, there will be a half day. This Friday, this will be the first. Of the the half days to start for the rest of the year of the fourth Friday each month. An opportunity for students to have a break as well as staff to have prep time and very much appreciated by both students and staff. So that's it. Thank you. Okay, Colin Duckett, if you could kindly give the West report. Thank you. I'm gonna be. I'm going to be moving backwards tonight. So starting with other notes on Friday, January twelfth, students attended Unity Day where they had discussions and voiced opinions about the social issues which are impacting our school community. Thanks to eastern advocate miss Joseph for leading the group on Thursday, January eighteenth, West no place for hate visited the Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. On Monday, January 20 s West students met with students from East as well as Dr. Morton for the first meeting of the superintendent student advisory council. To discuss school climate and how we can mitigate negative student interpersonal behaviors. On Wednesday, January 20 fourth West will host a open house event for eighth grade students and their families. To come to West to learn about the various programs and opportunities that we offer. On Wednesday, January 20 fourth West will host. A Shadow Day, we're hosting a series of shadow days. Where for eighth grade students to tore west with freshmen students and meet with teachers club advisors coaches and other West students. On Thursday February first the freshman dance will take place in the cafeteria. For extracurriculars, club photos for the yearbook have been taking place over the past week. From Tuesday January sixteenth to Thursday February first west student government organization will be accepting donations for their clothing drive. There's already been a great amount of clothing collected, huge boxes in our mail room. Decca attended districts and we'll be working towards the state competition where 30 West students. Will advance to the state competition. On Saturday, February third, West model United Nations will attend the Mumon Conference at Morris Town High School. For athletics, boys basketball holds a nine-game winning streak. On Thursday, January, the eighteenth, boys and girls bowling one against Seneca with 2 to one and 4 to o respectively. Girls track is moving ahead very strongly with students beating the West indoor sprint medley race and the West Distance Medley Relay. Records twice this season. The West indoor relay record was also broken by Girls Track. West Wing is going strong as they advance to the state level. For arts on our shadow days, which are expected to be 3, possibly 4 days. West catering will supply our prospective students with sloppy joes, mac and cheese, salad and cookies. On Wednesday, January thirtieth, the deadline for entry to the National Art Honor Society juried exhibition will close. We're looking forward to seeing all the masterpieces our students can create. For academics on Wednesday, January seventeenth, the National Honor Society inducted their eligible students. Congratulations to all inductees for their academic and extracurricular dedication. And finally, at the start of the year, West implemented a new home room and lunch plan based on student and staff voice, West is implementing a new plan which allows all staff to be more available to students for help. And students to pick their home rooms for the second semester while still maintaining the structure of half the students eating lunch and half in home room. And then switching for the second lunch break. This should allow students extra time to seek academic help, have music rehearsals, work with coaches, club advisors. Or be together with the staff member with whom they have a connection. Actually, finally, thank you to the esteemed East representative for delivering my previous report. That's all. Wow. Great, Tom, thank you. Excuse me. Okay, now we are entering our first public comment section. There will be 2 opportunities for public comment this evening. The first public comment section is for board action items only, items 14 through 17. There will be another public comment section for any school related topic at the end of our meeting. If you are a student in the district. As always, you may comment on any item related to our schools during the first public comment period and we just asked that if you were online to please identify yourself by putting an S after your name. If you would like to speak now. Please identify the agenda item and clearly state your name and municipality. We will alternate between those who are online. And those who are in the room. Public comment is an opportunity. I'm sorry, timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. You'll have 3 min. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Terry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech and public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups more which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district. Or our repetitive will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent, board president and all board members via email or other alternative means. So we, you would like to make your public comment at this time. I want to action item or if you are a student, please approach the podium now. Okay, no one's at the podium. I don't see any hands online. I will offer for a final time if anyone would like to speak on an action item if you'd like to please approach the podium. You're online, please raise your hand. And there are no hands online and there is nobody at the podium so we will now close our first public comment and we will move on to our action item Our action agenda. So. We'll move to curriculum instruction. Mrs. Winters, can you please move the CNI agenda? I would love to. The superintendent recommends and I move the following. 14.1 approval of attendance at conference and workshops for the 2324 school year. 14.2 approval of out of district student placement for 2324 school year. 14.3, approval of T one summer academy, 2,024. And 14.4 approval of professional development. Proposal. Do I have a second? You completely ruined my mojo. Sorry about that. Ben, Dr. Rood. Does anybody have any? Does anybody have a question? Okay, Miss Sugars, please open the voting. Board members you may cast your votes Motion carries. Okay, so I will now move the business and facilities agenda. Superintendent, acting superintendent recommends and I move the following 15.1 approval of minutes from the special action meeting on December, the fifth, 2,023 approval of minutes from the. A special action meeting on dated December nineteenth 2023 financial reports, 15.3 financial reports, 15.4. Resolution of the for the award of RFPs. 15.5 resolution to accept audit report. 15.6 resolution for the award of change orders 15.7 resolution for the award of transportation 15.8 acceptance of donations. Do I have a second? This is your vain. Are there any questions? Okay, Mrs. Sugars, can you please take the vote? Board members, you may cast your votes. I need to abstain from 15.2. I wasn't at the meeting. And can I have same from 15.1 and 2? Cause I was not there either. Not one of them. Now you're one of us. Mrs. Sugars, I need to abstain from 15.2 because I was not at that meeting. This is Shepherd. I need to ask in 15.1 and 15.2. Everything else? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Sugars, I also have to, abstain from 15, 15.1. A motion carries. Okay, and now we move on to human resources and I will move the human resources agenda. The acting superintendent recommends and I the following 16.1 termination of employment certificated 16.2 termination of employment non-certificated 16.3 appointments certificated, 16.4 appointments non-certificated. 16.5 leave of absence certificated 16.6 leaves of absence non-certificated 16.7 assignment salary change non-. 16.8 other compensation certificated 16.9 9 other compensation non-certificated and 16.10 approval of new job description. Do I have a second? Mrs. Winters, are there any questions? If not, Mrs. Sugars, can you please take the vote? Board members, you may cast your votes. And the motion carries. And very happy someone else is going to move this agenda. And that will be Mr. Mayor. Please move the PNL agenda. Certainly the acting super 10 recommends and I move the following item, 17.1, approval of harassment, intimidation, bullying investigation decisions. And item 17.2. Of harassment, intimidation. Willing hearing decision. Do I have a second? Are there any questions? Seeing none, Mr. Sugars, would you open the voting? Motion carries. Okay, it looks like for strategic planning we do not have any items. So, and we now move to new business. Is there any new business? No new business. Now we move to old business. Is there any old business? This is Winters. Thanks so much. I just wanted to bring up some old business because it's a conversation that we've been having among. Board members on the CNI committee, other board members I've chatted with but it's been brought up in the community a full a few times lately. So I just wanted to take a opportunity to give. The the full board while we're here together as well as anybody in the community. A bit of background and update on where we are. So the conversation has been brought up about the placement of special education classrooms and class sections. Both in the elementary schools and the middle schools. And I just wanted to sort of discussed that this has been something that board members are aware of that we've been in conversation about among each other. It's really across committee. Issue that requires collaboration among the different committees together to work on the problem because the way that I see it myself and I'm just speaking for me personally. I like to approach things systemically. I don't I feel like the worst possible thing we could do would be to be reactive and add a special education class here or there without knowing what the impacts would be on the entire system of our 12 elementary schools and our 3 middle schools. I think we really need to look at it in a manner that takes into consideration. How it would work for the entire district. As well as planning for the future because I think really one of the things I want to avoid is to make a decision that makes sense for this year, but that doesn't make sense for 2 years from now or 5 years from now because I don't want to be disruptive to our families. I want to take the time to think about it and investigate it and make sure that whatever decisions we make. While we all keep in mind the goals, the mutual goals we have of having better access for our special education families and to minimize transportation time for our students. And to allow as many students as possible. To go to school within their community to keep those binds with their local community and with their peers. They grow up within their neighborhoods. Those are all mutual goals we share. But I want to make sure it's done in a thoughtful manner. So the conversation that we've been having and I've had it with a couple of different board members at different times is that really for me the piece I'm waiting for is the work that strategic planning is doing on the demographic study. Because I feel like the demographic study that we have. The one that was done earlier, the grip study we call it, because it was Dr. Griff who did it. It was, 2,019. Back when I was a community member sitting out there. Maybe you remember me renting and raving at the microphone that I felt that it was outdated at the time actually because it only took into it didn't have full day kindergarten as part of that study. And now we've added preschool additional to that as well. And on top of that, as we all know, the pandemic disrupted everything. Including housing patterns in Cherry Hill and who's moving in and who's moving out. So I really do feel like the first step. Before we start making decisions. Is to get the information from the demographic study on what our population looks like. Projecting forward into the future so that we can be sure that whatever adjustments or decisions we make. Our decisions that will hold for the next few years that way we're not constantly disrupting families. So I just wanted to start that conversation and give an update. I feel like sometimes. We have conversations within committees or we have conversations between committee chairs or between board members, but that maybe doesn't, I'm sorry, get to everybody. So I just wanted to raise that and also raise it for the community so they know that we hear them. We always hear them and we're working on it. But I just want to make sure we take the time to do this right for our kids. So I hope that makes sense. Does anybody have any questions or concerns? So, having participated in some of those conversations, certainly understand where you're coming from, having participated in some of those conversations, certainly understand where you're coming from, appreciate it and support that thinking, one of the main reasons why At least I felt it was important in strategic planning. Some months ago to start. The discussion. Regarding a new demographic study was just that, among other things. You know, we need to have. As much information. Expert information as possible. So that we can target. Various educational resources. For the future. One of those most important ones being special education. Availability of special education services across the district. And and help have the demographic study help us make those kind of decisions. You know, your point with regard to. Not specifically addressing an immediate need and then having to perhaps readjust again in a year or in 2 years. And and by doing so. You know, forcing. Potentially some more change to families that that is traumatic especially in that community where we want as much as possible. As much consistency as we can as we can have for the students. I think it's tremendously important. So. You know, we asked the question earlier about magic wands, right? If we had one, and I think we would, everyone at this table. Would wave it and we would have unlimited resources unlimited space unlimited staff. In order to provide these services everywhere at every school. That's not, it's not realistic. But that doesn't mean that we can't take advantage of. Opportunities and data in order to make the right kind of choices. For now and for the future so I appreciate that you brought it up again and and look forward to working. And using that data to make these to make those decisions. For the students. Thank you. Other board members have any comments or questions? I mean, I certainly in area that we. I talk about a lot and you know I'm pretty open about the fact that that experience is my lived experience in my own family. Having you know raised a child who is now a young adult special needs I will say that I think You know, there's no question that. It's a very important conversation here and in the community. And it's one that that has a lot of merit and deserves the time it needs, which I think. You know, one of the things I heard for a long time from people and I also wondered a lot about when it wasn't on the board is like it's you know How are decisions made, how does one decision part of impact other decisions? Is there really a comprehensive approach? You know, I think not only do we have to look at demographic study, which is really important. But part of that will also drive the data from that also has to be meshed with best practices. So, you know, one of the best practice, one of the best practices, some of them that I've learned about with special education is that And, and actually this is one of the most challenging things about being a parent of a kid with special needs is how they are when they're 2 or 4 or 7 or 15 or 20 or 35 can change dramatically and again you know I think I can certainly say as a parent with a kid with special needs if you To me that my kid would be where they were from the age of 15 months when he started early intervention to where he was when he was in kindergarten to where he was when he was in middle school. It's where he was when he was now now at almost 20. I would never have known that path because you can't see it because you don't know because these kids change so much just like all kids change. And when you add a special education classroom that is a certain kind that services a certain needs of certain students. And you don't have a pathway of a different kind of a classroom in that same building, then you're not following your best practice and you're doing that kid into service and those families that disservice and those families that disservice because once the kids change. And they need different things they may and we don't have that that program in that building they're gonna have to go to another building. It's so to me that is absolutely at the heart of why we must do. We must follow the numbers and the data. We must. We must have the best. This cannot a one-off idea of well just add a classroom here or just add a classroom there. That is not going to serve these families in a comprehensive way. And it's definitely not going to serve these kids in a comprehensive way. You know, you hear the passion in my voice about it, I think it's really important that we're extremely thoughtful and very systematic in the approach that we do this and it has to be driven by best practices. We, families of kids of special needs, we have a lot of emotions. I have a ton of emotions about that experience and about my kid. But I'll tell you, I want things to be done in the best way possible for the kids in our district. Knowing my own experience too. You know, and I, you know, I feel very grateful for, you know, what my own Todd's experiences were and they were not. Always fantastic. I have had, I've spoken at the microphone about them. When I was in the community and not on the board, but this is an opportunity, this is a lens, we have a very different, this has become a top priority. Over the past year. Definitely this year and, you know, I think we're going to do it. We'll do it well. But that's the thing. Like I just. I don't want to do something. Like you said, Mrs. Winters, and then in 2 or 3 years, why don't we do it that way? Not a good approach and I think we are in a place where as we work together we road the boat in the same direction. You know we're gonna we're gonna you know basically we're gonna We're gonna do it the right way and that's and that's the point so Second, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. I just, you know, I feel like sometimes one of the complaints we get is that, These meetings are not conducive to dialogue and they're not because they're bored. Work sessions and we work through our agenda but I just I felt like at this point it's come up a couple different times in a couple different ways and I just want to reassure everybody. Board members, the community that we hear you, we understand it's a priority. We understand. It's a problem and not to be repetitive, but it's a systemic problem and my approach. Has always been to think systemically and be data-driven. And I really think if I have learned anything. From before I was on the board, now being on the board being a special ed parent myself. Is that transitions are a really difficult thing. Really difficult thing for families, all families. Struggle all children, especially little children, children with special needs, struggle with transitions. I just want to make sure that if we change something that we're thoughtful about it and that we're minimizing disruption and that We're reasonably sure as sure as we can be because nothing in this world is absolutely sure, but we're sure as we can be and we've done the work to know. We're making a good choice and that we're not going to have to go back to years, 3 years later, and disrupt that choice because I think that would be even harder for our families. So I thank the community. And my fellow board members are bearing with me and for their patience. As we wait to get the information that we need. To make the decisions that we hope will improve. The experiences that our families have and please know that we think about you, our hearts are with you. We're on it. And as soon as we have more information, we'll get back to you. So thank you. Is there any other old business? That any board members want to address? Alright, we are moving. I'm gonna jinx it. We're moving to the second public comment. This is our second public comment section, during which you may come in on any topic relevant to our district. Or the operations of the Board of Education. Operations of the district or the Board of Education. You know what I mean. If you'd like to speak now, please clearly state your name and your municipality. We will alternate between speakers who are here in the room and those who are online. Each speaker will be given a maximum of 3 min to speak. The timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill. Public school district or within the authority of the Terry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech and public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups. Or which are relevant to the operations of the school district or our repetitive will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent, board president and all board members via email or other alternative means. As always, if there is a student who would like to speak, we will prioritize the students to go first. And if you are a student and you'd like to speak, I would ask that you please put an S after your name if you were online. And if you're in the room and you're a student, you'd like to speak, please approach the podium first. And we will start in the room if there's anyone I'd like to speak at public comment. If you could please approach the podium. And if you could please state your name and your municipality. A, I'm a resident of Jerry Hill. But then, members of Board of Education. Thank you for everything you do for our children first of all I'm a parent of 2 in our district and they're in high east and back middle schools. I'm a biology teacher, but now I'm working as a sub teacher in our district. From my experience I would like to share a few thoughts with you tonight. When the board member selects a new member to fill the empty seat on the Board of Education, would request them to take into consideration the following. Request them to select someone who will focus on truely understanding students struggles. And making improvements to help them. We have a very diverse student population. Many students are ESL, special education, come from struggling families. They have struggles which not everyone may have. They need someone who will take the time to get to know their struggles. And work to improve the situation for them. Also, it will be helpful to the board to select someone who can give them a diverse perspective. So they can understand how policies and decisions affect. Everyone within a community. I hope the candidate the board selects will be able to address these needs. Thank you. Okay, and we go to the line. Harvey Vasquez. And if you could please state your name and municipality. Yes, good evening to all. I'm Harvey Basket. Can we help? I wanna take a moment to discuss. Special education and the culture that has been established over the years that we have. Then part of. On my The us versus them phenomenon that seems to be driving the actions. Of your current special education administrators. Staff responsible for leading these initiatives through this gauntlet that we as parents called special education. I sent an email to all of the distinguished members. This board with the hopes of expressing the view of a family seeking support. And the help of their district and what should be rightfully in their power to seek. On behalf of a disabled family member. I will not bore you. With all the minute details. But I would hope and ask that you please find the time to review and detail my email. And the supporting documents they're in. I sat on the Zoom Meeting listening to some of the great responses these candidates had to offer. I find it eerily familiar how most of their responses. Reflect how we as a family feel. And possibly how many in the special education community may feel. One of the topics I heard the most was communicating and interacting with stakeholders about community. As the acting superintendent himself mentioned just a few minutes ago, family support and engagement should rank high in your future topics as a board. This has been one of the requests. We as an advocating family have acts of our special education. And administrators since the very beginning. But yet an active advocate parent is seen as difficult parent rather than one who abbottly seeks a close working relationship with the school district. This has been the culture established by your current administrators and unless you as the Board of Education realize this, I can assure you this culture will continue. I however have hope that with the influx of new board members and the upcoming selection of superintendent this crossroad will be able to operate in sync alongside our community. Mr. Vice President, you spoke of special education demographics, how to wave your magic wand. I disagree that services and support for all is not realistic. I say to you, let's make it a reality. Supported services is not based on perhaps. It's based on evaluations and assessments that are done early on. The individuals in Disability Act does not specify who you can help. It's up to you as a boy. And our administrators to seek the funding and support relative to your special education population. And to your point, I'm president, your experience is yours to speak on, but each child is different facing the possibilities that cannot and should not be handled in a cookie cutter fashion. Thank you. Okay, we go back to the rim. Is there anyone who would like to speak? Please approach the podium. Please state your name and your municipality. Hi, my name is Sawa Hasan and I'm a resident of Cherry Hill. My son is our first grade at Johnson Elementary. Good evening. I would like to make a short statement on the needs of our community and the importance of considering the community as a whole. Cherry Hill is a tapestry of people who come from different backgrounds and I believe that in order for the board to be most effective. It's important to make a genuine effort to understand, listen deeply, and seek out diverse perspectives so that the knowledge of the board regarding this community is broad, deep and as complete as possible. I hope the board will consider this. I also think that expansion of special education service is very important. A lot of you have said today. I would encourage the board to think about building a team that serves our special education student population to increase services and facilitate transition to mainstream and a high quality. And high standards education for this population. Thank you for your time. Okay, let me go back to the line. And the name on the line is min. If you could please state your full name first and last name and your municipality. Hi, it's Mindy Rosen. Terry Help. I know you're not taking a lot of comments that are repetitive, so I will say that I agree with everything. Harvey Vaskets has said and other special ed supporters. I also would like to state that since the last board meeting I have written to the board and administrators about the Mosaic Preschool and my concern that it's on the second floor. And I have still not. Received a response from anyone within the school district. And communication is key. And I would appreciate if someone could call me back about it. Someone besides the people from mosaic preschool Okay, thanks so much. Okay, we go back to the room if anyone would like to speak at the podium. Please approach the podium. And there's nobody at the podium. I'm looking for hands online there is one hand up online and 2 hands up I take it back. There's several hands up. I guess that I. Scared people thinking that I was going to close public common. So I'll go to the first name and that is Alana Yarra's if you could please state your full name and your municipality. Aloni Harris, Cherry Hill. I'm thankful that the board will be looking at special education and where classes are located based on the demographic study as a parent who sends to the Joyce Kilmer Elementary School. This elementary school sends children who live on the border of Merchantville if I had a student at pain those students could possibly live on the border of Pennsock in and if I sent a student to Barton those students also could live on the border of Pennsawken and if they needed to be assigned to the BES classroom that's in our elementary school all the way on the other side of town down Springdale Road. So these students need to be on a bus all the way from the border of Pensacon and Merchantville to attend school all the way almost close to the other side of town with the border of V or he is by E sham road. If I had a student who needed the MD class, which is only offered at Paint Elementary School and I lived on the east side of town, then they would need to be bussed to the west side of town not necessarily the far west side of town with the border of Pennsylvania and Merchantville, but with the border of Mount Laurel Township, which if they live on in the man sending territory, that could be a long bus ride. If those programs could be moved to centrally located elementary schools, Kingston, Knight, Johnson, even Stockton, at least students living on the border of Cherry Hill and other towns who have special needs could be in those programs. There are students that go to elementary schools that then need a special education class that is not offered in their home school and so halfway through elementary school they'll be switched to a new elementary school possibly across town to receive those special ed services and the same is true for special ed students who No longer need services. They instead of being moved, they're kicked out of the elementary school they've been going to and they have to start over and in their home elementary school where they may know people in their neighborhood but they don't necessarily know people in the schools. So besides looking at the demographics study and seeing what it shows and the numbers, please also look at how the special education services are offered in the district so that students can finish out their elementary school wherever they start, regardless of what extra services they need. Thank you. Okay, we go back to the room if anyone would like to speak, please approach the podium. There's no body at the podium. So I'm going to go back to the line and the name on the line is Penina Mintz. Please state your full name and your municipality. Dr. Plina Mins, Jerry Hill. First item is agenda item, 11.1. It is a violation of the first amendment. I'd like the board to consider removing it. The public has the freedom to speak and whatever subject they they so choose. So please review that with your legal counsel. It is the first amendment violation. A second aspect for the Board of Education, we would like to have transparency. It was brought to our attention that there are 64 homeless kids that are being serviced in the Cherry Hall school system. I think the board should come up with a letter to the public to inform us the public who has those 64 children are and who is paying for their services and what are the costs associated. I think the public deserves to know what is going on in Sherry Hill schools, especially because we are paying taxes to support the schools. Third point is going back to a fundamental issue that have caused many divisions in the Cherry Hill school system. And I will qualify the topic of that third point as the rise of hate and divisions and showhill schools due to implementations of BLM. DI ideology. I will be sending my public feedback to the board after this public comment. I'm basing the informatics for this specific public comment. On an article that came out by author Dan Dyker about the alignment of BDS and Black Lives Matter and implications for Israel and diaspora jewelry by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. We need to keep your comments specifically focused on items related to what's going on in our schools in our district. Okay, and this specifically to the policies, the following school DI infused policies are implicated and may be violating the policies, the following school DI infused policies are implicated and may be violating federal and state anti-discrimination laws. Those policies are 1140, 1523, 57 55, 2,188, 1057, 56, 84, 65 and 20. For 22,200, and 60, given the BLM support of Hamas genocide in Israel on October seventh and BLM long history of anti-Semitism, the immediate removal of all DIBLM contact from our schools is necessary. The board is required to uphold the US Constitution and all past and present anti-discrimination laws. Thank you. Okay, and we go back to the room and looks like we have a member of the public. Speaking at the podium, public comment. Please state your full name and your municipality. Benjamin Rood, I'm a resident of Terry Hill. I would like to encourage the board to maintain all of their current DEI initiatives. Diversity is an incredibly important part of Cherry Hill. Each one of us has our own unique story and each one of us has our own. Own unique. Ideas and vision to bring to Cherry Hill and to say that We are all the same as wrong. We're not. We are all very different and that those differences should be celebrated. Every time I hear that DI should be removed from our schools all I can think of is that's . One of the most divisive and hurtful things that we could possibly do. Because when you don't think about diversity, equity and and inclusion. Then you don't necessarily have a vehicle to respond to those who are in need of extra support and extra help. It's not about targeting a service for. You know, just this type of person. Diversity, equity, and inclusion means we take into account. Everybody in the district. Because we are all very different and we all have different needs. I would also like to encourage the board to never ever even think about outing the names of children in our district who are. Displaced or don't have a home I that that's one of the most appalling things I have ever heard. We don't We don't categorize and and and label people in this way so that we can worry about who's tax dollars are paying for these children. That's appalling. And I think it's really important that we respect all of our kids in this district. Not everybody is lucky to be in a big mansion on one side of the town or other. There's all kinds of people in this district. There are rich and there are poor, there are abled and disabled, there are all kinds in this district. And I encourage the board to always take into consideration that there are people very different from you. Who need you to set aside your own belief system and your own needs and look and say. Do the do I what can I do for these other people? What can I do to make sure that they're experienced as good as mine or as good as, you know, my group? I think that's just super important for the members of the board to do. Thank you. And then we go back to the line. And we have, Dr. Yonatanjarz, if you could please state your full name and your municipality. Certainly. Dr. Yoni, I'm Cherry Hill. I don't want to be repetitive. So I'm gonna yes and everything that Dr. Rood just said. I'm also going to yes and him from earlier in the meeting when he wanted to yield his time to the student reps. I believe our board has not done the best in following the updated law from 2021. That then mandate student board representatives to have a seat at the table. The law states they are non voting members, but we keep treating them the second class citizens, which is what the tradition was in Sherry Hill when I was growing up, but we have had a board, a leadership of the district administration. Led by our past superintendent and fully embraced by our acting superintendent of valuing student voice and encouraging to have a seat at the table but every time a student rep seems to be out of line by wanting to speak before the board members. They are constantly shot down and I am tired of the disrespect being shown to our student reps. Who have gone above and beyond this year and being leaders for our community. From following up and supporting all students at East and West following the terrible instance in October. And seeking to be leaders for our entire community. Their voices deserve to be heard because frequently what they are going to say could then influence the board members. Who are trying to figure out what the policy of the district should be. Moving on, to back to what I prior speaker was talking about. We are required by law to educate all homeless students. In fact, many of them, we may be the only place where they are getting meals. I think we should remember what our obligation is and our obligation is to every child in the district. And it's appalling, to have a member of the public speak about that. And I appreciate Dr. Rood getting up and addressing that. Thank you so much. Okay, we go back to the room. And there's nobody at the podium. So we go back to the line. And the name on the line is Laura Pendergast. If you could please state your full name and municipality. Hi, Dr. Laura Pendergast. Cherry Hill. And I just wanted to say a few things. First I wanted to second everything that Ilana Yars said previously. I think I'm really glad to see the demographic study is being done. I think that's clearly needed. And I think it's really important and an area that we can focus on, is continuity in special education. I think that it's really important. That we that students feel special education students be able to start we're finished in the schools that they start in i also think it's important that they be able to transition to middle school with the kids in the elementary schools that they've gone to and the programs that they've gone to. So I hope that all of those things can be under consideration. I don't think that parents of, genetic kids would be accepting of kids having to bounce around away from their friends. And in fact, they haven't been when those issues have come up and I don't think special ed parents should be asked to accept that either. And so I hope that that continues to be a focus. I'm thrilled that, that we're talking about that. I also hope as we think about new board candidates that you think carefully about special education experience. And, in that, in your decision there. And finally, I, wanted to just mention, a few important points about school law. One being the McKinney Vento Act. So just for anybody who needs to know, it is federal law to educate homeless students. This is not an option. This is not something that Terry Hill has just decided to do for fun. Like it is federal law. That we be educating homeless students. And so I've heard several times in different meetings over the past few years. People suggesting we violate federal law. In regard to homeless students and that's unacceptable. There, we can't do that. And there's no reason to be bringing that up and put, and put. The most vulnerable students. In our district in the middle of our culture wars, we don't need to be doing that. We have to serve them and we should serve them. I, the other thing. Is that, you know, I've been a foster parent in this community for many years and the hardships that families go through in this community are real and are intense. And kids who are experiencing homelessness, kids who are in foster care, the last thing they wouldn't ever need is to be bumping around schools. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Penta. Dr. Pendergast. Like we need as a community to surround them with love and. Give all the support to them we can and so I just I hope that there's not further discussion about violating the McKinney Vento Act or violating FARPA and outing students. Thank you. I look to the room and I think we have someone approaching the podium. Was wondering where you were. You seem to want to make a public comment earlier. So please, you know the drill. Name and Mr. PAL, let me please. Steve Redford, Cherio. Yeah, I apologize. What happens when you take a phone call and then I come back and it's second public comment already? Wow. So I just want to touch on the labor management collaborative. I want to thank, Dr. Morton for the presentation. It's been very Engaging, nice to get around to the schools, talk to people and have some great conversations with the staff in the administration. We're almost through all the schools. I think we have about 2 left. I want to thank Miss Winners, Mr. Mayor, for hopping in. To replace Mrs. Fleischer and Mrs. Elmore Stratton. It is different. Mr. Stern, I will agree with you. And it is something that other districts are doing not many. Having the the ability to talk to those districts though has helped us because they're, you know, experiencing the same things that we are. So sometimes, you know, we want things to move quickly and they don't. So being able to share those experiences with other districts in, a statewide type of thing. Is helping us but it is not something that's ever been done. And I'll just end that, you know, perhaps we have all. Like as a good coach would say I have all the right players. To move this forward so I think maybe we have all the right players. That we can move this forward with. And that's why it's not happened yet. And now it can. Thank you. Thanks for Coming as we expected you may come like I was waiting so thank you Mr. Rick Short is on the line and if you could please state your full name and your municipality. Hello, it's Rick Stewart, Terry Hill, New Jersey. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. I'm calling on remotely. I want to quote a recent email from Dr. Morton where he writes to me is this is an exact quote. It appears that you are fixated on the Black Lives Matter organization. And I do not understand how this applies to the district. Well, I'd like to make a comment to this because, way back on, November 20 eighth, Dr. Morton, said that Black Lives Matter, He praised as speaker. Basically saying Black Lives Matter was a Not a hate group and Martin Luther King was the same as Black Lives Matter. So here's the thing, just 8 days ago. Oh, there was a Black Lives Matter rally in Philadelphia. And at that Black Lives Matter rally. One of the speakers was praising. And I say again, praising someone that killed the New Jersey State Cooper. Yes. Mr. Short, Mr. Short, your comments need to be specific about our district and your currently moving out of that realm. Please return to that realm. Well, I'm just replying to an email. That Dr. Morton wrote to me. I don't know how other, I don't know any other way. To communicate. With Dr. Morton, if I can't ask this. Online. It's it's it's quite fascinating. That I'm being, I feel that I'm being shut down again. When he writes me up, he writes me an email. And I reply to the email to the public. And you shut me down. Okay, well then let's talk about. I. I. Is also could be considered or no really is considered what, what my definition is. Is. I, I can't find this in my notes. You throw me off here again. Oh, it's a genocidal ideology. That's how it ends. Now your affiliation with University of Penn, you know, bring some questions about How, this is, McCoy or Washington. Is working with equity and it's so funny that You're so based around equity. And the, I mean, I'll just end it with this with, what, 7 s is you can't. You can't define. You can't find a school that's ever done. Okay, yes, that's their time. Thank you, Mr. Short. And I need to say that you have the right to speak and make a public comment that is freedom of speech in this country and the freedom of speech in our meetings. I will also say that your comments offend are highly offensive to many members of our community. I think it's important that I speak that, speak that out loud. And share that with you. Share that with our community. And we go back to the room and we have. Other members of our community at the podium and these are the students so you both have a priority so we'll go to please state your name and municipality. I'm Matt Ranchellas, Cherry Hill. I'd like to, second what Dr. Rude as well as a lot of other people who spoke today said. I'd also like to speak in favor of the DEI. Programs at East and throughout the district. I think that a lot of the time the people who are pushing back against these policies are not actual students and it's great to hear from students who these policies are actually affecting and who actually have interactions with these policies when I hear push back it's from people who are not and may have never been members of the school district in terms of as a student. And because of that, they are proposing like these outlandish claims about what these practices are. And the only thing I can conclude is that they have no idea what they're talking about. They have no first-hand experience with these programs. They don't even know about what they entail, what they do for students. I think a lot of these people are hiding behind the idea that Oh, like these are destructive to the students. These are like making people feel like so upset, like hurting students. If that was the case, there would be students here talking against these programs, which there's not. And I think that speaks to. The fact that these are in place and they are helping students and people don't have an issue with them. And through the people through the Since that I've spoken to, that has been the case. I haven't heard anyone's like saying. That they think that these programs should be abolished or just removed entirely. I've heard I've heard of people saying. Of ways to improve these systems and build on them. But I have never heard of students like just completely saying we should get rid of these. And I think that's important to consider when talking about these policies. Thank you. Okay, and now. I have another member of our community who's a student. So if you could please state your full name and municipality. Colin Duckett, Sherry Hill. I want to apologize if I sound out of breath. My heart rate is up here both from the outrageous comments said tonight as well as my unhealthy consumption of caffeine. The comments tonight are absolutely outrageous. Regarding DEI. Based off of the current political climate of our town as well as the beliefs held by our students, DEI will never be repealed from our district. It shouldn't happen. We should be like Dr. Rood said we should be fostering. Acceptance for people of all backgrounds. It's not something I think at this point in today's. Day and age, it's not up for debate. We're not going to go backwards. We know from history that being prejudiced to anyone on any basis has never worked and is never going to work. And I would just like to say that as the West representative any student, I support any student. Race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender orientation, and any other difference that too often divides us. Thank you. Okay. If there are any other students in the room or online who'd like to speak, please. He sort of approach the podium or if you're online and you're a student, please put an S after your name and raise your hand if you'd like to speak. Okay. I don't see any hands up. I'm gonna look one more time into the audience and there have someone who'd like to speak at the podium a member of the community so please state your full name and your municipality. Lee Plan, Cherry Hill, I do realize I was just up there. I can't not say anything, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to get extra time and don't put this into your decision. Back is this. I work at a university. We have DI programs there. You don't get rid of them. You can improve them. You can critique them. You can try it. You can work on things. But if you think that the answer is to throw a bunch of stones at people. If you think that the answer is to take away resources. Then you're kneecapping our entire society. Period. That's not even a light statement. I see the students and they come out of Cherry Hill. I see the students and they come out of other I work at a state school. Not the most diverse school, but I'll tell you what it's very, it's diverse enough. There's no one way. Forward. I'm Jewish. Everything we're talking about, I have mixed emotions on a lot of things anyway, but I'll darn well tell you the truth. DId I'll darn well tell you the truth. DEI is here to stay. It needs to stay. It needs to stay. We need civics to stay. It needs to stay. We need civics. We need conversation. It needs to stay. We need civics. We need conversation. We need communication. We can disagree all we want. But the things I heard today No, just the answer is no. So that wasn't the most eloquently put, but I just, I can't sit there, listen to that and not say something. Thank you for speaking. Thank you for speaking. I think those are the loudest voices. I appreciate that. Okay. And we go back online and the name online is, I hope I pronounce this right, Samia Mian. I hope I said all right. And please take your full name, pronounce it the way it's supposed to be pronounced and your municipality. You said it very well. So my name is Sami. I am a member, a proud resident of Cherry Hill for the last 10 years. I take pride and cherish the richness and diversity of this community. Grateful for eating every board member who has dedicated their time to Sacrifice time away from their families and personal lives for the well-being of the students. At this point I would like to comment. Now that we are selecting a new board member to the team. I request from the board members to have an intentional role in elevating different voices. I favor for them to create leadership academies where they can teach interested community members about the workings of the school system. They can create committees and advisory boards that allow parents to get more involved in the school district if they choose. And a good solid leadership program that's run by parents, educators, and teach and students can drive accountability and transparency about how this system operates. The effort really has to go beyond simple ethnic matching. And not having enough people to represent is also not a good enough excuse. Some school board associations have even suggested to push people to do it. A majority of the time people don't run until something triggers them. I believe that the role of the school board members is not trivial. Their viewpoints and they're diversity. Makes a huge difference. In how the school system is run. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Okay, we go back to the room. If anyone would like to speak, please approach the podium. You look online, there's no hands online. And we will close public comment. We will go on to. S acting superintendent comments. Thank you very much, Mr. Stern. I have definitely have a few comments. First and foremost, thank you to Colin and to Matt for your comments again. Tremendous amount of appreciation and respect for you for you both and standing up here and courageously. Stating your position and your perspectives. I absolutely love it. This is what it's all about and this is what we seek to do when we talk about student voice is to cultivate. Leadership in this manner. So fantastic. Also had a great time yesterday spending some time with both of these gentlemen and as well as several other students from high schools east and west. Or members of the superintendent student advisory council. We talked about how we're providing staff members via the LMC framework, but the opportunity for collaboration teamwork and voice. We also give that opportunity to students as well. And typically, as we, we think about how we approach things, there's one school is another school but you know to have students come together to work. Together and work in common to solve problems and to talk about ideas and to provide the input. Is what it's all about for us. And as I told them yesterday, it's about cultivating leadership. For these young people. So. Got to spend about 2 h. With them I got to put on my teacher hat from many years ago. Roll up the sleeves just a bit. So it was fun. Definitely looking forward to other opportunities as well. Thank you to the entire community for your flexibility and for your patience with us. We've had to alter our schedule for your flexibility and for your patience with us. We've had to alter our schedule right a bit due to the inclement weather, Closer, that results obviously in. School being in session for February sixteenth. There was quite a bit of snow that we were, that, that we, received. And there was a team behind. The scenes that work diligently. Came in 3 am at night and worked. Double time over time, triple time, and what I feel like, our buildings and grounds crew, to ensure that our buildings were cleaned up sufficiently. And ready to go. So kudos and thank you to our buildings and grounds crew. It's a Steve Nicolea who's our director of facilities. Miss Sugars as well for her guidance and leadership. With that department as well. I just want to clarify so Friday is. An early dismissal day at the high school. Students may take that as a wellness day staff will have the opportunity to engage in professional learning communities gives our high school teachers an opportunity to. To spend time discussing student learning. They may choose to use that time to engage in lesson planning, data analysis. Things along those lines, but it's time that's necessary as we talk about academic growth and spurring academic achievement. Thank you to all of those who apply for the the vacant board seat and thank you for all those who who came tonight. And stood up here in the hot seat. Under the magnifying glass in under the microscope. And shared how you will move forward and helping our district to become. Even better than it is. Open house events. Her this week. High school West is scheduled for this Thursday. Open house open house. Yes, it's great open house Wednesday, okay. The 20 fourth, yes, Wednesday the 20 fourth. As high school West, February first high school east. So come out. Taking opportunities to spend some time. investigating both both of our schools. I leave with this. I had an opportunity to. Connect with an individual out of out of Chicago, Illinois. This is just an update on Islamophobia training. I'm starling is here. We together we're on a call with Amina as well. Had an opportunity to speak to Mr. Quadri out of. Chicago, Illinois. Superintendent of MCC Academy. Who we contracted with to come out on February sixteenth to conduct an Islamophobia training. So I see some some laughter there. Obviously we're gonna have to. Adjust our schedule because February sixteenth is no longer in service day. It is now a regular school day. But we're going to be connected later this week and we will identify times that he's available to come out. So I appreciate I appreciate the partnership. I'm on Stalin, thank you. Mina isn't here, but I'd say thank you to her as well. This is what it's about for us, community working together and benefit of all members of our community. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Martin. And now I will make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Dr. Rood. All in favor Alright