[Music] [Music] you [Music] not [Music] spe good today too I'm just try to the heavens you [Music] know I love every time back [Music] job e good evening welcome to the G Township Board of Education today is Monday February 12 2024 and this is a public meeting in accordance with public La 231 both adequate Electronics notice for this meeting was provided to the Press of Al municial building and the district website on January 13th 2024 may I have aoll call please Mr Chester Dr m Mrs a Mr Mr Mrs Dr here Mrs here can we all rise for salute L by Dr January January 29 and january9 could you speak louder I can is that better is that better very okay we have approval of minutes this evening from our January 8th reor meeting our January 29th board Institute meeting in our January 29th Bo Institute executive meeting minutes so can I motion to approve those meetings minutes move all in favor I any opposed any exensions I for January 29th The Institute meeting and also the executive meeting thank you any other exensions I also abstain from 29 the thank you at this time we will open up the meeting for public comment if there is any public comment can you come to the microphone state your name and whether or not you're a gallery resident please microphone's on the right are you the board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents this meeting will now be open to public comments 5 minutes per person please if questions pertain to litigation student or Personnel items please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board does not discuss these matters in public depending upon the nature and complexity of your questions the board secretary may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to resp as a reminder this is a public meeting and all comments should be appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner you can just state your name and address please my name is uh Fred trer my address is 17 Mill Street Port Republic however I'm a taxpayer through two businesses in this Township I teach in this Township and I pass during this Township so I have a vested interest in what's going on am I allowed to address board members and ask simple questions it's it's not a question answer session we certainly take your questions and back to you sure out of all board members is there any here that believe that objective truth exists we can't understand what you're saying sure that's better thank you is there any board member that believes objective truth exists for instance 2 plus 2 equals 4 that's objectively true would you agree again this is not a question no problem I I I'll continue sure when it comes to the issue of transgenderism which I think you buried in the agenda in 16.1 if I'm correct we have what is objectively true and I no one will disagree that biological sex is male and female and INX which is just an abnormality it's not a new category and yet gender dysphoria is subjective no amount of gender reassignment no amount of hormone treatment no matter whether you have functioning or nonfunctioning genitalia can change you on a chromos level it is objectively true however people subjectively change their mind all the time if you bow to this agenda and choose the subjective over the objective what you have said is is that although people can change their minds and we know that they cannot change their chromosomes you're choosing to ballot the altar of the Mind instead of what is objectively true these people have who truly do have gender Foria are mentally Disturbed it's no coincidence that the last mass shootings have all been by self-proclaimed trans transgender people including the one in Houston yesterday this is a mental illness that needs to be on a mental illness LEL just stand by sure long as you have my time for thank you and since we know we cannot change someone's biological sex and yet we can change their mind and yet choose to entertain people with mental illness conditions I think we were just absolutely foolish I call call on you to have just what was 10 20 years ago common sense I call on you to recognize that that there are obviously only two biological genders I've met at gway township you cannot get an aspiring without parental permission I'm sure none of you would approve of young people getting tattoos without parental permission I bet no child in the lower school can sign themselves out Ro your Halls without supervision and yet you're going to let them make life-altering decisions without parental input this is some sort of new Insanity you're going to entertain their pronouns their new name choices all without providing parents information I think that everyone on this board everyone in this room would agree that in a loving relationship between parent and child the government has no right to step in and alter my child's thinking any other child's thinking brainwash them or affirm any other delusions that they might have if you can't give a child and ask for him without parental permission and yet you're going to call them by a different name and entertain this delusion I would say that this Bo is insane I would urge you to vote no to reject the state guidelines to keep the status quo for the sense of sanity and I would be remiss if I didn't as a Christian Pastor on this board anyone who thinks is way call you to repentance and understand that it is God who set up the family it is God who made them male and female and it is he who gets to determine all of these things and what you're doing when you do this is you're taking away parental rights you're saying that the state should have control over the children more than the parents when you give the state this power and you understand it can be used against you if in future Generations we want to as religious people indoctrinate your kid kids put religious materials in their hands the way that you want to put pornographic materials in libraries if we wanted to do these if we wanted to take your children without your consent and baptize them I'm sure you would all be all up in arms about parental rights well certainly this is how many of the people in this room including myself feel and I would urge you to just use common sense to reject what the state wants you to do and to listen to your constituents and the people that you allegedly serve thank you I'll you have my time [Music] thank if you can leave your name and contact information on the signing sheet I think there's one right at the board yes sir and I at the podium so we know thank you and I think there's some misunderstanding but item 16.1 is executive session we don't even have executive session this evening and to my knowledge there's nothing up for vote regarding anything in your statement so if the superintendent could reach out to you or somebody from the district would reach out to to discuss further that would be fantastic so any other public comment this even you can come in the microphone state your name and address please again time to 5 minutes and again it's for agenda items only if we're not discussing something on the agenda this evening I will be I would ask you to come back when we are discussing set item if you are um my name is Sher Cas I live at 117 carane in Gallow Township um my both children have gone through all of the schools here from elementary to high school um I just would like to get on the record that not everyone believes as was just announced by the past speaker Mr schwanger um there is a lot going on that I I'm not I didn't have anything prepared because I didn't know this would come up tonight but I have been very in issues with policy 5756 um this is a 10-year-old policy that is guidance that is provided to the schools to um for how to support transgender and non-gender conforming students I know you guys all know that I just would like this on the record I think there are many more people that feel as I do they may not all be here um but I do not see the only thing I can see with this coming forward now is taking a policy that's been in place I was just at another Schoolboard meeting in another District where I don't live supporting this policy um where as far as I know there's never been an issue I had I did not hear one parent um complained that they had some secret kept from them about their child um because of this policy this policy is designed for children who might feel that they're not safe revealing something to their parent or maybe maybe for guidance to help them to do that and that is the point of the school this is what I've been educated on this policy this is what I have been told um so these are guidelines to support a very small percentage of our children the belief of whether true or not true you know is is Up For Debate I understand but the americ Medical Association and psychological associations and many I don't have them here because I wasn't prepared with this however do support um the fact there are people that identify differently and if the schools are not a Christian School they're not a Muslim school they're not any particular religion is a public school um I'm hearing at other WS a lot of talk from Christian um from the Christian side um trying to invoke those P those beliefs into the public school and I don't believe that that's where that belongs um I have been through the school like I said my children have friends I have a family M several family members who are in the lgbtq community um you know the main purpose of this is to support children that might need some help or guidance um it is shown that a trusted adult for someone especially someone who's transgender can make a difference between life and death and if they need some guidance and help with um with talking with their families then that is exactly what this policy is for so I just wanted to get that on the record thank you thank you again if you could leave your name and number have if you have any questions and again if we're discussing an item that's on the agenda this evening we welcome your comments but if we're not discussing something if if people could just hold their comments until it's at a point where we're actually discussing it are there any other comments this evening Yes again agenda items please and just to note any transgender items that may or may not be discussed are not on this tonight's agenda if you can H your name and address Jim Tyrie at 19 Manchester in Galloway New Jersey thank you um I would just like to know uh how this happened why am I here and other people here concerning transgender why are we here for that if it's not on your list how' this happen sir I'm not sure but I can tell you that our agenda is public it's on our website and it's published prior to the meeting so I'm really not sure how that information got out and where does it get published where's the official publication excuse me where do you publish it on our district website G thank you y um if I could though I would just like to make a few comments I know certainly comment but again it must be okay I I I just wish these things did not come up in school I wish that I had went and spoke up when they took the Bible out of school when they took God out of the schools when the Ten Commandments thy shallal not kill one of them the most important one was taken out of school I wish I had the wherewithal to come forward now I'm almost 80 and oh I regret not being there and what we're having today I don't understand why you would even want to entertain anything about sex why are we talking about sex in school Reading Writing arithmetic where does this what does that have anything to do with school I understand concerns that people might have oh my God that would be I would be here trying to support my child if they came forward and express some of the stuff that was in their heart and I would help them but and I would get help from them but not from the school board not from the state all I know is that I may not hear about when this comes up because I'm I'm just not in tune with always knowing when something's like tonight I I'm here because of misinformation but jeez the Board of Education can we get it out of school don't even talk about it don't put it on the agenda vote against it if it comes up even if you lose funds from the state it would be better if our school didn't have a swimming pool or a basketball court any of the funds you get from the state deny them forget them don't get them at all period just go without it why do you need it you don't need to vote on these kind of things get it out of the school that's all all I want to say basically and I wish I said this 30 40 years ago when my children were coming up in the day when it seemed like everything was fine St stayed out of your business I guess that's why I didn't come forward I didn't speak up because they were staying out of your business but to now it's like the state wants to tell you how to take care of your children when it comes to education of sex or religion or any of that I love what the Pastor said if if I were to go around trying to enforce my ideas about getting baptized and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ boy I tell you what I would be put in prison so I just want to stop now and I I just hope that because this board at least this board but there's so many throughout the state there will be as many people probably only maybe 10 or 15 and and they're not even protesting in at all not that we should protest we shouldn't even be here talking about this so sir thank you thank you so much for your coms if you could leave your name and number on the again we would like to keep the comments to agenda items only which for this evening does not include transgender issues you could state your name and address please my name is Kelly Grace my tax address is 27 bail Court in Galloway I want to thank thank you board for the job that you do I want to let everybody know that on the mission statement that they are responsible for unifying unifying bringing together teachers parents families community so we respect when you folks remember that when things come up to agenda these folks may not realize and I know you off subject you already voted in the transgender correct you already voted it in December is that a yes I'm not exactly sure what part of the transgender you're talking about but this is not a question and answer session this is and we will certainly okay well we stick to the fact that your core values say you respect hard work kindness trust and Equity this whole meeting started with the Pledge of Allegiance and we still spoke about God you pull the money out of pocket it still says God on it right we're still godly people and we put trust in you to vote in the right things and I'd like to make a statement and ask that the board when something is important as the things that affect the child and parent safety and all of that that it's put in a language that we can understand is that something that's possible that when cuz I spoke to somebody ear earlier that you folks rely on to give you policies when they originally wrote their policy on transgender they included the parent in with it in 2014 and 15 when they wrote the policies but the state didn't use their policy they started their own I don't know where the money's going to come from for the losses that lie ahead of you um I don't even know if money was tied to the fact fact that you voted in a transgender policy I don't know that I'm not asking that because you're not going to answer anyway but I need to make a statement of the fact that things need to be simplified we're not lawyers we just care about our children and our grandchildren that are coming to each the school I didn't have to worry about that when my daughter went through it never even occurred to me to go to a school and say hey what's your St education program I know how it was in my school the learning was all about reading writing and arithmetic it was the things that we could use I know we live in a different world but we can't just keep accepting things that damages the family unit and the trust we put in you and all the school officials that's all I have to say thank you is there any other public comment this morning [Applause] hi can you say your name and address please could you state your name and address please my name is freder senior I live in Port Republic New Jersey but I have grandchildren who go here so I have aest of Interest I'd like to First say for us who are here who are not pro of this that we are sorry we were under the understanding that it was going to be tonight so you can bear with us why we've take our personal time to come for our concerns it certainly doesn't hurt to listen to us sir it does not hurt to listen to you at all thank you however again if it's not an agenda item and something that we're voting on this evening we ask that you come when we are going to be voting on it so that we can have a productive conversation at that time I understand it that's why I apologized ahead of time man and told you that we're here without our knowing that there wasn't this time all I'd like to say is this Common Sense rules and I'm looking at some of you folks and I'm hoping that you do have it we we probably all agree right now at least on this side that you voted and you're not willing to tell us that that's fine but consider I want you to consider this what do we pay teachers for we pay teachers to do one thing teach whatever the subject that they are assigned to and been taught nothing else for our children we are the ones who pay the teachers they don't pay us they work for us if I hire a carpenter to come to my house and do carpenter work when I come in I don't expect to find him doing my Plumbing not experienced at it I'm not paying him for that all we asking for you folks to do and to hold up is to have the teachers do what we pay them for period it's just common sense you wouldn't do it in any other vocation there's no reason to do it in this one thank you very much thank you seeing none we'll move on to presentations please so at this time our first presentation is the 2022 2023 audit presentation at this time we'd like to introduce Daniel deanii partner of Bowman and Company welcome Mr Dei thank you hopefully uh can everyone hear me yes sorry um well first I'd like to thank the board for having me come back and do the audit this year um everything went very smoothly uh we worked with the District administration and the staff and administrative building um we completed the audit um everything's been filed with the state of New Jersey and the federal government um you should have received um these two books electronically um the act for annual comprehensive uh financial report and the AMR auditor management report I believe the business administrator has uploaded the auditor management report to your um I guess Bo docs or whatever program it is um in that um management report there's some general information on a few of the different procedures We performed um it's a very brief summary in there you'll find some student enrollment accounts as well as U net cash resources calculation and um access cus calculation um this this report does change annually depending on if you've had a Child Nutrition cluster single a or not so it may look different year-over-year um I just want to raise your microphone little bit you're fading out thank um the the main point of what I want to talk about is really in this uh large report um there's just a few items I wanted to mention um so we have performed your financial audit um we've also performed your Assa audit which your is your student en woman count the drrs which is your transportation counts that get reported to the state um in addition to that we also perform federal and state single audits so you had three Federal single audits this year and two State single audits um each of those are always required when District spends more more than $750,000 in federal or state funds um just going briefly over your audit report and some of the areas um your a statements are your District wide I would not recommend using them um when looking at things it gives a full acral basis accounting um of the district um where I probably focus more if you're if you're scaning through the audit is going to the B's and C's um you're be statements are you're going to be your um your major governmental funds your general f funds special Revenue capital projects and Debt Service funds um as well as your proprietary funds which is your food service Child Care uh gift in the town Consortium and Community Education programs um that's where the vast majority of all the transactions um of the district flow through um your C statements or your budgetary comparison statements um your general fund uh which starts on page 74 to 85 um that's where a lot of your transactions flow through and that's the budget that you're going to be working on in the next 2 months um on page 885 you'll see a recapitulation of your fund balances so it'll list each of the fund balances in the amount of your proprietary funds um on page 113 you'll see your statement of operations and that will show how your rary funds did throughout the year um your statistical section which is your J statements um they start on page 121 there's 20 statements there and uh most of those have a 10-year um history so sometimes it's nice if you want to look and see what your the enrollment has changed over 10 years average de attendance or um there's a lot of different pieces of information in there that could be helpful to you um also in the main part of the report are your footnotes um I know there's governmental accounting there's a lot of different terminology that might not make sense um it might not always sound logical but there in in the footnotes there's explanation of the majority of the terms that are used um and also there's information on your pensions your opad or other post-employment benefits as well as long-term liabilities um your debt um all those kind of items and leases they will all be listed in put notes um there's also an explanation of fund balances um you know kind of what each what that mean if and what the uh some of the uses of that so it's always good to look at that section lastly the single audit section that starts on page 152 um and that has a full detail of all the grant funds that flow through the district so you do receive quite a bit of grant funding um federal and state youred a is federal schedule B is state they're all listed there and um you can see what's spent on each of those grants I'd also like to point out at the end of that section is the findings section you have no um carrying your audit findings you do have prior year one which had to do with a um a funding uh item it was nothing that the district did wrong but it was just a required finding fun finding last year that's been resolved in the 222 threee and there no current year finings and then that's basically everything I wanted to recap thank you if anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer them thank you Dan um unfortunately I don't have the full report uploaded to mine I have the AMR and I have the summary so I think what's important to know for the board members is that there's no significant findings which is a really good thing we don't want any findings so that's great joy I think excuse me it's under Finance um where we are approving the audit and the report but thank you so it's under 7 7.9 79 thank you um so again no findings is a fantastic thing the fact that any recommendations from last year were cleared up this year Bo has done a fantastic job I just like to go over if there's any more recommendations this year not necessarily findings for next year were there any items no nothing significant um I did meet with the finance committee in advance of tonight this meeting right now and uh we've gone over a few different things related to finance your fund balances um some other things to you know to consider um but you know everything was in very good shape okay perfect any questions for Mr thei thank you Dan thank you moving on Mr all right we to transition uh to two student presentations at this time Mrs junker will you uh join me down to recognize our middle school students the first uh is our Elks essay winners as well as our Dr Martin Luther King Jr winners as well we like to recognize our students and we're going to be calling you down here providing you with a certificate on behalf of the board of education for your hard work and for also being able to recognize you because we are certainly proud for the work that you do and how you represent G Township Public school so thank you at this time Mrs junker all right I want to thank those of you who are still here to um honor our students um it's very important to us to make sure that they feel appreciated and honored for what the hard work that they do while they're here at the middle school so I do appreciate all of you guys for being here um for the Elks Lodge of Galloway they wrote a cont there's a contest essay or essay contest what the bill Bill of Rights means to me and we actually had a second place winner and a third place winner right here at gtms so our who do you have there okay our second place winner is Amore aab congratulations I'm so proud of you any have you do congratulations don't go and we had a third place winner Mustafa Ali our eth grader [Music] [Applause] congratulations you have to get a [Applause] congratulations you guys is it okay if I ask our student council president to come down for the next one absolutely okay I need your help with this next one okay this is our student council president all right and he um worked with Mr crew maker right for the Martin Dr Martin Luther King Jr ESS contest and we had four four people who placed right all right so what does what do we have okay so first place we have Ayana a [Music] [Applause] congratulations in second place we had Ark bagette a [Applause] grer in third place we have Zaden basz and then we had an honorable mention which is Amar aah who will be up here [Applause] again [Applause] thank [Music] you thank you very much and on behalf of the Board of Education I'd like to also thank our parents for making sure that they were able to join us tonight I know there's a lot going on at home we also provided a little sweet treat for them maybe dessert before dinner for finding us some time to be here with us tonight so thank you very much and while Mr s is joining us we can introduce our student council representative this evening Mr om Patel and if you could just let us know what grade you're in what you what position you serve in the council and if you have any notes for us this evening hello I'm I'm the eighth grade city council president of the GT school um and we just want to talk about something that we've done and things that we're planning to do later on in the city council here U something that be done is sponsor the MS contest um and we also want to thank the African-American Heritage Museum of South Jersey to support our efforts um we also need a gtms clothing Drive about a month ago and we donated the funds to the AC Rescue Mission we also volunteered at the SJ Community Food Bank last Saturday and we're planning to do that later on we uh today the American sorry the African-American Heritage Museum of South J visited gtms and we had a big Museum presentation in the library where many kids got to see what what happened um and we got to celebrate Black History Month and stuff like that um something that we've done that's really big this year is we had trip to the Constitution Center in Philly as city council as a whole um it was a really fun trip and it's been really exciting and we're planning to make another one on April 10th to the New Jersey state capital trip which is in TR something that point to do is we're trying to incorporate having regular people that are out of city council and make them have fun and want to go to school and stuff so we are doing Valentine's Day related things um this week we're making a little spirit week so people would want to wear stuff um that are related to Valentine's Day so some things that we have is tomorrow is wear pink we also have stuff as like wear something that's related to Valentine's Day wear red and we also have a special thing it's like a twin day so people can uh dress up like their friends and stuff like that uh we're also selling candy GS as a fundraiser you're selling it for a dollar and you can give it to anyone in this school we also would like to volunteer at the South Jersey Community Food Bank again in March as we've done it so far on in February we'd like to do it in March April May and so far think is active that is a really impressive list of things do you need anything from us this evening do you have anything to ask us or anything that you'd like to for us to work on with you no I think we're all good okay well if you have any question questions we want you to be a part of meeting so if you have any questions or comments grab Mrs Chester's attention and she'll make sure that she gets my attention thank you and I just wanted to add with the board that I had the opportunity to join uh the students at the library today to uh participate in this activity for black history month and I have to say that I was I can't wait to share actually with the board bulletin on Friday um as a former social studies teacher I was taken back actually with how much information was provided how informative the displays were and Mr Hunter did an excellent job and they actually were all interviewed um today I Know M was interviewed as well um for CBS News I believe at 4:00 uh they were on that broadcast um and what a great representation for the school district this year the theme was actually centered on the history of Atlantic City um and talked about everything from you know different time periods and the timeline that went along with it with segregation and Jim Crow laws and things like that but it was right here in our backyard and how important it is to capture that history and share with our students I was I was very pleased to see what was uh presented and shared so I will be sharing with the board on Friday so we now have a celebrity here you may want to get nice very impressive thank you okay moving on with superintendent so at this time I wanted to share a uh brief statement that I prepared uh with the public and for the board uh and really what it deals with is communication so as superintendent of the gy Township School District I feel it is essential to address a growing concern that has come to my attention over the past few weeks and month there has been an increase in a dissemination of information and concerns through social media platforms while these platforms can be valuable tools for communication they can also be breeding grounds for misinformation and rumors I urge all members of our community to utilize the proper channels of communication when addressing concerns or seeking information regarding our schools and our district our district has established protocols and procedures in place to ensure that all inquiries and feedback are addressed promptly and efficiently by following proper chain of command such as reaching out to your child's teacher building Administration or District administration directly we can ensure that accurate information is shared and that any concerns are addressed in a timely manner this approach not only promotes transparency and accountability but also helps to maintain trust within our community it is crucial to recognize the potential harm that misinformation can cause both to our schools and to our community at large false information can lead to unnecessary Panic confusion and Discord ultimately hindering our ability to work together towards our shared goal of providing the best possible education for our students I want to reassure you that our district remains committed to open communication and transparency we are here to address any questions or concerns you may have and are dedicated to providing accurate information to our community so thank you for your time and cooperation and understanding as we work together to ensure the well-being and success of all of our students thank you thank you Mr s and moving on to our attorney's report please good evening everybody since the last time we met I worked with the district on some personal matters student matters contractual matters thank you there anybody questions for Mrs help El seeing none we'll move on to student enrollment report please so as attached you can see our current student enrollment report lat on 5.2 also 5.3 our out of District Su suspension report is attached and finally 5.4 our harassment intimidation and bullying report these are all informational items and no need to vot on these items at this time thank you moving on to curriculum instructions please so at this time we're looking to approve items 6.1 through 6.3 as noted thank you can I motion appr item 6.1 6.2 and 6.3 please so move is there any board comments may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr J yes Mrs hermano yes Dr paser BL yes and president har yes moving on to finance please thank you the first item is a finance committee update report by vice president Alexa the share of yes the finance committee met before the board meeting this evening uh we reviewed the February Bel bills list we also reviewed Financial reports Dan gave them more inth over of the audit report um and about it is there any questions for Dr okay moving on with Finance please thank you item 7.2 through 7.21 up for your approval thank you my apologies can I Mo that motion to approve item 7.2 through 721 please some second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mr Chester yes Dr permenter yes Mrs Avery yes Mr gas yes Mr gen yes Mrs hermano yes vice president mare yes and president Carman yes moving on to facilities please thank you the first item here is a facilities committee update report by chairperson Mr D we met the cour meeting tonight yeah get really close Rich I'm not withing tonight how about now can you hear me now we before meeting tonight and one of the highlights of our discussion was the gtms CH bid update and everything Jo up for everything other everything seems to be good and no must no fuss do you have any questions for Mr D seeing none moving on with facilities please thank you items .2 through 8.7 are for your approval can I motion to approve items 8.2 through 8.7 some is there any board comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr perment yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr jel yes Mrs herel yes vice president theer and president car yes Personnel please so at this time we'd like to approve item 9.1 it's a resolution to accept with regret the letter of intent to retire from the gy Township Public School uh School District staff members their dedication and years of service are appreciated and they are as follows Richard Richardson teacher at Roland Rogers 25 years in the district Barbara olon Roland Rogers teacher 22 years in the district Jose Diaz Rand Rogers teacher 20 years in the district and Luis Garcia gtms custodian with 23 years in the district thank you can I have motion to approve item 9.1 under Personnel so move j boy comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr fer yes Mrs Avery yes Mr n yes Mr J yes Mrs yes vice president M yes and president yes continue with Personnel Mr s so at this time we'd like to uh move items 9.3 to 9.10 thank you can I motion to approve items 9.3 through 9.10 under Personnel so move board comment may I have roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr per yes Mrs Avery yes Mr da yes Mr J yes Mrs carel yes vice president the sheriff L yes and president Carman yes and at this time we'll Applause for any introductions I do not believe that we have any new personnel with us but if I missed anybody in the audience please let us know I don't believe so seeing none we'll move on to policy please so first item is 10.1 our policy committee report Dr yes thank you the policies that the committee reviewed were all essentially boilet plate statutory language move Clos the policies that the committee reviewed were all essentially boiler plate statutory language with little to no opportunity for changes these were the nine policies that were reviewed long range facilities planning supervision of construction maintenance and repair hygienic management School integrated Pest Management plan lead testing of water in schools eye protection smoking in school buildings and on school grounds and the last one was drug-free workplace respectfully submitted Dr Sher parment policy chair thank you is there any board question question for Dr Parmenter I have one comment if I could policy number uh 7434 smoking school grounds also B is included and I hope that's supervised a lot in the schools itself CU vaping is I know I've already seen after school activities where to go out and parents are standing outside smoking and Bing and I just hope it doesn't carry on inside building thank you for students especially thank you is there any the board questions or comments for Dr parer moving on to the rest of the policy please so at this time uh we'd like to move items 10.2 through 10.12 as listed and attached thank you can I motion to approve items 10.2 through 10.22 under policy so move board comment m r Mrs Chester yes drer yes Mrs Avery yes Mr da yes Mr Jil yes Mrs Herman yes vice president mare BL yes and president car yes moving on to informational items please oh I'm sorry so at this time we'd like to move policy items 10.14 through 10.22 my bad can I motion to approve items 10.14 through 10.22 please some is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr perer yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr gen yes Mrs Herman yes um vice president thear La yes and president car yes now moving on to informational items please so 11.1 as our Board calendar is attached 11.2 we've listed some special events some save debates there's quite a few as the year progresses uh that I wanted to bring to the attention of the board uh some coming up this week for FSA Sports night in the gtea book swap uh there will be another opportunity for a final book swap that will be providing you a date for um there's also the district Coral Festival excuse me of Multicultural night and of course we can't uh we'd be remissed if we didn't advertise here for Mr Conover for the susal the musical here at gtms uh there are three opportunities to catch that musical we'll be reaching out um to our community to offer offer some um comp tickets uh that we typically will be dropping off to the senior center and for Seasons um so invite our community here to enjoy that that musical for free uh in addition a huge event at Rand with st bcks uh and then of course uh one of the largest events people of the year and retirement reception taking place at the Carriage House on April 26 and finally the blood drive in the gym on May 23rd to save mid dat again I encourage board members and and the community to attend these events moving on to new business please so under new business uh we'd like to make a motion to approve through items 12.1 through 12.2 this is our memorandum of agreement with uh gtps and the g Township Police Department thank you can I have motion to approve items 12.1 and 12.2 under new business so move any board comment um I have some new business I'd like to that is it related to 12 no so wait till yes okay you'll have an option to make a comment or ADD okay so is there any other comments on 12.1 and 12.2 may I brow up please Mrs Chester yes Dr carer yes Mrs Avery yes Mr da yes Mr J yes Mrs Herman yes that now or no no you president M Sheriff L yes and president Carman yes moving on to Old business Mr s so under old business we're looking to approve items 13.1 through 13.2 as attached um 13.2 just to note is a revised school calendar since we had to utilize a snow day um that meant one of our emergency closing days was taken back hence why we were um approving this board uh calendar or District calendar um for the remainder of the school year is there any questions from Mr s can I motion approve item 13.1 and 13.2 please so move any board comment may have Ro Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Mrs Avery yes Mr da yes Mr J yes Mrs hermano yes vice president B BL yes and president Carman yes at this time we'll open up the meeting for public comment once again is there any public comment this evening okay seeing none we will go around the board Mr Patel let's start with you do you have any other comments or questions for us this evening well we appreciate you coming and thank you for all the work that you and your your group does Mrs Chester um I just want to again acknowledge everyone who um won the ESS contest thank you you have to come closer that we can't hear you at all I said I just want to recognize again everyone do um who won sa contest what excellent job and um and thanks thank you Dr Parmenter I'd like to Echo what Mrs Chester said congratulations to all the students who won um the different contest we're so very proud of you thank you Mrs Avery uh great job to the student council at gtms because I know you're the lead activity in the school and other students look to you guys so keep up the good work thank you Mrs Herman and congratulations and congratulations to all the kids here tonight that got Awards um yes so I wanted to bring something up tonight and I'll put a caveat with that it doesn't have anything to do with the Galloway school what I'm going to read it has to do with a bill that's getting ready to be passed in Trenton on Thursday so just so you know but it's important that parents and School Board knows about it representatives in Jersey state and assembly have recently proposed new legislation entitled the freedom to read act the bill seeks to establish requirements for Library materials in public school libraries and to protect School library media Specialists against harassment however what the bill really does and this is my opinion but I also did write this with an attorney what the bill really does is completely remove local control of school libraries from locally elected Boards of of Education it strips away parents and community members constitutional rights to express dissatisfaction with decisions made by those elected officials the bill states that Boards of Education shall adopt a policy on curating Library materials it mandates minimum requirements but those minimum requirements are so exhaustive and not minimal that boes which is Board of Education have no discretion whatsoever in drafting the mandated policy the bill mandates that a board policy give the school library media specialist the sole authority to determine what materials are appropriate for the library and at what grades or ages that these materials should be available the bill gives Librarians and remember this is the bill absolute civil and criminal immunity under this bill if you express disagreement with the librarian's choices you are guilty of harassment on what basis is is this reasonable or lawful this bill also obliterates the states ofcity statute and allows Librarians to decide what is obscene and what is not if this bill passes a library meting specialist in the name of diversity can curate Library materials that show less than completely covered human I'm not going to say the parts but body parts including butttocks all in violation of the obscenity statute you and there is nothing anyone can do about it boes should work with administrators to decide what library materials will be available to children with parents and community members having input this bill indefensibly removes the responsibility from local control which is us and you and places it in the total control of the state it is clear attempt to intimidate and stop any Boe board members parent or Community member who may disagree with the materials in the public school library from participating in the educational process we are a board we as a board must take seriously our responsibility to ensure that all diverse viewpoints are expressed in its Library materials but board members parents and community members who want to express dissatisfaction have a constitutional right to do so never forget that this bill seeks to restrict and eliminate those rights to the to the detriment of our democracy and public school system a public hearing on the bill is scheduled this Thursday February the 15th at 11:00 a.m. in Trenton I urge all community members and our board to contact the New Jersey state and assembly education community members committee members tell them we support local control of schools in New Jersey and the right to challenge elected offical officials and urge them to withdraw this Bill thank you thank you Mr Gentile you know we'll come back to um thank you Mrs her for that that sounded very familiar to me because on Saturday uh there was an editorial in the Press uh that I read that's why it's s just check her that was actually the uh the editorial and I just have a different comment on a different spin on it uh it was written by somebody named kenel white who apparently is an attorney for the pafic Justice Institute and I would invite uh the members here to check out what that is uh but it is not a at least to me it doesn't seem a group that necessarily represents people but it represent issues which I absolutely Ely respect there's no doubt about it but I think the one thing we have to keep in mind is that when attorneys write things those things are typically subject to rigorous analysis by adversaries and ultimately interpretations by judges and when attorneys write things in newspapers they're basically just being rhetorical because there's no opportunity for an adversary to respond and what really kicked me in this editorial was there was a citation to a Supreme Court case a 50-year-old desegregation Supreme Court case that didn't talk about what this article said talked about and that got my wheels to spin to to look at this Etc and so on and again there's a lot of artisanship in this country right now there's a lot definitely a lot of artisanship in Trent right now and I get it and I would encourage everybody to become informed by actually reading the statute reading the bill instead of what some attorney says the bill says and form opinions based upon that but I have I think thinking about this a different approach and what concerns me is that school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan and we're supposed to be nonpartisan for a reason because kids transcend politics I don't get politics I'm not good at politics but I know one thing for sure politics are not good for kids I noted how many folks were here I've been on the board I think seven years and I don't think I've seen a meeting this full but in a few weeks we are going to probably be dealing with a deficit a cut in our state funding for our kids and we never have people here for that do why I don't know I don't know I haven't heard anybody come forward and talk about this in all these years and I know inequity is a charged word in this culture unfortunately I don't know why but it is but the folks in Galloway Township the taxpayers in Galloway Township are being treated inequitable why because there is $200 million of non-tax Real Estate in this municipality Stockton and Atlanticare now all you got to do is go online and Google what are the salaries of the executives of Atlanticare Atlanticare is a nonprofit corporation nonprofit corporation according to a 2002 report in uh uh it was a political uh not political a uh a website that tracks salaries the chief executive officer is making $1.5 million the Chief Financial Officer is making close to a million the head of medical staff is also making a very high six figure number yet they're nonprofit by Statute where are our where are our citizens and going to our legislators saying this is unfair the president of Stockon University according to the City Press makes $300,000 exx $300,000 a year and they're nonprofit where is the outrage of that where is the outrage where is the community outrage about this inac I've been on this board seven years and I haven't heard a word not a single word from the member of the public with regard to this INE we fill up these rooms on the issues that were discussed tonight but when we talk about talk about things that actually impact our kids how many kids are in a classroom because we can't afford more teachers what sort of programs do we have to C because we can't afford them nobody shows up that troubles me it troubles me so deeply that we let the media we let the media pull us into the culture wars at the expense of our children at the expense of our future I don't know why that is it troubles me it troubles me deeply and I hope we have this same kind of participation and attention and go to legislation and find out why in God's name is atlan nonprofit corporation why in God's thing are we socialized there's socialized medicine in this country it's people like us paying the corporations so that they can charge these salaries paying them by not charging them taxes putting the the the cost of the schools on the back of the homeowners rather than on the back of these corporations would would that would that people would stop worry about the partisanship stuff worry about how we're going to educate our kids that the the rubber hits the road the day-to-day stuff that our teachers deal with how are we going to do that how are we going to do that and I don't know the answer to that and it ter I'm sorry thank you thank you Mr [Applause] J I'm sorry can I just give them the bill number they can look it up sure okay uh bill is S2 421 thank you Mr D go ahead you have anything um I just want to welcome Mr Patel as a student council rep congratulate all the students who won awards everything for what they've done and going back a little bit I've been saying for years nonprofit organizations we should Approach at the government level at the board level and ask for donations at least and I've been saying that for years and nothing has come to that as all I can always say is state federal mandate state federal pay and maybe these organizations can help us out a little bit maybe through the Ed Foundation if not directly to us Dr M BL I'm just echoing um Poli have said congratulations to all the students um as we're I did a fantastic job speaking up here I know it's not easy getting up in front of everyone and and uh giving your updates we did a fantastic job and thank you and thank all the student council for all the work that you've been doing in the middle school we love it thank you Susan can I say one more thing quickly quickly for the school calendar next year can we have the Super Bowl Monday off the game is pretty late at night I don't think so no no I tried I'm sorry so thank you everyone for your comments I want to make sure that it's completely understood that the comments made by board members during the around the board section are the opinions of those individual board members they're not the opinion of the board as a whole um in addition I think it's also important to note that we have delegates to the county and state um Court associations that represent Galloway at both the pi state level and that's specifically where we have the opportunity to impact and work with legislators and address concerns that were brought up this evening so again I would encourage our delegates can you repeat that I'm sorry can you repeat that last statement sure as a board we have delegates to the county and state levels to the New Jersey school boards and it's those people that can work with state legislators and County legislators to make an impact and address the concerns that were brought up here this evening finally with respect of the bill that's been discussed please that this is just a bill at this time and it will likely go through numerous revisions and numerous rewrites and it's important that we let that process move forward and that we may or may not take action as a board of education on that bill um also it's important that we welcome feedback from the public and discussion at from the community at our meetings so we make the best decision for all the students in our district and if do we have executive session this evening seeing none can I have a motion adour so move all in favor I