I'd like to call to order the Highland Park Board of Education hybrid voting meeting Tuesday May 28th 6m the New Jersey open public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business may affect their interest is discussed or acted upon in compliance with the open public meetings act the Highland Park Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting setting forth the time date and location to be submitted for publication to the home News Tribune and Star Ledger and posted on the board's website at least 48 hours in advance of this meeting members of the public who wish to address the board will be given the opportunity to do so before the board adjourns for the evening roll call please Dr batty Miss cassal dun here Dr Coleman Dr Pixley here miss puce Dr schoolman here miss stano here miss baman here miss VOR here we will now uh recess to Executive session be it resolved pursuant to the sunshine act and JSA 10 colon 4-12 and 13 the Highland Park Board of Education will now meet in closed session to discuss Personnel hibs student discipline and to consult with our attorney these exemptions are permitted to be discussed discussed in closed session in accordance with njsa 104-113 information regarding the board's closed session discussion will be disclosed closed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists I move that we recess to Executive session second second all in favor I I um going to move that we reconvene to regular session roll call Dr batty Miss cassal done here here here Dr that was Dr Bey correct correct Dr Coleman Dr Pixley here miss pruce here Dr scholman here miss stanel here miss bamman here missor here stand for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu our Communications last month included emails about a cell phone policy um after school issues voting no on bus contracts cell phone ban F Carla Draper letter of recommendations um after care issues after school program two more about Carla Draper and actually three we now move to the approval of minutes I move we approve the minutes for the hybrid voting meeting on May 13 2024 second Dr batty yes Miss Cassel done yes Dr Coleman Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Miss stano yes Miss baman yes Miss Vorhees yes um we usually have our student representative report but our students are getting Awards tonight so um congratulations to them and we're going to move on to our superintendent report good evening good evening everyone thank you I have um two things I'd like to present in Spotlight the first is I'd like to call uh Hannah pavlock up to the podium she will be representing the high school for this evening's student Spotlight coming out of the high school hello well thank you so much for having us um so I'd like to introduce Isaiah Isaiah Caso was a student in the Highland Park High School glow growth and learning outside walls program who is currently partic participating in the 12 plus work-based experience he currently works at a veterinarian's office a pet store and our in-house Glow Run Cafe Capa Isaiah moved here when he was a freshman and since then we have seen remarkable growth in his vocational performance Independence and personal development Isaiah has identified a focus on the agricultural food and natural resources Career Cluster with a specialization in animals during the school year he takes care of Glow's emotional support guinea pigs which he refers to as his son and even gives them medical attention when needed he's notorious for his self-made commercials featured on cow's Instagram and his Creative Marketing strategies for Glow's various fundraisers he has broadened his comfort zone and has attended various gals this year so you may see him cheering loudly at a sporting event or belting out Lincoln Park during karaoke this year Isaiah competed at Deca state competition in Atlantic City and gave a presentation on Cupa glow alongside two of his CLI classmates although he was nervous he was 100% authentically himself and did a fantastic job overall this year Isaiah has put a smile on the faces of everyone he meets and strives to do his best work we are incredibly proud of him congratulations first of all I would like to say thank you I am so proud of myself I have never worked this hard when I was into the school I do love my son I this goes out to miss poock my nephews my guinea pigs I just love being here I thank all of you than you so much thank you we're so proud of you and you're more than welcome to stay for the continuation of the program although I know that senior Awards is tonight so if you need to go over there to Senor Awards please feel free to do so next I have a presentation from Beth  author of The Bridge to Victory so I'd like to invite Beth to come up to the podium when I saw the the email uh with this information um I was completely floored and moved when I looked at the website I was even more floored and moved and so we're really happy to have you here tonight and and very excited about uh the work that you did and the presentation to the school library thank you thank you so much superintendent cesco um so esteemed Board of Ved members and I know you're esteemed because I was a board bed member in Edison for seven years so I know about being esteemed we had the bush firm is our legal firm and I saw Jonathan uh yesterday we marched in the matachin parade together um anyway and uh so esteemed Board of Education superintendent guests and most of all young Isaiah incredible Isaiah is the kind of young man my dad would have been so so proud of so I'm here to tell you about the bridge to Victory this is the bridge to Victory now um this was supposed to be my Oprah moment when all of you were going to look under your chairs and receive a copy of the bridge to Victory but unfortunately the books didn't come and the only one I have right now is my sample copy I apologize as soon as they come Highland Park will be receiving several copies of the book for the school library so now you're wondering the bridge to Victory what's that about my father was Jay Howard dlan he worked for the Highland Park School System for 47 years he was renowned as a football track and basketball coach here in Highland Park and by the way I'm a 1967 Highland Park High School graduate my brother Mitchell just just came from delivering the Jay dlan award at the awards assembly and came in time to uh make my presentation um the bridge to Victory took me five years in a lifetime to write and it is a tribute to probably the greatest man I ever knew Jay dlan uh the book is in two parts and so I will explain a little bit to you about the title of the book my father father was a junior at pancer College in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and he was a fizzed major and fizzed Majors um take all Premed courses so being a junior in College of course he wanted to graduate before going into the Armed Forces so he got a group of his buddies together and they went to the um uh office where they could um you know sign up to to go into the service a recruitment uh office and they cut a deal that they would be permitted to go on a FastTrack summer program through the Summer of 42 graduate in October of 42 and be in the Army by November of 42 and so that's what happened uh he entered uh the United States Armed Forces um he was a uh private at first and and did move up to being a Corporal later in his career he was with the 86th pontoon Battalion of the first Army Corps of Engineers now the kids you know who went here you know back in the 60s when I was in high school here they didn't know that Jay had been in the armed forces because you didn't talk about it a lot of the men of that generation I'm sure you all know that many of the soldiers who returned from World War III didn't talk about their experiences but in my interviewing former students going back as early as 19 uh 44 I think um was the earliest student former student that I talked to um told me that back in those days when Jay first came home from the war he did talk about it and he did tell the students about it but as time went on you you know that became further and further in the past and he didn't want to talk about it um at any rate he uh the the first Army Corps of Engineers their job was to build the bridges ahead of the Infantry in the regular army and so that all of the supplies could be sent over to Europe and moved into Belgian France and ultimately into Germany they were extremely extremely important uh group of soldiers uh my father did serve as a combat medic he served in five major campaigns received medals for all five of the campaigns including uh the D-Day invasion uh the Battle of ST Low the Battle of the Bulge which was in those days known as the Battle of St vith uh the the uh Battle of Ragan which you may have seen the famous movie The Bridget Ragan he was there and the final push in into Germany his unit also liberated two concentration camps um uh nberg and uh I'm sorry Nord Housen and bunal and those experiences definitely altered him um my favorite passage in the entire book um is written about the Battle of the Bulge and what is it like for a 21-year-old man at Christmas time in a blizzard in a foxhole at 3:00 in the morning wearing a summer uniform uh not very warm no blankets weren't allowed to light fires it's 3 o'l in the morning your teeth are chattering what's a young man thinking am I going to get out of this alive nah not Jay Daman he's thinking football because that's definitely what got him through War just the love of sport when he came home in uh November of 1945 yeah it was very delayed um Coming Home the war was over in April but they had to stay to monitor what was going on he was stationed in Bavaria at the end of the war and had some pretty incredible and exciting experiences which are all described in the bridge Victory so part one Bridges they're building the bridges they're moving to Victory part two of the book starts in August of 1946 when Jay came here to Highland Park High School and met with principal Alfred Maynard and the um football coach had football coach bus Laine at the time and was interviewed for a job and was you know last minute offered the job now his job in those days uh when he was first hired he traveled around the three elementary schools which in Highland Park when I went to school there were three elementaries was LaFayette Hamilton and um thank you you know that was the other side of town I grew up on South thir Avenue anyway um so he was interviewed and offered the job he had to rotate every day between the three elementaries and then in the afternoons he would come over to the high school and work as a guidance counselor coach three Sports made $1,500 a year no stipend for coaching you just did it because you love to do it when he met with um Mr leine and uh Dr mayard um they told him well you're going to be an assistant football coach and you're going to be an assistant basketball coach and my dad saidwell whatat about baseball I love baseball I love the Yankees I played baseball in college and they bus said to him uh no you're going to coach track and my father said I don't know anything about track I don't know anything about track well in the spring of 1947 he coached his first track team undefeated won the state championship second third fourth fifth year all one state champ championships they didn't have a track they had two hurdles they didn't have any facilities this whole area here were was woods and mud and so the students that's how they practiced on the mud every now and again um they would go down to Rucker stadium and use the Rucker facility because my dad was smart enough to know to make friends with college coaches because he wanted his athletes to go to school and and he needed those facilities um to make a very long story short and I hope that you will read the book The two things that Jay was best known for um and a lot of you say oh well yeah the track the football field is named after him yes uh two things that really mattered to him he wanted every kid to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life it wasn't about athletes it was about Scholars ship it was about being a student it was particularly important to him that his students of color better themselves by going to college and he hammered on it and he hammered on it and he hammered on it the other thing I tell a story in the book that I'll share with you very briefly my father's sister was uh five years younger than he was and he was a beefy little boy he never grew much taller than I am but he was a beefy little boy and he used to play football with his little sister she was five he was 10 they'd play football on my grandmother's bed the uh you know the foot um holds at the at the bed uh they were the the goalposts and my Aunt Carol who was a tiny little thing would scream ma Jay won't let me make touchdowns but from very early on Jay believed that women should have equal opportunity in athletics and he fought for that from the very first day that he came here to coach um he took a young woman named Dy SS to track meets with him back in the 1940s I had the great pleasure of talking to Dad's husband and um you know the story is just incredible he uh also she wanted to go to Mammoth University to become a uh fed teacher and dad got her into Mammoth but her parents would not let her go to colle college so that was most unfortunate then in uh back when I was a freshman we had a young woman named Rosemary heldrich she was a great Runner also and my dad same thing used to take her to all the boys meets she uh worked out with the boys teams and uh whenever they could get her into an exhibition run she would you know get an opportunity to run it a meet he did arrange for her to run an Olympic trial um in the uh late 60s she ran for Monclair State and she ended up being the a track coach for the handicapped at Franklin High School until very recently she retired quite late so um just a couple of little stories uh so for his work in promoting um all students going to college concentration on underprivileged students and students of color his work in making sure that women had an equal opportunity and there's so many many wonderful stories if you read the book you'll you'll find out about them um he was in 1982 nominated as the national athletic director of the year nobody in New Jersey had ever won this very prestigious honor and when he went out to Texas for the award ceremony he didn't know if he was going to win but there were six other men who were nominated for the award they were all 6'4 65 you know big stats and hats and there in the middle was little Jay you know and he won he won and uh principal Austin gums made the announcement the next morning that he had won and he is to this day the only athletic director from New Jersey to ever have won that incredible award and that is really saying something uh so he was intensely proud of that um I just want to say that I owe thanks to so many many wonderful people a lot of Alum a lot of former uh people who uh taught in Highland Park secretaries who worked in Highland Park custodians who worked in Highland Park uh he was fair to everybody and to this day the stories are just incredible and it goes on and on and on I'm very proud of the book like I said five years in a lifetime uh to tell this story I was very lucky with the sources that I had my father started uh collecting newspaper articles in 1946 right through to his death in 1991 um he took over a thousand photographs during World War II I had those all the letters he wrote to my mother so I was very very lucky with the resources I had I want to say special thanks to Joe pastro who is as I say my brother from another mother um he was always um my dad's greatest Protegé and I love Joe and he was immensely helpful to me so as soon as the books come I will be here oh and I want to say thanks to um principal Lasser big loss for you guys big big loss he's a great guy and thanks to Joyce pucho for allowing me to come into the library to re search through old ALB alomes this was the Journey of a lifetime and thank you so much for letting me come and speak oh uh the bridge to Victory available on Amazon thank you so much thank you Beth would you mind taking a picture with me and you in the book would you mind taking a picture of holding up the book okay um any comments or questions from the board okay no thank you all right that concludes my presentation all right we're going to move on to public comment um this the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments board policy number 0167 establish and regulate the right of the public to participate in public meetings um we are going to start with people present in person and then we're going to move to people um in our webinar if you are in our webinar please make sure that the name that's displayed in the webinar is a first and last name so that we know who to call on um Angelo does the the selections for us and keeps track so it would be very helpful if we had your names um this public comment is our 30 minute public comment with a three minute limit um hi uh I'm Elizabeth wild Greenberg 16 nor 7th Avenue um most of you know me as Buffy I'm the mom of a fifth grader at B Sor interrup can you just speak closer to the mic so the people at home can hear you yes sorry about that um so tonight I'm here um to present a letter to the Board of Education um it was signed by um I think about 230 community members including more than 35 current and former um Irving staff members asking you to vote no on Dr susa's recommendation to fire M Carla from the Irving after school program um I am quite nervous to stand up here because I have been kind of racking my brain to think of what can I say to persuade all of you to do the right thing which I know is in your hearts to do and I know is why you are all on the board of education is to keep people like Miss Carla in our district I truly cannot think of someone who is more universally loved who goes to the students who need the most help and makes them feel like they have a home the idea that Dr CSCO wants to fire her from the after school program is is is is shocking is appalling is disgusting and the fact is is that I don't know I I don't know what each of you are thinking but I know that you know that it is wrong and I know that each of you has a has a vote and you can vote no and I was thinking about this like what do we tell our kids about standing up for the right thing right we tell them do it even if you might lose even if you might be the only person standing up for them you do it you go up to that kid who no one's talking to and you go up and you sit with them right it doesn't matter you do what's right and so I'm asking each of you to just do what's right and vote no because you know that that is the right thing to do and even if Dr Susa find some other way to push Miss Carla out of this District that is irrelevant to what your vote is tonight this is on the agenda you are asking to vote on it no matter what you think the ultimate result might be I'm asking you to vote your conscience I'm asking you to do what you why you all came to the board of education is to make sure that we have people like Miss Carla in the district um I have a letter here which said all of that in a much better less shap shaky way um Miss Carla has meant a great deal to my family I will just say personally when I was when my son was at Irving we had this is before he was diagnosed with autism before I knew anything about neurodiversity Ms Cara was the one who believed in him and who saw the best in him when his own teachers didn't and she is truly what got him through Irving he walked into school with her and I would pick him up at after school and my best memory is of him and Irving are walking into after school and seeing him thriving and happy um and playing with Mei I mean I still have those photos you know those are just hands down I I truly I can't think of someone in this District who I care for more um and who has done more um for for my son and and for all the kids in Highland Park so I don't know where I am on the three minutes Sor sorry we let you go a little bit over but thank you okay um anybody else in person for a comment good evening my name is James chelin can you hear me clearly can you please sign your name to the paper so I could record it for the minutes if you don't mind no if you could just lift the mic up or speak a little bit closer to it can you hear me clearly yes thank you as I mentioned my name is James gelfin my daughter Elanor has attended Irving for the past two years years in that time I've observed Carla Draper to be compassionate and competent my daughter hugs her every morning when I drop her off and when she gets home she tells me stories about what they did that day Miss Carla suggests books for El to read and art projects for her to go through and perhaps more importantly she Comforts Elanor when she's overwhelmed which happens because she's in first grade I'm grateful that there's an adult that I respect and Trust taking care of my child every day my son Robert is going to enter uh Irving in the fall he's going to be a kindergartner and until these recent events I was looking forward to him developing his own independent relationship with M car given my personal experience with her I have to say learning that she was no longer going to be part of the after school program I found that it was very very surprising I hope that whatever process is leading to a decision about this topic is pursued carefully and cautiously and judiciously given her long tenure and my personal experience with her it's not a decision to be taken LLY is a saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence personally I find the idea that my children would be better off without Carla Draper in the after school program an extraordinary claim thank you for your time thank you hello my name is Selma b um I'm G to be reading because I'm a little emotional my son is in kindergarten and he's in after after care with Miss Carla and the re the only reason he's in after care is because of Miss Carla he's in special education sorry and he struggled a lot the first weeks and she was the only person who took the time and the effort to comfort him and help him go through it and now he loves after school we were very surprised and deeply troubled that Miss Carla the esteemed supervisor of the Aftercare program has been terminated for her POS from her position this decision has been both shocking and disheartening especially given her commendable dedication and the profound impact she has on our children particularly those in special education my son who part of the special education has benefited immeasurably from his carless support she has been a pivotal figure of his daily school life providing him with the emotional support and guidance he needs knowing that he could turn to miss Carla when in distress and when he's struggling in um after care has been invaluable to his emotional wellbeing and also a huge piece of mind for us we both work full-time and um we couldn't imagine our son not being able to go to after school her dismissal without prior notice is d in his routine and will leave a void that will be nearly impossible to fill Miss Carla has dedicated her life to enhancing the after CARE program and making every child feel seen and welcomed and she did so much for my son I urge the board of the board members to vote no to miss Carla's termination thank you thank you our next inperson commenter sign in and then all right thank you board members uh over the weekend I sent a letter I was sorry can you state your name and I'm so sorry I wrote it but I didn't say my name my name is Eric Goldman I am a parent of two children who attend Irving Elementary I'm here to talk about the after school program over the weekend I wrote a very detailed letter with concerns I appreciate the other parents here who have defended the great staff we have our I would like to talk about the management of the program when there is a problem with staff you can just blame the staff but it also makes sense to look up at the management as I stated in my letter I have two very simple expectations from the after school program maybe some parents have more I want to know my children are safe and accounted for and I want accurate and timely communication from the program I do not feel I am getting that earlier this year I wrote a letter to the board about mistakes with uh they just change the way the pickup Works unsafe it was like that for many months with the prek in the dark on a Major Street right pattern of decisions again some incident happened they change it you have cars going multiple directions there was no one making sure that changes were made this is not a fault of the staff this is a fault of management we continue to see a pattern of these issues with management not communicating inaccurately communic ating being uh what's the correct word not treating parents with respect maybe being Cy maybe not being accurate we see an example of this last week I know other parents have mentioned this or will mention that I just got here I apologize if I didn't hear everyone who spoke already but what I would like this board to do is before looking at the staff ask yourself if you have good management do people just quit we are seeing not only a staff member May being considered to be terminated but we're seeing other staff members quitting we are seeing large number of people quitting I'm being told that other staff members are quitting is that an issue with one individual or is that an issue with management my expectation is that you will think about this if you haven't had time to read my letter regardless of the decision you make tonight I would truly appreciate if you read that and considered that and I think we need to make sure there are the appropriate controls and audits going on to know what's accurately happening in the happening in the program if you're not aware from tonight what the different parents are saying I encourage you to seek out and get the accurate information so you can make the decisions that are the best for our children otherwise it gives the parents a lot of doubt you're all voted in and I would appreciate if you would put the right thought into this to make sure that the parents are happy listen to them listen to the other staff members uh the staff who report to management and understand what they're saying and let's see if we can resolve these issues thank you y why don't you just go it's fine because we have two two public comments before voting I'll do that after ABY Stern cardal I love on Harper Street um like a couple other people have said I'm very nervous to speak um as everyone sitting up there knows I've had a rocky road um with after care and ways that I'm not going to go into um I'm really working hard to mend um that and be supportive and provide collaborative ideas for programming things that we have in our town that are free that are available I really hope that we can make progress there however as Buffy said um we have to speak up when we know something is wrong even if it scares us and it does um after school the after school program is not a choice for my family um as it's not with many families um some people can do a couple days a week often uh many of us have our kids there every day of the week um so this is a very scary situation to be put in um but it again I know this is important um the petition that you guys received since that started circulating the stories that I have heard the stories that I've read have been incredible I really hope you know you're all very busy I understand I really hope you took the time to read every single one of those um from beginning to end I've read some of them um I'm sure there's a lot you got that I have no idea about but some of them um I've read and they're really powerful um and that's from both um I'll say that's from both families and even former staff members there's one that I read that was extremely powerful of someone who no longer works there and I think that needs to be heard um the point that I want to make is that there's a lot of people I've spoken with who want to speak and who want to be here who don't feel safe to do so um they don't feel like their voices matter they don't feel like they'll be heard I think that's very sad and there reason I'm here is because I think you guys do want to hear our voices I know a lot of you guys and you really like I mean Buffy said all of it you know you're here because you're committed you're putting in all this extra time but people are worried um and they don't feel comfortable so um I'm not going to tell stories about Carla because you've heard so many I mean I can reiterate you know how amazing she's been for my daughter and that's absolutely the case but um I think it's it's something that you just I needed you to know that there's more people who want to be here and more people who want to speak and I don't know who will continue to speak but there's voices that you're not hearing thank you hi um you guys can hear me okay I am Shannon weldy I'm at 219 Wayne Street um I too am sort of out of my element in this situation I'm I do not like to make waves I don't like to make people's jobs more challenging um but I'm here to talk about two things the after school uh program um I sent an email to the board last month to express my concerns about the activities that were not existing at the after school program um I understand that the portal was updated to include some activities which basically is Art enrichment 5 days a week um and this past week I was quite excited to see that martial arts was put on the calendar along with the Memorial Day party um come to find out that the kindergarteners were not included in the martial arts activity um that was highly disappointing um I did confirm with multiple parents before I just um sent an email about it but uh just I'm really hoping that this summer uh a review and a robust uh program is put together um especially if prices are going to increase I understand that there's additional staff that was added um and I'm not quite sure you know what this what the staff is doing and and the roles of the staff so I'm really hoping that this summer we can come together if there's any focus groups occurring I'm happy to be on them I'm happy to lead anything I'm happy to um rally the troops um to get people on board and um so that's my one point my other point sort of tying in everyone else's comments about Miss Carla just a quick story um again I told you guys in my email last month that um I had to take my daughter out of the after school program I was in five days a week but we also don't have the option to go less days but we are doing making it work with three days a week in the after care um because she just was really struggling she was bored she said there was nothing to do um so that is why I took her out and um when this was all occurring Miss Carla gave her a journal to write in to just kind of keep her engaged and excited to go to after care and she carries that journal every day sorry um so miss Carla really has been the light for for our family and that's it thank you thank you for your consideration thank you anybody else in person we're going to move to online so we have about 10 minutes so roughly three speakers if you take the full three um a little bit more how many people do we we have in line 47 two hands okay yeah just let me know who Kristen Springer hi can you hear me yes hi this is Kristen Springer on Dennison Street uh 423 Dennison Street and I'm sorry I can't be there in person but thank you for the opportunity to speak um I'm also wanted to speak about Miss Carla um I have had two kids go through the district um and she has been instrumental in helping both of them in ways that are unbelievably important but intangible to measure um in terms of their safety and their health and their well-being and just seeing them as important human beings um and I could go on and on but every parent here could but what I would like to say is that I know that you all will say it's a Personnel issue and you can't talk about Personnel issues um but I also want to kind of remind you that she's been in our community for over a decade she is loved and be loved by the children and by the families here and that should be cherished and honored and that if there was some problem I think we owe it to her to trust her to give her the benefit of the doubt and if she did do something wrong which I we don't I don't know that we should try to help her be able to remedy that just like we would want her to do with our children just like she does with our children all of the time so I know it's really hard to stand up against somebody who is saying we need to fire her and to make those decisions but I really implore those of you that are on the board and I know many of you and I respect you and I love you and I know that it takes a lot of time and energy but really try to Think Through the facts and make the best decision and try to give a beloved member of our community the respect and the decency that we would want ourselves to have and that we would want her to to give our children so I just beg of you to really take this seriously and try to instead of terminating her think about um how to help the situation how to help support her and perhaps look towards Administration and the people we've hired above her that might be causing some of the problems um I did send an email with information about my kid that I my kids that I won't go through but I just uh really would like you to take the time to make sure you're doing the right thing um thank you very much thank you Kristen Angela who's next Rebecca Estell hello can you hear me yes okay Rebecca Estelle I'm at 606 Abbott Street I have two children one currently at ble um and one at Irving and I I sent an email late last week with you know the specifics of why it is we adore Miss Carla but I'll just reiterate quickly here um my oldest daughter Naomi uh who's now at ble had a hard time transitioning to kindergarten was very shy and had a hard time making friends and I would come Estelle we're going to pause your time for a minute I'm not sure if you're having an audio problem or you need a minute yeah with okay Rebecca we're having trouble hearing you um I think it's the connection didn't I'm sorry can you hear me now I can yes but we missed some of what you were saying I'm sorry um the the long and short of it is basically that uh Miss Carla made my ola's daughter feel so beloved that even years later she'll run up and hug her on a street when she probably wouldn't even acknowledge most adults um and my second child is is in Aftercare right now and she wanted to initially not go to Aftercare because she knew I work from home and she'd like to be at home um and she went from that posture to asking to add additional after care because of all the projects she was working on with Miss Carla nothing comes out of that girl's mouth about after care that is positive that it does not involve Miss Carla it's literally all you've got I truly truly hope in light of my comments in light of everyone else's comments tonight in Lights of the hundreds of people who came together in support of Miss Carla over just a few days that we could look at this critically that we can think about whether or not this is something that necessarily has to happen or whether or not maybe management can you know reconcile and create a better situation for both staff and students um I in light of all this I have two what I think are reasonable requests first don't just take the allegations level at face value um they seem very I mean I don't know what those allegations are but anything other than trying to keep Miss Carla employed full-time forever seem at odds with everything we all know about her second consider any credible complaints in the context of all the value she's added over these years I know it's not possible anymore because Miss Carla is no longer at the car line in the morning but had you gone to the car line even last week what you would see is child after child running up to and hugging Miss Carla those are the Aftercare kids the kids who are leaving their families for very long days yet who are excited to run up and hug Miss Carla please I am begging you to look at this critically and closely and to vote no against Miss Carla being terminated thank you thank you Rebecca is there are there any other hands on Zoom okay oh okay I'm sorry christall Christ ball hello can can you hear me I'm sorry I don't know if yes we can wonderful so uh I just want to say that um that I'm sorry can you st your I'm sorry can you state your name and residence so my name is chrisal Espinosa and I live in Duos Lane and I just want to invite the board of TR to really the board of um education really to to think about how every parent have expressed their trust on Miss Carla and I think a lot of the problems that we have here is the issue of trust how since last year with the issue of either privatization or the Outsourcing of the after school program to now the firing of Miss car none of these conversation have happened in connection to the community so what we have is an erosion of the trust that should exist between the administration and the community of parents it's sad that it's happening like this because when we think about the the after school program most parents were happy with it I'm sure there was not perfect there was some issues with it there was issue of under staff there was issue of some compliances but in general there was a general happiness about the service that was provided but when the reforms were introduced that were not discuss with the community it's start erosion the distrust that should exist between Administration and the community of parents last year with the Outsourcing of privatization and now with the fire of Miss Carla I really invite uh the Board of Education to to really think about who Miss Carla is how parents feel about her and whatever allegation is against her should be analyzed in light of the trust that parents constantly put on her and have put on her for for years uh thank you thank you okay that's going to conclude this first public comment we're going to um briefly just touch uh base I guess with you all on why we can't share information um when dealing with any Personnel issue we have to keep Personnel information confidential the only way that a Personnel in or a person a staff member can give information is if after they receive a rice notice that they are put up for potential termination or another decision that would infect their affect their employment they are entitled to a public hearing at which point we can present all of the information however if an employee does not select a public hearing then we can only keep the conf the information confidential in executive session um we have our attorney here um Aaron Mandel and he is um just here with us to make make sure that we don't breach any confidentiality on our part um as much as we would you know want to share information with you um we can what we can share is that we have all read your emails every single one okay all weekend all today all Monday okay we've read them since they started coming in we have asked a lot of questions and reased them and asked follow-up questions we have done our due diligence in that we have reviewed information that we need and the decision we make will be made because we stand by it okay is there anything aarin that you feel like we need to add in terms of the confidentiality issue no I think you said it well I just I'll comment that you know board members when they have to deal with so much what they have to deal with whether it's a Personnel matter or student matter they're operating in a way with kind of one or two hands tied behind their back because um some people are free to say what they want so if we're dealing with the Personnel issue sometimes the staff member who's at issue can uh can can speak publicly and can introduce a narrative or a part of a story but you know the saying always goes there's two sides to every story and and unless the staff member uh waves their right to privacy and requests that the discussion be held publicly in open public meeting the the the board is doesn't even have an option to share it doesn't have an option to explain um you know for instance I I've been listening closely to the comments this evening and I noticed several uh speakers mentioned I don't know what the allegation is I don't know what the allegation is so I'll just I'll mind um or or I'll just you know comment that I'm sure most members of the public wouldn't want superintendent or board member to make a decision based on any kind of allegation or uh uh based solely on who it's made against without even hearing the allegation but um and and with so and unfortunately with members of the public without the ability of the board members to share what is going on and what you know the sometimes the public never gets that information so something to keep in mind thank you we're going to move on to board committee reports and recommendations I'll begin with curriculum and instruction so curriculum and instruction has not met um we meet in the one of the first weeks in June um for for this meeting we have approval of field trip requests we have the approval of the safe opening and continuity of service plan that is our our like covid re-entry plan um we did know that the um state or not the state the CDC had redone some recommendations regarding um quarantine however the state has issued no guidance on that so our plan Remains the Same we have the approval of a teen center counseling intern from uh mouth University approval of our Summit Summer holistic intervention camp that will run from Monday July 88th through Thursday J August 1st approval of the summer teaching and reinforcement or Star extended school year program that will run from July 8th through August 8th and we have approval of two job descriptions one for a technology technology technician and then the other is uh our site manager description which is being updated um to go from an hourly to a salaried rate and that concludes my report any questions okay equity and Excellence you're not try I was supposed to be sitting there I think equity and Excellence met on May 16th um and as usual we had a pretty rigorous discussion our first item on the agenda was a follow-up on discipline and attendance data actually just discipline data from bardle that was reported in our April meeting and committee asked for questions around just a demographic uh breakdown on the discipline data so this particular set of data refer to um incidents as of March 13th of 2024 so from the beginning of the school year through till March 13th um and at that time there or during that time period there were 305 discipline incidents reported at ble um and the demographic breakdown was as was as follows 55.7% of the students involved in these incidents were um uh from socioeconomically disadvantaged um backgrounds uh 28.6% were white 28.6% Hispanic or Latino 20% black 12.9% Asian 10% uh mixed race uh 21.4% were classified as special education and 13% classified as um English uh language Learners our main takeaways from this demographic breakdown uh was that there were uh there was a large percentage of students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged represented in these incidences um we were also um I think pleasantly um surprised to see that the special education student percentage at ble was lower than what uh you know we had expected based on the much higher numbers in special education um discipline data at the middle school so Dr cesa did share that Administration has been focusing on providing more professional development for special education teachers to support their instructional practices which we know does lend also to the discipline and behavioral needs as well um so she talked about kind of the relationship that they're trying to um draw between providing better instructional support um making all students feel like they're being challenged and then also how that bleeds into their behaviors in the classroom and discipline issues um Dr cesal also shared that um some of the targeted areas of the professional development included scaffolding differentiation and growth mindset uh we also discussed uh that there has been a challenge with finding middle school special education teachers however two recent res resignations of special education teachers has resulted in the addition of two strong special education teachers um to fill those vacancies next year the middle school will have so that means and this is actually let me just back up for a second those two strong special education teachers are going to be pulled up from ble to fill vacancies at the middle school is that correct Dr SES I'm sorry vacancies where the Middle School correct okay um next year uh the middle school will have 10 special education teachers um which is a good number given the size of the school population and that should also help hopefully reduce some of the behavioral challenges because there will be more support uh for our students with disabilities building administrators are continuing to work on unpacking this discipline data this is an ongoing process to identify students with high incident rates um to look at spikes and discipline at different points in the school year as well as patterns and spikes in different areas administrators Al also use the discipline data to develop and Implement strategies targeted at areas of need so an example was provided where administrators were able to correlate uh kind of uncharacteristic behaviors um among a group of students in a particular class um and correlate that with an extended absence of a beloved teacher who had a strong bond with those students uh so the administrative staff did did strategize on ways to provide more support for those students uh we also talked about school-based leadership teams reviewing attendance discipline and Hardy data during their monthly meetings which we were really you know pleased to hear that that is an ongoing process um the middle school team has identified the trends in special education behavioral data and is of course working towards addressing um those Trends professional development um is also being focused on or is also focusing on strengthening teaching practices and inclusive classrooms which we're really happy to hear um ble and middle school special education staff um were provi will be provided with the training this summer focusing on developing Co co- teing and inclusive learning environments and that will be facilitated by Dr Linda Edwards um moving forward uh Dr susco will be providing the committee with periodic year-to-date data which of course we will report out to the public as a part of our equity and Excellence committee meeting notes then our second topic um and final topic on our agenda uh was the uh law enforcement uh resolution that was uh recently passed and some questions that arose around the resolution both from uh you know committee members and board members at large um Dr cesa did share a draft update to the resolution language to address concerns that were expressed about the uh broad language regarding the type of student information that law enforcement would have access to and the circumstances under which that access would be given Dr sesa explained that uh current video footage of school buildings for example are accessible remotely by law enforcement in the case of an emergency but they do not but the law enforcement do not does not have ongoing live access to uh the camera footage they must request access from the building administrator um the police department um cannot ask for us uh would not ask I'm sorry for subpoena for student incidents that take place off school grounds that was just a question that arose so we did get uh confirmation of that for incidents that occur on school grounds um the police department does need a subpoena before they can obtain any Student Records subpoenas can take up to 5 days um on average and Dr susco explained that if a student is subject to discipline or um code of conduct responses then it would be considered a student record which is covered under fura which um was explaining to us the reason why we needed to have the resolution to allow for law enforcement to get access to Student Records are um building building videos in the in the experiences or instances I should say of extreme um emergencies a recent example of he an hppd emergency access to cameras incident occurred um during an early morning incident in Bartle on Bartle school grounds involving a Community member police requested access to cameras to determine the nature of the incident um whether it was a self-inflicted incident or a criminal act so that they could respond appropriately once the police determined the nature of the incident Dr suska and ble administration were able to decide how to ensure the safety of the student so this resolution is also linked to the uniform memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement officials um which is a guiding document um that is intended to promote cooperation between law enforcement and school officials and to help protect the school environment this particular uh memorandum which is around 70 pages long I believe um is mandatory every District in the state of New Jersey has to um annually review and uh we don't have to annually review it but we do have to annually sign um and implement this memorandum um our district and I'm sure some others we do take the time actually to review the memorandum and um in some cases we have also submitted or at least one case and I believe that was in 2019 during the last um revision to the memorandum we added an addendum with uh comments and uh on specific Clauses in the memorandum that we felt we wanted more specificity on to reflect our um values in this school district uh School District not districts are not allowed to in any way um change or take anything out of the memorandum but we can certainly add again certain addendums to Clauses in the memorandum so we just kind of talked about that process in the committee um this is again an annual process um but what we were really questioning was whether or not the um the regulations and Clauses in the univer in the uh MOA actually uh Trump the need for a resolution to allow the police department to have access to um Student Records or um video footage of the school buildings in the case of a serious emergency um so we agreed on the importance clearly of having um making sure law enforcement has access to video footage in emergency situations like a bomb thread um an incident that could be you know very harmful for the student body and staff um and we certainly all agree that the value of prioritizing Safety and Security in these situations um however again the question is whether or not the mandatory reporting that to law enforcement that is laid out in the Moa uh Trump's what is being um or what has been included in the resolution so again this is all um sort of uh hindsight discussion and conversation but I think it was just around us as a board and a committee getting more information about the resolution so we are still doing some fact finding and in the process of determining exactly what is required mandatory recording under Mo MOA and if whether or not we actually do need to maintain this new resolution we don't have an answer to that yet Dr suesa will be Consulting with um Jonathan Bush um and uh and the county as well who's involved in this to determine what we are uh responsible for so we will have more updates on that soon um oh and lastly we did talk about just a very quick update on the evaluation of our Rise program and that is our um restorative in school um uh res restorative in school alternative to suspension program and Dr Dr Susa will be meeting with the evaluator of the program that was recently approved Kate Kathy heimy to begin mapping out the evaluation plan um in a couple weeks the administration will begin providing um documents to Dr Haney so that she can begin her work so we're excited to hear that um and getting a good evaluation of our program and that is all any questions thank you Monique um finance and Facilities okay bear with me this is my first time doing this um so facilities and finance did meet on May 14th um we discussed the before and after Care Program um registration is going to open um for the fall um in the next three to four weeks um uh prices are the current budget which we discussed is going to include a 4% raise for all staff but no increase in rates um and you know what budget that is with the addition of um there's going to be some new preschoolers coming in as the preschool program continues to expand um on facilities uh with the help of an architect from spel um this is very exciting we're going to be submitting uh two applications for facility construction to add preschool classrooms um which is a state Grant um the due date for the state Grant is June 3D 2024 um and if we were to be approved for these grants the state would pay 60% of new construction um to modify Irving we're also then going to be updating our long range plan as well um to you know meet some state regulations on um how we can access this kind of uh funding which would really be remarkable um and then for finance we have our annual renewal and I'll be going through some of this but it's annual renewal of Professional Services we did this in January already but we're doing it now so that it more aligns with the school year moving forward um we're we're also going to be voting to accept uh $254,000 from the Kushner estate uh to build an environmental sustainability Center at the high school and if there's any money that's left over um from that the plan would be to that to go to Irving for an out Side Pavilion um and then uh you know loss of State funding this year state aid was um a large Point um when we were doing our budget and uh the governor did sign an update to the 2024 2025 school funding um bill that's intended to return 45% of state aid cuts which for Highland Park would be um like $122,000 out of the 270 some OD that we lost so that um is great and then we do have some agenda items that we're going to be voting on um so there's going to be approval of submission of the AA Grant amendment number two for uh fiscal year 20 for the approval of contractors for professional development um approval of Bill list approval of treasurers report approval of the board secretary's report uh approval of Board of Education certifications approval of budget transfers approval to avoid outstanding checks um approval of travel and related expense reimbursement reports approval of contracted service providers and related services uh approval of an outof District placement approval of bedside instruction um approval of outof District related Services uh approval for resolution of the 2024-25 schedule of payments um transfer of collected taxes from Highland Park to the Board of Education um approval of contract renewal bond agent Services approval of contract renewal Payroll Services approval of contract renewal District Personnel substitute Services approval of contract renewal software information system approval of service renewal right to no approval of project submission for Irving Primary School um uh which is what I was just discussing um to for the possibility of State 60% State funding um approval of salaries funded by Federal grant approval of contract for replacement of Chiller at high school and middle school um approval of the donation which I talked about um and the approval for contract for non-public Title One Services any questions I just want to clarify the 4% raise is for um the staff not the raise for the rates there is no no raise for rates there's no raise for rates there's a 4% increase for the workers at after school there's no increase the budget has no increase in rates and they're yeah that's um yeah I want to say so and you uh D attention in the beginning to um proposals to um uh apply for Grants to expand the um to add on to the Irving building and I just want to thank Denise Rosa and Dr sesa for working really hard it is no small task to write not one grand but two um this would really benefit the district and I think having seen um the plans I think they are they make a lot of sense and if I can think of one thing that could help out the students to need help the most it's expanding PRK getting those kids in school early so thank you so much um and I just like to clarify this was also um an opportunity that was announced and the process had to move very quickly um because there is a due date to get the applications in and like I said it's just 60% straight funding so if we can get this it's the state paying for 60% of us being able to expand PR facilities it's a a remarkable opportunity and is this the same sorry as the there's a 30 million I think pot that's available for expansion is this the same um Is this different or the same I I think it's the same okay that's just so that's getting the so we have to get the application in um and that's yeah but it it's for additions or Renovations of existing facilities it's not building new facilities so that's why focusing in on Irving and what we can do to you know reach our plan um to continue expanding the prek program that we're making a good faith effort to continue to expand which we are on track to do uh you know we did this year we're on track to expand next year and to keep moving forward great thank you um I had a quick question about the cusher donation at one point we were talking about the renovating the baseball field as well is that a separate donation that I haven't seen that on our agenda yes so that's a separate donation that was went through the HP booster Club the donation that we're getting tonight is from the hpf the Ed Foundation um at this point there has been no communication to the booster club to us uh regarding that we've had many discussions um and at this point I think we're waiting for them to give us a contract um and to hopefully um once they do that we could approve the contract and and hopefully start that renovation but um unfortunately it's been several months and we really haven't heard much from them and they haven't had uh meetings on the on to that group there haven't been any meetings so but I can reach out to them okay that'd be great thank you and then I had also had a question about the the pass through money that we vote on is there any more information about like what the the interactive Workshop we' voted on security before but I don't remember ever voting on programming yeah so for any of the our non-public schools all the money like you said funnels through the district um so that also includes professional development some of the challenges that we're facing is that they don't communicate to us in a timely fashion for our board meetings to be able to use their money for professional development so one of the things Miss dulski did um after as she left the district was if you look at the website there's now a whole section for Title One um H sorry student uh the um non-public schools to access their funding how they can do it and then uh through our our um new employee um Dana kessle will will continue doing that and she is going to actually put um uh schedule send email reminders to um our non-public schools monthly to say hey do you have professional development here's your deadline to make sure they hit our deadlines in a timely fashion because they're supposed to pass through professional development but oftentimes they miss our deadline so we can't approve it um and this is just more of a general question but how can we approve it if we don't know anything about what we're approving so we have the program yeah so um that is part of what uh Dana does in her role and through the Ed Services Commission as well is to vet the technology and vet the professional development and resources so that's all done behind the scenes before it goes to a board agenda okay thank you okay personnel and communication I have we did not meet um this month we meet next Tuesday night closer uh we did not meet before this board meeting we meet next Tuesday night and I do have two readin that I'll get to so I'll just go over the agenda um one is the ratification of the contract with the HPA um number two is approval of resignations number three is approval of new hires uh number four approval of a termination for the before and after school program number five approval of employment of the school business administrator for the district six approval of the superintendent for the district seven approval of representative assembly of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey um eight is Iden approval of the reappointment of the principal at the high school uh just for one month of July and the end dates should actually be July 1st through July 31st um on the agenda it says August 1st um number nine approval of extra pay due to in-house transfers of a par professional and teacher associate 10 is a long list of approval of classroom and office moves number 11 is approval of a translator for the bpac event number 12 approval of a long list of Sumer staff number 13 approval of the 2024-25 schedule B positions that one is an even longer list in fact it's still going on page six of it seven okay um number 14 approval of staff for the title one seea family engagement night 15 approval of staff for the lesson plan writing um for math at the middle school 16 approval of staff for the 2024 summer teaching and reinforcement extended school year program the star program another long list number 17 approval of toileting stipend for Star 18 approval of staff for summer ESL screening 19 approval of nursing staff for summer 24 employment 20 approval of nursing staff for summer 24 employment 21 approval of staff for summer 24 employment child study team testing and IEP meeting 22 approval of Handle With Care training 23 approval of title three newcomer handbook revisions 24 approval of staff for summer holistic Intervention Program that's the ship program many pages that one um 25 approval of coordinators for ship and then another uh readin number 26 approval of extra duties for the Youth safety specialist um and I'll read this one because you don't have it in your copy I move that the Board of Education accept the recommendation of the superintendent to approve Alexander tansky to attend the Board of Ed meeting on Tuesday April 28th at a rate of 2707 per hour effective April 28th and that is the end person great thank you um I'd like to extend a thank you for um to Monique and Marilyn for working on the negotiations committee we are really excited that this is finally on our agenda it was a long process um very collaborative process so um I think that we're all proud of the work that we did on that with uh HPA and we look forward to um pushing this forward I also would like to clarify that all of the reappointments have the salary rate as TBD because the contract has not been ratified yet any other questions okay policy I could I could try to do it from here can you hear me yes terrific um I also want to thank all the people that worked on the uh negotiations including the HPA um for uh for getting us to this point uh when we get some vote on it um under policies we have uh for first reading um uh sports related concussions attendance and education of homeless children and youth uh second reading these are all policies we discussed last time guidance counseling sportsmanship equal opportunity secret societies equal access of student organizations and notification of juvenile offender case disposition and I don't believe there wasn't meeting this month yet thank you thank you any questions for policy okay we're going to go to our second public comments the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments board policy number 0167 establishes and regulates the right of the public to participate in public meetings this public comment period is there's no time limit um either on the duration of the comment or on the period itself if anybody in the room would like to come up for public comment please do so good evening everyone my name is Rose D Lorenzo 440 Cedar uh first uh before I get to why I'm here sorry I was late to the meeting I did want to um say that uh Kudos did a 20 54k on the environmental sustainability to the high school I thought that was really great also the two grants that were written any grants that could be written these days thank you for that High School freshman orientation if somebody can tell the parents of the incoming Freshman Class what week it's going to be we would appreciate that I've emailed Lasser I've emailed Dr Donovan I emailed uh Mr Richardson the vice principal I just haven't gotten it so if you could do that that'd be great uh and then before I lead into the before after Care staff the one question I had was do we have a nurse on staff are we required to have one uh during after care perhaps you are perhaps um I'm not aware of that shame on me but um I just wanted to say that I too um am here to speak on behalf of Carla draa kids know her as uh Miss Carla sorry I didn't get to hear everyone else I would have loved to hear because I kind of one of those people that feed off of every everybody else but as the board is aware I did write a letter um you know expressing my concerns I'm a parent of two children in the district one older one in uh Irving presently um and you know so we've known Miss Carla and two members of her family for quite some time now and um you know and and you know Miss Carla she's a familiar face we all come including the children I feel like that we as parents and those of us who spoke online or in the room you know we're here also to be the voice of the children and you know the children come and they love Miss Carla and you know when I asked my five-year-old just yesterday or on the way back maybe we were still camping but you know what is the best thing um you know what is it that you like about Miss Carla and he just told me simply his few words but she is the best so I actually put that in my uh email to the board as well but you know overall um I was here last year I participated I was fortunate to participate in the you know the before after CARE program and the evaluation and that and you know we've thanked the board for keeping it in house we felt a lot of us the members of the community felt that it was very important to keep it in house and I did show my appreciation for that but we also recognize that you know the the board had you know they they needed to go and evaluate the other options but they did they came and they listened to commun so um we thank everyone for that but you know there have been problems now now I'm going to be going into more about the before after CARE program there have been problems since the beginning and we were all trying to be open-minded try to give everyone a chance including the new hes and stuff but you know we're coming to the end of the school year and some of these problems have just been ongoing and I've been hearing it from parents and maybe not everything affects me and my kids but I feel like that we need to advocate for everybody in the school Community those that participate in the Aftercare program and it could be simple things as like you know mommy I'm hungry I didn't really get a snack or they only served me popcorn or crackers or it could be other things about the enrichment and the programming and I know we're all working on that believe me but just in general I think um you know overall communication could be better I did give it the example where last week's newsletter both the schedule and whatnot you know it advertised that the kindergarteners as well as the first graders got karate well obviously that wasn't the case because every single kindergarten parent that I asked whom asked their children none of them got it it was only for the first graders but yet even in the newsletter it was advertised that the um that the kindergartens were that okay it's a minor thing and maybe there's a reason why maybe there are too many children whatever the reason is as a parent it would just be nice to have more communication about why the why and just overall the program the communication I would just love and most of us would love better communication and stuff and you know and there are some significantly negative things about the program or about the things that that have transpired over the years and stuff and we hope and we ask that we collectively can improve it you know we all want to move forward we want to get past the negativity I don't think I'm I'm also up here to stand to tell you I don't think Miss Carl's uh should be terminated I understand it's a Personnel thing but you as the members of the Board of Education have a right each and every one of you well maybe not you as the attorney but the others all have a right to vote no and and give give Miss Carla a chance you know I think that some of it may have been and again I don't I'm not privy to all the information I'm not saying I would be but you know that Miss Carla is not necessarily always the source of the problems that it appears that some things are made out to be and again I I get it I'm not I don't know everything that's going on but you know one of the circumstances there supposed to be two site supervisors and my understanding is that when the preas supervisor is absent that Miss Carla is the one that's a supervisor for um the overall um you know day of the program and maybe I'm wrong with that but you know I do try to read up on job descriptions that were written or things that you're supposed to do and so I'm just trying to gather all the information I I do reach out when I can and had a nice pleasant conversation to SSA she answered some of my questions the last time I reached out about the before and Aftercare program before Miss Carla and your penting vote for her termination and you know she just there's just so many good things about her there's some children the special needs children that really look forward to her and they really really just you know she gets hurt she nurtures the children she goes and she wants to help those children and maybe there's some things procedurally she didn't do correctly we're all human we all make mistakes I know I do but um you know so I don't know if we can have a positive outlook and move forward and make the prog successful with Miss Carla and you know and and and just reinstate her work on things sit down and communicate so that you know we're all doing what's best for our children and the one question that I have and I know it was one of the things that was in the job description about the before and after program supervisor is that you know the supervisor um she supervises the site managers and I was made aware you know online is a valuable resource you know that our our um you know before and after Care Program site supervisor just took a human resources internship in Tampa Florida and flew last week down to Florida and I saw some comments about how this person was going to be down there now in the drob description it does say what her responsibilities are and what not it doesn't say that she has to be present in person so maybe she doesn't have to be but how are you supposed to report to the director and supervise site managers when you're not even in the state so that's something that um I wanted to leave the board with so I thank you for all your hard work I do think and I do recognize as a parent listening to all the things you do trying to get money try to squeeze everything out and everything I do thank you for that but please reconsider Miss Carla let's try to work through this and you know what maybe table it for another time and maybe just go back to the table for Miss Carla I think she'd be a huge detriment and a l great loss um if you were determin her tonight so I thank everyone for listening thank you thank you the next public commenter hi Abby Stern Cardell again um I think Rose is Right sometimes it's helpful to hear other people and then fill in things that you you know think of um so I am going to speak again um I've emailed some of you guys some of these things but I wanted to bring them up um I'm very confused on how a job description how you can vote Yes on a job description to update it to have a reporting structure to someone who doesn't currently exist that I I don't know how you can vote Yes for that um I really hope that that's considered um if that's in the works talk about it in Personnel you know that I mean Jen you know you said you didn't even me which I understand everyone's busy but how can how can you make that kind of a decision um there are big structural issues that need to be examined here um I've brought up licensing before you've all talked about it you've said we meet all requirements while you know my experien is that's not uh the case at this point I hope it will be at some point but this is why we need licensing we need standards we need regulations I hope that's the goal um it was the goal from the very beginning um I rewatched some past board meetings it was the goal for every single step of the process um if that's not possible anymore um which trying to think back is what was said I believe last meeting it might be more complicated you can pass a policy that says that we expect the program to meet these standards whether we are formally licensed or not that is within your ability um and that would have corrected a lot of the things that have happened this year so maybe we can't get formally licensed that's a shame because it's supposed to get funding for our children and our families but we can still meet the licensing requirements with regard to programming food screen time won't get into that um group sizes um there shouldn't be more than 30 children in a group at a time according to State Licensing for kindergarten and up and for prek I believe it's 20 um now yes that adds staff that's comp compated I get it it's it's hard but we should be meeting the requirements that are set by the state whether we can be formally licensed or not the reason I believe I could be wrong the reason that schools are exempt is because there's policies there's processes they expect that it's going to meet that level a a really you know Baseline level of Standards um with regard to changing the job description um I'm concerned about process here um it seems like things are happening before they're being voted on um you all the nine of you who are here and I guess or seven here two on on um Zoom um oversee this District that is your role there are a lot of things you can't do but there are things you can do and you get to vote so if things are happening before you get to vote that doesn't work that that takes away oh my dad is calling um that takes away your important role as a board of education member and again why we voted for you why we support you why we are we're excited when you got elected and cheered for you because you have an oversight role um I don't understand you know we all know that Miss Carla was fired past tense so why is it being voted on now why was there not discussion what like I I don't understand this order and this has happened with other things so um I know there's no official end time but I think I think that's all I have um it just seems like things are being rushed not taken you know you're not taking your time and then one thing that Rose said that I wanted to expand on really quickly is um we are the voices for our children they're young um I was really amazed and impressed by the high schoolers at the last meeting our little kids can't do that let alone be awake at this time of night they're all in bed um um what happened with Miss Carla shows a lack of respect to those children they have gotten no explanation I had to say to my daughter oh by the way Miss Carla won't be there and she said why I said well she's busy you know she she she can't be there I had nothing I haven't been told anything I don't know what I'm supposed to say to my kid she was so sad so what do I tell her so it's a lack of respect to the staff who don't know what to do um you know you ask how we know these things staff talk to us I mean the ones who are good they tell us like you know things that they're within their right to tell us of like oh you know like okay who's who's in charge we don't know um but I had to tell my daughter I had to make something up because I didn't know what to tell her oh and why isn't she on the car line oh she's really busy she can't be here anymore well what how do I say hi to her I don't know I don't know when you're going to see her next so thank you anybody else in person okay online maybe I would it be helpful if I over here I'm talk would it be helpful if I talk a little bit more about the process to see if I can clarify yes I I did email you and clarify there is no termination previously okay and I clarified the rice process but we can have um Mr Mel explain it right so you know there's only so much we can say again because of the confidential confidentiality issues though to the extent that you're all here to talk about the a termination that's on the agenda for today that has not been voted on yet and therefore it has not occurred yet um so there was a a discussion that was held in executive session amongst the board members about different items on the on the agenda for tonight uh when there is a Personnel agenda on the item uh a Personnel item on the agenda excuse me um and and it it's going to affect a employes um status the board members you know pursuing the open open public meetings act most of the board members discussions are have to be done in public when it's uh a regular board meeting when it's a Personnel matter those discussions must be done in private in executive session and cannot be shared uh with the members of the public unless the staff member chooses to allow that to be shared but when the staff member does not allow that to happen the board the board has no discretion to decide to share it can't share what the allegations are it can't share if there's been uh Progressive discipline it can't share if multiple opportunities for reform and re uh have been offered it can't share if transfers to different assignments have been offered and refused um none of those things none none no issues whatsoever about Personnel matters can be shared so I I when when I hear members of the public you know accusing board members are being disrespectful by choosing not to share something I just you know to me it's important to try to clarify as best I can that it's not that the board members are not exercising their discretion in deciding what to share and what not to share they are required by law to do to not share and to not uh respond thank you fie um I wasn't going to share again because I really said everything I needed to Elizabeth wild Greenberg Su North 7th Avenue I will just respond to the attorney's statement the attorney who is not a member of Community the attorney um who is employed by this board of education for $180 an hour that's what his firm is paid most of our staff cannot afford an attorney for that much money and so we are really talking about a very unequal situation here and I have heard the implication now several times Well if the staff member wants to make it public she certainly can well I'm pretty sure the staff member does not have $180 an hour to pay for an attorney the way our tax dollars pay for you to be here tonight to protect this board of education and Dr Susa so let's keep the focus on what it is okay we all understand how this works we all understand that you are not going to share details of what the allegations are against Miss Carla or what the disciplinary process was or wasn't we all understand that but as members of the public we are here to tell you about our experiences with a staff member who you are voting to terminate tonight a staff member that we all love and that our children love and has helped us so this stuff about the process we get it it's a distraction but I also want everyone in this room to remember that this attorney sitting at the table are tax dollars pay for Miss Carla other par Professionals in the district do not have an attorney that our tax dollars pay for okay this is not an equal playing field so the implication well if she wanted to make it public that's extremely disingenuous I do not also respect disrespect we are not talking about the board being respectful or disrespectful our comments have been very focused on one thing which is who Miss Carla is and each of your responsibility to vote yes or no on her termination and we are giving you our input about what our experiences have been mine for 10 years in the district other people for less than a year in the district and that's what this conversation is about so that's all I want to say uh ER Eric Goldman uh just I just wanted to ask questions I know this isn't like an interactive thing I don't know if You' respond to them afterwards but I think the one thing that's maybe not clear to everyone uh you know they say like allegations I assume an investigation was performed you talk to people people you look at different things and whatever decision you make is not based upon you know some report or just a recommendation from what you're saying you had an executive session whether that was live virtual email whatever but it's an informed decision based on information I assume that is the case um also I want to understand we're just talking about the staff members termination from the Aftercare program but not the other her other responsibilities was a separate role it's a separate kind of line item and we're saying there's an issue with the staff member in one capacity but not the other one I just want to make sure that that's also the case or is this a termination of the other responsibilities as well uh my other two other questions that are a little bit more General one I want to understand is the board happy with the direction of the program Maybe not today maybe in the future just the after school program in general uh are there things that you want to be done or other things that you've heard is there a plan for that to improve it not just you know Outsource it or insource it but what what is it that You' really like to have done to improve the program what can be done obviously there's funding there's a million different issues uh and last I just want to understand there are people other staff members who are leaving voluntarily I just want to understand that the board has done exit interviews and has been got that feedback so that way we understand the program because I do think that is important context to the decision that you might be making tonight uh so those were just my questions I don't know if they impact way you think if you answer them after this we can definitely touch on some of them in um old business okay but in regard to the just the agenda item it is before and after school only um okay we didn't get to our webinar guests yet so any webinar attendees for public comments okay give it a minute how many people do we have okay okay um all right before we move to oh okay sorry um I'm just trying to figure out whether I I'm trying to stall for a minute so you um okay um okay one more thing um first of all I I agree with Buffy this is a public comment opportunity for us to speak to the board um I I mean you responded directly to me I understand the process none of us are asking for personnel information from you we're sharing our our and I found I didn't say any of them were disrespectful I found that a little bit disrespectful personally I'll just say that um I am trying to show all of you the utmost of respect and I have friendships with several of you I have no disrespect for you I'm allowed to during public comment Express um how I feel as is every member of the public as a many of you have done either to this board or other people previously um in other settings so um I don't appreciate that being called that I'm saying I apologize for doing that thank you um I have a couple questions um I'm wondering if you saw the letter of termination um I I think that that would be important context if you have I'm I'm curious about that um I hope you had full context and what the specific reason for termination was in writing and whether that was put in writing um whether Miss Carla was given the opportunity um with sufficient time to give um a reust um I agree with Buffy she you know any of us are in really vulnerable uh positions I mean her especially she still has a job during the day so she she can't speak she really can't and to not understand that position that she's in um yeah um I also wanted to clarify because um this was kind of implied um there are more situations where things have been done before your vote and yes I have gotten some replies but I think it's important to be said there are people who have started for months before a job description was even approved maybe that was an oversight but it's happened you know I want to give the benefit of the doubt but but you need to make sure as a board that you are asking and requiring that things are approved by you and voted on prior to being implemented and that's not what I've seen um again my opinion as I have a right to say in public comment um so yeah that was just in response to the response that I got thank you anybody online okay and who is it Laura hello Laura wock 148 du Lan um I would just also like to um express my support for Miss Carla um she's been wonderful with my son last year um he was in the after school program and she went out of her way to make him feel welcome he had a really hard time adjusting um and she went and spoke to his teachers um and his parah in school which she was able to do obviously because she works at Irving um and would come back and talk to me about what was going on and really went out of her way to um kind of make that connection between school and after school program for him um which we really appreciated um and I would also just like to say which has been said already um but I know the board you are all representing us and you're working really really hard to um you know make the school district as good as possible um but with some of the big decisions over the past you know year and a half um you know it just sometimes feels like the community speaks out strongly on something and our voices aren't being heard when the decision is ultimately made I understand this is a Personnel issue and there are things that we are aware of but the community is speaking really strongly about this and after several decisions when we just feel alienated you know we're really the primary stakeholders in this um and we are the people you're representing um you know it just is it's feeling really elating to continually speak out about issues we feel very very strongly about and then feel that the board is making decisions that um are different than what the community is saying we want and need for our children um so maybe there's an issue of communication maybe we need to better understand the decisions you guys are making but it would be really helpful um if we felt like our voices were at some point being heard um and again I just hope that there's some way to work this out with Miss Carla because she is one of the best Educators and staff at Irving and it would be a horrible mistake to Let Her Go from the after school program thank you thank you Laura Shamika hi my name is shm Jenkins I'm at two Walter Avenue and I also just want to show my support from Miss Carla um Miss Carla being not in the after CARE program as of now due to the pending decision if she's going to be termina now is already impacting our children as Abby said before the kids are asking where Miss Carla is and I've had to Li my son and say to him she's busy my son looks forward to seeing miss Carla in after care she has made a big impact on him for me moving into this District two years ago and also you know I think a lot of the parents fought for aftercare to be stay in-house because Miss Carla had such a great uh plan for programming and yes we do know that you know a director was brought in to to help Outsource or to help with the program but there's been a lot of things that have gone on on a lot of communication failure of communication and you know we just want the best for our children and Miss Carla she is the best she loves our children like they are her own and it would be such a disservice to to our children if Miss Carla is no longer in the Aftercare program thank you thank you shmika no other hands okay um since we had paused before does anybody else on the board have anything to say before we move on no this is I said did anybody does anybody have anything to say before we move on yes I just want to say that um just so everybody knows we have spent countless hours uh looking into everything and not taking anything lightly so like Al said said earlier um anything that we decide has been thoroughly researched um and you know we usually vote the way we what we believe in is the right thing to do so and um I also just want to say like we take this extraordinarily seriously our role on the board here um I read every single email that came in I read every email that came in I read every single email that came in I share some of those same experiences so that have in impacted my family as well so I just want everyone here to know we take this extraordinarily seriously and as Nikki said countless hours Ethan yeah uh like Mickey and an and like I think all of us here um I read every email um in a case like this it would definitely be my process to uh oh and we say I believe you I haven't had Miss Carla uh I didn't do that the after school program but I I I'm sure you're of course you she's a wonderful person she must be in I'm sorry I believe you uh I gathered all the information I could I met with people talk with people um uh board members administrators asked a lot of questions I pushed back uh I'm not in this case or any other rubber stamp not that anyone said that tonight but just so it's clear uh and this is a hard vote to take because I know it's going to hurt some people that um I care about um but I have to say it's not been a hard decision to make anybody else okay um we know this is really emotional for you and so we want to apologize if we're coming across CFT or if we have um not really shown the extent to which we have been agonizing over this um losing sleep and um the reason that we tell you this is because that's all we can tell you okay like we we can only tell you that um it's incredibly hard to do this um it is something that when we all ran for school board we knew we would encounter difficult decisions that would challenge us and we are being met with them and we want you to know that we have done our due diligence in looking into our Personnel issues and we are aware of situations that need Improvement very well aware and we are dedicated to producing the best program local program because there are not a lot left the best local program in Middle sex County so we appreciate your feedback we appreciate your comments and um we'll talk a little bit more about that in Old business right now I'm going to move move to the approval of resolutions every year um we have to approve to recommend um oh we have to move to accept recommendations um for reappointments to certain positions um so number 15 is the approval of those resolutions they include our purchasing um agent Miss s Roa um they include the designated providers of services for staff members um bids and contracts coopera uh purchases Professional Services uh Legal Services Board appointments to different positions 16 and 17 oh yeah so 17 will be the board action items so at this moment I would like to approve I'm sorry I would like to move numbers 15 a through G second Dr batty yes Miss calun yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss Cru yes Dr scholman yes Miss stanel yes Miss bamman yes Miss bores yes I'd like to move um move number 16 approval of the board appointments letters a through z second Dr batty yes Cel D yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss pruce yes Dr schoolman yes Miss stano yes Miss baman yes Miss Vorhees yes all right we're going to move to board action items um Dr Susa for the job description for site manager can we amend that to include program supervisor or can we set a start date for when we believe the um new position will be instated like how can we make sure that it covers the program supervisor assistant site manager everything included so my recommendation maybe is um maybe we should table it yeah let's table it so that we can amend it and and adjust accordingly that would be my recommendation all right we are going to move items for curriculum instruction numbers one through six table Ling 6B second Dr batty yes Miss calun yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss pruce yes Dr schoolman yes Miss Danel yes Miss baman yes Miss Vorhees yes for finance and Facilities I would like to move items one through 24 second Dr bating I'm sorry just one moment can I just talk to you for one sec yeah again uh for finance of facilities we were moving uh C items one through 24 I had missam in a second okay Dr batty yes Miss cassal dun yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss pruce yes Dr scholman yes Miss stano yes Miss bman uh I'm abstaining on number 11 and yes otherwise okay Miss vores yes personnel and Communications for personnel and Communications I'd like to move items 1 through 26 second Dr batty I am going to abstain from number four um given I wasn't in executive session and say yes for everything else Miss Cassel done yes yes Dr Coleman I am going to vote no on number four I do recognize the um concerns that we discuss in personnel and executive and I did express my concerns um I'm just not at the place right now even after cfal review of what was presented to us to feel comfortable voting yes so no on four and yes on one through three and five through Reading at 26 26 thank you Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr schoolman yes Miss Daniel yes Miss baman yes Miss Vorhees yes motion carries and policy oh I can move uh policies one a through C and 2 a through F second Dr yes Miss Cal D yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss pruce yes Dr scholman yes Miss stel yes Miss vardaman yes Miss bores yes my place okay leaz on reports all right um we have our board leaz on reports does anybody have anything to report okay uh president's report it's that time of year we would like to remind the public that for the November 5th 2020 24 elections we will have three board positions available the school board election candidate kit is available at the njsba website which is njsba Org the deadline for candidates to submit their nominating position is 4M July 29th 2024 at the county clerk's office the terms that are ending are mine Marilyn Bruce and Monique Coleman now we have old business um so one of the things that I think we should clarify um is the um process by which positions are created and approved and how the timeline affects that so for clarification what we oh hello okay I see the red I'm not sure what the red means but hoping that means I'm on um so for the majority of what we what we want to do is we for job descriptions we Workshop job descriptions in committee and then we bring them forth for public for review and approval once the job description is approved if we need it we'll post for the position so sometimes we approve jobs um pending that we might need them sometimes it pans out that we do need them sometimes it doesn't uh a really good example was considering a central registration that was something that was on our radar as something to potentially do so um to consider possibly doing that we posted for you know we had the job description approved uh turns out with the loss of State funding and and things like that unfortunately we're not going to be able to afford to do that um so we have it on file in the event that it is something that the district wants to do moving forward we have it on file sometimes we have to approve thank you sometimes we have to approve people um or the jobs sometimes at the same board meeting as we approve job descriptions um just because that is the turnaround of events so one of the hardest things about running a school district is that all of the decisions that we have to make the money that we spend all the decisions that are made all have to be approved by the nine people that sit in front of you and so what happens is is that's hard because I still have to run the day-to-day operations of the buildings same with the administration so often times sometimes we're moving and shaking and we need to do something and sometimes it's a simultaneous approval just because the nature of how a board meeting lies sometimes we have Workshop meetings where items aren't voted on and then we have to vote so it really just depends on timing we like to keep it structured so that job descriptions are approved ahead of any Personnel decisions however sometimes it just doesn't work clean like that just because of the nature of having to fill a position sometimes at the same time as um adjusting a uh having a job description sometimes we have the job descriptions on there and we approve somebody and then we go back and amend the job description because we have found that over there are times where our job descriptions just um are slightly Antiquated uh so we're just trying to quickly fill the position so that we can operate and and do what's best for the students in the district and then having to go back and change it so it really all depends um so I'd like to say we follow a clean structure every time but unfortunately due to the nature of uh how the district operates day-to-day when our approval comes once a month for things sometimes it becomes problematic um and to address some of the after school questions um when we're talking about the regulations that after school needs to meet we are talking about the regulations under a school age program um these regulations are located in the same manual as the child care regulations so it's something that like we have to read pretty carefully to pull out um because they didn't create a school age manual on its own but it is something that we are working on um identifying and making sure that we are still within still meeting all state mandates um another thing that we've been discussing is uh having the focus groups or an advisory Council of some sort for after school oh sorry to get that um parent feedback not just about the you know considering what the needs of the program might might be but also considering the strengths of our parents in the community and having those you know integrate into our programming um I think that was what we talked about mostly um is there anything else for old business yeah can I just add to that discussion around the after school program can we also clarify just really make clear the intention of the district to continue to pursue certification program it is to pursue lure okay yes lure sorry thank lure yes can I ask um Dr s a clarifying question there um not about the the ler which I'm also support pursuing I'm glad we're we're doing that um I mean I I know that in committee you know we often discuss uh different positions that are being thought about or sometimes months or even you know years ahead of time what are what are our needs and what kind of person might we need to fill them what kind of positions we need to add or subtract um of course before we hire somebody that has to be approved okay we can't start paying anybody money they don't become an employee before the board has approved their hire um are there times when the administration posts a description for a job before the board has appro uh approved I guess you know that position to be hired for yes so we have have plenty of circumstan and we' be posted for job descriptions before we've hired those positions before the board has had a chance to approved does the board have to approve every description before it is posted so not necessarily so sometimes we do post for positions in anticipation of it passing just because some of the positions we have to get filled especially if if they're um mandated positions okay that makes sense to me and I want to um and again I'm you know new to this business uh what I've been here seems like go a long time tonight but it hasn't been that long um but uh I I really do feel like I have been consulted and read in to um positions that are being considered and written about and even if the board I think as Dr Su explains you know sometimes a position needs to be posted because the hiring cycle is what it is we there's immediate need but I've never felt like I've seen something on an agenda wait a second we never talked about that in committee what's what's going on here it's always been something we've discussed and debated and had input on and will have input the the ultimate input on are we going to hire this person we can choose not to fill that position and not spend that money at all um and I think that's responsibility we all take really seriously yes I mean I would just say yes your time on the board has been limited to a few months may feel like more um but we have been unfortunately and Dr cesa did acknowledge that we have been in situations where um as a board again a job description was was created um before we and and posted before we had a chance as a board to actually um review and approve it um and I understand the nature of the time constraints but we have been unfortunately in that position too where it's uh an a higher that we may have not had a chance to discuss in committee across committees um and it is a difficult position for us to be in absolutely so I'm not going to suggest that what you've experienced the past couple months is going to be reflective of what you'll experienc through your entire tenure because this may happen to where you are going to be in a position where you're going to feel like wait I didn't see this come through before I had a chance to vote on it right um I just like to add something to go along with that you know I am on the facilities finance committee um and when I say we read your emails um we talk about them as well and the before and after school program has taken up a large amount of our time this year in the facilities and finance commit um we're we're really are we we hear you we have we are listening to the concerns we want to improve the program and we are working really diligently in order to clarify what is a pretty complex program um and just want you to like as I what we're hearing back from the public is that often times that we're not being responsive and I am very very sorry that you feel that way when we are really working very hard um to address concerns um that are brought to us along those lines if I could add something else I related to public comment I know Allison had brought up I think it was a month or so ago that people I felt really bad hearing tonight that people felt uncomfortable speaking um whether in person or or virtually but Allison had brought up about a month ago or so that you are welcome to submit public comment via email and we will read it for you um I volunteered to check email right up until the start of the board meeting and i' I'd like to ask even if I can do that I don't know if I'm allowed if I could do that right up until the point of public comment I'm signed in I'm happy to do that if that's possible so please please do that if if you're not comfortable speaking I am really a terrible public speaker and I I never like doing that um so I I would have done it that way if I could have submitted via email and had somebody on the board read it so please take advantage of that if you feel uncomfortable speaking in public okay any new business uh can I S one uh there have been um a bunch of more emails uh this past month about uh the phone issue um and you know I I read all of those too and and it seems like even more parents than I thought and community members uh are supported of the idea of boy getting those cell phones out of the schools um and a lot of parents would I think be very community members be very grateful uh if that were to occur so and that that is another issue we are discussing frequently in committee and hope to have more to report on that soon thank you um any other new business okay I move to adjourn second second all in favor I