if you can take us out of the practice session um just give us one moment for the webinar to start and for any uh members the public we joining us through Zoom to get logged in we're going to be starting shortly for board members uh please remember your microphones are turned off when ready speak just turn them on bring them close to your mouth helps with the Acoustics in the room and picking up the sound on the video as well just one more moment while we allow few people to log in who might be participating remotely Dr morthy we're ready to begin on everyone all right thank you very much this meeting of the MAA board of education is open to members of the public to be physically present members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website Additionally the board meeting will be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting May do so so via Zoom the webinar ID for this meeting is 83397 22050 and the required password is 95458 all right I call this meeting to order roll call Mr bleer please miss s here miss davero here Mr Dila here Mr Denise here Mr Gallow here Mr Hughes here Mr kis marski Dr Park student representative Gabby marquetti here and Dr morthy here uh adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the record specifying that the MAA Board of Education will meet on November 15 2023 in the administrative offices of 60 Ridge Road MAA New Jersey a copy was filed with the Township Clerk uh salute to the flag this K would you like to lead us in our salute to the flag this evening noed start song you just have to start we'll Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you very much that's like trial by fire you didn't great thank you um all right we do not require an executive session at the beginning so we will move on to agenda questions please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda it's a matter of fairness you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you are here as an individual please provide us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes please specify the resolution you were referring to in your question I need a motion to open the meeting to the public U Mr dilva second by Mr Gallow all right we are officially open to the public okay seeing no one coming forth at this time I need a motion to close the meeting to the public Mr con second by Mr Hughes all right we move on to our superintendent report Dr Doro thank you um each meeting we try to open up with some celebrations or some things that are happening in the district that are worth noting and and a point of Pride and the first thing I want to talk about is we had a parent um Miss Michelle Kaplan who came to us with an idea of how we can support our community members especially during the holidays the idea was um called blessing in a basket and the idea was to engage our community and support those in need that might need a little bit more assistance um during the holiday season I'm happy to report through her efforts and connecting with our district we were able to collect over 200 baskets an example of one of those baskets are right here that are going to be um picked up by the families over the course of the next couple of days um there were a number of people who were a part of it number of organizations whether it's HS or individual donors and I just wanted to take a moment to thank Miss Kaplan for her efforts of really maximizing the kindness and generosity of the Mawa Community I know that the families are going to be very appreciative when they get the baskets in it's going to help provide a really nice experience for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend so I just want to take a moment to say thank you to miss Kaplan and all those involved in either donating or being over at the Cube Today receiving the 200 baskets those baskets are going to go to not only the families with within the school district but she also connected with the senior center we're going to bring some to the senior center and also there are other organizations that support the malwa families that we're going to be giving baskets to as well so the over the overwhelming generosity is is something to to there's something to be said by that we're for that and we're very grateful so thank you Miss Ka the next thing that we're going to talk about and if uh Dr voo M Rizo could come up um let me just while they're coming up let me provide some context to um the presentations we're about to we're about to give oh sorry try to me out so just want to make sure everyone can hear me so um for our Board of Education we spoke about an opportunity to share the findings from us squared and the equity audit that took place last year um I know that there were some questions along the lines of when we were able to present just as a frame of reference the plan was to present in October um unfortunately the state mandated that we deliver uh the data presentation during that time so it had to be bumped until um until today um what I'm excited to share with you are not only the findings but the way in which as a administrative team as a board of education and as a district we digested those findings and we were able to create a plan of action moving forward that will support all of our students um just to rewind of when we first got started and questions of why are we doing this type of experience something that I've said in the past but worth repeating is as an administrative team we're charged with assessing the the functions of our district the operations of our district to ensure that we're doing right by our students by our staff and by our families in the community we do that on an ongoing basis but just like in the business sector it's really important to get an outside organization to come in and do an audit of of our work to see are we missing anything is there anything that we need to be aware of or focus on to ensure that we're doing right by all those that we serve so we engaged us squared um to come in and do a comprehensive audit of not only our instructional practices but also our policies and protocols and also engage our community to get an understanding of how they feel MAA is operating as a comprehensive whole to frame this presentation something that I think is important to Anchor all of our conversations in is why are we why are we moving forward with focusing on inclusivity as a whole the the very basic definition but I think the most powerful definition that I can share with the Board of Education and the community is as a superintendent of schools it's my responsibility to make sure that all of our students here feel respected all of our students here feel valued and all of our students feel like they have a home here and that goes through all their different experiences here whether it's socially or academically do they feel connected to our school because as we all know once students feel connected instruction and learning can take place I think I can speak for everybody here on the deis whether you have children or you are a part of a school system um it is important for this to happen and this is something that I feel like we all can agree upon to frame out the process and how this all took place um we we felt it was important to showcase the timeline um from beginning till end last fall we started to talk to the community about it and explain the purpose and worth um in October is when we engaged the community community and start to gather feedback from the community as a whole it did not stop there we felt like it was important for all those who could not attend the town hall have a voice in this process and be able to share their experiences here in MAA so we we were able to send out surveys prior to sending out surveys we felt it was important for all of the community members to understand what was involved in the surveys that was an opportunity for as a family to read through the surveys and have conversations at home prior to the students taking part in the surveys um we also were able to share and present at the board level what the surveys contained and then immediately following we sent those out um along the lines of administering them this the adults got them first and then we were able to administer those surveys in the schools um following that the US squared was able to come into our district and take part in focus groups or run focus groups within those focus groups there were parents there were teachers um and other community members that were able to share their feelings and their assessment of the overall school function following that in January us Square came into our district and were able to take part in an equity audit um that was when they were able to go into the schools visit classrooms and speak to uh various members of our community so the survey structures as you can see on the slide is information that we've shared with the community in previous presentations um the goal here was to use age appropriate language as you can see uh based on the K through five student survey the grade 6 through 12 student survey survey as well as the adult survey and the survey responses provided to our team um and the consultant themselves AR rrange of contexts from our stakeholders the survey uh which is revealed in the equity audit report connects to the following themes so we have overarching themes that are embedded you'll see that most of what we will be talking about is connected to culture and climate um it speaks to um the definition that Dr uro uh just revealed to um to the board related to inclusivity and uh students feeling safe comfortable and having a home here in MAA the themes speak to Ability race identity and gender as well the student and adult surveys captured these question categories classroom culture family and Community engagement instruction overall experience and our adult survey had an additional question category which connects to adult leadership and role modeling okay so this is the first time you're going to start to see screenshots of information that is actually in the equity audit so this is our first um our first pie chart it talks about who actually took the survey or were in District so as you can see we had the majority of parents answering for our adults we also had alumni that were separated from 2019 or before and then 2020 2021 2022 um and then our board and community and then as well as our staff this shows the breakout of our students at grade levels K through five as you can see it's equally distributed you'll have ranges from anywhere from 14 to 18% um and this we pay tribute to the fact that we actually did the survey in school so we were able to Garner information equally among the school levels and then you'll see the same thing here for grade 6 through 12 again we have an equal distribution ranging from 13 to 15% and this has to do with the classroom observations this was one of the ways that the team came in to observe what was happening in the schools um and as you can see they were in all of our classrooms not all of our classrooms but all of our grade levels excuse me from grades K through 12 um and varying from either three visits per grade all the way up to you'll see in third grade um at 12 visits so um I'll I'll just take an opportunity to summarize um outside of a par chart what Dr bino has shared with you um our focus groups which were the groups that were conducted within the district were comprised of 385 individuals um across seven stakeholder groups with 117 students participating we had administrators participating we had parents and caregivers through the process in which they were um they submitted their name and information to the squared organization we had 126 instructional staff members as well as 58 non instructional staff members we had community members and of course board members who chose to participate um within the classroom observations they conducted across all of our schools over 73 classroom observations in total and they were averaging approximately 12 observations per building within the equity audit the focus points that were alluded to both by Dr deturo and by Dr fa um the area of classroom culture in which the surveys and the observations were focused on were whether or not our classroom culture was honoring student experiences whether the classroom setup was thoughtful whether or not our instructional environments promoted the shared inquiry and dialogue that we believe is essential providing social and emotional safety for our students and discipline within a Val vales based approach the analysis of family and Community engagement was subtopic under culturally sensitive communication inclusion of family and Community wisdom increased connections among families use of local resources and whether or not engagement within the community address the issues and problems in the era of instruction the focus points in included critical engagement with the material whether or not we provided differentiated instruction cooperative and Collaborative Learning real world connections and a value based value based assessment evaluation and Grading in the area of curriculum they took a look at whether or not our curriculum had an identity within uh the area of identity diversity Justice or action were found within our curriculum teacher leadership was looked at as to whether or not staff was growing through professional development whether or not they were speaking up and responding to prejudicial behaviors and actions whether or not there was space for discussion around diversity and equity and inclusion support for all the staff members and the encouragement of professional leadership and development and lastly representation was looked at Cross representation in staff classroom materials and books going Beyond and non-stereotypical manners barriers to access disproportionality in programs and an evaluation of our overall discipline numbers um through our data system I'm just going to do it from here for now um when looking through the equity audit it's broken out into various parts um what they did was they provided feedback for our district as a whole they also provided feedback for each individual school so we're going to be speaking about the district recommendations the recommendations or the analysis is broken up into six different themes I'll give you a minute to take a look at those themes and then we'll talk about each individual theme the points of praise and the area of for growth um for all six to to provide context um the equity audit provided a pretty comprehensive breakdown of the points of Praise as well as the opportunities for growth what we were able to do is identify uh the different areas of Port points and praise and areas of growth that were applicable to us along the lines of our action forward um the one point of Praise that that I appreciated was the fact that and it's and it's it's factual of all stakeholders care very much for the malw community and the students within our schools along the lines of opportunities for growth um this is something that we've been talking about through throughout this entire process and something that's extremely important for the community as a whole is to identify and and create common language for what this work is and understanding what the why behind all of the efforts are and really aligning our communication so that all Staker holders don't have misconceptions and they have a firm understanding of what this will look like um the action taken we're going to talk about later on in the slides along lines of how we can address it but just to give you a frame of reference I think it's going to be very important for us to place uh prominently on our website an area that people can go to to understand what this work is what this work isn't and really understand the work as a whole that's happening throughout the district theme number two speaks to representation changing lives so the consultant and review of our programs and review of survey responses as well as uh focus group uh information shared with them I praise the district for our curricular materials um currently is being diverse and representing a range of individuals related to Ability race and gender the consultant also spoke highly of our Thunderbird partnership program which serves as a powerful opportunity for our students to interface with a range of individuals in our community whether connected to different cultures expertise or professional experience with regards to theme number two and the district's opportunity for growth uh the consultant um asked the district to consider diversity in our hiring practices which I can share with you as the the lead person for human re resources in the district is something that we've been working on um for years um they also suggested the creation of a rubric connected to accessibility for all learn Learners so while we have state mandated guidelines to address diversity um while creating curriculum uh a rubric or set of guidelines um they suggested uh be used when adopting new curricular resources um and and also uh and lastly that that third bullet on the right uh they've asked us to analyze Trends in student discipline dress code and program enrollment the next theme revolved around um transparent communication um as well as being present within the school environment and that just really talks about the the togetherness of our community as a whole some of the points of Pride which uh I greatly appreciate were that many of our students and adults feel a sense of community within the classrooms um there are opportunities for student citizenship and responsive classrooms is present at the alry level just to to give you an understanding responsive classrooms for all who do who do not know um that is those are experiences at the elementary level K through 5 that allow our students to understand each other gain a familiarity with each other and create a sense of community within the classrooms through morning meetings and other activities like that the opportunities for growth which I I appreciated seeing this on the report which actually aligns to our district goals is continuing to look and and and assess our communication that we are delivering and that we're receiving from the community um our efforts have been ongoing along the lines of making sure that our community is informed but also there are opportunities for that we can create to engage our community at a deeper level um so some of the things that they spoke about were Roundtable discussions those roundt discussions can take two different formats one can be um identifying specific things that are taking place in the district to provide context to our communities to our community and take questions from them so they can have a firm understanding of what's happening within our district another one would be more of an open Forum to allow people to come and talk about whatever they would like to talk about how MA how their experience in MAA is and what we can do to make sure that it's that that it's at a high level the last piece is um engaging our new families something that I can speak to you about is the efforts at the school level for all of our new students who are coming in every single School um creates opportunities for those students to engage with the staff members and understand the supports that that we have within the school to ensure a smooth transition in whether it's with the staff members or with students but something I think we can get better at is engaging the new families and allowing them to understand the scope of resources that they're afforded within our community and activities that the family or the students can engage in to feel connected with our community just to add on to this piece to provide some actual context in the district currently we certainly make an attempt at engaging with our new families we provide new families with a folder with resources related to Mawa and in our community um but we do understand that we may be able to do a better job at this component theme number four speaks to feeling welcomed valued seen and heard as authentic individuals leads to more understanding among different perspectives so uh two points of praise the consultant shared was that the classroom culture is such that students feel safe in school overall and uh through their their observations of our classrooms uh differentiated instruction is observed across the district through small group instruction and whole class interactions um with this acknowledgement however um I think it really is important that we recognize that this is an over over arching theme um but to also understand that from students survey responses which are included in the uh audit report some students have articulated feeling um feelings of unease in school some opportunities for growth that the consultant shared uh were uh to train staff members to conduct informal restorative practices I know that we've talked about restorative practices in in previous board meetings um but that is is for uh staff to focus on building maintaining and restoring positive relationships when incidents occur that involve interpersonal conflict in the classroom um the consultant also recommends that we Spotlight staff member successes um a little more frequently and encourage student voice and hearing multiple perspectives um the fifth theme is trust is critical for growth and we as a central office team certainly understand the research behind trust and the need for it to be connected to legitimacy and ultimately that is brought about through consistency over time the point of Praise that um is highlighted here is that students report that they have a professional that they can talk to at the school level and as we're going through the themes you can see that many of them intertwine or intersect each other and relative to um facilitating and fostering more trust we see the need again for that uh concept of the Roundtable discussion to keep the lines of communications open um and in addition to all of the ways in which Dr Doro spoke about maintaining uh communication with the community secondly is the opportunity um for trust to grow amongst even the individual adults within our our schools through opportunities around team building or um developing a concept from thought to um execution and and lastly um considering uh the need for training for inquiry based practices which is that Active Learning um experience that encourages students and staff to ask questions conduct research explore new ideas and utilize critical thinking but it's also the opportunity for us to um learn about and work together to address um potentially contentious topics in a way in which we take responsibility for what is said how it impacts others and seeing things from another's perspective ultimately the expectation here is to conjoin the collective perspective so theme number six has to do with providing training expectations policies and procedures that all stakeholders are upholding with the same accountability and this will lead to success in alignment is um is what this theme centers around so there are a couple praise points here that are we're really um happy about and we'd like to celebrate the first being that our staff feels that they are provided professional development and resources order to do their job which is a um a huge star for our district the the next piece down where you see Danielson framework that has to do with our evaluation instrument so as you know all of our teachers administrators um um we use a framework to observe them during the year and we look to not only look at curricular um application but we also look at how the teacher is interacting with students and the opportunities at which students have to collaborate as well and from the information that they garnered you can see that we are seeing that there's a strength and um that in this framework that staff likes to use or that we use with staff and then the last thing has to do really with um our central office team being there to support our staff with new initiatives on the growth with the areas for growth um these three uh things have been highlighted a little bit in other areas as Miss Roso had talked about there's there's threads throughout the first one has to do with um looking at our rules and policies and how we enforce them so this is really focused on our discipline policies how we uh interact or um how have students disciplined so you'll see in the report if you look through it you might see something where boys or girls were either there was a higher level of boys being pulled versus girls for discipline so this is something they'd like us to look into the next piece there talks about um the ongoing monitoring of curriculum and its implementation so that directly lines with the actual the Danielson framework but saying how do we take this to the next level and ensuring that we have a mechanism that when we go into classrooms when we're writing programs that we're looking through the lens of um inclusivity and the last was suggestion to create a 3 to 5e professional development plan centered around climate and culture we do create professional development plans around any initiative that we have usually they do range from 3 to 5 years so that our staff do feel supported going back to that point of Praise of professional development on the left hand side this slide I think is extremely important because there are a lot of conversations specific to what are you going to do with the equity audit um and how is this going to change the overall functioning of our district and I'm really happy to report the the list here is applicable to all of our students and making sure that we're enhancing their learning experience here some of them we spoke about others we have not so some I'll just identify and others I'll get into more detail the first one I did speak about um further developing our website to make sure that on the website is housed the information to clearly um establish what this these efforts are and where it's taking place throughout the district the second piece we've spoken at length at a number of different board meetings but it's worth repeating is our efforts with ntss for all those who are here who are not familiar ntss is um is a program or effort that we're doing districtwide to identify the strengths and weaknesses of all of our students we're looking at a large number of data sets to understand them as a whole their their Proficiency in both Ela um as well as math identify again what their strengths are but more importantly what areas do we need to develop and how do we clearly develop a plan that pinpoints those specific areas to maximize their learning and growth over time time I spoke about the Roundtable conversations um those it's my expectation that those will be taking place come the new year um and they will be communicated to the community as a whole hopefully people will come and attend the next piece is Our Land Associates audit I know that Mr Bleecker and as well as Mr Gallow has spoke at length about that we had an organization come in the land Associates come in and audit all of our facilities to identify areas that need Improvement um for our for our purposes we're going to be looking at the facilities to ensure that all of our schools are accessible to all of our Learners no matter what their physical abilities or disabilities are um Dr Vino spoke about the discipline and the dress code procedures I think it's important to note this does not mean that we're in a place of changing it completely what we are trying to do is take a look at it make sure that it still aligns to our expectations that our students are going to be respectful responsible and ready to learn but we want to make sure that there are no places in our dress code or our discipline that mistakenly targets specific groups and making sure that it's fair for all parties involved any changes that will take place in that process will be clearly shared with our with our students and our parents prior to it being implemented um exploring professional development again this was discussed I think it's important to note that in order to navigate different conversations and this is this has been taking place when I started years back um it it takes a a specific talent to be able to navigate a conversation with different perspectives and different voice and everyone during that conversation should be able to share in a respectful manner but also should leave that classroom still feeling respected and valued no matter what your opinion or your perspective is and that those type those types of training is is crucial for our for our teachers to feel comfortable allowing those conversations to take place uh to speak to Dr fa he spoke very briefly about this and but I think it's it's worth explaining a little bit further um if you take a look in our agenda you'll see at different parts of the Year some sometimes it's a little bit more than others um we're charged with making sure that obviously all of our spots are filled specific to teachers and Par professionals and every other um position in our district Dr fa does a very comprehensive search for all candidates that not just that's not just specific to putting something up on our website and saying we have a job opening he engages local universities he attends a large number of job fairs the the the casting of the net is significant and we want to make sure that we bring in teachers or any other positions that that are able to showcase the diversity that we have in this District that is an effort that being said I'm also committed to making sure that we bring in the best candidates so I want that to be clearly stated we will continue to reach out and try to get as many candidates from all different backgrounds to come in that being said it's my responsibility to put forth candidates that are going to do the best job for our students that was well said Thank you and these are actionable items moving forward um in a long range way um the first bullet speaks to the um ensuring that all staff are trained in models of positive School culture and student social skills development models um it's been a long-standing practice in the district that we've adopted responsive classroom for ele students and restorative practices for our secondary students and um we look to work to ensure that these practices are implemented um with Fidelity and that training is ongoing the second bullet speaks to just continuous efforts um among our staff parents and Community to communicate I know that we've talked a lot amongst our our Board of Education trustees about um how to make communication better and we are certainly uh trying our best to ever refine those efforts our longrange plans speak to uh continuing to engage community in uh District efforts to ensure all students feel respected valued and have a home here in MAA I know droro mentioned in our immediate action items related to ntss and we've certainly been speaking a lot a lot about New Jersey tier systems of supports uh in recent board meetings um but we also recognize that this is going to be um a a a huge effort um it's not going to just be a one-year shot in the arm uh we're working in the creation of data teams and we are honing uh those that data team uh work and we will continue to review academic data through our data teams and N jtss uh to tailor our instruction accordingly for our kids and lastly I can't believe I'm saying this but our strategic planning cycle is going to begin uh sooner than we think so uh we believe that a lot of this information warrants consideration in the next phase of our strategic plan process um which will take place as we near 2025 and um lastly here uh We've we've made a tab on on our distri district website of related to uh the equity audit from the beginning of the process up until now and our goal is to post the entire Equity audit um this Friday for uh the community to be able to read through so just to close um in those last two slides along lines of action moving forward it's my hope that you've noticed that every action that we are going to take either immediately or longterm um is is focused on enhancing our operations as a whole whether it's instructionally oras whether it's bringing our community together as a whole as much as I would love to sit here and tell you that I think MAA is absolutely perfect I'm very proud of MAA there's always room for improvement and there's always opportunities to grow so those last two slides um were an opportunity to share with you different areas for us to focus on and build over time does anyone have any questions questions so what were the criteria used to determine that you us two was the third party independent group that was going to conduct this audit along the lines of when we along the lines of when we were interviewing different agencies oh um when we were taking part in this work when we met with the different organizations we wanted to make sure that they were comprehensive in their approach we wanted to make sure that all aspects of our district functioning of our district functioning were evaluated not just our curriculum but also what's taking place in the classroom and what's taking place in the community we also wanted to make sure that as many voices would be heard on different different spots of this process so I was really happy to see not only were there opportunities for a town hall to come for people to come in and share not only were there opportunities for surveys for people to come and share but there were also the focus groups and the way in which they were were their efforts of engaging our students at all different levels were things that we we greatly appreciated just got to follow up to that so so the reason why I asked that is because after reviewing just the front page of the web page of us two it didn't seem like they were a third party independent group and this became a aren because there's a 20-minute video on the front page of the web page where the person in charge of us two went into extent about white privilege Christianity privilege male privilege um if you ask a pregnant woman if if she's taking time off after the baby that's a sexist question so after listening to that it's very obvious that they did have some sort of bias so knowing that they did have a bias going into this how can we accept this Equity audit what I can tell you is and as I shared in the presentation um what we were charged to do is take the audit and the comprehensive uh report that they provided and identify action items that our district can utilize and if you noticed in the presentation the terms that you used were were never used so what I feel very confident in is all of the actions and recommendations that we are making align to us ensuring that everyone feels respected valued and they have a home here also in the recommendations it focuses on communication which there are a number of people that have different opinions about communication we need to make that better another piece it talked about instructional program and instructional enhancements in many meetings people have talked about their concerns specific to this is going to take place of something so I'm really happy that of for the way in which we distilled this information to make it actionable for Mama any other questions Mike I just want to respond to the second part of your question Chris I realized you weren't on the board at the time we selected uh us squar but there was the team spent probably close to 18 months I think you talked 14 different organizations it was an extensive vetting process but I know you've seen the report and regardless of what you saw on their website what their expertise was is creating a structure a methodology to do listening essentially it was a big listening exercise and one of the challenges Rick has a copy of the report there it's a f page document which has a lot of listening and that's really what the process was all the topics that are referenced in whatever website or the video you saw had nothing to do with the selection process nor the work they did they came into our district they said we want to engage your District through town halls uh focus groups classroom survey and we want to listen and as a result we had a 500 page report where everybody I mean almost everybody who had something to say their vo is in the appendix of that report as you've seen so um I think it's it's uh um it doesn't help the process to reflect on what may be in a website that had nothing to do with the work that happened and Mr G I just want to add on to that because it's also the district's charge to review the 500 pages see what is most Salient for our district and that is what you've seen throughout this presentation so the the goal here is to call through all the information as we shared with the board and to to really make action that that is right and relevant for Mala so out of that whole report out of the 500 pages how much would you say is involved with everything that's actionable to be honest I don't I keep I don't know how to answer that question so we both got the report yeah um and along the lines of how much I don't know how to answer that but what I can tell you is the things that are present Ed up there are things that can impact in a positive way our district immediately and long term okay there were also recommendations that we didn't feel would be relevant to our district at this time we took what we thought would be most relevant for us and that's what we're moving forward with um I also want to just clarify too for the public that each of the board members uh Mr Hughes yourself as well um have had an opportunity to view this present presentation to see it to ask questions to the administrative team uh previously as well and um so this isn't the first time that we as a board are also looking at this so again questions come up all the time but just I want people to know that we did have an opportunity to review it and look at it and have some discussion as well um so again it's an ongoing process right like everything else there will be things that continue come out of uh the audit but these are the short and long-term goals that we've determined uh that we would focus on uh for the present time all right uh Mr Dela you had something else I always have something okay lovely I look forward to it so like Mr Galla said this is a copy of the report all 500 some odd pages of it like there's there's a lot here um I had some of the same concerns going into the process about the consultant that was that was chosen uh there was a lot of discussion about what the process was going to look like um that we had we had a lot of input into which I appreciate it getting the report back I mean I'm still plowing through this thing like there's there's a lot here there's there's a lot of stuff here I didn't see anywhere in there anything about um White Privilege or anything like that I see in each of the um the schools there are themes in each schools there are there are themes you know at some of the schools about discipline there are there are things that you know even kids are concerned about what's going on in the bathrooms during classes that needs you know that needs to be addressed there are teachers saying you know we're we're we would appreciate you know some additional Prof uh professional development on how do we handle some of these difficult conversations that come up um these are all things that that are that are actionable there are things that we really need to I I hope at some point I I kind of expect that since there's so much detail that's broken down by school building that there will be an opportunity for each building to unpack the information related to their you know their building and really kind of come up with a a building level game plan because you know the the themes that I'm seeing at each School obviously each school is very different the themes and and the things that really to be addressed at each school or you know there there's different things at each school that need to be addressed differently and that that really needs to be I think like I said unpacked and you know on a building level and really take a deep dive maybe I don't know if that's a a committee thing or a committee thing at at the buildings to be able to do that deep dive and really take the information that's in here and and and unpack it and make it actionable and like I said come up with a with a building level game plan for the information that's here you read through um some of the comments I mean some of the comments by the kids there there are a lot of comments in here that really show a lot of resiliency and there are a lot of comments that that show that there are some kids that are really struggling and you know some of that is to be expected in you know the the Elementary and high school you know with with the pressures that are on kids today and everything but some of the things that that that I really took were some of the comments that that really like I said the the the kids that showed their res resiliency I know that that we're providing a lot of the programs to build that foundation so that those kids have self-confidence saying yeah you know um people you know think I'm weird but I don't care I'm happy with myself you know what good for you but there are also there are kids that think I'm weird and I'm really sensitive about what people say and think about me and those are the people that you know that that we need to be aware of and figure out what's the best way to help that person and just to make sure that that kid feels good and that kid you know is is feels like they're they're accepted and and they've got they've got a family it's got It's got nothing to do with you know with what color you are what race you are what what gender you are or any of the other things it's it's about feeling part of a community so that when you feel like that you you I mean God it's it's the goal is so that nobody feels like that right obviously but there are kids that do and they need to be heard and they need to be recognized and they need to have someplace to to have an outlet for that feeling and and and the support needs to be there and I think that to me this 500 pages and all this information that's some of the biggest takeaways for me and again I'm still pling through this thing there's there's there's a ton here there's a lot I've been working at it you know for for a long time there's a lot here I you know I I think that when this is released on Friday I sincerely hope that everybody really takes a look at this before we look at it and say oh you know what this is BS we shouldn't have done it it was a waste of money I hope that everybody really takes a look at this goes through this book in detail reads the comments looks at the trends before you make a a judgment about it because I think there are a lot of things that that a lot of people are concerned about that are going to be pourn out in this I think you're going to be surprised it's not all about the things that you know look us2 yeah they they have their you know their lens that they look through that's not all this is about is you know is there some you know that there's obviously some of their findings are through that lens that's to be expected and we can look at that and say yes this makes sense no this is that that doesn't work for Ma and go from there take that and then look at the entire report not don't get stuck on that stuff can I just respond respond briefly no um no I mean the one piece that you had you had start with and I appreciate your comments Mr DVA um our school building leaders are also reviewing their respective sections and they're going to be they're going to take just like we did with the district in terms of taking those actionable items they're going to be reviewing and they're going to they're going to be saying to themselves what is relevant to my building right now they're not taking all of the recommendations so that's the first piece the second piece is I don't want to oversimplify this I think that it's gotten a little over complicated but I think it goes back to slide two right where the district's definition I'm not saying this is everyone's definition of what inclusivity is but is that all students are respected they feel valued and they have a home here in MAA and by virtue of our positions whether we were we are on the board or we are on our leadership team we owe that to every one of our kids so Mr D makes mention of the commentary and the surveys if we have one student exhibiting and expressing unease then we have to do something about it and that's where we're at right now as a district and I would agree with that 100% I think that the comment section of the equity audit yes it's very important uh but I also feel that if that was what we were gauging I do believe as a board we could have just done that on our on our own we could have come together and I believe we could have put together very thought-provoking uh thing for our students to do to gauge the climate and culture but Mr Hughes I think the power of an outside audit is really for people to speak freely regardless of the stakeholder if you read through the stakeholder input there were people who shared that they were uneasy about sharing them sharing their perspectives with honesty having an outside perspective allowed us to gain more information than I think having an internal audit and that's why we made the decision in the first place sorry all right anyone else Miss stavano stavano sorry hello I don't think is this working yeah you're right working um my light went out so I wasn't sure um two things so one I was a brand new board member when we had to vote on this um so I came in after 18 months of work um I came in and we were like we're going to vote like relatively soon after I was on the board and my initial reaction was oh hold on a second like and I had the same like concerns or hesitations like you do a quick Google search and without understanding all the background I definitely had reservations and hesitations and I just wanted to give appreciation I was able to go directly to Dr Toro and say here is my list of like five concerns off the top of my head and I was given that space to have a whole conversation um that lasted over a couple of days where I was able to give a ton of feedback and ask questions and I got feedback in return and I was was able to understand that process and understand you know 18 months of work that happened before I was sitting here um and I just appreciated that because it it was probably a little frustrating like we had gotten to that point and then here's this new person who is like no I have questions um and I was never like shunned away or shied away from it and I think we had great conversations and just really appreciate that from had it with Dr faren with Dr Doro with other members of the board um who reached out to say hey let's have like an open conversation about what's going on here and I happily and solidly voted yes in the end um and then just wanted to really Echo Mr dva's thoughts um everyone on this side of the room has listened to me very passionately speak about the same thing um the comment section of this audit is probably the most important thing that we can take away from it and I have shared very openly with everyone sitting here and with anyone who went to high school with me um I I needed this when I graduated in 2005 because I was the Gifted had all the friends super popular played all the sports kid who would have put in this survey I don't know what I'm doing like I have a thousand people with me at all times and I've never felt more alone in this world um I got into every I college that I applied to and I still feel like I'm failing like I don't know what I'm doing so I think that the the most important thing that we can do is read through these comments and really understand that if we reach even one kid in MA public schools and we're able to say to them you're not as alone as you think you are like we have them made a difference um and this report is huge and it took me weeks to get through it and to really read through all the comments from all of our stakeholders um and there's just a lot of good stuff that's in here and there's a lot of great work that we can do and I feel like maybe it was eye opening for a lot of us like we look at our gift kids and we look at you know the kids who maybe need a little extra help and we're giving them the resources and we're saying to ourselves like we're very successful and we're doing this really well and we were able as a board and then now as a community to say like there's a missing piece here and whatever it is that is the root cause needs to be addressed um and I think that especially as building leaderships are going through it they're going to be able to identify some of those patterns and be able to make sure that those kids are being heard and being seen and giving that outlet that they need um and I don't want to just repeat everything that mrva said but I feel so unbelievably passionate about it that I am speaking at a meeting and I usually don't try to talk too much here um but I think it's really important and I am very much looking forward to everyone being able to see it and to be able to read through these comments and to understand that there are definitely pieces there and there is real work that we can do outside of just what was on the board um and I'm really looking forward to that because I think that at the end of the day is really important thank you Mr aano Mr Denise so the decision was made to release it in its entirety because there was some discussions about not including the comment section because of privacy issues yes we we we were concerned along the lines of the identifiers that are in the comment section people were um had the courage to share their perspective and we wanted to make sure that it remained Anonymous of who was saying what um we're we're in the process of redacting all of those names we're at we're at the back end of redacting all those names but we felt because we as everyone has shared the power of those comments it's important for the community to be able to see those comments at first we were going to share um the report the overall recommendations to our district and then to the schools and the comments we felt we were concerned because they were identifiers but we're in the process of redacting all of the names and identifiers so we can release the report in its entirety and um after the community gets an opportunity to review the report on Friday is there going to be a a future board meeting will they able to give us some feedback on on their review don't hold me to Friday could be Friday or Monday depending on I don't want to Don't Want to Miss a date so it's either Friday or Monday depending on when when we're we're finalizing the redactions the community members uh as they do every single uh meeting they're more than welcome to come up in open public comment and share share any concerns or questions that they have they're also more than welcome to to contact me directly and I'm more than happy to speak to them about any of their feedback that they have um also if by chance they don't want to do it in this forum I have no problem we talked about having those those open discussions and those roundtables we could look to doing that come the New Year having them come together because it will take some time to digest all of the docu all the documents and all the pages and have those open discussions along lines of from that from that audit what are your takeaways what what are your questions what are your concerns and let's have the conversation about I'm more than open more than happy to have that conversation and and just to be clear um so that there's no misunderstanding can you speak a little louder Just to be clear and so there's is this sorry just to be clear and so there's no misunderstandings we're still going to use qualifications as our primary uh hiring um qu qualifications that could be uh prioritized when it comes to hiring staff yes as droro shared we hire the best candidates we've always hired the best candid I just want to reinforce them yeah I I totally understand and we will continue to do so all right um any other comments um I just want to say um you know thank you thank you very much um to our team I mean this has been um a thoughtful and a very detailed process not just in the selection um putting all the information together um in this you know from this 500 page report um and I think Dr Doro and you know his team have been um very um uh appropriately um you know cautious and w to make sure that when this presentation did take place that it was done um properly and that it was done um you know with the most uh sort of best information uh put together so um and I just again want to go back to I think we continue to limit ourselves um at this point to continue the discussion of our decision to use us Square um at this point I think it's more important as Mr DVA said for us to take what is in this report for us to move forward to apply these findings in a constructive manner for MAA that's what we're doing here we are applying this for what is relevant here we don't worry about what's happened or who they've done or what they've done in other places we have a team who is committed to MAA and what's best for us here and that's what's coming out of this um so to use sometimes you know language that creates a divisive feeling that's not what we're intending to do that's not what this team is intending to do at all so I think we need to be very careful of that and I think perhaps this uh creates and provokes some of those uncomfortable conversations that we don't all want to have and that's the important and the important piece of this audit and what we're doing here is we have to have those conversations we have to make sure that students in our school feel respected and valued and have a home here in Mawa thank you all right um is there anything else I think we move on Dr tour anything else on your [Music] report okay um all right so uh let's go to Mr bleer do you have a report for us this evening uh good evening have one yes just a couple things to highlight and to touch on um some of these may be brought up during the respective committee reports um but I'm just going to touch on them right now in transportation just want to share uh with the board as well as with the community that we did take a delivery of a new bus that we had ordered during the year last year it's currently being outfitted with um radios and cameras and some of the other GPS electronics that we need for it uh before it gets put on the road and put into Service uh for facilities the George Washington hbac project uh is moving along the first phase of that is moving along well over the teachers convention um days off last week we had the balancing company came in to help make some tweeks and adjustments and we have even temperature throughout the building uh another highlight that occurred during the uh teacher convention break last week uh over at Joyce Kilmer a new Walkin freezer was installed for the kitchen area for the cafeteria at JK a lot of other smaller projects were done but those were two of the uh larger items uh financials we had a good meeting with the finance facilities committee last week uh we have a followup meeting on uh November 29th at that meeting our Auditors will be there to present a preliminary draft um review of our audit from last school year from the 20 2022 2023 school year on tonight's agenda you'll see a resolution for our scholarship funds uh we have um two accounts that we maintain those funds and we have a checking account that we draw down when we um issue scholarships to students at the end of the school year we also have a CD through TD Bank uh helps us earn a little bit higher interest rate on the funds that we do have in that uh I want to thank the board for uh their commitment to um looking into alternatives to earn a higher rate for those funds we're going to be renewing that CD uh which is maturing very shortly um Dr morthy asked that I touched base a little bit on the election from last week so the election just want to thank all the cand that did put their name in the Hat to run uh running a campaign for anything whether it's for Schoolboard election or anything else is not um an easy Fe so I want to thank everybody for putting the in the Hat uh results are still unofficial yet at this time the county is releasing um their results on their website uh they're last updated last week on the 10th again we Sol unofficial results for contexts last year during the election the election was held on November 8th we did not receive the final results from the county office until November 21st so I do expect the final results to come in next week but uh we are watching the those uh closely and when the official results are done they will be shared publicly and of course all candidates will be sworn in at a reorganization meeting in January um that's my report for this evening and just lastly I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everybody um next week thank you thank you Mr bler uh Dr far do you have a report for us this evening yes I thank you so uh at all the board members places are three articles uh the first we've referenced at a previous meeting uh you'll see that you have a copy of the school administrator magazine which is a national publication that highlights the district's Thunderbird partnership program you'll see the article on page 30 um obviously that is a copy for you the other two articles are printed from the internet that highlight two of our staff members so the first is U Miss Dina scad um I shared with the board earlier in the fall uh that our district was being showcased for a physical education programs implementation of the heart zones technology and how specifically at JK Miss scary uses this technology as a supplement to her instruction uh the article is now recently available online so you have that for you uh the heart zones moved solution is datadriven Fitness technology software that engages assesses and motivates physical activity using wearables to empower students to pursue safe and healthy active lifestyles actually this technology was funded by Mawa schools Foundation Grant uh that is having real success in our fizzed program here so we thank Miss gadiri for working to ever improve our fizzed program and are excited about this recognition for her uh the second highlight is uh Miss Fang Bon she's part of Middlebury language school's master's program in Chinese uh and she teaches Chinese at rampo Ridge as well as Mawa high school she has been recognized as a as a recipient of the annual outstanding Chinese teacher award by class an organization which stands for Chinese language Association of secondary and elementary schools Miss beond was selected by the Class Awards committee which is made up by a group of practicing teachers in the field of K12 Chinese across the country this Beyond will be highlighted at act's annual award ceremony in just a few days and um what is what's the Highlight for me is really miss On's quote at the end of the article where she adds quote the more we learn the more we teach the more we enjoy learning the more we enjoy teaching so um I don't think any anyone could say it any better than she did so congratulations to miss Beyond and also I know that we've spoken about staff highlights um we will be doing our staff highlights at a December meeting I know Mr Gallow has been asking for the return of those and we are excited to highlight a staff member from each of our six School buildings uh the second piece of my report uh two retirements to announce um agenda items 18a and ATB both staff members of George Washington School uh the first staff member is Mrs Carol Bruno an instructional par professional who's worked here for nearly 17 years in her role Mrs Bruno had worked with children in all settings from the General Ed set classroom to small group support and in the self-contained classroom the kind calm energy that Mrs Bruno brings to the team will be greatly missed at George Washington School as she always helps to problem solve with students and staff and has taken on many new challenges in recent years with both Grace and compassion Mrs Bruno's favorite aspect about working in this role has been the academic support for students where she can apply her teaching degree what we will miss most is the heart and care that Carol has brought to this position for GW Carol is excited to to spend time with her husband and Sons one of which was recently engaged in addition she will be headed to Florida as an unofficial uh snowboard Snowbird we wish her the best snowboard yeah um yes um and last but certainly not least um Miss teal vro she's the administra of assistant at George Washington school and she's been in that role for over 14 years Mrs vicaro has has not only supported three different principles over her time here but also over a thousand students and their families Mrs vicaro is known for many roles Beyond administrative assistant at George Washington School she is the heart and she is someone with whom families have shown tremendous appreciation and someone who consistently makes our students feel loved and care for Mrs varara will be missed dearly by her colleagues with whom she is always willing to lend a helping hand a caring shoulder and of course a good laugh te and her husband recently built a house in Delaware just a mile from the beach where they will be moving fulltime they are looking forward to traveling together and have already booked a trip to Disney te is excited to spend time with her daughter and granddaughter as well as her son as he gets married this year so we wish our retirees the best in what's to come that's it for me thank you thank you very much um all right my report this evening so um first I just um I wanted to highlight um and give a congratulations to our um administrative team specifically to Dr Doro Dr Fair uh Dr bovino and Miss Rizzo um at the recent New Jersey school boards Association conference which is about two weeks ago um they actually uh did a very robust uh interactive presentation on the Thunderbird partnership program um that was uh very well attended um and it was quite a success so again thank you for uh continuing to highlight all that we're doing well in MAA and getting maa's name out uh on the uh State stage as you would so thank you very much um I also wanted to remind everyone that our MAA High School uh fall theater production is taking place starting tomorrow evening uh it's called you can't take it with you um so running from tomorrow evening to Sunday evening you can get your tickets online comes up right if you go to our um High School website to tab bird. booktix for tickets. net all right so uh please uh check that out and uh good luck to uh all those participating in the theater production um also wanted to highlight our marching Thunderbirds who uh performed uh their show Olympus at the 2023 Tournament of bands uh this is uh chapter 10 championships at West Essex High School um with a very impressive first place finish uh with a score of 92.8 to0 um as well as receiving accolades for high visual High auxiliary High percussion and High music um they are on have they G they're on to States I think or they've so States is done States is done sorry States is done and they placed third they placed third and they played third in States so um I mean truly amazing I I've known the band for many years I I has have they gone has it been a while since they've been to States Mr DVA do you have a little info for I don't know about the the history as far as I know that's probably about as high as right yeah there a long time there were there were a couple of performances where they actually scored like school record which was which is fantastic but as far as uh hitting third in the state I think it it's been a long time if we've been there and I'm I'm not sure whether we actually have been that High ever so so huge huge congratulations to our marching Thunderbirds who are making moments matter um the last thing I just want to comment I'm hearing um from different organizations this year the hsos the msf um that people are just not volunteering um and it really is beginning to affect um programming and what all these wonderful organizations can do um I'm just going to give a little shout out listen I have over the years in this um town and this District um it's a great opportunity I've made great friends um I've been able to think outside of myself I've given back to my community I've learned a lot about myself and I've learned a lot about others and and the the really incredible people in this town truly um so again consider giving up some of your time I mean we all feel we don't have any time but I feel like you will really receive more um than what you give you get so much back in returns I just wanted to give a shout out because it seems like I'm hearing that a lot across the board um lastly wishing everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving weekend um hope you can find a moment to remember what you're actually thankful and grateful for uh while enjoying your time with family and friends um and be safe everyone all right uh let's go on to board committee reports and um miss our MAA student representative Gabby marquetti we're gonna let you have the floor first since you've sat patiently through our meeting um and then you could feel free if you need to run after that but uh anyway thank you and welcome to the deis Miss Mary thank you so first we have spear week which was in October and that started with the student vers faculty soccer game where the students won two to one and then our spirit week theme days were graphit day on Monday soccer mom versus barbecue dad on Tuesday anything but a backpack on Wednesday tourist day Thursday and class color day Friday and then in the middle of spirit week on the 18th was Banner decorating night where students from each grade finished decorating their banners that represent their assigned City because our overall theme was cities and then those were put up on the fence the field and then to close out spirit week we had our spirit rally which consisted of five competitions that related to the overall theme which was cities then our action through Athletics Club sponsored the pink out football game and they were able to raise over $400 for breast cancer awareness and all of our sport fall sports did really well and made it to some level of the state tournaments and then on October 25th we had the eighth grade open house which um went really well well there were reps from clubs and Athletics that were there to welcome all the eighth graders and then on October 28th carab buono came to the high school for a Q&A which was part of the Thunders Thunderbird partnership program and then recently some of our clubs and students participated in the holiday cards for our military challenge where they wrote personalized cards for um troops and that was run by the special ed students and clubs like Habitat for Humanity and Leo Club also part participated in that and then our talent show will be on December 1st which is run by the senior class as a fundraiser and then right now we have a lot of clubs working on holiday fundraisers so next time we'll report on how those are going thank you thank you you great thank you very much appreciate it um board committee reports other reports this evening H Miss davano just doing all sorts of talking today going to keep it very brief um I wanted to Echo Dr mory's uh thoughts on us presenting at the school board's convention in October I want to say thank you to the administrative team for letting me tag along um and present with them and speak about everything that we're doing in Thunderbird partnership and Pathways and how that all relates back to community relations so this is my bug uh for Thunderbird Partnership if you have not joined there's no better time than tonight or even tomorrow morning um your expertise regardless of what it is is Will relate back to classroom content um we talk a lot about having the community come back and be involved in our schools be involved in our classrooms in our curriculum and to understand what is happening and also giving real life experience to students um so many times a student especially as they get older sit in a class and say but how is this relevant how will I use this in real life like when will I need to use this as I grow up I sat in calculus and I still have not had anybody answer that question for me um however there is so much that we do um regardless of if it is a hobby or if is it our profession or whatever else that we're doing that you can come to a classroom and you can be Hands-On with students and say this is how you take this lesson that you're doing in your classroom and this is how it is it applicable at you know a job level or a hobby level or whatever it is that you're going to do in life after you leave uh these four walls um it's very exciting um I've been thinking about coming to speak I've been talking to some administrators at the high school to talk about how I am a person who grew up hating math and I now work in data analytics um and it is interesting how I got here if you told me 20 years ago that this is what I'd be doing as a living I tell you that you're crazy um but it's it's helpful it's impactful and so please visit our website and join our Thunderbird partnership and you know as different um staff members are going through their curriculum they're going through that list and they're trying to find real life ways to bring our community members regardless if you have students in our district or not back into our classroom so there's really no better way to do that than join our fund of partnership um a quick update from the Transportation world so as you know we've been doing a lot of work in transportation really just trying to understand such a large part of our budget um who's riding the bus who's not riding the bus which we have now done several data collection points uh we have a rough estimate of you know 30% ridership across um buses whether it is courtesy or not um um taking that information moving it to the next step there will be a survey that's coming out to parents sometime in December it is going to essentially be very easy like are you assigned busing yes or no if you are assigned busing do you ride the bus yes or no and if the answer is no then why um and we'll give you some options as to you know a drop down menu telling us why you're not on the bus when we look at how low the ridership numbers are there's clearly a disconnect there um we have several people who come and say we need busing we're not giving busing but the busing that's available is not being used so I think that as we start to really drill down into those statistics and understand why um so I'm just giving a heads up everybody knows that the survey is coming please participate in the survey when it comes um it only works if everybody actually fills it out and does it um but that's my my plug for today thank you Mr aano um Mr Galla Kyle stole most of my thunder but I have two little things two actually one's a big thing one's a smaller thing I'll start with the smaller thing is as everyone's aware we um we redid the concession standed installed bathrooms in building five and then this year we completed the renovation or the replacement of our grand stands but one of the issues is the lighting that connects the two buildings so one of the projects we discussed in our committee meeting was how we can improve the lighting in that area to Bay a make it more inviting and safer and get rid of the um the very generously Prov hied M Police Department portable light generators which are very loud and and somewhat cumbersome um so we're looking at the light potential lighting project there but on a bigger scale uh the district submitted a request for about $1 million in capital Improvement projects for which we have received State approval now those projects are eligible for a 40% reimbursement from the state so we're essentially getting 11 million of projects uh for 60 cents on the dollar so those are things that'll be happening over the next couple of years but at least we have something to start with so that was good news for the district thank you Mr Gallum that's very good news for the district Mr come did you yeah I just have a reminder to everyone on the board that the next meeting of the Bergen County School boards Association will be December 5th at hackinside high school and the topic will be branding and communication I already registered Mr Sil should attend that [Music] one I think we should all attend that one branding and communication we talk about it a lot um thank you Mr K uh Mr Hughes I think uh so I'm friends with someone who's on the State Police Department a part of the helicopter Detachment and part of the helicopter Detachment and their budget is are you doing a committee report or you have board member remarks okay okay give me give me a second and we'll get we'll get to you okay um all right I just wanted to report on I attended on Monday night the MAA schools Foundation meeting um they have um you know some exciting things going on they are looking for more trustees if you're interested um The msf Run they reported about that that was Kate odonahue and Michelle Kaplan um hugely successful um they had more sponsorships this year um and it turned out to be a great day weatherwise so uh I think um and they're looking at a similar time October uh of next year in 2024 so you'll get details about that um they're doing an event at stumpies um mid to end of January probably January 18th um where they're renting out the whole place and you'll have multiple lanes and I think it's groups of people have a lane of group of 10 so again this is again just a fundraiser um this is also hopefully um you know for them to get the word out about the Mawa schools foundation and and what they do um so that's that uh their Ladies Night Out is March 14th um the theme is a night in Paris and it's going to be at the Parkridge Marriott so um that's going on the raffle will be in the spring and the grants process uh opens on January 16th uh for teachers and closes on February 16th so again that's the grant cycle um and then uh those requests will be reviewed by them after February 16th all right thanks very much all right now any other committee reports all right now we move to board member remarks thank you Mr Hughes so I'm friends with someone on the State Police Department and he's a part of the helicopter Detachment and part of the helicopter Detachment budget is community relations so he had offered that maybe sometime in the spring he can get this uh state police helicopter to come and land somewhere around our school district I know the junior Police Academy had it around that Big Field that at Ramapo Ridge so I think this would be a great opportunity maybe do a police officer appreciation week and then lead that into Friday land a helicopter something of that sorts I'll send out a couple emails with some more details tomorrow okay great thank you um Mr D Silva so I know we're still waiting for provisional ballots and everything so you don't talk don't need to talk about um results but I want to thank uh Mrs solsman Mrs Jansen Mrs Bryan Mr coplin Mr lenheim for uh for running for the three open positions that we have on the school board uh coming up this year uh I've been doing this for a little while and um the majority of the uh the elections are are unopposed so I think the community is always better off when there's that that exchange that communication and those new ideas have some you know some some discussion around things that are going on at school so I want to thank uh thank everyone for you know jumping in I personally I don't enjoy campaigning some people do it's not fun I don't think so it's it is a commitment to jump in and put your name in the Hat run a campaign go through the process um so I just want to uh you know throw out my appreciation for the fact that we had um so many people to off for three seats this year thank you Mr DVA uh any other board member remarks Miss stanier I'm so sorry guys one more thing um my daughter attends Grandpa middle school she's in sixth grade um she reads at a way higher level grade level than the grade that she's currently in she's always been that way um she recently came home from school with a essentially permission slip from the library um and it said your kid wanted to check this book out it's way above her level like her grade level this is the title of the book like please sign in return um so she came home and she's like apparently I need permission slips for the library she like can you sign this so I can get my books um and I just thought it was really interesting and I can appreciate that level of transparency um coming back to the house and usually with her I let her she can judge what she kind of can't read we talk about all the books that she's reading so not overly generally concerned um but I really appreciate that it came back from the library and that there's just that level of you know parent involvement that they're letting us know um and I'm sure this happens for all kids who are checking out books above their grade level and I just I never knew that we did that and I just thought it was really great I wanted to comment on it because it's the first time I've seen that and I liked it it was I mean my daughter was a little bit like can you sign this so I can read um but it was it was good quite good thank you Mr avanir um all right so let's move on to new business um let's take new business other oh no I no okay so we move on no minutes tonight so we are in new business um let's take a2x um can I have a motion on the floor Mr Gallow second by Mr Hughes um I just want um just want to highlight um the um uh I just want to be clear that on 16v that um for the um December 6th board meeting um I just uh we want we are appointing Mr Gallow as our senior sitting board member uh I am I am giving the gavel over to you uh as uh to be acting board president that evening I I know you will you will uh you know fill the shoes easily so I just wanted to highlight but anyway I need a motion sorry I need a motion on the floor before anyway I said that but anyway motion I need a motion for 60 did I do a motion I didn't yeah you a through X it was a motion by Mr G second by Mr oh well there you go done all right so I can say that all right um let me turn it over to Mr bler then thank you Miss yes but I'm abstaining from 16a check number 113 626 thank you m davano uh yes except I'm abstaining from 16a check number 113 578 thank you Mr Dila yes Mr Denise yes abstaining on 16a check 13581 thank you Mr Galla Yes except I'm obst standing on check excuse me on 16a I have a whole bunch of checks 113 291 1113 384 13468 and 13587 and I'm standing also on 17v thank you Mr Mr Hughes yes and Dr morthy uh yes and I am also abstaining on 16a on check number 113 604 all right thank you um all done should we uh okay so um let's now move on to 17 new business Personnel we have two retirements this evening A and B um so let's take 17 A and B I need a motion Mr Hughes second by Mr Gallow um all right uh and good luck to both actually um uh no Miss Bruno and miss was there when my children were at George Washington school and that has been some years so anyway wish them both very well in uh their retirement and thank you for their service to our district um all right anyone Mr bleer Miss aone yes Miss davano yes Mr Dila yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes and Dr Mor yes um now let's take uh seven 17 C to CC um all right need a motion Mr Denise second Mr Gallow all right Mr Blaker Miss aone yes Miss davero yes and thank you to our parent volunteers and AA Mr DVA yes Mr Denise yes Mr Galla yes Mr Hughes yes and shout out on G to Matthew serich and Dr morthy yes all right let's move on to public questions or comment public participation at board meetings is in accordance with vla 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or School matters of community interest as a matter of fairness you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes if you were here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes um I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr dilva second by miss zakone all right we are officially open to the public hi uh um David warshaw 167 van winkl here M uh I want to thank board president Murthy I want to thank uh Dr uro members of the board and other members of The Faculty of the administration for the meeting I want to thank uh everyone for for having this meeting in this presentation as my white hair might suggest I don't have children in a school uh and as I talked about school board over the last couple of months there were a number of people in my cohort who said I don't care about the school board I don't have children in school and my response to them is well I guess you don't care about 60% of your taxes in the reputation of our school which is a very vital and important to the reputation of our community uh so I think every citizen of MAA has standing to talk about issues having to do with our school board so I accept the uh uh possibility and I want to applaud the Board of Education and School administration for undertaking the equity audit uh reported on tonight and I thank you for your presentation of findings and recommendations as this initiative has been greeted skeptically by some and with hostility by some I'm reminded of a song written by Richard Rogers for South Pacific in 1943 and I'm an avid theater buff those of you who follow my Facebook fa uh page know that um the context for the song is a conflict over an interracial relationship and a couple of verses go like this you've got to be taught to hate and fear you've got to be taught from year to year it's got to be drummed in your dear little ear you've got to be carefully taught you've got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade you've got to be carefully taught and unfortunately as we look around the country and even here in New Jersey there are some people who teach to that text but I believe that however that the recommendations from the study will help continue MAA school systems move in a new direction for what is carefully taught instead of hate teaching respect instead of exclusion teaching inclusion in instead of homogeneity teaching diversity in instead of exclusion teaching inclusion and inclusion and diversity have been tired by some as ignoble Pursuits not worthy of time or attention in the school day that values some say are the sole province of parents I agree that parental values are of utmost importance but I draw an analogy to a young toddler learning to first throw a kickball or throw or kick a ball in their parents' backyard and at some time that child desires to improve and be competitive she may enter a youth sports program where coaches AIDS peers and others help her develop without this expanded learning from those from different backgrounds and with greater expertise than her parents her growth would be stunted so too when it comes to an individual's values and the understanding of a person's place in the world values do start at home but we live in a diverse Community a diverse economy a diverse world and I firmly believe that our schools have an important role in teaching our young people how to fully understand Embrace that and that this teaching will give them a vital leg up in the competitive environment so I thank you for your report and I look forward to learning and participating in some some of your forms uh and learning how the school system will be implementing the recommendations and help Ma student population move resolutely in this direction in the future thank you thank you uh Mr War thank you very much and Dr dor I think wanted to first I want I wanted to thank you for your comments um but I a part of it that I wanted to speak to is you got up and you talked about not having kids in our school system um one of one of the many efforts that we have is to make sure that we're embracing our community as a whole so I greatly appreciate you coming here sharing your thoughts and as I shared earlier in the presentation our efforts of having open sessions with the community is open invite to all because we want to make sure that our community understands all the efforts not just for our students but our parents but also opening our doors to The Experts or anyone who would like to be involved in our school so thank you so much for for being involved well thank you very much and I noticed that the broad stakeholder base that you had in the survey I compliment you on that and I know that that's the only way that we will have a community uh that that values and treasures and supports our school system so hats off to you as well thank you very much good evening John Feen 20 Falcon Court Mal on New Jersey land of the free home of the brave as as you did I did we got the new Mawa matters newsletter the one thing I've received aund of these over the years but there's nothing in here from the school district is that an opportunity to put something in here from the school district yeah I mean you talk about Community well this gets mailed out to like 8,000 front doors about a week ago in the Wall Street Journal there was an article major article about children in crisis who are filling hospitals ER because of mental health and the focus was really on the hospitals in the ER rooms but that's a symptom of a major problem which is mental health in children and they cited some stat statistics which are frightening so my natural question was do we have a mental health issue in Mawa in the district for children I don't think our our struggles that that are present here in MA are different than other districts what I can tell you is and we've talked about about it a number of meetings our commitment to it um I'm extremely proud of there our students struggle um they struggle from many different factors and um what we have been committed to for years now is trying to utilize different strategies and tools and give the students the abilities to navigate through those different struggles there's one level for for a certain population then there's also been a commitment for specific to Staffing throughout our district of what types of experts do we have within our buildings that can support students who have a heightened level of struggle and then there's also an organization ESS that we've brought into our district uh we actually voted on it a couple meetings ago um that are um that are employed here it's an outside agency to to support a very small population that have extreme struggles so there's different levels of the struggles that you speak of um and there's different staff and Specialists that we have here to help with that but more importantly Pro and proactively we're trying to teach our students how to navigate those specific struggles and challenges along the way and that's a k through2 initiative and to add on to Dr Toro's response I know that um you know I think mental health is um and mental health struggles are an issue in every District right now um I think that the article that you reference um it's it's our reality I think it's a reality everywhere um but we've been talking about social emotional learning which connects directly to mental health I know that we created our seal coaches in each of our buildings that the board has graciously approved in in that creation um our mindfulness initiative we are in that for approximately seven years and as droro shared um our ESS our in-house therapeutic program um is is something that has been helping our students who need us the most and lastly I know that throughout the presentation we make reference to restorative practices and responsive classroom which are all key pieces to what we're talking about here now is it possible to determine how much money is being spent right now for mental health internally and externally as you say versus five years ago is that are those numbers available uh yes it's possible I think it's it's a uh there's a lot of different facets to it and the reason why I say that not to um not to answer you in a way that's not direct we we we do have the ability to pull the the costs of the different professionals than the costs of the outside organization and we we also have the ability to pull the costs of the professional development that's been provided to various cohorts of teachers and then ultimately specific coaches that we are training to so yes the cost over time has been probably about seven years if you ask me what the cost is right now I answer I don't know um but yes I I believe that we we absolutely can do that can I come back in two weeks and or this December 6th when Mr Gallow is in charge you'll have to ask the money guy that question but is your question are we spending more today than we did five years ago is that what you're getting yes but I would love to know the absolute numbers got it you know are we five times or one time or whatever Mr F maybe Mr you could be in touch with Mr bleer and see if maybe a week or so yep there's no urgency thank you for your time and attention and and thank you for your suggestion I actually saw that and thought that myself so I I will re I will reach out to the township some we have an inn with some people in the town I think we have some people Mr Fe if I can just you know throw out there also you know you asked whether we have a mental health issue here and you know like Dr deturo said you know is it greater or less than other districts I don't know but I think the most important thing is the voice of the kids that we're actually talking about and going through this like I said earlier I'm encouraged by the number of kids that display the resiliency that we hope to see you know with with the the the programs that we've had in place for a long time it's good to see that bearing fruit that said you know again there are there are still kids that are struggling so I think we're doing a good job I think we're doing better than most districts that's anecdotal I have nothing to back that up that's you know that that's my general feeling but I'm I'm you know going through this I'm I'm encouraged because there's a lot of good but it also shows it's a good gauge I think of of how we're doing so when this comes out I I know you're going to read it I know you will I love the idea it's right on the homepage and if it's 500 pages one page a day two years that's not your weekend reading Mr thank you very much thank you for thank you for your comments hi Susan Steinberg 96 Armor Road sorry short um I want to first thank you all for a always being here and doing your job I know this is a kind of a thankless job for you all and I really appreciate the equity the fact that you took an equity audit undertook the equity a equity audit and that you use an outside company because that's really important now I have one clarification I'd like to ask um I agree that the devil is in the details and the richness comes from the individual responses that are written down you said that before and I think it's great to be able to see them you said that you have to scrub them before they're being made available to the public my question is you promis the kids confidentiality do you know the names do you know which children are in that report is it identified no okay well I'm just wondering because you mentioned that it had to be scrubed no that's a good question I'm glad you asked that it's not the person who wrote it it's comments that could be specific to people that they're speaking about so it's identifiers of other people not the people who wrote the comment yes so can you I'm sorry I'm having they're pointing out a bully or they're saying that you know that it was a third grade a third grader who has pink hair said that they felt picked on so that's obviously identifiable so there there were some comments uh um there were a couple of them you know last year in you know uh this subject in this teacher's class this happened so we took out the teach the name of the teacher so you can't identify it's that type of okay fine I'm just trying to understand because those two things were not understood they're more descriptive and possibly if you knew enough of the details um they there could be ID identify or assumptions made so it's again and I wouldn't say SC we're redacting which is more to say you know to ensure the confidential right I mean the redaction is to Ure 100% the confidentiality of all those who participated um and obviously our priority is our students because that that's the whole piece of this and so absolutely it's it's to ensure confidentiality and that those things are you know maintained um and not in any way to uh you know suggest that uh anyone would be sort of you know laid out to to Bear but by redaction I think it's important for us to be clear in that the whole comment would not be redacted it just would be a specific name so you would still get the spirit behind the commentary but it wouldn't be an identifier of let's say a staff member or a peer of let's say a student who made the comment themselves perfect I just wanted to understand because those two things are just not of course jelling to me thank you thank you thank you Miss Steinberg hi everyone my name is Justin Jacob uh couple questions I mean I have a lot to say but I can't say it all today I guess I'll just say that for future meetings um for the equity audit results um I just thought the presentation was kind of V I know you're trying to summarize 500 pages I know it's a lot but I I don't think it was really transparent and clear with the 500 page um just help me clarify is that going to be posted on the website M and you're going to have it broken down by each School District or the schools that were I'm going to post the entire report okay the report it's laid out that way it is laid out that way the report is broken down by District findings and SCH and then each and each School findings too so we can see that as well okay okay great um other questions how how much did this cost uh it was approximately $440,000 the question Okay so so that being said I I guess I know you you do probably think it was worth it but what is your main takeaway from it to justify that cost I I know I think Mr Gallow said it was just a big listening just to understand we should listen more um I don't know I mean I I kind of want or if you want to clarify that Mr you can I think I laid out my takeways there were a whole bunch in you know 10 minutes that I spoke earlier so that there were there were a lot of takeaways here it's it's in the comment section you're saying well it for me A lot of it was in the comment section But there again there were a lot of different themes at each different school when you go when you go through this you read you know each school section you'll be able to pull out you know see where you know okay so here's something that really needs to be unpacked and worked on there there's there are takeaways from each school they're they're all different okay yeah so when I take a look at that I guess I'll look at I mean it's just I guess it's a little hard to trust it I think Chris kind of hit it right on the head I research the company too it's very biased you can agree with me or not but the very fact of having an equity audit is just biased in itself um so it's just that's why a lot of people in the town were upset you saw that at the Town Hall I'm glad you had the town hall and I hope you actually have future town halls I thought that was a good idea so you can have the town kind of Express themselves because most people don't come here um most people don't even vote right so I think to have the town hall people get invested in that and it be could just ideas and you guys could take away from that as well um but it's just it's it was already biased to me so it's kind of just hard and I know you're trying your best to kind of make it fit with what Mawa Township has to offer but man it's hard for me to trust a lot of this when I read it later I'm going to read the comics soon believe me well don't don't don't just read the comments read I me I'm going to read the whole I'm going to read the whole report like I said earlier I had the same reservations when I'm looking at at who it is and doing the same research I look we all Googled and we all got the same Google results okay you know so there there was there was definitely there was definitely concern there for sure there was a lot of conversation around it I hope that when you go through it you see that it's I I think it's going to be a lot of not what you expect not what any of us expected frankly when I got it I kind of expected the same thing that I think you do when you go through I I think you're going to be I think you're going to be surprised it's it's not okay it's not what you expect I mean I hope so but then I when I look at your outline of the report here and I see the conference workshops that you guys are promoting for education you have stuff on an anti-racist workshop for K to2 Educators Dei Bergen County committees I mean to me that kind of answers it to me already it's already kind of biased some of those are State mandated that's not something that we have a choice of right well that kind of sucks they don't have a choice on that the workshops that we do on a on a every other week whenever we have board meetings are are very comprehensive now along the lines of identifying two of them yeah uh you know I I can get more information specific to those specific workshops but when you list at look at the laundry list of workshops that that are housed here in every single meeting um I don't know I mean I I don't understand the question um so something that a workshop on anti-racism and Dei I don't I don't think those are right I think those are false sentiments I don't think something that you're having Educators go to these and then I don't know what they're doing honestly you're making a statement or you're asking a question I think you're making a statement you're saying that we're talking back and forth no I was making a stat I was making a statement ini are you asking the reason those workshops are on there you're making a statement okay so continue your statement okay I was just responding to Dr that's fine so so yeah I just don't I I like the other I like the other workshops you have there but those are very divisive those two I I just brought out so that that just scares me I'm saying I don't agree with those and I don't think they're they're false honestly but I can I ask a few more questions about the equity audit or uh sure sure let's keep it I I just want to make sure that we're you know if if you have comments you share your comments but if there spec if it's a comment doesn't turn into why are we doing that on a workshop it just I guess you can let me know um there was a there was a part where it said and I think you guys answered this diversity and hiring practices and you want to be better than that I think someone did ask a good question about that you're not you're not going to you're not going to cut off Merit you're not going to put diversity above Merit I think that was I want to know that there was something else about mistakenly targeting specific groups for dress codes and discipline can you elaborate on that please sure Dr Fair Dr within the comment section there were there were statements made from our female students specific to the um disparity between the expectations for them and expectations for our males there's that piece there is also um concerns specific to um head coverings and understanding that there are specifics along the lines of um religious um Traditions or beliefs that they should be allowed to wear XY or Z so and again and I tried to make that clear along the lines of this is not us flexing our dress our dress code or flexing our code of conduct um we're still going to hold true to making sure that our students are respectful responsible and ready to learn but we want to make sure that we're cognizant of what what are the what is our population and making sure it's aligned to all those different parameters okay that makes sense that's helpful can can you go into more detail you talked about people not feeling respected it was throughout the slides can you go into more details detail about that or not really a lot of that information is found in the commentary from our students okay so our students had shared feelings that they may have been disrespected and that is in the equity audit report okay and two reasons why too as well that's in the report depends on commentary okay I guess just one last statement I know you said that the the release of the equity audit had to be now because of the state am I is that correct the state said you have to do it today no the the presentation was delayed uh a bit if if there sorry wasn't delayed but there was there was an intention of doing it in in October at the October meeting however the state um had we had to present our um State findings that was State mandated to present the um the the testing data so that was a pretty heavy presentation I'm not sure if you saw that uh but that was another 30 to 40 minute presentation there was a concern of putting two heavy presentations um and not giving you know kind of fair um you know uh attention to both which was why the decision was made to move the equity audit and presentation to this meeting so that's all that when when that's what they're referring to that was State mandated we had to do it by the end of October we didn't have a choice on that so this um was pushed to today just to make sure that each element in each presentation was given its you know value and okay so and so we don't we don't keep people till you know 11 o'clock at night too right to make sure anyway it was just that was the decision making right corre okay could you have released it in September or no well I mean at this point it was either October or November we made the decision to have the presentation at this meeting and that's that's now you guys are to yeah I guess the reason I say just I I hear what you're saying just it's not a good look that it's after the election results sure absolutely thank you Dr jur wants to speak I'm glad you brought that up and I and I think what we need to all understand is the there's there's no strategy in what we're doing along the lines of presenting this this has been talked about for over a year now so there's nothing to hide and to be quite honest with you the the election results do not impact me so I'm running the school no matter who is on the status so I'm going to deliver the information no matter who's sitting across from me so it's unfortunate that that's The Narrative of we're we're we're not presenting it because of an election I I I can say wholeheartedly that's not even close to being the truth to speak to September we had to open the schools um we have to run the schools and all of this took a lot of time to put together um and I we wanted to do it right for our community CU we knew there were a lot of questions we knew that there were people on different sides and we wanted to make sure that we were being respectful for the money that was put out and for the action moving forward and that would not have happened with us making sure that all of our kids come into school the schools are up and running correctly and all those things take place October Dr Dr morthy already spoke about whether it's now or October the presentation would have been the same and is the only person the only incumbent who did run you know a um um assuming you're inferring that somehow this benefited me to push to November there's not anything in there that I think would have changed an election result certainly not anything that benefits me or any reason that I would ask somebody to push it off till after the election so you know the the inference that somehow has benefited me is is doesn't sit real well yeah not necessarily just you though you're have the person but but there's not there's not anything in there that I see that that would have that would have had an effect on I hear you I'm just Dr Jacob it was a collective decision between the administrative team board members and if that narrative is one that you'd like to um think is the narrative we're telling it's that's a false narrative this had nothing to do with the election this had nothing to do with who was running in the election it has everything to do with timing and placement and what we between a board and administrative team felt like would be most appropriate okay okay that's why I asked but I hope you understand yeah thank you the other side of it great thank you thank you Dr Jacob appreciate your comments I frankly I don't understand that but I I appreciate the the opinion and you could talk to Dr you can talk to Mr DVA no look we we can respectfully disagree it's not saying that one of us is right and one of us is wrong I I don't understand that and that's okay but but I I do appreciate the I I appreciate the the comment honestly yeah thank you appreciate it all right uh motion to close the meeting to the public Mr Hughes second by Mr Gallow thank you um all right we have I need a motion to recess to Executive session we will then um be adjourned from there thank you everyone who came out this evening um motion to exec uh John and Mr Galla thank you very much have a good night and Happy Thanksgiving everyone