really welcome to the mwan aine Regional School Districts Committee of the whole meeting on November 16th 2023 time is now 6:35 p.m. the New Jersey open meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or agreed upon in accordance with the provision of this act aine Regional School District Board of Education advertised this meeting on November 9th 2023 in Asbury Park Press in the Star Ledger this notice was sent to the municipal Clerks of the buau of mwan and the township of aine and the mwan aine public library the notice was also placed on the district's website can we please stand for the pled States of America to the repu it stands one nation under God Miss case can we please have roll call M here mner Mr mon here M here M SC here M here M War here M Martinez here M go here um correspondence to the board can I get a motion second all motion second okay I'll turn it over to Miss Perez good evening everyone just a quick update I wanted to say thank you to our maintenance and operations um Department we had um some new playgrounds installed over the weekend this long weekend there were some Renovations in some of our buildings particularly Cliffwood Elementary and um just the final touches to Cambridge Park so their hard work and dedication is really really appreciated well Cambridge had new updates with um the final touches with new construction you always have some final touches but we're being drive has the new playground thank you um so for the board president's report um first off welcome to Second Market period um starting to fly already I feel like the had just started um first we would like to acknowledge um a couple of things first uh congratulations to miss scru Mr McGovern um for being elected to the board for um aine and then miss SC as well for being uh reelected for B one um also in terms of the election um while the vote for the second question on the Dolla did not pass um School Safety and Security is still a top priority for our schools and we do plan to move forward to strengthen Security in our school as a community by meeting and collaborating with key stakeholders um including but not limited to Board of Education members School administration Town Council Representatives police departments parents and community members in fact the day after election um Miss Perez and um Miss case did meet with the towns uh both towns and there's another meeting that is scheduled for or going to be scheduled for the first week in December um as we continue to dis discuss safety another thing we did want to ask parents and Guardians is just to have conversations at home with your children about only bringing school appropriate items to school um not bringing any items that could be potentially construed as um a weapon or that could potentially hurt someone um and that really pertains to children of all ages including those um younger uh Elementary aged um I was going to mention the playgrounds Miss perz had mentioned that and just wanted to wish everyone student staff School Community a very Happy Thanksgiving we are going to move to curriculum and instruction Mr lman thank you good evening board to take action on item a travel as an action item and B other it number one for Action board consider item two on page 202 your instruction um thank you student uh can I get a motion in a second to approve the agenda I'll second uh student services Mr Le we are asking work to improve fraction items 1 through as listed our one and two of student services agenda that student services can I get a motion in a second to approve the agenda I'll motion call second uh Personnel Dr mic good evening we're asking the board to take action tonight on items 1 through five and to consider items a b c and d for the RAM and that concludes Personnel thank you can I get a motion in a second to approve the agenda I'll motion second uh Finance Miss case evening we're looking for finance to take action on items 1 through 3 and then at the ram we'll be looking for 4 through 12 thank you can I get a motion in a second to approve the agenda I'll motion second and then um I'm going to take any questions or comments from the board on agenda items um I did want to just point out I know it's up for Action at the next meeting but I did um on curriculum and instruction the uh mwan aine Educational Foundation grants for 2324 there are a lot of Grants here and I just wanted to thank the foundation um because I know a lot of hard work has gone into this this year um we had more applicants I believe than we've had in the past um a lot of um staff members did apply for Grants across all the schools which is fantastic and the the foundation um is able to supply as you can see here a lot of Grants which will in turn really help our students and enrich their learning um which is fantastic so thank you any other questions comments from the board agenda items um I'm going to move to public comments on agenda items and additional matters um the Board of Education recognizes the value of public Comon on matters of interest to the school Community individuals wishing to speak must State their name and Municipality of residents comments are limited to three more minutes duration but an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard all statements should be directed to the board president no participant May address or question board members individually um all speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and PRI privacy of others whose legal rights may be affected please note while it's not the board's intention to stifle comments on matters of legitimate concern the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law of defamation or invasion of privacy they may face personal liability to the injured party if speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of their comments the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal advisor Casey Vera president uh M Regional Education Association Farmingdale New Jersey uh nothing major just on student services the action item number two um um and I apologize I usually catch this stuff earlier and let let you guys know um the total cost that's listed doesn't actually total out to what's there it it looks like it's off by $4,000 so you have 8,651 I get 12,5 so just check just and I I wouldn't even have brought it up but because it's an action I thank you hello uh uh I am here on behalf of the foundation uh thank you Mrs scy for acknowledging the grants uh I wanted to explain uh a little bit about them if I can have a little latitude with the three minutes and here uh yeah I'm Amanda N I'm the vice president of the Educational Foundation also on Bailey um so there were 12 uh grants that we have uh notified teachers uh principles as well as uh Mr leedman that we are going we would like to approve uh we are looking to buy those uh items as quickly as possible because the timelines that we had Set uh were to have all of these things in the hands of the teachers on the 22nd of December like to take advantage of Black Friday um it's concerning because if it's not approved tonight I have an issue of spending money before I've been approved to spend money uh I see that it's not filled in on the agenda so I just wanted to let the board know uh we received 28 grants of those 28 grants the total amount of money that was requested was $60,000 about we are looking to award $2,760 those are the numbers that should be on uh the agenda tonight uh I sent and I know it was late on Sunday night uh to miss case and Mr leedman uh the document that listed the cost to but not to exceed cost of each Grant uh there is a typo on the cow agenda the first is mindfulness matters that's a high school program that's being awarded uh to miss wesr uh in the amount of $619 art from the sky from Lloyd um from the art teacher in the of 3950 that is twice it's actually three times more the size of Grant that's been previously wed we have become very bold um and a lot of that is due to our early action and the teachers excitement we're trying to support all of that we looked to when we're talking about spending this kind of money one of the major factors we look at is how many kids are served that Grant serves all of Lloyd for example so to us it was something worth spending the money on our hope is that the PTO might be able to pick it up in the future what that Grant is for example is it's a 3-day project all of the kids will be wearing certain shirts they'll be taught how to line themselves off and contrast and different shapes like that um which will allow them to make a husky on a field and a drone will take that shot and the kids will have the opportunity to buy it and it'll be I would imagine frame in ly it would be kind of cool to do that every year um so that's something that we started the uh next one uh number three is one book one school that was a group project uh by miss palowski and miss uh Farah Larry she's in Cliffwood uh so this came from Cliffwood School the amount of that Grant is not to exceed uh 29 5392 and that is a very cool project one of the things we did differently this year we went into teacher orientation we challenged them to think bigger to work with other teachers so we got a number of Grant proposals that incorporated either entire grades or entire schools um this one is every single grade from kindergarten up we'll be reading Charlotte's Web and I asked Miss case and she's graciously agreed to help to see she can buy the books cheaper cuz we're hoping to cut all these costs down uh the next is exciting out of Ravine that's 475 and that is um you may have seen it I know they used to do it at Cambridge where they get the eggs from a farmer they incubate them they hatch them it's really adorable for teachers kids and everyone nobodys that the other is the next is a called wax museum that's also from Ravine um Miss Murray and Miss morrisy proposed that for 25693 what that is something they've been doing for a while they wanted enhancements to make it bigger better um so we've given those enhancements that's also a really cool project that we're encouraging the teachers to share those projects maybe with other schools to have them visit the wax museum maybe from Strathmore at Cliffwood uh you yoga which is where I think yoga and the mindfulness got mixed up so those need to be separated uh that jogre for Cambridge that is a request of $892 that is something that will be started in that school uh I understand there's now a big gym in there that is the entire Cambridge Park School would be able to enjoy dinosaurs Rock uh is out of Strathmore m is misenko uh for a $1,350 I thought this was particularly cool it's an assembly it's a curriculum it again um really goes to spread the wealth of the grants which was exciting to us um the next is Husky's closet from that's out of the high school that's from the guidance Department uh miss grei and miss Longo in the amount of 74858 and that is people forget sometimes I know uh as board members you see things like the lunch debt and free and reduced there are a lot of kids a lot of families in our district that don't have the funds that we wish they did that I'm sure they wish they did so they school high school guidance department wants to enlarge a closet area um and that would have not just clothes that kids might unaware uh it would have dresses which they usually do this with prom would also maybe have some non perishable food items maybe some uh female hygiene products um so they're looking to expand that that I understand needs to be approved by Administration make sure it's qac appropriate um so that has two steps we have to go through CU they're converting a room to be a closet and you know about that it's related to uh next is I can't choose favorites but it's really cool it's an aquaponics so we approved the board approved a tower garden a couple of years ago which is um hydroponic We Grow garden with that dir pretty neat this is aquaponic so there's a giant fish tank the fish tank do their thing the fish do their thing that is used as the food to feed the garden that's above the specific one that was requested uh this one is $5,500 is a 70 gallon tank it is expected and there's a plan in place to build upon it to basically Revitalize the greenhouse that's at the high school and Revitalize um the nutrition curriculum things like that so when we see a future plan and we can support that that's how we decide how to spend and award those grants um um I'd also had a talk with Mr lean about using it for other schools so kids who learn about photosynthesis stuff like that that's something that uh I was told was certainly doable so it's really a districtwide project the next is Battle of books uh from mans from Miss San Martin uh that's a cost of 3500 so 3538 uh 35 that is um a competition that will come not only within the school but out of the school so it gets some of our kids at a district they read certain books and I'm not quite sure how to Envision it but I guess they sort of it's a competition book club is how I call like a trivia contest for 13 different books if they have to read parts of um atrisk reading uh is from the high school proposed by Miss Casserly uh and I think she worked with um uh Mr rolls on this and that's a cost of $1,377 cents and that's for our readers who may not be reading at the levels that they want so there are books that are more like graphic novels things like that that they can read what their peers are reading but at level in or a manner they can better understand uh she's requested $1,000 um the last is college bowl review uh from ma from Mr Demario in the amount of $523 195 every year he does a uh this college Bow review and it's a quiz show and he has buzzers so he wanted inhan buzzers it's something that uh he'll keep using there are other teachers within Ms and within District that use it with the academic Bowl we have a math uh math Olympics of a high school so it's something that can be used once if this is all bought it becomes District property so we're hoping to develop a system so that the district keeps better track of it um because we had nothing in place now we want to make something sure that it's in place we did find out that our tower garden is being used in a lesson plan uh I've asked to be told about that so we could go get pictures cuz that that's what makes it worth it um so that's 21,000 760 in Grants that we are hoping to award we're hoping that you guys approve um I would like some guidance because we need to spend money on Black Friday to buy this stuff uh and what we're trying to do as I have not sent all the denial letters out so there are still grants that we might be able to Grant it really depends on how much we can save and how much we can ra so we are working towards doing that um Amanda has been amazing in getting us some corporate sponsorships so everybody mark their calendars December 14th we are having a jazz night at the um Cliffwood Community Center our jazz company is free you might be familiar with them they're the high school jazz band um we're going to have some nice Gallows as donating wine alternate endings donating some merchandise and stuff so it'll be a nice getaway from the craziness of the holiday season uh we also have a Pampered Chef thing going on that I fored to Mrs scy that if each one of you wanted to share on a personal level we certainly appreciate that um but if you have any questions uh on how these get awarded why we decided some things there's a a Girls on the Run br was proposed that is something I've gone to both towns to see if they will pick up the cost for it's expensive and it doesn't hit as many kids as we would be like it to we want to see if the towns will get involved in taking some of these they're looking to do that um there is a robotics one that is still pending because we funded a grant for that and we need to find those materials because we think that would actually satisfy the grant without re Buy and then can [Music] I thank you again for all this this is awesome um just a few questions the so like the one for the qack that would have to be so you're not actually uh there's some steps before we actually can can do that like some of these are not just go by and correct type of thing so once I hear from I guess Miss case that it's what they want to do is qack compant okay then the other thing in terms of cutting costs I I know that Cambridge was sort of remodel I expect if I can go into the vows of the district I could probably find the things that they want us to buy there are yeah I I I figure I so we're looking to upcycle as much as we can Okay um and then so this 21,000 is what you're looking is the max of what you're spending this is and so if you save within these items you mean you have some extras hopefully if you save even more than we can do other things CU you said there was how many GRS 28 and uh just to give you guys an idea last year I believe the foundation gave six grants yeah um we have doubled everything fun I could we've uh we have two times as many grants this year and three times as much in dollar value as last year um we're hoping to raise three times as much money as the year before because neighboring towns um granted not apples apples comparison they raise about four times as much as oh no I'm sorry 10 times as much as we did four times of what we want to raise this year so we are really trying to up the an with what we can do for teachers U to think every year it's going to grow as we continue to inspire them and hopefully allow them be creat with um and then are we able to um for the link for the Pamper chat um are we able to put that baby on the Facebook page right that would be up to you I like to get it out um yeah and then maybe um and then the other thought is is there because I know like if I couldn't go to events when when Miss con was doing it I would just donate money so is there can you send a way for us to just say hey we can put that out if you want to just donate we are hoping I know giving Tuesday is Nationwide I believe it's November 28th um and we were kind of still brainstorming but to maybe even give the community a sneak preview of some of the grants we were hoping to approve to inspire them to donate um so that was one thought that could be something really wonderful to promote in the next week but we know it's kind of time sensitive with the approvals yeah and my thought it's like if they can donate like where if they want to donate any time from the or where where would they send it I see okay we have a v okay yeah like maybe if you could send that I know at least I would want to donate and then I could share it and then we can maybe put it on the page and get it out okay thank you so much um the other thing we wanted to do sort of along those lines is for the classrooms that the teachers have got Grant we wanted to write letters the kids a letter to bring home to say congratulations mom dad this teacher got applied for this grant this has been awarded I there are two reasons I'd like to do it um one is I think the teers deserve a shout out that's one of the reasons why I wanted to present the grants and two um and all of their principles were copied all of the principles know who applied even if we didn't award that because I don't want to discourage people from applying if we couldn't Grant it um but all of those teachers uh like I said I'd like them to get a shout out but I also think if the parents see their kids are benefiting from it or will benefit from it then they more likely to come your fundraiser and donate on venmo so we're looking to do that as well okay yeah and I just think it's a matter of just getting it out there I think just with anything p p like people are busy but they would love to just money and say all right I can't come but so yeah that would be great I appreciate it thank you is it other word make a com um I I also commend the teachers um the types of grants that we're applied for are amazing I think that the fact that they really focus on science technology with a drone um reading with the Charlotte we I mean that's my biggest takeway is that these are really core educational academic skills so I love that so thank you teachers for applying for grants that everybody can get on board with so I love it um I would like to talk to the board for different time about a campaign um around this for the Facebook page every time one of these projects comes to fruition and take pictures put on the Facebook page this is what the Educational Foundation does this is how many people can use stats how many people are benefited what it you know what the money came from that wasn't your money it was donated money and you know how to get involved with donating um it's just spreading the word like tyara said is really important because if parents don't know that this money is coming from donations and that they could donate or they can get maybe they have an uncle in another town business I don't know just getting the word out about how impactful these types of Grants are I I really think is important just it's my biggest thing we need to shout from the rooftops about the that we're doing well we do we do have a Facebook page um quck bond is one of our officers uh may know from Pages like that today the other Pages he has um we are definitely trying to seize upon social media as much as we can um derling she did all of the web changes that we asked her to do so that web page is all up to date now um but yeah we are hoping to get as many people aware because that makes it easier for us to Facebook why don't out the links because um so we will send Facebook links the links to the pages we we have the memos the M Che um and then the Jud we have that information as well and if anybody has any questions for individually fairly certain everybody thank [Applause] you the agenda was not feel okay so um sorry logistically we had to confirm um I know we have a number of members from the public that just joined so um in terms of similar to what we did when we were at uh M's board meeting we would like to ask that um at by 8:00 if everybody has already had a chance to speak then we limit to one time if it gets beyond that then um I mean if it hasn't hit that point then a second time correct yes okay good evening Dan there any a okay so I want to just address a couple aspects of policy 5756 that I do not think have been uh given enough attention and uh first I I would want to remind everybody that New Jersey state law requires that our public schools in New Jersey not only teach but stress abstinence and modesty in their health gr and I did review um your health curriculum uh a year or so ago and then again and I was really just appointed to see and I understand this is pretty widespread among our schools that there's very little teaching much less stressing of those um core elements and I just want to point out that this really contravenes and undermines um you know the uh you know the welfare and health of our our young people on on the face of it worse though is that 5756 is directly oppositional to those ideas of modesty and absence when you affirm without question diagnosis or any other criteria gender choices because that's what they are are remember they are lifestyle choices based on feelings and it's in the policy itself under definition that tell you that that um that's experimentation of gender ID ideology and if kids because these are children we're talking about are free and encouraged CU that's a synonym of affirm to experiment with their gender identity then it's not unreasonable to think that they're going to experiment with the behaviors associated with gender ideology and sexuality okay so that's one big aspect of this that I don't think is congruent and that we should look at the second is regarding child in danger and that's another maor J state law laws I should say regarding child endangerment okay child abuse risk of injury to a minor and child endangerment in New Jersey can be any type of action which causes substantial risk of injury death disfigurement or which impairs a child's physical or emotional health okay child engangement can occur when a child does not receive licensed professional medical care for an injury or sickness gender dysphoria is a classified well documented mental illness okay neglecting to seek Med medical care when needed by licensed professionals and there's a lot more okay but that's a New Jersey uh statute section 9 6 through 8 and N depending on the circumstances of defense is you know the bottom Line's conviction is a state prison folks we need to look at this policy from the lens of is it harming our kids and if so what you know to what extent and I think if you're intellectually honest and you go through it pragmatically you can find that it's not just what's happening now but it's what's going to happen based on the level of influence that these policies have and give false premise to the children that everything is just okay to do what you want to be autonomous to be independent from your parents to have fre freedom without consequences or responsibility if we can wrap up sorry okay I just want to make one other point and that is a letter from the American Association of uh Pediatrics okay they wrote a letter to the New Jersey Board of unelected BOE officials about opposing the anti-science vote to enact harmful Equity quote everything in this letter from the AAP s which I will email you folks is applicable to policy 5756 and um I would encourage you to to take you know moments to read Care thank you so much and thank you for your service I forgot to mention that at the beginning thank you hi everyone um I'm not we'll do that next time um I have a good question um uh vaping has become a big issue in uh the middle school and my daughter's 12 and when she comes home and tells me that there are 12-year-olds faing um it's it's very concerning so I'm just wondering um is this anywhere on anyone's radar about things that we need to discuss and talk to Children about or have you guys reached out to you know the a police and say you know vaping is rampant in the middle school and um we need you guys to find out who selling these things to 12-year-olds I'm just a quick you know I'm just wondering like what kind of uh connection you have with the police department because obviously these kids are getting it from somewhere and I even had a friend tell me oh I just um I just punished my child and she's not going out for the rest of her life and I'm like what happened oh I caught her baby I mean these are 12 year olds I mean it's like Smoky cigarettes guys it's absolutely horrific so I'm just wondering what kind of plans are we doing like are the cops coming in and talking about you know like drugs and stuff or um you know are you guys talking to the cops at all and saying listen we see in the high we see in the middle school so someone is actually selling it have you guys thought about trying to track that down just one I mean I can talk and then I can um pass it to Miss Perez as well yes it is a big concern because it's not just the middle school it's the high school as well um we know it's an issue um we have had numerous numerous discussions about it um so we actually have um ordered and are in the process of installing they installed Bap detectors um in the uh restrooms because that's where we were noticing a big problem with it especially in the high school the middle school I know it's there I just didn't realize to what extent um I think it is a concern because I think kids um because I have kids in both schools and they don't understand what it does to their health it's they don't smoking corre it's not smoking they think it's a quick like and they don't get it and I think it's so highly addictive that you know once they start and I think it's really a discussion parents and Guardians need to have with their kids as well but from an in school perspective I guess can you talk to um in terms of what's been done there so um so in terms of being proactive um assemblies we've had them last year they're at the middle school quite a few we plan on doing those as well I'll probably at the beginning of the school year um and the the admin team is adhering to board policy which is I don't know the um but uh in terms of vaping so we do adhere to that there um in terms of the communication with the parents and also consequences and that entails communication with the police department with both so we are we are aware and uh I have meetings monthly with the police departments with the Chiefs so we have been discussing that in terms of ways to you know increase their their level of awareness it's not going to just happen in a health class quite honestly it's p in education as well and it is more damaging actually than cigarettes so so one other quick question so um I also hear rumors from my daughter Che me everything like where the kids are getting them so like is there some kind of like Anonymous place where like we can make sure that information I know I'm from New York my whole family was um New York City police officers and and they used to do like you know they would send kids in and buy one can of beer to kind of like f up and then they lose their Lial license right so is there a way that we could like kind of like drop a dime and be like listen I heard from my 12-year-old they're all getting it from XYZ XYZ um is there something we could do that yes they could email parent can email me okay and then we can handle it confidentially without mes they the and one last thing to we are working on the uh substance abuse policy as well because we obviously know the issues there too with the marijuana Miss case real quick The Vape detectors are in the high school did we are they also middle okay awesome thank you hi my name is Kim Lindley I'm from Oldbridge I'm a former special education teacher so um I want to thank you for taking the time to S 5756 the suggest amendment has many areas of concern teacher parent relationships parental rights in the First Amendment Division and special education student there were others as well but due to time constraints I would like to address a few the teacher parent relationship relationship affects the student's performance where there is active clear communication between both parties the student will be the one to benefit if 5756 is not be sended and the student is the one to suffer the reason would be due to the lack of the trust between the parent but have with the teacher 5756 allows teacher not to provide the parents with the gender student identifies as also the student is allowed to use a bathroom and participate in activities that the student identifies as in addition another separate l a separate file of the student is kept on the on record this file is kept from the parent until the student wants to to inform the parent the child's actually living a double life the brain is another area of concern I would like to address an article by mental health daily was written at what age is the the brain fully developed the development of the brain plays a significant part of the child's personality and identity I would like to highlight some of the important facts a fully developed brain is between 25 and 30 years the prefrontal cortex is developing between 18 and 25 still during puberty refund cortex begin to develop impulsive impulsivity and goal setting is difficult during puberty reward system gratification is heightened during Beauty and returns to 25 back to normal organized thinkings hormones are affect the concentration and to organize um and to organize their thinking personality development prefrontal cortex is responsible for personality value when there is poor stimulation of prefrontal Cortex a child May struggle with identif identity issues with favorable personality decision making teenagers have poort judgment when making sound choices another important part of pre of the prefontal cortex playes in logical thinking and AIDS in the learning to assess situations also making a good versus bad decision is connected with the development of the pre the cortex another area I which I specialized in was the special education student the parents rights parents are entitled to be involved in the IEP so the If the child in Pre Middle School decides they want to be a girl not a boy indentifies in school that information is imperative and at home you know a teacher would um in the classroom I me and then the teacher assesses the student make sure they're clean they're kept their homework assignments if they decide there's a trouble they communicate with their parent and vice versa they are working combination and then um students if they have this combination their academic performance is going to outweigh what it would so when you're making your 5756 decision there's these complex decisions I know you have to make but they're imperative and the reason why we have children as parents is we're responsible to their r so how in school their gender identity is tell them what they feel is great when I am responsible send that child to school to speak to voice medical decisions so I don't understand how this um suggestive Amendment could be placed in school when there's all these um important decisions to be considered and usually when someone's a child they still trying to figure out who they are even adults young adults they don't know who they want to be so I don't see how they could I want to thank you for your time and consideration this thank you so much thank you is that working good okay cuz I couldn't hear getting back there just a few feet from the speaker um I was at the mwan Aber I'm sorry can we get your name and oh yes I'm Carolyn Ma and I'm from Oldbridge now we just moved from Matan so last month we were at the U madaan aine meeting at the mwan middle school and there was a little girl Hannah uh 14 years old who brought up that there are no um doors on the bathroom stalls and the restroom so I'm sure it's been corrected it's been corrected next day yes oh fantastic okay good good glad to hear that um well I'm I'm here about uh policy 5756 as well um um and you know I've been keeping track of of the school districts that have rescinded it or abolished it we're at 14 now um there are three or four districts that decided that they would um revise it the districts that decided to revise it are um under injunction and um I learned from the um Oldbridge school board meeting that was just uh two nights ago their lawyer said that repealing 5756 is legal he said revising it is not he said revision would be met with injunction so I know you probably have your own legal advisor I assume his advice would be the same but I just wanted wanted to tell you that um it's um easier to repeal it um revising is not going to not going to go anywhere not productive um I also want you to know there was a a poll back in August of mou University University poll where they asked parents about um uh 5756 and how they felt about attempts to remove local autonomy and parental Authority and amongst middle school and high school students uh 77% of parents were opposed to attempts to remove local autonomy and parental Authority and they felt that schools should be required uh to notify parents if their child wants to begin identifying as a different gender you can look that up it was from August 10th to 14th of this year uh 8814 New Jersey adult surveyed and I would imagine that number that 77% number would be even higher uh if you uh asked parents of uh elementary students so again that's middle school and high school um I think there are two main issues that you as a school member would wrestle with as you look at 575 56 I think the first is the notion that a child can change their sex and science tells us that's not possible you're born with uh XX chromosomes if you're a girl or XY chromosomes if you're a boy and there is no drug or surgery that changes that so the notion that children can um change their sex is uh and I know there are kids at school who are laughing at at all of this and you know rightfully so it's like telling a kid they can be a cat or a dog and indulging that nonsense uh we don't help those children when we uh when we um affirm those kinds of ideas um so anyway either you as a school board member will decide to continue swimming in these uncharted waters of reconstructed identity and child mutilation which which is what this leads to through surgery is it doesn't change the sex it mutilates the child it castrates them they will never have children um or you can Aid in stopping it the second thing you'll wrestle with is the requirement that all of this be kept secret from parents I think that 5756 alienates parents from children it does not encourage children to talk to their parents it encourages secrecy and um you know I think uh if we children parents raising children I think teach them at a young age uh not you know any adult that wants to keep a secret between uh the adult and the child not to be trusted is not to be trusted so um we could if we could wrap it upk okay so if a student is struggling mentally or or emotionally with gender dysphoria and the school is aware but the parents are not notified I ask if the district could be found liable for damaging is if the student were to harm themselves so I think that's another thing that you will uh wrestle with so I just want to say the approach does not help the troubled child who suffers with depression or Suicidal Thoughts it starts them down a path that is a dead end and it affirms the notion that there's something wrong with them I don't think we want I don't think we want that for our children thank you hi my name is kale apartman um I'm 16 years old and I am from orridge so first I just want to mention something so uh I was actually doing a little bit of more ACC my mom was doing a little bit of research and we found something interesting on The Selective Service site I know it's weird but it's going to tie in so the selective quote The Selective Service bases the registration requirement on gender ass signed at Birth and not on gender identity or on gender reassignment individuals who are born male and change their gender to female are still required to register individuals who are born female and change their gender to male are not required to Reg register they do that because of skill levels they believe that the men keep up with the men they believe that the people who assigned biologically male keep up with the other males who were assed biologically male so my first question is how can you under policy 5756 allow people who you consider to be female to play in sports with Elementary Middle School when the draft says the opposite you said you as a school board are saying you know better than the American government's draft you saying you somehow know better and have more knowledge than that frankly as a teenager I am sadden to see policy 5756 still stands in our schools under Title 9 lgbtqia identities are already protected by bullying so why does policy 5756 try to add more to that in addition why does policy 5756 insist upon not telling kids it is actually specifically mentioned in the policy that the principal and super intented are to speak to the students to quote hide to speak on how to best serve their identities why would you ever want to hide this from parents now I know I'm sure somebody at some point is going to talk about oh but there are children's rights well I'm here to tell you children's rights aren't real parental rights aren't real children have human rights parents have human rights and parental rights it's legal under the Supreme Court things like peerce Versus Society of syst and Wisconsin vioder expresses the rights and highest value of parents to make the best decisions for their kids kids aren't getting tattoos kids aren't doing anything they're not supposed to do Al obviously they clearly are but they're not doing the things they're they're not doing the things they're not allowed to do parents make that choice for them parents say you can't wear this parents say you can't do that so why are you telling kids you can't say something to their parents and now another thing the school district shall quote provide transgender students with the same physical opportunities to participate in fad as other students in accordance with the gender identity permit a trans student to participate in gender segregated school activities in accordance with the student's gender identity again people can and will abuse this system in a simple one minute Google search I've actually come across five schools that have reported sexual assault by someone who is using the term transgender Johnson Middle School ask Academy luden County High School edmin Memorial High School and MLK high school and sadly at least 80% of rap cases go unreported according to commonly held rate metrics do the math that means at least 25 cases judging by commonly held rap metrics that surface from a simple one minute Google search obviously I'm going to say this doesn't mean all trans men or men are pedophiles because that would be horrible nobody is saying that but in our society we need to be aware and Hyper Vigilant of men who can use that title to harm vulnerable girls and unfortunately girls like Ray from as Academy who are sexually assaulted described being afraid to come forward so as not to be labeled bigoted for all we know there could be as many as 30 to 35 kids who haven't said anything out of just those five cases as as a school district you all need to teach reading writing and arithmetic students in New Jersey and you could start wrapping it up sorry students in New Jersey and America in general are greatly falling behind compared to other countries we literally score much lower than on standardized tests and in fact students in America are using our freedom and the fact we won't the fact other people won't tell terance to really capitalize on this it actually just made the news that New Jersey and New Jersey high school apparently used AI to make pornographic images of other students so why don't we teach more information to our students instead of saying oh don't tell your parents this or don't tell your parents that so we can actually keep up with countries like India and China thank you thank you um just one point of clarification from a legal standpoint even if policy 5756 is repealed or um you would still by law have to still the kids are still legally allowed to perform participate in sports and you know based on their gender identity even if it is repealed correct from a legal standpoint That's the Law yes and also use the bathrooms of their choice the locker rooms of their choice C that's way that's the law against discrimination that's it was amended to specifically provide that right to all all people in New Jersey to use the the facilities of the voice as one example yes and I don't think there's anything in the policy and I would and I'm pretty enough it's never been done in the district where anyone is U where it requires any um School staff to try to convince a student not to tell a parent yes correct we have not had the issue in District in terms of parents not oh sorry parents not being aware correct sorry just wanted to clarify thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Gerald Mago from the Dolores Turco Foundation um and we protect children from exploitation and um and so we do not discriminate against any child or anyone for any reason uh firstly I'd like to uh thank you for your service and also thank you for the way you've handled the sex education curriculum um I felt especially some of the very offensive uh material in that so uh today I'd like to focus however on the also as the others of transgender um policy 5 5756 I'd like to point out a few things the Handover Board of Education recognize that this policy is ambiguous ripe for legal Challenge and blatantly exposes the district to liability for potentially withholding or concealing information from parents without a legitimate safety concern for doing it um there's specific areas in this policy that I'd like to point out um it states there is no affirmative Duty for any school Personnel to notify a students parent or Guardian uh uh regarding the students gender identity or expression and also later on in the policy it says School Personnel may not disclose information that may reveal a students transgender status except as Allowed by law so obviously there's no requirement to notify parents and uh School Personnel or even encouraged to conceal that information um one of the other problems with this particular with this policy is that it um as you've heard before it actually promotes adversity and potential litigation and I'll point out why why in instances where a parent guardian and minor disagree with the student's use of pronouns the school district is advised to consult their board attorney um and regarding the Minor's civil rights and protections under the NJ lab further they are encouraged to seek family counseling and support services outside the school district and some of these Support Services include the New Jersey Department of Children and Families and referring parents to child abuse neglect and and children web page these types of recommendations will further alienate parents from their children in cases involving transgender pronouns another couple things I wanted to point out is um according to the policy a student need not meet any threshold diagnosis or treatment requires requirements to have his identity recognized and respected and also the school is required to Ure that counselors are knowledgeable regarding issues concerning transgender students and that they provide psychologists and professionals to provide emotional support the problem here is that the current protocol for children questing their gender or gender dysphoria is to affirm the child's gender identity and then transition these minors uh generally professional gender professionals conduct brief inadequate evaluations of these children that serve only to screen for obvious mental illness and these professionals fail to explore underlying mental health issues or social factors that can lead or contribute to the patient's dysphoria in fact a significant number of gender dispur children are on the autism spectrum these professionals hastily offer medical interventions with no established standard process to obtain informed consent from parents and I just want to briefly say what some of these procedures are uh they consist of puberty blocking drugs followed by Crosset hormones and sex reassignment surgeries as the only or best option for treating childrens and Adolescence with gender dysphoria these drugs are experimental not approved by FDA in fact Lupron is used to chemically castrate sex offenders they can cause irreversible harm as you heard and the surgeries involve hysterectomies and the removal of breasts for girls and removal of penises for boys as well as refashioning genital tissue these surgeries take 12 to8 months to recover uh so why I'm saying This research also one last thing demonstrates that 85% of these kids that question their identity will accept their biological sex by the time they're adult if they're not encouraged to transition under this current policy the schools can are are actually encouraged to work with professionals on a confidential basis without the knowledge or consent of parents to to transition minors without me in threshold diagnosis or even appropriate mental health screenings transitioning children will be subjected to harmful and experimental medical interventions that could sterilize them for life if even one child exposed to these quote unquote standard practices without the knowledge or consent of parents in the district is exposed then the district is exposed to potential litigation with Monumental consequences because current law prohibits the mutilation of children's healthy genital Parts even if it's done as part of religion um start wrapping it up okay uh so now I I did want to point out that um Congress firstly 19 states have restricted these procedures and this has become nationally and internationally considered one of the uh child abuse issues and therefore Congress has introduced two bills one is protecting children from experimentation and the the others end taxpayer funding of gender experimentation that will prohibit transgender procedures on miners Nationwide and prohibit tax fund uh taxpayer funding of these procedures regardless of thank you thank you hello good evening my name is Ron m i was a a resident of mwan till two weeks ago on Main Street now we live in um goldridge so we've been here before I want to thank you all for your service uh uh I appreciate that you're here for what you're doing Thursday night you be doing a lot of other stuff especially coming in Thanksgiving week so thank you for your service here it's appreciated um I want to talk about um 5756 it's it's uh you're you're tired of hearing it but you haven't voted on it yet and if you have a window of opportunity I am asking you to resend this or abolish it freeold abolished at 6 to3 two nights ago and this is occurring when hot cak sing there's a reason this is going you have a window opportunity to do it if you don't do it you're going to be stuck with the other way and the lady who just spoke um who is are you JD have a JD yeah are you general counsel or over there David you are yeah I'm Aaron tonight yes okay okay very good are you covering for David all right are you outside counsel or general counsel I'm not special counsel David is the board's general counsel but he's not not an board employee he's not in-house he's not an employee okay very good very good so there's an elephant in the room and there's a gorilla in the room tonight the elephant in the room is that what we're talking about is 95% of the children that you're protecting are minors they're not adults they're minors 95% of them maybe higher there's very few seniors that are over 18 um the second the grill in the room is nobody's mentioned the word the transitioning this this is a brand new industry it's a $2.1 billion industry and it's growing the transgender conversion surgeres uh in parallel with that it is another one that's emerging right behind it it's litigation and uh this is no secret anybody in three minutes can Google uh these words Chloe Cole Elena Jane Luca Hine and you can see what's beginning to happen and you can say well that case this this case she spoke before Congress put this it's just emerging so what you're doing if you if you resend 5756 you're protecting madaan aing for the future if you don't take this opportunity and let it stand it's a law and you'll um so this is medical malpractice there's no way counselors in the our school system without medical degrees should be counseling minors on transgender that can lead to the the lady dis spoke some of the things going on so I'm going to caution you and I'm going to ask that uh your councel whether it's outside or wherever you are special counsel legal General with the school lawyer uh prepare not just what's happening but prepare for the future and extrapolate forward and put together a paper on what's going to happen to Madan aing if you stick with this policy and these lawsuits continue to rise just like the $2.1 million industry I'm asking you to resend 5750 6 for the sake of this community and we are just beginning something and we're opening Pandora's box thank you very much good evening my name is Pat West Camp I'm a resident of mwan my two sons attended School in madaan I'm not sure I don't believe any of you were on the board when they were in high school and middle school but uh thank you they received a fine education I've been listening listening to the speakers and I'll tell you that for a number of years I made my living as an arbitrator and a mediator as an arbitrator I heard disputes between different groups of people different individuals and what was very clear to me in my early years as an arbitrator is that everyone for the most part God was firm about their positions often times they were emotionally firm about their positions but after a hearing after the evidence came in my job was to decide what to do now regarding 5756 quite frankly I'm glad you folks have to de decide what to do because it is a heck of a difficult problem and I would ask you to do what judges do what arbitrators do and that is to make sure before you vote one way or another that you've got all the facts there's a lot of heat not too much light necessar on the subject discuss it carefully and then make a decision that I believe is what you owe the people of Matan and abdine that is what I believe you owe the children of mwan and abidine and as some of the other speakers have said I thank you very much for your uh service I appreciate the opportunity to have 3 minutes and I might be the first one but I think I finished shy of three minutes so how y doing I'll try to speak into the microphone um resen that 40 years and usually like to congratulate you guys because my daughter did well in our system sorry name uh John V and uh I don't appreciate I'd like to know why you're kicking the can down the road you need to get with the program with the other sensible school districts that are outlin this ridiculous legislation first of all we have plenty of Rights thank God Living in America everyone is protected what we don't need is a special class of citizens with special purposes that ends up hurting them I don't see any possible positive result from this uh ridiculous legislation was written in and um again I think I told you before it's very ambiguous I read before it's very not very technical about what the teachers responsibilities are and this whole idea about hiding something from the parents well yes very embarrassing the child uh is to find out that their parents found out they failed in history well guess what that's life the big sh parents are the wordss that their children are responsible for everything they do there's a good reason I didn't get a 9mm for my daughter when she was 7 years old very very good reason that children don't have adult privileges they very good reason sorry if I'm talking too fast there a very good reason that adults have responsibility for their children and if you are parked outside the bank and your child robs it you'll probably go to jail too there's a good reason for that children are young impressionable they're going out of their minds with puberty they don't need encouragement from a for-profit industry to mutilate their themselves for years been praying against the poor women genal mutilation going on in Africa India places like that which is part of their religion we don't want any religious practices which are detrimental to the children be brought in and especially be cified by law so basically that's my position I think you guys are need to get with the program stop King kicking the can down the street starting to have some responsibility and realize that a special privilege for a certain class of people is only going to hurt them we have plenty of rights as Americans by the grace of God we do live in America there are plenty of protections for everybody of all kinds of sexes genders and races and that's the way it should be but I really think there's a PR precedent of special privileges hurting special classes of people and especially do not forget the elephant in the room which is the for-profit industry of GLE mutilation which is ready and willing to take us also in the direction of Los but anyway so I just want us to and and I have nothing against transgender people or gay people or anybody that wants to choose to live their life and I know they love their children just as much as I do and I just pray that we make uh a sensible uh decision that will affect our children posi thanks for your time H again um I'm Amanda N from Pine um this is the first time I've been to a Board of Education meeting that I was able to attend so thank you for everything I hope I can a lot more um a bit of an ad hoc um speaking that I'm doing right now so forgive me if I'm not as eloquent as others um but figured since I'm here I wanted to I guess I have a two-part um should be a um a question and a proposal so um quick history why why I'm talking right now um I worked in technology for over 10 years um I'm actually a really big Advocate uh for social media safety Tech safety um Tech safety education for students and parents um and I have been actually trying to search for about the past two years by talking to different people and administrations and what is in place for our students and for parents already in the district on things like um early um you know early uh access to smartphones to social media to uh gaming platforms with chat functionality things things that can expose children very early on to anxiety access to pornography to strangers online those kind of things um and I have actually also been talking to a side organization called protect young eyes you may have heard of them they're Nationwide and they're relatively no well known they're actually the ones who are the primary liaison with apple helping them develop their privacy features um but uh I've been in chats with them about doing some sort of districtwide education for both parents and students and I actually have got to the point where I've gotten a quote and they're kind of ready to for me to give them a check um but I have this in my hands and I'm like I don't really know what to do with this now figured this would be a good place to start perhaps everything I'm trying to do is already in place um so my first question is um if there are sort of educational things happening already with students in particular primarily from you know even starting at Lloyd it really could start at elementary but definitely ma' High School um I guess I'll I'll pause there I don't know if this is the forum for questions I this but that's already liit so in terms of Technology and Safety um that all the students do receive Chromebooks no we can't really okay all right can you hear me now so in regards to the technology uh all the students do receive Chromebooks I'm sure you're aware um so on that platform you on the Chromebook we do have um something called securely so when students are looking and being a little curious which is you know typical um however um if they are searching for something that is absolutely inappropriate any pornographic um sites sexual inuendos anything they Google in that context also with weapons how to make things that are unsafe um we get an alert immediately that and so in terms of safety we have that safe card there in place that's across the district um so that's we do do that um and they're blocked too right and they're blocked so okay a lot a lot of websites are blocked um we and sometimes to the point that some of our staff would like to get to a website and they are blocked because of the title of the website per se um so we they have to request actually to um unblock a website in terms of the education component um that is taken that does take place a lot in the health classes it doesn't go into great detail um however it is mentioned um and also it is we emphasize it with our parents so we do hold parent nights and I always I've said this before that our parent nights are not well attended um where we're sharing that information so I would be I would gladly love to see the proposal and you can email me so then we can further discussion cuz we do need help and I always ask for help and and support in that particular area and how we can entice parents to become aware and how to put the features on their phones or laptops iPads whatever they're using at home to put blocks on it and also how to um how to how to use those web those apps appropriately and how to engage with their kid in using those apps appropriately that makes sense and I appreciate that I'll definitely send over what I found and just to build on that really quickly um I've heard in no one of the director of Technologies at a neighboring district and he basically tells me all the loopholes that students use to get around the all they have to do is do a fake VPN and get off they can use their Chromebooks to do something else um or their smartphones I think I'm mostly primarily trying to address some smartphone safety which I know is a little bit outside of District's probably direct responsibility but if it does Happ in schools um and absolutely parent education I mean technology is always two steps ahead of all of us um so I will definitely share what I've found but um I would love to uh continue to discuss maybe more education for parents in a way that we can get higher engagement because I'm sick of telling my kids no to everything and I'm going to be telling them no for a very very very long time um so if they can have their friends stop asking for it that would help me out a lot um the one last thing I'll mention I know I'm coming up on time is there is also Al I remember as a kid the Dare program I know it was mentioned earlier too that kind of just added like some element that of attachment that like okay yes I'm going to stay straight with drugs because of because of D there's things um nowadays for technology one is called wait until 8th it's kind of a pledge students can make as well where they kind of make it a cool thing to not have a smartphone not have social media until you get to a certain grade so kind of just again adds more of that peer um you know positive reinforce um hopefully would give us all a break as parents so I will send all that information over and thank you so much for listening thank you I love those ideas thank I would just like to also make a comment on the just a comment on what you said that um um the so we worked very hard this past year on the devices policy that we have um so we not only seem to review the policy that in place made some um adjustments to it as far as using smartphones or the smartphones or the devices in the classro throughing on school property excuse me but um 100% um we wanted to make sure that devices were left in the locker and we also asked the administration and the School principles the building principles to try to enforce those policies plus because I do agree with you that um the devices the technology and the social media can lead us uh the because you know down treacherous path so yeah please um we on same page send that information over and then also the lawsuit so I think the lawsuit that we yeah last spring the board voted unanimously to join a lawsuit that um some school districts in New Jersey brought against the big social media companies um it's prono it you know obviously we're it's David and Goliath but it's really sending a message that we are on the same page with the detriment that social media especially starting at a young age brings to students it causes depression anxiety um just all kinds of issues that then the reason behind the lawsuit was then the school districts are bearing the brunch of that with the counseling services that they have to provide the children right and then also to your point about smartphone use and and what we can control we we as a I think I'm correct about this so iron correctly if I'm wrong but we as a board are also kind of put in the position of having to police cyber bullying outside of school hours and grounds so we are feeling the effects of the smartphone use so God bless you we want to hear all about it if we could get grants to implement programs education for parents especially I agree with you I read about us uh a town I don't remember where it was where a bunch of parents banded together and decided that they weren't going to let their kids have a smartphone until a certain age so when all the friends don't have one it makes it a lot [Music] easier thank you thank you casy Bara president of Madan ever Regional Education Association um I just want to share some good news um the mammoth County Education Association through a grant uh pride and public education grant from the njaa uh basically put out to the locals in MTH County that they could order up to 20 codes for students in need so we took advantage of that we reached out to each building nurse and uh kind of worked out that every building got three and then one building got two so I just wanted to share that that uh that was a good thing we took advantage of and if they run it again next year we'll take advantage of it again that's fantastic thank you uh curriculum and instruction uh sorry sorry there we go okay I'm sorry I just wanted to ask I have no idea procedur wise but um is there a way for us to move the M on Aban education foundation's proposal to the action items so that they can get word in order to purchas I have no idea how to do that motions for the total right and since they're Grant so yes so if we make a motion and a second um then we can make it an action right sorry I'd like to make a motion to move the mwan aine Education Foundation grants the 2023 2024 school year in an amount of $2,760 to the list action items in the curriculum instruction agenda we have a second so perfect okay so then it will be added onto the action items as part of the vote so just bear with me a second make sure read the right numbers okay so we will be taking a vote tonight on curriculum and instruction sorry I you again um should we also make a motion to correct the MTH error or okay thank you so we are going to take action on curriculum and instruction a and B1 and two which is the new one um student services 1 through 7 Personnel 1 through 5 Finance 1 through three Miss VI yes Mr Monon yes M pal yes M Scott yes M BR yes M War yes M Martinez yes Mr SC uh yes but um personel number one for oh and I'm sorry um I need so do we have any unfinished business for board members yes I just wanted to I mean I think we've already covered this but just wanted to uh report back that very soon I know I've been waiting forever um for we'll work on the policy for naming rights and the policy on substit um and and any other policies we need work on lunch lunch yes lunch and dress code um any other [Music] unfinished I just would like to ask um I know that the question number two was voted no so and we spoke briefly in the beginning of the meeting that we have a vision of how we're going to maybe move forward um with new a new plan thank you so what does that look like from your perspective shed a little light on that plan on briefly for us so so um as discussed at the last Community um meeting we talked about moving forward should it pass not pass it did not pass um immediately the next day um Miss Cas and I met with the town representatives of the of um the business managers of the office we respectfully requested to um have a meeting with Town Representatives the mayor police departments and we are we will be asking for a representation from the board um to regroup and to plan we felt it was important to go back to step one and make sure that all key stakeholders were at the table to come develop that plan together and then share out and move forward with planning the dates for any Community fors or how we're going to um increase Security in our buildings it also just to note it also lines up well with budget which we talked about I think at the last board meeting uh the calendar so it'll align nicely with there and then we'll know if we do need to go out for a second question or if we were if we are going to be able to develop a plan in collaboration with the town and we'll leave it that way and just to be clear too we also intend to have Community input during the process as well right I know we got some number uh email addresses from people at the last security unting yes they will be invited after after that first meeting after the initial meeting I just have a follow question I just wanted to ask of those community members we had so many come to different meetings who Express so much expertise so even if they weren't at that last meeting are they included on that list as well yes we yes we took their information thank you and there's a a meeting of December also or so we're waiting the town managers were discussing it with you know with their um with their bosses I guess um and the police Chiefs um we're all well aware that it'll be that first week we were we were we agreed upon that is that a public meeting or that's not a public meeting but we will be able to share then at the December board meeting okay thank you any additional unfinished business new business no um sopia resolved that a closed session be for the purpose of discussing privacy personnel and attorney client matters the subject matters of these discussions will be disposed to the public when the reent confidentiality subsides although the board cannot guarantee at the length of the executive session is estimated to be 60 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action will not take place can I get a motion in a second to enter executive session Mo all in favor