pursuant of the New Jersey open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising such notice in the home News Tribune the Asbury Park Press the board office the schools and on cable vision channel 118 and Verizon files channel 24 and by filing such notice with the Township Clerk this meeting was scheduled for Tuesday November 21st 2023 the board will take formal action on payment of bills and other agenda items Mr Mayor thank you Mr giano the Oldbridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of this state establishes that members of the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video recording devices provided that that active recording does not interfere with the business of this public board meeting therefore the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official record of this board the board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely disavows any future use roll call Miss dantono Miss jodry present Miss lent present Mr Marquetta Mr Slade here Mr Singh Mr Sakowski here Mr Weber and Mr jordano here the Quorum exists all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in Memorial moov the Board of Education acknowledge the death of Mary Alice Maher school nurse and August J garbelotto Jr obhs 2015 graduate and Lyn Sullivan retired school secretary and express its deepest sympathy to their family and friends thank you code of ethics Corner M Jer the board member will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to the schools desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures approval of minutes item number one can I have a motion J move lenol second any discussion roll call Miss JRE yes Miss lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Sakowski yes Mr Weber yes and Mr Jano yes resolution one passes we have our report of the student representative she's not here no so sorry about that uh recognition items one and to can I have a motion lent will move it J Will second Mr Cino I believe our student representative just arrived so if we give her one moment I know parking was difficult tonight would like to um hello everyone um my name is nesty for those who know don't know I'm the class president for the 2024 school year um here to give a little report on what's been going on for the past month or so so we are now in marking period two of at the high school all of our clubs are holding meetings and having events honor s are having their inductions and everyone is hard at work this past weekend Senate participated in the many mayor Henry's cleanup the communities event we had a good time and enjoyed helping the community all the money you raised will be used at our lockin type event we have scheduled for Fe February um various organizations in the school such as peer Senate National Honor Society and history Honor Society participated in a Thanksgiving food drive where each club like adopts a family and donates food we're proud to say that the as the high school we were able to help 27 families celebrate like Thanksgiving um the marching nights recently got second place at usbands Nationals was a score of 93.6 5 they are now starting their indoor percussion season uh girls volleyball just won their state division and GMC championships The Fall season is just ended and winter sports will be starting soon our shop right just opened grand opening was November 16th and students can visit any time during lunches to grab a snack Chinese arm society and Chinese Club had their annual dumpling day a month ago where students went in ate dumplings and participated at raffle possibly when the Drone I did not win the Drone um looking forward dece on December 1st will be have have holding a Santa Con any Junior or senior who brings in an unwrapped gift will be entered into a raffle for a prom ticket students are encouraged to dress in Holiday costumes on December 13th the German honor site will be hosting winter fests from 2: to 4: tickets are $10 and students can try a spectacular way array of German food drinks and the digri house making competition on December 11th the sener will host an indoor holiday movie night in the gym tickets are $5 and it's open to all students our Halloween movie night on Lombardi field was a great success we had about 400 people come and when we return from holiday break the high school will be getting busy with our annual door decorating costume and where we just decorate the doors outside the uh classrooms everyone really loves how festive our school looks like we get a lot of compliments from teachers and that's all I have parent and thank you all for letting me speak thank you very much uh Mr C would you like to present the recognitions what let me yeah let me go over to retirements okay we have three retirements uh this month Georgette nurger transportation bus a 21 years in service uh Keith cen's Albridge High School physical Leed 30 years uh Stephanie Glickman uh jnc secretary 28 years with a total of 79 years the board wishes you a lot of luck on your retirement thank you so at this time we're going to have um the resolution to move the board to recognize the following High School athletic teams for their accomplishments for the full season if I could have our athletic director Mr Domino uh go to the deis I will join you over there with the plaques in a moment but we're going to recognize the cheerleading team they were the white division game day Champions we're going to recognize the field hockey team because they were the white division Champions and our girls volleyball team were the Red Division Champions and Conference champions so another round of applause for all three of those [Applause] teams all right so we're going to start with girls volleyball first and they were backto back Red Division GMC Champions and Conference champions coach hotman and the varsity team is here to get the [Applause] reward next up we'll have Coach Fuentes and the varsity field hockey team on back-to-back white division champions and last we have our cheerleading team with Coach katun who won the white division game day competition congratulations thank you Mr Domino and thank thank you teams that was wonderful I I'd like to see that point out that uh the girls volleyball team first time I recall seeing that has had a male manager and the chering team had uh I think three three or four guys on the team so that's great great great to see thank you Mr sedino and Mr deino any more discussion from the board roll call Miss jodry yes Miss lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr antono yes and Mr gordano yes uh resolutions one and two pass superintendent report and ress towards goals thank you Mr Jano uh I want to start off superintendent report just with a kind of like an advisory point of view from a superintendent um you know last week's meeting had me very concerned and very upset about um some of the actions so I just want to go over a few things that are General house rules um for these types of meetings I want you to take in mind that this is not Town Council and is not a disparaging marker on Town Council but it's not Town Council it's not um State Legislature it's not um a US facility this is a high school this is a classroom this is an extension of a classroom there are students in here right now who are fulfilling their High School Credit obligations by doing this as a work study program so while the conduct or things you might say at an all adult capacity might be AC acceptable the conduct and things we say in this room you have to remember you are a guest in a classroom to where students are um learning so please keep that in mind because last week um both sides of whatever part of the discussion you are and I'm sure there's room for lots of opinions on it and that's why we're democracy and we get together and have our opinions and we voice our opinions but when you do so you address your opinions to the board and to the administration that's where your comment goes to not to each other not back and forth and that happened on both sides of the discussion last weekend it's unacceptable and when that happens um you know people get passionate and and attack you know a room that has teachers in it and you know I I think if you're attacking teachers in your argument then it's ignorance to the highest degree um these are the people who look over your children protect your children and look out for your children in Locust parentes when you're not there to look out for them so please keep that in mind board members and Administration we signed up for the job I know sure as heck I could take some abuse I took it for the past three years I can you know if you want to say something to me say something to me but when you talk about kids you've crossed the line when you've talked about kids from this District kids in this school you're just done I'm not going to have you here I'm not going to ask for permission to ban you from the district because I'll never ask permission to protect the kids from this District I will just do [Applause] it so we can all have a conversation civy you can all express your views civy but just know what's off limits um and I would protect everybody's children the same and my my my role of thumb when I got into this job and when I talk to my teachers about it all the time and administr administrators they all know it I look at every class when I go do an observation would I want my child in this classroom and if the answer is no then I have a problem but if the answer is yes yes because I want everyone to treat everyone's child as if they they're your own talk to my talk to every kid in this District as if you talk to to my children and as if you talk to your own children that's a simple rule I think we could all follow because we're a great Community speaking of a great Community we have a special guest tonight under superintendent report one of the the brightest stars coming from our schools is cavia cavia is in the back over there and cavia please come up to the podium I always cavia I've said your name 50 times and I've said it 50 different ways your last name um but I'm going to go with Van vanan vatan v vatas there there you go so cavia vetas yeah and you may not know her name now but you'll know it one day because this young lady has achieved miraculous things since I first met her as I think it was maybe in third grade um and she's been going up the ranks and doing amazing things ever since getting Rec recognition across the state and Across the Nation well like most 16y olds she wrote a book she's an she's a published author it's how to thrive in a changing World from the words of a 16-year-old um I'll just read the book back jackob because she's probably going to be you know not talking about herself is not what she does best she talk a lot about a lot of things but how to thrive in a changing world is is more than just a road map for navigating a rapidly evolving world the 16 chapters are packed with in-depth insight into balance into the Spheres of life it is a journey of self-development for anyone who wants to adapt on their feet and own their future the book is a rare balance of authenticity brevity and Clarity um cavia describes herself as a 16-year-old Tech Optimist highflyer researcher speaker she develops scarly behaviors and considers knowledge through the perspective of disciplinarians she is passionate about empowering youth to the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs cavia has shared her thought about leadership and top level Executives with Boards of directors and future Readiness sustainability and adapting to the digital world she has received many prestigious educational leadership and Service Awards so cavia why don't you tell us a little about your book and then we'll uh do a little plug at the end uh for sure first of all thank you so much for the kind words and I want to thank um the board for the opportunity to present this today and yes my book titles is how to thrive in a changing world so as we all know our world is just moving at a lightning speed it's becoming more technology driven um all information is just one click away and so I thought you know for a young person like myself all of these possibilities were kind of overwhelming so how do we navigate all of that um how do we adapt you know not just in school but you're going to have to stud in college career and Beyond and so I felt like um students kind of needed a book from another student because you kind of go through the same experiences so I wrote this book and um it's my take as a 16-year-old on what I think is necessary to lead a life of high impact and growth in today's world and so everything in this book is from my experience um experiences of school leadership in and out of school internships work experience and I kind of just distilled it all into these 16 chapters so it's filled with like Frameworks stories lots of stories um and strategies and I'm really just hoping that um young people who pick up this book really gain a lot and just feel that they can do it because they can do whatever they put their mind to and I do want to thank my oish community and all the teachers for just instilling in me the character and confidence that has really inspired the thought process and Learning Journey behind this book um I'm so grateful for that and hopefully this book is first of many to come but yes thank you so much for your time and support and [Applause] yeah so cave you'll have a few copies over there I see yes you'll be signing them signing and selling them for sure how much do they sell for each one is $10 that is very reasonable uh because I think it's you know someone's going to go like on Antique Road Show 30 years from now and say they have a caveat original they bought for $10 so um make sure you get your copy today I've already received mine and uh all the best and thank you for being a shining star in a community caveo thank you so much it wouldn't be without [Applause] overage uh the last thing I want to talk to you about is something that's been in the news and uh just our perspective and our role in it and the federal government and the state government uh put out Grant applications for high impact uh toting Grant again this is all part of the uh out the the back end of a pandemic and trying to address learning loss across um the nation and so Oldbridge did what Oldbridge does and we applied for the grants and we were uh one of the recipients to receive uh the grant money so just a little bit about it the high imp impact tutoring Grant is a competitive grant that Oldbridge uh Public Schools applied for in September of 2023 uh and we were awarded quickly and received $460,000 uh for this grant in funding for for beginning for November into the 23 24 school year this district has submitted the required uh Amendment to the DEP New Jersey Department of Education is waiting further notice of how we can reallocate these funds and posting for for things such as tutors hiring and training and inviting our students we had originally planned as a district to start the program in November however with the delay of notification from the Department of Education uh we are aiming for a January 2024 start a little bit about the Grant application the Grant application prioritize district with plans to implement tutoring supports for Ina and math for students in third and fourth grades so if your question is hey my child a sixth grader are they going to get the tutoring no because it wasn't available uh to students in those grade levels to get the grant you had to Target students in the third and fourth grade our application was consistent with providing supports for third and fourth graders we analyzed State and District data to support our application process and found many strengths of our Ela and math in our own District um Benchmark data we found that through the ecbm data our overall reading scores for the spring 2023 grade our third and our third graders um over 86% of them are on grade level our fourth graders over 82% of them are on grade level through the EXL data we realize that um third graders the average is 110 points above uh their fall benchmark scores so on average students each student demonstrated 110 Point gain since the fall fourth graders had 138 point average gain since the fall Benchmark data the EXL program expects that 10 points per month for a school year of students so uh 100 point average is whatl expects and our students were clearly above that in the third and fourth grade and that kind of made it a challenge in this application because the put it bluntly we didn't have enough learning loss to support what the state was looking for in this area so uh this data was consistent with some of the other data we looked at in percentages of students receiving tier two and tier three interventions for third and fourth graders uh third graders that is approximately 177% of them and fourth graders that's about 18% of them statistically District should come to expect about 20% of the students on average receiving these intervention services so even our own data for our students in intervention we are uh below the the average requirement um of students receiving intervention supports so after carefully considering the information outlined above the district determined to that our strengths and our recurrent class classroom instruction and our RTI program warranted us drilling down deeper into the data to determine the high priority areas for the tutting program the priority areas that will be targeted in this tutoring program will be Ela comprehension uh literal text vocabulary written expression writing strategies grammar and mechanics so we kind of like did a laser-like focus on what areas because overall in La we didn't have enough weakness so we wanted to work on specific skills to make it a successful application to the Grant in mathematics we're going to focus on reasoning and and modeling algebra and algebraic thinking and geometry grade three students also demonstrated an area of need in the data probability and statistics while grade four students um had measurements in reading level so here's the plans for the program so if you're listening to home and want to know if your third or fourth grader can qualify students will be invited to participate in the program based upon their needs students will be offered 5 days a week per targeted tutoring each session will be 45 minutes student groups will be one to three students in a group so we're looking at small student um group interaction uh so they have a a greater teacher to student ratio tutors will will be Oldbridge Township Public School teachers who apply for their program and are selected through the interview process tutors will be provided with ongoing training and coaching of evidence-based intervention programs the program will include ongoing data analysis and feedback to classroom teachers interventionists and special education teachers the program will also include parental communication and conferences specifically for students involved in the peer tutoring uh in the tutoring program funding will support hiring of tutors trainings and purchasing of materials I want to thank uh our many uh principles and instructional leaders in our classrooms for helping us with this process and of course Force um Dr kandria Who assisted in putting the application in as a driving force behind this so thank you very much that concludes the superintendent's report don't forget CI is back there thank you any correspondents special committee reports yes we had a curriculum meeting on October 26 and we covered four different topics F and I'll go over them at the elementary Ela update Miss Alexis fendol I believe if I mispronounce your name I apologize provided an overview of the implementation of the work program at the elementary level this included a presentation on the resources and professional opportunities provided to The District staff during the summer and the start of the school year uh secondary Social Studies and English resources miss gimon and miss Mrs Dana s Samson provided an overview of the implementation of the uh study sync Ela materials for grade 6 through 8 Mr Roco sentano provided an overview of the new social studies material grades 6 through 12 He also mentioned that we're starting to teach Civics again right fantastic belongs here uh number three music uh production program explained Mr Colin Bell provided an overview of the high school music production program he did an excellent job these kids are becoming they're actually writing their own music and putting it all together fantastic job he did and he also covered the production too course implemented for 2425 and I gave a uh an overview of the summer program that I used to run here for about 20 years and uh internship program for students to work throughout the district this proposal would need have to be budgeted for the 20 three uh 2425 school year and the important thing is develop a clear application process for students applying for the program that's what we covered uh and our next meeting is going to be on the 30th of the month which is next Thursday thank you very much I do want to add that we're expanding Civics not introducing it thank you any other yep on um November 1st we have the Dei committee we finalized the school climate survey um it's an anonymous optional survey it's going to first go out to teachers and then next is going to go out to parents and parents will have the option to also have their trial completed if they want to we will um compile the data and talk about it in the January meeting we don't have a date for that yet oh do we yes January 24th I believe it is yes also on November 1st we had the Care Community the community awareness relations and engagement um we are discussing the website and our website provider um Dr hooker's office was um working with a few vendors to get some information and some pricing quotes So we also uh canceled December's meeting but January 24th uh she will her and her team will present the new information and we'll look at the website we have compared to if we want to change it up and last Tuesday we had a policy health and safety committee meeting uh that was actually held in the high school cafeteria CA cafeteria uh part of the agenda was to have uh Mr Parton do policy updates but we skip straight ahead to uh policy 5756 we want to give the community an opportunity to hear them out we had about over 200 people show up to the meeting uh we heard from over 30 people at the podium uh these committee meetings are very important as I've mentioned in the past um any decisions that we make is based on the feedback that we get from the public and from parents and concerned citizens um that helps us make our decision so uh we had a lot of civilized conversations a lot of back and forth uh a lot of passion in the room uh but it's very important for us to do our jobs when we hear get feedback from the public so I think was very informative thank you okay anything else okay moving on to hearing of the residents on agenda items only policy first reading any questions or discussion curriculum and professional development items one through four can I have a motion lent will move it J Will second any discussion roll call Mr slay yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr dantona yes M JRE yes Miss lent yes Mr gordano yes resolutions one through four pass Finance items one through nine can I have a motion Dan will move second any discussion Roo Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr Sakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr anono yes M JRE Miss jordre yes uh Miss lent yes and Mr Jordan yes resolutions 1 through n Athletics items one and two can I have a motion JRE will move Dan second any discussion Ro call Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr antona yes M JRE yes M lint yes Mr Slade yes and Mr J down yes resolutions one and two pass non-certificated personnel office items one through three can I have a motion dant dant will move lint will second any discussion roll call Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr anono yes Mr JRE yes M lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes yes and Mr Jano yes resolutions one through three pass non- certificated Personnel operational items one and two can I have a motion slat move Jo real second any questions or discussion roll call Mr Weber yes Mr antono yes M JRE yes Mr lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes and Mr Jano no for onea yes for the rest resolutions one and two pass non certificated Personnel other items one through six can I have a motion Dan I'll move jodal second any discussion roll call Miss anono yes M jodry yes M lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr Sakowski yes Mr Weber yes and Mr jordano yes resolutions 1 through six pass certificated Personnel items one through 19 can I have a motion 15 items 1 through 15 can I have a motion Jo will move D second any disc discuss yes Mr lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr dantona yes and Mr jordano yes resolutions 1 through 15 pass non-certificated Personnel Transportation items one and two can I have a motion Dan tuno move Len to second discussion yes um I've known Miss hunger from my days grown up in Vorhees and any of the Vorhees alumni would remember her as a smiling face and always taking care of the kids so I'm very excited to see her take over Transportation [Applause] congratulations thank you anyone else roll call m l yes Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes M dantono yes M JRE yes and Mr Jano yes resolutions one and two [Applause] pass I just want to make a comment about Missler if I can because I've known her for a long time too ever since her daughter Princess Diana was uh in sixth grade grade at s school and um I'm going to tell you a little bit about we talk about a great Community this is the character of people then what's good thing to have the support of the people around you so we did the interviews and right after Miss unr's interview um Mary comes in for the next interview that's Mary sitting next to her and so we start typically with the interviews and you know after we get through the the stuff of like you know um do you have any relatives on the board or things like that then we get to the first question is so why do you want to be the director of Transportation she responds I don't want to be the director of Transportation I'm just here to tell you that that uh Debbie should be the director of Transportation so I took an interview spot to tell you what a great person that Debbie is and why I'm here to support her so that was like the classiest ACT I've ever seen and you got a good friend there and congratulations Miss uner thank you Transportation items one through three you can have a motion dun will move ly will second any discussion roll call Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber Mr antono yes M JRE yes Mr lent yes and Mr Jano yes resolutions one through three pass supplies equipment and services items one through four can I have a motion J will move lent will second any discussion separating number four for discussion Mr salowski yes uh are they going to replace the lifts in the auto shop is the alignment rack one of them now we have three lifts I believe in one room and the other room has what one or two I all I can say is that the the other shop the lifts were replaced last summer these will be replaced not repaired replaced um as soon as you vote on this we'll start the process that's all five of them um I don't I don't do an inventory on how many there are okay because I work that program many years one has two lifts in an alignment rack and the other room has two lifts okay so I think this is this if you're facing them this is the room to the left okay the room to the left okay thank you any other discussion roll call Mr Slade yes Mr Singh yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr anono yes M JRE yes M lent yes yes and Mr gordano yes resolutions 1 through four pass miscellaneous items one through four can I have a motion duno move any discussion that I'm sorry who's that first Dan Weber R call Mr Sing yes yes Mr silakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr antono yes M JRE yes M lent yes Mr Slade yes and Mr G yes resolutions one through four pass board secretary and board business item number one can I have a motion lent will move it J Will second any discussion roll call Mr Sakowski yes Mr Weber yes Mr antono yes M JRE yes and I look forward to working with the three of you miss lent yes Mr Slade yes Mr Sing yes and Mr jir yes resolution one passes hearing of the residents on any school district issue I know that some people came in after I gave a little spiels just a brief version of it when you're making your comment direct all your comments to the board at the at the day from up here do not direct them do not interact with other members of the audience do not give hand signals do not just vote your displeasure with anything that NL says Everyone's entitled to their opinion and we will carry this with deorum all right hi everyone everyone has to state their name and where they live okay I'm Amy kalista I live in mwan Oldbridge Township um and you know the board and many others have seen me speak at the previous policy meetings uh so you know that I'm passionate about keeping this policy and you've heard my reasons as to why you know I support it uh so tonight I'm trying to learn from the previous meetings and I'm hoping to spread more positivity uh many of us have been at the same policy meetings together so we might think we know where the other side is coming from but each person has a different story experience in their life something that has shaped them to believe in their position how much can we grow in this community and as people by connecting more right asking questions being inquisitive and being open to learn from one another another now while we may have very very varying views on this policy I believe we can find common ground in our shared desire to get something positive out of all of this to try to not let our emotions and passions cause us to have a rift between each other because that just keeps getting bigger and it turns our community into a more segregated one which is a bad look and uh tough to be proud to live in so let's be honest most of us are not going to change our opinion on this policy for me tonight I want to I want people to acknowledge How brave it was for several transgender children to come up here and speak their opinion uh I know I can never do that uh at their age so I hope to spread a message for people to connect with transgender Youth and adults and others that identify with other gender identities such as non-binary and gender fluid I encourage parents to talk to their kids about this and to also encourage them to connect with someone at school that has these different gender identities and let them know that you respect them that you understand that they deal with hard challenges in life and if they need anything that you are a supportive person to talk to that really goes a long way to help us come closer and fight against fear discrimination and bullying okay so and lastly we need to work together to you know help the underdogs in this world to help all children at that need our support and to help those that are underrepresented minorities and marginalized groups in our communities that could really use support uh so we know that the board may have already decided how they will vote on this policy but I do hope the board has gone through the process of reflecting what I would love to see more of from the board is them connecting with us and sharing their views more you know asking questions and most important giving us the confidence that they understand the policy and everything that the public has brought up you know there were only a few board members that asked clarifying questions to Chris uh Mr Slate was brave enough um to ask several questions about the legal repercussions for his sending the policy as well as facts he wanted clarity about uh and I really commend you for that uh we learned that there were three points that Mr Slate had the wrong idea about and which Chris was able to clear up for him and all of us and it just made me wonder um you know if one board member was asking for clarifications at this point how many other board members need to understand the policy understand the legal facts and understand each Viewpoint and opinion that is being raised there were three people that shared their position about the policy and I really want to thank them for doing this uh it would be tremendously helpful for all of us to hear what your position is and why you feel that way based on what facts and how you weigh the severity of each point made by the public uh just for the rest of us you know um we need to ensure our facts are reliable so the board can make a decision that is informed rational and respectful so let us all try for us to transcend our personal bias and make this town more connected where every individual is respected and we can enrich our lives by learning more about each other let's focus and devote our time to Leading and participating in positive initiatives in our community that really help those that need it the most and to the board I encour encourage you um to ask more questions be open to learning and share more with the public so we can learn along with you and help us to weed out incorrect information and different and differentiate between the facts and what should not be considered regarding this policy thank you I think the last time I was up here was when there was a battle over a contract my name Nina jock ntz Oldbridge resident so I wanted to start with some public events that happened in the last couple years the last decade here in Oldbridge there was a lawsuit in the Middle School in 2007 not sure if anybody remembers this where a student was abused because he identified as gay and he was Jewish their lawsuit was successful for the student but it wasn't successful in the fact that he was emotionally damaged over it the second case that happened here in this Township was Shane duttle he was outed to his Foster Family by a high school teacher it resulted in him being kicked out that was in 2012 and perhaps the president of the council might actually remember him from school he was um kicked out of his foster home put into a group home it of course compromis his education because oldridge has great education and he had to leave the district but all of this got me thinking I was sitting here this past weekend with my son you happened to come with me thank you he's only 18 and I realized that I was that he was six years old old when the first marriage Equity law had been passed in New York 12 12 years ago so I know there are people on the board or in this audience who are uncomfortable with the homosexual transexual non-binary and then some labels I get it it was just yesterday or so it seemed like just yesterday that you found out we could get married to the person we loved regardless of their gender so you're scared it's is audies no we are born with a the code inside of us its P its path is etched in stone my I'm sorry these children who identify themselves May first come out to their friends perhaps maybe to their teachers maybe yours or mine not knowing something about our children's life may terrify us but there are more important lessons going on in our schools There's real learning science math English the Arts people writing great books the kids are engaged with their friends they're making commitments they're having first crushes and massive disappointments I remember those all I know I might have wanted to know each and every one of those moments with regard to my son but I Al but it was also for him my son to tell me when or if he ever wanted to we have to love and respect our children so this brings us to tonight the rule 5756 it's a bit intimidating not to know everything about our children and to be afraid somebody else knows before us I get it but I hate to say it please get used to it it's what happens these years this is what happens when they start to think about their future make academic and social decisions it's part of growing up when they begin to make the decisions for themselves let your children be raised with the Privacy they expect the safety and the protections that are here in our schools of course why fret over a rule which doesn't apply to 99% of the kids keep the rule 5756 intact thank you very much hi I'm an I'm live in Oldbridge I'm the mother of three my oldest oh sorry hi I'm an I live in Oldbridge I have three children oldest is transgender and I'm sure you'll remember the last time we were here a gentleman came up here and spoke and uh my daughter and I call him Santa Claus and he targeted my daughter he um verbally assaulted her he called her a he and a sexual deviant I just I want to do an exercise with the board because I really I just want you to feel what we feel I want you to close your eyes if you don't mind if you feel comfortable and I just my mom used to say put yourself in their shoes and she would say just imagine yourself you're a student you're an Oldbridge you're wearing Crocs or whatever's trendy I don't even know and then you're questioning your gender so you confide in your favorite teacher you go home that day and a call comes in from the school they want to talk to your dad and tell him everything you told your teacher and you know who your dad is Bad Santa That's who your dad is he's not going to hug you he's not going to tell you I love you no matter what sweetie um um I'm not saying he's going to be physically abusive necessarily but he was easily emotionally abusive to my child so what's going to stop him from doing it again and the Journal of American U medical I'm saying it wrong jamama whatever that stands for but in 2015 they found that emotional abuse is equally as detrimental to mental and Behavioral Health as violent abuse and then I felt really bad for yelling at my kid as much as I do but I just want you to know these kids need to be protected and you just saw a little taste of what my daughter goes through and I just feel like this policy needs to stand as is to protect these students I I just want you to know last time one one transgender student stood up and you know why other students didn't stand up they obvious they don't feel safe you know why other parents of transgender kids didn't stand up because they they can't they don't feel safe for their kids maybe outing their child I had multiple parents come up to me after the meeting last week parents of transgender children who thanked me because they can't speak and I just I just want you to know for as many people who who are speaking in favor of this policy there's so many more who can't speak because they don't feel safe um I also just wanted to address some things that were brought up at the last meeting um quickly um bathrooms it was brought up about girls being raped in bathrooms because of this and I just I just want people to know the facts at my daughter's school there is a nine stalls in the bathroom one student goes in at a time and a teacher is always in there I would be very shocked if anyone's getting raped in the bathroom so let's not bring that up issue up again um the locker rooms people talked about they don't want you know male genitals changing next to female genitals that doesn't happen they ask my daughter to change in the nurses room no problem the poor kid has to run across the school back and forth but she doesn't complain and a lot of people stood up here last meeting and they said that they don't have a problem with transgender people they're just against parental rights I don't want my parental rights taken away but this policy is not about taking your rights away as a parent this policy I feel like politicians are making you think that your rights are being taken away cuz their end goal is take away taking away basic human rights from transgender children and I just hope you'll vote in favor of keeping the policy and protecting the kids thank you for your [Applause] time thank you thank you very much my name is joean Aus I'm an Oldbridge resident went to my first uh meeting last week very passionate a lot of sincerity a lot of passion but what I came out of that with was a couple of things and one of two maybe there was a lot of miscategorization in my opinion there was some flawed logic and reason and that is really the starting point I have the policy in front of me and one of the categories here we see gender identity means is not the same as gender assigned at Birth okay is that true is that really scientifically viable and then there was a couple of things about you know assigned sex at Birth with the issuance of certificates should such a record be provided at Birth so gender on a birth certificate is that scientifically viable if a child goes to get treated in a hospital can a doctor treat them the same way what in any event just a category error for for myself lgbtq now is the acronym for lesbian gay by sexual transgender queer questioning and by all means if people child a child has feelings of homosexual feelings is that the same thing is mutilation is someone changing their gender and their their body parts is that the same and do parents do parents not have a right to know is that is that where we're going with this seemed that way to me and in terms of the bathrooms and in terms of Bad Santa that's not the majority I think the vast majority of Oldbridge parents are reputable respectful parents and have a right to know as well so now if you're going with the the bathroom here there can be an better chance of molestation it's just a reality I hope that's not the case but it's a probability by all means and superintendent I I I believe you I know you care and every each and every one of us should care about the protection of children but what about the 97 to 98% of children that do not prescribe to this non-binary or transgenderism what about the the girl that's going to play sports you have some yeah you have some language here and correct me if I'm wrong provide and this is Page seven the school district shall provide transgender students with the same opportunities to participate in physical education as other students in accordance to their gender identity does that mean gym and sports well that's that could be very emotionally and physically unhealthy for women there's anybody thinking about young women as well okay what about the many others who this is going to affect maybe we're not thinking about the others but it will and and that's really all I have I I think 5756 in the long run will be a catastrophe for the children I think it will be for society and I I just don't see this as being something very healthy for the world look I know people don't feel all the same and there's a lot of children struggling with some things but these categories really have to be a little more uh defined because of we're not going to tell someone who's thinking about be a boy becoming a girl we're not going to tell their parents we're where are we going folks have we lost our minds thank you once again I'm shorter than the microphone hi my name is maray um last time I mentioned I was resident of OB orridge over 40 years one of seven family members who graduated from orridge school system I am speaking again today on policy 5756 which we need to keep after witnessing last meeting's Fiasco of a whole grown man a fellow orridge resident a parent attacked a child of our town in front of everyone like that was normal behavior in front of her own mother this was a complete stranger attacking an unknown child so imagine if he was a parent with a child of a transgender everyone uses the slogan parental rights where was the parental rights of that mother to raise her child in a town that is supposed to be safe I don't know how anyone who sat there who witnessed this display of hate could be in agreement with his behavior that is not what orridge is about in case many don't get it outing does lead to violence or even having their own child kicked out of their home for those who don't believe believe kids get hurt by their parent or their parents would kick their kids out I will share three stories of three oldridge kids on ironically I didn't even know Nina knew a few of her own stories one was a child who was gender fluid his parents kicked him out he literally was living behind 7-Eleven on 5:116 across from Burger King for 2 weeks so for orridge residents who have been here long enough and heard that rumor yes someone was living behind 7-Eleven it was a 16-year-old boy when I asked him why he didn't tell me he already knew how his parents were the other kid was confused if he was by or not his parent put him in a slap box match to see if he was man enough the boy was put out there was even an overd amber alert for him and then when the child came back home his mom signed him over to the state third child wasn't even gay wasn't even transgender he was simply put out for having ADHD and behavior issues mind you all three boys were only 16 came from two parents' hom and lived in home where or is supposed to be influent mind you this was within the last four years again oldridge is about Community for as long as I've known for all no one gets left behind this policy was created because one was needed to maintain and run a school like all other company and jobs they have policies which are needed of how to handle each situation in school the Boe lawyer stated at last meeting the policy says parents don't need to be notified but it also doesn't prohibit schools from notifying the parents as Leo said last time start doing your homework as a parent parenting your child everything is online and accessible by all the name preference record that is kept in the school is not given to anybody outside of the school it's not given to secondary institutions it's not given to military services and so forth these conspiracies that keep getting pushed into our town is tearing apart a town I've been here 40 years this is ridiculous that I've never gone to a Boe meeting since the last one the last week and now I have to start showing up teachers and school systems have been the same for centuries and the same since we as adults were once a child more than half our teachers are lifelong residents police are lifelong residents if you think teachers are all this rhetoric that they're surrounding and grooming kids and they're doctoring and Communists and so forth well then you're in a town full of them and based on my family success of everybody getting into College's military Services police Chiefs being productive adults homeowners including the youngest cousin being in Harvard including a child that I have in his 20s that was on an IEP 15 plus years ago he had a lisp and a stutter within six months School knocked it out that's what over school system is about taking care of every single child no matter what the situation lastly I do want to commend Scott he deserves a standing ovation he stood up for a child in her town when others were silent that's what our town is about keeping all our kids safe making sure they succeed in school and graduate to be a productive adult and as Boe members I know your main goal is to keep all our kids safe and that our school system continues to function for the years thank [Applause] you don't worry beer I'm going to keep this lower anyway I need to load too my name is Christa fiser and I'm an Oldbridge resident I would like to challenge any board member choosing to oppose 5756 to Google search parent kills their transgender teen on their phone there are multiple Stories the horrific crimes you'll see Pop Up were committed because some teenagers are truly not safe in their own homes if a child knows that they're not safe at home school might be the only Outlet where they could feel safe and we need to keep it that way I'm a mother and I love my son I love him so soulfully and unconditionally that it sickens me knowing that there are teens out there who have good reasons to be scared of their own parents when I say unconditional if this kid tells me he likes country music I'll still love him I'm not a fan I'm scarred I I was a Hostess a loone store years ago and it still stays with me um I will always strive to be the kind of parent who my son could come to with anything anything he's facing and know that I will always love him but the sad reality is that not every student is going to have that there are parents who won't love their children unconditionally parents who would harm their children if they revealed to them that they were transgender this policy was put into place to keep vulnerable youth safe it has been in place for so many years why is it an issue now if you're concerned parent about what's going on in your child's life um one thing I actually agreed with with Mr marchetta and he said it last week be an involved parent talk to your child about what they're feeling and they're thinking but let's not continue to have these meetings devolve into anti-lgbtq rants let's not keep invoking God to justify hatred surfaced by a policy designed to keep children safe in public schools everyone regardless of their gender identity deserves to be safe thank you [Applause] hold on good evening hi I'm Kim Linley I'm from Oldbridge my kids wz Oldbridge and um tonight I just want to review you some things and I going to thank the board for their time and effort and consideration that you take for the academic learning and the safety of all students so I want to start off with thank you for taking the time to resend 5756 this suggestive amendment has many areas of concern teacher parent relationships parental rights the First Amendment Division and the special education student there are other areas as well but due to time constraints I would like to address the the teacher parent relationship affects the student performance when there is an active clear communication between both parties the student will be the one to benefit if 5756 is not resented then the student is the one to suffer the reason would be due to the lack of trust the parent would have with the teacher 5756 allows the teacher not to provide the parent with the gender the student identifies as also the student is allowed to use the bathroom participating activities that the student identifies as in addition another separate of the line file of the student is kept on record the information is kept from parent until the student wants to inform the parent okay and another thing for review which I discussed last time and the significance that's why I'm bringing it up again is the brain the brain and another area of concern that I would like to address an noral by men men's mental health daing written by was written at what age is the brain fully developed the development of the brain significant part of a child's personality and identity I I would like to highlight some important fact a fully developed brain is between 25 and 30 the prefrontal cortex is developing between 18 and 25 during pubd the prefrontal cortex begins to develop impulsivity in goal setting is difficulty during this time reward system gratification is high enduring puberty which returns back to normal at age 25 organized thinking hormones affect the concentration in organized thinking personality development the prefrontal cortex is responsible to the personality development when there is poor stimulation the prefrontal cortex is a cortox a child May struggle with identifying issues with a favorable personality a decision making teenagers have poor poor judgment when making sound decisions another important part of the prental ctex placs in The Logical thinking and the AIDS in learning to access situations also making a good versus bad decision is connected by the development of the prefrontal cortex in regards to parental rights I'm responsible for our kids getting to school I'm responsible for relaying information as a teacher uh as a parent that line is so significant and there's an article this this uh that I found and this there's many research studies that have been found so the name of the article happens to be teacher parent communication strategies to start the EUR off rate the study suggest that parental involvement can lead to academic gains for students higher grades test coures improve social skills and time on task better attendance and participation and decreased behavioral problems in the classroom um the next thing uh establishing a a strong relationship and clear lines of communication at the beginning of the year such a strong foundation for both parent and teacher interaction and again the student uh is the one to benefit and with 5756 what I got out of it is trust would be broken so where this article and other studies show that it's imperative and it impacts them and when there is lack of I worked in a uh a district that the uh parents always weren't involved and it does play an important impact on their academic performance and math and reading that was where two of the areas that they touched on um the other thing I wanted to discuss is I reviewed policy 56 while I we sitting here and it said that um when a student change decides a student need not only meet a threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements to have his or her gender identity recognized and respected by the school district school or School staff members you know and as it was said before that in order to give a child medicine it needs parents rights so with the delusion of when a child is in school given by this in the parents perspective the child is living a doubled life so sorry thank you very much oh thank you very much for your time I appreciate it thank you again good evening Koji hamanaka Oldbridge resident last week when I I addressed the board concerning policy 5756 I listed my concern specifically about the confidentiality and privacy in school records portions as you said Mr Slade those are not the only items of concern but with the LI limited time given I chose to address what I believe to be the most pernicious aspect of the policy but like you I share your concern about the other parts of the policy as well namely activities and use of facilities while I'm also concerned with fairness of competition I don't think it's the primary concern I think the primary concern is the safety of children especially physical safety allowing bi biological males to compete in female high school sports has led to De devastating injuries to young female athletes it's not a question of if but when because it has already happened in public schools in this country in addition to having moments of Victory and future opportunities robbed from them young girls are brutalized in the name of diversity equity and inclusion if you haven't heard of pton McNab she is a high school volleyball player from North Carolina who took a spike to the face from a male identifying as female she was con concussed and sustained severe neck and head injuries in September of 2022 and after 7 months at the time of this article she was still recovering and continued to suffer from her in injuries then there's a girl that had her teeth knocked out and severed suffered severe facial injuries from a shot taken by a male identifying as female during a high school field hockey playoff in Massachusetts earlier this month as she fell to the floor in pain you can hear her blood curling shrieks of pain these are real events that have happened not ifs but when I would like to read a few of Payton mcnab's quotes from an article due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females my life has forever been changed I was unable to play the rest of my last volleyball season and although I'm currently playing softball I'm not able to perform as well as I know I have in the past because of the injury I'm here for every biological female athlete behind me my little sister my cousins my teammates allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous I me I may be the first to come before you with an injury but if it this doesn't pass I won't be the last she was referring to a proposed North Carolina legislation my my ability to compete was taken from me having to play against biological males is not a Level Playing Field and it is Mo most definitely not safe quoting the same article it states McNab indicated that to this day she is still recovering from her injuries and continues to face other health struggles as a result of what happened such as impaired Vision partial Paralysis on the right side of her body constant headaches anxiety and depression she added that her ability to retain and comprehend information has been impaired forcing her to obtain accommodations at school as well now turning to the use of facilities there have been clear examples of females and males sharing bathrooms leading to sexual activities on school grounds in the past from high school with allegations of sexual assault in all in an all-gender bathroom in Montclair to Middle School where students were having sex in a deli Regional bathroom involving a transgender student it doesn't take a genius to know what some kids are going to try and get away with we all went through puberty experienced the effects of our bodily hormones but not everyone exhibited the same level of self-control they should have and sadly students having sex on school grounds although rare existed before this policy ever came into place but this policy will make it easier so I ask does that sound like a safe learning environment to you also is it the school's responsibility to provide safe homes or safe schools unfortunately there may be some Oldbridge children right now going to unsafe homes regardless of their gender identity what are you going to do for them I'd argue that the same existing policies put in place to protect these children should also cover the concerns of transgender children going to abusive homes it would be great if we could ensure that every student goes to a safe home when they leave school but the school should not pursue safety in one location to the detriment of the other especially when one of them is your direct Prime primary responsibility thank you thank you Board of Ed for all you do and your time and your dedication we appreciate it my name is Jennifer and I am from marbor I am against the 576 policy it is never a good idea to have special policies for a select group of people as it divides it causes atory for the safety of the lgbtq students anti-bullying and anti-discriminatory birth name and to separate ID IDs from their birth records this is not about the child's privacy while in schools but about protecting the students gender expression from their parents many people supportive of this policy allowing the child's gender identity to be quiet from their parents argue that not all parents are understanding and loving I'm sure this is true but if there is a reason to suspect danger in the child's home isn't a social worker sent to the home to investigate like with other policies regardless of the reason I oppose 5756 for many reasons but mostly because it serves to affirm a false ideology biologically we know there are only two genders male and female and that cannot change there has been a tremendous spike in gender confusion mainly in girls this would not be happening if it wasn't promoted by social media far-left woke philosophy and affirmed by the schools let's talk about the schools role in this although not publicly broadcasted we know that the schools in New Jersey are not only teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity they are affirming gender confusion laws in our state mandate lgbtq history taught in the schools kindergartens are introduced to gender stereotypes and impressionable little ones are taught there is no true connection between biological sex and gender they are told that someone like a doctor may have guessed what sex they were at Birth but no one really knows their gender except the child itself some schools introduce books such as gender bred person and gender unicor I am Jazz the little ones are taught they may have a girl brain and a boy's body or vice versa the curriculum schools supplied by gender activists such as ACL Planned Parenthood the Bill Gates Foundation psychist Etc include information on gender expression and graphic sexual material that would never have been discussed or shown in years past nor have any reason to be taught in the schools we know that schools are celebrating pride month International pronouns Day lgbtq history months transgender awareness week and a Day of Silence no wonder why gender fluidity has become such a thing that a school policy has to address it we are teaching it in our schools we are affirming it and we are celebrating it how about telling children they were fearlessly and wonderfully made by God as male or female and this should be celebrated for the child going through puberty why don't we give them guidance and love have them deal with the usual hormonal changes go through the trials of being an adolescent and if necessary get them helped by a trusted counselor most kids will outgrow their fears and awkwardness about about their bodies for those children with other anxieties and phobias let's love them and help them work through their fears most likely the pain has nothing to do with gender we know that a person's biological sex can never be changed regardless of puberty blockers hormones or irreversible surgeries what can we do then we can change a mindset let's put our efforts there let's speak the truth in life love hello good evening my name is uh David and uh I'm a resident of Albridge uh an immigrant from Mexico and uh I believe that uh when we talk about issues like this excuse me don't engage each other up in line got it when we talk about issues like this um we talk about individual we talk about individual and of course the individual matters but at its core we're talking about principles and uh if we remove the hatred if we remove sometimes the the the unnecessary nuance and the noise we see that we're dealing with two different principles right I am of the belief that parents have a right to know what their kids are doing that's what I was thought that's how I grew up I believe that for every argument there is a counterargument for and this is where this is when I I sometimes wish to talk to to people who who who who who who believe right in in in in the transgender ideology and say you know what yes yes there are many parents that do not know how to handle the situation with their kids and they abuse them and they do things that are unspeakable like abandoning them that is absolutely absolutely wrong but on the other hand I ask you to go on social media and check Reddit of course young people know what that is and check the the trans sub for you to see Story upon Story upon story this is these are formerly transs young men and women who say if I had known what I know now five years ago 10 years ago when I was in high school I would have waited I would have thought about it I would have waited at least until my mind was made up but now it's too late now I went through the bottom surgery the top surgery and I do not know what to do if you read if you read the the gut-wrenching stories in in in in in that place that I am telling you about that's by the way by no means a rightwing you know place at all that is specifically designed so that people who regret the transition can go and vent with like-minded people you will see the truth you will see what happens it's not just it's not just it it doesn't always end well right and something else I'd like to say to the people who advocate for for for um for the policy we are not all Santa Claus I consider myself to be a rational man and the notion the idea that a party other than myself namely the schools will allow itself will give itself the right to teach my daughters I have two of them an ideology that is completely diametrically opposed to what I believe I find that reprehensible I find that reprehensible I find that oppressive as a minority I find that oppressive I have the right as a parent to teach my daughter what I believe is the right way in life and I'm going to fight for that because my children are my future they will carry my name and they will carry who I am through the generations they will carry in my faith and they will give it to their children and nobody's going to get in the middle of that because those kids were given to me by God to to to to build them and to give them principles and that's what I want to do thank you very much good evening I want to thank you each for your service to this community and thank you for the opportunity to speak so there's two aspects of policy 5756 I don't think are being considered or addressed first New Jersey state law requires all Public Schools not only teach but stress abstinence and modesty in their health curriculum here's the thing everything about 5756 undermines this fundamental Core Curriculum required by law if you are affirming without question without diagnosis or any other criteria as your policy states then or or any other criteria okay gender Cho okay affirming without question without any diagnosis or any other character okay so gender choices fluidity and identities of children than you are by definition affirming the behaviors associated with those choices by the way please consider what affirm means and what the syn synonyms are do people really not understand and the inevitable harm that will ensue is anyone considering the escalation of sexually transmitted diseases or the emotional baggage and Trauma that has already been on the rise and approaching epidemic proportions unfortunately in Retreat reviewing your curriculum abstinence and modesty barely get a mention out of pages and pages of sexual expression pregnancy mitigation Etc I want want to just highlight a couple things from the policy itself as some other people have done it's just the tip of the iceberg but from the definitions and terms you see discuss with the student the pronouns each student has chosen chosen gender identity means a person's internal deeply held sense of gender okay under transition it says develops a more affirming gender expression that feels authentic okay so we have you know these um words that have clear meaning that are the basis of this policy okay we're Cho allowing children to choose we're um basing that on their sense of gender and what feels authentic okay and as regarding the parental issues again other people have touched on it but it states that uh principal or design is advised to work with the student to create an appropriate confidentiality plan and I I just want folks to understand what is implied and inferred with some of these statements and language in the policy okay and be honest because honest we we we really need intellectual honesty here as to what the issues really are okay secondly I think 5756 needs to be looked at through the lens of New Jersey child endangerment laws okay section nine 6 through 8 and nine states 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 is a child's physical or emotional health okay emotional health child endangerment can occur when a child does not receive licensed uh uh receive licensed professional medical care for an injury or sickness and includes ignoring medical advice for conditions that can be treated so just for the record gender dysphoria is a well-documented and classified mental illness and our kids are being cont confused and a about a lot more than gender and we need to have adults in the room start speaking the truth and using discernment uh in what is really in the best interest of our kids I just want to also mention that um the response from the American uh Association of Pediatrics uh to the unelected Board of Education State Board of Education regarding the changes to chapter 7 um is that they oppose it and they believe that it's anti-science vote that that is harmful to children thank thank you very very much can you hear me okay um so I know you some of you might think that I'm just a little kid I don't know that much um but oh sorry um my name is tala um I'm a freshman here at the orge high school um so like I said um I'm sure some of you may think that I'm a little kid I do not know a lot of stuff but um today I'm not only speaking for myself I'm also speaking for many of the people who are part of the lgbtq community the feeling of walking through the halls and wondering if something disrespectful is going to be said to me is scary in middle school going home crying all day was not fun that was until I found the love and support of the orbridge high school that the Oldbridge High School provided in my personal opinion I think that I should be comfortable in my own skin no matter if it's Sports the bathroom or changing in locker rooms today I stand behind my fellow peers who are part of the lgbtq community and I will continue to speak my truth and let nobody tell me otherwise I kept it short so um thank you have a nice night thank you uh good evening uh Doris Lynn freeold town Township I urge the board to preserve 5756 as a parent I support parental rights but that's not what this is about this is about fear and bias and Prejudice the parents who insist that they be notified of their child's pronouns are the ones who are against their child changing their pronouns I see the fear and hatred I see people calling transgender people mentally ill or groomers some even want their idea of God to be taught in schools this hatred leads to discrimination and even anti-lgbtq hate crimes regarding sexual assault and molestation I guarantee you that almost every female in this room has been sexually harassed molested or even assaulted by cisgender men for me it's been multiple cisgender men in my life a neighbor a boss and strangers on the street I've never been harassed or assaulted by a transgender woman parents who say these kids are too young to know their gender have no problem with cisgender kids who know their gender the parents who oppose the policy claim they will love their kids no matter what and I believe them but they will damage their kids emotionally when they tell their kids they are mentally ill or groomers if they change their gender if your child is keeping this secret from you it's because you've made them feel unsafe and if 5756 is repealed a child who may have come out to a trusted teacher might have no trusted adult more important than this dis disingenuous argument about parental rights is the safety of our children I'm not worried about transgender girls who are much more likely to be the victims of harassment than harassers I'm worried about kids being exposed to the hatred and bigotry of people who freely and openly Express their vitriol in public thank you hi my name is Kaleb Harman um I'm a teenager in Oldbridge I've spoken here before uh before I address policy 5756 which I will get to I just wanted to let you all something all know something that I think is very Universal that uh I think everybody here actually agrees with to All Trans people who have been harassed and bullied by other people I'm sorry that is hard I truly sympathize with you and even though we might disagree on some things I think you deserve to have a support system and I'm sorry if you do not have that I feel horrible for that kid to live behind 7-Eleven that's unacceptable but it's not controversial to say bullying is wrong I don't think anybody here thinks bullying is wrong now I want to talk about the more controversial parental notification policy inside of policy 5756 so um in this policy there's a couple of presuppositions here and I'm going to need a little bit of participation from the board if possible um I want you to picture or even draw a big circle that represents the amount of trans kids in the school next draw smaller circle inside that Circle that circle is trans kids who haven't come out to their parents yet now draw a smaller Circle in that past Circle to represent abusive trans kids who have abusive parents now in that small circle draw an even Little Dot in the circle which represents trans kids who haven't come out to their parents who are abusive who abuse them for this specific reason does that sound a little unreasonable good it's the state's job to investigate parents who are abusive not the school's job to avoid triggering abuse the reality is abusive parents will abuse no matter what if we get if we were to keep this policy and you know stop the abuse we would also have to get rid of report cards since according to many well proven studies they also correlate to child abuse and the reality is this is a classic example of correlation not causation even if abuse rates are higher when kids age 5 to 14 are outed that doesn't necessarily outed C being outed causes the abuse we don't make laws for the one or two people in this ch for who fit all of these criteria just like we don't have laws for other extremely specific people who have extremely specific criteria as sad as they may be in conclusion I do just want to reiterate I am not against gay people I have gay family members and I have worked with people on the lgpt qia Spectrum and America gives you the right to do what you want when you want and who am I to command you to not to do what you're legally able to do however I think we should all focus more on what the school is obligated to do the school is obligated to help the parents to help their kids succeed that's it full stop they are not therapists they are not psychologists and again people talk about children's rights I've heard decent amount here's this answer actually the kid has human rights the parents have human rights and special rights legally awarded by court cases like Pierce ver Versus Society of sisters and Wisconsin vioder to help these kids in these cases parents rights were challenged and the Supreme Court upheld them in upholding this you are going against parental rights legally upheld by the courts now also to I mean I'm get I'm assuming you guys are getting tired of hearing this all this stuff so I do just want to say thank you I mean you guys have heard for like three whole meetings now and I get it must be kind of exhausting at some point so I do want to say thanks I mean I hope your favorite football team wins in Thanksgiving and you don't have as bad a food coma as you normally do so [Applause] yeah hi I'm Sean Bensley a retired Elementary counselor here in Albridge I'm a resident of Hillsboro um I didn't prepare anything tonight um I just wanted to spell some of the things that I heard that I believe were incorrect um maybe Mr Parton can speak to this specifically but I believe that whether or not you choose to keep 5756 or resend it the law against discrimination in New Jersey protects transgender students when it comes to bathroom rooms and participation in sports so when we talk about it here at this meeting it's really not an issue for the board it's an issue for the state and I suggest that those who disagree with that go to the state um a lot of what I heard tonight and I unfortunately didn't go to the second meeting last week but I'm hearing a lot of people here who are against the policy and I'm sure you love your children and are very you know active and concerned residents of Oldbridge but um these are hypothetical situations that you're coming up I don't hear anyone saying this my parental rights were um were taken away or this happened to me whereas I've heard a lot of very brave students um and parents and other members of the lgbtq community talk about their own personal experiences and at the policy meeting last week I watched people shake as they spoke and when somebody talks to you about their own experience I think it's really important to listen um a lot of the things that I've heard tonight again kind of make me think or wonder if people are listening um 5756 is not about sexual activity it's about gender identity and those are two separate things um nothing in the policy is is encouraging or discouraging abstinence it's just saying that your gender identity who you are as as a person is protected um when I hear people talk about policies for a certain group of students or a small minority of students is not okay I would kind of disagree with that because if a student has a learning has special needs in learning that's a special group they get special things and they should because they can't help that and they need special policies just like someone who is transgender or gay or lesbian or bisexual ual is not a choice it's something of who a person is so you know when you say they don't deserve special needs I really have I really disagree with that um also the talk about meds or mutilation or operations none of that is happening in school none of it it's just about having kids have the right to be themselves and to feel comfortable and the per the the man who spoke last week and attacked the student um if he didn't come here and say that in public we wouldn't know that that's how he thought so I was a counselor and worked with kids for 35 years and believe me you cannot tell who is likely to or who will be abusive to a student to a child and the fact that that man felt comfortable doing it in public on camera is really concerning to me and it kind of proves that kids need protection some kids not all kids but the ones who do really need us to be there for them thank [Applause] you hi good evening I'm Gerald Mago from the dolorous Turco Foundation we protect children from abuse and neglect We Believe everyone's created in the image of likeness of God and deserving of love we do not discriminate for any reason under any circumstances uh today I'd like to talk to you a little bit about some of the clarify some things that came up at the last meeting um firstly according to the Handover Board of Education uh this policy is wholly one-sided firstly thank you for your service I forgot to say that I really appreciate you um listening to us and your compassion and concern for children families and the community um but the policy is is wholly one-sided it fails to provide a mechanism to address and and this is from an attorney uh from the Handover Board of Education it fails to provide a mechanism to address and manage conflicting concerns of all students parents administrators or staff and the District of in of in at whole the Board of Education in Hanover also recognized the policy is ambiguous it is ripe for legal challenge it blatantly exposes the district to liability for potentially withholding or concealing information from parents without a legitimate safety concern for doing so um they also found according to the law minor children do not have a right of privacy to the exclusion of their legally fit parents under the lad or otherwise and therefore do not have the right to direct administrators and staff to purposefully withhold or actively conceal information from their parents I talked last week about the law um parental rights have been upheld by the uh federal courts throughout this the country I'd like to point out something that came up last week uh about the parents being not the the question about parents being told or not told um the policy specifically States there's no affirmative Duty for any school district Personnel to notify the parents the students parents of the gender identity It also says that school Personnel may not disclose information inform that may reveal students transgender status except as Allowed by law and contrary to the board's understanding of encouraging supportive parent child relationships the policy actually promotes adversity and potential litigation because in instances where the parent and guardian or um and the child disagree with the use of pronouns the school district is advised to quote consult their board attorney regarding the minor civil rights and protections under the NJ lad in addition they are encouraged to seek family counseling and support service outside the school district and the advocacy groups include the New Jersey Department of Children and Families and refer parents to child abuse neglect and missing children web page these types of recomendations alienate parents from their children according to the policy you heard about there's no threshold but one of the things I wanted to point out is that the um the policy requires that schools come up with a variety of professionals seek a variety of professionals including counselors and school psychi psychologists to provide emotional supports for these students uh who demonstrate a need and I point this out in in fact uh that the current protocol for children questioning their gender is to affirm the child's gender identity and then the professionals unfortunately conduct a brief inadequate evaluation of the patients that serve only to screen for obvious mental illness they fail to explore any underlying mental issues that or social factors that can contribute to the child's gender dysphoria and in fact a number of the gender dysphoria children are on the autism spectrum autism spectrum the risky gender affirmation model consists of puberty blocking drugs followed by cross- sex hormones and that se sex reassignment surgeries as the only or best option for treating these children the drugs are experimental Lupron is one and that's used to chemically castrate offenders sex offenders they also cause as you heard irreversible Harmon sterility the sex reassignment surgeries consist of hysterectomies for children and removal of their breasts and removal penises for boys as well as refashioning the genital tissues these surgeries require 12 to 18 months for recovery and can produce serious complications so under the current policy schools can work with professionals on on a confidential basis without the knowledge or consent of parents to transition minors without meeting threshold diagnosis or even appropriate mental health screening transitioning children will be subjected to harmful medical interventions that could sterilize them for life even if one child is subjected to these standard practices without the knowledge or consent of parents the district is exposing itself to potential litigation with Monumental consequences than thank you good evening to the board my name is G choc rori I'm a resident of Oldbridge graduate class of 2014 I want to open up by reading a poem and some of the board members on this panel might recognize this poem especially if you're a history buff first they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew and then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me this been a lot of talk tonight about ending wokeness but I'd like to ask someone here to Define what that means does wokeness mean disagreeing with as anyone who thinks or believes different from you or does it mean teaching people to be kind and accepting of others here's the thing I read that poem first in Mr lro's 8th grade social studies class and what that taught me is that this is how it starts if one group of people has their rights taken away that leads the slippery slope to other groups and other rights being taken away and we've seen this playbook play out in other parts of the country in Utah and Texas they've implemented book bands trying to trying to so quote unquote protect children from pornography when really the books they're trying to ban are just books children's books really that normalize LGBT people in Florida you have a revised curriculum where they're trying to quote unquote highlight the benefits of slavery whatever that's supposed to mean there if you if you give in to this you'll have to be giving in to every other demand that comes their your way you'll have to give in to the book bands that will inevitably follow you'll have to give in to curriculum Cuts little by little the district will die death by a Thousand Cuts style till eventually a case could be made to replace our system itself with a school Voucher Program now as we saw today this system breeds Excellence we saw a 16-year-old wrote a book and I'm a novelist myself I can speak from experience writing a book is a harrowing process and we're we even have advanced facilities like auto repair shop like so many other Public School Systems don't have a tenth of the resources we have in this school and that could all potentially slide down the tubes if we start giving in now the sad truth is if you give a fascist an inch they will take a mile before we know it this amazing school system that produces top tier Talent could be gone before our very eyes I know all of you here regardless of whatever your opinions are on about policy 5756 love this school district and I know you'd never want anything to come bring it to harm but if you Buckle here you'll be buckling again and again and again and I know that because I studied history at this school and I had damn good history [Applause] teachers good evening hi my name is Terry esposo I'm a how resident I have two boys boys that live here in Oldbridge and a grandson who um may be attending the Oldbridge school system so I have a marked interest in everything that happens around here um I'd like to start with a clarification of have a statement that I made uh that I was called out on which is fine it's disheartening though that both times I gave this information it was misinterpreted I read from the 45 goals of communism which I believe originated from the American Communist Party back in 1919 and it was exposed in a book called The Naked communist in 1961 these goals these 45 goals are frightening and sobering and when you read them and I hope everybody reads them you'll recognize that many if not all of these have been accomplished these are the two that I focused on number 26 present homosexuality degeneracy and promiscuity as normal natural and healthy and number 41 emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents attribute prejudices mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents so a wonderfully passionate faculty member who I'm sure is an awesome teacher assured everyone that teachers are not groomers we are not indoctrinator we're not communists perhap perhaps I missed a comment but I didn't hear those accusations no one is here to make those accusations the need here is for transparency accountability and a requirement for faculty to inform parents when a child questions their identity um policy 5756 does not ensure this I'm going to read to you a um definition from the nih.gov website on gender dysphoria previously gender identity disorder according to the diagnostic and statistical Manual of mental disorders it is defined as a marked in congruence between their experienced or expressed gender that they were assigned at Birth so the lgbtq special interest groups are the most celebrated groups in America now it's promoted in the music industry Hollywood marketing Industries and our government there's an explo exposive increase of gender dysphoria among children and you have to ask why why are children's psyches targeted why is gender dysphoria normalized in Children's shows wide range of popular children's shows on Cartoon Network Disney Nickelodeon and PBS why is it consistently and prominently displayed in the children's sections of public libraries why do so many drag queens crave the attention and affirmation from children why are they being sexualized is it surprising that the children would be attracted to the bright colors and cartoonish outfits clouds rainbows and unicorns why are the lgbtq plus Flags so brightly colored or the flag for those who aren't are boring dull Shades of Gray what child wouldn't be pulled in to at least present an interest we're talking about children 5 to 14 years old and when that interest is presented the parent needs to know they need to know the source of influence maybe it's children's mass media or maybe maybe it's an unknown Predator stalking them online or maybe it's a closet pedophile at a friend's house or an athletic coach or a private instructor etc etc my sister um I had mentioned was one of the original cyber angels and she started um developing that um uh potential for tracking and um pulling in these pedop files online and she would uh get that information once they admitted what their intentions were um to the FBI or the police uh forces and they would track these pedophiles and arrest them um she would if she was here uh Enlighten us as to the tactics that these pedophiles use to deceive and lure in children they're enough to lure in adults and they tend to be children so when children show um uh a propensity for gender dysphoria parent needs to know in order to be able to find out where it's coming from if it's coming from uh themselves or if it's coming from an outside influence where their child may be in danger so I would ask that the board resend 5756 and make it a require parent be informed when the children thank you very much thank you thank thank [Applause] you hi good evening my name is Elena Francisco I am a parent and a resident um first I just want to say thank you to these two ladies right here who let me jump in front of them because my daughter's birthday is tomorrow and she's asking for her mama to come home so I just wanted to um speak a few words I had no intention of speaking tonight whatsoever um as I listen this evening to other speak I truly listen and I wanted to speak in response to some of the things that were said um first please know that in regards to the gentleman that spoke in such poor taste last week um what he said was unacceptable please know that he does not represent all of those who oppose this policy the conversation around this policy should should never be directed at any child and I made sure that last week I turned around to let that child know that she is beautiful and deserves all the best this world has to offer and sorry I would say her name or her mom's name but I don't know them um and I know that I'm not supposed to address them so I won't but I just wanted them to know that one opinion on a particular side of anything doesn't represent everybody um second please do not think that um I mean I'll speak for myself um but I know it's true for many others um that I am afraid of anybody in the lgbtq community I have zero fear of anyone based on their gender identity or sexual orientation or anything else for that matter I love all people and treat them with respect and kindness no matter what and I teach my children to do the same third these awful stories we've heard tonight are heart-wrenching there's no debating that but I would like to also mention that so many parents are accepting and loving how many parents have opened their minds and hearts to how their child would like to live their lives how many families have we brought together as a school district how many parents feel supported when they know they have the school Community behind them we don't have those numbers I wish that we did there's good and bad in everything but this blanket policy does not protect all children and that is our job to protect all children I want nothing more than to revise this policy I want nothing more than to come to a middle ground that's our job that's what we're here to do and it's what we want to teach all of our students in Oldbridge to do to listen to one another to come to a compromise to find a middle ground um but unfortunately as I stated last week the state has stripped us of that right that is not what's best for all students therefore we must resend this policy it's not the middle ground I wish that it was um so thank you for listening and please excuse me for sneaking out but I'm going to give a hug to my daughter who is turning 10 tomorrow so thank you for listening another short person approaching here um let me know if you can understand me I have a kind of a cold situation so I apologize ahead of time so good evening my name is Alexis I'm a resent I of Old Bridge I have two children here and I want to speak tonight I thought I would get emotional here and I am and I'm sorry it's hard hearing the discussion I'm a parent of a transgender child in this community and I want to speak in support because I think it's very important that you hear the experiences of people who have actual experience with this policy there's a getting too animated here there's a lot of you know discussion from all over the place which I know people are very passionate about but I this is a schoolb board meeting and I stood up today because I think I need you to hear me and to hear the students who have experience policy and know what it's about um is a complicated process when a child's you know disclosed comes out with their identity it's complicated for the child it's complicated for the parent but the one thing I knew is that my child was safe and accepted in an Oldbridge school that they attend I never had a well as much as I can be sure of that I didn't really have concerns the staff were always accepting and affirming of my child there was communication no one ever told my child to keep a secret I spoke with staff members about what was happening I felt completely comfortable asking questions I never felt I couldn't to clarify no one ever spoke to my child about medical intervention no one ever spoke to my child about um you know who their identity my child would be who they are if this policy was in place or not no one ever um God there's so many things that could are going through my mind right now but I it's really important to keep this policy in place because I knew I my child had told me thankfully you know there I was grateful that I was already aware of what was going on when the school reached out to me but unfortunately that's not the the case for every child and um uh we I I'm not going to reiterate the things you've heard you know I just want to tell you my personal experiences um my child had that safe place um I know last week uh there was an incoming board member who talking about this policy and the legal repercussions talked about you know just repeal it there'll be no consequences I think that's kind of easy to say on that end of it but when you're a student and in a family member um there's a lot of repercussions that are there um that are really um complicated extensive repercussions and I'm asking you for really to keep it in place it's incredibly important um you know I question the good faith of this argument this policy has been there for years it was signed until we all know this it was signed until policy um by Chris Christie it's been there and the complaints are coming now and I I I don't know why but I you know again my child had a safe place to go to I'm a working parent you all spend much more time with my child than I do unfortunately and I I am grateful that there was a firming place for them and I really appreciate you hearing me out and um I'm not great at public speaking I would be more than happy to talk with any of you all individually oneon-one if you have questions anything please reach out find me um I'd be happy to talk to you about that so I appreciate the time and thank you [Applause] hi hi my name is rexanna I'm an obage resident a mom of two young boys in elementary school so I just want to thank um all the parents and and everyone has spoken in support of the policy um I am one of those I a firm believer that if you have not experienced something in your life you cannot fully understand um what it is and what's going on for me when I first heard about the policy I saw that it was in effect since 2018 2017 and I wondered what what is the outrage now um over this I'm sure this policy has protected many many students and helped families who have needed to have that guidance um what I'm hearing a lot about in terms of uh resistance to this policy is is fear underlining all of that is fear fear of the unknown fear of what might happen fear of what if speaking about gay and transgender people is not going to turn your child gay or transgender it's just about accepting the fact that they exist in this world and they have existed for beginning of time why can't we have room for that why do we have to exclude it why does it have to be one against the other the purpose of this policy is to protect trans students for being outed without their consent that is basically the core of it when I read the policy for those who are outed without their consent consequences can be bullying by their peers classmates colle um colleagues not colleagues but yeah even harassment from their parents uh you know denial of their existence basically students see schools as places of support you know that's the places the most of their time when they're not at home so you know I put myself in in someone's shoes a Young Person's shoes who might be experiencing um you know the fact that they might be uh gay or transgender lgbtq I can only imagine how hard that must be why would you do that on purpose it's not a mental illness you know why would you purposely choose a life like that that you know is going to encounter so much hate and resistance so to sum up to be really short um here's a statistic fewer than 40% of lgbtq Youth have supportive homes fewer than 40% think about that uh tonight and also just want to leave you with one final Point reflect on the messaging that you give your kids at home when you do talk to them about yeah obviously when you feel it's appropriate for their age you know it's always parents have that Choice parents have those rights it starts at home think about the message you give them do you talk about the existence of gay transgender people why not obviously when that time comes and you feel it's appropriate for your children but keep that communication open they exist thank you very [Applause] much hello Matt Jenkins cols Neck New Jersey so in the 1950s there was an explosion of left-handed children not because it was being taught in school certainly wasn't on social media it's because the kids already existed and were no longer being forced to be right-handed social media is not teaching these kids to be trans or fluid or whatever it is they want to go by they already existed it's just we're listening now we're paying attention now when this policy was first implemented I I thought it was like 2019 I'm not sure um nobody cared why because it doesn't really affect anybody affects one two kids maybe some school districts it affects no one at all so as the first woman who came up here so eloquently put it it's not about trying to I don't want to change people's minds you feel the way that you feel but I want you to be coming at it with the Right facts in the leadup to the election I saw two different commercials at least a dozen times that was just a blatant lie and the woman went on there she says I'm a I'm a mother and if my son goes to school and tells the teacher that he wants to be a girl it's against the law for the teacher to call me that is a flat out lie what is the purpose of the organization that made that commercial if they have to lie to get their point across what is their actual point so this parental rights idea it's nothing new it's been thrown around for decades sorry I won't look over there um it's been thrown around for decades no one is infringing on any parents rights parents transparency has never been clearer than is right now everything's online you can call your teachers emails it's on the website you can know every single thing going on with your kid almost all the time the parent knows already so this goes down to the one or two families where a teacher hears something or or a student feels comfortable enough to talk to a teacher they're going to say do your parents know it's like the first thing they ask and if that kid looks at you and says I am petrified of my parents my father will beat me they will throw me out of the house we're going to have the government Force the teacher to call the kid's parents anyway to me that's just unacceptable yesterday was trans Remembrance Day um and there's a service that I go to every year and while the people are up talking there is a slideshow that goes in the back and it's it's all the names of um those who that have left us there was a name there was a country and there was the means of their passing I can't repeat them here there were I see actually most of the young people I think left they're truly horrific and some of them were teenagers and some of the most heartbreaking ones were the ones with no name they have a body and no name this was a human being a person and they've left us without even leaving a leaving a name behind I mean it was as tragic as some of those others were that we knew it was going on it was heartbreaking to hear the name no name no name no name over and over again of a human being that lived and they don't even leave a name behind this policy is going to affect almost no one I don't understand why it needs to be rescinded it is here to protect that one child who looks at you and begs you not to call their father because their father's going to beat them their father or mother is going to throw them out of the house I have a lot of friends through the whole spectrum of the lgbtq community the ones that I've met luckily have made it but I've met many who have been thrown out as teenagers could you imagine what it's like talking to your your father your mother your 14 16 years old and you just say it get out no further contact with your family now these kids were lucky they had a grandparent bring them in they had a friend bring them in and they made it but so many don't make it so please make sure you have the right facts before you make your decision thank you hi my name is Deanna Duren and I'm an Oldbridge resident I have a 5-year-old son that goes to Carpenter I believe that this policy sets a dangerous president for our well-being for our families as a child I was violated by my fifth grade teacher at Carpenter who happened to be a female she told me I needed to keep this a secret and that she was just helping me since my mother had just died there wasn't a specific policy that could have protect me from that keeping a secret from a parent is wrong regardless of what it is I happen to be a Christian I also happen to love my lgbtq family members and Friends equal to the way I love my Muslim friends and everybody else just because we have certain differences of living or thinking does not mean we cannot live happily together the majority of us that do not approve of this policy do not have a problem with the LGBT group or ideology we have a problem with the school system shaping our children's views a certain way and not keeping us informed on everything going on with our children thank you I to uh empathize with your tough decisions in these things I'm Lloyd Pulley from uh Freehold I Pastor here in Oldbridge and listen I we teach people look people are made in the image of God whatever they choose to be what they want to be you love them you know and any hatred any uh marginalizing and you know mistreatment is just patently wrong I think the real issue you know is not so much I mean look when people get into the high school age you know that is a little bit of a challenging time when they're kind of asserting themselves against their parents my concern is more with the elementary age you know these gender you know discussions to give put kids in that position they're thinking of things before their brain is developed uh is it is it a small wonder why you know gender dysphoria has increased 5,000% in the last 10 15 years I might be wrong in that statistic I know it's not far off it's gone way too far because I believe that you know you're having this thing happen that I I I would want to know how many kids that are not affirmed you know uh would just velop after they get through puberty would they they they they'd find that there's no dysphoria between their identity their sex and their gender you know they would discover that you know they outgrow that but how many and are you guys aware of the studies that are done with kids that are affirmed before puberty that that's a lot higher of a percentage uh that they'll be gender dysphoria and if the statistics are true that gender dysphoria is something that you know you're going to see see 80% you know suicide suicide ideation you're going to see 40% perhaps attempt at one point to take their life uh why would you affirm kids before puberty why would you not let parents know before puberty hey your kids are going through this you know you should have a discussion I mean it's crazy to think of this because list listen even in just general thought you know we we don't know what uh certain people have like this young lady you know you know an abusive situation that doesn't mean teachers are bad doesn't mean administrators are bad I mean this school is an amazing school we have a number of people in this in this community that go to our church that love the school uh I was part of the helping the wrestling Ministry 30 years ago plus you know when Mr Scott was was the um you know coach at that point um I I I love you know I know that teachers have a great I have a great appreciation for teachers my concern about a policy though that I believe in dangers young people it does because they're confused at a young age giving all these choices uh just a teacher asking a simple question like you know uh are you sure you're a little girl or a little boy not saying anybody in this community is I love this community I don't think that's happening here but the fact is here's the thing we're taught if there's blood you got to assume it could be uh contagious could have some disease so you don't touch it put go is on we assume that people are thieves you know you do that with banks I mean Banks you want Banks to not trust anybody so you have two people counting the money two people handling it two people taking care of it we also have a policy in our church to adult rule we just assume anyone could be a predator so you keep that protection simply because human nature being what it is there could be some bad actors again most most people here you guys are awesome there's I don't see an issue but I would be concerned about that those few bad actors if you have a policy that doesn't bring parents into the equation at a younger age I don't think that's reasonable I think that's that's more endangering children but in the end we need to treat each other with respect I may disagree with a lot of people that spoke up here and not agree with their philosophy or even see how they're taking the points they're making and you know they're looking at from that side and I'm looking at it from my side and you know words like hate are thrown out you can't hate you know I I'm not a hater I disagree and that's the good thing about relationships you can have disagreements I have a number of relationships with people that I totally disagree with and I can appreciate them and I see them as made in God's image and I'll respect them as individuals worthy of my respect and I think we should do the same in this but this is an issue where children parents and children that Bond I think toying with that in light of this is not a good idea thank you [Applause] hello uh James schacker uh Oldbridge resident 20 years teacher for 18 years uh I sincerely hope that some of the members of this board have been swayed by the passionate arguments of the people who spoke in favor of 5756 in the event that you weren't I would just like to take the next couple of minutes to appeal to your sense of reason and fiscal conservativeness so there are some facts I think that are not in dispute the rights of the trans Community including students are protected by New Jersey state law 5756 is not that law 5756 is a piece of paper that's been created to help us understand the law kind of like our users manual to our car is a piece of paper designed to help us understand how the car works but it's not the car you can take that users's manual and make it say whatever you want it's not going to change the car that you're driving you can take 5756 and make it say whatever you want you still have to comply with New Jersey state law and if you create a replacement that says we're going to prevent trans kids from using certain bathrooms or from participating in certain Sports or we're going to compel teachers to report to the parents when their students aren't um complying with cisgender Norms then two things are going to happen and we know these two things are going to happen because they have happened to literally every municipality who's done it so far the first thing is you're going to be sued and you're going to start racking up legal fees tens of thousands hundreds of thousands I don't know we have no idea how long this law is going to go on for it already exists we will be joining it and the second thing that's going to happen I don't think this has gotten quite enough attention and again it's happened every single time the second thing that's happens is your new policy is going to be enjoined and that injunction is going to last for the duration of the lawsuit and that means you will never have an opportunity to actually implement the things that the people who spoke against 5756 want because right now they are breaking the law you are going to have to wait until the lawsuit plays out you will have no choice you are going to be forced by law to wait the only reasonable question in front of you is are we going to wait for free figure out what happens with the lawsuit and then come back and revisit this when it's actually a real thing and not a fantasy or are we going to wait and pay lawyers tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of dollars while we wait anyway and I don't want you to take my word for it I'm not a lawyer I'm not an expert but you're sitting on the stage with one and I've been listening to him for weeks and some of the people who spoke here today have been listening that is the reality before you do we wait for free or do we pay taxpayer money for years to lawyers and wait anyway I propose that we wait for free and then figure out what we're going to do afterwards thank you how are you guys just want to say thank you for being here um you're some of you may or may some of you may or I don't want to oh Ron Simone and I live in Oldbridge I don't want to get sick with people but sorry some of you guys may like what I say some of you may not like what I say I don't know why it's making that noise but it's if anybody has common sense and I always say Common Sense isn't that common it's it's very easy to see that there's a problem with parenting and there's a problem with the the rules that I can't even why is this doing this am I too how's that how's that and there's obviously a problem Common Sense wise with the policies now policies can be changed and they can be negotiated to work for everybody which they're supposed to be now the sad news about what you guys might not like is you're not Oldbridge and you guys are not Oldbridge now what I mean mean by that is Oldbridge has how many thousands of people in here you guys are not the majority and I hate to say that I'm not saying that rude saying this as you could see somebody cut the line because they feel like everybody feels that their opinion their opinion of something is better than somebody else's or is higher than somebody else's when really it's the fact of the only thing here is the kids are what's important as as a as a member of the Board of Education your opinion doesn't matter as a parent I'm not looking that way your parents don't matter uh your opinions don't matter parents need to police their kids better and develop that relationship now I'm a 43 year old man and I have no kids the reason I don't have any kids is because I don't want the responsibility and I'm scared to have a kid that's gonna get kidnapped or every everything else that you see all over social media now parents you have to understand these people are not responsible for stuff that happened in the 50s they're not responsible for social media they don't they don't have they're not in charge of social media so coming up here with hes coming up here with a documentation from something that could you address the board and not yes yeah I'm just looking over there uh coming up here I mean like try don't talk about what other people have done like just try to focus on us oh no but that's my point like there there's every I've been sitting here and I wanted everybody to go first so I could actually listen to what's going on there is nothing here that's being negotiated I hear a bunch of opinions I hear a bunch of people coming up and stating facts from a long time ago and the worst case scenarios to happen what about all the prog progress we've made as a community and you need Oldbridge if we're going to if we're going to use statistics if we're going to use um people facts it has to be from the whole majority of everybody just the way as if majority wins for for any type of vote okay now there's how many people in this school how many kids go to this school thousands 8,000 and there's 20 parents in the room okay so now think about this again where's everybody when there's other policies being in place people only go to things that pertain to them and what they're passionate about okay they're not here acting as Oldbridge when there's other issues going on in Oldbridge they're here only when it's something that pertains to them or something that when they want to be heard somebody thinks I'm going to cut the line because I got to go fast because I got to do guess what I have stuff to do to I'm sorry I have stuff to do also but I'm here you guys all have stuff to do but you're here okay everybody puts their opinion first when in turn there has to be something where policies can change and be put into work for everybody maybe policies and rules are made to to to keep everybody to keep everybody together or are supposed to be in place for the best case for the policy okay now sometimes opinions of of people sometimes the people that make the policies come out in those policies now I want to hear when I come to these meetings what we're doing to negotiate that policy so it works for the kids not about your feelings not about the parents opinions but what we're also we're also oldridge we're not any other state we're not whatever happens in another state doesn't have any effect on Oldbridge we have our own people are talking about change they want change in the town they want we we can make a start to where the change comes from that we're not we're just because you're receiving money from the state you don't always have to listen to what the state says we have our own policies in town that can be in place and the other thing what I'm saying is you have a problem with the accountability of people putting the accountability for a a teacher a teacher is there to teach somebody a teacher is there just to teach they don't want to have to be a counselor they don't want to have to hear about the sexuality of your kid now there's people in every job in every in every school and every system there there is thank you thank you sorry done yep okay thank you hi I'm so sorry it's been a long night my name is Jill dearo um I am a resident of Oldbridge for 25 years I uh am the current uh Town council member and I've also been I'm a former Board of Ed member um so uh and again I'm sorry these poor kids already left already it's been a long night um so just to just I just want to say I was one of those parents that wanted to know everything about my kids um I wanted to literally be a fly on thewall in all my children's classes so I understand parental rights trust me I wanted to know everything about everything my kids were doing um so that's why I jumped in when my oldest was in kindergarten as a class parent being involved in all the ptas to the point where when I was PTA president of Carl Sandberg and I was walking to the PTA closet my then eighth grader who's now 28 my then eighth grader who was walking to the bathroom saw me now my children and I are very close but he saw me and he walked the other way that night he said Mom you're like a creepy stalker um so just you know just to give you an example of of me and how involved I have been always in my children's life and still am so that being said I have a few questions number one we are only talking about gender identity correct I'll I'll say all my questions number two are teachers giving students gender affirming medications without parental consent number three are teachers engaging in helping the transgender student in their Trans in their gender transformation with or without parental consent number four do the teachers have any influence truly any influence over the G gender identity of any student number five are we because this was brought up tonight about sports are we making sure that there is the utmost supervision and safety for all students during Sports and other athletic activities number six this was also something that was brought up tonight do we have policies protecting all students from abusive homes and also this policy has been in effect with no issue no issue for six years so for people that say this is going to have catastrophic effects there have been none in six years so my last question is over the past six years how many times has it been applied and lastly to clarify something that was said tonight being in the lgbtq community is not an ideology it is simply who they are and as a board of education it is your job to protect them thank you anyone else I think that's my button hello I'm Lux anuno I'm an a gender student at the Ninth Grade Center um I would like to bring forward if we remove this policy I know at least seven students who are in fear not of their parents they're in fear of their parents finding out and getting in trouble or they're in fear of just not or they're in fear of having to leave their homes I know a ton of students who are out to their parents but I also know a ton of students who are stuck in the state of being out at school but cannot be out at home safely or comfortably by removing this policy you're taking away that comfort that the students sit on the students who are using this policy know about it but I talk to other students who have no idea this exists because they don't need it the students who are transgender or agender or gender fluid they educate themselves on this matter so for them to go to school and say teachers are aiding them in this I've gone to school for years because I'm in it obviously by law and never have I heard this issue talked about in school until I brought it up with my friend cuz we had to go out and educate ourselves which is where the gender dysphoria is coming up because the internet is allowing more resources to people to learn about what is possible and what was Deni I wouldn't say denied but wasn't available before so by that increase of Internet more people are learning of what the words and vocabulary are and they're able to identify themselves better but removing this policy that allows them to share what they've learned and acknowledge it it would put more people in fear and danger than it would good cuz it's not hurting anyone to have it there thank [Applause] you last call okay closing hearing of the residents um Mr s would you like to answer those questions I'll do the best that I can um the question about is is this about gender identity I I think this is from the policy standpoint this is about transgender identity I find interesting and I ask a lot of questions of of people and because I trying to understand myself and even as a superintendent I'm still a student of the law about education and even trying to find out where the public is coming from on things is it just about transgender kids or it is about all gender identity because no one's saying if my St child comes home to it comes to a teacher and says I think I might be gay that the teacher has to run to a phone and call the house and say I think your kid just told me might be gay and no one I think would expect that that I know of in you know been in education 26 years and I've never had a teacher say Hey listen a kid just told me okay I have to call the house what happens usually is that the student and the teach the teacher asks the questions like how you know do your parents know do you do you have a comfortable relationship with can can we can I help you put the words together that make might make you feel safe to have those conversations and I said that's what happens in this dist with our transgender students and it was affirmed by a parent in the audience that the sto this teacher actually called her with the support of the student to be that bridge and that's what I think all of our fine teachers here would do in that situation but is it just around that gender you if a student says to health teacher nurse that I became sexually active over the weekend is the school's responsibility to call parent the next within 24 hours and Hey listen your child became sexually active and has anybody here had that phone call I mean has anybody any parent ever received you I mean parents of older kids or you know any parent who was a kid at one time did any the school ever call and say you know your child lost to virginity this weekend just thought you should know but so it it just it seems to me that it's just about this issue it's just about transgender kids and then I think is it only because of the law stating that we have to identify that student in the record because we don't put in the record for gay students or sexually active students that hey active got to put in there and we don't put in there that you know Mary's gay we just continue to love and support them so it seems like it just comes down to this identification piece that we teachers have everyone feels teachers have to run to you and tell you because it's a secret if you don't and I again I don't our teachers aren't doing that they're working to become their Bridge of information but it's around basically I think because the law says we we can change the record and I have my questions about that as a superintendent I don't like changing people's Student Records but like asess I iirm before but if a parent calls and says you know what's my child's name in the records we can't lie to you either we can't say it says one thing and it's another um so those are just questions that I have about as we think about as the bo things about it we don't we don't have this in any other area of sexuality or gender identification we don't have this expectation from the public that we can run to run to have to run to tell parents you know I grew up in a I'm sorry there's a long answer to your question but I spent most of my life in parochial schools uh up through high school and you know there was the relationship with the the clergy you went to that confession you tell them anything you can tell them you murdered somebody and they couldn't tell your parents they couldn't tell the police they can't tell anyone so are they violating the parental rights so I know I had a conversation with my clergy about things that I wasn't sure about but Father Tom never called my parents so just questions that I have about that so the answer to that is that um and sorry Father the time we had a good relationship um the gender identity I think is the area where you're discussing but sometimes I feel it gets lost in there um no we do not provide any gour di firming medication and um we don't hand them out um we do not drive or take kids to gender affirming surgery um we don't tell them that hey this is the surgery you should be having this is a doctor that we've used in the past none of that takes place um there was a question about gender influence I'm not sure Mr carard do you want to clarify that for me I didn't my my handwriting is not as good as it used to be just what did you mean by gender influence just just to ask are teachers influencing students oh to be certain genders I mean I I don't again if I think that happened if we factually was happening I would have a lot more complaints in my office I haven't in I've been superintendent 11 years I've never had that complaint complaint than anyone's everever called to say my teacher um tried to steer my child's gender in another Direction um to the point there was a uh someone from malor that said that this Kindergarten book is being read I that may happen to marel it's not happening here we don't have a book about um you may not be a boy or a girl um utmost uh safety and sports you know a lot of thing about the safety and sports you know even if we re rescinded this policy um NGA which is the overall arching uh rule decider and again with the NJ lad um would still overstep that and say that the students could participate in the sport then which they identify so it's comes out of the board's hands and decisions on that um yes all children are protected from abuse and I think to the point where we have policies to protect that and that's something I deal with on a sadly uh at least weekly basis sometimes twice a week where one of our staff members by law has to call DCP and P to uh because of a concern um with child neglect or abuse um happened today um so and that doesn't separate between gender identity it's all students we look to protect them and I said this yet last week when we talked about it that it's the same thing we would do in this situation and what I know our teacher our teachers doing um someone said that 97 % of the students that that's a really are not that would imply that 3% of the students in this District are transgender and while we don't have record of it that would mean that a whole Elementary School of transgender students exist in that school that's a a really high number um because that would be uh you know 210 students uh T being transgender um I think it's probably a a from my conversations with counselors in the district is probably a third of a per percentage point we're talking about uh students that are impacted by this policy um um and I have no record of how many times it's been applied I can tell you how many times it hasn't I could tell how many times a parent has come to me and said they were upset that they found out their child was transgender and we knew first and didn't tell them and that's been zero it's never happened hope that answers all your questions thank you any old business from the board I'd like to say something so so I wanted to address address um a request that was posed to board members last week um asking us to denounce certain statements made by a few speakers and I just want to make sure I emphasize it was just a few speakers just a couple of people it's my opinion that singling out one segment of our student population as normal as those people said as a normal white students or normal cisgender kids is bi Omission purposely insinuating that the other segments of our student population are somehow abnormal and that's harmful disrespectful and wrong what is normal is a school district made up of people and students of different religions nationalities cognitive abilities skin colors gender gender identities and physical abilities every child has the right to an equal safe and protective environment I also wanted to mention that I support teachers and as a teacher I know firsthand what it takes to be a teacher and no one who has not been a teacher will ever know what goes into teaching I know there are a lot of teachers here tonight well some teachers some left already but it may sometimes feel like a thankless job listening to some people tearing you down and criticizing you for things that those very people are unable untrained unfit and unwilling to do I also reject the statement that teachers are groomers or that lgbtq people are mentally ill or deviant one only need to do a simple Google search to learn about cultures around the world that have long recognized and acknowledged the existence of two or more genders these cultures often have indigenous or traditional understandings of gender that go Way Beyond the binary framework of male and female and have embraced these expressions for many generations I also want everyone here to recognize that Oldbridge students are leaving schools as so much more than functional adults they are leaving as Extraordinary People I recognize and appreciate the legitimacy of a policy dispute whether or not we agree but I reject the demonization of those with whom we disagree there is a legitimate policy discussion to be had and I appreciate the people with views on all sides of the issue have come forward and spoken out in a respectful informed manner I respectfully request that we stand together in rejecting hateful and damaging rhetoric I invite my fellow board members to reject this rhetor rhetoric as well it does nothing to help us come together to make decisions for our students and only serves to divide us our kids deserve better yes I'll have to speak I had more peper my step about an hour ago but uh at the last committee meeting I suggested revising policy 5756 only to be advised that we would face legal action that comes with legal expenses I'm not prepared to be fiscally irresponsible now I still feel strong on student safety and possible outcomes I feel like the policy is Antiquated yes and should be modernized but I don't have any regrets going down the revision path because it forced my hand to dig dig deeper with my due diligence if we repeal F policy 5756 what do we accomplish we have policy 5750 which the young lady in the back was asking policy 5750 is the equal education opportunity Bas basically to not discriminate the Board of Education directs that all students enrolled in the schools of this District shall be afforded equal educational opportunities in in strict accordance with the law no student shall be Den denied access or to benefit from any education program or activity from a co-curriculum or athletic activity on the basis of the students's race color creed religion national origin ancestry age marital status a uh affectation or sexual orientation gender gender identity or expression everybody's invited to the table okay so even if we got rid of the policy policy 5750 stands behind the fact that it it wouldn't stand okay so but what would we accomplish removing that single layer of protection for those students that needed the most now A Taste of reality I get the national attention that this is getting but we need to concern ourselves with our four walls things that are happening here in oldage nothing like this is going on in our school system how can I say that I like some other board members have literally walked the Walk of our school district I have met and spoke with every Elementary School principal along with most most of their teachers and staff and at the elementary level there is no issue our teachers and staff treat our kids like their own most importantly I've developed a great relationship with Dr Sasso and the four Vice principles of the high school which where most of the questionable activity would take place and for those who don't know the vice principal stay with their class from start to finish giving them a solid relationship with their students and I quote from those I spoke to zero issues in our high school I can appreciate hearing viewpoints from non-residents during our hearing of the residents which I still haven't wrapped my arms around it's I just don't get that um but our mission is to manage the process in Oldbridge that's the mission of the Board of Education of Oldbridge to manage what's happening here and to wake up 10 years later to realize that this policy exists not due to any instances is just due to political rhetoric obviously Oldbridge is doing their job if you're in the role of a parent or a guardian and participate in the chain of events that are made Available to You I.E open dialogue with your teach uh child's teachers parent teacher conference there's not going to be any surprises I mentioned this at the policy meeting when I went to my child's parent teacher conference I didn't care about her grades I see it on the parent portal I was more concerned about her welfare is she talking to other kids is she hiding in the corner that she wears sunglasses but she doesn't you know she's she's she does what what we raised her to do uh and to reiterate you know teachers are not prohibited to talk to the parents as Mr cadino said they can't lie to you you know so kyc is a term that's used in my industry it's called know your customer that's how we recommend I'm a financial advisor by trade that's how we recommend uh products find out a client's risk tolerance so kyc is know your customer but I think it's appropriate to use under the sitting which is know your child kyc should be know your child know what's going on which most of the parents have have demonstrated um we see most kids here tonight are kids that are dealing with the situation kids aren't and they're brave enough to come to the podium I don't see any kids that are coming here that feel like they're threatened by the trans Community not one child came up here but we have it the other way around to me this is going to be an opportunity to stimulate the uncomfortable conversations um and basically a this policy has been around for nine years my daughter's been an Oldbridge student for eight years I haven't heard one thing so but I would recommend that we do come up with something because we can't have these meetings every week and keep hearing the same thing I would recommend the board we have to either vote that we're going to keep the policy or repeal the policy but I don't think it's fair to the community to keep repeating themselves thank you any other board members I agree with Jay like I love hearing everybody still don't get why people from that don't have a vested interest come I I respect that you give your time but I I think we need to make a ruling what we're doing because we have other great things to do and this prohibits that okay uh any new business I think we should make sure that clock is the right time because it's it's not it's hour I know and every time right and every time I see it I have a little bit of like horror and then I realize it's not set correctly um I do have some new business um I'd like to thank Dave and the administration team for protecting our students and taking the appropriate actions um I do want to call out to my fellow board members the superintendent eval that was given to us in July and the board evals that were given to us last week have not been filled out by all board members we have a duty to do that so please go back and check your emails and please do our due diligence um the one thing I did want to address from tonight's conversation is transgender goes both ways it's not just males changing over to females in the bathroom um we do have females that feel more comfortable as a male so if we're going to talk about the community let's talk about the whole Community um and that's it thank you okay anyone else okay we will not be going into executive session I have a question um Jay and I both asked um do one of us have to make a motion to not vote on it or what so like how do we not keep kick in the can you can't really make a motion to not vote on it um even in New Jersey um if the pleasure of the board is to make a change somebody could choose to make that motion and it would need a majority of those of you present if the board does not take action the board is saying that its policy 5756 remains in place just like all your other policies no action means status quo so the only way to really call the question is to propose the abolishment of the policy and that is not what you appear to be proposing so if there is no board action the policy remains in place just like all your other polies I'll keep my mou shut but just to reiterate I I just think we should have something formal so if we could doesn't be today but a Shore Vote or something just to conclude it just to I I don't know the how it works but could there be a resolution from the board that they support an existing policy yeah it would it would be an acknowledgement it's not action because you're not changing anything if you want to take a straw poll it would not really be a vote or an action of the board but it could be the expression of the board's consensus so you could do that if you chose to do that can you use your microphone I'm sorry could you explain what the three ways that things can get put on the agenda for the next regular meeting well you can have it put on by the board president an agenda item can be added by the board president agenda item can be added by the superintendent or an agenda item can be added because three or more board members requested to be added uh we're also under new business right now uh this is a hot mic situation if somebody wants to make a motion right now feel free to do so Mr Weber start on okay those are the three ways so it could be added to the agenda for next regular meeting you you could do it right now uh either an acknowledgement which would as I said be formal action or as I said before if somebody wishes to make a motion to abolish they could do that and then it would require a second and a majority of the board okay so then I would like to make a motion to add it to the agenda for tonight yeah what I can't see why not so what you're asking to add is which which side of this just to be clear well I mean So based on what you said so we would have to be obviously it's a policy that's in force yes so you can't vote on something that already exists right it would just be if if you want to if you're if you're speaking and and I don't know but if you're speaking in favor of 5756 then you're asking the board to acknowledge support of it if you're speaking against it that would be a motion to abolish the policy okay so entirely up to you uh I'm not sure where you were I personally my opinion after hearing the residence and going do my own due diligence would be to not uh repeal the policy so [Applause] so so you you could make a motion for an informal board acknowledgement of support for 5756 meaning to keep it in place I could do that now could we also at the same time put forward a motion with with three votes to put it on a regular agenda so we hopefully have all nine board members here rather than just eight M Mr Slade was making the motion first but yes the answer is yes yes you could you wouldn't make a motion to have three people ask you would just have three people ask uh and that that could be done through the superintendent's office or Mr maro's office between now and your December meeting but Mr slay you wanted to make that motion to 100% we have to I'll second yeah we have to move on I'll be number two Mr pardon I have a question uh one gentleman uh came up before and said uh you have to use common sense can this be tabled in put on a ballot for next year for the entire Community to vote on it oh I'm sorry did do you mean the entire new board or do you mean the entire Community the well the entire no no you you can't do a referendum on transgender rights and the reason for that is as Mr Slate and Mr citadino have said this policy 5756 does not stand on it on its own and somebody in hell when they were having this same conversation uh said said that their repeal of it did not change the New Jersey law against discrimination or the New Jersey uh State inter Scholastic Athletic Association so the the rules remain in place so no we could not put it out to your voters to take action on it is up to the board to take action but you're just taking action if anything on the policy itself the New Jersey Logans discrimination is beyond your control uh it exists the requirements of the School asked ex sports are beyond your control but the board can State its opinion and can either keep this policy in place or choose to do something different thank you what is what is the emergency for not having a full because we've been talking about this for months so so just for clarification Attorney question let meish please I I don't think anyone has stated this as emergent motion uh I think your question is a fair one you have one board member missing but if you can reach board consensus tonight Mr Slate has proposed that Miss Miss lent has seconded it so we're just a discussion on that informal consensus at this point so all am I correct in assuming then all we need is one more board member to to make the three board members needed to put it on correct no you're you're taking this action on acknowledgement right now we are in discussion postc on this action although it is an informal action and there's no way to make it formal because your policy is already in place you got three people coming in next we don't negotiate can we call the question also Mr Bon even when there's a new board it could be brought up again it's not just today it could be brought up any every meeting absolutely true yeah so it's not just confined to today's meting as it has you could if you we could bring this up every month depending regardless that is the board's right and that's the Public's right as well just Mr President I'd like to call the question all right any other discussion on this motion okay uh roll call so we are voting to acknowledge the policy 5756 support and keeping just acknowledging support of 5756 and it's been a a Yes means support a no means no support it would not be abolished if this motion fails it's just a question of board support and the motion is by Jay Slade and Lisa lent so m m Antonio yes or no yes Miss jodry yes Miss lent yes Mr sing and no Mr Slade yes Mr Sakowski Mr Sakowski no Mr Weber no Mr gardano abstain what I'm sorry abstain abstain four so it's four three four yeses three NOS one abstentions so you have board board consensus in [Applause] support any other new business okay as mentioned before there's no executive session so can I have a motion to adjourn lent we move it second all in favor any opposed any exensions the board is adjourned at 10:27 p.m. Happy Thanksgiving