e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e session pursuant to njsa 10 colon 4-12 the minut minutes of this meeting will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists we'll have a flag salute and Pledge of Allegiance please join us I pledge Al to okay I think uh we have some retirement recognitions right now we have to do roll call we have to do roll call I thought we were already done okay well Mr Donnie here miss quack here maau here Mr mmud here miss Brogan here thank you okay welcome everyone it's nice to have a packed house tonight good to see you all um we have uh some some retirement recognitions that were very very um Bittersweet about but I want to begin by inviting up Dr Lauren shown principal of George Washington inter principal of George Washington Middle School um as she is going to be introducing some of our retirees good evening Dr Shores and members of our Ridgewood Board of Education I have been honored to be the interim principal of George Washington Middle School since the beginning of January and I am proud to be here this evening to offer retirement sentiments for three of our George Washington Middle School Educators while I have very much enjoyed working alongside our three retire honores for the last four months I am surely not the best person to speak on behalf of their career here in Ridgewood their colleagues are our retirees deserve the best and their colleagues tell their story rdwood career far better than I ever could so tonight I am honored to share their colleague sentiments with you and I would like to begin this evening by honoring Miss Joyce sasi helping someone achieve their dream as a selfless task and that is the essence of Joyce sasi she is a giver not just within her family but also with the hundreds of students she has nurtured and guided over the years a testament to her unwavering dedication before teaching she worked at her father's Garden Center in open a greenhouse she attended Bergen Community College for horiculture this gave her pride and satisfaction but simultaneously she realized this was not her dream and was ready to work toward her own Joyce started as an early childhood educator and then took a leap of faith while raising her own family she went back to school for her undergraduate degree in English and K to8 certification she has a master's degree in Multicultural education and one in school administration Joyce would officially begin a 25-year career in public education she taught numerous grades from 1 through 8th grade and served as our K 5 staff developer in Ridgewood for seven years her attention to detail humor and compassion have inspired students teachers and administrators Joyce has been part of the GW Community for many years now teaching English to her sixth graders just outside of her room is a bench on that bench Joyce has inspired countless readers and writers save sixth grade friendships help navigate the fight from recess and truly listen to the needs of her students she always knows when to head to the bench outside her door Joyce thank you for your impact on students and staff you remain a giver in everything you do and we are grateful that you chose Ridgewood to receive your talents and compassion Miss the next chapter of your life bring you the same joy that you have brought to others I didn't know I had to do this um first of all I want to thank everyone in Ridgewood for an incredible 10 years that I've been here in this District um it's family um I'll miss you but we're still going to see each other it has been um a fantastic experience for me being part of this family and I'm so fortunate that this is where I ended my career because great way to go out thank you so much everyone the next retiree that we would like to honor tonight is Miss Mary Lou handy a calling is a strong urge toward a particular way of life or career Miss handy has lived up to this definition by answering a call to become a teacher this was not always her path Miss handy previously worked as a medical director of admissions for Cornell University while this was a rewarding career and memorable experience it did not improve her quality of life or help her pursue her passion as a young child Miss handy moved quite often her father worked in the FBI and his career required regular changes to their geographical location Miss handy explained that through it all each teacher welcomed her and truly made her feel comfortable in her own school this was something she wanted to pay forward she decided to return to school and receive her degree in education from Teachers College Columbia University as she raised her own family she would spend time like most parents along the sidelines of baseball games she could easily keep up a conversation and started talking to fellow parent George Neville at that point in time he was a principal of George Washington Middle School through conversation he recognized this calling and encouraged her interview for a position at the school she finally accepted and began her career in Ridgewood in 1999 she led a stepping stones program focusing on elective courses that enhance problem solving public speaking and passion projects As Time evolved so did the use of technology in our school system Mrs handy was among the innovators who embraced Apple computers and software instructional technology and Incorporated iPads and smartboards into the classroom she would lead staff development courses is teaching others to integrate these tools into their instruction soon a social studies position became available and she would transition to a position in sixth grade Miss handy is also well known for her development of the Cambodia Club this club supports and improves the lives of students and families in Cambodia she was instrumental in building schools and providing resources to enhance their learning with her guidance this club is expanded across the entire School District these are simply a few of her many accomplishments she never let go of former obligations as she took on each new task she merely added on them because that is who she is Miss handy is the first a step up to say how can I help she leads by example and for that reason we are better to having work with her congratulations on your retirement Mary Lou we wish you so much happiness I also like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my GW colleagues past and present they've inspired me in so many ways to be a better teacher personally supported me through good times and bad and who actually taught my five children in this district and they have taught my family my children to love learning and you know and and these teachers lead with patience dedication and sense of humor um I was going to give a special shout out to George Neville who had a leap of faith to um trust me in this but as I leave and I will certainly miss my daily interaction with my students and colleagues but please know that the memories and friendships that I've made here at GW will always have a special part in my heart I have worked at other institutions of Higher Learning but none have ever been as special as GW well I'm sad to leave George Washington I'm also exciting excited for retirement and see what will happen I want to thank you Lauren for your leadership and everybody else I leave with a happy heart with a little bit of interpretation thank you so much certainly not least Suzanne silvetti ready okay all right after 35 years in education Suzanne silvetti is retiring after 25 years in Ridgewood as the Godwin house 8th grade science teacher at George Washington Middle School Miss salvetti is a remarkable educator who is incredibly dedicated and motivated she embodies the true definition of a lifelong learner is consistent in her drive to remain current in both science content and pedagogy with only recently completing her degree and educational leadership Miss salvetti is always willing to share her experiences to assist colleagues and Mentor novice teachers for those new to Ridgewood Public Schools her contributions to the science department through curriculum have been invaluable that being said Miss vetti's passion for education and all the amazing scientific phenomena that occur in the natural world is what she will most be remembered for her genuine excitement for astronomical and geological events is contagious to both students and colleagues Miss elet's enthusiasm and ability to make even the most complex scientific Concepts accessible has sparked a love for science that will remain with her students long beyond their time at GW her desire to strengthen the connection between the classroom and home through emails to parents and Guardians providing information on how to share the experience these events with their children is unmatched this can only most recently be done demonstrated by the robust resources she provided to students staff and families regarding the solar eclipse to educate generate excitement maximize the viewing experience and ensure all individuals did so safely Miss salvetti's commitment to the students and staff and families at George Washington Middle School is commendable while miss cetti's distinguished career at GW is ending she will continue to make amazing contributions to the World of Science Education through future endeavors thank you for the incredible Legacy you have left Ridgewood public schools and may the next chapter of your life bring you nothing but happiness and fulfillment I I am really grateful I am very grateful for the teaching experiences that I've had here for the opportunity to touch so many young lives and to be transformed myself as a more compassionate ins sightful person as a result of that experience I hope to bring that insight and expertise into the next chapter of my career whatever that's going to be not sure but it'll be an education because I just love educ over the last 35 years I have witnessed amazing change in this field both in the practice and Technology of teaching but one thing has not changed a strong educational Community propped by a trusted board and the compassion and cooperation of colleagues is the critic infrastructure that is needed to develop and Inspire young people it has been my sincere pleasure to be a part of a community for the past 25 years at GW I am a better teacher in person today because of the children the families the colleagues and the administration thank you I'm very grateful and just a reminder to our retirees to please just stick around for a minute because we do want to get a nice photo with everybody um from the high school I believe we have Mr Dave Bailey representing uh to present their retirees tonight he Mrs Sandy kzo on up so truly an honor here representing Mr nyas and Mrs Taylor and the high school to honor Mrs consel at the end of this year sand Sandy kzel is retiring from her position as a biology teacher at Ridgewood High School after 30 32 years in education in 1992 Mrs kzel entered Ridgewood Public Schools as a student teacher after graduation she left for a brief period of time before returning as a bi biology teacher in 1995 Mrs kzel has been a leader in the science department for many years and is always willing to assist colleagues and share the extensive experiential knowledge she has obtained throughout her career Mrs Kel is a dedicated teacher that has a passion for science she often creates engaging and Hands-On learning experiences for students through lab activities guest speakers and field trips in her biology and environmental science courses for the last 10 years Miss kzel has been the coordinator of the Ridgewood Academy for Health Professions rap through this program she has been able to collaborate with members of Valley Hospital to provide students with Explorations and research opportunities in the Health Professions Mrs Kel's commitment to the students and staff at ridgwood high school is truly commendable she has demonstrated a tireless work ethic and enthusiasm for Science Education Mr nias wanted me to share he's been at Richard high school for 29 years and Mrs Kel has been right alongside him uh he wishes he could be here tonight he's actually at the high school with the National Honor Society students where he'd be here um but he just wanted me to say that the rap program has just taken off under your leadership um I want to say I got to rard high school about halfway through your career and uh you were just you're an in institution you're a rockstar I mean when you walk into a room everyone trusts you everyone um respects your voice and your opinion and I just want to thank you for uh for all you've done for me and for making Ridgewood High School a better place I also think it's just really great that you'll be retiring when your youngest son EMT will be graduating in four weeks here at the class of 24 before EMT was Aiden and Owen and EMT will be headed to NJIT so I think it's just very uh symbolic that your last child is leaving with you so congratulations Mrs [Music] kzel I would much rather address a classroom of a hundred students than than my peers so I thank you um I remember when I first came I met Sheila and Sheila said when we hire people we hire people for Keeps and that is true um I'm a keeper um however it is time for me to close this chapter and and to move but Rood has made me a better teacher my colleagues have made me a better teacher and um when I first met my husband I was talking about my kids my kids my kids and he was like how many kids do you have 75 100 and he's like but he married me anyway um so I I do I feel like they are my kids I'm a teacher I'm a mom I'm a friend I'm a nurse um I cover many jobs and wear many hats but rid has allowed me to grow and for that I am thankful all right if we can have our retirees up uh we would love to get a picture together it's take I am to be honest with you I'm just so used to and all over the building m Happ com for I know you me to say yeah they no they said they're gonna announce that okay we're we're gonna um go on to our next presentation so yes but I just wanted to say um tonight we're losing a lot of great experience in the district um these years of service to Ridgewood have been um so ah inspiring really 25 years 35 years uh you know in education uh so I wanted just to uh thank the retirees and and um it's been my pleasure in different aspects of my life to be able to know you um Mary Lou handy and I started um as homeschool presidents she was president of HW and I was presida and uh we were work together on Federated so um it's been a long journey um and Mrs seli uh was um so helpful in bringing uh students to Super Saturday and uh Kel um WAP which was that started I think in 20 five and um thanks and um and then you came to um you know be the uh liaison for the high school and um I thank you for that because the program really grew and blossomed under your leadership so um thank you for that yeah all right and once again we are introducing uh we're introducing Sandy kzel who is going to be uh or or I guess who's here for support to introduce our student Mason framan who is one of our rap students who is going to be presenting a special project that he's been working on all right let's see if we could get this up here okay so hello everyone I'm Mason framan I'm a rap student at Ridgewood High School and as part of the rap program uh the the rap program is part of AP Capstone and what that is is during your junior year of high school uh you analyze a lot of different other research and try to come to a conclusion and then during your senior year you do a year-long research project and that's what I'm going to be presenting to you today um my yearlong research project my project is a data analysis study on the effectiveness of the Auggie technology on different inpatient Hospital units at the Valley hospital so to start off between 700,000 to a million patients fall each year within the hospitalized setting and of this population 25% of patients who fell suffered injuries requiring uh further medical attention increased care costs and increased length of stay at the hospital and while there have been many attempts at preventing these all of them have caused little to no reduction and falls and thus injuries for patients at the Valley Hospital in recent years artificial intelligence has been on the rise with companies like open AI creating Technologies like chat GPT and this has opened up an opportunity in the medical field to implement artificial intelligence one company that has capitalized on this opportunity is Inspiron and they have made the Augie technology which you could see on the right in reality this technology is actually much smaller it's it's about 12 in tall and goes on the wall of patient's room and if you could see towards the bottom of the technology there's a camera and what this technology does is it takes periodic live blurred pictures of the patient's room so it's hip a compliant and then tries to draw a stick figure over where the patient is in the room and the goal is if there's an outr patient that appears to be leaving the bed it will notify the hospital staff and hopefully get the nurses the doctors there before a fall event happen this technology additionally allows Healthcare staff to do mobile rounds on patients where they can open up their cell phone or a tablet provided by the hospital and look into patient rooms at any times and again they see a blurred uh video stream essentially um as it's uh repetitive pictures of the room and they can make sure that the patient is safe and that nothing poor is going on in that room and this technology has shown to reduce reded the fall rates by 45% at the Val hospital and has saved them over $3 million in just two years so now we can start to talk about the Gap in the research all previous research that's been done as technology has shown to prove the technology that it's effective on a hospital or other health care facility but there's no existing research on how this technology performs on one patient population to the next and my objective was to determine inequalities in patient care uh pinpoint what patient population is it most effective in which one is at least effective in and then use this information to provide better care for all patients so my research design is a secondary analysis of patient fall reports at the Valley hospital and all that means is I'm looking at existing data and analyzing it to try to identify Trends the data was gathered from the valley hospitals database risk management ndnqi standard definition for Falls and Falls with injury and all this is is a massive spreadsheet of all the falls at the hospital labeled with what unit it's in the age of the patient sex severity is there injury or not and then using this information I split it into different categories to investigate the fall rate based on age sex and unit the units that I investigated were the cardiac surgery unit cardiac Telemetry geriatric and Orthopedic departments so I picked these units because they were some of the longest oper units with the Augie technology with an overlap of six months between uh implementation in all these units they also represent a wide variety of patient populations in these units we have older patients younger patients ambulatory immobile as well as other groups represented I used my data I sorted it and then placed into a chart which you will see all patients were over the age of 18 to be part of the study and from the specified time range July to December 20 22 and then 2023 2022 is without the technology implemented and then 2023 is with the technology implemented so you could see how effective it was by comparing the before and after uh fall data so before conducting my research I wanted to make a prediction and I predicted that this technology was going to perform the best in the geriatric unit that is being the majority Falls are geriatric patients this is the patient population that's at the highest risk of of falling this unit at the hospital is also very large and is a centralized nursing station and what a centralized nursing station is is a unit with one nursing station in the middle so the nurses will go to the patients rooms they'll do their rounds but then they have to come back to the nursing station in the middle to write up their charts um whereas a decentralized nursing station would have uh two or more spread out which essentially brings the nurses closer to the patients and I thought this technology would be less effective on decentralized nursing stations as the nurses are already closer to the patients rooms they could respond faster um whereas the centralized nursing stations would have a larger impact as this technology would offer them greater accessibility to the rooms without physically bringing them any closer so now we can start talking about the data uh to point out some things uh the red boxes on the right are what I really wanted to focus on but the Shaded boxes are data from 2023 which you could label as uh data with thech technology implemented and then the Bold is the only unit with a decentralized nursing station um starting from the left Falls assisted is a when a fall happens with healthc Care staff there so uh a nurse is helping a patient up and they fall and then unassisted is where a patient falls without any supervision uh so we have this data 2022 and then 2023 so before and after implementation and then we have patient days which is the number of patients coming in multiplied by the number of days that they're staying there so if you have one patient come in for five days it's five patient days so instead of it being one patient it's five patient days um 2022 2023 and then the fall rate was calculated by taking the number of Falls dividing it by the number of patient days and then multiplying it by a thousand so that's the number of Falls per thousand patient days as you could see overall the overall fall rate between these five units or four units um went from 3.2 to 1 8 Falls per thousand patient days um some important units to point out are the geriatric unit which actually actually saw the largest uh decrease in terms of magnitude end percent change in Falls per thousand patient days with the runner up being the cardiac surgery unit moving on this is a similar table but now it's dealing with Falls with injury um 2022 and then 2023 with patient days being the same as before um calculated in a similar way with the falls with injury divided by the number of patient days multiply by a thousand um here the most important thing to point out is the cardiac surgery unit was the only unit to see an increase in Falls with injury per thousand patient days um which identified before is the only decentralized nursing station the cardiac tet Tre unit saw the largest decrease in magnitude but the geriatric unit saw the largest decrease in terms of percent change marking a 100% decrease in Falls with injury per thousand patient days moving forward we can look at the average age of a uh average age of a patient who fell at the hospital in 20122 versus 2023 and then the percent of Falls that were made up by male patients the average age of patient did not change being within one year of age uh before and after um similarly the percent of Falls that were made up by males was within 1% but there were some units that had some interesting results specifically the cardiac surgery unit which had 28.6% of Falls being males and the geriatric unit having 77.8% Falls being males uh I unfortunately did not collect data on percentage of patients that were coming into these units being males and females which definitely could have an effect um but nonetheless that was something interesting to point out both extremes with uh very few male patients falling and very many uh being majority so the conclusion based off of my data is this technology performed the best in the geriatric unit as I said the largest percent change in both was a geriatric unit in terms of reduction of Falls and falls with injury with the runner-ups being the cardiac surgery unit and fall reduction and then cardiac tumer unit um being the second best in Fall reduction with injury some explanations for this are the challenging environment the geriatric unit as I said is a very large unit with a lot of patient following additionally I believe that it could be the model that Augie is trained on artificial intelligence does not know much by itself you have to feed it information to know what it's looking for to create accurate predictions and because the largest the largest population that is following is the geriatric unit I believe that Auggie was trained on geriatric patients whether it's the appearance of the patients or the behavior this might have made it more effective at preventing Falls and notifying healthc Care staff either earlier or more accurately uh than the other units so how does this align with my Gap my research and my data shows how the technology can have different impacts on different units the cardiac surgery unit was the only unit to see an increase in Falls with injury while all the others had significant reductions and it also shows how performance can differ based on nursing station as the cardiac surgery unit again was the only unit see increase in Falls with injury with the implementation of the technology which is supposed to reduce it so the implications of this data as I said my goal was to provide better care for all patients I believe that the Valley Hospital the 451 beded Hospital in northern Jersey and inspiring the company that made this technology can use this information to say what made it so successful in the geriatric unit what made it not so successful in other units and kind of try to push the performance of this technology towards the geriatric unit provide better care for all patients and help strengthen this technology in its weak spots some limitations of my research are the time frame again I said it was a six-month time frame but if we go back to this Slide the increase in Falls with injury uh with the implementation of this technology if we had one less fall in 2023 and one more in 2022 the fall rate would have actually gone down as the number of patient days was greater in 20123 um limiting the strength of my conclusions uh additionally it's at One hospital it's hard to say is it the unit that's making it so successful um is it the staff there's a practically unlimit unlimited factors that could be uh affecting my data and then small sample size that ties into the time frame and then finally lack of demographics again this is a um majority insured population in northern New Jersey which might not see as many demographics as other hospitals in the United States well some people um may see it as a limitation I see it as an opportunity for future research I think a multi-year study across many hospitals could be done to identify is it really very effective on geriatric patients is it really more effective in a centralized nursing station um and just to strengthen the claims additionally I think this uh study could be done to test the effectiveness of this technology on different skin colors or races um I did not have identifiers um in the data based off of skin color race and I think it would be interesting to see is this technology more effective on Caucasians versus African-Americans or Latinos um additionally I would want to see uh a study based on different but similar Technologies to see what about the technology makes it so successful and what uh May prevent the technology from being so effective uh these are the resources that I use for my research for inspiration uh if you have any questions I would love to answer them thank you um I'm a geriatric social worker so this is a great interest to me um do you think this technology would be useful in a nursing home um where Falls are pretty prevalent I would think so inspiring has implemented this technology I believe they're in a nursing home in Southern Florida and I think every single Health Care Facility whether it's a hospital or a nursing home this technology has been shown to reduce Falls by a significant amount so yes I believe this technology could be implemented in other places and it already is thank you this is a great presentation oh I have a I have a question um I thought this was really interesting work and I can tell that a lot of um analysis went into it data Gathering the um the analytic portion is really strong so thank you for presenting this um was it surprising to you that the configuration of the nursing stations would be such a big driver not just the technology but the way it's actually been that that layout would have such an impact on on the results so it was a little bit surprising I I have to say wasn't as surprising as I thought my mentor at the Valley Hospital U Mr David Rivera um was the person who brought this technology to the Valley hospital he's the representative at Valley for the Auggie technology for inspirin and he's done um multiple research studies previously so he kind of had an idea and he was a great resource um in my research he mid like Midway through my research he kind of said like look there's going to be a difference in it he from the start wanted to investigate how uh effective this technology was on different setups of nursing stations at the hospital so um maybe next time or maybe this is not um a relevant uh Factor but does the uh nursing to um sta nursing to Patient ratio is that uh a factor at all or is it more the layout the centralized versus decentralized so I didn't have specific information on the the nursing to Patient staff ratios um for future research I think that's a great idea to investigate under my assumption and talking to my mentor at the hospital it was more of the nursing station setup rather than the nursing to Patient ratio but it's definitely an area of future research thank you I have no questions I just want to thank you because I find it incredibly interesting and having had relatives who have had issues with Falls in institutions ospital Etc it's particularly interesting and very helpful and it was very very well done thank you m i one last quick question for you how has your experience with the rap program and particularly This research study and your partnership with Valley Hospital uh informed your thinking about your future careers so I could say originally when I applied for the rap program I didn't really have that much interest in the medical field my two older brothers did it and they had a tremendous experience with the program so I was just following in their footsteps but my journey through the rap program led me to the decision that I actually wanted to be in the medical field through the exposure um through talking to different healthc Care Professionals and so I I've Miss kzel to thank for all of that and in the future uh I'm on the track to become a doctor because of Mrs consel um so thank you everybody fantastic well Mason thank you so much for joining us and giving us that great presentation I just want to say I mean your the way you structured your research was fantastic the date of representation was really easy to to consume and it was really compelling so thank you for your great work and uh wish you all the best it looks like you're you're you're on to very bright future thank you one and and also just real quick tonight I know we have some folks who might be here waiting for uh for public comment we have a couple more Rec uh couple more uh recognitions and then we're going to be opening up for public comment for those who want to speak okay all right and next we have an opportunity here to uh show some appreciation and to memorialize someone who has been played a very important role with this board over the course of this year uh representing our student body and keeping the board very informed regarding the goings on particularly at Ridgewood High School uh Miss Sarah bronstein uh is the first uh one of the first students that I met when I came here as superintendent and uh I just want to say Sarah you've been just a pleasure to work with we've been so uh we're so blessed to to have you and I'm so happy for you wrapping up your senior year and uh and and we wanted to honor you a little bit tonight okay resolution of appreciation for outgoing Ridgewood High School student representative it is recommended that the board approve the following resolution of appreciation in honor of Sarah bronstein whereas Sarah has served as the student representative to the Board of Education during the 2023 24 school year and whereas it has been her responsibility to voice the student perspective to the board at their public meetings and whereas Sarah has conducted herself with poise and courtesy while listening attentively to discussions pertaining to the governance of the school district and whereas Sarah has presented thoughtful and informative reports to the board of education on issues and events at the high school and whereas Sarah has held leadership positions such as co-president of the letters for Rose club and the Oasis club and whereas Sarah has been an active and engaged member of the student council and serves as a representative to the home and School Association and whereas Sarah has been a peer counselor at rwood high school and whereas Sarah has been a member of the National Honor Society and whereas Sarah has participated in various student organizations including the Jewish Student Union unit Union excuse me the psychology club and the rhs new players company and whereas Sarah is continuing her education at the University of Wisconsin where she will be majoring in Psychology and whereas Sarah is recognized and appreciated for her genuine interest in the de Democratic process and her recognition of the importance of students as stakeholders ERS in the district and whereas Sarah's passion for this process elevated the role of the student representative on the board therefore be it resolved that the members of the Richard Board of Education Express their gratitude and appreciation to Sarah bronstein for her service to the student body and the Board of Education and extend for their best and extend her their best wishes for success in all future endeavors and be it further resolved that this resolution be entered into the official minutes of the Board of Education meeting held on the 20th day of May 2024 thank you Sarah and Sarah we're going to ask you if we can take a quick picture with you if that's okay board members can we come on up I'll take a picture with Sarah okay lots of nice things okay um me see is Sarah introducing and next we have an introduction of our new for 2024 25 school year our new high school student representative and I believe Mr fredman is gonna say a few words to start us off Harrison you have large shoes to replace it was my pleasure to meet Harrison uh a few weeks ago and talk about the position and the responsibility of being uh the student representative of the board because voice is powerful and uh Sarah has brought a powerful and informative voice to the board um for this year I have uh have been honored to sit next to you and share seltzers with you every month Harrison I promise you the same Sal if I'm sitting here next year and and I welcome you um with the same responsibility and uh fervor attached to to this role so welcome yeah welcome welcome Harrison and SAR we are going to miss you and um I see there are some eighth graders here so seventh graders here so I think you guys should pay some special attention to what Sarah is going to how she's going to present her report because some of you may want to become a student representative in in a few years so um that's one of the positions that's offered to high school students take it away miss bronstein you and thank you so much for the recognition I'm not used to such a big audience so I'll try not to disappoint this time um Lots is going on with the school wrapping up uh college teacher day for Ridgewood High School seniors is coming up on May 31st starting off with the senior Sunrise with Raffles and food uh seniors get dismissed from classes early that day to take pictures on the front lawn together celebration of the Arts is this Thursday the dance classes and Winter Guard will present their dances in gym one studio art classes and ceramic classes will be able to display their artwork and artists all around the high school will be able to present their work there will also be vocal and instrumental performances on the lawn and throughout the day along with interactive Arts like painting and hand tattoos at Deca Nationals a few weeks ago two groups placed in the top 20 another top in the top 10 um in Anaheim with students from around the nation and even some International students from China and Canada on May 11th project interact volunteers worked at the traval mayfer working at games in craft booths with the kids on the 18th project interat will be uh will be helping the American Legion flag placement event placing Flags around BF and other places in Richwood to commemorate veterans they are also volunteering at the Memorial Day run and Memorial Day table on the 27th rhs is hosting a senior boys and girls flag football tournament on June 5th this will be the same day seniors will do yearbook signings students are able to make teams of up to 10 and participate throughout the day AP students are still working on their long-term sustainability project working towards a more sustainable Ridgewood High School and I know many of them have even comeing to ask the board for some grants Ridgewood track has their annual banquet on June 2nd Runners and parents are invited Bridgewood seniors receive their signs on May 7th celebrating their graduation rdwood prom is taking place on the 7th at the Grove Ridgewood provides busing for all students if necessary and this is also a reminder to all seniors to have prom forms in juniors have njsla science Testing on May 20th and the 21st and all other grades will be able to enjoy sleepin Ridgewood students have off Friday May 24th to May 28th to celebrate Memorial Day weekend and honor all veterans jazz in the wood was at 600 p.m. to 8:30 at The Brick House on May 19th uh Ridgewood School band had a car wash on May 18th to help raise money pool Band program next year and this summer there was an AC capella concert today at w First Presbyterian the rhs rap cities the maroon men and the a capellas will all be performing as for sports boys and girls track and field were County Champions recently boys and girls across unfortunately Loston counties will have time to come back in their upcoming States tournaments Ridgewood High School flag football playoffs started last Thursday and they have since won all their games softball was at the 14 record after going into their final final regular season week going into playoffs at the three seed and finally I just want to thank the board for allowing me this opportunity this year to learn more about the amazing supportive education system of Bridgewood learning about the board that was behind my entire life as a student has been extremely rewarding and I've learned so much and have gained so much gratitude for it sorry I wrote this just recently and a very big thank you to Mr niyas and all the teachers that have made me a better public speaker and student Advocate I really hope my speech has loads since my first report uh thank you all so much and Harrison's going to do a great job next year so I'm very excited done a wonderful job and yes you have slowed down a little bit in your speech so thank you for that and welcome Harrison yeah right I guess we'll see you in uh the June meetings or yeah great great thank you all right um we will now open um the microphone for public comment um we ask that you um state your name and address and uh limit your comments to um no more than four minutes um and there's a little clock that will help you I think usually there's a little timer up there but um welcome okay good evening my seventh grade daughter is in the advanced math class at BF uh when our daughter informed us that Mr libak was leaving we were actually concerned as you aware that right now they've been following sort of a non-standard math curriculum and while Mr lith he's always been a supporter of the algebra followed by the geometry which is as you know is a norm however the detrimental effects of the now abandoned curriculum they were attenuated by Mr lak's effort to incorporate algebra with the geometry during this past year we know that um at this point no other teacher would actually understand the intricacies of the adaptation that Mr lvac has Incorporated to mitigate the damages he perceived in the non-standard approach to remove Mr liak would double the mistakes of this abandoned curriculum and penalize the students who have worked so hard to persevere the Rapport he established with the students has actually been instrumental in fostering a positive and an engaging classroom environment Mr litvac he possesses an in-depth understanding of each of the the students strengths weaknesses and needs I kindly request the Board of Education to consider these extenuating circumstances retaining Mr lbck for our Middle School would actually benefit the students and ensure a seamless transition some of Mr lvac students are actually gathered here and though not all could come more than half the class as of now are of the same consensus thank you for your time and consideration I trust that you will give this due attention and make the best decision for our students educational well-being if you if you could um write your name and address because I we didn't yeah oh we already did thank you um hello board I'm paral and I'm a seventh grader at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Mr lak's accelerated math class I'm here to I'm here to ask the board to reconsider the decision to move Mr lback to GW before I continue I would like to thank the board to to allow us to speak our opinion and iow and I would like to thank everyone else listening here I see many of my past and current teachers and thank you for taking your time out of your day to listen to us several years ago when our school system went underw changes it disrupt our learning our learning Rhythm suddenly we're diving into geometry before for mastering algebra which left us un feeling unprepared especially during especially during this njsa were many of the questions involved algebraic geometra geometry which we still haven't learned now that we reverting back to the original curriculum learning algebra before geometry I feel that is best if we have Mr L to continue teaching us Mr L knows our strengths knows our weaknesses and he knows what we needs best um she's been he's been an anchor during this period of transition understanding understanding uh the system more than uh more than anyone else moreover his teaching Style resonates with us and his willingness to go to the extra mile whether it's doing math club or after class it has made a world of difference for many many students including myself every Friday he h math club in the library and often I stay back there ask uh asking for help on certain questions I don't understand he is more than willing to help and I feel like that has been made a real impact on me personally Miss's guidance has been invaluable to me not only in math but in all of my subjects he's been a great mentor for me while being a teacher and a great person in general Mr L doesn't help hesitate to help others and he's always their supportive students um I I suggest that Mr lbck stays at BF for our to complete our year and I hope that you uh you reconsider his decision to move him to GW good evening my name is vush Patel and i a student in the BF Benjamin Franklin Middle School 7eventh grade advanced math class having geometry before algebra is a backwards way of learning mainly because many of the aspects of geometry require algebra with this system our class would have been bound to fail if not for Mr lvac alongside the curriculum of geometry Mr lvac took extra time to teach us the missing aspects fostering our academic growth by intertwining the two subjects he bridged a graph between them allowing us to see the connection between algebra and geometry as well as their use in real life he has enhanced the understanding of both both topics cohesively because of Mr luac he has set us up for success in our mathematical Journey it would be a shame if we were to replace him as we already accustomed to what Mr Li has been teaching us we have no idea what the new curriculum will bring to use having a new teacher with many with different material May differ from our current mathematical path whil having a new teacher makes exposes to different styles of teaching we are at risk of relearning material which Mr kindly took the liberty to teach us alongside that having a different teacher for what we are accustomed to creates an adjustment period potentially impacting our academic progress in the short and possibly long term consequently this ends up wasting a lot of time which is not very very good all in all the bridge between teachers is often a difficult experience changing a teacher also has an essential impact on our learning experience first having this experience may put us at a horrible disadvantage this will impact what we learn in the future and we might be behind in the future without missile effect we might not be getting the proper mathematical education we need thank you for listening hello my name is Bon chth and I'm also a student at Benjamin Franklin Middle School and I'm also in advanced math seventh grade as previous as previously said by parth and arushi Mr lck has been a key to our successes in math it's not only just him being there for us Mr lback designed the curriculum specifically that such that he would be there to teach over the course of two years by removing him from Benjamin Franklin this would this makes this makes this year's work inadequate when compared to how much it it could have helped us helped us learn is it really fair for an entire year of curriculum to just be thrown away it's not just that if we were to set up another teacher to replace him it would ruin the entire course that has already been set up there'd be gaps and lesson and the gaps and lessons and the new teacher and the new teacher may not broaden our learning experience using past using past uh knowledge of geometry instead of teaching us instead of teaching us what we have not learned this will not just infringe on our learning but also will be bad for the new teacher as they would also have to adjust to a new curriculum while still implementing ideas for Mr L Pack's course this would certain be an unruly amount of work with no real end outcome why should he go through all the work when it can easily be prevent prevented furthermore Mr lak's passion for teaching is evident in the way he engages with the students making learning enjoyable and meaningful for a class there is never a dull moment in his class his dedic his dedication and commitment to our learning is has had a positive impact on all of us it is essential for Mr lbac to stay at Benjamin Franklin Middle School thank you for listening thank you uh good evening everyone my name is nari funky and I'm a seventh grader part of the double accelerated math program besides being an extraordinary teacher Mr leac also serves as an essential part of the current math curriculum for both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington Middle School now vivon has G gone over why removing Mr libec disrupts bf's course but I'm going to mention why there's no necessary need for full-time GW Mr lpac that causes him to abandon his current class at BF right now Mr liac already has a current position at GW where he specifically teaches the eighth grade math not the seventh grade for that class they have their own designated teacher there is no immediate need for an automatic switch especially one uncalled for by moving Mr LIC we are doing more harm than good for the entirety of the advanced math program within the Ridgewood Middle Schools moving Mr liac interrupts the arranged flow of the transition to algebra free from geometry especially considering the fact that geometry is typically taught after algebra during the advancement from 7th to 8th grade and it also complicates things that don't need to be complicated all that needs to be done is to have Mr laac complete this year with the seventh graders next year so we can have a fulfilling Math course moving on Mr LEC has inspired a great majority of for math class many of the other students all have their own particular stories about Mr LEC but here's what I've gleaned so far from having a year of him as my teacher for me personally this class was an entirely new experience I don't think can be replicated in in any future Mr L's funny insightful patient and helpful he highlights the abilities of each individual student rather than doubting their abilities when they or if they mess up in fact he encourages them to try again and waits undistracted while they speak he's constantly pressing us to do better in a way that isn't harsh just expected he remarks on the capabilities of each and every student always speaking of them as though they're destined for greatness regardless of the if they participate in class every day or have only spoken once in the year he gets excited even when you have the smallest of leads for solving something being in his class doesn't just make you better it compels you to do better and that's something I believe every math student should have in a teacher thank you for listening thank you [Music] good evening my name is EA and I'm from bfms advanced math as part of geometry Mr lipac is my amazing teacher I'm here to advocate for a stay until the end of 8th grade Mr litc has always helped me with questions that I have outside of school and he continues to do so with full support and enthusiasm he also makes me do so many activities that to make sure my knowledge of the topic is vast this allows me to be comfortable enough to ask questions and dive deeper into new topics Mr back has really helped me understand things that I'm unsure of and I'm really grateful for that losing this teaching would severely impact my learning ability and after having him I realized his importance and his incredibly impactful teaching techniques as I was getting used to his extraordinary teaching just putting all that away will severely negatively impact my mental health Mr litak always supports us and we know he'll continue to do so if he continues to teach atbf Mr litvac has impacted my learning ability very posi postively and that's reflected throughout our educational journey in addition as the first year being in advanced math I love his teaching methods and will be comfortable if he continues to teach having a new teacher will be a drastic change for me these are the few of the many reasons why I personally think Mr leac should stay at BF for the remainder of our Middle School Journey thank you hello my name is Derek rasher and I'm a stu seventh grade student of Mr LC geometry class in Benjamin Franklin Middle School to begin Mr livc has a very good understanding on how students function with their work for example one day in class we were taking a very important geometry test that would be worth a lot of points I finished the majority of questions in pretty good time but there is this one question that had me stumped for over 20 minutes I was running out of time for this question and to make things worse I didn't have anything written down when the time was finished Mr leac told us that anyone who didn't finish could have extra time another day this made my Stress and Anxiety of the test immediately decre decreased because I had more time to understand the question therefore I would get a better grade that would make me happier and more and calmer increasing my well-being in school in addition Mr leac teaches us in a very understandable way and he wants us to ask questions instead of being scared of answering incorrectly this makes many students including myself love the freedom of answering in Mr lec's class while some teachers could make students afraid of answering due to the fact of them being wrong Mr livx lets his students have full control about what they say without being fearful of getting the question wrong this is why Mr lak is such an important teacher for the well-being of BF students and why he should continue being a role model to students for future classes thank you um hello my name is Xavier Chang and I am part of the seventh grade um double accelerated math program um Mr liac is very different from many other teachers that I've had before many teachers will tell you what to do how to do it but never why Mr liac goes deeply into why the math problem Works how how how the formula works and why this concept concept is important to the uh problem he makes sure that everyone in our class understands 100% what they're doing in the beginning of the year when I first walked into his class I didn't really have much knowledge on Geometry but as we went through the course I slowly grew more and more used to how the way he taught and I was able to understand the material without getting lost Mr Lia has helped me become a better student in all my classes and I understand that maybe maybe it helped many of my classmates as well thank you thank you hello my name is Michael Z and I'm currently a seventh grader in the double ex liated math program of Benjamin Franklin Middle School although I'm not as concerned with the course and the content within I am more concerned about uh the teaching methodology of Mr lpck and how he reinforces the essential skills that students will carry into to the rest of their lives these important skills are critical thinking and problem solving which Mr lak strongly encourages students to improve on through the course of solving math problems and learning more about math for example look back gives a very difficult math problem uh sometimes he'll not expect you to exactly understand it however you thinking about it is the important part of him giving you the math problem because and this relates to a German word sit flesh which is directly translating to sitting flesh but it's used in a context to um describe a long period of either sitting or focusing on something which is very important for many careers and future projects and Endeavors that students will um engage with for the rest of their lives and I think that Mr livac living environment really helps with this because he strongly encourages his students to think about the problems that are given to them for days months even years and I think this is very important for students so overall I think that Mr leac is a teacher which not only gives the necessary information mathematics but also gives the thought process and essential skills that students will need thank you for listening thank you hi my name is Deborah Lee I'm a a three 336 Abby Court and I'm here with some trabel Elementary School students who would like to talk about alphab best Aftercare program we can we can lower that microphone I think oh thank you thank you okay you guys got it uh hopefully good evening everyone my name is elanar KM and I'm in second grade I'm Maline km and I'm in fifth I'm Janice Kai and I'm in fifth too I'm Trisha alarz and you guess it I'm in fifth we're students from trabel elementary school and we are here to tell you why alphabet should stay at rual Public Schools we know as students how important it is to have a fun after program that you look forward to this brings us to our first point at alphab best there's many activities to choose from some of these activities include playing with cards and Legos we also uh we also asked the staff why they enjoyed working out an idea that came up several times was the fact that alphabet was quite organized at Aftercare we follow a specific agenda every day this is good because we always know what is is about to happen this is all organized by the alphabet staff members without them we would have nothing to do also many kids including like us us like going outside and playing with their friends on the playground field and basketball court and we are always in the lane of sight by the staff members from personal experiences I know that the staff members really care about the kids in aate for example there was one time one of one of my friends and I wanted to gymnastics but one of the staff members said we shouldn't because it could cause someone to get hurt another time I see this is anytime I want to play a game the staff members are always happy to play with me this just shows how much the alphabet staff members care about the kids signed up for after and before care while we're on the topic the staff members also treat us with care and make sure we are all comfortable yes I agree with that I see it occur frequently that in Aftercare for example I was an after care a few days ago when I saw that after Care staff were happy to let a kid rest their eyes because they were super tired I know I speak for most of the fifth graders that go to after care that we want future kids that go to Aftercare to have the same amazing experience we had I've been to many Aftercare programs over the years including some at summer camps and some at different schools and I think that alphab best is truly the best I'm Elanor I'm mine I'm Janice and I'm Trisha stay schools thank you for good night thank like my other friend said Mr litvac should stay at BF Mr litvac make sure we understand what we are learning and just not follow doesn't follow the techniques he teaches us also teaches us with examples on the board and it's very interactive in his class we are doing a lot of new methods with him that are unconventional with other teachers I really love learning math with him and learning it with some other teacher will really disrupt my learning so I vote for Mr litak should stay at BM thank you that was awesome that was great that was great we could let that up a little yeah that might be helpful uh hello my name is Michael yon uh 320 Kenworth Road and president of the Ridgewood Education Association uh last Wednesday our association voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new contract with the district that contract is on the agenda later this evening I hope this board will support it as vigorously as the members of our association have in particular I would like to take this time to thank the board's negotiating team board president Sheila Brogan vice president Muhammad Mahmud Director of Human Resources Jamie Murphy assistant superintendent Rich Freedman and board attorney Matt jakobe we appreciated the straightforward no non sense approach and agreeing to meet regularly this was a good process we had real productive and honest conversations allowing us to quickly reach a settlement that's saw neither side get everything they wanted but one that I believe benefits both sides you put a priority on getting this done and that is greatly appreciated um this is now two contracts in a row that have been settled in advance of the expiration of the previous one and that is good news for everyone involved so again thank you very much and we look forward to hearing your discussion on our contract thank you is there anyone else for public comment I I just have to um make a statement and I know the students are leaving but I just want to say public speaking is is um done well in Ridgewood um our our students did a great job yes I also wanted to comment to BF and Trel students um that your teachers would be very proud of you um all the teachers who would brought you to this point of public speaking and especially Mr lwac if he was listening to these comments I'm sure he'll be um very happy to listen to those comments and you guys made some really good points on why um a continuity is important for especially your class and um I also understand um the administration may have some reasons and that your input will give them um the inputs that they need to consider the next steps for the eighth grade so um I know the administration really listens to these feedback so all of those points were very well made uh so both Mr lwak and the rest of the teachers would be very proud of the skills and the public speaking you demonstrated today thank you uh also I also want to Echo those comments uh the BF students traval you all did a phenomenal job so great job um it is a really important lesson right to speak up for what's important for you right if something matters a lot to you you have to share your voice you have to come and speak it uh and the only thing I will say is of course you know the Administration has other things to think about also right so they're going to definitely take your feedback into consideration but maybe they're looking at the other schools and the other situation as well so I don't know what the situation is don't be disappointed if it's not what you're expecting but you did your job right you came here and spoke and that is the most important thing and I'll share a personal story about Mr lback as well uh we are also traval and bf district and about seven years ago I was standing outside my house one of my children was in his program and he was actually just driving by casually then he reversed his car came in got out of his car and said hey do you have a few minutes I want to talk to you about your son my class I said sure come in and he came in and sat in the living room room with us and we had an hour discussion about my son the class it was not a scheduled meeting he just happened to be driving by he saw Meers and he came in so U I also share your your your love and appreciation of him and he's a great teacher yeah that's great story okay um usually um if there's no more public comments sometimes if the superintendent um Can Enlighten and and work on things he will make comments so I turn the microphone to Dr sches thank you so much and not not to end public comment per se by chiming in just while our students are here and recognizing that it is a school night I just want to commend you all did a wonderful job advocating for your point raising some concerns that we should absolutely make sure that we're considering um and we will take all your thoughts into consideration I again I can't commit to you that we'll be able to make changes there are many other students and many other comp applications and Logistics that go into place um so we have to take those things into consideration but I thought you did an excellent job of raising your concerns I feel like I understand why this is important to you and even if for some reason we can't make your request fully possible we know that we have to be able to address all of your concerns so I thank you for that and on behalf of the administration we appreciate your voice and great job so there is there any other public comment tonight otherwise I'll close public comment and thank you and huh oh I'm sorry virtual there is no virtual there's no one on Virtual okay so we'll close public comment and um move on to um superintendent's report thank you so much so as usual we have a busy night uh with lots of topics to to uh to attend to we've already been attending to very many so I'm going to keep my comments relatively short um I wanted to just start by uh raising some attention to well first of all as I've already I think I've already said it but congratulations to all the honores tonight our retirees thank you so much for the work that you've done for our district um we're very much looking forward to honoring all of our retirees at the end of this year uh it's very clear the tradition of Excellence is very much a part of our faculty and our teaching staff and the great work that you all do um the impact you have on students is is undeniable and uh greatly appreciate and respect your work and look forward to celebrating you um Miss bronin as I said before it's gonna it's last meeting so it's been wonderful thank you so much for your time and uh and Harrison now that I'm seeing you f now I'm actually seeing you I remember we had a conversation a while back uh so I appreciate you you reaching out to me and I'm looking forward to working with you too um to all of our faculty who are here thanks so much for joining us you come around more often it's a great time here at the board meetings um but in the meantime I just want to raise everyone's attention to the fact that we did give a state of the schools address as part of the superintendent coffee last week so if uh those who are with us uh both we have plenty of folks here in person but also anyone online if you haven't had a chance to check it out um it is it will it's up uh you can watch the video you can see the presentation again if you're not familiar with what we're trying to accomplish with the state of the schools address the goal is to give everyone a common starting point for conversation there are many concerns uh and and also beliefs about our schools some of them are very positive some of them are a little more critical and so what we tried to do is illustrate the kinds of trends that we're seeing in our school because no one's perfect no place is perfect but Excellence is accomplished when we continually recognize where we are strong and protect those areas where we are strong and we recognize any areas that may need some some attention and some improvement and we work together towards uh being strategic and being intelligent about how we how we address those areas of concern so I think it's really a community Endeavor to really figure out uh what we need to do where our areas that we want to improve are we also have to think critically as a community we we put up some data that we know some care about and we know that we that I can say that I care about to some extent but uh I think we always need to be critical about what measurements we're looking at and how we're measuring success I think that we measure what matters we have to make sure that the things that we're measuring are the things that we actually care about so I welcome and invite you all to be a part of that and we'll have ongoing convers ations uh certainly as we go into the new year our principles are given are being given access to some data sets including our student surveys uh faculty surveys are being analyzed right now and all of this data will come together in the new year as well to inform our processes and to inform our perspective of where we actually are so thank you for all the faculty who might may have taken part in that survey thank you to all the students who've taken part in the survey and parents there's another survey that's going to be going out to you we're actually just adding some last minute items that uh based on our work in the state of the schools address we'd like to collect some data on so in the next couple weeks we'll have that information out so I just want to bring that to all your attention um and then lastly I just want to uh I I want to I have a I want to congratulate we have a candidate uh who's going to be presented to the board in a little bit um some of you probably know I know we had some GW folks in the house but uh George Washington Middle School um has had a vacancy and we've gone through a very rigorous search process where we've involved uh uh uh especially for a stakeholder panel we involved some faculty members we involved uh some parents from the from the GW Community we've also involved them from some of the elementary schools uh we involved faculty members and uh and we came forward with we had a we had a very competitive pool and after a multi-round process I'm really proud to recommend to the board uh our lead candidate uh really the in the unanimous choice of our stakeholder panel Mr Dave Bailey so we haven't voted yet so we're gonna we'll give him a second uh when we get to that part of the agenda U but Mr Billy really appreciate you being here and appreciate your commitment to the district and board I thank you for uh for all for your uh your support in our selection process um I also just wanted to give a little shout out um we you probably know that when it's been a teacher appreciation week we've been honoring our our our administrative assistants we've been honoring our administrators we've been honoring our teachers and all of our education support professionals um and you probably notice that we have all kinds of feeds going out our social media feeds where we're pushing out recognition and acknowledgement of those people um but there is a person on the other side of those acknowledgement who also had her own special day it was school communicators day and so I want to take a second to just shout out the person who shouts all of you out all the time Miss Christine corus can we give her a round of applause Miss cors has been doing wonderful work for the district she she she does a lot more than just the social media feed too she does a lot of our correspondence she does um she actually manages a lot of internal and external issues and Communications for me um when we do uh she actually we just had a really cool shoot at GW Amazon uh actually we got some we got some uh some some revenue from Amazon who wanted to film a commercial over over there um Christine was a real real major player in working that out she's helps with the surveys um so she does a lot of really cool things for us too in addition to to the things that that you all see but uh but Christine we appreciate you thank you for all that you do and as usual there's H there's there's no way to there's nowhere to stop thanking folks so but I'm going to call it there and and pass the mic back over to M Miss broken thank you I didn't even know there was such a thing as the so congratulations Christine um so we'll go to uh consent items um I just have one comment on suance report so um not just the current superintendent school Dr Schwarz but the extension of uh I think we are meeting for the first time after the state of the school atress um that happened um a week ago and I think uh I was very impressed and I shared the because a lot of people um do not pay attention to what's going on at board meetings because of other things other commitment so I sent the link to several people in the community and uh most of them responded back that um this was great this was Data driven this is a change in Direction and they like there was no negative feedback um everybody was very pleased and from my own perspective um I think what you did was you you're redefining we always say rwood has this tradition of Excellence now you're putting some parameters and some data and some numbers to um to appreciate that uh tradition of Excellence that how will we measure and how will we improve or um in the in the past we if we tried to identify any room for improvement I think uh we went to a defensive mode but now because we are using data you identif fight some areas where we can improve and um one big departure from the past is uh for example whenever we talked about rankings ranking was a bad word we always basically just uh did not acknowledge that but now you have identified what goes behind those rankings and what are the numbers that are just making them look bad and they are not really uh anything bad there that how can we report that data data in a different way to those ranking agencies and improve it and that will not just improve um confidence within the community it will also improve our image to colleges and outside Ridgewood um to make Ridgewood and Ridgewood schools look better so I think I think it's a huge departure from where we were before and uh overall uh my feedback and everything I've heard from the community that I talked to everybody was really pleased from the State of Union address or state of the schools address thank you for that thank you okay I started saving that for the end but that's that was a great segue uh so I just I did too want to congratulate you on a job well done on the uh state of the schools this is a first for Ridgewood as I recall um and um I think you very clearly pointed out are the um the successes that we have and some of the areas that are challenged to us and how we can continue to move forward because we all I think um believe in the importance of continuous Improvement and continuously working for the betterment of the school district but also mostly for the betterment of every child that's in the classroom with us um and that is our main responsibility and so I think you did a great job so I thank you for that and I was pleased to be here for that and I um seeing the other board members also uh participating so thank you and if I just may turn that around to the uh just the um the team did a really a tremendous amount of work uh you know certainly it's something that uh that was my has been my vision and it's something that I've done in former districts but uh we have an incredible technology team here uh S sim morun if those you don't know are in Georgia Al Bruno uh they do an incredible job with data they're an asset to the district but also many others have been involved your administrat cretive team has been has been very involved in helping to analyze and understand data sets um sure you hear me I think I'm getting feedback so let me just turn this way that's why they turn me down let's try that um but also um and and again for those those who haven't seen it uh we're talking about it in the abstract um there is so much really awesome stuff about how great our schools are so please check out all those great things and in the areas that we're identifying for some areas of improvement they're they're uh they're very achievable so look forward look forward to working with everyone on those so now we'll go to um attendance at conference um would someone like to move that I'll move a second any questions okay Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss maau yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes and then uh Administration which is quite lengthy um where we are doing some um appointments um and really renewing uh some of our uh professional uh that work with the district and um some of our staff who um have other responsibilities uh for specific areas um and and then we have to add in the addendum pardon me the addendum I think that's human resources no no that's under oh I'm sorry yes Miss Bren if you could read it into the record approval requests to seek approval from the interim I thought this was under uh Human Resources so I apologize um this is to seek approval from the inum Bergen County Executive superintendent uh for interim EXT for an interim extension the rid Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools approves the request to seek approval from the interim Bergen County Executive superintendent to extend Mr Richard fredman for a third year of interim work with Ood Public Schools um so um a letter will go out if if the board is in agreement a letter will go out to the interim superintendent um Bergen in Bergen County to um request that extension and I'm I'm hoping you're in agreement with that yes um thank you thank you Hu I Mo be with uh with the uh addendum second Mr Donnie yes Miss qua yes Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes and thank you for uh agreeing to that staying on the team uh curriculum and instruction move curriculum and instruction a second Mr Donnie yes and I just wanted to uh point out Mr fredman that when we are approving the program for high school um there were some uh points noted out by some parents that about the fee for some classes so those fees are not part of this uh what weing so I think we could relook at the fee yeah the fees were taken out we dealt with that yep thank you and the language was taken out as well thank you so yes Miss quack yes Miss maau yes Mr mud yes Miss Brogan yes human resources and um plus the addendum and I um believe uh would you like to take the I'm just trying to see that number um number 13 for a separate uh okay that's the agreement between the Ridgewood Board of Education and the Ridgewood Education Association so let's do um Human Resources first and then Mary will excuse you for the discussion of the um of the contract um on the uh just going back to Human Resources um we've already acknowledged our retirements um we have many new staff hires and uh thank you very much Mrs Murphy for all of your work um no easy task filling um all these spots that have been opened by our retirees this year and other spots that were opened um because uh people um had left the district so thank you for that you're welcome and I I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to the administrative team who has worked diligently um early and often to hire the best candidates that we can um hire for for for the Ridgewood public schools and for the district and if not for their efforts we would not be where we are right now which is um really in a great place moving into the 2424 25 school year so kudos to the administrative team and the leadership teams at the schools thank you and our agendum is the um is the um appointment of Dave Bailey for principal at GW so that is what's on the addendum um a recommendation from our superintendent are there any questions on uh Human Resources so uh what's the fin resolution we are moving like which ones yeah okay so I'm moving all but right D1 through D12 yes with the addendum because d113 is the one that is being removed from this right that shouldn't have been consent because you can't vote on it anyway yeah I'm not voting yeah so it's better to just make it very transparent and clean yes I second I do you have to read the um appointment into the record the in its entirety well it's I mean I can I think we should yeah to celebrate yeah the bridge of Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools approves the appointment listed below subject to a receipt of appropriate documentation and the New Jersey Department of Education certificate if required 2024 25 school year appointment Dave Bailey principal a George Washington Middle School we best vote I just want to make sure it was Miss M for the first and Mr mmud for the second did I record that correctly you um you moved yeah I did move it okay all right Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss maau yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss Brogan yes congratulations would you like to say something okay just want to um just say a few thank yous it's it's really an incredible honor started in Ridgewood public schools in 2010 so uh this is really a special night so I want to thank Dr Schwarz Mr fredman uh Miss Murphy for really uh it's just a great interview process it was long was challenging but thank you for um guiding me through uh thank you for helping me transition to this next role and Dr sches thank you for your voted confidence and and the Board of Education as well uh truly an honor and I really appreciate it I also want to thank my family my wife Sarah my kids AA bir and Joshua I don't think they're up anymore but they were going to be watching so he guys we'll watch tomorrow but thank you uh for all your support and and my parents thank you so much I wouldn't be here without you and and you've taught me uh what true leadership is my entire life with my siblings I want to thank my colleagues at rhs have been there since 2010 um I always say if you if you look at academics Athletics the Arts are extracurriculars there's not many high schools that can hang with us and it's because of the people in this room it's because of your dedication your commitment you are the experience for our students and uh I just want to thank you it's been an awesome Journey with you these last 14 years Mr Jeff nias I don't know if he's here but uh thank you for everything you've done for me I would not be here without you either my first day in Ridgewood in Jeff's office he said you know Dave most people who come to Ridgewood they don't leave Ridgewood and I was 25 I I said oh that's that's kind of nice I didn't I didn't really know but um I understand now and I'm so thankful for this opportunity I love this community I love these teachers behind me I love the students um and I can't wait to uh take this next step so I'm excited to come back to GW can't wait to get started with um with the new team the community we're going to do great things we're GNA we're going to create the best school possible for our students but first let's finish strong graduation is in 30 days we got a lot to do let's end on a positive note and finish the year strong thank you very much thank you thank you Dave it will be great to work with you and congratulations okay um Mary if we could excuse you you're going to recuse yourself yeah we'll come and get you okay um um approval the agree um approval agreement between the Ridgewood Board of Education and the Ridgewood education Educators Association um Educators Association or education asso it's educ is it it is it education or educator education educ education that's it's wrong on the agenda I don't the re EA so yeah it's it's education would have made a deal with the wrong person wrong entity so I would like to move um an amendment to this resolution um okay so I would like to uh move an amendment uh to be read as U the Rood Board of Education negotiations committee recommends the following whereas the rewood Board of Education negot Association committee is comprised of Sheila Brogan and Muhammad Mahmud and whereas the financial terms of this successor agreement exceed the current contract and whereas this agreement is effective for four years from July 1 2024 through June 30th 2028 versus prior three-year contracts and whereas estimates provided to the board project project that this agreement will require reduction in Services as no new state or federal grants are anticipated accordingly and then the original contract the negotiation committee recommends that the reu Board of Education approves the memorandum memorandum of agreement establishing the terms and conditions for a successor Collective negotiations agreement between the rwood Board of Education and the rwood Education Association rea the board has received background information second sry take notes catching up please I not see this oh it's all factual Mr Donnie yes I I need to read I need to yeah I'm sorry thank you yes so I'm I'm personally not comfortable with this because uh this is yeah why don't we vote and then we can have the discussion if you I think we have a discuss we don't have time for discussion yeah I'm just gonna State my opinion on this and then we can vote absolutely so um I'm personally not comfortable with this wording for a couple of reasons one is these things especially for ratification of a contract should be vetted by our attorney so that's number one uh number two this is saying a lot of about projections and reduction of services that in my opinion is not something I can personally comment on or vote on uh and number three the con when we vote the contract is the contract like the terms of the contract are going to be clear and memorialized so I don't think we need to cut out details of that contract or parts of the contract and put it in a separate resolution uh so that's just my personal opinion but yes we can vote when we're ready I too um think that we're we look at projections whenever you are doing a a contract um and the the projections are as real as that year it um so um and the spend is never as great as the uh contract you would think um you are approving because of the attrition you have retirements you have uh staff members who leave midc career you have maternity leaves and that extend longer so um you know it it is hard to to project um I sit here tonight as um a member of the board's negotiating committee and I do recommend the ratification of this memorandum of agreement it is below the the county and state average um uh rates of approval um I I believe that it it enhances the board's ability to attract and retain teachers in I think a very difficult market right now and although we are lucky in Ridgewood to still attract teachers it is not the applicants are not in the numbers they were in the past um the teaching is difficult um and it is I think been under attack um and to retain uh quality teachers to have the work that we are expecting to happen in this District where our students are successful our our ratings are positive our but most ly it is that every student is given that you know that unique student is given those um challenges and the rigor to improve and to move forward and to be you know that mission statement is so important um when we look at what we are about in Ridgewood so I sit here and I am approving I'm not so comfort I'm not sure where this is going on that um but do um really encourage the board to vote for uh approval of this um uh agreement sua thanks for your comments and I think um you are recommending the board to approve this contract right and that's what I we are both right so I think uh let me try to maybe revise it because that's what it is trying to um capture U to celebrate that you guys did a lot of work and you are recommending to the board that this contract should be approved because I the way it's currently written is very abbreviated and the way it's currently written it's basically suggesting that the entire board um had that background information and experience that you had which is not true um so if in the in the current state uh I personally will have to abstain from it I don't know enough uh on the background so if I oh no please every board member has to have an opportunity to speak his his or her Minds right so because I I've been getting all the data that I have been asking uh if if we go through the entire process that how this process spanned out and um the information that we requested and when we received that information so um if you are not comfortable with say projection of the reduction in Services um maybe I'm willing to take that line out because although that project it's States correctly that's the projection that Administration has provided US based on the analysis of the current contract so if I take that out then because I'm trying to find a way to not abstain and vote Yes on this right so if I'm trying to find that so the first line basically says that who is recommending um who are the members of the negotiation committee and which you both are recommending that then the second one is just with the the other three points are basically clear facts whereas the financial terms of the successor agreement exceed the current contract whereas the agreement is effective for four years and I can change that whereas um no new federal or state grants are anticipated I can just leave into that and I can remove um estimates provided to the board project that this agreement will require reduction in service well I want to really go through that make sure we're comfortable but I do want to say how you mentioned right now in the comments um that projections are maybe you didn't have them when you thought about it or you don't feel like they're valid because we did receive some very current information on Friday and today today and and are you still comfortable with that based on the projections or in general know you like to you don't think that the projections are valid yeah but I mean let's just be clear right when we when we talk about financial projections in a school district can you tell me how many staff we're going to have exactly and what type of Staff next year or in two years or in three years what if someone that's a step 10 retires and then we hire a step two for example we really don't so yeah I'll speak on my behalf I'm not a professional on that I'll go with the administration's analysis so the administration's analysis of the current contract um projects that this will require reduction I mean it's it's possible there could be reductions I don't know there that's irrelevant of the contract even even if we don't ratify this contract and terms stayed the same as previous every school district there's always a possibility of hiring we talking about hypothetical versus analysis so when we when whenever we take an action of spending money we do analysis and we rely on our professionals but I understand you have a concern and I'm trying to find a way to for me to vote Yes right instead of abstaining without information so I would just like to add the parameters that okay this was negotiated by Sheila Brogan and Muhammad mmud this is a uh the financial terms are currently exceeding the current contract and it's a four-year contract which is unusual and currently as we all know because I asked Miss Brogan has a lot of legisl legislative information um and as of now based on your past comments that this was the last year of Governor Murphy um Financial rebalancing and as of now we are not aware that's all it's saying it's not doing about any projections these are these are factual in some ways if you are not comfortable with it then I'm not sure what validity and what weight your recommendation let's let's definitely discuss because I would love to see a unanimous vote for for for this for sure um I have no problem with yes this Sheila and Muhammad were the negotiations committee recommending okay um the part about the financial terms exceed the current contract that's a very ambiguous that's a number that's a number the county average is currently above we can we can refine this language so my intent here yeah my intent is current contract so we have a current three-year contract in place and we are signing a new four-year contract right so the all it states is this is a better contract right yep so so for I mean that's factual have no problem with that um and then last one we can just say so instead of whereas estimate so I will remove estimates provided by the board project that this agreement will require reduction in service so that line I'll strike out and I would say whereas um no new state or federal grants are anticipated that's a fact but do we know that we know that does the governor even are any any grants anticipated wow so how do you want to word it whatever I I'll give it to you what however do you want to word I I don't think that I think that whole statement would need to come out because the future right like we don't but we but that's the problem we are signing an order an unusually long contract based on unknowns and so right so this is our this is the administration's best guess on on what it could look like for our district yeah and so either you know you have to have if you don't believe that then on what basis will you signing the Moa right I so again my my concern is no one here knows the future of what's going to be state or federal a right we we have I get that I'm just trying to memorize what we know today so what should it say this this is how we voted is what we're saying that it is true that as of this moment you're asking us to sign a 4-year contract that anticipate yeah you know how it work what's the revenue number right so we just saying that as of now we don't know or you can unknown you can say I'm okay with that I'm okay with right so we can say whereas where as new state or federal grants are unknown at this point or sure um confirmed at this point or state or federal revenue every district has stated that that's a fact no known I don't I don't know that because we hear that on a regular basis and then it doesn't it doesn't materialize what we do know right now is that years one and two of this contract we have no issue with years three and four uh it the um the projection that we saw was um a 0.5 perhaps reduction if nothing changed if we didn't do any efficiencies um and also in an environment where everything stayed static everything including everything can I like just read into the record what Mohammad you think is agreeing so I um amend my Amendment I'm move to amend my Amendment and my new Amendment would read as the reu Board of Education negotiations committee recommends the following sorry sir before you can how about I want let's talk about that last paragraph right accordingly that's exactly same yeah but that's not approving right if I'm reading this this is saying accordingly the negotiation committee recommends that the ridgew Board of Education approve the mo MOA establishing the terms and condition conditions for a successor Collective negotiations agreement between the Ridgewood to me I'm not even reading that as we're approving the contract but that's how it's written in the because normally you would say upon the recommendation of the superintendent in this case we don't have it's the same that's just copied and paste out right that should be non controversial yeah sorry okay so the Rood Board of Education negotiation committee recommends the following whereas the reu Board of Education negotiations committee is compris of Sheila Brogan and Muhammad Mahmud and whereas the financial terms of this successor agreement exceed the current contract and where as this agreement is effective for four years from July 1 2024 through June 30th 2028 versus prior three-year contracts and whereas new state or federal grants are currently unknown accordingly the negotiation committee recommends that the re Board of Education approve the memorandum from agreement establishing the terms and conditions for a successor Collective negotiations agreement between the Reed Board of Education and the re Education Association rea the board has received background information so what we're removing is the um projections in programming and services right any so we are just talking facts no project I'm okay with that so I move this motion second Mr Donnie yes Miss quac yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss Rogan yes and um I just wanted to go over what the um contract is um so um this is a four-year settlement um the it is a 2.95% salary increase with approximately um 150,000 and it it does scale up during those four years to I think a and I don't have that in front of me$ 168 I think, per year for salary guide adjustments and enhancements inclusive of increment for each of the four years um as I had stated before this is below the county and State average uh the teachers at the top of the salary guide uh will be getting less um uh of a salary increase and the guide enhancement really is uh Force um to the is to the lower steps to and again that concept of to um attract new teachers enhance our current teacher retention and a very competitive teacher Market um there are health benefit and enhancements which um the teachers will be contributing some of the cost to orthodontic uh family coverage up to $1,500 and vision coverage the vision coverage is not everyone won't take vision coverage it is um so the estimate may be much higher um than you're seeing because it is this is a a separate um I'm correct on that Jamie it is a separate um the vision is separate right so every you have a choice to take it or not right so we don't know how many will participate um and you know the memorandum of agreement was achieved between the Ridgewood Education Association negotiating committee which was already named and the board's negotiating committee without um going to mediation and fact finding and so we can move forward um for a successful uh four years hopefully so I thank the board for their um their um support and uh yeah and I want to I do want to thank the uh the Rea team Laura Gro and Mr Michael yanon and the whole team for uh working with us to get through it uh quickly uh so it doesn't drag out uh for a long time I don't think anybody wants that and I do want to thank my fellow board members I mean especially Mr Donnie and and Miss quack I mean I think you coming to the table with with I I get where you're coming from right a lot of unknowns especially in a situation where we're capped at 2% and we don't know what the future holds in terms of expenses and inflation um it's tough and that's you know you can't control the future unfortunately next year we could have fuel prices Spike up by 15% for all we know we've seen that already right we've seen Co so thank you for coming to the table with an effort for just revising the wording in a way that makes you feel comfortable so it could be a unanimous vote and obviously of course uh thank you Miss Brogan for leading us through all this so I think this is a big congratulations for all yes um for the record um I do want to clarify uh that as Miss Beren stated is 2.95% with um uh escalating and compounding salary guiding enhancements together that is 3.25% not including some of the other fringes that are also compounding and escalating Over a four-year term um I don't want to um window dress that's I want to be really honest and transparent about what those numbers are so that's um what we should put on the record um schools tomorrow if you um you know you could stay we'll just wait a few minutes we'll go to find you should be there you're all understanding that's a vote that we took a vote to approve the the mo MOA right yeah I think it's clear we can vote it again so we can vote we can take another vote we can just yeah but we can take another V so that vote was for the amendment yeah but in the minutes in the minutes both amendments will go the first one will go set that then the discussion then replacement but it right it will no if I propos something that will go in the minutes what we just did was we just approved the amendment now we have to approve yeah all we did was approve the amendment but now we have to vote on the actual amended resolution right so I move I I move the amended resolution for the vote I second we voted on the amendment but not to amend but not on yes all we did was approve the amendment now we have to vote on the amended no no it's absolutely the right process you do not want don't it's a one and a two and one and a two one and a to all right Mr Donnie yes Miss clock so before I vote um I would like my comments on the record um serously I spoke with my elementary and middle school teacher today and I want to honor her contributions to my life Miss Alita platov I think she had over 50 years of education experience um teaching is not just a job as you all know it's a calling and every teacher in this District deserves to have a full uninterrupted career so I hope this happens and thank you for your all your work that you do and I wish I really wish that there are no impacts that go beyond my next term you know if it happens and whatever this is a four-year contract I really in this kind of environment it would it's really just really tough and uh and I applaud all of you for working um so diligently on behalf of the students um I'm a yes Mr mmud yes Miss bran yes pass thank you okay um we we'll have Mary can come back so uh I shall oh there okay we will um go to finance now um someone like to move Finance I finance I second um I will just read into the record the um acceptance of restricted uh donations um David Rosen for $1,000 to be used to enhance Ridgewood unified programs learning Services home and school associations for $210 to be used to pay for the steps students to attend the May 15 2024 Rockland Boulders uh game Ridgewood Alpine race team uh $6,998 to be used to pay for the cost of ski buses during the 2324 winter season Somerville HSA a gift in kind of $2,160 for t-shirts for the staff as part of the community cultural building initiative wjca Incorporated $750 to be used to enhance the mental health awareness day at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in 2425 o' Gorman Brothers um and DBA bath fitters for $500 again to be used to enhance the mental health awareness day at Benjamin Franklin Middle School for the 2425 school year and then uh the these uh donation um from John and an orus Foundation Robert and Susan Becker Randy T Pierce Esquire and Timothy Peterson to the Jack stroker scholarship award fund uh oh no excuse me John and Ann orus Foundation is for the Jack Ro stroker um scholarship award fund and Robert and Susan uh Becker Randy Pierce Esquire and Timothy Peterson is our donations towards the Brian vanii scholarship fund and finally Bergen County directors of guidance uh for $500 for the Bergen County director of guidance scholarship award fund so we thank everybody for their generosity um are there any um questions on finance no I see that um we had uh and I know you had voiced some concerns last year First Press but it's um you don't have any issues with the student parking um not on this resolution but I will have something under discussions and U I'm happy Mr Bailey is here so he'll he'll hear oh okay okay or or I can I can talk about that now it's basically I didn't know you know I know last year basically last year um the there was the parking uh bills were sent to the students or estimates or were sent to the students with the um increase rate from the church but then we talked to the church our business administrator and they said okay because everything else is just going up by 2% let's please increase your parking fee only by 2% so Church did revise their fee we had a revised uh resolution and the fee was we went only up by 2% but the students did not receive a revised invoice students still paid uh what they were built initially so uh if this year they are not increasing the fee I think the students fee should remain same or less compared to last year yeah sure Mr okay M okay so maybe Dr Schwartz can take that okay okay yeah it's basically what we are doing there is we are collecting the fee from the students to pay to the church so if there is a adjustment by the church then that adjustment should be passed to the students right okay thank you thank you okay so we'll go ahead and vote on how about the other church so we have the second church was that at the last agenda or that hasn't come West Side is for uh for staff parking right yeah and that's that's a per I think that was at the last uh I think that was on the last that was on the last agenda I want to think it was yes and was that also 2% or they I I can't tell you that okay yeah okay thank you good Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss maau yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss Broan yes okay um approval of first reading of revised bylaws but this is um oh this is a bylaw this is what we discussed at the last the first reading of the um bylaw for Legal Services as as the policy committees recommending it um so I I'm fine with it would you like to move it oh yeah I [Music] move I is there any need for more discussion on that I think it was pretty clear wasn't there in the original agenda that we received there was one for the um the advertising and that was earlier earlier in under already um under Administration under Administration so yeah so that I I noticed that some of the um maybe I should discuss that during discussion but um so the it was discussed at the last meeting but the email that went out to summarize last meeting still included um advertisements that and logos for out of District programs so that so we discussed that or I was not here but the board discussed that policy for for Legal Services no collation under Administration for the communication for the communication piece right it was specifically on who would be included like not including vendors specifically in it yes they were included in that email which was summarizing that descrition sumbody of last meeting May second May second the regulations because the regulations are really administrative and not um so it's unusual I think Sor I'm not I'm not understanding the concern it's just uh I'll take that offline sure yeah thanks I'll make a note to follow with Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss MC yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes okay approval of bills and you yes I looked at the bills and uh I am um um moving them second Mr Donnie yes Miss clock yes Miss M yes Mr mmud yes Miss Krogan yes okay a board member announcements well I I just wanted to say that um s Rob and I had I think a really interesting night with um Ridgewood greenen committee yeah so green Ridgewood green rwood thank you so green Ridgewood has partnered with climate fresk so climate fresk was started in France by uh one of the uh global warming and climate education teachers who noticed that a lot of students were not paying attention in the class so he came up with a card game and uh I would like where you bring anytime you bring a a competition a competitive spirit and a game uh people learn more um so he uh and they are they are trying to educate um as a nonprofit organization to decision makers so green Ridgewood invited the mayor the deputy mayor deputy mayor was part of the green Ridgewood initiative which invited so they invited council members they invited Board of Education members they invited um um Dr Schwarz Dr Schwarz and uh Damian Mr Smith as his representative there from facilit building and ground so he was there uh Miss Broan was there I was there and some planning board uh members were there plan planning board chair was there and some other residents and basically they tried to educate everybody on uh climate change and its impact where it like a lot of the things that we may not think about our long-term impacts of climate change including Wars inequality Fe fine and other things right so that happened because so climate and some like I learned a lot of new things that just water vapor causes uh greenhous impact or greenhouse effect which I was not aware of that steam or water vapor is one of the U most dominant F uh gases that causes the impact it was a fun game and I hope everybody learned from there and uh overall as a district we'll go work towards more um green energy initiatives and move away from fossil fuels because fossil fuels are one of the uh Main culprits so I think exciting uh during that was is that there are a number of people on the green Ridgewood team who um want to be trained to be facilitators in this uh and um if if the opportunity presents itself uh Dr Schwarz I would really encourage our high school students to participate it's about two and a half hours so it's not it's not a short process so they did that so this was the second round of climate Frisk and in green Ridgewood uh Mr Lou is very active and there are four high school students that regularly attend green Ridgewood meetings fabulous students they are very proactive and they are doing a lot of good work and I I'll have to confirm but most of the green reu team members have attended that one first session so they may have been part of it if not uh we'll make sure that yeah I I'll take that feedback to Green yeah but I I think that you know if they're four students I would like to see a greater number of students participate um and maybe it's a I know Saturdays are precious or it could be an after school but I um it was well done and a lot of good information and um I think uh for our next generation of um I think it's very important for for them to to take a look at this because this is the world uh they are inheriting yeah so that was one a a shout out really to uh Federated for Tech without stress um I began to listen to some of these uh pod or episodes um you can listen I think you can also watch um I believe that Federated has paid for this license for six days and a notice has gone out to families uh to uh listen it it's um it's if if you have an opportunity I would encourage you just to listen uh to as many as you can but they are short four or five minute um episodes so you could you know I can listen to it I I work close so I can listen to one episode on my way to work and one home right um but uh they're very well done and I think they speak to the frustration parents um have about technology and too much and how much and when should a cell phone enter our lives our children's lives um what do I do how do I model my behaviors um so you know I always looking at my cell phone when I should maybe be talking with my uh children or my spouse or or whatever in in the home so how do parents model and what what impact that has on their kids so thank you to Federated for doing that um I I would hope um that an a a few more reminders could go out about signing up and and participating this is a really great opportunity and it is you do it at your own time and it's you know these small little chunks of information so um really kudos to Federated for finding that I think it was Jimmy judge and uh Amy Gil uh who might have spearheaded that with money from the Wizards um and um last night um hu was there uh jazz in the wood and this is such an annual event but wow you know what it what strikes me always as I see the the students interact with our staff and then the students interact with themselves is real in the Performing Arts is really the joy they it is it was wonderful to see each student clapping for another student who had a solo um the seniors standing up and the the um Juniors or sophomores or freshmen uh musicians you know you know congratulating those seniors on what and how many of our performers last night could raise their hand and say they wanted to continue uh with music um as they go off whether it's a minor or uh in college their major or just um for the enjoyment of Music it was really a lovely night and I congratulate our staff for doing that um so I know if you want to add anything and then we already talked about the superintendent state state of schools uh so thank you I wanted to mention also uh we had another meeting for the I always have to remember the name the partnership for Community well-being which is really developing into a I think a fantastic group with a lot of great ideas Dr Schwarz was there Mr fredman was there every time I go to these meetings there's many more people around the table who are so sincerely engaged in really um really emphasizing what Wellness means and finding ways to support not just our students but our entire Community we even talked actually about bringing in agef Friendly Ridgewood because there's so much benefit to intergenerational working together with people um and uh so we're working on uh a series of themes really kind of kicking off in September and kind of finishing in June for next year hoping to culminate in some large event Maybe an art show or something like that but there's quite a bit of planning to do yet but if anyone has ideas on that uh we would welcome it we welcome student involvement um so anyone who has any interest in that uh I would definitely encourage you to be a part of it and one of the main things we talked about was cell phone use and um what is it the anxious generation is the book that um is being read now here in the district and uh really talking about how that affects Wellness so taking a proactive approach as opposed to a reactive approach um so good things happening great thank you Mary anyone else okay um uh board committee reports uh We've I guess three of the major committees have met policy curriculum and finance I did you want to go on anything on policy report oh so Mary you want me to okay so policy um we're going to have a couple busy months on policy I think so um we spent a long time having a really good discussion basically about our Fields use and access policy internal to the district and then of course how it um works you know hand inand with the the fields policy that we are part party to with the district so there's a lot of work to be done on that um but I think we really identified some the issues that we need to address and we're going to do one of those deep Dives we'll have another state of the fields addressed right Dr Schwarz that's what we're looking for um I know there's some other policy issues that have come up with regard to uh I know it's going to come up in discussion with regard to waiting lists and access like to the Glenn school we simply did not have time after like two and a half hours of policy um but it's on the agenda so it will be addressed so that was policy um so may may I ask on the fileld policy because that's a joint this is not well that's I think a work in progress but we also have we have um okay I don't remember the number right we have a regulation facilities thank you very much so it's it's really with regard to the use of facilities which is slightly different um and really only affects our gyms and our field oh okay so that's that's and you know honestly that really kind of needs to be updated handed hand with the other work that we're doing so that's what we're that's what we're talking about um you know we have great need and great interests um so we're working on it um I'll move on to curriculum is there so curriculum uh we had an a really great discussion I'm glad you're here Mr Bailey for that um we generally you know we approved obviously all of the the the course of studies but we talked about um three major things I'm looking at my notes Here we had we started a very good discussion on College admissions and I know that um Mr Bailey and the guidance department is working very hard on Gathering the data on how this year went is it fair to say that anecdotally despite um concerns we actually did pretty well I think is that fair or should I be quiet and not say that okay PA's good okay right okay I don't I don't mean to talk too quickly um but Dave is working very hard on really digging into the data and getting the information on the senior survey and we talked a lot about um maybe getting additional information from the senior survey that's really going to help us to identify how we prepare the kids for College admission you know um coming up and also to look I think one of the things we talked about was looking at uh transfers after the first year in college because that's becoming a new thing yeah so just a lot of discussion on that um we also talked about um what are the admission policies at Glenn school and for itdc because we have some you know questions and concerns and a lot of demand there and what's driving that and also to make sure that as kids are assigned to classes at the elementary schools and in the midal schools to the houses that we have a transparent and Equitable process so that everyone has the same opportunity um to get you know what they get you know um I think I covered everything here didn't I okay so it was a good curriculum meeting wow that was a lot and do you want me I know we have Finance but I always have my cpad update so I might as well keep talking right while I'm talking absolutely um so uh the next meeting for cpad will be June 3D uh at 9:30 a.m. where they're going to get their own state of the schools address with this emphasis on special ed and the community is encouraged to uh give any input uh to uh email contact Ridgewood cag.org or there's a virtual coffee chat uh not tomorrow night Wednesday night the 22nd at 7:30 p.m. other events on May 31st at 9:30 a.m. there's a cpad parent social at Paris Baguette and on June 8th at 12 a barbecue touch a truck with the Ridgewood fire department which is really fantastic that was the fire department's idea to do that for this community of kids and I just really want to applaud them for that okay terrific thank you Mary um finan is there anything you wanted to report um I I didn't see any notes from Finance yeah yeah um the finance was a fairly Dr Schwarz if you want to it was just mainly on appointment yeah it was pretty straightforward meeting we really we're catching up with um uh with each other and uh we had um Aon Bowman with us to go over a few items but um I believe he's put together some uh some minutes for us and I think they might still be sitting with me so my apologies for that terrific thank you and uh facilities meeting uh tomorrow afternoon so we'll be uh no yeah oh we are scheduled we're scheduled for oh okay I I believe it's a is it 430 4:30 I think it's at 4:30 tomorrow yeah okay and that include the I hate to Har on it but the tennis courts resurfacing yeah yeah great thank you yeah um sure did you get did you um hear that the tennis court resurfacing on it just as a discussion for facility yeah it shows up it it was mentioned in the fields committee so right yeah yeah there yes we that's that's that's on the agenda ready uh discussion items Glenn School enrollments but is are is policy taking a look at that already or is that not fully because I I do want to so it will be like policy will take a look at that but I want to emphasize the urgency uh by discussing it here at the board meeting because there are a lot of parents who um who have young students and they want to enroll either in Glenn school or in our uh special programs at Glenn school and U I think currently the weight list process um and enrollment process is a lot of is not understood well that how that whole process works so um so we have work on both policy committee and Communications committee that Communications need to somehow communicate that how how the process works for Glenn school and um special ed program for enrollment and policy Comm so that so first part is communication that how that whole enrollment process works when does it start when if I have a two-year-old when can I or when should I reach out to reu for enrollment um what's the start date what's the end date is there a lottery process is what like what's the whole process there so we need to communicate that clearly on our website and to the parents and the second one is for policy committee I think they have to look at uh Ridgewood residents versus non- rwood residents that um for and I think uh we discuss that at the curriculum committee so our recommendation to the policy committee was um the students or or children of uh teachers should be treated as Rew residents uh and for this specific program because they are paying in full like they don't have uh very big discounts or so this is different from our um Ridgewood teachers students who are non- rwood resident for the K22 program because that's heavily subsidized so that is a separate discussion item but here it's a they pay the tution and uh so there's no conflict there because it's they are paying the full tution I think they they only getting 15% discount that is not changing here so and they are not part of like that is not unque one so I don't think there's a conflict but you can determine that um you know I didn't even um we didn't even get the detail that you just gave was I don't remember discussing it was simply a matter of we had residents non-residents and teachers in large part because like the idtc and Glenn school was I think at some point really designed as um something that would benefit our staff so it would make it easier for them you know to come to right when they have young kids right so I don't want to speak on Mary's behalf because um like you may not want to speak on that but from my behalf I'm saying for the policy committee when you consider that because this was initially designed for staff um um so we when you are considering so three there are three categories one is students of staff member who are nonresidents one is non-resident who are not students of staff and one is residents right so we should come up with a priority um and it would be good if students you're right I we established that with infanta development program when we first came on the board it wasn't like that and in fact um residents uh babies because they take as young as six weeks old um the residents were not getting priority at I feel now we say that they are getting priority but it's not codified in a policy so really yeah we we discussed that at the board meeting and I think it's being done but uh the way wait s are being managed I think the that can be more transparent more it can be in Excel spreadsheet that is shared with the superintendent's office instead of paper and uh different methods so I don't know what like those methods are but the policy committee has to work on setting up a policy for those parts and communication committee has to work on communicating what our processes and how it should it works I I do see a so many people on that I mean that's a large waiting list for the infant todler and then you know how important daycare is and the availability of it right so for itdc that goes right we are getting the weight numbers the reach program is the so for that we are not getting weightless numbers so for the reach program we have to establish the weightless process yeah I think I think part of it was that there's such there's such need that there's almost no almost no need for a weightless process because someone leaves that someone just comes right in you know what I mean and it's just it's very fluid having said that there was agreement in the room with the people that managed the weight list Dr Fenwick and uh Janelle that you know let's let's codify it let's put it down so that everyone knows what it is and how it happens for the reach program for yeah which is Glenn right yeah for the there two you know there's the reach program which is the the yeah third three and four year olds in correct jened and special education students together and then infant toddler I was talking about infant toddler having a a very large weight list a lot of people do and then um you know a while ago um when we were talking about infant toddler four years ago um you know is the viability of infant todler and obviously there's a weight list but also the need for the preschool of the uh reach program for thirdd three year old and four year olds right that mixed uh gened and um Specialists as with all things it's a little bit more complicated right than it it appears at first blush and so there's a lot to kind of unpack and discuss but great yeah but we'll take it up thank you anything else on that no I'm okay um acceptance of minutes uh there there were some uh changes to the minutes um did everybody get to uh see them and um would someone like to move the minutes for April 8th both the regular public and the executive session I'll move them was I wait a minute I don't think I was there on in executive I can't I can't move s Rob that wasn't the you know you were the 30th you were not here in April I you were you were at that meeting yeah yeah I'll move okay you move I second um all in favor I uh any other business um actually I'm sure um that uh given the good news about the uh contract being approved that there'll be um some communication that goes out um I do ask uh on behalf of the community that it be really transparent and on in terms of the numbers so you can't just talk about you know this it has to be holistically the 2.95 plus the new which is basically points so it's really 3.25 plus the fringes because I don't want to be in a position where in year three or four or in the outer years you know there are some unknowns there so it needs to be not just window dressed I really really think that transparency and honesty and accuracy in terms of what the deal actually numbers are and Miss BR 2.95 and if you are mentioning which I think you mentioned twice today that the numbers are less than County and state averages it would be great if you can State our actual numbers and County average and state average if you're doing any um any communication with press or anything I think uh the numbers have to be the factual numbers so what is the what was the state average what was the county I saw yester uh yesterday or on Saturday from New Jersey school boards 3.5 right so you'll have for both of those because I'm looking at the School Board association's website there were only two contracts that were ratified this year in Bergen County and um I don't recollect that as the average so it would be good if you mention that what is the Burgen County average what is the state average and what is our actual impact not not just the actual impact the 2.95 plus the salary enhan that are compounding and essentially points it's 3.25 plus another 0.25 on the benefits which is really a 3.5 um and the fact that it's four years so that people understand that this year I think we'll be okay um but there's a lot of unknowns in the outer years yeah we just have to State the actual numbers instead of uh you know window addressing and saying you know it just needs to be very honest so we can be held accountable y any other business uh comments from the public none here but let's see we do have um some uh let me see Christine Christina hi Christina Millian can you hear me yes we can thank you hi thank you for your time um I raised uh some questions with a few of you already regarding the njd application to put an artificial turf field next to Route 17 at shedler and I just first want to thank you know everyone who's been um very helpful on email and working just to get some answers for residents so I I just want to state that up front I really do appreciate it um but within this meeting tonight I just wanted to ask a question for the record um you know the njd application mentions the boa 31 times in a 1200 page document with your Fields mentioned throughout it and I'm trying to just really understand the process from your point of view um you know who on the Boe reviewed the application for accuracy not just in regard to the data on your Fields but also the positioning and summary statements um underneath the fields I think that would just be helpful for the public to know and you know from what I reviewed I didn't see anyone from the Boe listed as involved in preparing the state application um so I just want to make sure that someone um from your side uh definitely reviewed it for accuracy and who was that um so thanks just for helping to provide basically just some transparency for residents um again we just want to know the boe's involvement or if you weren't involved in the application um that would also just be really helpful to know thank you thank you uh jacine you're on can you hear me yes yes we can oh thank you so I'm also calling regarding the Boe provided numbers to the Village Council for shipo shedler application those numbers were astonishing and the field used by these organizations is truly exhaust in our inventory which brings me to our point my point which is the policy and field field use so the income from fee schedule for use of the athletic fields I didn't see that income detailed in the budget something showing the the amount of use from the master library and the actual field use versus our current fee schedule for use of a letic Fields um do we have that information if we do the policy says that all fees are due in full prior to full field use so we should have that in accounting um most if not all of 2024 and I didn't see that so can the board or the superintendent I mean that's a lot of field usage at you know $600 daily fee let's say um that's a significant amount of money that I'm not seeing so can the board or superintendent review these numbers policies field use versus the fees that are coming in and is there something as far as like an audit that gives these specific numbers of the use versus the fields collected fees collected and I also have one other point which is related to the green initiative that Sheila broken said you know a world that our children is are inheriting and that brings me to the point that I've been raising for quite some time now which is the use of artificial turf I had requested that the Board of Education physician give a written position on the use of artificial turf within the Boe and I haven't been provided that copy yet so I wanted to know if the physician had in fact weighed in and approved or what his position is on artificial turf specifically I provided the board and the superintendent with a letter from Mount Si that was addressed to the Village of Bridgewood Mount Si does not separate Boe from the village of Ridgewood so the letter was a notice that also served onto the Board of Education and deserves a reply given those serious health implications in that letter would the Boe circulate the m sign I letter to Physicians or the physician position issuing a Warner warning to field field users and participants I mean knowing what the board knows now especially what was given in these letters at the very least there should be a disclosure of use at your own risk and can we have perhaps maybe the board counsel or legal we in so if Ridgewood wat is issued a quarterly warning to residents I'm wondering why Boe hasn't done the same doesn't Boe have the same fiduciary obligation to let the residents know that are using these fields that they are being exposed to health risks and is there something maybe it already does I don't know if when you sign up to participate in the field usage does it say that that the turf fields are a health risk and I just wanted those two questions answered I'm still waiting on the physician's position and the field use policy is a new thing that I'm asking as far as the fees being collected thank you thank you it I don't see any other hands raised and there's no one else in the audience um so I'll close public comment and I have a you know it's not the first time that we have uh received information and alerts on uh the the potential hazards of of of artificial turf and I'm wondering based on um information now and and and the the more research that we as a board are made aware of perhaps maybe as a policy we could maybe have a policy where um every athlete who who who plays on the artificial turf signs a waiver that helps protect us uh because now there are some known hazards and as long as the players themselves the parents are comfortable with that I think that's um it's it's a way of education and also to acceptance the so I think that's uh that's a question for our uh Council and I think based on the latest policy that we just read we are we can request that Council um opinion right that's the policy that we voted on today so I'm formally requesting that uh we get a opinion from our Council that uh based on whatever the information our board physician has provided or not provided that or information that we have from Mount sa letter do we need to start getting a letter uh a disclosure signed by our parents so we need we need to ask our attorney that uh do we need um a consent from U for athletes who play for any students who play on our on our toe field just the consent just maybe starts at the beginning of the year that would cover them for the participation of the year not for every event to make it streamlined so not only athletes is yeah that's yeah whoever is using it whoever is using it so basically we need to just provide the the letter that we received from um from the community from Mount siai and if there is any response received from our school physician and give those two to our attorney and ask the attorney that do we have an exposure and do we need to start getting anything signed so I have to like I want to weigh in a little bit here which is that um I without a doubt I think we need to if there's a if there's a concern about whether or not we need to ask an athlete for a waiver there's no question that we should ask that of our attorney having said that um we have a letter from Mount siai that's been issued we don't know all the circumstances surrounding how that letter was prepared why it was prepared um you know I appreciate the representation that Mount Si considers us the same as the village of Ridgewood but we aren't the same as the village of Ridgewood and and the reason you know I may be I may be overthinking this a tad but what the heck and I think it's worthwhile because I think it's it can become very complicated and it asks us to take positions I have no idea whether our physician is going to be comfortable with an opinion on that and um I think that we need to be very very intentional about the question that we asked to our lawyer to start and be aware as we begin this discussion that it could open up a much larger issue for us uh which I have no problem addressing and going down but we need to be very clear because it is not as clear as getting a two page Memo from mat chobe that says yes do a waiver no don't do a waiver and it's going to be costly so I have no objection to the process but I think we need to be very clear and I'm not sure that right now kind of on the Fly is the time to craft that but I would suggest that that's something that we put some time in on our own end before we go ahead and ask him for things yeah I think what what as a board we agreed to is that any board member can request attorney opinion yeah I right so I'm not looking for a board agreement on this I'm requesting board attorney opinion and I think at least I have one uh Other Board member that's agreeing to that and the attorney opinion is simply that we at a board meeting we were served a letter from Mount siai and those residents requested um opinion from our district physician so and we have a district physician that we pay to so anything if there is a a medical community sending us a letter we not professionals so we need an opinion from our district physician and we are not attorneys so we need an opinion from the attorney that um what to do with this letter and uh Miss SAR has just raised a concern that if we have an exposure do we need to get anything signed uh or notify like what happened at the time of Ard a lot of parents showed up and they said hey you was a problem right so if a problem is raised to us do we have a fici you're losing your mic you want use M yeah thank you so you can see the cooperation Mar wants to make sure that I'm heard absolutely I have no problem with that so uh so I think we have to make sure that um I lost bit my pug but um the mind yeah if if we have to uh if these concerns are raised all we are asking is an attorney opinion and I think we all have the right for an attorney opinion on that so I just want to say I have no problem with that I am 100% in agreement I was part of the committee that drafted the policy right yes we have a right to it I just don't I think that this is a broad enough issue that do you object to other people being part of how we craft that question so that we are very clear on what we get so because if Matt says I'm going to have to research this and you're gonna have to hire an expert on Turf and it's going to cost you $15,000 look ask you want to do I'm not asking him on the merits of the letter we're saying from his legal experience his legal background question is should we have a wave or not I will tell you from other schools that I have my kid is not they you don't have to even step on a field but you have to sign a concussion waiver you have to sign all these waivers and it's just a way to protect the district and so I think this is not asking matomi what is your opinion on Turf it is simply should the district have a waiver that indicates that the parent and the student participates or uh go um participates on Turf for various activities with the known risks that's it right or something El that account but we're not asking him to aine and I'm not and as far as drafting it carefully um like I'm not trying to make him draft a letter in in this way or that way it's just we have a letter based on that do we need a v or not I mean you know if he can answer it that's fine with me I mean again no objection I just want us to be careful about what we ask and how we ask it so that we're not waiting into something that's he finds it Beyond he'll just say because that's of the legal policy actually says that's my point he he he in consultation with um the superintendent may say I can't you know go talk to your own attorney right no I'm fine with that so I think that what we you know what we determined here is that we are going to ask based on um the policy uh let's get a written legal opinion that will be shared with the whole board uh and at that point we can say wait maybe that's not rightly worded that's not the question I want answered and that's fine we should at least and also there was a question about the numbers um I don't know if Dr schwar you want to answer that but those numbers never showed up at like the facilities committee was not part of it so the board I'm assuming rest of the board members if if the board was part of it that would be facilities committee I sit on the facilities committee facilities committee had nothing to do with uh any of the inputs on that report yeah so I don't know where that information came from so we did we did look into that um that information was provided was requested of through the athletic department and provided by the athletic department um I don't have a reason to believe that there was anything erroneous in that information can we can review that to ensure that it's accurate but that is how that information was shared which is not uncommon we typically would share information if the V needed it so on there was a followup Dr Schwarz that a lot of those organizations that are listed there are um not directly affiliated with the athletics department um and so is from the facilities use uh policy are there any fees being collected and if there are do they tally up with those numbers on a separate um you some the response uh raised a question in my mind which is from a process point of view whenever the board and the board um uh property is represented and to uh state or federal level if that could be readed at some point because at the end of the day we are being represented a certain way so we should at least um have some higher level you know look at what is being submitted on our behalf I mean I'm sure Mr cook did a great job I don't know but since it is going to a high level agency that it should at least be shared more broadly because it is representing the board or assets I not yeah I did not look at the numbers but I um did a very like high level review of that report and there are a lot of where I just search for Boe or schools and for a lot of our Fields it basically says that they are uh built to the max there's no more room to to expand and that contradicts the cmx report so I don't know if that information was um collaborated with the board of education but that report basically for like for example Glenn school and rge everywhere it says there's no more room to expand there's no more room to expand there were comments that from from actually um president um and in the past we've had very robust discussions on what could potentially happen at Bridge what could potentially happen at Glen so we even the CMS report identifies areas or places at those schools for expansion and we have I think in a parallel effort we are working with the Architects to identify where can we expand but the uh or enhance right and the report that was submitted basically lists all of the schools and it's a similar response that they are built to the max there's no more room to expand so I don't know if Boe or the atic department had any inputs on that or they collaborated or work with the agency that did this tour like we they must have contacted us to get access uh to the fields or they just went ahead without anybody from Boe and just did the tools themselves but uh those to me that information doesn't look right so to be clear yeah we did not we were not a part of the assembly of their of their um of their applic ation um I can't be specific right now regarding what was exactly shared and what was developed by the village so we can take a look at that get a sense as to whether or not it's uh it's accurate or just find out even what was shared I'm happy to do that um but I don't know the extent to which uh I I don't I don't necessarily um with respect to the to the Villages application um I can give feedback regarding what what we believe is accurate or what is not accurate but um I don't I would hesitate to try to take responsibility for what they what they submit what they put in writing and neither should you know um an administrator you know like the athletic department you know that that department in and of itself should not take so responsibility for what is being presented as a as a board position to the county state level yeah I think just as a general comment I think the district is not necessarily we do not we have not we have not had a strong process with respect to how information is shared um things you know when there's a lot of leadership transition Things become very decentralized so we're we're adding those kinds of centralized habits and practices back in um but I would agree that if we have an information request from an outside agency a good course of action would be to run that through central office before it's released yeah and central office and if I may since it will present a board position and we are the board if it can be shared uh so that it's not surprising to us because I'm getting for you know like it's represents a a board um asset in a certain way are are so obligations if you will in a circumstance where let's say we re we rewound things or let's say the time frames are different and this this was now coming now we were getting this request the optimal process that I would take would be to if it's if we know that the information is being requested to be used by another party as an application for some Grant on our behalf or in any other circumstance I would typically take that through through a committee as a way of way of offering the board an opportunity to have some representative and substantive discussion I I think committee is valid especially since the committee then will have minutes this is literally no information you know it's just the process and I'm just expressing that it was not ideal to have um have that well we'll pull uh we'll find out what was shared and we whatever that data set is we'll share that back out is that it okay closed the we closed Pard me oh she was I didn't see that because I looked up before I did that is it the board's wish to open up of a comment again I would would say that I'm just not in a h i I would prefer that they've been patient they've been waiting I'd rather not include someone from public comments okay we are opening up public comment again uh Susan you're have your hand raised um thank you for letting me speak um Susan ran 75 Kingsbridge Lane um I am I am calling in regard to the turf and and I do agree that I think that there should be I don't don't think it's a good idea to Turf the um Fields um and for the health risks um my daughter played on turf field and she's G in concussions and also those little the turf has like chemicals in it and if I had known them um I was suspicious I thought wow what are we inhaling when we go to these fields when she played soccer and now the realization that this is stuff that um comes into everyone's lungs and I don't have good lungs so that is something to keep in mind that not only for the children but also for the parents that that that has adversarial effects on that and to have that always be the exposure isn't um isn't good and um I do think that if you want to have I agree with uh the comment about having a waiver but I um to to inform parents how dangerous the turf field is because it is it's like concussions it can have devastating effects um on a a person so I would um I would highly say please say no to to it and also I want to know with the field development I know we're were talking about Glenn but what about um the field across GW that citizen that is part of Ridgewood but that I don't believe GW has a sports field and I never understood why that hasn't been developed better um over there for the kids at GW to have a sports field of some sort even if it means just crossing the street um I don't know why that has never been discussed um all right thank you bye jacine uh thank you for addressing the issues regarding the field use policy and especially for um discussing the Mount Si letter and just a few points on that I just wanted to know once this information is gathered um Mr Donnie and Miss quack thank you so much for exercising your right to have an attorney um or or pose the question to the attorney and I was wondering at what point does the public does it because I've been waiting for months um for this I introduced it at the end of last year beginning of this year how do I get that answer will it be given at the next public meeting is do I keep writing emails what is the best way to get this publicly circulated as far as an attorney has been reached we're waiting on it and when the attorney does actually give a response and the physician as well I I'm I'm I understood that the physician was contacted and did have a position on it so that information is already available to circulate I just don't understand why it hasn't been um is that should I do an Oprah how does that work and as far as it being I think um uh miss m had said something like it might cost us $15,000 but $15,000 to adverse Health impacts I think is a pretty low cost um and definitely worth the money so I'm thank you that you got um that all of you agree that it is something that should be uh asked to the attorney and the physician I understood already had a position on it so could that information be circulated thank you uh Christine thank you uh yeah thank you for the for the thoughts and the conversation and just being open um you know to the ideas circulated and just trying to get residents to ground truth I think that's really important and we appreciate your efforts um just along the same lines like when you find out more information about you know the internal process of how this all came about and how the Boe was uh presented in uh an application to a state agency that mention mened you 31 times um again just like how will that information just be circulated to Residents um I know I've raised it on an email but obviously this should be a much more transparent uh process for everyone not just uh you know in a Fields committee meeting which we all know has its own problems I know a bunch of residents around here have dialed in and it's been the wrong information provided and yet some people miraculously get the right number to dial into and so uh I don't think the field committee meeting is the right Avenue I just think we should be having more open conversations about that and so um anyway I just was yeah curious again like as the followup to this like how will um what you find out uh be circulated to Residents thanks so much for your time I appreciate it thank you okay I see no more hands raised close public comment again and um motion uh to um adjourn the meeting all in favor everyone have a good night and we are back on uh June 10th