stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all this is crazy I'm not taking pictures I'm just trying to U Mr Sim could you read the mission statement for us tonight y the rway school district is a partners ship of students parents staff and community members we are dedicated to providing a supportive environment in which all students can reach their maximum academic potential while developing as responsible citizens who respect individuality our goals will be achieved because curriculum and instruction are aligned with the New Jersey student learning standards all decisions reflect the academic social emotional and physical needs of prek to six uh six grade students cooperation and ongoing communication exist between the school district and the community thank you yeah I skip roll call again roll call please Miss Brown yes here M creso here mandro here Mr Cohen here Mr Langley Mr Sim here and Miss Ken here pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting at day time time and place have been delivered to the post office the municipal building the record and posted on the district website at least 48 hours prior to the time of this meeting at this time we will move on to special item a public comment on agenda items only so this portion is for public comments on agenda items only first and foremost please remember that we aim to maintain a level decorum in our board meetings we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courteous and direct comments to the board president not individual board members and as per policy 1120 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name residence and group affiliation if equable and to maintain fairness each speaker will have three minutes to speak and so at this time I open it up for public comments on agenda items only um Jared orama 92 Ser Lane Chase van lettering 175 Greenway Terrace we wanted to bring up a topic regarding section D number eight on the agenda for tonight um regarding the reinstatement of alphab best before and after care for the 2425 school year I am a current employee of alphab best and Chase is a former employee uh during our time working at Roosevelt with the alphabet program program we have seen how unsafe the program is for both the students and the employees to start off management is very disorganized they have lost our staff records including medical documentation application and our reference sheets the disorganization also affects the families a part of the program for example no phone calls are made to ensure the children are not supposed to be at a program for that day if they do not show up meaning which they can walk home alone without anyone knowing more importantly situations are not taken seriously especially ones that involve staff member arguments or staff members acting aggressively towards students there had been two incidents during the school year involving staff members acting aggressively towards a student that then resulted in four of our staff members being fired due to them providing accurate statements of the incidents the staff members accused remained employed and with the company as someone who has grown connected to the kids I taught while working with the program this is deeply disturbing it makes me concerned with the safety of the children because if these staff members can do this and get away with it who's to say it won't happen again there have also been multiple incidents in the past involving children due to the carelessness of Staff members we feel as though employees never received proper training for this job which is most likely the reason these incidents have occurred we are utterly disappointed in how alphabeth runs this program if an incident occurred involving my kids I would never forgive myself this this program is meant to protect the children and we are here to ensure that children's safety is the first priority we can no longer support alphabet s education nor will we defend them against your decision that will be made as students who attended Roseville Elementary School we do not believe alphabet should represent River Edge and we hope River Edge school district and the board of education does not reinstate alphab best um and instead pursue other child care providers for the upcoming school year thank you for your time thank you thank you respond briefly yes I was to um no do we have when we get to the Motions there's a there's a there's a process yes so this is just comments on agenda items only and then when we get to the motion if there's during the the motion you can bring it up you can make a comment ask a question or okay is there any other public comments on agenda items only let's not have side conversation thank you any other thank you okay uh moving on to the interim superintendent report Dr wory yes good evening everyone okay good evening just a few things uh just a reminder to the community that a decision about the um Monday we get back from break Monday April 8th will be made the previous Wednesday which is April 3rd about the solar eclipse it'll be a weather related um decision um I will inform the community whether we're going to go to full session or minimum session on that Wednesday April 3rd second I understand um that June 4th is a no school day because we haven't used all of our snow days so I think it's a give back day June 4th so I just want to make people aware I'll I'll uh share that out in a blast but um I now have jinx myself and we'll get lots of snow between now and June 4th so I think according to the calendar if we don't use the snow days we give one day back and it's scheduled to be on primary day uh since we'll have people voting in our schools so just wanted to give the community a a heads up about that as well and then last I just want to uh as we go off into spring break just this is a time for many families who have different types of celebrations and traditions it's a time to be with friends and loved ones so I just want to wish everyone in the Riveredge community no matter what tradition or celebration you hold dear it's a uh good one and um I wish everyone a healthy break thank you any questions or comments for Dr Murphy question about um the one thing the River Run is on April 27th is it right sounds about right the River Edge run I think it's the last sat so schol run and the run is on the 27th yes do we have to do anything from the school district or is that uh just Town Town run um so the students had a contest uh t-shir contest I don't know is that part of your report I don't want to give it away but no so you can hear okay so um they had a contest um and the shirt then the winner is chosen which was announced by Mrs Hitman and that that artwork will be on the shirts for the run this year um if I can just ask when you send that communication if we can send out the revised calendar with uh the day off to make it official that um June 4th is a day off yes and I just want you to know I take it personally because that's my birthday so you get a so now write that down Josh June 4th is Dr Murphy's birthday okay okay U moving on to the principal report Miss Heitman hook this correctly testing perfect so hello again uh our sixth grade students actually in both schools finished their Shark Tank projects uh Roosevelt is a tiny bit ahead of Cherry Hill they had their finals I believe uh so there's a winner from each class uh the final in our building will be scheduled for after the break and then I believe we come to the bard of Ed if that's correct or there's another big final that right the CH tank District the district for the district uh and I don't think that's scheduled I I don't think that's scheduled or and I don't know if it's going to change this year I don't know if it's going to be during the day but we're not there yet so we have time uh we were also able to wrap up march mathness with Mrs hayers she had two very successful math nights at both schools uh we had a Pi Day competition and we are these are unofficial results that I'm going to tell you Roosevelt and Cherry Hill sixth grade math league in Bergen County came in first place and second place so we're very proud of them but again they're unofficial results uh kindergarten registration is still open and the numbers are about the same so that that hasn't been a big increase yet uh conferences are wrapping up tomorrow we had a lot of parents come to both both schools and we were very happy about that uh at both schools we had bus evacuate uh evacuation drills we finished our today so they were successful uh both pto's are purchasing special glasses uh for all students coming up in April for the eclipse the solar eclipse so thank you for mentioning that Dr Murphy and you know for conferences in both schools the pto's really um spoil the teachers a little bit and they give treats or l or lunch in so we want we want to thank them for that because everybody loves it and we are working on displaying all of our art pieces um from each student at Cherry Hill for the art show coming up in April and that's all I have for now questions anybody thank you Mr Hitman any questions or can you just briefly talk about the two like the contest where the students won first and second place well because it's unofficial they they go in teams um so I don't even want to tell you which moment's first because I don't I don't want to be wrong with it um it it's sponsored by with Mrs haers it's a math League contest test and we did very well is what I can tell you more information will come out when it's like official official I heard that also that like there was a large number of there was a large number of students and so we're we're proud of our our kids they do really well they honestly do and M and Mrs hayers does a great job and she has all these competitions and the kids love it they just love it so that's all part of it you know and I I think that's um um something to say about um how well our our our kids are doing especially when they get into the sixth grade because they're middle schoolers right and they're ready to go to middle school I can tell you that um but yeah so more information will come I promise any we could share it out to any information the minute it's official we will share it out yeah yeah right well if we can you know put it on our social media and and all of that even beyond that if possible it's a huge recognition whatever we can do to recognize our schools would be wonderful that's right that's right yep thank you any other questions okay thank you everyone Miss napalitano for the board secretary report yes thank you um I'm happy to say that the budget was submitted to the county office and was approved um it will it's be advertised in the newspaper there's a use user friendly budget that will be available in the board office for anyone to review um in regards to the budget um our broker has now our health state health benefits broker has now advised us that state health benefits is projected to go up as much as 20% um I just wanted to let the board know that this was not budgeted this was not the initial calculation that was closer to 12% um so I'm concerned that um we'll be seeing more of an increase in our healthc care this year um not just the school fiscal increase that we had the final vote on the budget will be held May 1st um the bid opening for the partial roof replacement under the SDA Grant was held this week um we received five bids um the lowest bidder that would have been awarded has since sent a letter pulling his bid for being incomplete um it's in the attorney's hands and I will update you um I'm hoping to have that on the next agenda so we could award it and we could get this project done this summer um item A2 is the appointment of a public agency compliance officer which is usually the business administrator um that's one of the things you'll be voting on which is a liaison between the Board of Ed and the State Department of Treasury um item D4 is uh a revision to align with the grant specifications um item D5 is um the door access and cameras that are approved under the cops Grant which is a 75 25% match um which needs to be approved uh according to Grant uh specifications um D7 is omstead tree printing pruning excuse me it's for the tree Grant um which we also need to board approved as per Grant specifications our total um for the tree Grant is $137,500 okay uh moving on to the president's report um I just want to say thank you to all our staff members families and community members who took the time to fill out our online survey for our superintendent search um also for those that were able to come out to the in in-person sessions um I our superintendent search consultant has has uh mentioned how um valuable all of that input has been and she'll be putting it together for the board um um in the coming weeks um the applications are open until April 5th so we're still accepting uh resumés for that position um and that's it for me any questions okay um no committees met I think uh we're all meeting um at different times on April 8th okay um moving on to motions to be acted upon can I get a motion for items A1 through three so moved second any questions discussion roll call please Miss Brown yes Miss Crespo yes Mr alesandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes can I get a motion for items D1 through 7 motion to approve items D1 through 7 as stated um are we oh a second any questions comments okay roll call please Miss Brown yes Miss Crespo yes M delandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes Madam president yes may I recommend that we pull d8 which is the resolution for uh alphabet just to confirm that what the principal spoke about in the last month have addressed the concerns that the young people very nicely spoken it's not easy to speak in public so thank you kudos to your teachers and to your school district okay just to confirm that the um concerns have already been addressed as I mentioned they did meet uh the principal team did meet so may I recommend we just pull that for now yes um thank you for coming out and speaking I know it's not easy to um come in this time and speak in this forum um yes please do that um and just look into it further before the board is the board an agreement to pull it please thank Youk thank you um all right motion for D9 move to approve D9 as stated second any questions comments roll call please Miss Brown yes Miss Crespo yes Mr alesandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes can I get a motion for E1 through uh five move to approve item E1 through five as stated second any questions or comments roll call please Miss Brown yes Miss Crespo yes Miss alesandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes can I get a motion for F1 move to approve F1 as stated second any questions or comments Ru call please Miss Brown yes Miss Crespo yes Mr elisandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes and Miss K yes uh motion for G1 through three so second any questions or comments roll call please Miss Brown yes Miss Crespo yes Mr delandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes Miss K yes is there any old or new business that the board wishes to bring up I just wanted to comment to the folks that came out here that it shows integrity to stand up for something that you think is wrong and it shows bravery to speak in public uh uh to an unknown audience and so I just wanted to to thank you and just to recognize that uh and that uh uh we will take your concerns very seriously thank you and just to reiterate thank you Mr C is that the principles recently met with alphabets I just want to make sure that these concerns were part of the concerns that were addressed so the the community should know that our administrative team has been very active on this topic I have a question um so it's spring you know I love my Gardens so the beds outside the school can we find out when we will will we be doing gardening outside again this year r miss hman Mr Hensel so normally there's the beds the raised beds on the outside of the school um are we going to is there a team in place so my understanding is it's part of steam okay and there we were just talking about soil the other day great and um so we were talking about where they were going to go they have actually built some of these things in the steam lab um over over the course of the year until now so they're definitely going to be out there um we're just trying to find the right spots and um yeah it's part of our steam program thank you we're very excited about it oh um and then can we find out if it's are there Gardens at are there Roosevelt I see gardening club yes oh they have raised okay yeah there's been gardening club since last year so I think they're continuing that okay great thank you I did neglect to um tell you that we have baby that hatched I should have a very big deal live we have live stream I wasn't in today and I got text about the baby chicks just so you know who doesn't love a baby chick to live on our website uh I I think just sent school I think it's just in the school and the kids got like each class got to go I'd love to see that it it is very about the kids are just loving everything oh yeah so the adults um an old business that I did want to come back to was at the board retreat we were reviewing our board meeting dates and trying to look at all our dates for the year and um coming to a consensus as to when can we consolidate some of those meeting dates um I spoke with Dr Murphy just to clarify two additional dates that we could possibly eliminate are June 12th and October 9th uh we'll still have meetings at the end of June and October so we um if everyone is in agreement those are two dates that we could that's June 12th this current school year and then October this is all for 202 y y okay so we'll have those I guess it won't be revised because it's we're just taking them off but we'll have to re advertise it right and make sure we um make those changes on our website for the public so okay okay um at this time we'll move on to our second public comment time so again first and foremost please remember that we aim to maintain a level decorum in our board meetings we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courteous and direct comment to the board president not individual board members and as per policy 1120 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name residence and a group affiliation if appable and to maintain maintain fairness each speaker will have three minutes to speak and we also request that comments related to individual student matters be directed to the child's teacher principal or superintendent not all issues especially ones involving children can be addressed publicly in board meetings so so at this time I open it up to the public for public comments okay um seeing that there are no additional public comments we do have to move back into close session to discuss Personnel no action will be taken um can I get a motion to move into closed move to closed second roll call please Brown yes M Crespo yes Mr delandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes thank you everyone for being here tonight um our next meeting will be April 17th e e e e