Callan yes Mr Fernandez yes Mrs npal Tano yes Mrs Pavone yes Mr Walsh yes and Mrs yes and now we move to our student council Representatives thank you good evening board here are the events that have been happening at swmhs over the past weeks Deca members who qualify for deca's international competition returned last week from California they had an amazing networking for Motivated students around the world competing in events where one of our students placs within the top 10 and enjoying day trips to Disney World and Universal the swmhs rock paper scissor competition on the day of PPP Ry created an energetic atmosphere in the high school the duels led to several students accumulating dozens of beaded necklaces by the end of the day with the winner being Gabriella Gonzalez students who excel in their Spanish classes were inducted into the Spanish Honor Society Cal's technology Student Association had two students safic and Rishi score second in the coding category the international society and voices of the world held the day of dialogue where students discussed Global conflicts in a growth oriented environment food was served beliefs were challenged and students ging perspectives about their place within the school and the entire world in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day the student council passed out muffins and coffee to teachers during the first through third periods on this teacher appreciation day the students at swmhs want to expend their heartfelt Gra ude for all the teachers dedication passion and hard work in shaping Our Lives your guidance and support have been invaluable and we are truly grateful for all that you do thank you for inspiring us challenging us and believing in us every step of the way moving on to sports baseball is 9 and6 coming off their first round GNC game versus Colonia boys golf is 9 and8 boys lacrosse is 7-6 Boys Tennis is 5-8 flag football is 1 and three girls golf is 1 and 11 girls Li cross is 7 and4 after be steing 22 to1 and soft ball is currently 10 and5 with a 17 to2 win over Colonia last Tuesday in terms of upcoming events World culture day is approaching on May 21st during lunch periods registered students will be running a table that includes cultural items food and music the event encourages students to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the diversity of our school community and on Saturday NS will be hosting a car wash in the school parking laot and that is all I have for you thank you Bo thank you Sean very informative as usual okay Aston can I have a a question the day of dialogue Sean did you go to that I did it yeah how how was that it was it was very collaborative if that makes sense we were split into groups based on people that we didn't know and then we were given topics on world conflict so there were actually several people there who had F in Ukraine when the war started and there was also someone from Palestine so these people with different rounds came along and we started with an iceberg and then moved on talking about world events our perspective on them and what we think we could do to increase peace in a world of young people that's awesome it was a great one more question did you get your touch yet I did what what color scheme we going with I normally go for the regular black and white like James Bond asks I don't go too fancy I'm very simple FS Sean FS Sean Sean birs very simple man that's how I like it so you're sticking with that I stick with that I I hinted that I I caught a hint that you normally do that but you're not going to do it this time are you stucking with that I'm sticking with it I can't I like it too much it's too clean I don't like straying away from it it's a classic look it's there for a reason you know absolutely absolutely great answer I want at least one picture picture I got perfect okay Ashton good evening Board of Education members and administrators the student council will be selling e8th grade promotion signs beginning Friday please check your email for pickup times the first sale will take place this Friday during 8th grade formal the sarapul school district will be honored by Casa of MX County at toast 2024 on May 7th at the Shau Grand Kasa is honoring the district for the middle schools community service Club support and collection of their gift drug foster children for over a decade Daren cilano community service adviser will be present to accept the award on behalf of the district the music department is excited to host Duets on May 31st this event is fun full of talents laughs and making memories we hope to see you there the spring coner will be held on May 16th at sville War Memorial High School the PTO is excited for the masquerade ball themed 8th grade semi- formal this Friday May 10th yearend fund days are all set 24th 7th grade May 28th 6th grade and May 7th 8th grade picnic the final PTO meeting of the year is Tuesday May 21st in person at the middle school library farewell to PTO president Zoe K and welcoming new incoming board members 38 members of SMS fpla attended the state leadership conference at King University on April 8th 21 of these students placed in the top four and qualified to National leadership conference in Orlando Florida from June 28th to July 3rd Miss andette is proud of these students and can't wait to see how they do at NLC now on to the Sero Middle School spring Athletics the Sero Middle School's girls blue softball team is off to an 80 start and remains undefeated heading into the last few games of their season this talented group of girls has been working extremely hard and it's paying off Co Vasquez is extremely proud of the girls efforts and continuing continued D dedication to being the best people and players they can possibly be the blue team will honor their eighth graders next week on Thursday May 16th for their hard work and dedication to the program these past three years the great team is 44 and has picked up wins over John Adams North Brunswick and woodro Wilson the great team will honor their eighth graders this Thursday May 7th as we thank them for their hard work and dedication to the program cille Middle School tracks is excited to host the GMC's on Thursday May 16th the SMS unified track team will be competing on May at the Cel war memorial bombers Stadium please join us to cheer on our athletes Middle School grade baseball is currently four and six on the season the team consisting of all seven creators has performed well while dealing with the adversity of a Long Middle School season can bring regardless of the outcome dis the display the characteristics of what bomber baseball is about great job as ashon I have a question me too masquerade ball does that me I wear a mask but I don't think anybody is going to wear Mas okay my question would be if they're wearing masks The Masks go on after they get in the room not before correct better question how are you styling um I I have like a navy blue like whole suit and then I have a black shirt like this one nice oh black and navy blue yeah any tie or just open uh I have this one tie it's kind of like a light bluish side with like kind of pixelated blue help with this H this actually fromd in the beginning of the year don't be don't worry this is lby is the same for me I don't out Mrs Bloom wants to know about the shoes what kind [Music] of need a picture of me too Mom I'm gonna need a picture of Ash absolutely awesome I was invited but I'm not allow to attend my child Mr gahan's going through the same problem the exact same thing was the them inspire by the eth graders reading Romeo and Julia I I want that's your homework I want to find that great job gentlemen as always I just have a comment from mran and Mr Pano obvious I'm a better parent my child's letting me go goodbye gentlemen great job as always but In fairness my [Music] my okay now for the president's comments um just a few things that I would like to say tonight regarding those who think we are middle of the road and money shouldn't be thrown at us I would like to that our National Honor Society inducted 64 students last week the Junior Honor Society at the middle school conducted 77 students last week Spanish honor I don't have the exact number but it was within the same range and in two weeks we will be honoring the societies of business computer science National English French national math and National Science so so our students are achieving and they are achieving well and we also have six seniors who have been accepted into high colle so I think we are doing the best we can with what we haveing right along presentations yes we have our 202 24 2025 budget presentation immediately following it thank you Mr Walsh I'm excited too immediately following it we will have our open public hearing for the School District budget board members I just want you to know that I I put an insert into your packets it's in there because unfortunately in your packets there's a duplicate of the technology purchases the key major technology purchases there's two of those in there instead of the Personnel so personnel has been added if you're watching online the correct presentation is posted on the website so I'll begin of course this is our budget presentation and our public hearing it's obviously as it is every year it's a collaborative process between the Board of Education Central Administration our principles and directors our assistant principles and supervisors our Nur certificated directors and coordinators of course our faculty our support staff and the public if you came out to any of our presentations that we provided during a board of education meetings you would have had the opportunity to provide public comment on the proposed budgets for each of our departments back in October we presented to you the Board of Education our budget development calendar beginning on October 17th of the state of the schools address moving on through March 19th where we asked you to adopt approve the preliminary budget and then of course today where we're asking you to adopt the 2024 2025 budget next slide is our enrollment as you can see our enrollment has been incrementally gr going up since the 2021 22 school year just after the pandemic we saw our enrollment begin to increase we are currently at about 6,475 students that was our October 15th count we're projecting same amount of students are slightly more next year that probably will exceed 6,500 if things work out the way they've been working out in the past of course this is our mission I'm not going to read it to you we all know our Mission Vision 2030 can you believe the big thing here is when we started Vision 2030 it was actually before I got to saille started Vision 2030 in the spring of 2014 when our students were then were kindergarteners and of course remember Vision 2030 is preparing these kids to graduate from college in the year 2030 well at the time those kids were kindergarten they are now 10th graders you can believe it as everyone here knows in 2020 in September we went ahead and held our last Summit as well as our last Board of Education Retreats as and administrator retreats to develop the last part of our vision 2030 strategic action plan that would be our 2023 to 2027 strategic action plan and we thank all the Board of Education members they took the time to be at that as well as our faculty and staff that came out to be a part of that you can see in the next slide there's all the people that joined us for that Summit not going to read through the goals these are our goals for this year in finance facilities information technology and operations student achievement and culture and climate Board of Education members as you know in my email on Sunday I I informed you that you can now go into the system and start working on my evaluation in that evaluation I kind of outlined the goals that we've accomplished thus far the goals that are still in progress please take a look at that the next slide if you keep moving in order is the 2023 2024 budget challenges are 2024 2025 budget challenges so the challenges we faced as we prepared this budget were ongoing maintenance and refurbishment of our facilities maintaining our technology infrastructure Internet Security being of major importance especially after some of the things that have occurred this year not only in saille but across the state the rotational replacement of one to1 student devices as well as staff devices the replacement of out Commission school buses and then in this budget we have two mini buses that are going out of commission and the purchasing of new buses so that for the first time ever in s we are now going to be busing all of our IND District students I'll say that again next year in s will be the first time that we bust all of our indri something else we're very proud of are the tier three Mental Health Services that provide all of our students across the district particularly at the high school and middle school but at the upper elementary school and across all of our K to3 schools and Psychiatric Services that we provide it's quite a bit of money as you know from the budget exceeds a million dollars but based upon some of the challenges that some of our students face it's well worth the money that we we spend on and then finally one of the other challenges is the increase in liability medical and prescription benefits you'll see later on the presentation that our medical benefits are going up by 15% and our liability insurance is going up by 10% that includes our workers compensation our property insurance insurance for our vehicles and so forth next we'll highlight some of the budget items or purchase purchases that we plan to obviously make within the budget begin with Finance some some key points of Finance it's a 3.21% tax levy increase that's a 2% increase in the regular tax levy but 0.15% increase due to increased involment and 1.0 6% increase due to health benefits increases we did receive fortunately and we're forever grateful to the state of New Jersey for a 16.19% state aid increase and our fund balance is going to increase by 2.33% overall it's an 8.93% increase in our general grr budget facilities and infrastructure we're going to be using some of the funds from this budget to refurbish the student bathrooms at the arle school in the student and staff bathrooms at the middle school to refurbish the science labs at the middle school replace floors at slower School construct an Esports lab in the media center at high school something we very excited us repair the drainage systems at the upper elementary school and the AR School something that we've needed to do for a while I'm including into that the high school too if you've been to the stadium there is a drainage problem that we've been trying to repair for years there so hopefully we can make some some necessary changes over there to repair that training system as well going to replace some sidewalks at the Wilson school hopefully repave the parking lots at the Truman school and upper elementary school which haven't been paved in excess of 20 years I believe K about 20 years I would say so as I mentioned earlier to purchase two replacement mini buses one of them is a wheelchair access bus and five new big buses which will complete our Fleet for in District bus we're also going to purchase a small dump truck for buildings and grounds they've needed that for a while now particularly I think the load salt so that we can spread salt around our our parking lots and so forth and some big things that that we we've been hinting to but we are looking to lease a new facility for our preschool and we're hoping to go ahead and finalize that lease in July as you may or may not know the school that we're looking at is the AR lady Victory School hopefully again we'll we'll complete that by July 1st and then not to steal Mr naster Thunder but we are looking to expand the 18 to 21 year old program the All State office which is next to the bers Beyond Cafe it's in between a jewelry shop is going up um it's going to be vacated at the end of June and we're hoping to go ahead and lease that and turn that into Mr Nash you can go ahead and say it if you don't mind I'm going to send this over to Mr Callahan because he prepared for tonight okay all right go ahead Mr gallan I don't want to steal your thunder you want me to see it now yeah oh well it's going to be turn turn on the mic possibly going to be a bombers Cafe apparel store and Community Center excellent moving on to technology we are going to purchase that Sam Sarah cellular system for our buses Mr sleia talked about that at length and how that will help in terms of safety on our buses this this way we'll be able to parents will be able to track and we'll be able to track where our kids are what bus they get on if they get off the bus if they get on the bus and so forth that's going to require the wayfinder system which we are also going to purchase in this budget and the wayfinder system works off the taets so we'll have to purchase those tablets for our buses as well I mentioned earlier it's to replace we're going to also replace our student one to one devices and staff laptops that rotation that we have for them we've also budgeted funds to replace interactive boards and projectors of course the new Esports Hardware there are some new e projects that we have to budget for and of course the technology infrastructure upgrades that I spoke about earlier in security we're only we're purchasing replacement metal detectors and two of those are going to be state-of-the-art metal detectors that will help our campus security monitors in terms of checking bags these new monitors they'll actually kids will walk through them with their bags on and we'll be able to detect any any type of metal devices not only on their person but in their bags as well moving along to student achievement we have a ton of new things beginning with um some new hires we're looking to hire a new English as a second language teacher or a multi- language learner teacher a new physical education teacher at the high school new social studies teacher at high school looking to continue with again districtwide effective School solution tier two and tier three mental health Clinical Services that I mentioned we're looking to include ABC counseling at the high school it's something that we've always had the middle school for some of our kids that experience behavioral challenges or and so forth we're hoping to bring that over to the high school we want to continue career counseling at the middle school we may not be eligible to continue to receive grant funding for that so we wanted to go ahead and maintain that ourselves that would also include uh career Club advisors at the middle school we want to continue with the teacher coaching that we utilized this year and we leverage through Federal funding we want to go ahead and continue to do that in budget into um our general fund along with teacher leadership coaching and administrative coaching we have a brand new study sync English language arts program that we want to implement at high school next year likewise we have a snd systems it's a new alternative literacy development program for students with disabilities and grades K through 8 that we want to implement we're actually going to implement grades K through five this upcoming school year with this year's funds and then we're going to budget for grade six through eight for next year in addition we are going to purchase continue with our site licenses for my reading math academy software and that's for students in preschool through second grade we'll need supplies for a new AP calculous class at the high school we're going to expand our American sign language classes at the high school so we need to we need to budget for that previously we've used literacy uh We've provided literacy and Mathies through grant funding we're going to budget most of that through the general fund likewise with tier three tutoring and last year we used the high impact tutoring Grant to do online tier 2 tutoring we're going to fund that ourselves because we're not sure that type of funding will be available to us next year similarly we're going to budget for summer learning acceleration New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment boot camp AP summer boot camp new and replacement instruments for our magnificent band at high school and middle school we are expanding our volleyball program to Varsity so we're going to need two additional coaches likewise we're going to expand our lacrosse programs to freshman so we'll need two additional coaches for that we are going to expand our cheer program at the middle school to two teams as you know all of our middle school programs have two teams so that more kids can participate except for cheer so next year cheer will have two teams can participate in cheer and then finally we're going to purchase obviously some new cheer mats field hockey goals and fitness room equipment that we have not replaced for many many years in terms of Staffing I've mentioned some of that before but in within this budget is an additional vice principal for both the high school and middle school that person will be shared that High School PE teacher that I mentioned earlier as well as the high school social studies teacher and high school and middle school multi language learner teacher the two volleyball coaches two lacrosse coaches one Middle School cheer coach the ABC counselor at the high school the career counseling stien career Club advisor stiens campus security stiens and one thing I didn't mention with technology but it used to be years ago that we had what we're called technology integration facilitators we decided the better way to go with that is to provide a stien for one teacher at each building to work as the integration fa so we'll provide stiens for our teachers at each building to assist us in integrating the new technology that we have in our district in the non-certificated realm we are looking to uh we are funding a new mechanic and that's something that Mr Mr shig made a point of saying that we based upon the number of buses that we have we needed another mechanic and of course because we are purchasing five new buses we need five new drivers for that I mentioned before our property and liability as well as health insurance as I said previously we're budgeting a 10% increase in liability property and Workers Compensation Insurance 15% increase in medical benefits and 10% increase in prescription benefits if you take a look at the pie chart as you can see in terms of personnel salaries are 5% that includes sens of our Personnel budget but 25% is benefits that number that percentage keeps creeping up and creeping up and that's due to the high health care costs that we have go to the next part chart the operating budget analysis as you can see the greatest proportion of our funding is for to general education and special education and other instruction although you can see the breakdown in terms of tuition Support Services Administration Transportation buildings and grounds capital outlay and of course benefits 17% next one just goes through our revenues and special revenues I'll keep boarding through those things there's our Revenue analysis you can take a look at our Revenue comparisons with the current F and our Revenue comparisons in the special resue fund finally our debt Services fund last P chart is our Revenue analysis and of course the big question what will this cost and I I know that that number I just went to I know that that number in terms of our average home probably is that still that's still the cost of the average home average value of a home oh that's right not real estate value that is prop property TR property value is $146,000 that would mean the increase for Homeowner of the average household again that's that's property value not real estate value uh would be $125 increase per year are there any questions on budget Fe cation okay hearing none you want to open up to uh open public here okay at this time we'll open to public on agenda items only public hearing for the budget oh I'm sorry public hearing for the budget anybody com on the budet discuss good evening everyone the board of ed student achievement committee met last week during the meeting Miss burs discussed the preliminary 2024 graduation performance assessment results read that the percentage of students passing we increased in ela and math in ela was a 3% increase and in math it was a 6% increase from Year miss bur also reviewed the 2022 2023 New Jersey performance report and she provided updates to us on the summer learning acceleration program curriculum revision projects and the financial lit program that will be implemented at the UBS next year after that m b gave us the the committee an update on the professional development Innovation projects Innovation intervention services and grants that are going on in the district and lastly Mr nter gave us an update on the Sunday systems the alternative literacy development program and as Dr lbby Stole Thunder From Me did want to announce that sorry expansion of the bers we're uh will be most likely leasing the store next door uh to get brand new bomber Beyond Cafe a power store Community Center Thrift Store and much much more and that's the way it was thank you thank you very much Mr thank you Mr C microphone and off he's your assistant okay middle sex County School boards Association update well we had our last meeting on May 1st I think Dr L Erin and Mr Fernandez for attending I have my 10e pin on so I was honored for my I think I need to have my head examined but that's okay um I also want to once again uh mention our two unsung heroes our senior Rea bar barbar barbaria and Lily hyberg who is our 11th grader who were honored at the UNG banquet and we will not have another meeting now until nothing for IT services okay all right we will now open to public participation for agenda items only okay seeing none we will move on we need a motion to approve the agenda items my report first we I can my I can bring your attention to Pages two and three number one an adoption of course of the 2024 2025 School District budget in the amount of 125 m572 752 number three which you can find in page three we're asking to accept a very generous donation from the actually a grant award from the dupon Specialty Products Corporation in the amount of 5,000 for our stem chemistry supplies and a donation in the amount of $2,500 for our bondus Beyond supplies so we thank the dupon company very very much for the support and generosity likewise number four which you can find on page three we're asking you to accept the generous donation of a Nintendo switch bundle a karaoke machine art supplies games puzzles and books valued at $1,300 from the Brandon Tyler narleski charitable foundation and again we can't thank Mrs narleski and the foundation enough for all the support and generosity they provided us for the many many years in the memory of their of their below son and that of course is for the bombers Beyond number 17 which you can find on page five we're asking to reject all bids received in response to a bid opening held on March 12th for the hbac upgrades at the Jesse Sala school and the MF harlet school and that was due to high cost any questions on these or any other items on finance and infrastructure all right seeing none let's go to student achievement ask me to to approve the long-term suspension of couple students on governance numbers two and four two through four which you can find on pages 15 and 17 we're asking to approve the team search Local 469 the SLE Education Association information and Technology systems as well as the sea Services engineers and full-time technicians holiday schedules so that's three holiday schedules we're asking you to approve we did ask you to approve the Teamster schedule during our last meeting but because of some of the changes that were made we wanted to make those three calendars the same so our our collective bargaining units did a great job of collaborating so we did have to change our Teamsters Poli schedule so that it was aligned with the other two schedules number four which you can find on page 17 we're asking you to make minor formatting revisions uh or approve minor formatting revisions to the information and technology system and services engineer we call that level one and information and Technology network engineer level two job descriptions so two job descriptions again some minor formatting revisions that we ask me to approve any questions on student achievement or governance items hearing none Personnel we do have a Bittersweet moment we are asking you to accept the retirement of a beloved teacher Karen White she's a kindergarten teacher at the high school and that's effective July 1st School sorry what I SCH oh the high school wow that would be interesting Eisenhower school I'm sorry about that after 31 years of De dedicated service Karen White is retiring from the Eisenhower Elementary School Karen's passion professionalism and expertise have made a profound impact on the countless students she has taught in the college Le she has mentored her methodical approach to nurturing the academic social and emotional growth of her students has cemented her reputation as one of the finest Educators in our school district Karen steadfast leadership unwavering commitment to her Student Success and knack for inspiring those around her to persevere would be sorely missed by all whether it was supporting fellow teachers advocating for students or instilling that power of yet mindset k has left an indelible mark on the entire Eisenhower Community as well as our school district while Karen's absence will certainly be felt she has earned the right to enjoy her well-deserved retirement on behalf of the entire is now family as well as the Saville Public School District we extend our sincerest gratitude for Karen's Decades of service and wish her all the best in our new chapter thank you Karen and congratulations so on behalf of all of the staff and students as well as the Board of Education zable we thank Karen for her impeccable and outstanding service and we wish her nothing but the very best in the next chapter of her life numbers two and three which can found on page 17 we're asking to approve the suspension of two employees number eight and 25 which can be found on page 20 in addendum we're asking to hire new certificated and not certificated staff for this school year number nine be on page we're asking to approve the transfer of a non- certificate staff member number 12 which can find Pages 21 through 23 we're asking to appoint new advisers with their sens for the 2024 2025 school year number 18 we're asking to approve the presenters for the June 4th professional development day you can find that on page 23 and finally numbers 20 and 21 which you can find the addendum we are asking you to approve the termination of two employees are there any questions on the Personnel agenda hearing and seeing none Mrs Bloom that concludes my report approve Mr Callahan yes sorry Mr Callahan yes Mr Fernandez yes Mrs Nano yes Mrs pone yes Mr Walsh yes Mrs yes uh we now open to public participation on anything from the public however tonight I'm going to ask if you want to speak please line up so that we know that you're going to speak and nobody gets missed in the process so if you want to speak please line up first person come to the microphone my name is Susan Barry I live on Washington Road in zille I've been a resident of this town for almost 20 years and I am also a parent I'm asking the board to please consider some of the ethical problems and safety concerns related to policy 5756 policy states that for a students request parents can be kept in the dark regarding their child's gender identity while all everyone else in the school will be inv and even if parents are aware that the child is experiencing gender dysphoria but they feel that it is unhealthy for their child to change their name or pronouns or engage in other Behavior related to social transitioning teachers are being told to ignore the parents wishes so basically are undermining parents Authority regarding their own children is this the message we want to put out there to students that their parents rules don't matter and that they should just do what they want do you really think that children are going to limit this rationale only to issues related to gender identity or are they going to generalize it and assume that they can disregard other rules and boundaries their parents have put in place for their safety second this policy implies that it is okay for children to hide things from their parents and the school is reinforcing this message it should be obvious why this is dangerous but I will provide an example if you look at the literature on how to prevent children from falling pedosexual Predators it explicitly says that separating children from their parents and telling them it is okay to keep secrets makes them much more vulnerable to sexual abuse experts have stressed the following Secrets typically play a significant role in The Grooming process teach children early on that there should be no secrets from parents even seemingly innocent ones Secrets often lay the ground work for future abuse the number of online Predators targeting children has grown exponentially in the past 10 years at any given time 50,000 predators are on the internet actively seeking out children and these are just statistics related to online Predators the number of children who have been sexually abused in person is also on the rise and yet this school now has a policy in place that is encouraging students to keep secrets from their parents regarding sexual matters the supporters of 5756 say is necessary to protect children students from parents who will physically harm them or throw them out of the house I'm not going to say stand here and say this never happens but it is rare and mostly occurs in homes where there is already other abuse going on but to imply that loving caring parents who have never been abusive are suddenly going to become monsters if they find out their child is confused about their gender is ridiculous and frankly insulting to parents they car your time your time is up thank thank you [Applause] I'll try the good evening my name is Kim Linley I'm a former SEL resident and former special education teacher and tonight as well I want to discuss 5756 and a few of my concerns which I can't wrap my head around is that having a child make their decision as far as which identity they they identify as it's the brain development the re reason we're parents we're giv CH we're giving children is that we make decisions for our children we provide shelter clothing make medical emotional needs for our children we bring them to counselors doctors whoever is necessary I know I have you know and that's why we're given them they're not able to make these decisions until the age of 18 so I don't understand how that happens or switch happens when they come into a school and they're allowed to make their their identity and um as far as medical and I know I probably mentioned it before but decision making and in the brain the brains are fully developed till 25 to 30 sorry so we often strugg this is what it says from this um at what age is it fully the brain F develop from mental health dailing decision making we often struggle to make good decisions when we are teenagers but are into our 20s our decision making improves this is due to the fact that our prefrontal cortex helps us logical and make more calculated assessments of situation our brains weigh The RK and tells us whether a certain behavior of a choice is good vers it's bad so I can understand especially Elementary and they're Guided by a teacher and when I was in school of course I love those children but they're not mine but also I wanted to bring up about homeschooling what from the Washington times as parents pretend as parents pretend prepare to send their children back to school many will have made decisions by their children's education they will not put them on a different TR directory but also impact the public educational system which is being used in too many districts to indoctrinate more than educate stories mat red queens and kindergarten forcing students to use preferred pronouns biological boys who say they are transgender using locker rooms and showers once reserved for girls along with the pandemic which convinced growing number of parents at homeschool and works better all of these prompting and exes of parents now teachers from public schools this was from the New York Times recently quized that in New York City the nation's largest school district more than 50,000 students over the past two years in Michigan enrollment remains more than 50,000 below pandemic levels from being SED to rule a bur Peninsula I I I just can't understand as a teacher you're there and the bullying the Hippa is for all protection of all students and I would I would not be qualified as a psychologist I would call The Counselor when needed that's why they were there when we did an i the parent was involved the psychologist was involved the social worker and I'm done thank you so much for your time I'm sorry thank you I appreciate [Applause] it uh thank you very much for your time and dedication to the school district and the children my name is Jennifer Woodruff and I am a resident of Morganville a prior resident of sville I voice my objection to the 5756 policy both verbally in the school board meetings and also through emails I have provided news articles backing up the reasons against the policy and how it is detrimental to all children there is compelling evidence against affirming gender confusion because it can lead to self-destructive path for the child at the last board meeting one of the board members stated that she did not like the message of those who spoke against the 5756 policy the message from the public was clear and well substantiated but because of this comment I will voice my objections from another angle this transgender policy is not about protecting the lgbtqia a A++ children lad already does that the transgender policy does not protect the gender confused by keeping their gender identity confidential from other students no instead it puts the child in the driver seat by compelling teachers and administrators to be deceptive and to recognize accept and affirm the child's chosen gender identity identity that can change because they can be fluid the policy allows children to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their children identity take sex classes with more of those in their they identity they wish to identify with and have special school documentation a student ID that differs from the truth the policy allows for the child and school administrators to decide whether the parents should be informed the parents the people who love this child more than anyone the ones who guide their moral compass the ones that are responsible for the child's wellbeing they are the ones that can be left in the DOR the 5756 policy is wording on how the transgender child can work with a principal or designate to ensure that their gender identity is not inadvertently disclosed this privacy and intimacy between administrators and children does not sit well with me it also disturbs me that the school administrators or teachers are befriending students and C causing a wedge between the child and their parents we know that many children that are confused about their gender are either on the autism spectrum have eaten disorders have been sexually abused or suffered other traumatic events in their lives and have a history of depression these are usually children that feel like they don't fit in these children are easily influenced by someone who befriends them these children are more likely to be victims of sexual predator we know that when someone wants to exploit a vulnerable child they go process of groming excuse me involes being time's up and Al we appreciate your participation I think it be fair to all everyone behind you um I just think that this policy can lead to some real problems with the intimacy going on ad thank hello my name is Ron Mack I'm 4.8 miles from here in bridge I was asked to be here by many parents in sville and their children too frankly there's a lot of bullying going on but it's not in the direction you're being told it's the bullying going back if if those people could say the children and the parents could say what I'm saying here and others they would be ostracized um and their jobs are in Jeopardy I'm not making this up so that's why we're here okay and we have the First Amendment right to be here um I was an aerospace engineer I'm a degreed engineer from a big 10 school and I designed robotic Aerospace lines all over the world um and I want to thank you also for uh your decision to expand your signing program for ASL and it's the fourth biggest language in the United States so thank you and push that um now last time we were in the board meeting we were chided by the board here that we weren't convincing and then the next day Dr lby you were in the news everybody was in the news this was in the news the next day you guys knew this was coming down then we I wake up and I see this it's not mentioned it's nowhere to be found there's no thing dealing with it sville band assist I'm just reading the news for you sville band assistant had sexual photos of middle schooler the police a former sville Middle School student teacher is accused of having photos of a child from the school who was addressed in the photos sorry it's the news Okay um now Dr lby you said your highest priority is to protect the children okay if I'm a parent here and they're talking to me in sville what's the question they're going to ask are my children safe in sahil I had four terms of calculus there's only four answer to that yes no I don't know or I sure hope so there's only one of those that's an acceptable answer 5756 policy which I hope you've all read by this time the most famous policy in New Jersey and you're on a Schoolboard you should have read the seven pages by now um it keeps things hidden from the parents and if you don't want don't believe that CU some people say it isn't I do have copies of it now so are you going to protect the kids because by uh resending 5756 you can break this barrier that allows the school to hide stuff and who from parents who better knows the parents or the Educators I think the parents know thank you for your time thank [Applause] you I'm Carolyn Mac and I do live close by in Old Bridge and um again um I want to appeal to you on uh uh 5756 you've heard a lot of good reasons why it should be rescinded one that is um really coming on our radar right now is um like my husband said the The Bullying issue which is kind of a um a being done under the radar um parents are afraid if they come here and speak there's going to be ramification for their student or for their um husband's job um so you're silencing uh voices of people who do have legitimate concerns about uh the policy and the effect that it's having on the educational environment and um on their children even on going to the bathroom like I had mentioned before girls who are afraid to use the restroom um and will hold it all day because they're afraid a boy will be in there and um this is a legitimate also a legitimate concern uh you've heard that 5756 opens the door wide to groomers uh also not a good thing um you know many teachers are good and they want good for the students but um many younger teachers coming in are being trained uh to um um well they have a different perspective when it comes to the lgbtq laws and this 5756 that uh as we've said it opens the door wide to groomers and and it is never a good idea to keep secrets from parents where their own children are concerned um and and also the elephant in the room nobody can change their gender and that's another thing that is promoted under this policy the whole idea that by having uh body parts amputated your gender can be changed this is ridiculous it's not scientific uh there's no basis behind it it's it's experimentation on children turning the classroom and the children into Lab Rats basically um so uh you know I think also 25 seconds I know you're sticking hard and fast to the 3 minutes um Nazi Germany has appeared here yes it has because the sterilization of children that they did against their will it has come and made it uh uh proposed it to children as a solution for gender dysphoria when it is not it's a misdiagnosis all right thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is audre zapy 434 South Pine Avenue I'm stating my address because that's also in a board policy um my younger two children are current high school students my older two sons are very recent graduates and I have not had an occasion to attend a board meeting lately but I watch every single one and the past few have greatly Disturbed me as a parent I am begging you not to change anything in a policy that is helping children feel comfortable within themselves if kids are not comfortable talking to their parents and they are comfortable talking to a counselor or a teacher as a parent I am grateful there is someone in their life that they are comfortable speaking to I just am so disturbed by the need for everyone to conform and be the same and times have changed mental health is a big issue and when I graduated from serle high school no one was open about who they were and I think it's great that these kids are encouraged to be open about who they are because as Elwoods told us happy people don't kill people so if we can just keep these kids happy and safe and guided to maybe feel comfortable speaking to their parents maybe we can avoid all of these discussions I'd also like to state that something bothered me from the last meeting was the Veiled Threat of abolishing this policy before November which is when the Board of Education members would be reelected five people in my house can vote in November and as someone who can vote in this town I think keeping this policy is a huge benefit to the children of this district and to the members of the staff of this District thanks for your time thank you very much Dan Finn a so that's very interesting I um I'm wondering maybe when my five kids were little um I should have encouraged them to talk to the neighborhood uh scoundrel or the post office guy or anybody that made them feel comfortable and I guess probably since um the kids can uh lifechanging decisions based on their feelings I should give them the family car keys if they feel that they can drive K through 8 first grade second grade I wonder how many of you are using logic to think through some of these arguments about um what kids um should be able to decide as minors and what they shouldn't because we just went through this budget all this elaborate effort to guide children from this old up through high school to prepare them for life and I think stop signs and uh you know no tattoos and if you're a second grader and you know things like that are uh you know reasonable structure and rules that this parents and uh authority figures in their lives make but with 5756 you're throwing it all out the window matter of fact 5756 is antithetical to every other policy on your books and I look through many of them but you get to 57 56 it's student centered approach affirm without question based on feelings undermining the role responsibilities and author of parents and it goes beyond that because as a military member for 30 years and as a Navy officer I saw what happens when we get kids from the liberal cities Across America the dysfunctional kids that can't follow instructions and think they can do whatever they want and then they get sent home as unsuitable for military service believe me you did not help that kid the the and people encouraging that kind of you know raising of children without discipline without rules and without boundaries so this policy that you think you're helping kids when it undermines basically the fabric of our whole society you're wrong up till now you were maybe oblivious because this policy was adopted in the dark of night basically after being radically revised 2019 and you didn't adopt it until 2021 and parents still don't know what sir thank you thank you for your service thank you for your [Applause] participation Lisa seta 47 Cedar terce Marin I'm here also I I have to just say that I've listened to this for quite a few board meetings now and I want to say that I feel it's extremely discriminatory to have this attitude towards children because they want to feel the way they want to feel or they feel that this is where they are in their life as for saying that it's very rare that parents throw them out of their homes or they're not accepted that is wrong wrong wrong I know you come up here with all these articles and you think you know everything but you don't because I am sure as my name that you are not if you have children in your life or grandchildren in your life by the age group that I'm looking at I'm going to tell you that I feel sorry for them because I don't feel that they can ever come out and be themselves in these families that are here speaking about this and that is what leads to suicide and depression and being feeling like they don't belong you are not accepting okay and you need to move into the times because this is what we are here we have to accept these children how they feel and if they feel that a teacher or an administrator can understand them it is because they are not being understood in their own home and that is very sad to me because I am a mother of two children that identify as lgtb and I will tell you that although it was a difficult a difficult challenge for us when it All Began we accepted it as parents because I will never lose my child over who they choose to love or who they they identify as and I shame on all of you because really what you're saying is that they're going to be uh sexually uh hurt people are are are not going to guide them right this is this is not what this is and and if you have done all your research you should know because I knew my son from a very young age was gay and I accepted him and I loved him and he's 38 years old now and we have a wonderful relationship and I adore him and he adores me and I have been accepting his whole life and that goes for my daughter as well and we've had our challenges with that too and she has felt comfortable dressing as a boy she is not a pedophile she is not looking to hurt anybody she just wants to be her and that's what she feels and that's what she identifies with and I'm not going to lose my daughter over that either and I wish that at that time when they were in school this was more open and they were able to come to their teachers and their administrators because they felt that they they didn't belong but now they see that and they see they do belong and why because their peers are accepting them their peers the children don't have a problem with this the parents are having a problem with this and if this is a problem that they go to their teachers this starts at home not in school this starts at home time up and you should be speaking to the board no I'm talking to you because you take up a lot of time here every week okay from the audience please you should be correcting her you you were allowed to speak she is allowed to speak thank you she's not addressing the she was addressing I am addressing you there is no board rule against her moving her head during her speaking not as far as I know does anybody else know if that's a rule there's none such anyone else from public I want to clap for her defending her children against this kind of language [Applause] seeing none public is closed any comments from the board yes Dr lby I'd like to make a comment you want to go first Mrs I'll go first then you could go for last um what I do want to say you know every time I hear you guys speak I do really feel more strongly in favor of this regulation because you when you come here and speak to us you demonstrate the ability the unability you have of accepting people who are different and you you may not think so but your message is wrong and you said oh it's not it is wrong if you wanted to get people to agree with you you have to stop using this canned research from places that are not even they're not even founded okay bring some research that is in favor of these kids okay that's what you should do and two for you I want to apologize to the Jewish Community for you even having the the nerve to uh put the Nazi Germany in line with this thing that's embarrassing especially now when there's a turmoil in Israel okay it's anti- seism in our country and here you are bringing up Nazi Germany to defend your position the other thing I have a problem with is you trying to say that the majority of these children are autistic how ridiculous is that okay autistic children are not raised to be transgendered and nor are they encouraged to be transgendered autistic children are treated quite well in this district and for you to imply otherwise means that you have no clue what's going on in this District so next time you come come prepared with facts because I'm really getting annoyed listening to you with all this just whatever you want to say and it's against everything that's real okay you have a lot of nerv comparing those two things Nazi Germany and autistic children to fight for your cause which is a dead cause anybody on this board nobody's going to vote against this especially after listening to you thank you thank you Mrs you know for the F for the past four or five Le we have all sat here respectfully and listened to the flaws information the ignorance the blatant discrimination and the hate that you have been spewing during these meetings and we've said nothing we've given you your time you're exercising your first amendment rights you're not even from this District doesn't matter it does matter but we've all sat here and we've let you say what you have to say please read the room no one in this room no one watching cares what you have to say and let's talk about some other things that were said first of all our school counselors our teachers and our administrators are some of the most extraordinary people they are not scoundrels for you to come up here and call our staff members Scoundrels is pathetic amen also our parents if you would know anything about s you would know that our parents are probably the toughest most outspoken parents there are around when they want to be I I can present you countless emails of parents that have told me many many things about me you can go on our parent Facebook page there are plenty of things that our parents have no problem saying so our parents in cbel have absolutely no problem speaking their minds and I'm telling you right now you're not telling the truth when you say you're here representing our parents because not a single parent has contacted me about any of the nonsense that you've been saying nor has any parent commented on our parent Facebook pages and believe me there's a lot of content on there none of it they can you are here for your own agenda and it's not sel's agenda so read the room and go someplace else because no one here is changing their minds stop stop wasting our time stop wasting your own time go to another school district where you have a better chance of changing the minds of people and lastly everyone here loves and adors the children in this District like they our own for you to have the nerve to step up here and call our kids dysfunctional is disgraceful you know I heard one of you say say recently you actually brought God into the conversation really really not a oh my go it's not a discour this is not your time to talk as a man of faith I'm telling you right now you don't represent my God because my God loves people and my God Ador children all children not just some of the children all children this board of education this Administration our faculty our staff our parents adore all our children so go away don't come back and if you do I'm telling you right now I pride myself on being a respectful person I try to demonstrate respect for everyone even the ignorant even the hateful but I'm telling you if you come back Board of Education members please excuse me because I'll read a book I'll get on my laptop I'll use the restroom I'll do everything and anything not to pay attention to another word of this discrimination and this hate anyone else I just com to to clear up I'm not going to get into the weeds of the debate because I think spoken already one thing I think we need to clarify is someone made a comment that some parents are afraid or some some staff are afraid to speak because of retaliation for their jobs and their children that's absolutely not not true this is one of the most open districts where everyone has been allowed to come up I mean my daughers come up here and criticize Dr ly um this is a district where we respect everyone's ideas and and anyone who comes forward with with any issue there's absolutely never a chance of any kind of retaliation so I just wanted to be clear whether whether it's for their job position or or their position in school so I just wanted to clarify that the rest of that I'll leave everyone else to discuss I want to just add one quick thing um this the children of SE Bill feel about our bard of bed the thank you note that I received from the um child who represented me at let the children leave commented one thing I learned is children can lead to not only adults so we are teaching our children to be independent thinkers to know that they are empowered and that's the kind of District I want to belong to thank you anyone else on the board okay next meeting is May 21st ation a motion soov thank you second meeting