board member Nubia Deval Wilson here board member Regina eert here board member Bill Gifford board member will Meyer here board member Shaina saak Gable here board president Coe tford here board member Arun VOD lamani here board member Caitlyn whtl here and student reps please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States of America stands Nation God indivisible andice for all please take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner that written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2:30 on January AR 5th 2024 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South orangen Township clerks and the editors of the news records Star Ledger tap into Som in the Village Green where is while the senator Byron and be open public meetings act requires all meetings of the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education to be held in public njsa 10 4-12 sets forth nine types of matters that may lawfully be discussed in executive session without the public being permitted to attend and whereas the board has determined that one issue is permitted by njs a 10 4-12 to be discussed without the public in attendance and shall be discussed during an executive session to be held on Thursday June 27th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. and whereas the nine except exceptions to the open public meetings outlined in njsa 10 10 2-4 are listed below and next to each exception is a box that will be marked when the issue to be privately discussed fall within that exception and after each exception is a space where additional information that will dis that will disclose as much information about the discussion as possible without undermining the purpose of the exception shall be written any marriage which by express provision of federal law state statute or rule of Court shall be rendered confidential or excluded from public discussion the nature of the matter described as specifically as possible without undermining the need for confidentiality is a tring client privilege hip reporting and litigation status report any pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation in which the public body is or may become a party any matters falling within the attorney client privilege to the ne to the extent that confidential is required in order for the attorney to exercise his ethical duties as a lawyer the parties to and doet numbers of each item of litigation and are the parties to each contract discussed are the at nature of the discussion described as specifically as possible without undermining the need for confidential are any matter involving the employment appointment termination of employment terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance promotion or disciplining of any specific prospective public officer or employee or Current public off officer or employee employed or appointed by the public body unless all individual employees or appointees whose rights could be adversely affected request in writing that such matter or matters be discussed at a public meeting subject to the balancing of the Public's interest and the employees privacy rights under South Jersey public Publishing Company versus New Jersey Expressway Authority 124 NJ 478 in 1991 the employees and nature of this discussion described as specifically as possible without undermining the need for confidentiality R whereas the length of the executive session is estimated to be 60 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business where formal action will be taken now therefore it be resolved that the South L Maplewood Board of Education will go into executive session for the above stated reasons only be it further resolved that the board hereby declares that a succession of the aformentioned subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest is in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure that i' like to make a motion to go into public session have a second thank you former coun Becker in favor all right we're going to public we're going to close session 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 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 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 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 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 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 good evening everyone I'd like to make a motion to move public speaks up to the beginning of the meeting do I have a second thank you board M Callahan all in favor I would also like to make a second motion to move resolution 4627 for a vote afterwards can I have a second thank you board member Meyer all in favor all right okay so then we'll move on to public speaks Dr tord Who seconded that board member Meer okay right okay well now have our hearing of individuals and delegations thank you for coming in person and dialing in by phone this evening the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education certainly respects that you've taken the time out of your busy day to address the board at tonight's meeting we value public involvement in our school district and we are eager to hear what you have to say the board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening each individ individual will be given two minutes to speak please do your best to stay within the time afforded to you the first public comment period is usually limited to 1 hour and the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes all input share with the board of education is taken very seriously and will inform future deliberations and work by the Board of Education and his committees e for our first time have Rachel Goldberg Rachel [Applause] Goldberg I go all right uh good evening uh members of board my name is Dr Rachel Goldberg I am a parent of three children here in South Orange Maplewood and a fellow superintendent in the state of New Jersey uh before I begin my comments I would like to say thank you to Dr Gilbert um you have um taken more than most superintendent see in their whole careers in very few months you have done it with Grace and kindness and I don't know that there has been a statement that you've made that doesn't include a true belief in love for students thank [Music] [Applause] you this evening you have an important vote as you consider your vote this evening I encourage you to think deeply about the impact your actions will have not just on South Orange and Maplewood but also on leaders across the state and Nation as a district administrator with experience in both very Urban and Suburban districts the issue of equity is an essential one for our schools I have had the opportunity to work and learn with Dr Fergus and recognize how important his findings are as a guidepost for creating an equity-driven school system for those who have read his books you understand that Dr Fergus is clear that much of this work is driven by the conditions and beliefs we set to guide teaching and learning in our schools tonight your decision regarding Mr Sanchez is critical to moving the work forward in a positive way for the district and most importantly for our children it is critical for setting the beliefs and conditions that provide a safe place for our Educators to do the critical work of educating our children voting against Mr Sanchez is a statement in support of malicious special interests it is a vote against School administrators everywhere who seek to do well for students my own principles have questioned how we will protect them even as we work to protect students this vote will have repercussions that go far beyond South Orange Maplewood a grand jury convened to see through those sub unsubstantiated charges tonight it is your turn as we welcome a new superintendent and Mr Bing begins to enter a district in deep turmoil thank you all right I'll say this thank you very much let's stop putting funds to lawyers let's start putting funds for kids Let's Do Better Together next we have Vita [Applause] trusdale my name is vaita trusdale I'm the parent of a rising sophomore at Columbia High School and a 2023 graduate I'm also a parent volunteer on the CHS home and School Association and I have worked with Mr Sanchez to plan events for CHS students over the years I'm here as you've probably guessed to ask you to reinstate Mr Frank Sanchez as the principal of Columbia High School 13 months ago I sat here alongside countless CHS students and parents to ask you to renew his contract after he was abruptly told it would not be renewed you heard from us then about how much our school Community appreciates and needs his leadership it is very clear that the vast majority of CHS students and families think he is amazing unfortunately to the nefarious actions of a small cohort he was subjected to months of psychological torture really and our high school was plunged into chaos I want to make this clear as a black woman and a mother I feel my child who is still at CHS is safer when Frank Sanchez is in charge in the building [Applause] I am not actually here as an advocate on his behalf because Frank Sanchez will be fine his perseverance compassion and professionalism speak for themselves but the same can no longer be said for our high school we need him far more than he needs us I am not sure that if we do not reinstate him that we will ever be able to to attract another leader of his caliber it has not been a good 6 months at the high school the lines of communication are broken teacher assignments are incomplete confusion Reigns at this point a grand jury found no reason to indict him please do what this community is asking of you please bring back our principal next we have Rhea [Applause] Beck I'm actually here to talk about the incredible opportunity we have tonight you on the board we as a community all of us together can send a powerful message that will resonate well beyond our borders with a simple yes this board can say here in s we won't let you get away with destroying people because you don't like them we won't let you get away with framing people because you want their job we won't let you exert Shadow influence to control a school district when nobody elected you to anything we won't let you dictate what happens when you live in Maryland we won't let let you send fake cease and desist letters we won't let you send fake and cease and desist letters to intimidate community volunteers into silence when they're speaking with you we won't let you get away with using a black girl to do your dirty work we won't let you get away with robbing the other black children of their trusted adult we won't let you get away with erasing the other black girl other black kids who were also victims in this mess we won't let you get away with claiming to speak for black folks when you don't even talk to black folks we won't let you get away with trying to delude and ignite outside groups with half the facts to mask the fact that nobody here stands with you we won't let you get away with robbing us of opportunities to collaborate grow together build together we won't let you get away get in the way of working to build a better future for all of us in this community together not not in here not in Soma all of us in this room electeds and residents we all together call the shots next we have Stephanie lawon Muhammad my name is Stephanie Lawson Muhammad from South Orange and I was a two-term board member from 2013 to 2019 raising black children in this district is hard you must constantly guard against discriminatory systems that were cobbled together over 30 years when our numbers went above the threshold that took us from Curious to problematic I navigated this district with three children one boy and two girls my last Justice graduated last week it is it is through this lens that I speak tonight in support for principal Frank Sanchez Frank is the real deal he cut through all that historical Madness meant to ens snare our black kids reached in and started opening new Pathways that allow them to move from surviving to thriving as the facts of this whole Saga Spilled Out one pathway that spoke to me deeply was his refusal to continue the hall pass for the Maplewood police assigned to Colombia when I was on the board during my first term between 2013 and 2016 we made it clear that we did not support school resource officers in our schools and that this has been consistent since that time the research on school school to prison pipeline is clear Frank said no and I do believe that this is one direct cause of the Insidious effort and attempt to destroy his career well today we say no we want our principal back right now there is much work to do and Frank is ready I must also speak about the student at the center of the storm she's not the first student of color to be exploited by adults intent on removing a highly effective transformative principle 10 years ago a similar Playbook was run against Mr U of South Orange middle school after several painful months he successfully fought off the accusations secured tenure but eventually left under the weight of all the resistance he faced where is he now where he's been since he left our district in Morristown making a difference for their children please put an end to this Playbook today reinstate Frank [Applause] tonight have Dr kadisha Cosley White [Applause] I uh took my earring off but that is not an intentional [Music] thing um I um I was a third grade teacher um in New York City after college and before that I ran a after school program um for three years in different sites in Pennsylvania um I saw some egregious things when I was a teacher um things I still regret not intervening in um teachers that I knew who should not be teaching what happened that day with Mr Sanchez was not egregious but what happened since has been it's been opportunistic it's been exploitative it's been cruel we took a man making a split-second decision to put his career on the line to try to protect not one but two girls and we turned it into is something it was not that's a shame it's not a shame for him it's a shame for us it's shameful so we talk a lot about restorative practices but that's not this so I'm I'm exhausted I'm exhausted by all of this and I'm sure you all are um there's a lot of stuff that I don't know but here's what I do know I know that I care deeply about black girls in South Orange and Maplewood I was a black girl in South Orange in Maplewood I am the mother of two black girls um and so I take it very seriously when people imply that I don't understand what's happening here um it just shocked no one that when BPW needed support from black people he had to reach outside of these towns um and not within them to find something somebody who was willing to back them up it's deeply revealing so I'll just close on this I know that I've seen Frank Sanchez show care an immense empathy for kids that other folks have wanted to expel and to throw away I've seen him personally supporting trans kids and LGBT kids because I've shown up to the building during the day and seen those kids um and I've seen him show affirmation and concern for every child including the one at the center of this incident actually in private when none of you are around so we need to fix this we need to make it right just please do your jobs bring him back next we have Sarah [Applause] oio hello I'm Sarah ioio maplehood resident I'm the outgoing HSA co-president I have one student at CHS and a 2022 graduate I've spoken many times in the past year year or so on behalf of Mr Sanchez and today I'll just focus on two areas his commitment to the culture and community of CHS and his communication style after covid homecoming only came back because of Mr Sanchez when when we the HSA wanted to plan class specific events Frank worked with us to make them happen he wanted students to explore their interest and ensure that there were support for student clubs and activities he spent his time and even his own money to make sure that underfunded clubs had the support they needed without Frank it was difficult for the HSA to do much for the stud students this year instead we were asked repeatedly to plan events to improve the morale of teachers we're happy to do that except it's the job of an administrator to keep their people happy and engaged that's a job Frank did not just to fulfill a duty he did it with enthusiasm care and thoughtfulness Mr Sanchez is also a positive and informative Communicator he returns emails quickly and personably his daily morning emails let students and parents alike know what was happening at the high school what were important dates and what were things that were coming up without those there was confusion and Chaos the HSA Communications team had to work so hard every week on eblasts just to give people some basic information that they needed we were happy to do it however we were acutely aware that we wouldn't fill the shoes of a principal especially the one who prioritized fostering a sense of community both through his strong communication and his genuine interest in connecting with the students family and faculty we can afford another year without Mr Sanchez the school just doesn't work the same without him please vote to reinstate him tonight next we have Patricia canning hi I'm Patricia canning you've heard a lot from everyone so I'm just going to be very short I've had two children go through our school district and like many children who go through our School District they are thriving and doing well I'm here today to make certain that other children who are coming behind mine and have the opportunity to to have the support and to thrive and be successful as they are and and to that end I'm here to ask that you reinstate Frank Sanchez a strong and caring educator who cares about black children who cares about trans children who cares about all of our children I ask that you consider that you do what do what you what you're what we've elected you to do and please reinstate him as principal of our high school Marie McGee [Applause] hi my name is Marie McGee and I've been a maple R Maplewood resident for 11 years um my family has served in this community in many capacities as as many of you know um but this is my first time at a public speaks so happy to be here um we raised our daughter um in the district she went to elementary middle um and graduated in Columbia High School about a year ago um she's now completed her first year in college um and I had the opportunity to meet um principal Sanchez um actually at a at the installation of a black lives matter crosswalk in front of Maplewood police station so the irony that we're here today is um extremely astounding um but I feel the same way about principal Frank today that I did um four years ago upon meeting him he's a highly skilled educator a leader is the principal that that I wanted for my daughter not just for my daughter but for all of our children and especially black children in this District um then um as I do today he I've had the opportunity to work with many leaders in this community and see them in very various capacities um behind the scenes and I can say unequivocally that Mr Sanchez is the real deal um he does the work he's not just about running to the camera ceras he does the work behind the scenes um and he is there showing up for our students and their families by both his words and his actions My Hope For The Freshmen who are um have the opportunity to start at Columbia High School in the fall CHS is a really special and wonderful place it's also a really challenging place to navigate so my advice to you is to find your people um and find your people early and hopefully principal Frank when he's reinstated by this board will be one of your people who will continue to show up for you Advocate and do the work for you because he's the leader that you deserve thank [Applause] you next we have Justin [Applause] Ryan Hey Joselyn Ryan South Orange I'm speaking as the parents of black girls with special needs I know nothing about the special needs classification of the student at the center of this storm and it is none of my business I have only heard that she has special needs from black parent Workshop Communications which is also incidentally the only place I've heard her referred to as a thug what I do know is that she was not in an appropriate placement at CHS I don't know if an outof District therapeutic placement would have been right for her I don't know if that's something her parents or Guardians would have been interested in pursuing again I don't know her her family or her classification but black parent Workshop is three lawyers if they really wanted to help this child why didn't they advocate for a better placement why didn't they advocate for therapeutic support if the district refused to provide the free and appropriate public education she's entitled to by law they could have sued us for that and they would have won I am a stay-at-home mom and I have been able to advocate for more services for my children than these three professional Advocates have for their client instead of getting her the help she needed they promised her a Payday which if they win will in turn become yet another Payday for their attorney Robert Tarver which all comes out of our pockets as taxpayers but she still won't be getting the help she needs because black parent Workshop isn't here to fight for vulnerable black students it was once but not anymore now it's just out to line Robert tarver's pockets and destroy our school district we as a community can't allow that to happen stand up to BPW and bring back Frank next we have Elizabeth Baker good evening Elizabeth Baker Maplewood I served on the board of education for six years three of those as board president and I served on the board of education in 2020 when Frank Sanchez was appointed as the principal of Columbia High School I am here to voice my unqualified and unwavering support for Frank's reappointment and I urge you to vote to reinstate him tonight I would like to take each of you back to this summer of 2020 when Frank was appointed it's a Time none of us wants to remember our high school was a drift it had gone through a second year of an interim principal ship and a change in Administration in which the high school had become an afterthought and then the pandemic hit our high school students were literally and virtually scattered and alone the focus of the district was on the youngest students and the high school's leadership crisis worsened as the spring of 2020 wore on when Frank began he was tasked with creating a feeling of community and rebuilding our school without being able to meet most of his students or the faculty as our high school students were relegated to almost another full year of remote learning they were suffering not only academically but emotionally I too by the way met Frank at the on Springfield Avenue at the unveiling of the black lives matter Crossing he did everything he could to connect since joining Columbia High School Frank led the psychic and academic rebuilding of our school welcoming every student by name getting to know them and their families using his experience as a curricular leader to push our C our curriculum and instruction team to remove senseless and inequitable barriers that were intended to keep black and brown kids and those with disabilities out of stem and other rigorous classes he called adults in to do the right thing by children and he had the personal courage to use his authority to address those adults and practices that injured kids academically and emotionally that is why he is a target for the first time as a parent I saw the progress in the high school that the board our district and our community had been demanding for so long and Frank did this when too often the high school remained an afterthought in the district's priorities the last six months have not only been a grave and immeasurable Injustice to Frank Sanchez but to our students and our entire Community the progress that at CHS that Frank LED quickly eroded without a leader and now the high school is again suffering cuts to morale staff and resources you need to act decisively tonight we talk a great great deal about restorative practices that hard work needs to begin Here and Now under your leadership do the right thing thank [Applause] you as you have ien [Applause] pizero good evening uh my name is Eileen pizero and I've lived in Maplewood for over 13 years have I am the parent of two Rising freshmen that will attend CHS in the fall and a rising fifth grader and I am here tonight to show support for Frank Sanchez and to strongly urge you to reinstate him in his rightful place as the principal of Columbia High School Mr Sanchez is an extraordinarily dedicated educator whose care and compassion for our students is obvious to all who interact with him his skill and his work ethic made our District's single largest school run much more smoothly than his predecessors as you have heard and even when he took the helm during Co his dedication to our children was on full display when he still on administrative leave and having undergone the worst six months of his life due to actions of Bad actors in this community came to Columbia High School's graduation where he was greeted with thunderous Applause and hugs from students who were so thrilled to see him they ran into the aisle in the midst of The Graduate uation professional I don't know about you but I certainly wasn't doing that to my high school principal I was not fortunate enough to attend the Columbia graduation but I did attend the Maplewood Middle School graduation that he also attended where he also was met with the same outpouring of support from the incoming class of 2028 and their families that was demonstrated by the class of 2024 and their families a few members of this community have treated Mr Sanchez shamefully jeopardizes his jeopardized his career and his freedom as a result of baseless accusations not only did he and his family suffer but our kids and our teachers suffered needlessly as well as a human being and a member of this community and as a lawyer I am dismayed by the miscarriage of justice that has occurred over the last six months and I want to make clear that the fact that the grand jury failed to return an indictment means that they did not even find the most minimal problem cause that what was alleged occurred therefore I hope it is clear to you and to everyone that those allegations have been found to be meritless and we can begin to put the pieces of our ruined reputation as a school district back together restoring Mr Sanchez to his role would be a significant first steps towards repairing the harms that have deeply racked our community over the last few months I urge you to vote to reinstate principal San Ronnie Schwarz hi I'm Ronnie Schwarz a Maplewood resident I have two daughters in the district a rising senior and a rising eighth grader I'm here tonight to implore you all to vote Yes to reinstate Frank Sanchez I don't need to remind everyone here that all of this started when a former member of this board leaked a draft unapproved report a draft with a deceptive slant that was corrected in subsequent reports The Witch Hunt that followed has been a concerted attempt to ruin the life of an amazing educator an effort pushed forward by people who have spent years trying to drag down this District some for their own profit while folks like Frank have been doing their best to improve it County Prosecutors don't have to do much to get indictments true bill is an extreme low bar the fact that after hearing from Frank and seeing the video a grand jury immediately found in Frank's favor speaks to just how hollow those charges were the prosecutor's absurd filing of a misdemeanor charge based on the same non-incident is shameful it should have no bearing on your decisions [Applause] [Music] today I also stand with the over 100 Som parents of black children who have rallied to support support a man they know has been working hard for every student at CHS a man who pours everything he is into making CHS a safe and special school for our kids you were there at graduation well most of you were you heard the Roaring cheers when people saw Frank walk in and you saw the standing ovation you saw how happy the students were to have their principal back we talk so much about restorative justice practice that right now so let's make it official there is widespread and enthusiastic support for Frank there is no legal reason not to reinstate him there is no moral reason not to reinstate him I'd even call it a moral imperative to reinstate him and lay this sorted business to rest your vote of yes is the only right thing to do thank you next have Diane Lewis hi my name is Diane Lewis I'm a resident of South Orange I am also a parent to three graduates of Columbia High School I'm also a former teacher in this district and sadly I'm also a direct neighbor to the former Boe member who acted so unethically although on par for the 14 years I've known her it is her typical Behavior to be reactionary to be unable to uh see another person's point of view to I could go on anyhow um first I would like to know this district is doing everything in its power to provide the student and this at the center of this months-long process the support she needs s failed her s also failed Mr Sanchez and the students of Columbia High School my children wanted to be here tonight but they couldn't um during his time as principal he was the first time in the years of 2017 to 20124 where my children felt seen and heard prior the interim principal prior was never seen or heard the principal prior to her they had no respect for her she was good for some students but as my students quoted as saying Mom all she did was scream at kids all day long and shame them for a principal to make that intentional effort to Walk The Halls as his office that in itself changes culture and climate in a building and every educator here knows that and understands that and knows the research behind it my children from the GetGo they always saw him they always felt hurt they could talk to him he was always walking around with his computer we are requesting that you reinstate him immediately I am requesting that you hold Alyssa mapen accountable for her egregious actions because it's you're elected officials it is not right that she was has no consequences she needs the consequences for Behavior [Applause] next we have Heather sesi Heather sesi I don't know how to follow that okay I am the parent of a rising ninth grader and before this debacle I had met Frank Sanchez on exactly one occasion I wanted to speak to him about an issue and we disagreed and when I left I knew we disagreed and I still felt heard and respected not something that comes easily particularly in this District isn't that exactly who you want working with adolescence don't you want them to feel heard and respected even when they disagree don't you want them to be able to approach people in authority and have a conversation where they can walk away feeling respected he's also very warm and caring and I don't know why he wants to return here I wouldn't I would be angry I would be bitter Frank Sanchez is a Class Act he keeps putting the students first above himself he stood at MMS and shook anyone's hand who came by he welcomed our students as he apparently has been doing for years at the high school so I'm stunned that he wants to return and while I'm here slightly off topic but very much on topic I think it would be remiss I would be remiss if I didn't note that the presumption of innocence matters and I hope that our entire Community has learned that because we have young people in this community who get charged with things as well whether it's a suspension or an arrest and we have neighbors who get charged with things and they may not have a public following the World At Large deserves the presumption of innocence people are falsely accused regularly allegations are merely that and I hope given that there was not only no conviction here but as speaking as a lawyer as someone else noted you really could indict a ham sandwich as there was no indictment it would be stunning to me if you did not Center students and reinstate Frank Sanchez thank [Applause] you next we have Laura [Applause] Wallace hi I'm Laura Wallace I'm a um mother of two Columbia High School students one just graduated in 2024 last week and one is a rising Junior and I'm here I'm to add my voice to the choir and I we were told some of us were told before we came here today that we didn't need to come here that this was a done deal this was already we're all on the same side this is a formality I don't know if that's true I hope it's true I hope it's true but we have been a little battered and bruised and cynical this year because it has been a very very tricky and hard year at CHS and it's been very hard to see principal Sanchez be put through what he has put through and so until we see this across the Finish Line we're not going to believe it's happening so last week principal Sanchez came to graduation as some of you were there and saw and and all of you know and it was a gift it was a gift for those kids to have their principal the one who started with them actually be the one to hand out their their diplomas it was so meaningful and it was so important this was a man who came in 2020 when these kids were stuck at home during Co and he was voice he was a voice during the confusion and the loneliness and the mental health struggles and the technological struggles and he brought them support and he made them realize that somebody cared and when they got there in person there he was still making sure they knew that somebody cared we knew as parents we got emails from him we got responses when we had questions this year you you couldn't get a response from anybody but anything this year in CHS has been chaos and I know I've heard from teachers who said they didn't know if they were going to be able to come back if Frank wasn't going to be there I we've heard from so many people that they just don't know what kind of future CHS has if Frank isn't coming back because we can't picture another leader coming and taking this job after this so I I I I hope that this is a done deal I hope all doing the right thing here but I just want to add my voice and say please reinstate Frank [Applause] Sanchez next we have fire Joshua [Applause] [Music] hi my name is ther Joshua as many of you know I have two children in school district I'm speaking to you today on agenda item 4627 which is going to be presented for your consideration this evening I'm sitting here tonight in a position all of you will be in one day as a former board member with children in our school district whenever that time comes for you this what letter I not soon I hope you all see what I see which is a bunch of great crew of people who actually care about the students and staff of our school district while we have evidence that some former board members we're not acting in good faith in this matter all of you tonight have the opportunity to write their wrongs and let me add and be very clear that reinstating principal Sanchez does not mean you have no feeling or empathy for the student involved in the situation in fact it means in fact it means that you do all of our students care very much about the stability that will be created by bringing principal Sanchez back to Columbia High School it would be a much needed piece of stability for a district going through an immense amount of change speaking of change also on the agenda tonight for your consideration retirement of our assistant business administrator Miss Elio resignation of our communications director Mr Breck as well as the updated resignation of our director assistant superintendent of special services all these positions need to be filled by our new superintendent while he is learning and navigating our unique and complex School District please do not add High School principal to that list now I understand some of the Bad actors that play here have asked us to consider why ASA the principal Union did not come to principal Sanchez's defense in this matter the answer to that is very simple the same report that you as the board commissioned which ultimately cleared principal Frank cast serious doubt on the actions and and um actions of Miss Melissa Butler during this incident who was an assistant principal at Columbia High School at the time Miss Butler is also the vice principal of Asa why would she in a leadership position co-sign a statement that calls her own credibility into question I hope you consider that while taking your vote this evening and lastly I realize my time is up I'll be very very quick I'll end what I ended with last time all of you understand that there's a lot of noise in this community particularly in social media please keep your heads down focus on your roles at boards members and serve the 7,000 students of the South orang board School District I know very well no one else thanks you so thank you for your service and enjoy have a wonderful evening next we have Jane Conrad thank you thank you Jane Conrad Maplewood um parent of two graduates and a gardener and I'm here on a separate topic I'll make it brief um I just I sent you all an email earlier um offering some suggestions and and also some help with helping our school grounds survive this summer of uh heat and drought um I I had a list of suggestions about helping our field have deeper roots and conserve soil moisture um there's a network of gardeners at every school in the district that if you could figure out how to deliver some mulch to each school we would be happy to distribute it on all the bare areas that are showing up where kids line up and eat lunch and so on we're losing our top soil and with that increasing vulnerability to um storm water flooding near the schools and then the last thing is um please do what you can to protect the remaining shade trees we have on our school grounds we've lost so many of them they're suffering now you know in this heat and with the construction that's going on we just we need people to understand not to park where their roots are you know trees are not umbrellas or lollipops they depend on being able to absorb rain through their roots and we keep seeing people Park and um Place construction items under them I think you need a protocol so that future um yeah contractors won't do this you know build build protective fences around the trees but see if you can intervene now cuz we need we need all the shade and climate resilience that we can muster thank you now we'll move to our online public speaks our first is Adam Shapiro can you hear me yes right thank you my name is Adam Shapiro and I'm a parent of a rising 10th grader who is proud to be the vice president of the class of 2027 if she were not away at camp she would absolutely be here to speak this evening and support of her principal Mr Sanchez I'm also speaking tonight as a former School administrator and someone who knows full well just how vitally important it is right ship of their school to say if the high school has been rudderless andp following winter break our students very much def withs no ill will people who I know work tirelessly on behalf of school their task however was top block principal Sanchez is the face of our students the face our students see when they walk into the building in the morning the person who knows their names and what they've been up to he walks the halls and makes it a point to know what's happening in the lives of students and is always ready and willing to lend his support whether in academic extracurricular or social he is every sense of the stability and success in students and faculty the job of the principal is by no means an easy one and it takes a very special person one with Myriad talents to be able to do that job well it requires someone who understands what Drive fracket academic Excellence is incredibly organized and attentive to details and above all someone who possesses a very high EQ and knows how to interact with a diverse set of individuals with many different interests and needs Mr Sanchez is that person and district has been incredibly fortunate to have been able to call him our own Educators like Mr Sanchez are not a dime a dozen and we cannot afford to cast him aside while thinking that he is replaceable his absence has created the tremendous hardship fors students faculty and parents and it's time for the board to fully reinstate them tonight in order to show our community that outside forces cannot and will not reign supreme Supreme here and that we care deeply about our students and their well-being and provide them with the necessary guidance and Leadership that will ultimately enable them to thrive both during their high school years and Beyond thank you next we have taay Smith that Community member is not online all right can I have cassan little that commune member is not online uh ta Smith is now online though all right I'm sorry you're breaking up the middle e Community member Smith you are online all right let's come back to him Ben Vitali no video tonight okay oh yes you're unmuted we can hear you very good uh good evening I strongly agree with other members of the public that principal Frank Sanchez should be reinstated however my comment tonight concerns security spending in the budget the budget usually hides spending on security Tech in a line item for other technology mixing with constructive things like Chromebooks sometimes it hides it in miscellaneous or general administrative spending please stop doing that we deserve to see what it costs security culture loves secrecy but it's unacceptable in a democracy when you're spending taxpayer money I've learned that the the district is spending $575,000 on more surveillance cameras and surveillance and Security Access Equipment we already have a lot of cameras the facilities plan budgeted over $8 million for security it is possible to run our school buildings New or Old without all this stuff you're spending another 2 million in other Tech infrastructure I assume a significant part of that is Network equipment to support those cameras and access control equipment now the state of New Jersey granted us 800,000 in categorical security Aid I understand that has to be spent on security but we have the salary of our director of security we have friendly security guards in most buildings I'm guessing we're spending a lot more than our state aid requires but the district eliminated 28 full-time positions this year while giving raises in central office and yet we are still spending on surveillance cameras what are your priorities teachers are more important I understand there are differences of of opinion but I hope no one would prioritize surveillance cameras over teachers that would be upside down if you really need to buy this stuff do it to when we have the money not when we are laying off teachers and I've but I've already shared with you the board peer-reviewed research showing that surveillance in schools increases the achievement Gap increases suspension rates decreases math scores and decreases college entry rates I also encourage everyone uh to write to State leaders and ask them to unencumber state aid so that we can spend the $819,000 on teachers as we see fit instead of buying equipment which depreciates it rapidly invades privacy and and condition students to tolerate ubiquitous digital surveillance thank you next we have Bridget Hughes my name is Bridget Hughes and I'm a maplehood Maplewood parent with two black children in the district AR Rising eighth grade daughter at MMS and a son who graduated from Columbia High School last week I signed up to speak tonight in order to add my voice to those urging the board to reinstate Frank Sanchez as the principal of Columbia High School where he belongs Mr Sanchez has been an extraordinary leader educator and presence in the high school since he started my child had virtual school for most of ninth grade but when students were finally welcomed into the building freshmen were invited to attend a day early in order to get a tour my son came told us that he got his tour of the school from Frank principal Frank was there on that first day giving tours of the building to new students making personal connections creating safety and inclusion and he's never stopped Frank struck struck up a rapport with my son on that tour that he then nourished over the next few years always checking in with my son when he saw him in the hall coming to the club meetings that my son LED as part of his participation in the Mac Scholars Program and supporting the student fun fundraisers that my son worked on for Latinos unidos when my son and other Max Scholars planned a movie event and Miss Hicks was unable to chaperon Frank showed up to make sure the event would go on when my son missed school for family reasons Frank made sure that he wasn't penalized as the head administrator Frank did an excellent job communicating to parents in the community during some of the most difficult years for anyone working as a school leader his voice provided Clarity welcome encouragement and accountability it's vital that Frank Sanchez be reinstated at Columbia High School the grand jury dismissed this case because the allegations against him have no merit what does have Merit and deserves further investigation however is The Irregular and unethical process that led to the leaking of the unverified and faulty report to the Maplewood police and I want to express my thanks to the board for making a decision to investigate that matter and I want to urge you to take the next right and necessary step and bring back principal Frank with your votes tonight thank thank you next we have zeli Thomas yes I'm here hello can you hear me we can hear you all right thank you um good evening my name is zel immani and I'm the lead organizer of black lives matter Patterson black girls are not disposable but tonight what we are seeing is the life wants and needs of this young black girl is being sacrificed because some believe that Frank Sanchez has more to offer the world that's a deeply sad narrative but it's the narrative that we are hearing tonight and online the past few months narratives that the girl sees reinstating Frank Sanchez while he still has Municipal charges and investigations pending creates a hostile environment for many students and staff and know cannot indict a ham sandwich ask the parents of the thousands of people yearly who are murdered by police smack sent the wrong message to marginalized students that now all black lives are not valuable we seen that with George Floyd Mike Brown Trayvon Martin and so many more whose bodies were attacked and then their characters attacked after death we are seeing attacks of groups supporting the girl attacks on the girl you are allowing your opposition to black parents Workshop or your relation sh to Frank Sanchez to forget your commitment to Black lives especially the ones that traditionally pushed out or disposed of he should not be reinstated until he is absolved from charges for the safety of all students and staff especially those most vulnerable and marginalized this happens in no school district or place of work we never see when a um staff member has charge especially um School staff come back to school when you have still charges is pending so we stand in solidary with the victim which is the girl not Frank Sanchez black lives matter and free Palestine thank you for your time let's go back to T Smith it looks like the community memb is no longer online all right that conclud that concludes our public speaks yeah now move on to action for resolution 4627 um I would like to sever i' like to sever 4627 D line six um Frank Sanchez yeah so there's no motion required to sever the item so the item will be severed uh we just need a motion now to move that specific motion um as you indicated 4627 D Line 6 Frank Sanchez all right I'd like to make a motion to move that to discussion let's have a second thank you board M Callahan all in favor all right we're in discussion all right board member of Alani so I want to talk about the resolution 4267 4627 4267 4627 the non-ed part uh sorry this is not yet about Frank Sanchez so I apologize but we need to do board business so I Tried reading that whole resolution sorry we're doing SE part first we're doing SE part first we're only doing the separate part all right no no problem Okay resolution 4 4627 word I cannot imagine why anyone would vote against this resolution the district conduct conducting its own investigation has exonerated principal Sanchez the prosecutor's office came out against him but normal sensible citizens of Essex County said no just like normal sensible citizens of s rose up to defend him for from the falsehoods it is our good fortune that Frank Sanchez wants to come back and work in our school district again so this shows his love for our community and our children and we must reciprocate by welcoming him back as a principal of Columbia High School I plan to vote Yes on the resolution and I urge the board majority to do the same Callahan before before we continue so the board secret board secretary and I have identified that the Frank Sanchez line is actually the fifth line on appointments so for clarification Purp Pur unless there's any objection we're voting on line five Frank Sanchez I'm happy to talk again boan so I want to start by saying I've heard and we've all heard and I want to acknowledge the overwhelming feedback from the community tonight and in the last few months from students and parents and I deeply deeply appreciate your advocacy I want to be vulnerable for a second I've wrestled with what I want to say tonight quite honestly um I still am I want to be vulnerable because I am an educator when I'm not sitting up here in my capacity as an elected official and this has been challenging if not tragic to watch play out for all parties involved and as a board member it's my job to objectively review the public and non-public information that's available to me and we know definitively now that we can in fact without question and with absolute confidence vote Yes tonight and bring Sanchez home to CHS we have an opportunity to welcome back an administrator who in spite of the last few months would want to return here and if that's not dedication if that's not integrity and if that's not a model of resilience for what we want our kids to do when faced with a challenge then I don't know what is we have have an opportunity tonight to begin stabilizing our high school again which is an integral part of our district the school that one day all of our children will attend we have an opportunity tonight to demonstrate to our community that we as a board are committed to stabilizing our district and moving forward as a board to uphold our ethical obligations so something like this never happens again [Music] bber second cable okay I'll go after her um I also want to thank those of you who shared your experiences with us tonight I join you as a mom of children at CHS and a black mom at that um a yes vote tonight is a vote in favor of beginning the restorative process and repairing the harm that has been done to our high school Community as a community member wrote and actually said tonight um this we need to right set the beliefs and conditions that provide a safe place for our Educators to do the critical work of educating in order for our students to thrive the legal process has played out we've received advice from Council it's time to move forward and repair and we can do that by o this educator to return to his [Applause] position for Dev Wilson thank you to all the comments and thank you for those who've come out to share their opinions tonight on this difficult situation so first I want to say I know this situation has been difficult a difficult one for all the parties involved especially the child who I hope was able to persevere and focus on her studies throughout all the chaos I personally know too well how challenging that can be I also want to thank my fellow board members who took time to chat with me before this meeting I trust the resolution will pass tonight based on those conversations so I have a conflict and must abstain from this vote meaning I cannot participate because I cannot vote to renew any staff member who I know has outstanding investigation and assault charge it is against my values as a survivor of child abuse myself who since 2017 has advocated for the prevention of child abuse even most recently at the federal level in Congress my big picture concern is that we could set a precedent that any staff member who has open Assault investigations against them can be renewed or tenured and that scares me part of my advocacy Mission as a publicly open Survivor of child abuse is to do my best to protect all children lastly I hope that we can all continue to lead by example when it comes to respecting one another's opinions values and votes we all come from different backgrounds perspectives and lived experiences that impact our stances I have always wanted the Board of Ed room and meetings to be a safe space a no judgment zone so to speak we tell our children to be respectful to accept all types of people and to be open to understanding differing opinions I hope that as we depart this meeting and reenter the world in the Virtual World online tonight as former board member theer mentioned that we remember to embody the attributes we ask our our children to carry out thank [Applause] you BMA R gford oh sorry I understand that passions are high tonight and that many in this room have their lived experience with the individual in question I truly believe however we cannot allow our lived experiences to Discount those of others at the center of this is a young girl a young girl who felt the need to come forward about her treatment at the hands of one of our administrators I cannot discount her experience while these while there are still outstanding charges with that said we need to develop a consistent and structured anti-bias program in the high school yesterday whatever any of us believe occurred the day in question the students of Colum I have said there are two schools within the high school students have shared with Dr Gilbert they are treated differently based on their race and socioeconomic status My Hope Is that after tonight no matter the outcome the board our new superintendent our community commit ourselves to creating an environment at the high school that welcomes all students and serves them on an equal footing no matter their race gender or socioeconomic status Meer thank you uh you know I'll be really brief here as a board member uh in trainings and in talking to former board members you're told that with most things that you see happening in the district there's not actually a ton of power that you have to just go and and change it we don't have the power to write every wrong for sure we can't go back and stabilize CHS for the past 6 months uh we cannot uh sitting here tonight help a man avoid a night in jail a massive legal fees infamy online and a life turned upside down but there's one thing that we can do and we have the opportunity to do it tonight and that is sort of a rare event uh and I uh am happy to be in this moment there's a saying the wheels of Justice turn slowly but grind exceeding fine uh and thankfully this did not last nearly as long as it could have um but after numerous investigations by several agencies and even a grand jury uh it has brought the outcome we have here uh and my vote tonight will reflect [Applause] that Whit letter thank you and thanks all for coming I want you to know that I've read all of your emails and your statements tonight um and the voices of students have um made this decision really difficult but I think as you heard uh Frank Sanchez does have board support to be reinstated and renewed as the CHS principle this evening however considering what board member dval Wilson just shared about the outstanding simple assault charge and an ongoing investigation I don't feel I have enough information to make a decision [Applause] thank you former board president uh Joshua thank you very much um to make a decision that would Grant principal Sanchez tenure in the district right now if we were looking to fill this role with a new candidate it's hard to imagine we'd be comfortable making a decision on someone with such unresolved issues please please let her finish we we allowed want to even talk over time please thank you because of this um I cannot vote definitively until these matters are resolved so under these circumstances I will be abstaining tonight all right I was orig going to save this for my president's update but I guess I'll just say it now um I'm sure many of you are here tonight due to our Personnel resolution our Community has been through a long ordeal started well before that Infamous evening in May 2023 brought about by Bad actors motivated by pettiness and a pursuit of power one of the core precepts one of the core precepts of this board is integrity and it is this Integrity that we must uphold tonight I will not speak about the personal resolution in detail but I will address matters that have already been stated publicly the vote we hold tonight should never have been required this situation has not only caused undue stress for the Educators and students directly involved but it has also affected our entire Community the Ripple effects of these actions have been felt throughout our classrooms homes and across the state there are some who seek to capitalize on this incident and claim that a student is forgotten but those same people forget that these decisions made by our Educators every day must take into account the safety and well-being of all students it is essential that we remember why we are here to serve the best interest of our students and to maintain the trust of our community as we reflect on the events that have transpired over the last year we need to make a firm commitment to Justice our decision- making tonight should be guided by that idea it is our duty to ensure that our actions align with this principle however we should not stop there we should also make a commitment to holding those Bad actors accountable for The Strife they have caused this [Applause] community to the community m members present I thank you for your patience and for your dedication to our shared values your presence here tonight is a testament to your commitment to transparency and fairness we must not let the actions of a few undermine the Integrity of our institutions as we move forward with tonight's action portion of this meeting let us do with a clear mind do so with a clear mind let us devote ourselves to the betterment of our community reaffirm our commitment to Justice and above all to hold all accountable for their actions [Applause] I think we can close debate and go to vote so this so this is for resolution 4627 D line five for Frank Sanchez board member Callahan absolutely [Applause] yes board member Deval Wilson as mentioned I have to abstain thank you board member eert yes board member gford no no board member Meyer enthusiastically and without reservation yes board member sacka Gable yes board president tford yes board member vad lman yes board member Whit letter obain motion [Applause] passes e going to take a two-minute recess okay all right all in favor e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e so put that in we're going to get started again I think we have to vote on resolution 4627 and then we'll go back to the rest of the meeting um so I guess we make a motion to open discussion on resolution 4627 have a second thank you board member vman and uh all in favor I guess we're in discuss no we're on discussion yeah in discussion now for rest of personel so this was my long speech for the resolution 4627 unsed so this is so I'm going to I read through the whole resolution it's a big one it's got all the teachers pretty much every staff member is on it and I try to classify it into You Know The Good The Bad Bad and the Ugly right I tried I tried very hard to find a lot of good A little bit of bad and no ugly but so let's let's look at the classification so the good thing is that there the creation of a new role of the director of Early Childhood it is a significant forward step this position will oversee all preschool children managing both montro school and all the private R preschools so that's a good thing and I wish Mr Johnson the best of luck the bad there are two line items for administrative leave the superintendent as required places admins teachers and support staff on administrative leave and some and many times even brings them back without any board intervention we vote on them retroactively and this happens all the time without much frust and much press release the ugly I have never seen so many administrators leave in this short a Time window these resignations are not because of salary concerns or dim career prospects some senior leaders are leaving for less money these losses are all a direct result of the board meddling with the renewal process and without regard to long-term consequences I mean I use the word we because I too am part of this board so and and this started I mean you know a long time back with the Thursday night Massacre on May 11th of last year luckily we dodged the bullet that night the board then fired the superintendent two days before the elections elections that would change the composition of the board the board HD its lowest point when we had one bad actor who confessed to taking illegal individual action and leaking a draft report resulting in the incarceration of our high school principal then we had a board that fired the messenger the poor business administrator and because of these non-standard actions of following people have retired or resigned assistant superintendent of special education just one year before her 10 years supervisor of special education assistant business admin administrator who has over a decade of experience in the district Athletics director just two years into his tenure treasurer of school monies is the person who keeps the business office honest and co-signs all the checks communications director just one year into the job so in fact these massive losses you know how would a school district move forward recover and eventually Thrive I mean given that I'm stupidly optimistic I'm sure we'll bounce back so we started off first by hiring a strong superintendent Mr Bing who will start on July 1 yes we did it we brought back high the high school principal we also need to use all our persuasion skills to see if we can retain even one of these many people leaving and then we need to work together higher for all these vacant positions and instead of being petty and looking after our individual interests the Board needs to work together use all the support for the community and bring stability to our school district and ensure that this St instability does not return stability brings Improvement thanks B Deval Wilson um thank you for giving an overview for everyone on this resolution um board member valid Mal I think I'd like to add though I I do want to be careful and Ferring why certain staff members are leaving because um they have exit interviews we don't have we're not privy to to that and so we can't infer too much about the movement of people based on looking at line items of dates and salaries um but I also want to say that we have an amazing SLT team that is still here we're looking at one right there Hi Miss wble but um and I think that also speaks to the fact that we have a team that realizes we have an amazing district and they want to be here and they see the value and they see the light at the end of the tunnel and whether we the changes that had that had to be made last year so be it the fact that we still have a very strong SLT that is here I think speaks volumes and for those that had to move on they had to move on and we have an amazing as you said new superintendent coming and he's going to be able to create a cabinet based on his vision based on the values that we learned about that made us choose him we're all so excited for him and I think that it's just going to be a new day and we need to stay positive and let let those next steps happen and and I'm not going to be a Debbie Downer about it because everything happens for a reason and I'm excited for the future wiber Meer thank you um I too just want to acknowledge um a couple strong signs and a couple weak signs in here and admittedly there are there are a lot of weak sign I think you know you can you can discuss and debate the reasons why folks have left though I think um there certainly has been um signs of an atmosphere of fear among uh certain folks uh excuse me in SLT uh is the sense I get uh for whatever reason we know that we're losing uh the assistant business administrator uh in the business office Muro uh at the end of the summer we're losing our supervisor of Athletics at the end of the summer uh we are losing our our director of communications uh in the middle of next month uh we are losing our supervisor of special education in the middle of August uh Mr Mullen and addition to losing Miss Budan uh at the end of this month uh these are all going to be major challenges for us to get these positions filled uh and have a functioning uh School leadership team Administration uh because all of the struggles that our kids are going to face and the emails that we get coming back are going to be a direct result of uh the remaining people having to reach and pinch hit uh which is we've been doing so much pinch hitting in the past year uh we've got to we've got to get all these positions filled and have an environment where people are staying uh to do the work I am really happy to see that we are finally hiring uh for the supervisor special education ation position uh that has been open for so long uh starting uh at some point in the next week or so it looks like uh and also happy to see that uh that Leroy Johnson uh after having stepped in and pinch hitting himself uh from both supervising early childhood education and then also running the mantro school for the past year which I've gotten to witness firsthand this year that he now uh has both of those jobs and gets to uh to to run with them and that is that's great to see uh and certainly uh that we now have an experienced leader again at our high school I think we Al I'll say something I guess we often talk about how decisions are made they're in the past they're needed and one of the things I've always emphasiz is the idea that we must always look as a board from a 30,000 foot view we should not be in the office trying to determine if someone is doing their job correctly or incorrectly there's our job to look at the overall system and making sure that system is well run and the person that's supposed to be tinkering with everything is our superintendent so we need to really trust in the superintendent recommendations whoever it is whether they are there for 10 years one month 6 months whether they are in acting inum or permanent because no matter what we have to realize really truly Rec recognize that our decisions have a cascading effect so one decision will knock on to this other place and that other place things that you cannot predict and I think that as we look at many of the people moving on from this District many of us did not predict the decisions that the the changes that we're seeing so I think I agree with board member of v lman as we move forward we really need to move to work together but also truly respect the position of the superintendent and treat him as our as our employee and not the other employees because they should not be looking over their shoulder because they think a board member is going to do something and I think that's very important for all of us to take take to heart one more W letter um you know I I hear what everyone's saying I think what we're losing sight of is the fact that this is actually a significant opportunity um you know our former uh superintendent had the opportunity to build his cabinet and to do it twice and you know what's really exciting is that our new superintendent is coming in with significant experience lots of connections you know one of the things that he shared with us during the interview process was his um Acumen as it relates to special services so for him you know we're going to miss our special services team but for him to be able to come in and build this department and do a lot of the things that we were just discussing in close session is really exciting and you know I know we're focused on the retirements and the resignations but let's not forget that we just went through a riff process where we had to let go of 208 people we are experiencing a deficit so when we talk about 30,000 or 30,000 view there's a lot of macro factors that also play into you know questions um about the district but all this to say I hope we can have more positive conversations because our superintendent you know started and he's going to be here officially July 1st in that role and uh yeah I think we should all be supporting him and welcoming his recommendations as he builds out his team board M cahan thank you I think I I would I would say that I think that there's a lot of nuance here and I think that from what all of my colleagues have shared so far I think there's a little bit of truth that rings from from each of those things right I do view this as an opportunity right we have an opportunity to bring in new folks we have an opportunity to really execute on a new vision with new folks new ideas um and that is exciting to me we have an opportunity also as a board to kind of reset the way that we interact with all of those peoples and people and rebuild uh new relationships and new ideas and committee uh but there are some things that that sadden me right we do lose institutional knowledge every single time we have turnover I think particularly about our senior leadership team I think about special education who has had consistent turnover for over a decade um we've talked in close session about the implications of that tonight right and so I think yes an opportunity um but also an opportunity for us as a board to be reflective about the way that we do interact with senior leadership the way that we do support them the way that we lead with curiosity and assume confidence of people who have dedicated their lives to education um so that we can move forward we can retain and recruit talented folks to come here we can increase community confidence in the work that we do and the work that the folks leading our district do um so that we can build educational continuity for our kids and our schools and continue the Deep work that we're doing around equity and inclusive environments for all of our kids um and with all of that I do want to say um because I know we might not have time tonight as I understand for committee reports um I really did want to say um you know to Susie uh Miss budine and Chris Mullen who will both be Departed our district I wanted to personally thank them um as a fellow special educator it really has been a pleasure to work with you both over the past few months um on a personal level to get to know both of you and to understand the really deep work that has gone into taking the complexities and the Nuance of special education and our areas of growth and really starting to write the ship in those in those areas um so on behalf of myself um and and Folks up here I'm sure I really do want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for your time your dedication and the exceptional work that you've done here for our kids for our families you have left a profound impact and my hope is that whoever comes in and fills your shoes um that we are able to as a board um really be able to continue that work um because systems matter um but people matter too and we will miss you so thank you [Applause] all right guess we go to [Music] vote okay we're voting on resolution 4627 uh the balance of the resolution okay so board me board member Whit letter yes board member V Lani yes board president tford yes yes board member sacki Gable yes board member Meyer yes board member gford yes board member eert yes board member dval Wilson yes board member Callahan yes motion passes [Music] all right i' like to the action no yeah I just want to make a motion to approve uh board minutes for executive session regular meeting minutes for May 30th and the special meeting minutes for June 4th do have a second thank you B Callahan all in favor and now we'll just move on to the superintendent update I had not planned to speak this evening because I knew it was going to be late but uh Dr Dr Rachel Goldberg moved me to speak she's she's left us now but Dr Goldberg if you're listening I really appreciate the kind words that you had for me uh little do you know Dr Goldberg was one of several superintendents who I leaned on when I became the Acting Superintendent of this district and so I just like take the opportunity to thank both to thank her to thank Dr Gerald fitzu who is the superintendent in Orange I believe uh Dr April V who's the superintendent in Irvington and Mr Hayden Moore who's the superintendent in West Orange Who provided me with the guidance and direction for someone coming into this position green I want to also take the time to thank Miss Caitlyn Whit letter and to Dr telesford Who both as board presidents during my Contin years as Acting Superintendent supported me guided me and helped me to kind of steer this ship as the best as I could and I want to thank you the members of the board for your support and your challenge we didn't always agree we sometimes agreed to disagree but we found commonality and we we found out that how we could lead together and in in One Direction and I thank you for that uh to the teachers staff students and families that make up the S Community I thank you for your Embrace I thank you for your support I thank you for your guidance and helping a green person who sit in this chair to kind of navigate us through some of the challenging uh Waters that we had last but certainly not least I want to thank the senior leadership team who embrac one of their own to sit in this particular chair and to kind of help lead the way and your support for me your guidance for me uh was very instrumental Mr Carrick thank you so much for your legal advice and your guidance and the the many many conversations we had whether I was on my way down 95 up 95 headed anywhere you are always there to take a phone call from me and I'm very appreciative of you to miss budine Mr Brew Baker Mr Mullen Mr Burnside and Mr proo you are leaving us but please know that you were instrumental in helping guide us and direct us and helping me to be the very best that I could be in order to lead you and I will you will be missed and I'm forever grateful for you since November the 3D this has been one challenge after another in this particular district and I did not get everything right but I hope what you all found from me is a leader who could steady the ship to keep the ship selling until it's time to go on that next journey I still believe and I know we can't see it now that through all this I still believe we're going to be all right as a district I know we're going to be all right change is not easy and I still believe that this is part of the greatest story that's ever going to be told which is the rise and the the rise of the school district of South Orange and Maplewood and we are on our trajectory to do some really great things Mr ban sir I know you're out there listening I want you to know that I am docking this ship it is in good condition and it is ready for you to take the hym and so thank you all I appreciate this opportunity and I look forward to the work ahead in the school district of South Orange and Maplewood and I know I have a a little 5-year-old daughter now who's re ready to have her Daddy back so uh I know she's go she's looking forward she's looking forward for that so that's enough for me we have Miss Carrie wble here who and believe me the only reason why I'm going to allow her to continue to do these presentations is because they are mandated by State she's got to do these presentations publicly if that was not the case we would forego these and I would just post these but she's got to do this so uh Carrie I'm going to turn it over to you take over both do both of those presentations you're going to get the cliff notes version by the way so we can go through that so and that you really enjoy the presentation and and on behalf of SLT we just want to thank you for leading us Dr Gilbert we we couldn't have felt more comfort in a very uncertain time without you so thank you truly okay all right so the first presentation we're going to go through is the ssds uh next [Music] slide so the ssts is the student safety data system it was formally the evv RS um um it is the place where um specific incidences are counted by the state if you go to the next slide please so specifically we have to submit every incident that is on this page um so violence vandalism substances weapons assaults um fights kidnapping all that's on this page I do want to make one uh statement is that if an incident does not have an offender it is not counted in the ssds system except for an HIV so if an Hib has a victim but no offender it can be counted anything else does not get counted unless there is an offender someone who caused the the harm and that will be important for you later on in the presentation next slide so this is uh we're talking about period one so period one runs from September 1st to December 30th these are all the incidences that have been included in Period one submission next slide uh two slides one more thank you and this is a breakdown visually of where all of those incidents occurred per school next slide uh one more this is is a slide normalizing that data and then we're going to go several slides keep keep going another one these are um tree Maps um by grade level next slide this is comparison secondary schools next slide this represents all of our HIV submissions for period one the gray represents the cases that were alleged but not founded and the red represents the confirmed hivs as you can see there's a significant more that are alleged than are founded which is good news next slide this year we had 90 that wound up being only alleged and 16 being founded in Period one that's 15% of all the hivs that we investigated were founded next slide and this is just a comparison from last year to this year so we went from 24 unfounded to 90 unfounded hivs and only from 12 to 16 so there was a significant reduction in the ones that were founded because of uh the policy change last year next slide this is that same information over 5 years next slide oh per stay there so trends that we saw um at the high school overall harassment intimidation and bullying are still the largest amount of incidences followed by substance and violence the Middle School the trend was similar but there were no substance incidences in Period one and there were uh several weapon incidences that were identified at the elementary school Hib account for almost all of the category incidents and 15% of all hivs were founded next slide and one more thank you I want to take a minute just to talk about the vandalism reports uh we had a significant number of vandalism incidences at the high school this year um they were not reported in our ssds system because we did not find who had done them but we want to recognize that they happened um most of them were around racial slurs anti anti-semitic sentiment and political speech they were reported um if they were of uh anti-semitic or any bias incident they were reported to uh the police and that's how they're reported even though they're not reported in ssds and I would be remiss to not acknowledge that those were reported and they were significant to our community next Slide the next several slides are examination of five year for period one so what period one H uh what happened over period one over the course of five years so this these are all of the offenses next slide this is the grade band next slide and the normalized data next slide this is violence next slide vandalism again please remember that the the instance of vandalism was not zero but that those were not submitted next slide substances thank you next slide weapons and next slide removal for other reasons and hivs and there's the fiveyear comparison for the alleged hivs um if areas that we can support first um we saw that founded hivs account for 15% of all hiv's investigated we do think that students would benefit from more social emotional learning lessons in all competency areas um using the castle framework and I want to recognize that cell phones account for a large number of the alleged and confirmed hivs um and additional support in this area would be beneficial and I'm going to go over that next slide in the next presentation does anyone have any questions specific to the ssds report I know it was quick yes I guess one of the things I noticed is that at least for the alleged tibs the elementary school seems to be driving a lot of that um and would you say that's mostly because of the policy change and that has I guess changed how we have to approach hibs so what happened last year was there was a there there are families and there always are families that are concerned that maybe an HIV is not being taken seriously and I think that comes across the country um one of the things the board recognized was that maybe if we went to in investigating all hivs that we would find hivs that maybe were not being investigated um and and it was a admirable move what wound up happening though is um a lot of times you know you you threw my Eraser you kicked my shoe we we started investigating um incidences that that really a teacher should be talking to two kids for two minutes having them have a a little talk and then they go on their way and so the hivs exploded specifically at the elementary level um what that does is it takes a a two-minute conversation and then kind of blows it to 10 days right and so the the backlog of that really hinders our ability to have kids connect with each other when there's some harm done between two two children that's very normal some conflict um and so uh as you all know you changed that back this year with some uh with some additional changes so we now have some specific parameters that the the state changed in 2022 that our principles have to go through several steps and those changes have to be approved so if we're not going to investigate something the superintendent has to approve that and I think it's the best of both worlds because we're still acknowledging every HIV complaint but those that are you broke my Eraser are not necessarily going to be investigated so I think it's It's the Best of Both Worlds as we move forward and I expect that by next year in December these numbers will look much different what we really want is for um there to be a little bit more of a balance between how many we investigate and how many we find so I hope that answered your question so I have a question um connected to the the cell phone component is that I guess question one is is that mostly what we're seeing at middle and high school level I know we just talked a little bit about elementary school we say most of the the kind of issues around cell phones are at secondary levels I I would say no um I would say we saw a significant amount of fourth and fifth grade cell phone issues also um not necessarily happening at the school but certainly after school you know sleepovers and the like and then that kind of translates back into conflict that happens in the school setting yes and no so in HIV can also be investigated if it happens off campus as long as it's disrupting the students behavior on campus so it doesn't matter if it happens at school as long as it's disrupting the education of the child so it could happen at home and then a student doesn't necessarily want to come to school or whatever the reason is so that's awful thank you for clarifying now with that I know we've talked a little bit in committees about cell phone policies um how it can be disruptive both to educational outcomes and then to the discussion tonight how it can also have an impact on social emotional health of our kids right um so I was wondering you know in terms of responsiveness to that maybe sharing out some things that we might be considering um in terms of fidelity of implementation around cell phone policies for schools and for kids yeah I think I think cell phones are a really complicated issue in schools um what I think would be best practice is to look at where schools have been successful navigating it um because I think there's there's such a significant part of all of our lives that um getting it right is really important so my um my suggestion would always be let's look at some schools that did it well and that worked closely with the community and the teachers and the kids to to make sure that we roll out any change we make in a positive way um so to that end I think not just with cell phones but thinking through kind of that Community uh input component do you think it would be helpful to um facilitate focus groups around topics like this perhaps I love a focus group I know you do I will always say yes to a focus group um right so um I think that um hearing what people have to say is always really important you know as a mom of four kids all my kids have phones and you know I like to be able to keep in touch with them but I also want them to go to school and pay attention so I think hearing from families would be significant and just as important hearing from kids absolutely yeah great thank you so much thank you you so although vandalism is not part of uh you know standard data collection I'm glad you're collecting them because it is important I in the sense that it seems trivial sometimes it seems like you know who cares just paint it over or whatever it is but sometimes it does matter especially in the last I don't know we've seen 6 Months 8 months you know the anti-semitic stuff and you know political speech and all all hateful political spe speech I have nothing against normal political speech but uh so I'm glad you're keeping track of it and I hope you continue to keep track of it the question is do you have another category of things that happen which are not part of these standard things but are actually disruptive so our our schools collect their own incident data across the board and so anything that is not reflected in ssds would be in the school's uh Data Systems for for all kinds of um you know smaller incidences or things like that central office also collects incident forms for significant situations um and so we have information on all of that as well so so is that something that you can share with the community um I know there will be a lot of noise in the in the in the graphs that come out and the data that comes out but is or or or let me put it this way maybe go back think if it's worth sharing and then come back and let us know if it is worth sharing because obviously I'm not going to say share it with us and there are 10,000 incidents of you know erasers falling down and then we have that coming in so thank you okay HIV sorry and thank you for the really nice graphs those tree graphs look very nice thank you that was my first tree graph to be honest um so for Hib is going to be a little different this is a very similar presentation to October's presentation and that's because Hib you're always working backwards a year so in October we self assessed ourselves and submitted that to the state they just spit those numbers back at us in May and we have to present them so instead of presenting that information what I would like to do is present that that night we also went over our HIV goals and I'd like to share with you how we met them and I think that would be the most productive use of our time so Keith I'm GNA say next slide 19 times just keep going keep going when you see yellow you can stop okay stop perfect uh you can go one more thank you okay so the following goals uh we set for ourselves for HIV this year um was increased learning opportunities in the area of school climate building prevention and social emotional learning so we piloted the New Jersey bar Foundation Hib curriculum we uh implemented some social emotional learning uh lesson study which we talked about last time um and supported uh School CL climate We examined and updated student learning opportunities in the areas of building and social emotional learning same thing and supported School climate teams so I went to each climate team this year and gave professional learning um and they also had a school climate manual that set up all of the items that they should be doing moving forward throughout the year we also expanded our training to support our anti-bullying Specialists and administrators regarding the investigation process all of those goals were met next slide so this is just details on each of those goals so I will point out that our abss I'm really proud of this received training on uh positive School culture data examining patterns of HIV equity in the process and understanding substantial disruption and administrators um had receiv received professional learning on the role of HIV updates to new policy considerations for special populations and supporting students after an HIV next slide this was completed but ongoing so increasing professional learning opportunities um so we had a an two Hib kns one with the Parenting Center and one sponsored by um South mountains uh home and School Association um develop professional learning for all staff that was done in District and provided support in the area of social emotional learning next slide uh this is more about the curriculum that we integrated uh we integrated social emotional learning uh lessons specifically in um our ninth grade academy We examined existing practices in K5 and we started to use the castle framework next slide uh we had climate team trainings climate manual was written uh climate team leader training last June and worked with climate teams to do all of the uh legally mandated support that they should do but also going further and really understanding their role as climate leaders in their schools and finally goal four anti-bullying Specialists had three full day workshops which we'll also do next year and uh administrators this is all the the Hib um professional learning next slide additionally not on our goal list but we did do anti-bullying Specialists began creating activities and lessons to be used when kids are found to be um involved in bullying so how do we target those students specifically to support them with um supportive lessons activities and conversations so that administrators don't have to go find things on their own they just have readymade lessons for them so we started making that this year um and because the policy was changed in April uh we also had training for building administrators and anti-bullying specialist on preliminary determination next slide so we're not supposed to make um fully make our HIV goals for the year until we do our self assessment for this year but I did want to indicate some of the items that are already on our our list we are going to make targeted lessons around anti-Semitism islamophobia ability racism anti-asian hate and lgbtqia hate because we are noticing that those are Trends in HIV um targeted communication for families around HIV so every time their child receives a lesson from the New Jersey bar we're going to write a letter about what that lesson was professional development around HIV investigations that involves students with disabilities that's on the docket for September for our antibullying Specialists and also on our docket is calibration so having multiple abss looking at the same HIV so that they can come to the same conclusion so we're standardizing that process even more so those are things that we're planning and areas that we want to continue to support support is social emotional learning uh specifically we're umal and K5 but also looking at supporting curriculum for 612 and uh a a Keener look on restorative practices in the district that will help um build community and which in turn eventually will support decreasing hivs and that's my story any question there's no question slide but do you have questions oh there there it is Meyer thank you so much uh for this presentation and it's great to get to for the HIV uh incidents that are appealed to the board it's really helpful and instructive to get to sit in um not only in the appeal but in the conversations that we always have ahead of time uh to get to explore how this process works uh and it is clear that uh this is a very thoughtful process by The District in looking at this mandate that the state has with good reason um in the uh the anti-bullying law uh and creating this process it also does create a lot of I know difficulties the the workload on the district and the way that it impacts families uh you uh highlighted the planning for 2425 the uh targeted communication support uh for families around HIV and I uh just so crucially important I know that you hear from from families that we also hear from as far as um just how terrifying this process is for them to be pulled into it uh and part of this I think is the way that the Hib law is developed and The Limited number of vocabulary choices we have here but it it has a prosecutorial feel right we have the accused offender and the accused or the the alleged offender the alleged victim uh the outcome of an HIV is it goes on your permanent record you there's not a family in our district that won't freak out of about something going on their child's permanent record um and that is required by law and it's there for certain limited important uses and I think there's very few families that really get that um and I think it's really hard to fully communicate you know don't worry whether you know whichever side you're on of this process don't worry but I think that's um such a crucial part of this process not causing panic uh among families that are that are caught up in it um the other piece that I just wanted to flag um right before the slide we landed on here was a an areas to grow slide I think from um from the prior presentation perhaps in one piece was investigation timelines um I know from looking at the most recent uh set of HIV reports we have that uh there were a massive number of pretty old investigations that just came trickling through I know the district said hey end of school year to push them all through um and I know know that we made a recent change to the policy that's going to significantly reduce how many investigations there have to be but um I guess I am curious uh what other steps the district has in store to try to make sure that we're hitting our timelines and get these things done quickly yeah so so I think first of all I think the change in policy will be significant in that um I I think our abss did not know what they were walking into just the sheer number um but uh Dr Gilbert and I have also agreed to inre increase the number of trained staff this year and so I'll be running uh an initial training in September for additional staff members for Pinch hitters right so that people can step in if we are overwhelmed um you know we had several um people on leave this year and and things like that and and so that complicates matters with how many people can do hivs um you have to be trained so that's one of the significant changes we're making this year is to train more um in generally it should be either a counselor or social worker that's what's in the law and so we there's only a certain amount of those in the district so we're increasing our training uh so that we can have that and I think that will be super helpful thank you Miss wble and uh for some of our uh season board members if you remember when I first came into District in May of 2020 2 hivs were very concerned on how we were doing our HIV process and I hope you can re have seen that since then we are really trying to tighten it up and Miss wble has been very instrumental in making sure that we get those hivs in headed in the right direction so thank you uh Miss wble also this is why you don't start calling off people from the microphone cuz I missed a whole line of people in my notes and so I definitely want to thank our uh principles and our vice principles and most importantly I can't believe I forgot this the partnership that I was able to develop with Asa and Soma that was a really huge huge huge important and so I just want to make sure they get the acknowledgement that they deserve you're probably going to notice the public and the board that tonight we normally would do our district goal presentation we are not doing that we I prepared memos for you to show that we made the marks on our district goals we will be making those memos public on the website so the public can go in and see those memos they'll have links you can see all of the progress that we made with the exception of three big ones the Dei strategic plan the workforce diversity plan and a special education audit those three pieces deserve a night of their own and so we will be doing presentations on each of those three either two the the de strategic plan and the the workforce diversity plan maybe in July and then we'll work towards I'll work with Miss Callahan me and Mr be excuse me Mr Bing and I will work with Miss Callahan on when we will do the special education audit Public Presentation uh but I'm thinking maybe around August for that one and before we get to the new school year so we'll work on that but just so the public can know the district goals will be posted and with the exception of those three but those three will be given their day in the public so you can have an opportunity to to hear them and give your feedback to those and with that that ends my report thank you next we'll have the business administrator update and I already gave my update so I'll just give the board president statement the school board meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public often times it may appear to members of the our audience the board of takes action with very little comment and in many cases unanimous vote before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of the schools if the superintendent of schools is satisfied with the matter that the matter is ready for to be presented to the Board of Education it is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration the superintendent to ensure that the members fully understand the matter after the committee discusses the matter it is then shared with the other board members for consideration only then is it at placed in the on the agenda for board discussion at and action at a public meeting right so we were going to bypass the committee reports tonight and then just move straight to the action portion one okay yeah yeah we post the minutes online but wants to share one thing about fft uh just just one point that's extremely important is that we got the bids back for the middle school for South Orange middle school and the bids have come below budget so we put out some $8 million it came for like something 15.5 so that basically means at this point we bid out every project that we have for the long range facilities plan except for reder it's all bid out it's all in the projects and the end date is next uh summer B second Gable um I know our reports are online but can I just mention one point that I think um a lot of high school families have been waiting to hear about uh with regards to the CHS schedule um there will still be a 9 period day but the conference period will be at the end of the day during that ninth period um and administrators are working on some procedures to alleviate issues they saw in the past when the conference period was held during the ninth period um and and they're working on standard operating procedures going forward to develop the master schedule so I just wanted to share that thanks [Music] all right then move on to the action portion okay um motion to move resolution 4628 to 4636 can I have a second yeah second okay make a motion to move to discussion thank you Bo McAn all in favor all right we're in [Music] discussion Wilson I'm just super excited that we're passing the resolutions for our phonics curriculum magnetic reading and I reader which is um a dashboard for teachers um Shana ran a great cni meeting um last week was that last week it feels like it was forever ago um and we had a presentation from Dr Bean folks and I just was really excited to hear that the that the pilot went really well I know members from last year advocated really hard to um have the district re-evaluate our phonics and reading instruction and I'm happy that we're going to have um a new curriculum for the fall for elementary schools and I'm just want of the community to know that that is being passed to tonight and I want to thank everyone in cni um Miss Bodner Dr be folks everyone involved in making that happen thanks board M Meer uh I just want to quickly uh highlight and Shout out that within resolution 4630 AA uh the ESS program at the high school uh is having its contract renewed and will be in place for the upcoming school year uh I think a lot of folks would like to see that Happ a little bit quicker but we have it and uh that is great [Applause] news all right move to vote okay um we are voting on or you're voting on 4 628 to 4636 board member Callahan yes yes board member dval Wilson yes board member eert yes board member gford yes board member Meyer yes board member sacket Gable yes board president tford yes board member board member V lamani yes board member Whit letter yes motions pass all right we'll have our second hearing of IND Vis and delegations uh JN Ryan is that it Jocelyn Ryan said Orange um I just wanted to say a few other things about Personnel before the end of the night um I wish Susie Budan the very best I hope this change works out great for her family I am har broken that we are losing Kristen Mullen um he was I've been in the district or a parent in the district for a very long time and uh this is the most responsive most visible um most compassionate supervisor of special ed I've worked with and I'm really sorry to see him go and I know we were all at least most people here tonight were here for Frank but I did didn't want to go home without acknowledging that it's your last board meeting as superintendent and to thank you for everything you've done since November I hope you decide to stay um I think that the work that you've been doing in restorative justice and climate and culture is really really important and I worry that it will not happen without your leadership noce on your department car's awesome but I think we need you and I hope you decide to stay and that includes your school tour your project Adventure climbing and you're dancing with Mara Hicks and the ninth graders at the uh at the ninth grade party I think that is all building climate and culture and I don't think we'll be as successful without you and also I love listening to your accent so I would really that but um thank you so much and good night everybody Jeffrey [Music] Bennett I want to say that I'm glad that the Board of Education and administration have begun to conduct triple experience surveys after the neglect of 2021-22 but I was disappointed Ed by the lack of questions in this year's surveys as reflecting the breadth of issues with the triple ey particularly placement early care and after care and transportation I appreciate how responses this year were disaggregated by race but I was also disappointed by the failure to disaggregate by students getting their neighborhood versus a non- neighborhood school where I believe gaps would emerge the experienced surveys questions about school climate are very important the district needs to know how families and and students of different groups perceive their schools however however those are questions that could have been asked of any school population even if it wasn't assigned through an integration plan they could have been asked before the triple I and they could have been asked of our Columbia students the experien survey only had a single question about hardship or stress and there was no granular response as to what makes someone unhappy or in hardship with their placement the hardship question lumps in together people who might be unhappy because their child has a very long bus ride that picks them up early a parents who are unhappy because they weren't allowed to attend to school that was very very close to their house families who are unhappy because their child has an isolated placement apart from other Kids on the Block and other parents for whom an 853 start time of a neighborhood School makes them consistently late for work and requires them to spend uh $2,000 per child almost per year on early care that they would not need if they were assigned to a busing school or a 758 start school um some of these topics could be asked so simply like how many fies are out there for whom start time is more important than proximity I'm one of those families actually cuz my wife and I work in person and don't have a nanny there have to be others like us um disaggregating responses by neighborhood versus non- neighborhood school is also important um the one hardship question revealed that 25% of students were in hardship which was as high as 33% for African-American families are those 25% of families reporting hardship concentrated among families with distant placements or Does it include students who have the approximate placement um also you should also let people say that they're just in stress on hardship because some people they might be unhappy but not claiming hardship um and regarding Alva's report yes it's very important to know the Distance by Road from home to school that's great need that important but actually what determines like bus time is just the Roo of the bus and how many stops it has it's possible for someone to be just a little over a mile from a school but have a 50-minute ride or someone to be two miles from a school and have a 20-minute ride which would have been my son's situation last year um thank you very much for the extra time and thank you for staying late and then we have one online public speaks I don't know if they're still here um Shannon cuddle hi everyone can you hear me yes hi hi good evening um I didn't mean to close us out tonight um but I thank you um for the the late evening um so um I first um I just want to acknowledge the uh ssds report and the hip report that was announced tonight um I know it's a state requirement but I would be remiss as such a strong anti-bullying advocate for a community in the state um that this is something that's not just a checklist but something that should be prioritized and should be we should really think more about and educate the community about ourselves and each other um I will say that I'm always um reserved with the idea that when we have low anti-bullying numbers that doesn't mean we're actually um creating change in climate and culture um I always say that you know if we're capturing higher numbers that also means perhaps that we're doing the due diligence to be mindful about that I just also want to pause because we get much attention on it too um I believe the number was 13 for uh bias based incidents that were listed on the uh screenshot um of reported to uh out of the 13 bias-based incidents 10 out of the 13 reported to police I think that needs to be a follow-up conversation um especially in the current climate and culture we're talking about encourage us to look at the anti State anti-bullying task force 2023 report um and uh our addendum and our commitment to doing uh the threshold checklist and being a participant in the Sai platform that being said I also want want to take a minute um to say thank you uh to Dr Gilbert for your support uh not just for alling a graduation um but being a partner um during your tenure as Acting Superintendent and also thank the the Board of Education this was the first time the full Board of Education um came to Lavender graduation as a whole um it was a really exciting event um and we had an expansion this year with students not just from our district but from Seven other uh towns communities five other counties that joined us it was really spectacular and I just want to say the profound impact that that makes for visibility and allyship to support not just lgbtq plus students but all marginalized students in our district and just want to really acknowledge that and the feedback that I got from students and community members that participated um it was extremely impactful so I want to recognize that and thank you all as being the first full Board of Ed that showed up for having a graduation this year now in our eth year um and I just also again wanted to send extend a thank you to um acting um intern superintendent Dr Gilbert for your support It's Been instrumental this year and and I hope you will stay with us as well um and I also I want to pre than you all again for your support um for ensuring that we have welcoming inclusive safe schools for all of our students now more than ever so thank you all all right thank you and now we'll move on to new business anybody have any new business all right the Board of Education will meet in public session on Thursday July 25th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the district meeting room at 5:25 Academy Street in Maple New Jersey immediately following the opening of public session the board will move into a closed session in the superintendent's office at 525 Academy Street in map New Jersey as well as using an online video conference platform to discuss Personnel matters within the attorney client privilege legal negotiations and other matters that may arise and require discussion to be announced at a later date immediately following the closed session the Board of Education will meet in public session estimated to be at 7:30 p.m. in District meeting room at 5:25 Academy Street in Maple New Jersey in person utilizing an online video conference platform which will include hearing of individuals the community can view the meeting by following the steps that will be listed on the agenda if there are members of the community who would like to attend the meeting in person please note that masks and social distancing are optional in accordance with the guidance received for the local do and the CDC action will be taken with that I'd like to make a motion to close meeting thank you thank you thank you all the seconds all in favor I so we are adjourned at 11:12 p.m. good evening