e e e e e e e e e okay like to call the meeting to order at 7:25 p.m. we apologize we were in closed session for a little bit uh have a to the flag to honor America I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America America and the Republic for which it stands Nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Mr Rado can I have a roll call please Mrs Cooper here Mr Cado pres Mrs Fenian here Mr Garcia here Mr Pino Mrs PE here Mrs Peterson here Mrs price here Mr pontillo here we have a Corum okay Mr Pino indicated he would not be here this evening because of a absence due to a work conflict uh the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of public the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act what the regional board of education as cuse notice of this meeting to be sent to the following announcing time and place thereof westword B Hall Westwood Public Library Township of Washington administration building Township of Washington free public library the record community life and pasak press the minute approval under motion a m Peterson have a second second Mrs fan any discussion on the mo on the minutes See No Hands have a roll call Mrs Cooper yes Mr cassado yes Mrs Fenian yes Mr Garcia yes Mrs peek yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion carried up next is the superintendent report Dr mmer thank you good evening everybody I have just a couple of items for tonight director of Elementary education Denise VES wrote The District's high impact tutoring Grant application this fall we just learned we have been awarded $2,650 for after hours tutoring for our third and fourth graders details will be yeah thank you good for her details will be announced once we have secured a vendor there's a list of vendors that the state makes us use we have to go through that process and I'm really grateful to Mrs valz in her outstanding application she has been here a short very short time but she has made a certainly made a significant impact so far in her tenure in the district and it's just a great thing the district's attorney will do a parent program on harassment intimidation and bullying on November 28th at 6:30 pm in Hurley theater and we encourage all of our parents to attend I'm sure our student representatives are going to be talking about the exciting week we're having here at the high school and all the events that'll be closing out the week we have the football game Friday night uh we have if you I hope you noticed when you walked in the lobby tonight the um decorations for the production of clue uh du due to the conf there's a conflict with parking and other things for Friday night so the Friday night performance of clue will be on um Saturday night at 7 pm and also Saturday afternoon at 2m to make up for it um so Thursday night at 7 I said that wrong Thursday night at 7 Saturday at 2 Saturday at 7 and no Friday night uh performance the game had to be played on Friday night with the rules that they have and we couldn't reschedule it for pick a different date but I'm really excited to come to everything at the end of the week and see all of our students excelling that concludes my report thank you Dr Mortimer up next is the board president's report uh so good evening everybody um we've had the Washington School asbest removal and plumbing issues uh over the past few weeks as many of you know um the work has started and it's continuing um there was asbest in the pipe uh Chase tunnels uh which was a project where we had slated to have that asbest removed next year but that was moved up due to the plumbing emergency which necessitated the asbest removal everyone's going to be kept in the loop until the projects complete and all things are back to normal uh it's an unfortunate thing for buildings that are older but let's face the realities that mechanical things break and sometimes they do at the worst possible moment so I'm hopeful that the corrections that are being made will solve this problem well into the future today out of abundance of caution Dr Mortimer shut the school down early based on an odor uh which the experts are saying came from uh an insulating spray or an encapsulating foam that was sprayed in the building during the course of the work that was previously done um there's been some subsequent air testing done uh in the building this afternoon and we're awaiting the results of that and we'll know that tomorrow um so for leadership uh sometimes you have to ask yourself these three questions what did you know when did you know it and what did you do about it um these are things that are that are put out there in time of Crisis so I commend Dr Mortimer on her response to this issue is we can't control the things that may break on our aging infrastructure the Judgment should be based on how it was handled not on what you had to handle uh I got to spend some time with the school district's attorney preparing my defense of the worthless and shameful ethics complaint filed by the WEA against me that I mentioned at the last meeting I'm looking forward to the commission's finding on the complaint and again we'll likely be back in 2024 to discuss it in public as I stated last time this is a forced but shameful waste of taxpayers money brought to you by the teachers union while I'm mentioning the teachers union it should be noted that the WEA did not take me up on the offer to come back to the table to negotiate that I made at the last meeting as such we'll be filing for the next step of the process fact finding uh I would also like to address the false claims made by their Union in the local newspaper letter to the editor entitled teachers negotiators clarify talks the letter said that we're trying to make them work an extra 36 hours per year without compensation and that if they accepted our proposal the staff would owe the district money for doing their job among some other wonderful lies so congratulation on your electioneering lies I guess it worked but what you assigned your name to is untrue and you know it so as such I'll be asking that the documents pertaining to the negotiations be placed on the district's website underneath the board section under our resources tab so that rep public Can See For Itself uh further the comprehensive offer for settlement that we put across the table was not a take it or leave it deal but there was no counter to any of it the negotiations were really never meant to be settled uh by the union from the start it was planned this way for election heing purposes the public will see what the newly settled contract gets to look like with the new board and conform their own decisions uh on the contrary though it took us a solid 2.5 hours in one meeting to come to an agreement with the West administrators Association um and we did that yesterday and that will be on the agenda this evening it's nice to see what you can do in adults are in the room Mrs Peterson will update the public on the waa negotiations in her committee report uh I further was informed later this afternoon that the waa unanimously approved the terms and conditions negotiated last night further I thank their Association for recognizing the issues brought up by the Admin team of the district and working through the issues with candid discussion questions and answers while addressing both the needs of the district and remaining respectful to taxpayers this Thursday the Woodington players will begin their newest performance clue and we wish them well and success on their newest performance the Friday night performance originally scheduled will be moved at 2m Saturday a MAA of sorts due to the football game being played at home on Friday night let's show some school spirit and come out support the students and attend these shows a tremendous amount of work goes into them and putting on these performances and they certainly do not disappoint I'd like to congratulate the Western Cardinal football team under the direction of Coach Guy for their undefeated season currently 11 and0 and for winning the league and state sectionals and now this Friday night they'll be playing the group two State semi-final starting at 7 pm. against Bernards at home I wish the Cardinal football team and coaches all the best of luck this Friday please come out and support if you can I'd also like to recognize our student section as they were out in force this past weekend sporting red white and blue to honor our country and our veterans I love the energy let's bring that energy again Friday night to the state game finally Happy Thanksgiving to everybody happy and healthy Thanksgiving to everybody as we sit through these meetings and figure out ways to be angry at our neighbors and and fellow towns people perhaps this time of year we should reflect and do some critical self assessment to see if we are showing our thanks for all the good that we have in our lives we all live in the best country in the world and an area of the world that does not have many of the atrocities that we are seeing globally occurring here perhaps we should all should we should all be a bit more thankful than we outwardly show perhaps some expression of thanks to or among our communities would go a long way and with that I conclude my report we will move on to the business administrator's report Mr Rosado okay so I'm GNA begin with the Washington School update I know a lot of information has has gone out already so I'm going to go from that information that's already gone out but just give you additional information and where we're going and where we're moving to um so one thing I just want to bring up as as U Mr pontello stated the esus abatement work was completed this weekend um just as a side note um many of the buildings that were constructed during the 70s and prior all contained asbest because it was used as a fire retardant as long as the material is not Disturbed and not made Airborne um there are no concerns about with the espesas the fact that we needed to uh our plumbers to get enter the pipe Chase tunnels and to perform the maintenance to the sanitary sewer lines required us to do the asbest now um so that's why we re we seek emergency approval because we had to forego the bidding process for the abatement so we got approval from the county office to uh enter into contract for this uh abatement project um during the uh abatement process no one's allowed to enter the buildings so that's why um they are required to post the on every entrance to the building signs as best as abatement were coming or occurring you're not allowed in so Washington school has a lot of doors so every classroom so that's why they were on every door not that were that's where the project was being done but just so to notify anyone that came up to the building didn't enter the building um that wasn't allowed to um now that the abatement is completed our PL the plumbers are able to access uh assess the situation and make all the necessary repairs to the sewer line uh currently I think actually they they arriving shortly our plumbers are at uh coming to Washington School uh there appears to be some large clog in one of the sanitary lines uh it's not allowing the water to flow properly all the way through um it appears to be what looks like a stuffed animal or some kind of material in the line um so they're getting a v truck and and the the jeted and they're going to try to stuck everything out so that we can uh allow that clog to uh clear um it also uh they also discovered on some of the uh old cast iron pipes some some cracks here um around the Y joints where the two pipes meet so they'll be replacing those that area with uh new PVC material um so that will also occur uh we're going to ize our time tomorrow to also see if if we have to have to do any work we'll do it then so that it's no impact to the students um on another note I just wanted to mention the high school Campbell Auditorium HVAC system uh that work was also done this week um we had a crane here on Thursday they had a re remove the the old uh 250 ton units that were on the on the roof and put the new units in place um so that was all done t on Thursday the contractors have connected the units they are in process of finalizing the project uh the system is currently up and running and will be completed in time for the show on Thursday night uh we are also um approaching uh um collecting all the information for the budget for the 2425 school year um we will be receiving it from department heads principles uh their budgets uh by December 19th I believe is a due date uh we will then uh compile that information put it together for the board uh finance committee for uh January uh that will conclude my report for this evening thank you uh up next is the student Representatives report um good evening uh to begin the report we're going to skip right to the Westwood Regional Middle School um congratulations to the girls soccer team on their Championship win the middle school has been busy preparing for the season of thankfulness last week Ed G returned as our visiting author thanks to the generosity of the PSO who also sponsored a breakfast for the the staff um student council members have begun organizing monthly theme days November's theme was red white blue in honor of Veterans Day they've also instituted positive morning affirmations and will soon introduce thankful grams to staff and students teachers kicked off pl's by doing a data walk areas of inquiry include mathematical reasoning interdisciplinary connect in seel teachers also finished up their third of a four-part training on responsive classrooms and they look forward to next week next week's upcoming happy day um as for the high school academics the high school welcomed Matt Dr Matt fellis and his presentation on how to get naturally High where students learned the importance of living a drug-free lifestyle and having fun in life by indulging in interests or Hobbies um the National Honor Society has begun its peer tutoring program in the high school and middle scho school and is now branching out to the district's elementary schools students can fill out their National Honor Society tutor request form found on the National Honor Society website and members of the Honor Society will reach out to schedule meetings and provide as much Aid as possible students will hear back within three days of submitting their form if they don't they can email Mrs Ren and Miss palazola directly and email them with any further questions college visits are still going on and will continue until November 20th some upcoming colleges that are visit visiting our Lass University uh today at 7:55 they visited and also we had University of Alabama um visit us today at 10:58 the junior class recently went on their annual junior class Bron Zoo field trip where students were educated on wildlife and the impact on habitats on a global scale there will be a pre-ol virtual tour Fair on November 16th from 7 to 900 p.m. and the link can be found on the Westwood High School website on November 8th the high school acknowledge Veterans Day by honoring local veterans from the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 6192 the panelist answered questions about their service from the students the students were fully engaged as a panelist offered their insights and Reflections on the war through their unique lens as direct participants and we thank them for their service some other things that are happening in the classrooms include Mr Chen's physics classes which are learning about forces in motion using bowling balls and hockey sticks in the hallways and we like to highlight Andy galar senior who has recently assisted on a project at CH Technologies through the work based learning program and this project he has helped work on will be presented at John's Hopkins University and we wish him all the best good evening as for athletics all fall Sports have come to an end but the football team the boys faed off against Rutherford high school Friday night once again for the title of State sectional Champions the cards won 20 to7 and are advancing to the state semi-finals this Friday against Bernard High School at 700 p.m. next up Performing Arts the Woodington players proudly present clue for their first for the first time this Thursday evening the show will run Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. the dates have been updated to not conflict with this Friday's football game those who had tickets to the Friday performance through pre-sales will be refunded tickets for the new Saturday matina are now available on showti for.com general admission is $1 and students with ID can pay $7 tickets will be sold to students during lunch you can also purchase tickets online at Friday's football game and an hour before shows the music department will be putting on its annual Winter concert on December 13th at 6:30 p.m in Campbell Auditorium the concert features the concert choir the honors Wind Ensemble and the honors chamber singers come join us and enjoy a night of music as for clubs the debate team continues to prepare diligently for their third Tournament of the Season at beckton high school this Friday at their last tournament junior Angel Morales won a second place best speaker trophy out of over 60 students and Junior Sophia suits was awarded the best judge trophy currently Westwoods debate program is tied for third place best Varsity program out of the different schools in the Bergen County debate lead science league is beginning to prepare its members for the test that will begin in February they're very decided to begin with a full roster for subjects like AP Physics 2 honors and AP cam honors and AP biology and AP environmental science thank you thank you move on to committee reports policy and governance Mrs Cooper the policy and governance committee were not able to meet during the month of November unfortunately it had to be canceled due to administrative conflict however it's likely will be meeting after Thanksgiving and that's all my for my report thank you finance and Facilities Mrs Peterson thank you so finance and Facilities has also not met since our last board meeting but is scheduled to meet again on November 30th and an update will be provided in the next public meeting thank you curriculum and instruction Mrs price our meeting was originally scheduled for this evening and it's been rescheduled for the 28th thank you negotiations Mrs P thank you so negotiations committee met with the Westwood Administration Association that's the waa uh last night November 13th as Mr pontillo mentioned in his president's report we had a very productive meeting with the association their current contract is set to expire on June 30th 2024 but we began this process early given the headwinds fa with the Wei um I'm very pleased to say that we settled the contract in 2 and 1 half hours um it was really refreshing to work with this upstanding group of professionals and just want to sincerely thank them for the collaboration that concludes my report thank you uh superintendent search update uh Mrs pek we received five applications and interviewed four firms the search committee including Miss Peters Mr pontillo Miss price and myself conducted the first interview on October 25th we held the second interview on November 2nd and completed both the third and fourth interviews on Monday 116 trustees Peterson pontello and I conducted interviews two three and fours trustee price was unavailable after reviewing our notes we unanimously selected our top two we requested additional information from those finalists and after further discussion and review of the subsequent material the m the committee agrees that Kathleen helal best fits our District's needs so we will use her firm her Services include an initial meeting with the board to create a timeline develop candidate criteria discuss Community stakeholder survey questions and input sessions and decide on Advertising options conducting stakeholder surveys and input sessions to help create a candidate profile then the board and the consultant will develop advertisements and the consultant will post Those ads and start recruiting Kathleen will receive the candidates applications material and conduct preliminary screening interviews to rank the candidates and provide the board with a report the board will choose which candidates to interview and the consultant will train the board on conducting the most efficient candidate interview and assessment with the consultant's assistant the board will develop a rubric assessment sheet and prepare interview questions we will conduct three rounds of interviews during which the consultant will be present in a consult consultative capacity only not as an active participant the board will narrow the pool after each round the consultant will schedule and arrange all candidate interviews consisting of questions scenarios and presentations the board as a whole will select the finalist conduct background checks and solicit and review references lastly all trustees will negotiate and finalize the contract um some of this information some of these steps will start with the current board um but the um interviews and the decision will be made with the new board in the uh starting after January thank you uh there are no Awards and recognition there's no special public report we'll move on to the first uh public forum during the first public forum District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda items specifically listed on this evening's agenda board policy 0167 requires that individuals sign the speaker list give name address or give name we got to change the wording town of origin and specific agenda items on which a member of the public plans to speak or ask that all remarks be directed to the board as a whole not to individuals the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking although the board may not respond to items raised during the public form wall public comments will be considered and may be discussed tonight under the appropriate agenda item under new business at this meeting at subsequent meetings under all business or during a board committee meeting if appropriate each speaker's state will be limited to 3 minutes in duration the first public forum will be limited to 30 minutes in duration and with that I open the floor at 7:48 p.m. all right um Rachel aldenberg hi there good evening um so in today's agenda in the finance section item K motions approval for a bill of $888,000 for emergency asbest removal to b& Restoration I'd like this this town's taxpayers to know that the parents have been complaining about the sewer issue at Washington school since December of 2022 this sewer issue that was only just recently investigated this month required emergency asbest removal that would have cost much less especially not on a holiday weekend if these concerns were taken seriously when they were first brought up 11 months ago and have continually been brought up over these 11 months I have questions Also regarding today's emergency dismissal in your email today Dr Mortimer you said that quote no other students or staff members have expressed feeling unwell so my first question is does that mean that there was at least one person that reported feeling unwell and has anyone reported feeling unwell two why did the Bergen County Hazmat unit recommend we do additional air testing as a precaution and does that include mold testing because many of these parent complaints have been about mold three in your email today you say that you're making rapid quote rapid decisions based on evolving information which resulted in this emergency dismissal parents have been complaining about issues about the infrastructure of this school for months I mentioned on Thursday on social media which you addressed in your email thank you that children were leaving school Wednesday saying that they were dizzy that was reported from children to their parents you sent an email to the entire School saying that that was a false statement and now two teachers today have reported a smell in the school so my next question is are these concerns now finally being taken seriously my last question are we going to have to make up for this mis day of school at the end of the year or when will that happen do we have a backup plan if the school is canceled for the rest of the week when these tests get released tomorrow uh Mr ponil I just want to quickly address what you just stated earlier about about leadership a marker of leadership is how you respond to an issue I wonder if you have anything to say about the lack of response and action from the sewer smell emails that parents have been complaining about since December of 22 because that would be a direct response to that issue and Mr Rosado I just want to also clear up that we aren't worried about ASB bestus of course the school has asbest it's an old school we're not worried about that it's been properly contained we are trying to explain that the lack of communication and the lack of Investigation to these plumbing and Sewer issues that we've been complaining about through emails that have been unanswered or vaguely answered has snowballed now into this bigger problem the sanitary problems that we now have the sanitary problems that we're now putting our children in and our staff in if these were address addressed in a timely manner this could have been fixed without exposing children and staff to sewage foam insulation off gassing possible mold and whatever else is going on at Washington school that we don't [Music] know no answer is is there anyone else that would like to speak there's no one else on the list okay see nobody else wants to speak we'll close public forum Dr Mor would you like to respond I actually want to address the early dismissal in and of itself name we were given 25 minutes excuse me before I just can list your name oh my name is Dale grman my daughter is in second grade at Washington school I was given 25 minutes to be told that there is an issue with the school to come and get my child I then had to arrange for someone to be able to come pick my daughter up with very little notice after a problem that had been discussed ear disclosed earlier this morning to the school I understand you're saying it was due at a precaution what I want to know though is one why we were not made clear earlier that there's a smell and an early missile was possible and two why such short notice was given in my particular case my husband was able to get my daughter without an incident but I know plenty of people who had to arrange for a family member to leave their job or have a friend pick up a child and rearrange for an emergency pickup because of a lack of communication that is unfair that is uncalled for and that is unnecessary stress to put on parents as Rachel has pointed out the sewage issue has been known asbest is kind of expected in that school it's like saying it's going to have knob and tube it's kind of an expected thing when you look at that building but the lack of response and the lack of taking this seriously anybody who's ever done any work at home knows when you spray foam insulation it's going to stink for a couple of days and those fumes are not pleasant thank you anybody else okay public session is closed Dr mmer so first and foremost I I understand that there are people in the audience tonight who are upset and I do take that seriously believe me I don't want you to have to be you know away from your families to come here tonight to to explain your frustration we are hearing what you're saying we're glad you're here to say what you wanted to say um I have a couple of the questions that I wrote down most of this I think was in was in the letter but one one teacher reported not feeling well did just just one teacher report not report Ed not feeling well um Mr zado can speak about the additional testing this happened so fast we haven't even had a chance to talk about the Miss day so I have to consult with the county office who I still have to communicate with later tonight we when we know if we have to make up the day with the calendar will tell you but nobody was thinking about okay when are we going to make up this day because today it just went the day flew by and it was one thing after another Consulting with people trying to make good decisions making rapid decisions and really wasn't on our radar just yet in terms of the notice so the letter that went out we said we ask you to come to pick your child up at 12:50 at their usual dismissal location if you are unable to arrive at 1250 your child will be in a safe location so what we were told was that the Hazmat unit that that we should have the Hazmat unit in as I said in my letter we didn't want to alarm the students and the staff and you know if there's was an issue just we would get a everybody out of the building so I'm sorry that there was short notice the children were safe and kept in a safe place if the parents weren't able to arrive right right away to pick the children up they were supervised I had administrators Mr Connelly came over to the high school Mr Les was there um Bronn Calderone was there and uh Mr bino came so it was all hands on deck in terms of the administration for that dismissal to make sure that everything ran well and I had about 10 members of the Township Police Department there as well so so it could not have been you know hand handled any better I'm sorry there was short notice I know I'm sure it was alarming to get a phone call like that at work and now you have to drop everything and you're worried you know is my child okay and I have to get to the school but you know I just want to stress it wasn't a deadline of 1250 to pick your child up and we gave notice as soon as we could everything was evolving like I said I was over there making phone calls people were talking it was just you know B in all honesty so it was I just decision-making process things unfolded throughout the course of the morning after we um consulted with our experts and that's where we landed so I hear your frustration and I I'm I'm truly sorry because I my goal is never to upset people and I think I've built enough capital in this District over the years that hopefully you would know that you know that's not my goal and I do have feelings and I understand how you feel so um Mr Rosado did you want to ask anything add anything about the testing that's being done yes currently so the test the testing uh once we heard of the odor from the teacher we we I called right away to have a our environmentalists come out um they were gathering the the the samples uh the Bergen County Hazmat um stated uh when they did their testing with their equipment there was no nothing noted but they said out of precaution it's best to get the the testing done we already had that scheduled they actually perform that test this afternoon um and they're sending submitting those uh results to uh the lab we are testing um for mold Asbestos and uh the the gases the v v yeah v v voc's there you go um all that uh is being sent out and we once we get the report uh that will be shared um as far as the cost for the aestus abatement uh we did get three quotes um one of which uh one of the quotes we received was actually is actually an approved vendor through a Cooperative uh who who does the uh the the result um pre-bidding for for that uh type of work um those two of the quotes came came in at 300,000 plus that probably would have been more the emergency rate the the one cost came in at 88,000 that was the lowest bidder that's the one that we uh we had um to perform the work um would the cost have been cheaper if we gone outside at a different time I don't necessarily think so uh um because the uh speaking to my uh consultant he would he thought that was a a fair and reasonable price okay thank you move on to annual motions item number 17 uh Mr Garcia motion to move 17 andn your motion motion that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the following resolution be adopted whereas the law firm of foger and Hara Esquires has the expertise and experience to provide Professional Services to the Westwood Regional Board of Education now therefore be it resolved that the Westwood Regional Board of Education appoints the law firm of foger and Hara Esquires as the board attorneys effective July 1st 2023 until June 30th 2024 at the hourly rate of $175 partner $155 associate thank you to have a second Mrs Peterson discussion see no hands have a roll call Mrs Cooper yes Mr cassado yes Mrs Fenian yes Mr Garcia yes Mrs PE Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion carried uh item number 18 administrative and governance Mrs Cooper can you move agenda items A and B and agenda items C and D please yes I'd like to make a motion that upon a recommendation on the board of education approv will be given to the following policies um items a b and c move through adoption have a second um sorry a second second Mr Price discussion on administrative and governance see no hands have a roll call Mrs Cooper yes Mr Cado yes Mrs fan no for B yes for a and C Miss Garcia yes Mrs P yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion carried okay uh item number 19 uh policy um you still want to separate yes please okay so for purpos of the first motion um we'll just talk about policy 3161 policy 4161 and regulation 5600 we're going to BU for Kate the rest of it from that Mr Garcia want to have discussion on those three so can I get a motion for uh policy item A1 and two under policy and regulation number two this is Peterson do have a second Mr Garcia discussion respecting those three items Mr gcia I just wanted to see if uh a little bit of clarification on the intention of the change and I notice there's just some slight changes but I think they're relevant um to the change um can you describe uh Miss Cooper or can anybody talk to why what the intention of the change is and why specifically the wording okay I'll I'll uh I'll start so it's a Strauss SM update that came uh with group of other policies um I believe your concern was it says the Board of Education and not the superintendent um and that that's going to be for 3161 and 4161 speaking specifically um the the examinations would have to eventually be approved by the board through the superintendent we employ the superintendant not not all the employees of the district so um if we were to become where of some reason it would be something that the superintendent would really be bringing back to the board it doesn't I don't think the policy um gives the board the ability to bypass a superintendent and and do uh examinations of of uh teaching staff and again uh nobody had any updates the these are from Strauss smme directly the policy company yeah and and also um the the way the agenda is written just for the Public's consumption it says motion upon recommendation of the Board of Education approval will be given to adopt the following policy as a second reading it would it should actually be reading motion upon recommendation of the superintendent is that correct Dr Mortimer yes that was a mistake and uh it was not caught and sorry about that it just so happens that those two issues are on the actual writing of the agenda and also in policy so I was addressing the policy piece anybody else Mrs pck I can't get it to pull up on my screen so I can read it but on the agenda items um the the agenda attachments index it's page 22 for 3161 if you can get that to come up from the email I can I can speak to it without actually pulling it up though I if it if it doesn't add it's not P it's not the pages aren't numbered it's the first one in here so if it if it doesn't add anything because we technically can't do anything without your approval then I think this should go back to policy and that piece should be removed since it doesn't really add anything I see no reason to leave it in and just the way the policy starts off reading uh pursuing to njsa 18a colon 16-2 and njac which is New Jersey Administrative Code 6A col 32- 6.3 so if you look at 18a um col 16-2 these are uh physical examination and drug testing requirements so it says physical examinations drug test requirements every Board of Education may require its employees and shall require any candidate for employment who has received a conditional off of employment to undergo physical examination the board may require individual psychiatric or physical examination of any employee whenever in the Judgment of the board employees shows evidence of deviation from normal physical or mental health so that's it's the reason it's written like that is it's con it's following state law that's what 18a colon 16.2 reads so um I'm not Strauss Esme I mean we could have a whole other discussion on Strauss Esme at this point probably but um this again nobody nobody added anything to this policy this came directly from strauss's estimate so the the policy uh is based upon those two pieces of Law and that's where the uh the authority that's granted the board and state law comes from but to your point we can't do that on our own without the super superintendent so the superintendent really would be the person who this just grants I think overarchingly the board's ability to have the superintendent conduct this whether it be for new hires or for a situation when when someone may have to do that anybody else Jay um can I make a motion I'm sorry j that's fine um can I make a motion to amend and just put a slash Board of Education SL superintendent because I think my only concern is that this currently reads the Board of Education board of education has the autonomy to say you know I believe this teacher or whomever is acting there's evidence of deviation um whereas just the slash might not be significant to me it is in saying that it's a joint effort with the superintendent can't and they can't act alone that make sense I think if anything if if there is time to change the wording still it would just replace the word board with superintendent but again we you know we discussed this last month that the board would doesn't does not have the authority to require an examination for cause for anyone other than the superintendent so the no board member would be able to call me and say I want an examination of so and so because my immediate answer would be no it would have to be if there was a real concern that were reported by multiple people we would do an investigation and we would handle it our way but that would that request would never be taken by me you know from if it came from a board member but if you remove the words Board of Education you're making the policy then contrary to state law which I think would be a problem so if we want to delay perhaps pick it kick it back to the policy committee get a legal opinion from from legal and then you know put it back up based on whatever those recommendations are but um I think if you remove a board you're you're putting a policy out as contrary to state law I understand that I I would like to see that moved or because you said kick it back to the board and I wouldn't want to remove it like I said in the previous there's two previously in 22 April and then also uh this year and I'm sorry again the only difference and I think it is it's Board of Education SL superintendent versus the way this is written where it just says the Board of Education may require so I would like to see it go back because I trust Dr morar wholeheartedly but I just think intent um policy should be written precisely and the wording should indicate exactly what their intentions are so but just one person okay any other discussion we voting 3141 3161 or regulation 5600 because we're talking about all three Mrs pck so I'm confused why 5600 is even on here since it's not a completed document we we started a chart it's I believe and Dr Mortimer you can correct me the board doesn't write regulation correct correct but I just want to make sure that um 5600 is not the parental rights student so it's a code of conduct but it's based on the parental rights policy the that is what we were working on right was taking pieces of the parental rights policy and trying to figure out where they would fit best under code of conduct um and a lot of those pieces don't even fit under code of conduct because code of conduct would be a disciplinary piece right am I correct and um depression anxiety fatigue are not code of conduct they're not punishable uh that we shouldn't even be diagnosing the teachers shouldn't be diagnosing um so but but my point of all of this is we haven't even worked these things out there are all these pieces that are not on that are not filled in and so I'm not really sure what we're approving I can go over that I would be happy to go through it with you the highl so um in this packet this P if you can find that page 87 how is yours oh you have so I the changes in the packet that are in front of me Mrs that I are highlighted in yellow so I'll go through those so that um for your benefit and the benefit of the public you know what what was different in here so this as you correctly pointed out this is for disciplinary issues you know this isn't for um other aspects of the parental rights policy in terms of depression or anxiety or um just you know behavioral uh concerns that a student or a staff me that a staff member may have so on here there we added in just to cover bases at a minimum the parent will be notified anytime a student engages in a VI violation of school conduct depicted on one of the charts below so that was added in it my opinion did not need to be added in because as all the principles report to me that whenever there's a student who violates any of these on the chart we call home anyway but we wanted to there was a request to um solidify that and put it in writings to I guess so everybody knows you know the non-educators know that the parent is called if a child do one of the these things on the K5 Elementary chart I added in clarification um we you know we have new principles I I just wanted to make sure this this is more for my staff in terms of like some child in KATU can't be suspended from school so you know I didn't want somebody new to the district to be looking at the chart and saying oh suspension I have to suspend a kindergartner so that's why that was put in uh we added in false claiming to have a weapon I'm not sure if that was part of 9422 or if that was something I just wanted in I think we we were Miss I think we were missing I think we were missing that and I wanted that one in um what did come from 90244 we added in gang affiliation unlawful activity U possession of pornography so those were added in um in case we have those situations it's very clear to the administration as to how they should be handled so I I personally am comfortable with these the changes in 5600 and I believe that you know as the administrating as the administrative team would be as well because it's information that we would be using to guide our actions and it's Clarity for how we should proceed thank you anyone else 31 61 4161 or 5600 okay so with had a motion to accept them with had a second we're in discussion so roll call Mrs Cooper approved Mr cassado yes Mrs Fenian yes Mr Garcia yet no to 3161 and 4161 and base solely on everything Dr Mortimer said about 5600 um yes to 5600 sorry I'm just trying to get this Mrs PE no to one and two and yes to regulation 5600 okay Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes uh but I would ask that um it's not unreasonable to take a look at 3161 and 41 61 and ask that legal question so if we could add that to the policy committee agenda get an opinion from Vic whether or not we want to add that we can uh we can do that moving forward I understand you're concerned I think that uh the the way a lot of these policies are written they um they interchange Board of Education in the role of superintendent in a lot of them not just this one so if we were to nit pick them all we could probably spend a lot of time doing it you know um but we will move on to the next part of uh item 19 policy items 3 through 7 and regulation one do I have a motion for those Mrs Cooper to have a second Mrs Peterson discussion on policies 3 through 7 and regulation one see none can I have a roll call yes Mrs I'm sorry not yet you quot me off Mrs Cooper Mr cassado yes Mrs fardin yes Mr Garcia yes Mrs P yes Mrs Peterson uh yes and I want to clarify I think we also need to add item B into the motion as well unless we're having a third motion well we yeah we're halfway through the vote so maybe we'll have to have a third motion okay yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion and now motion three for item number 19 motion B can someone Move Motion um B under 19 Mrs Cooper could you move that okay we have a motion have a second Mrs price discussion on the third motion under 19 anyone seeing No Hands have a roll call Mrs Cooper yes Mr cassado yes Mrs fan yes Mr Garcia yes Mrs P yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion carried item number 20 Personnel Mrs peek can you move agenda items a through S and addendum item T please I'd like to move uh items a through F and addendum item t under personel have a second M fan discussion see no hands roll call Mrs Cooper yes Mr cassado yes Mrs V Arian yes Mr Garcia yes Mr Pino oh sorry he's not here Mrs P yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion car I have a motion to move agenda items a through K and addenda item L under Financial facilities Mrs Peterson i' like to make a motion to move agenda items a through K and addendum items L under finance and Facilities have a second Mrs Cooper discussion see no hands cover call Mrs Cooper yes Mr cassado yes Mrs fardan yes Mr Garcia yes Mrs P yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontelo yes motion carried uh Mrs price we move agenda item a under curriculum and programs item number 22 like to move agendum item agenda item a under curriculum in programs have a second Mrs Peterson discussion see no hands cover Mrs Cooper yes Mr cassado yes Mrs fardan yes M Garcia yes Mrs pack yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs price yes Mr pontillo yes motion carried open public forum number two during this second public forum on any topics specifically addressed in this agenda or on any other question comments or concerns that may be in respect to the operation of their Schools board policy 0167 requires that individuals sign the speaker list giving name and town of origin and ask that all remarks be directed to the board as a whole not to individuals the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals in speaking the board asked that during this second Forum opportunity public speakers adhere to the same guidelines follow the same practices and extend the same courtesies and decencies as with the first public forum each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration and the second public forum will be limited to 30 minutes in duration and with that I open the floor at 8:22 p.m. first one up uh Danielle friends this is gonna sorry good evening my name is Danielle friends I live on Colonial Boulevard with my husband and two children both of whom attended school at the Westwood School District from K to 12 I have been a substitute teacher in this district for eight years and has become a full-time pretty much job for me I'm in at least four days a week I'd like you to imagine that when you get paid this week your employer reduced your salary by 15% you have the same job same responsibilities but your salary was reduced how would you feel that's what the Board of Ed did to me myself and substitute teachers we're often told verbally how important we are how vital we are to the schools how valuable we are to the students and in February 2023 you showed us that you meant it I'm sure that when you made the decision to increase the daily rate to 175 you knew what the other districts in the area pay their subs and you decided to give us a vote of confidence and finally pay us a decent wage and by us I mean me and the regular consistent substitute teach teachers that I've been working for years for the school district not only do I work consistently for the school district I work at one school I'm there at least four days a week even during covid I came in I came in when each teacher caught covid and taught their class the entire time they were out working at one school consistently affords me to know each child at this school the teachers all know me and the students as well I often moved to classes that have random substitute teacher picks up because they don't know the class or they cannot handle the class there are even substitutes that refuse to teach certain classes and I'm put in those classes this is one reason that the regular consistent substitutes should be grandfathered into the pay increase we received in February 2023 if you want the best for your children you'll want the substitutes that have been working at our school districts consistently for the last eight and two of my friends who couldn't be here tonight 10 and 15 years and they should be grandfathered in the February pay increase that we got in 2023 as for the pay increase in February it opened the door for more substitutes which our district needed but do you want the substitutes coming in with a book to read which is what I saw coming in two weeks ago or previously before or the substitutes who know your children we will be there helping them and teachers know because we know the curriculum and what is being taught so that's all I have to [Applause] say Rachel aldenberg thank you so I have some additional questions now regarding the sewer and the plumbing issue at Washington school so in an email we received for an update uh you stated that the pipe along the bottom of the stairs was not broken until the grounds crew broke it earlier this month when they were digging for new Landscaping but this stream of sewage smelling water has been leaking from that exact area since December 2022 which you have received emails about are you saying in your update that no sewage was spilt onto the sidewalk until the new plants were being installed and question two if so what is the reason then do we know for the sewage smelling water that's been leaking out of that area third question is are there still sewer flies being reported at the school and can you please tell us how many times an exterminator had to come out to Washington School in the last two weeks question four the roof was repaired this summer I've been in the school prior to those repairs happening and actually a little after and have seen buckets in the hallway collecting dripping water why hasn't the ceiling inside the school been replaced many of those tiles are discolored and have water stained and it's likely that those tiles are molded as well since the roof has been leaking on them and through them is there a plan to replace the ceiling tiles and inspect for mold while we're doing this five how do we know that there is no mold in the school could you give me any information on if there has been a mold in inspection and if so when was it done four what's the plan for a deep clean of the school school now that we are aware that sewage has been leaking out the front steps where children walk our classroom carpets going to be replaced and are the bathrooms going to be deep cleaned by a professional service to ensure these children and staff are safe uh seven you said that no children have been relocated due to these issues but we have third graders who say they were sent outside for extra recess due to an overwhelming smell those children said it was a poop smell the adults in the room said it was a mold smell and we have a first grader who said they were relocated to the library last week while their room was being worked on and today the affected classroom had to be relocated to my child's classroom due to the heater smell last question is the teacher who just told us then reported being ill that is terrifying um what were the symptoms that she reported and is she okay the fact of the matter is that partially addressing an issue is not addressing it the sewer issue the water issue the drink fly issue the roof leak issue the mold issue the overflowing toilets issue and the various other issues we have dealt with in the past few years like air conditioning heating and flooding are all indicators that this school needs serious maintenance and attention this needs to be addressed properly and completely and if you want to stand behind the statement that we operate with integrity at all times it would be nice to hear remorse for discrediting parent concerns for months and quoting me multiple times in an email that was sent out to the school calling my statements inaccurate where in fact many of them were proven this week thank you anyone else Kelly Amelia hi Kelly Amelia um I just was curious Dr Mortimer if you had a statement you would like to issue to the members of the we who may listen to tonight's opening statement and feel once again attacked and unsupported by this should I wait for you I'm sorry if you know who may feel attacked once again by this board um and I would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving I know this district has plenty to be grateful for especially its voters so Happy Thanksgiving to you all and easy on the pie thanks anybody else sorry I dropped my is this working I dropped my drink sorry and it said no fooo drinks um morning Columbo 53 rigid Boulevard North um I was going to piggy back and then Rachel came back up again um Mr Rosado you didn't answer the one question that she had was about like 10 minut months ago um when teacher when families were emailing um and why that wasn't looked into then because I know you answered a lot of her questions but that was one that I was kind of hoping to hear so hopefully this time around you might have an answer for that um Teachers Association I just want to say thank you I appreciate you guys and I know you work really hard and I do hope that you get your contract settled soon we're rooting for you um I asked the board if you could because I know that you um respect and want to deal with things that are urgent and um you know such as the policies that you guys have always been working on but I ask that you please make Washington a priority they've been struggling with issues for a long time with maintenance with the parking with dropping off you know it's been ongoing so I I beg you to please make this a priority so we can help fix this uh a lot of the stuff that Rachel just said I didn't even I wasn't even aware of some of that so it's really upsetting I have children in that school and I'm concerned I'm concerned for the teachers so if you could please make this a priority in the coming weeks thank you anyone else hi my name's Lauren Brew um I have three kids at Washington school hopefully another one next year before I touch base on that I just want to suggest maybe add in a porter John at George School outside on the field the reason I say this is because my kids play soccer and a lot of times we're at games there and there's parents and children who need to use the bathroom frequently and we have no place to go so I feel as though if you're going to have games especially inviting other towns to a field regardless if it's a school property or not we need to have bathrooms accessible if you're not going to have one in the school then there needs to be one outside and I would bring it to the town but they'll say it's school grounds so I just want to put that suggestion um on the table uh as far as the school one thing that wasn't mentioned was there's also wasp um frequently in the school wasp nests all sorts of things my fifth grader today said that when she got to school her room smelt like dead fish and they couldn't figure out if it was someone's lunch or if it was a foul order throughout the school then I'm hearing that the hallway smelt and there was all sorts of things um it was said that the process was so well done or I forget the exact wordage my problem is I showed up for my kids luckily because I work nearby and a friend had called me and let me know there was a situation at hand I didn't see the email I didn't see the phone call I just so happened to look at my phone and said why is this person calling me they know I'm working had I not gotten there my kids were instructed to follow normal routine my fifth grader went to pick up my third grader who was heading over to pick up my first grader they would have then proceeded down the hill to not find Mommy's car Lu luckily I was there however if I wasn't my three girls would have been petrified as to what do I do now they're smart enough to go back up the hill and figure it out but they shouldn't be put in that situation there was no plan I hear teachers didn't know that the kids were being dismissed early until we all found out so I don't feel that it went beautifully I don't feel that the kids safety was at like you know the top interest I don't blame anyone in that school I don't blame the teachers I blame anyone else who was handling the situation and did not let parents know in a timely manner my daughter walked into school and smell a foul odor from what before 9:00 we found out at 12:30 that we need to pick up our kids in 20 minutes that's unacceptable please do better for our kids kids should not be crying I saw fifth graders crying down to the little kids crying today and that's not not fair and parents shouldn't have to stress like this so I just ask that in the future things are handled better thank you hi Dale grman again I have a few points I want to bring up one I find it incredibly rude that when people are up here speaking to you the people who are facing forward specifically Keep Their Heads down and act like they're writing the entire time there's no way you're dictating what I'm saying so please give me the courtesy of looking at me is I'm looking at you two two what has me concerned about with the comments that were made was that children were there when Hazmat showed up what did Hazmat show up wearing I'm picturing the scene in ET where guys in big jumpsuits come out so that they're not exposed to toxins and this is what we're exposing our children to so if you would please clarify what these small children saw so that I am now prepared for when my daughter Returns what rumors she is going to hear and what imagination monsters I now need to deal with as I said she's in second grade I still have to check under the bed or in the closet every now and again and that's with the German Shepherd sleeping in her room three you are not dictating what I'm writing Mr P pontello please give me the courtesy of looking at me thank you anybody else anyone want to come up and see my pad no anybody else want to speak I'll show you afterwards anybody else want to come and speak okay public sessions closed Dr Mortimer would you like to say anything I wrote a lot down so it's going to take me a minute just bear with me okay the first person person we heard for um from tonight in the second part of the public forum was uh The Substitute I I don't know what happened I I guess whatever transpired I was on my medical leave at the time apparently some decisions were made but I will certainly look into it want you to know we value you as a substitute in the service to the district but I I'm not able to address it because I I don't have the information as to what transpired because I was not here at the time uh the teach let me see the teacher who was ill I cannot speak about a staff member and and give any information I can't tell you the symptoms of the of the staff member the staff member is okay but I cannot give you any specifics about that there's a staff members have their right of privacy and I certainly am not going to sit here and speak about somebody's what they experienced in terms of their health uh Dr mmer statement um of members of the WEA who may feel attacked by this board so a few things about this one we've talked or I've talked to the public before because I've said it I think maybe a year ago that you know a lot of times people say well you know Dr Mor go go after the board go after the board Dr Mortimer Dr Mortimer go after this person I've said that in terms of the political Arena which we experien with the elections and items like that I'm remaining silent on that I'm not getting involved with the campaigning I'm not getting involved with those items people also re need to realize I'm the employee of the board of education so I need to have a good relationship with everybody all of the stakeholders that's the job of the superintendent isn't to take sides and to help other people try to disparage somebody not my role and not what I'm going to be doing what I will say however is I sent a letter to all the staff members all 500 I three of them however it is I wrote a personal letter last week to all of the staff members addressing the fact the election is over we need to turn a page regardless of who you wanted to win who you didn't want to win it wasn't about the people who were running for the board it was the fact that we were going to move on we're going to focus on the wonderful things we have going on in the district and that's going to be it I know also know from experience that WEA is perfectly well of taking care of themselves you know I've seen Mr Pinto in action I've seen the other representatives in action I Mr pinto and I text a couple times a week we Pops in we have conversations so I don't want anybody to think there is not I do not have a good relationship with the WEA because I think it is a positive one we communicate frequently but not all of that needs to be out in the public for the public to watch 100% I support our teachers I support our entire District I support the Board of Education we need to be positive we need to move on and to come you know every month and people pull me down under the water pull me down under the water you know trying to get me to get engaged in this and I'm I'm not going to do it yes we're going we have a as Miss Peterson said we have a facilities meeting coming up the end of the month Washington will be a priority certainly on that agenda going forward okay let's see where the staff did find out at the same time as the students because that's the the the pace at which we were operating today it as I said earlier it was rapid fire decision making people were C we had the woman from the Northwest Bergen came in to give us advice the police department were there they were giving us advice there was no time we we got the message out to everybody so if the staff was upset that they didn't get it for first they have to understand that the message that Melissa Mrs Pento wrote she wrote it like a minute before it was sent because that's the step we were up to it was rapid fire making decisions and taking action I was not alerted to the problem till 9:20 this morning that's when I was alerted to the problem and at dismissal maybe there was a student crying my heart goes out to that student if that was true but as I said earlier I was out there at dismissal Mr Rosado was out there at dismissal Mr Becker was there Mr Connelly was there Mr mavino was there Miss K Deron was there and Mrs valz were there I brought in extra staff members in the event that there was uh you know people were parking and you know running if there was any kind of you know real alarm to it everything went from what I saw and I stood out there the entire time everything went smoothly I I did not see you know I did not see anything that made me as a mother and even as your superintendent think oh my God let me run up to that kid is that kid okay I didn't see anything we all commented afterward that it seemed like it was okay um it's what the letter said was that it was the usual dismissal location that's what the letter said pick your child up at 1250 at their usual dismissal location so it wasn't that we're going to have dismissal as usual because obviously we were closing the school at 1250 so obviously we knew you know parents were going to be kind of rushing in and not everybody was going to be there at the same time go ahead Mr Rado yeah just wanted to add on to that that uh no student was let out of the building because it wasn't a normal dismissal uh parents had to come to the door and and state that they were here for their kids and some and I I was I I I've I spoke to multiple parents uh and and had told them to come to the door um we were there no one walked away that with without uh yes okay Mr I think you can proceed and answer the other questions we've addressed that okay I know uh many of the the questions about the front were um answered in Dr mortimer's uh communication um the the beginning in in no in November there there was there was never it wasn't always a consistent flow of water that's why uh we we were doing many things to try to figure out what was going on we've consulted with professionals um we asked opinions um we we try to get as much information as we can to why this existed we we you know we I I'm no expert in this we we were relying on our profession on professionals to to give us the information um as far as the uh drain flies yes there were some dra their drain flies at the at the at Washington School um the Exterminator came out I believe two times maybe three times but not consistently in within the week I I don't have that information as to exactly when um they came um we've have experienced the drain flies um since Ida they they have been there uh in in the in the Boiler Room uh we do have a sub a large Sun pump uh we've been uh uh dealing with that issue we've tried to take uh the proper measures uh based on the recommendations of our uh uh professionals um what else we have here uh uh the plans for the ceiling tile replacement mle inspection the the roof the roof uh leaks um there was some flashing that wasn't um completed around the chimney so there was uh water that was draining through that area um we are still working with the contractor that that hasn't been uh finalized yet so we're still working on that with them the um the testing that we're doing in the classroom is for for mold I don't know what specific type of mold they're testing for but they're doing that in the classroom at room 32 um okay listen this isn't a dialogue back and forth and it's not a Q&A session with the business administrator they're trying to answer the questions that were asked previously that's what's going on right now if you can't if you can't remain silent you're going to have to be asked to leave it's just that simple so Mr Rado you have anything else you'd like to add uh what else I I don't know if I cover I think I covered broken pipes the broken pipe uh yes as it stated we in in Dr Mor's communication when they were digging up they they broke the pipe um at that point uh when we were running some test we we did uh determine that there was uh some stuff um when they were draining the system flushing the system we we did see some some uh liquid in there um I I I can't answer as to where the water was coming from I I'm hoping uh everything is resolved I I I I still don't even have answers we got we're we're still investigating and we're going to keep moving and seeing what what what's going on there okay thank you moving on to Old business any anybody have any old business I I'll answer your question actually I wrote some notes under new business is there anybody has any old business does does this count as old business think so do you want it to yeah sure go ahead sure go ahead Mr Casada just I don't know maybe some the the whole dismissal thing kind of bothers me I was good up until that point but letting kids out their parents there I don't know something about it can we do like a Lessons Learned on this whole thing just look back and see if we followed all those protocols and processes on an early dismissal something like this I have to imagine that with all the concerns of chemical tax and whatnot we've got ways of working in emergencies I don't care if it was high paced we were making decisions on the Fly there's a way we should operate I don't know I feel like maybe we should take a minute and listen to people say to let their kids out in the middle of the street well middle of the the school day not the streets are and I just think we should just take a moment sanity check it it's all okay um I think that those are employee issues that really shouldn't be discussed in public okay because could be considered evaluative of the superintendent and that's not what we do in public um but if if that was going to happen that wouldn't be something that the board would be doing that would be something that's done internally amongst the employees who dealt with the issue so um I'm sure the message is received then we'll move on to the next item anybody else old business m f yeah I just wanted to know um regarding the um Porton at George School would that be something that would have to go before financing facilities um the the use of facilities in the fields is is an outside wreck we don't do that if the wreck would like to put uh a Porton in the use of facilities application I guess they can or the the the user of the facilities it's not something that the district is going to put a portter onen out for the uh events that occur outside of the school day so it's the it's the if that's the case I would definitely put it in front of the board for you guys to determine uh whether or not P John will go there I'm I won't make that uh decision unilaterally thank you anybody else old business can I piggyback on Mrs f um if it's if it's a using the facilities could the town I'm probably over overstepping here but could the town then if they're going to maintain it instead of it coming into your into our purview could the Town Place it and they maintain it just a thought yeah that's what I would assume would happen I think the point's well taken though that if there's that many people there for that duration of time during the day there should be a facility for bathroom usage so thank you anybody else hold business Mr Peterson just real quick um Mr Rosado I was wondering I tried to do it myself going through the old agendas um for the past few minutes but for our next Finance meeting would it be possible to get the history of the substitute pay just so the board can better understand what changed there if anything and maybe we can discuss that in in our next Finance meeting good good I just want to take a second to point something out um because it it troubles me greatly so when I have uh board members who are suggesting publicly that maybe something wasn't handled well technically that's an Ethics violation because you are not allowed to publicly evaluate the superintendent I understand your concern if you were concerned we understand their feedback but if you're concerned about that that's a conversation you need to have with me you not you do not need to imply that there was wrongdoing on the on the part of the staff and that you want this looked into this is about the third or fourth time I've handled it myself discreetly as I can can this is about the fourth time I've had a you're shaking your head at me Mrs Cooper this is about the fourth you gave me that impression this is about the fourth time this has happened board members have heard from my personal attorney Mr leira has heard from my personal attorney through the assoc superintendent Association I'm not going to sit here and be quiet and take it you need to know your role and you need to act accordingly because it's it appropriate Dr Dr Mortimer I was not shaking my I was not shaking my I was not shaking my head at you at all okay I'm sorry if I had that perception if it was incorrect yes it's incorrect so Dr morar I assume that comes from my comment right and however it was said by no means was I saying that an employee did something wrong okay go ahead finish okay again could have said wrong I was specifically saying it sounded like it was a crisis it was continuously mentioned that we were operating on the Fly and it seemed like a pretty stressful time and just if there was anything to learn from it if there's nothing then then we did a great job and and that's all I mean I I don't mind the ethics complaint that's they like fly around like water right now but in this case I was just saying that it seemed like a very stressful situation and if there was any to learn and capture from it it was not saying that an employee did anything wrong okay are you finished I am yes okay I wrote down under your name cassado the this dismissal thing bothers me did we follow all of those policies and protocols you're suggesting they were not followed we'll we we'll check into it your s what your statement in my mind suggests that the administrators or perhaps myself did not follow policies and protocols because you're saying you know what you heard bothers you like I said pull me aside after the meeting say Jill how is this handled are you sure this is handled that's the that's the correct way to approach it but to assume that's something that was handled incorrectly and to see here and spit it out for everybody yet again it's not fair to me so I'm sorry you feel you ret treated unfairly it wasn't for that it was just to look at it that's all anyone else old business so just piggybacking on the rolles thing um we did discuss this water line issue or the water issue uh far back when it was brought to the attention of the district and finance of facilities uh and we basically didn't really have an answer um the board or the committee doesn't take and do operational decision making for the district so um we rely on employees to do that and we rely on professionals that the employees call to look into things that their areas of expertise so uh over the course of time violia was out there it was looked at by the uh District architect or engineer and Keith please correct me if I'm making any misstatements um I think we had a a relatively dry spring and summer um and and and we learned that um this drain that comes out is something that runs the whole length of the the uh the grassy area of the yard so it took a lot of flushing of the toilets to get enough water into that system to have it have it spill out onto the sidewalk um there was a lull in time from the initial report to being able to find actually what was going on where it kicked back up again uh and when it did um additional people got involved the town got involved and that's when we started digging a few weeks ago correct so um from a RS perspective it's I'm not blaming anybody for doing anything wrong by any stretch of the imagination just that the board doesn't come out and and stand there and say hey I smell something in the school hey I think this sewer Line's broken we need to call an execrating company and do that that's not our job our job is to to react to and approve funding uh when there's an emergency and and to to talk about that um Keith and and Jill had called me to say Hey you know we have to do this uh asbest remediation because this asbest problem is in front of us before we can do anything with the uh the broken drain pipes so um the first question was is do I approve the $888,000 expenditure and I was like oh boy here I go right easy way to get roasted out in public for for being the guy to say yes so I asked did we get other bids and they did and those bids were you know ranging $200 $300,000 so they had the low bidder uh I said hey can you put an email out to the entire finance committee uh for everybody's you know Collective Agreement on this um and that's what happened so um we're we're reacting to information as we receive it um sometimes you don't have a clear picture when when these things are going on and when decisions are being made so uh it's it's really easy to come here and be critical of every step of the process and to to tell people they don't know what they're doing or they didn't do things right but um you know I can't really say that the board took any action that prevented this work from occurring um and I don't think anybody on this board in any way shape or form prevented that work from happening um again it's a roles and responsibilities thing you know we don't we don't go out on site we're not sniffing to say hey this is somebody's bad tuna fish sandwich or somebody took a poop in the corner or anything in between or there's mold or there's you know sewage flies for this reason we don't do that so um it's easier on Monday morning qub back the decisions that are being made these these these problems are not Simple Solutions it's not like the you know you have a leaky sink in your house and you put a little Plumbing putty and you start over um it's a lot of work and it's expensive and it takes a lot of work and professionals to get this done and unfortunately with some of the agent infrastructure like I talked about in my report um we're going to have problems that that come up from time to time and you know um you know there's no rule there's no there's no handbook on how you have to go about doing it you do your best to handle the situation and and I commend Keith for for his uh his work in doing it and and you know Keith juggles a lot of bulls when he's doing things as the business administrator and he gets tied up in the finan facilities stuff and you know he's also the regular business administrator making sure all the bills are paid and if you don't pay your bills people don't come out to do the work for you so um you know Keats off in here a lot more than eight hours a day I'll tell you that um and same with the superintendent so uh I understand that people get upset I understand that you know it stinks when you get a last minute notice you got to come get your kid nobody plans for that but the school certainly doesn't plan for that either saying oh hey we know that we're going to have to make this early dismissal it doesn't work that way it's when you're confronted with the information you make a game time decision on how to best handle it and again out of abundance of caution till the all the testing comes back tomorrow and stuff like that the school's going to be closed so hopefully um we get a clear picture from all the Professionals of what those problems actually are what the uh the efforts that need to be undertaken to remediate them no one's preventing any of those remediations from happening and hopefully we can move on with the school year so um thank you Mr ver I I was waiting for a moment in between but I didn't want to jump over anybody so just wanted to go back um last week was parent teacher I was going to post this have it written down but I'm just going to go from the cuff now might get a little bit choked up because that's how much this means to me but um we had parent teacher conference a lot of us had that last last week and I walked into uh my daughter's class and Mr mandago shout out to him um it was amazing it really was to sit there and to uh to see his passion and his energy and he articulated and went through yeah you know where my daughter was on the scale of things reading math all that but um what meant the most to me was just how he knew my daughter she's relatively shy and um it just stuck stuck out to me how important our teachers are and we always talk about you know the Reading Writing arithmetic super important but these teachers show up every single day and they take an interest in our students our children and he steps outside the box and this is not specifically to Mr mandago because I know many many teachers if not all of them do the same thing so um I just wanted to make note of that kind of feels weird to wedge that in at the end of this but like I said I wrote it down um and if you think about it all the time that they spend with our children they're in instrumental in helping us raise them and I just wanted to give a shout out to all the teachers and thank Mr mandago and the staff and I guess somebody else can criticize teachers and on the day I guess I can compliment them too right so just uh thank you anybody else any more old business Mr P um somebody raised the issue of the carpets in the classroom is it possible to at least get the carpets cleaned just to make sure that they you know whatever if they were walking in anything that they I I think they get cleaned over the summer anyway right so there's a must be some a machine something we already have that we use to clean them right so I I don't know if it's possible but maybe that's something that we can look old business M Peterson just to piggy back off of that Mrs pek I think that's actually a good idea and um I think that it may be helpful if it's okay and within our purview to do this but to maybe do a walk through a board walkr of Washington School um once all these issues are kind of resolved we did the walkthroughs of every school over the summer and the schools were empty at that time and the classrooms were just being decorated everything looked lovely but maybe you know we do that again um after Mr Rosado Works through some of these issues just so the board can see firsthand what's going on and what um may still need to be addressed okay thank you anybody else old business new business Mrs P um I just wanted to say thank you to all the veterans who came out and spoke and all of the administrators who helped organize that I think it's really important for our kids to understand what the day is about I while I would love to have the day off I think that you know a lot of times if the day is off it's going to be used for shopping and whatnot but I think you know keeping the school open and having the veterans come in and talk to our kids and show them what the day is really about and um I think is is is important and I think it's special and I think it's a a great tradition to have here thank you anyone else new business no can someone refresh my memory um was it the August meeting where the live streaming was canceled it it was August because it was the meeting I was running and just to make it clear the board did not vote on it it was not a board decision but yes that decision was made by the superintendent in August yeah I I just somebody sent me a picture of the uh the blaming of me on Facebook for removing live streaming so thanks for the shout out and giving me credit for something I wasn't even here for um quite ironic I was actually the only person not here so I was the only person that could have actually not have done something to do that but uh thanks anybody else new business seeing none can I have a motion to adjourn Mrs Peterson Mr Garcia all in favor hi good night everybody