##VIDEO ID:RhiEpkqargo## for good evening and welcome to the Monday September 23rd 2024 regular board meeting appropriate notice has been uh advertised roll call please Mr Chu here Mr Craig here Mrs Maya here Mrs molski here have we heard from Mrs Savino or no okay Mrs Seltzer here Mr Sharon Celia here Mr Sherman here Mr doas here Mrs is Kaden here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um we have some good presentations for you this evening uh we are beginning with our with recognition of the 2324 Collingswood staff members of the year so at this time I'm going to let the am I am I right in thinking that we've got other folks that are going to take over the the presenting of these folks okay so I am going going to let all of you um who are presenting take it over um I'm assuming we are starting if I'm looking at the order of operations with Mr kulak you got to go way over in the corner Mr kolak thank you so that everyone at home can also hear the wonderful things you have to say about Miss Lair all right good evening everybody uh my name is Brian kulak I'm the proud principal of Tatum Elementary this is my second straight year giving one of these uh last year we honored Cecilia taglang um and this year we're here to honor uh Morgan Lair so last year when I was up here I made uh an extended analogy about the office so how Cecilia and I are Michael and Pam I'm not going to do that again but I was thinking more about how Morgan and I came to work together so I started at Tatum seven years ago um in a switch with Miss mcpartland and when I got there I knew that the staff I was inheriting from Miss mcpartland was insanely talented and I didn't have to do a whole lot of managing just more listening and learning what I didn't know when that change happened was I was also going to be getting the greatest free agent signing in the history of Elementary education which was Morgan so when I found out she was coming over from Garfield I I thought it first I thought it was a joke um and then I felt really bad for Mark and the people over at Garfield but I was really happy for me um and the people at at Tatum and since then she has completely transformed um at that time still pretty fledgling specialed Department uh and made it one with at the time Kelly Gibbons and now with Gabby scalla this Dynamic empathetic compassionate maternal experience for our kids who need help the most if you are with her you are learning and that includes adults um I've learned so much from her just in small conversations in observations in constant Dojo Point dinging um if you go into her room she's always celebrating the kids with dojo points I know her parents a couple of which are here tonight are so thrilled that she's in their child's life um there are constantly presents coming in to miss lair's room thank you notes hugs there were people honking today outside as we stood on uh door Duty together screaming congratulations these things are not normal and I've been saying this for a while about Tatum um I just don't think it's normal for parents to honk and Shout loudly because we're so enamored with their children as teachers so as I see these C of blue shirts there's a lot of people we could talk about tonight um but for us at Tatum our Bryce Harper is Morgan lair okay so thank you Dr mcdal Miss Kaden all the members of the board um thank you to my family um my husband Michael um my daughters Betty and Jane for their unconditional love and support um thank you Mr kulak for those kind words and thank you also Brian for creating an atmosphere at Tatum where each student and teacher where we feel seen valued and we are connected to each other um it is that connection that um ignites so many Sparks in our education and in our learning and I would not be standing here without all the connections that I've made across my time in Collingswood from my first 12 years at Garfield working and growing along some of the finest Educators colleagues teachers and friends um and then joining the tat staff where who welcomed me with open arms um I the teacher that I am because of all that I've learned from you um the challenges we Face together the challenges that um are sorry and the way we can overcome adversity and Empower each other and Empower our students to be the best that they can be and how they help us be the best that we can be um I'm standing here because of those connections that I've made with all of you thank you continuing Right Down the Line I think Dr McMullen is going to introduce Mr mure good evening I think I'm going to vary from the script a little bit because I have two people I can introduce this evening and I'd like to start with Miss Marian Dockery because I see Theo might want to go to bed soon so we're gonna start with Miss Mar and doer if that's okay good evening it is my distinct honor to speak about Mrs Marian dockerty the CMS support staff member of the Year Mrs dockerty or the former Miss volano has deep roots in our community and she is a proud 2005 Collingswood High School graduate and a member of the 2001 8th grade class of Collingswood Middle School she's been employed by the collinswood school district since 2013 and she's worked at both newbie and Zay North schools and since 2016 she's worked at Collingswood Middle School as an instructional assistant in our prevocational special ed program with Miss elain gizo during her time at the middle school I've witnessed firsthand the care concern compassion and pure love that Miss do has for the students she motivates and Inspire students to believe in themselves as she nurtures and supports them on their journey to reach their full potential and it's truly amazing to witness this dynamic in interaction between Mrs dockerty and her students in in addition to the beautiful and important contributions that Miss stcr makes in the classroom she also significantly and positively contributes to our broader Community this community this community involvement began a quarter of a century ago when I was much younger in 1999 as an actor in The Collingswood youth theater program and in that program she remained well past her acting days in a variety of volunteer roles and in 2021 she assumed the massive responsibilities of director of the colins with youth theater program and during her Decades of service and involvement in Youth Theater I've seen her share the same qualities that she demonstrates in the classroom with the particip but she demonstrates with in the classroom with the participants in Youth Theater she absolutely makes magic be it on the stage or in the classroom a couple of years ago Miss do masterfully direct at the Collingswood youth theater production of Peter Pan and there's some lines in the song I've Got to Crow that nicely sum up the confidence and self-empowerment that she instills in all of the students with whom she works I'll spare you from singing it unless you really want me to but I'll recite those lines while exercising whoops while exercising uh a little editorial license it's just that I am am what I am and I'm me when I look at myself and I see in myself all the wonderful things I see if I'm pleased with myself I have every good reason to be and I am so happy that I got to Crow about the wonderful Maran Docker de members of the Board of Education distinguished audience I would like to introduce you to our CMS support staff member of the Year miss Mar and do all right say thank you so much Dr McMullen for that walk down memory lane yes I have been here forever um and thanks to my school colleagues for this amazing honor um it's been a pleasure working for the same district that I grew up in it's um definitely something when I'm walking down the same hallways I used to be with the kids that I work with at the same age um working with my students I work with kids mostly um with autism some of them are non-verbal so it's still so rewarding every day because I get to see the growth and change in them um seeing just the smallest achievement in them makes me smile and makes me know that the hard days are worth it again I want to thank my colleagues especially my dream team uh Miss elain gizo who was also the teacher of the year two years ago Joe McLaughlin Tracy Charlesworth Robert Thompson and Miss Lee special thanks to my family who are here tonight my husband Dan and my son Theo for supporting me every day as Dr McMullen says it always happens in the middle but for me it all happens in my classroom in room 109 thank you Theo you can stay if you want you don't have to go to bed I think he approved all right at this time I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce our Collingswood Middle School teacher of the year Mr Jack Moser Mr Moser is a proud graduate of West Virginia University and he began his teaching career in the mountain state in 2006 West Virginia's loss became collingwood's gain as Mr Moser joined our school district as a teacher at Mark newbie School in 2008 newbie's loss became Collingswood Middle School's gain as he moved to CMS and joined the math department first as a sixth grade math teacher and most recently as a seventh grade math teacher Mr Mosher is a remarkable educator who exemplifies what it means to be a consumate team player his dedication to fostering positive relationships with students and colleagues alike has created an atmosphere of of collaboration and support within our school through engaging lessons that spark curio curiosity and Inspire learning Mr Moser not only teaches math but also models resilience growth mindset and teamwork for his students it's no wonder that our students look up to him not just as a teacher but as a mentor and a role model they say a good math teacher is a master of two things mathematics and the Art of teaching for me that statement really highlights the Dual expertise required to Be an Effective math teacher and the Dual expertise that Mr moer possesses he has the inate ability to balance deep knowledge of his subject matter with the ability to engage and Inspire students while at the same time building their confidence as math Learners and making the learning relatable and fun and speaking of fun I'd like to conclude my remarks and introduce Mr Moser by sharing a math anecdote that I know he will appreciate here we go there once was a Talking Sheep dog he ran up to the farmer and said all 70 sheep are in the pen the farmer said but I only counted 67 to which the sheep dog replied yeah but I rounded them up members of the Board of Education and our illustrious audience please join me in congratulating Mr Moser good evening how's everyone doing um just want to say thank you so much to the board for having me here tonight Dr McMullen for those great one well the anecdote obviously right so um as he said I came here in 2006 not knowing really anything about um the town of Collingswood the burough of Collingswood um I grew up about a half an hour south was transplanted into West Virginia came home and uh this is where I this is where I landed not knowing really anything but over the years everyone has um been so kind and welcoming and I've really enjoyed assimilating myself into your community serving your community your children several of you I've had more than one of your kids over the years and it's been a true honor to show up here in Collingswood every day um and just thank you so much I appreciate it Mr Newman is going to speak on behalf of Miss balaman good evening everyone so it's my honor to be able to now I don't think my Bryce Harper is here tonight Katie are you here did you come out no that's okay that's okay because um I still want to be able to um just pay you know honor her with these words uh I think when I first came on board uh last year as principal um I I know you you know who gets down and dirty and gets busy in the building right and just makes things happen um I knew that coming in um that Katie was one of those uh individuals and so um what I like about it the most is that she does it at a level uh where she just keeps going and going and going and you always see the kids constantly responding to her uh and give him back and she'll give it back and she'll you know but you see that exchange of um of uh you know the the dialogue that goes back between you know her and the students and how she continuously makes that 12th grade year uh memorable and the reason why I say that is because she is one of the advisers for 12th grade um but like I I I wrote it out let me write let me read this and I'm gonna say some words about her um it is my honor to celebrate an extraordinary uh educator whose passion dedication and commitment to our school have made a profound impact um in the countless lives of our students um the teacher of the year which is Miss Katie Balaban um uh is a is extraordinary honor that she should definitely um you know enjoy and and embrace um she's kind of humbled so when I had that when I talked to her I said you know what are some things that you'd like for me to say about you you know I think I caught her like a deer in the head likees like I don't you can brag about yourself it's okay this is a good thing you know still haven't gotten anything from her you know but it's okay because I get it some people it's just that's just not me you know and so um but I do want to brag about her I wanna i w to um just just just talk some more about you know who she is she is an invaluable member of our faculty um and she's been doing this for many years I believe she and I actually came on board at the same time in 2013 um inspiring students uh with her love of history and her ability to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment um again you know she's here here to teach and she gets busy those students in there they work they enjoy there's that dialogue that goes back and forth she is an awesome awesome instructor her classroom is a place where students feel empowered and explore the past they analyze complex issues and develop critical thinking skills Beyond her exceptional teaching abilities Miss Balaban is also uh a tireless advocate for our students serving as the 12th grade class advisor in coordinating a variety of senior activities including the prom the senior trip and other memb able events um her dedication to ensuring that our seniors have a meaningful and enjoyable graduation year is truly truly commendable uh when I see her and she works with her partner um you know Jeff Herman uh they spend countless hours just making sure that it happens just making sure that our kids uh in their senior year when they walk away they're going to think about a lot of different things but you know they think about the prom they think about what happened on the class trip they think about the different experiences that they had in that 12th grade year and it doesn't just happen you have busy bees that make that happen and she is one of those busy bees that again creating memories for those students when they think of fond memories with regards to collinswood she's the reason she's one of the reasons why that happens um to take it to another level um she is one of the ones that helps to create you know the fall blood drive so obviously that's about service you know it's about students understanding you know the importance behind that um again I say behind that because she works you know closely with Mr uh Herman but she is instrumental and organizing the fall blood drives helping to save lives and promote a cultural Service uh if she was here I would tell her passion for teaching um and her dedication to students um it it's it's truly a commitment that she Embraces that we see um she is inspiration for all of us with as far as the building is concerned uh but I'm definitely glad to have her as one of my busy be in the building so that's Miss Katie balbine and ktie if you were here I'd be high-fiving you and hugging you uh we wanted to honor and acknowledge um the instructional assistant of the year that um was at T Zay North Elementary uh M Lyn trien she is not here uh this evening because she has retired and is thoroughly enjoying her retirement and not spending it at the board event so congrats to her uh and last but certainly not least um Mr Patrick weissberger is going to talk about Travis Grant good evening everyone my name is Pat Weber and I'm the co-director of the technology department for collinswood and Oakland School Districts I have the privilege of honoring the support staff member of the Year Travis Grant tonight Travis was unable to be in attendance with us tonight due to some personal obligations but I was happy to inform him that wouldn't stop me from getting up here and embarrassing him a little bit uh next month Travis will be celebrating his 10th anniversary with the school district our department isn't very large there's only about six of us but in those 10 years that he's been here we've had more than 20 different staff members pass through our department and Travis is the only member left on the staff from 10 years ago this is a great representation of Travis himself he's loyal he's dedicated and he stays until the job is done never want to watch the clock and rush out at the end of the day or push something off until tomorrow because there isn't enough time left to finish he even comes back after hours to help set up for after school events that someone needs help with Travis was the first person I met when I applied for my position here meeting me at the main office to take me to my interview and after our short walk I knew this was a place I wanted to work people don't call the tech department because things are going great and just to get help whenever it's convenient people call when things are on fire when deadlines need to be met yesterday and you need things working now and Travis is the person you want in that situation always smiling and quick to laugh Travis walks into the room and immediately has things handled cracking a joke to E the stress while also having the knowledge to fix the problems and on the rare occasion that he can't he's brilliant enough at adapting to the situation and macgyvering a solution to get teachers back up and teaching until the problem can be fully resolved I have said on numerous occasions and will continue to do so for the rest of my tenure here I don't know how I'd be able to do my job if it wasn't for Travis Grant thank you uh congratulations to um to all of our staff of the Year let's give them another round of applause as I was looking at the list I was realizing and I'm looking over at this corner too because I feel like they'll have the same um feeling as I did that you know that you've been around a while and you've perhaps got a lot of kids when the majority of the the people on this list um have been your your family has been touched by the expertise of the people on that list so um thank you so much we have many talented um teachers and staff as we always uh say at this uh school district and um congratulations to you all again um on that note moving on to our second presentation of the evening uh we will be hearing from Mr Jefferson who will be presenting um the 2425 restorative code of conduct right good evening everyone and as Patrick is warming up the machine just wanted to kind of communicate to everyone this evening that we really wanted to take a moment to revisit our restorative practices initiative and not that this is a a restart but really a situation in which we are shifting from what we believe in and ensuring that we're moving it to a strong commitment so we want to take a look at our mission and vision statement by building on the strengths of the diverse School Community Collingswood Oakland Public Schools commit to providing an inclusive and supportive environment that inspires and empowers every student to Foster the qualities necessary for students to serve as contributors to an equitable and socially just community so what are some of these overarching goals to solidify expectations of all School community members staff students and families to reimagine current practices and behavioral responses with a restorative lens to maximize the time that students are in the classroom and learning to utilize restorative practices to resolve conflicts between students staff and families and to limit exclusionary discipline to extreme circumstances in which safety is compromised and when we say limit exclusionary discipline we also understand sometimes that that connotation that is received by some individuals is that students are going to no longer be held accountable but we know that that is not the case if we're going to have a conversation about these restorative practices we really have to take a look at disproportionality what is disproportionality it's when you have a quantitative number of individuals who have either been over represented or underrepresented an example of that would be if we have a student in which 50% of the students in the school represent male students and if we had a situation in which those male students represented 68% of the suspensions then we would say we have an over representation of male students who are being suspended and an under representation of female students who are being suspended or we say excluded from the learning environment when they're missing school the why well one of the reasons why is we know that the data tells us that we needed to really take a step back and analyze it right here here on the graph that you're seeing we have a comparison of CMS population students suspended by group the blue bar graph shows the total percentage of population of students within the school the Red Bar on the graph shows you the percentage that those students were excluded from the learning environment euphemism for suspended from school in Collegewood Middle School we had 63% of the students who are white students 29% represented the suspended students Hispanic Latino students were 18% they represented 41% of the suspended students black students were 10% of the building they represented 18% multiple categories were 7 percentage of school they represented 12% and the Asian students represented 2% and there were zero suspensions so what do we have we have a disproportion and our Hispanic students showing that Hispanic students were overly represented with the number of students who were suspended on average CMS students were suspended for three days of school and an average of 3.4 so what did the specific numbers tell us we had 17 total students in the Middle School who were suspended from school that year for what was the equivalent of three months of school who was responsible for that and a level of vulnerability I'm going to raise my hand right because like the other Mike J said you got to take a look in the mirror now if we move on to the high school and the high school white students represent 47% of the student population 21% of the suspensions Hispanic Latino students 29% of the population 34% of the suspensions black students 16% of the population 35% of the suspensions multiple sto categories 5% and 6% of the suspensions and Asians were even with 3% and 3% which is what the number should look like when you're trying to ensure that you do not have any proportionalities in the high school there were a total of 62 students who were suspended from school for a total of 468 days the black students and CHS were the group that represented the disproportionality in missing more days of school than any other students respectful communication what are some of the the ways that we that we believe that we're going to be able to move to a commitment and and communicate to the community staff members and especially our children that we are dedicated to this first it starts with respectful communication all College Wood School community members deserve a safe welcoming inclusive environment and will act respectfully towards students staff members and families at all times in and out of school including online with the goals of building relationships preventing or repairing harm and addressing root causes of conflict our shared humanity and dignity must be protected and honored and especially in times of heightened stress or emotions we will refrain from the use of shouting insulting threatening or humiliating others we must begin and continue to engage and restorative consequences as I stated this is a revisit this is something that we have been working on for years so we're going to continue the engagement conflicts must result in invitations to facilitate restorative conversations very quickly I'm going to stop there and just provide you with an example we know that restorative restorative practices is synonymous to a restoration of relationships when a student has been asked to leave the classroom or leave the learning environment you have a student who's offended when a teacher has to ask a student to leave the learning environment you often have a teacher who's offended by the behavior that calls them to have to ask the student to leave it is very important that we are taking an opportunity to restore these relationships and we're not just moving forward with status quo for restorative systems to work all members of our CPS and Ops School Community must be willing to engage in restorative responses in the classro and at the school level while participation in the restorative process is voluntary we are all encouraged to be open am I still on it I'm good all righty restorative processes are an investment of our time for the good of our school community facilitators of restorative con conversations serve as neutral parties charged with helping participants honestly explore their responsibility and conflict and repair and that's kind of the example that I was giving you with ensuring that we're tying up those loose ends School Community expectations respect all members of the school Community model respect respectful Behavior build relationships with one another communicate as openly honestly and transparently as possible uphold and support a safe Equitable learning environment exercise and practice self-awareness practice accountability when harm is caused and support academic success of all students so we really had to take a step back and really take a look at what are some of the things that we're going to do what are some of the tangibles elevating a student voice project something that we have going on right now reimagining the role of student council we know what the traditional student council looks like fundraising programs things of that nature but how can we take student counsel and and have them assist us with our restorative practices initiative actively pursuing additional resources to support professional learning taking our money and putting it where our mouth ISS improve Data Tracking ensuring that we are looking at the numbers and expanding all services for students thank you everyone hang on M Mr Jefferson just stay there for for one second I just wanted to ask if any board members had um any questions um about the uh the presentation before we we let me Mr Jefferson sit down I I have a oh go ahead I just had a question I saw on one of the slides um I think it was about communication that someone will be helping to facilitate some of these conversations for example if a student is asked to remove a classroom I'm wondering who is going to help engage in those conversations well that's one of the things that me with my title of culture and climate you know my job is to help nourish the mindset the will and the skill of all of those students in conjunction with the building leaders so one of the things that I've been doing restorative practices it's not always necessarily after the conflict one of the things that I've been doing so far this year people have come to me some of the aps have come to me and said we're hearing some things about A and B and I'm immediately calling those individuals in we're sitting together and we're having a transparent conversation between us to ensure that in that case we're healing that relationship before the conflict escalates um my question was along those same lines as as Sarah's that what are what are we doing as a district and I know you're kind of leading these um this charge to help both it's a two-part question I guess both staff and students feel comfortable engaging in these um restorative and comfortable and confident I should say engaging in the the restorative approach yes so with staff we have some ongoing planning and professional development and that's where I said putting our money where our mouths are um we're really looking at some of the resources some of the grant money that we have that we have and that's an example that's something that started obviously before this year we're writing grants we're looking for funding and we're reaching out to people throughout the entire that is something that uh Dr mcdal and myself and we're always saying have you ever heard of this person have you ever heard of that person and we're running those ideas on who are the individual everyone's not a fit so we really have to have conversation about who it is that you bring in and ensuring that we say director of culture and climate that they they um represent the culture and climate that that we also represent there are some individuals who have the goal of this but how they see getting there may not line up with how we see it thank you for the presentation and I think I appreciate the honesty with showing numbers around the disproportionality and we're us not being where we want to be I think in the past we've shied away from sharing information like that I think it's going to be important in the future to continue to look back at where we were and where we're headed to make sure that we're there so just encourag to continue to use data like that and and basing this in are we actually getting to where we want to be so that we're not we're not letting individual situations or interactions with students to throw off a plan that a lot of thought and attention has gone into I agree and I think it's one one thing to stand in front of the room of adults and let them know that we're having this discussion but it's very important that we let the students know that we had this discussion and we're having it also um thank you very much when when can we expect like a touch point during the year to see how these numbers are moving are do you thinking like halfway through the year the end of the year I would say half well I don't want we I don't want to necessarily provide distorted numbers and what I mean by that is I want to ensure that we're getting trained in front of the teachers so I can share numbers with you that if necessarily we're sharing those numbers before some of the training um has had a chance to to take fold but um I would say probably the halfway point is when we want to revisit the numbers or even or just an update on what you've been doing um and like how the trainings are going that' be helpful that I would say probably come back I could come back in December and one more question in addition to the like the number of students like the percentages of students I'm Al I'd also be interested in like the duration of these suspensions like you know how does that work out like among the different groups one of that's that's difficult I always tell people context matters you know and so sometimes the the context of how something happened I could I could pull up Genesis student information system right now and kind of show you um what what the offense was but if you don't have the the context that was surrounded around the offense it's kind of could be misinformation but I definitely see what you're saying so I'm saying like if it's a severe offense I'm assuming it's be more days out yes of course mhm um Mr Jefferson I wanted to um Echo what has been said about thanking you for the transparency starting Us by rooting Us in in you know what is troubling data but important data for us to look at um I wanted to hear a little bit about what you see as goals for this work you know even if you're still in the early phases of of thinking about this you know what is the goal that you're trying to reach and how will you know that you are working toward it well of course we know we want the numbers to change but for me I think a goal would be when we get to a point where we don't necessarily have administrators who were coming up with these ideas and and it's already begin to shift but where we get more teachers and staff members and students who are coming up and saying hey I have an idea to assist with our restorative practices initiative or and of course students don't talk like that right students are going to say I have an idea to inore some of the relationships so when that begins to become um communication or verbage that I would say is is going back and forth and also being initiated between with students and staff members uh and teachers and not singlehandedly where it's being dominated by Administration and board members and and community members I think that will will also be a Telltale sign I don't necessarily know how quantitative some information like that will be sometimes you're just going to know you're just going to feel it oh sorry can I yeah um I really like the focus and piggy backing on what you just said about enabling student voices and and um giving them space to kind of take ownership over some of this I'm wondering if you could tell me a little bit about the student voices project um just like kind of the goals of that and what that entails and how you envision this uh contributing to this yes so um we've had the opportunity to meet with Dr Mark broff who is a Community member in Collingswood and is also a college professor and once again as as I stated before you want to meet with people ensure that their vision and they're looking through the same lens that you are and I think that we walked away from that meeting with Dr brace off definitely feeling as though that we were looking through similar lenses so right now Dr brace off is meeting he's coming in in midday and meeting with the students for an hour a day basically two days a week um we took some students over the summertime took two days and had Dr brace off train them we also have um two staff members two teacher advisers that are working with him and so one of the things that one of the the questions that he's asking is what is it that we want to create sometimes we talk about this and we don't necessarily know what it is that we want to create so so far my and and me sitting and being a fly on the wall because I I want to stay out sometimes I want to engage in that conversation but it's Dr brace off's platform right so I'm sitting there listening and that's kind of what I've walked away with right now what they're still working on is what is it that they want their school to look like and of course we always start off with the question of who is it that we want in the room and they've already answered that and that's everyone last question I promise um and these students are they um how I don't know like did they apply what was the process you know to ensure that this is kind of capturing a wide arrange of so so what um what I believe and I I wasn't in the high school at the time is that there was kind of an interest memo was kind of sent out to students and some students took uh the initiative to say that they wanted to be a part thank you thank you everyone thank you very much okay uh we are moving on to section four uh which is committee of the whole motion to enter Committee of the whole so moved and a second second all in favor I uh thank you um we are going to just take a little bit of time um during Committee of the whole tonight to talk about uh next steps um and what uh what work we know what the work is that we need to get done but um a little bit more about um how we kind of En en Envision getting there um so I wanted to start off uh by saying that while it certainly is disappointing that um once again our community um didn't vote to invest in our school facilities um that was only one part of it um I'm actually really proud of the the work that not just went into this plan but actually what got us here in the first place I've been on this board for almost nine years now and have watched the community grow in their um willingness to engage in really tough conversations about the uh needs of all of our students and how um we aren't necessarily meeting all of those and have been willing to have more honest conversations about the fact that um the way our system is set up by no fault of anyone in this room um it's really just history uh that the the s there are systemic inequities that exist in our school system in general but certainly in our elementary school and that there's been a willingness um to to talk about it and that this this plan was kind of a culmination of a lot of discussions and there's been a lot of talk about it but not a lot of um real big action and um it was the start but certainly certainly not the end um so what we have learned is you know we've been going uh to the community for the last six months and having a lot of those really tough um conversations about our that are kind of rooted in our the need for improvement of our school facilities right um because that's what a referendum does uh but what's come out of those conversations is um a really interesting thing that even those that don't everybody that would sit in a room together that did not agree with the um the plan in terms of what the the look of the facilities would be like or or what schools we would be using what generally came out of those conversations was agreement on um the issues themselves and that we can't just leave them un addressed anymore so that's what we're going to talk about today so first I want to be clear about what those issues are um and that you know came up during before and during the process of the referendum but that we we've all known um have been issues um in our district for a long time so I want to name those as goals of what we are working on um or continuing to work on uh right now so first integration of our elementary school population is a must um the key here is that it has to be intentional um it has to be thoughtful and it has to be done earlier than it is now uh the second thing is inclusive classroom we are not serving our students with disabilities uh in the structure that we currently have and we can't it isn't there is a moral imperative when it comes to both of these two things right um integration of students uh intentionally and at an earlier age that serves them all better um and integration of our different our Learners that learn differently but um that does not mean that they don't have every right to be with grade level peers just like everyone else does and even if our structures don't currently serve that our answer can't be well our structures don't currently serve that so there's nothing that we can do about it uh the third students deserve safe roots to schools this came up over and over and over again I have been um hearing about this from parents for years so you know the elementary schools is one thing but we've always talked about the fact that our sending districts in Woodland and Oakland um that this has been an issue for them since they have been coming to our middle and high school um in the coming weeks we are having meetings with the Department of Transportation and cross count connection to really meaningfully begin planning and collaborating with um with their help um with Chief kry to really come up with some better uh safety Transportation plans moving forward and then finally um we still need improvements to our educational space um that fact doesn't change um we just need to think creatively and differently about how we utilize the space that we already have because what we have been told by the community with the vote is we have the buildings we have and we need to figure out how to work within those spaces to best meet our students needs um that's as much talking about the as I'm going to do at the moment because this is committee of the whole and I want all of us to have some time to briefly um talk through what we've learned from the last six months um and the how intentional we want to be with the steps that that we're going to take moving forward so I'm going to turn it over to someone else who wants to turn their mic on um so re I think the your summary uh was I I mean um lines up with with my impression of uh the whole process right over the last six months plus of the referendum I had the opportunity to attend almost all of the uh Roundtable discussions that the that the district uh hosted and I think what you said was right in that um a lot of the discussions at those those Roundtable discussions regardless of whether not someone was for or against supported or didn't support the referendum um folks agreed that there were uh uh potential benefits and also just like issues that we had to address right and um you know looking at uh stff even about how can we get more than one classroom per grade right in our building you know talking to having talked to a lot of uh parents in those settings and and also uh elsewhere during this whole last six months understanding the benefits of being able to have uh uh multiple classes of uh the same grade within the same building right so that uh students can get um different uh experiences year to year can can experience different social groups year to uh year to year uh and then teachers can have support of of uh grade level peers also um um that seemed to be a pretty uh well-received um um part of of the referendum and uh as you said you know we have to figure out how to uh best utilize our educational spaces right given that the uh um referendum vote was was uh what it was um and I think that is one of the places where we can uh look at uh which can hopefully also uh support you know the integration of the elementary population also more inclusive learning spaces so that's one of my initial thoughts um something I've been thinking about and I think you know you are laying it out as the first goal Reagan was really helpful you know is this idea of of intentional integration and you know I think one of the ways to ensure that what we are doing you know in the future is not virtue signaling or or performative is to kind of you know it's a it's silly but it's the same question I asked Mr Jefferson like what are our goals and how does the way we choose to go about the process of intentionally integrating our students help us meet those goals right so it's not just about sort of redistributing kids it's actually about coming up with really concrete goals for our district things we want to change things we want to improve strengths we want to harness skills we want to develop and then doing the job in ways that align with those goals so I think one of the things I'll be hoping to talk about and and look at more is really being intentional and putting the intentional in intentional integration yeah um I really appreciate all the goals that you just listed I think that matches up pretty clearly with what the goal was here um one of my recommendations and it's just a thought we did have a lot of Roundtable discussions going into the referendum to explain what would the plan was now that it didn't pass I think we should go to each community school and talk to them and find out what it is that they think will work for them you know um for example if the sharp people did not um as on average think that this plan was going to match up with what the goals were that we had for them or that we think that they have for themselves find out what's what's going to work for them what do they think we need what do they what do they want us to do the same thing with Zayn the same with Tatum the same with newbie the same with Garfield and really get into the community at a deeper level and just kind of get the pulse on what what people actually think we could come up with to make this work so i' I'd like to um I'd like I'd like to weigh in because I think that it's it's it's extremely important to really separate the two and so a bond referendum is a request for funding it's not a u uh a a DEC ation or or anything like that it really is it's it's a request for funding aligned with the goals and objectives and so what was pretty clear over the last six months regardless of where individuals fell on either side of the vote was that the goals and the objectives there was General consensus across the community that the goals and the objectives um were sound and so I just want to make sure that we're being very clear so the original goals and the objectives of the referendum first was to address our overcrowding issue and offshoot of that was to make sure that all schools reflected the diversity within the community and being very mindful of of what that actually looked like that work did not take place but the primary goal of the referendum was to address overcrowding it was to address the challenges to the facilities that are physically preventing young people from being able to access every single building and so when you parse that piece out and remove the actual resource the only thing that we have really which is is the goals and so we think about the goals and we break that down in terms of intentional integration intentional integration is not mix a bunch of black and white kids together that's not intentional integration it's not forcing uh uh young people with learning differences into environments where they're not successful what it is is that we're taking a very uh measured targeted approach to ensuring that the barriers the structural barriers that currently prevent young people from accessing our facilities um are slowly removed and so when we think about academics one of the one of the uh components of intentional integration is that we can no longer continue to ignore concentrations of low academic achievement and poverty in single locations and so that's not uh that's not a debate that's not an argument that's just a fact and so when we're looking at what are the core variables the district is held to a very different standard um in terms of student achievement in terms of rules in terms of regulations in terms of access in terms of compliance and so I think that yes I do believe it's important for us to take a very uh uh intimate targeted level of approach but I just want to be very clear this is not a free-for-all in terms of goals and objectives the goals and objectives have been pretty clear for the last six months and there does seem to be General consensus about what that looks like in terms of inclusive schools um the example that I give I'm A Garfield parent my daughter uh uh has friends who live within the confines of Garfield um but because they have an IEP they're not they're not they're not at Garfield um and so we have to start taking a look at some of those core pieces and so when we talk about inclusive schools inclusive schools I want to just make sure that we're all on the same page is not restricted to Elementary as well because as we heard last month um we have a systemic challenge um nobody's fault but historically uh in the state of New Jersey it was focusing on the uh segregation of kids putting kids in self-contained classes and that was the solution um for about the last 15 to 20 years nationally there has been a push to move to the least restrictive environment um change is hard and sometimes we have to get out of Our Own Way in order to stop creating artificial barriers that are preventing us from being able to do that yes it's extremely important at the elementary school if we're going to have a conversation about intentional integration but I also don't want us to think that it's only restricted to Elementary I believe that it's a k through 12 K through 12 issue and then in terms of safe rides to school we want to make sure that all of our kids are safe and so that that piece is is going to be separate and apart and should uh take place regardless of the referendum the or the goals or objectives connected to that so I just want to be very mindful what we mean when we say intentional integration um primary is breaking up uh low academic concentrations of low academic achievement and concentrations of poverty and what that will require is that will require a significant and challenging uh uh community-based problemsolving project that will change uh uh neighborhood catchments it will change uh walking paths it will change trajectories of of of where programs are or are not uh created in the long term but it's it's it's the absolute right thing to do and I just want to make sure I put that on for the record um could I oh that intentional integration is going to take some time I understand that um but something that we can do much more immediately and I did see the passion in these Roundtable discussions is to S safe roots to school I mean I think and again I'm not speaking for the board but this would be kind of a good opportunity to get another ad hoc committee together or you know just like we did with the equity committees like six years ago get the community involved because it is a community uh issue and I think we could solve this one quickly well we can get moving on it immediately talking about based also on what you said I wanted to make sure that this was clear on the record something that um a lot of folks talked about during these last six months that I don't think has been talked about um enough in the community uh at least since since I I've been on the board is that like let us let us be clear that we have currently have five elementary schools there's only one which is is majority uh uh economically disadvantaged students that same one is also majority minority students right and in and that one school has of vastly different academic outcomes than the other elementary schools and I just want to make sure that that's that's clear um to our community that that is a fact and has been a fact for a long time and that we have to address that and we have to um uh figure out what structural things as a board we can do to help address those uh issues um it's it's something that I was really hardened by during the discussion over the last uh six months hearing from so many community members saying yeah we see that uh we might not agree on the current Solution that's being presented but but we see that uh and we want to uh work on that and fix that and so um you know I want to make sure that that that's clear to the community that yes that is actually an issue um and that uh you know I appreciate that that we are looking for ways to you know sooner rather than later intentionally integrate Sol solve some of these issues as best as we can at least from the board perspective in terms of of structures that that we can do to support the students support the teacher support the community in um uh um elevating the outcomes of all of our students um I yeah I wanted to Echo also thank you for for articulating that Roger and Dr McDow um last Tuesday there were 13 other districts that went to referendum and nine of them including Collings Woods were rejected so this is a funding a referendum is at its core a funding question and I don't think it changes any of the community goals um I think that if you were to ask anyone at sharp um I'm a sharp parent if you what do you do you want the best for all students no one is going to say no um and I think that it is the at this juncture it is the community's goal as a whole um and I agree that there are different ways to approach that solution but that is that doesn't change whether you go ask parents at Tatum or you go ask parents at sharp um and and so I think that's really important to keep in mind this idea of community involvement is is important but this goal is not going to change across the board so I just want to um I think we can I said you know it was going to be a brief conversation because it's um it's just the the start of these um conversations there's a lot more work to be done um but I thought that it would be it was important to um recognize the obviously the elephant of the room of the referendum in general it's been you know non-stop conversation for the past six months but also that um the work doesn't stop as Dr McDow would always say when when inevitably the question of well what happens if the referendum doesn't pass would come up at every round table or or any other kind of discussion and the needs of the students on September 17th and September 18th didn't there's no difference between those two and and so we wake up the next day and we go to work and we um continue uh finding ways to meet the needs of of all of our students and that part hasn't changed and what I I um last thing I wanted to say before we wrap up this part uh of the meeting is that I just hope that we now that the that part has kind of been the the vote has been taken away we can come together as a community to really um work productively to solve for these issues that we've had a lot of really good discussions about um with that had parents from every school um some that didn't send their kids to to Collingswood schools but live in Collingswood it you know those those roundtables really brought out a really amazing cross section of of the community and um they were really good conversations to have and I hope that we can continue them um in a really respectful um and intentional way that everyone is here to do what they can for the kids um nothing if we can all come together and and recognize that that's what we're here for and we're not here for any sort of Nefarious reasons um I think that would be great I think the kids deserve that um put all the other stuff behind us and um actually just get to work for the kids because that's what really matters um with that uh motion to exit Committee of the whole and a second second all in favor so at this time uh I am going to say goodbye to you all uh it is my birthday and my birthday present to myself is uh that I am now going to go home and spend the rest of the evening with my loved ones uh so it was lovely seeing all of you um but I'm going to eat the wonderful cookies that Kelly made for me and uh spend the rest of the night with my family uh so the lovely Kate Seltzer is going to to take over and um be gentle and I'm gonna ask Roger if she'll he'll just uh be back up in case um you know back up for bathroom breaks or such whatever's needed and uh have a good night happy birthday all right good evening everyone so we are going to move into future dates and miscellaneous information um and there are a few things here um as always you should look for your child's schools PTA meeting um also latova to the Jewish members of our community who will be celebrating the high holy days in uh the next month um uh other than that um there are some fun fall related things that will probably catch your attention I know we'll be attending some of those in my family um let's move on to routine business so I need a motion to approve the minutes of the August 2024 board meeting so moved and a second all in favor all right that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment um the purpose of this public comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda additionally more General comments may be made later in the meeting the public is reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should go first through appropriate staff members and administrators the intent of public comment is to give the community opportunity to provide feedback to the board we will be actively listening and taking notes so that we can uh take all that is being said into consideration if appropriate clarifying comments may be made at the end of the public comments section for more detailed responses to concerns communication may go out later in the week by the appropriate staff members or administrators or be discussed by the board during future uh committee meetings members of the public are welcome to speak and expected to do so with the US utmost sensitivity for everyone in attendance uh In fairness to all who wish to speak there is a strict three minute time limit per person during public comment uh please remember to state your name and address for the record and um Miss colan will be timing you and we'll give you a heads up when your time is up I thought thought you were going to make it really easy on me it's going to be it's going to be I I don't know if this is the right time for it so if you if it's not I'll come if it's not I'll come later it it has to just be uh related to an agenda item yeah I I just wanted to say um as far as the recognition oh I'm sorry my my name is uh Tom Howard I live at 16 Fraser Avenue uh I I just wanted to speak in in in um about the recognition of teachers um is that that now it's the right time okay oh great okay um I just wanted to Echo comment before uh to congratulate the teachers who were being acknowledged uh for the great service specifically I want to talk about Mrs Lair uh my daughter has Mrs Lair and um she absolutely loves her and uh she has made great strides with her uh she's has dyslexia and has had a difficult time um and Mrs Lair has really helped her along and we are noticing some really great really get great strides uh in her confidence and her reading and uh we can't say enough great things about Mrs Lair so I just wanted to Echo uh the Kudos that she got and she's awesome so thank you here here here here okay thank you very much um next we are going to turn it over to Dr McDow for the superintendent report uh so good evening everyone thank you uh so much uh for being here uh Section 8 uh 01 uh to three uh and four uh due to the timing of the meeting um the reports will be presented at the October uh 2024 meeting just have just a few uh announcements um one just really wanted to uh second uh what Tom said and and just reiterate um all of our uh educators of the year um this year we get we get to actually celebrate them for the full year um they represent the best and the brightest among us and we're so thankful to have them here within our districts um in terms of uh back to school we're extremely uh pleased uh to welcome students and staff back um and as you have been able to see the uh the energy back to have everyone back in the buildings has been infectious um there will continue to be uh information presented weekly by schools through their weekly newsletters uh and so please stay tuned uh and stay connected to your child's school for those details um I want to uh uh publicly uh commend uh our Middle School uh leadership team and staff for their response to a serious incident that took place on September 19th and so on September 19th we updated the school Community about an incident at the middle school it involved a Potential Threat um which was addressed immediately uh by the administration our administrators followed all procedures for threat assessment uh including the notification of the police department who responded promptly uh the incident is currently under investigation and there is there has been no uh immediate or credible threat uh to any of our schools specifically our secondary camp uh local law enforcement are exercising their due diligence and continuing to investigate and we will continue to work closely with them um as they conclude their investigation so subsequently we would uh enact any additional actions that may be required by local law enforcement as a result of this investigation due to the Privacy rights of the student and the families involved in this incident we are not at Liberty to share any other actions taken by the school in connection with the situation please be assured um that we are taking all active steps in order to continue to manage the situation to ensure that students and Staff feel both comfortable and safe any student um experiencing stress or anxiety around this subject can stop by the counseling office or the main office or even the wellness center uh for additional support and so as an additional followup our CMS Administration reminded the student body of the responsibility that we all have for both our actions and our words and emphasize that even comments made as a joke or for shock shock value can result in very serious consequences our administrators are also requesting that the student body refrain from Gossip and spreading of rumors or false information as these actions are irresponsible and only serve to further inflame the situation which uh individually was extremely serious they will further encourage uh a students to also continue to report anything that they hear or witness that relates either to their person or to their school so student and staff safety will continue to be our priority as a district and we will also continue to adhere to all Safety and Security protocols in partnership with local law enforcement and specifically we'd like to thank the students uh who came forward and shared pertinent information with school officials needed to address this in a timely manner in May the Board of Education uh revised its policy allowing uh students grades three through 12 to bike to school uh we are pleased to report that bike racks have been purchased and are currently in the process of being installed across our elementary school schools um and then since August Mr Jefferson our director of culture and climate has been working with the New Jersey chapter of safe RS to schools as they work to develop a plan that integrates uh the appropriate safety protocols for new writers uh in addition we have uh safety assemblies that are being presented um uh at all of our elementary schools sponsored by Cross County connections so far Mark newbie school has completed its safety program and all of the remaining schools are currently register registered uh uh to participate also in partnership with Kingwood Police Department on Monday October 14th there will be a Bike Rodeo held at the Scottish right uh this is actually a student day off the district is uh in addition is seeking to collaborate with the New Jersey Department of Transportation its Bureau of safety bicycle and pedestrian programs to also assist in this safe routes implementation and so in addition um collaborating with neighboring towns in order reviewing their policy what works what doesn't work in order to help refine what we do here in Collingswood as well as Mr Jefferson is partnering with the local police department they're going to be doing um riding tours throughout the burrow in order to look for additional Transportation concerns or hurdles for the young people uh as we uh ramp up and so we will be making the announcement once all of these steps have been put in place um which will then Grant uh our younger Riders uh the ability to be able to come to school come to school safely uh and to be able to park uh uh their bikes with the additional uh physical presence out in town uh we are also pleased to announce that we are continuing to move forward with our calls at Parkview uh preschool expansion and so through the New Jersey preschool expansion program we were approved to increase uh preschool capacity to the tune of 60 additional uh seats during the uh June 24th public meeting um the board approved approved uh the 5year lease for the Parkview property uh so this new partnership will allow us to add uh much needed highquality preschool seats to colins with families so additional details around site launch and the registration process will will be released in the near near future once we have an estimated completion date for the construction that needs to take place to uh retrofit the facility for our uh youngest Learners and so you heard uh from Mr Jefferson tonight about the importance of site-based leadership playing a dominant role on on our campuses um as each campus evolves and so ultimately our vision for Equity is to make sure that all students uh feel welcome and included have a deep sense of belonging and feel cared for and are treated with dignity and respect and so in reference to one of the questions that was asked um of Mr Jefferson in terms of the goal the primary goal of restorative practices in schools is to maximize the time that children are in school but it's also to give schools who are best positioned to make these decisions on a case-by casee basis levels of flexibility to look at students as individuals and to have more Tools in their toolbox uh in order to keep kids in school we keep the uh expectations high in terms of taking responsibility for one's actions with the opportunity to reconcile um but ultimately uh we want kids in in the building um students have no opport opportunity to reconcile they have no opportunity to learn better behaviors uh when they're sitting at home and so uh School leaders last year asked for uh flexibility that would allow them uh who know their students better to work closely with parents to come up with what are alternatives uh to keep kids in school but also maintain high expectations and so we're we will be releasing the school community resource guide that will be sent out later this week um districtwide because each of us has a part to play in in holding young people accountable but also helping young people learn how to make better decisions with the opportunity to reconcile those relationships and so Mr Jefferson also referenced our uh student voice project and so uh we had roughly 11 students that participated in the summer training program uh they represent uh all of the uh demographics within our school district and so we wanted to make sure that there was a a good representation and these young people going to help lead us to a a better tomorrow because they are uh boots on the ground and they care deeply about their school and so the students are extremely engaged um the summer training was really focused on establishing trust and a sense of community among the student leaders who are going to be driving meaningful change and so the program facilitators are currently documenting all of the work and they've already establish some critical insights uh which will be shared uh quarterly in order to make sure that we're we're continuing to move and make progress uh before we get to a cohesive plan which will be presented publicly the co-advisors are also doing a terrific job in guiding the students and helping to support them when they have questions on campus and so would also like to uh in the spirit of uh what we heard from uh from Patrick about Travis is that last year we made one of our district priorities to enhance our infrastructure in terms of Technology services and so we also sought to improve our Chromebook deployment and address work and customer service issues and so the tech team would like to thank the community for their patients as they continue to work on rolling out uh Chromebook carts uh to the high school this year the team did significant prep work over the summer in order to make this a reality planning was based on the estimated numbers from last year um they updated the room counts and they spent they have spent the last several weeks updating the carts where needed um in order to be able to balance out to ensure that all students have access to the digital device that they need to do their work we are still waiting for the donated Chromebooks to arrive um from the uh from the Red Cross once that happens we will have more information available about the take-home uh devices for economically disadvantaged students and so we would just like to especially thank our high school administration uh for working collaboratively with the tech team to address the challenges as we start this New Year we'd also like to thank to publicly thank uh uh as we did last month the Cherry Hill branch of CMI uh Media Group uh they donated 60 additional flat screen monitors and five printers on Friday uh which will be distributed uh to our uh staff uh and that concludes my report thank you thank you Dr mcdal um item nine is student reports uh we do not yet have uh student board reps um hopefully October we'll have our our first reports from them um so I'm going to turn it over to M Coleman for the uh business business administrator board secretary report all right um item 10.01 are your August uh budget transfers 10.02 are your August financial statements 10.03 is your Student Activity financial statement we do not because it's still September I don't have um a food service financial report yet I will have September's in the month of October and in 10.05 a listing of the purchase orders issued during the month of September and a 10.06 is listing of the warrants that will be paid tomorrow tomorrow morning Penning approval this evening and that is it thank you Miss Coleman uh now I'm going to turn it over to Mr Craig for the buildings grounds and finance committee thanks the finance buildings and grounds committee reviews all financial statements purchase orders and warrants on a monthly basis committee also reviews and approves all contracts with outside service providers and oversees all maintenance and capital Improvement projects districtwide uh tonight we are seeking approval of the following items uh 112 to 119 is the board secretary's report as was presented 1110 is a service agreement for a cyber security pilot program the goal being to increase our cyber security protections within the district uh 1111 is approving Huntington Learning Center to provide tutors to the high school pay through Title One funding uh 1112 is the new oer request form for the district uh 1113 therapy dogs cost of the district providing Therapy Services um and then 1114 is uh 1:1 nursing services for a student um provided by Pata Health home healthcare 11:15 to 1117 are use of facility requests uh short agenda but seeking approval from items 112 to 1117 thank you Mr Craig can I have a motion to approve set items moved and a second second uh any questions or comments from board members um so I think this might be the right section for this uh just recognizing that I think uh Governor Murphy signed a bill earlier this uh month September 4th um and I know uh uh Miss Coleman you and I have talked a little about it but that's just that has something to do with uh discussions that came up during the referendum uh around uh going out to um uh ask to raise funds from the community not related to uh facilities right this isn't on the agenda so I don't think there should be on this okay thanks um okay roll call any other questions before I call roll call okay roll call please Mr CH uh yes except 11.16 who are abstained nothing weird there I'm just part of the program so gotcha 16 right yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sharon Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mr delus yes all right I can address um what Mr Chu was talking about so no during the budget and leading into the referendum there were a lot of discussions from taxpayers about like the Robinsville those of who have been following following me um the governor did he did hear I guess the complaints and I guess they were monitoring Robinsville so just a a little history of what happened in Robinsville was there's four dates in law that we can go out for a special referendum right that's what we just did for Capital but the law didn't say the word just for Capital so Robinsville used it as a way to close their budget hole so they kind of got to work around the law that Chris Christie passed all those years ago they kind of found a little workaround so the governor signed into law um get the number I do have the number here uh I guess Senate number 2837 I don't know if it has official law yet um this still was recently signed about six weeks ago I have reached out to the county ba I do have my round table on Wednesday because I'm asking them how this works so basically what the governor did was that those dates and statute that allows referendum like we just used for Capital they're now saying school districts can use those four dates to raise funds for their um upcoming school year um on those dates but what's not clear and the way I read it and again the devil's in the details I don't have regulations on it yet but they reference the current school funding reform law which is how my budget's governed which makes it seem to me like I would still need to have some kind of counter office um involvement and their approval of the question we just can't put out a question I have a budget whole of a million dollar please thank you give me a million dollars I seem the way it reads is the county office most likely still needs to be involved in the process um and how we go about involving them and getting it approved because back in 2018 we did do this in our budget we did a mental health separate proposal and this reads very similarly to the law that allowed us to do that right you're tacking on to your budget for a program but this the way it reads is we're asking for money for a program in advance of our budget so it a little bit of Robinsville with yeah you've got those four dates but I'm not quite sure we can use it for the purposes that we would love to use it for um again I don't have any regulations yet and I have asked for the county to kind of explain this at our meeting um I'm hoping she does I've emailed her twice already um but it's out there and I definitely keeping an eye on it this because this would be uh you know something we want to keep our eye on like obviously for the future for our budget did I ask one question about that just to make it clear this doesn't address this doesn't address what our initial concerns were that we don't know what's going to happen in when the budgets are released next year we don't know if they're going to pull anything back right we don't know because there's nothing in the legislative history that I saw okay can you doesn't doesn't look like our fear was Robin was going to get smacked for kind of going around the law um haven't heard anything about that but I did hear when all these discussions came up when we were doing our budget that from my from the county office they were saying Trenton is very much aware of what Robinsville did and they're monitoring the situation and we did speak a lot to our County Representatives um Pam lampit and the like so I feel like some of that came out of those discussions with them as well I don't think it goes as far as it needs to when you when I just don't think 2% it's just not cutting it anymore so it doesn't go as far and the way it reads is they're still trying to tack it onto a program so which makes me nervous because a program you know that's people so the way I read the law I can't put something out for a separate proposal and risk it being voted down if it has people in it so again the devil's in the details and I just don't have it right now so I apologize can you review the dates again that we allowed to go out go out in September December January and March and you can also tack on to a general election so like the presidential election if anybody is so inclined not me but um yeah so there's four and then the obviously your normal November elections and could you just clarify again so um I just want to make sure I understand so you say that the county has to you we' have to run it by the county um we had to run the referendum question by the county as well if I recall not not this not this referendum in 2008 18 this school district as through our budget had a separate ref separate proposal question on our budget for the mental health services that we've had in place for the last seven eight years um that's what I meant not the referendum question that you just voted on last week I'm talking about what we did in 2018 and and I I apologize if I didn't word my my question correctly so what what I understood you to say was that you know again the devil's in the details which I can appreciate um when you said that you weren't sure if if you if you if we were to move forward with that kind of um of of an ask that you would have to go through the county again and get their approval and you were concerned about that process but we had to do that with with just just recently with with this just pass Bond referendum question too I guess I wasn't sure what what the difference was no we didn't have to do it with the bond referendum question we had to do it with the 2018 mental health separate question and that did have to go to the county office um because we had to show that it was something brand new to our district and we had to give them their goal of expectations and we had to show them like A needs assessment like needs that we were seeing so that they would say yes you can do this okay thank you I think the the other just aspect to put on there is the speed in which you can do something anytime that you have to involve any other offices in terms of approvals that is going to the timeline is going to get pushed and when you're thinking about budgets even for next year I mean budget process starts in October so in terms of in 2018 if we didn't have to seek out those approvals we could kind of move at our at our own pace correct correct what we did in 2018 we tacked it onto our budget so when we did the budget it was a separate question with the budget these four dates allow us to do it just like we did last week with the referendum but then that now you're involving County your Camy County Office of the superintendant has to review it on behalf of the commissioner and let's say they approve it then it has to go to the Camy County Board of Elections and they need at least 60 days so now you're looking three months at a minimum assuming we could all you know get all this done so again Devil's in the detail s and I'm a little nervous that they're not they're not rolling it out with information as quickly as I would obviously like it thank you for following that and keeping us up to date on it no problem keep you posted and so to just to wrap up I think because there's a lot that was said there basically the the the most recent referendum had to go through State approval right and then but then this type of referendum for the uh uh a budget piece uh likely would have to go through the county superintendent approval then the County Board of Education approval uh but also by my understanding from what you've said is that uh there's also no Clarity from the county or the state yet in terms of what actually uh that approval would look like and um just looking at what was previously done it it the concern is that this is basically would have to be additional funds for additional programming uh and and that's what you're trying to figure out uh right now from the county and you know you'll I guess you'll let us know when when you get yeah correct because the way the law is written right now is when you put something like this out on our budget right if it's voted down the the the mayor and burrow can't come in later and say well we're going to give you the money and do it it's dead it's done so that's why I would really want to understand their pooling of two completely different laws and smooshing them together um without a whole lot of guidance so uh thank you so much um Miss Coleman for the update and for as Kelly said continuing us to update us on this question uh I'm going to turn it over now to uh Mr Chu to to give us the curriculum committee thank you the curriculum committee oversees and approves the district curriculum and assessment programs as well as field trips home instruction co-curricular programs and the school calendar um uh there are actually uh field trips at uh all three levels I I know i' mentioned to individual board members that that there were not this time but I think there are were some added so I'll go through them really quickly Elementary level uh um there are a few that are um visiting I think the the Middle School um uh there's actually two pages of of Middle School um uh field trips I think most of them are for MD uh 6 through eight uh classes um and then uh there's also some student council uh choir um 12th grade and and africanamerican studies uh uh field trips at the high school level um then 12.05 is the overnight field trip uh for senior class trip 20 5 I think again down to uh Florida um then uh 12.06 um uh is our uh approval for camon County transition uh program for a few students 12.07 uh is uh out of District home instruction placement um and so for tonight I'm seeking approval for items 12.02 through 12.07 motion to approve set items and a second second uh questions or comments from board members this may not be an appropriate question for right now um if it's not just let me know I'm curious we've been talking a lot about not a lot but we've been talking here and there about the expense of the class trip to Florida for her families um and I mean I I would imagine that this is kind of happening everywhere right for a lot of kids all all over the all over the country that might be going to their uh senior trip we all know that senior uh class expenses overall are pretty high for most people myself included I'm a senior parent right now um so just a a question of like if we were to start setting up like a plan so that parents could start to pay for this kind of stuff in freshman year what would that look like in terms of like bank accounts that we would have to set up would every student have their own individual thing or would it be one cumulative thing because if a parent obviously puts in money and their they pull their student later on they obviously would be entitled to that money back right that they've already put in great question it would be a lot of bookkeeping it is possible some some other districts do allow you know they do a payment plan um we do have Student Activity counts at every school and then High School Middle School have a ton of them so tracking obviously was going is going to have to be very Paramount at that point whether it's the senior class adviser or whoever is you know or so my office but yeah we would have to track it for each child and then yeah we have refunded a lot at the end of the school year for people who don't for don't attend or can't attend so usually at the end of the year they do get refunded but it can be done it would just probably be a little more on our end setting it up by family is that something we can talk about with like School administration and maybe getting that set up in the next like year or two for the I think we are it's one of the Committees that already came out I think I think a finance committee one of the Committees I was on last week that we've already started talking about it yeah it was a discussion point in committee but hopefully to have more details and information in in nothing nothing we could report out now okay um I do have a comments as well but um uh similar to to what Roger had said a moment ago it it's not actually something we're voting on so I don't know if you want to if you want to vote for first and it does have to do with curriculum committee but we can why don't we vote and then sounds good thank you uh any other questions about the items okay roll call please Mr chill yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sharon Celia yes Mr Sherman yes Mr delus Yes except we're required to abstain yeah go ahead thank you very much um I I did want to have this conversation um outside of a a public meeting but um time could not be made to accommodate me so I would like to make my comments now um I would like to discuss something that occurred in um curriculum committee last last week um Dr mcdal you informed some board members um including myself of a situation at the high school and and I would like to say obviously I will not be commenting publicly on specific confidential details about any kind of an investigation uh however I am extremely concerned about how these issues were represented to the board members that night um the language that you use suggested a definite hostility toward the concerns of some students and community members at that time the investigation was still in process so the out come was not yet known uh I feel that some of this language towards the concern of parents and students to whom you are responsible was at best you know premature and at worst inappropriate uh I strongly feel that when a superintendent hears about concerns of students and parents you should not then describe them to board members in a closed session as a conspiracy or as racially motivated unless there is specific evidence as a result of an investigation to support those claims uh at the next meeting meeting that same night at which I was also present uh your tone and language were definitely more measured and I appreciated that um but when I asked about details of said incident which I I understand um you relayed information about a particular student and his actions relating to this conflict uh the problem is that you communicated pretty negative details about a student's actions that had not yet been fully investigated and therefore we had no knowledge of the validity of this account in fact your account of this particular student's actions was not accurate and I know this because the student you spoke of is my son this entire issue has been very upsetting to me um as parent um but I think that this also brings up a a larger board related concern um I feel that the misrepresentation of information to board members who will ultimately be making decisions about and voting on programming within this District mski I'm want to step in and note that I think this is bordering on uh Personnel related issues and as such that's not something that we should be speaking about in in in public well actually um this this is about this uh you're now speaking about the specific performance of the superintendent which is a Personnel related um uh item no I I am a board member and I have the right to speak I have checked in this these comments with um my contacts at the School Board Association I was told that this was completely warranted and I'm I want to have a discussion and I think that that's fair uh again I I I would like to finish my comments and I think I would I I I asked for this meeting to be held behind closed doors and time not be made so I'm having this conversation now I'm I'm advising you right now that that that is going to put this board at risk in terms of uh we would not sit up here and speak about the performance of uh individual teachers either well again as as uh this this is a conversation that as a board member um I have I have the right to have and I have the right to have questions about about this this situation I again asked for it could not be made available so you know these are these are are my comments you know at the at the end of the day I'll I will wrap up um I'm concerned about uh the misrepresentation of information um hold on and uh you know again considering that this was this was this was my child um I know that things were misrepresented um I really I wanted to have a meeting to talk about this and to have an opportunity to make things right before uh the meeting but um you know and I began with uh our our board president to make that request but that could not happen so um you know this was a parent action that was made a board action due to comments and uh it really should have been first um discussed beforehand with the affected board member who was present who had no idea that the situation had reached this level level of District leadership involvement um so my my my plan tonight was to uh set the record straight about comments that were made because quite frankly um the superintendent's voice is the only voice that the board members hear in committee and I felt that that was my mind was kind of spinning at that time but um got myself together and thought that I would make those that clarification so thank you so uhuh no no no okay okay okay we're GNA move forward I'm going to turn it over to miss Sheridan Celia with the Personnel committee thank you uh the Personnel committee re reviews all recommendations for teaching and staff employment considers co-curricular employment and considers all professional development opportunities for staff members um item 13.02 is a resignation item 13.03 um is a rescinded contract items 13.04 through 13.08 are various leaves and revised leaves 13.09 is a revised contract there is a transfer at item 13.10 um item 13.11 is the re hiring of a new special education teacher she's got 15 years experience I heard uh it's very impressive resume item 13.12 through 13.14 are the appointments of long-term substitutes and replacement teachers item 13.15 is the elementary permanent substitute a few of those item 13.17 is the appointment of grounds two uh buildings and grounds custodians on a part-time basis item 13.18 Social Work interns appointments 13.19 student teachers and the prac the teach student teacher practicum placements there are two young people this year this fall 1320 um child study team stiens 1321 secondary staff at CST CST secondary staff 13.22 after school clubs and academic enrichment um appointments 13.23 is high school nonathletic extra duty pay stiens 13.24 our Middle School athletic STI mitts 13.25 um there's a roster of this year's High School athlete athletic event Personnel there's a whole list of students are going to be doing it uh goes better power of half the page and into the next page um item 13.26 fall and winter athletic event Personnel appointments 13 .27 um the appointment of Miss chetti to come back as a as needed basis 13 as a business office substitute 1328 um the Oakland summer hours for secretarial staff um 1329 2024 school-based mental health Grant staff appointment 13330 um building capacity for careers Pathways career Pathways facilitators 1331 2024 2025 financial literacy tutoring coordinator Mr Rosell 13.32 is a student teacher observation uh placement of one of our alumni actually 13.33 several substitutes and tutors 1334 is asking for approval of an expense of a travel expense report uh form and this evening I am asking for approval of agenda items 13.02 through 1334 so moved haven't asked for a motion yet but motion to approve said items so moved that a second questions or comments from board members I have a question um given that it's September I hope that hopefully everybody can hear me okay um and I see some appointments for long-term Subs can you clarify is that are these positions that we just weren't able to fill over the summer um are those positions still listed you know um as no I think they're for people who go and leave is that correct yeah they're family leaves so they're just filling in for teachers pregnancies and the long-term Subs that we have are all just for temporary leaves they're not on this agenda yeah okay okay roll call please do you have more questions okay all right good roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sher Celia yes Mrs Sheran yes Mr dulus yes except we're required to abstain okay thank you next I'm turning it over to me um the culture climate and policy committee reviews all updates and changes to District policies and regulations uh we had several policies up for a first read uh this month but there were really no major changes to any of the policies um we also have one policy being abolished which was a covid era policy around public uh board meetings that happened uh remotely um and we also heard a a great introduction about how a recent policy update um the the student code of conduct uh will be implemented uh especially at the secondary level so we thank Mr Jefferson again for that presentation and for showing us how this is going to hit the ground um so I am seeking a motion to approve items 14.02 to 14.03 so moved and a second second questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr chill yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sheron Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mr dilas yes thank you um moving on we uh for 15 um 01 the Hib reports we were not in school last month so we do not have a previous month's Hib report um there was one revised appointment 15.02% yes Mr delus yes okay we have now reached our second opportunity for public comment um I am going to um I have I mean we already voted so why don't if it's something that can be asked after the meeting I think that would be better okay um so as I said we've now reached our second opportunity for public comment um I haven't seen a ton of new people come in but I will just reiterate that um this second opportunity is to discuss items that weren't necessarily listed on the agenda um the public is reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns and complains complaints should first go through the appropriate staff members and administrators um members of the public are welcomed to speak and expected to do so with the utmost sense postivity for everyone in attendance um again strict three minute time limit um Miss Coleman will be keeping time and give you a heads up when your time is up please remember to state your name and address for the record good evening my name is Mr Goldberg music teacher at the Garfield and Tatum elementary schools here in Collingswood I am here today proudly speaking on behalf of the district music teachers Miss Carlson Mr gross Mr Hartung miss incasso miss lwig and myself it is the mission of Collingswood public school's music department to provide every Collingswood student the opportunity to grow through a highquality ability appropriate universally accessible music education that inspires the continuing study of Music last Friday Miss Carlson Mr gross Miss Ludwig and I travel to each of the five elementary schools to demonstrate all of the band and orchestra instruments this annual instrument demonstration assembly marks the opening of online registration for elementary instrument lessons fourth and fifth grade families check your emails for the registration link paper forms are available upon request in both English and Spanish registration closes this Friday September 27th families in the district free or reduced lunch program are also eligible to borrow a school-owned scholarship instrument please note that our free instruments are in limited Supply and a spot on the scholarship weit list does not necessarily guarantee a scholarship instrument reserve your spot on the wait list by following the directions laid out on the online registration form if you or someone you know has a musical instrument lying around and not being used please consider donating that instrument to us so that we may eventually serve a student in need the market value of your donated instrument is 100% tax deductible and you will receive a receipt of your donation we also accept other forms of contribution through our partnership with Tatum's PTA if you are interested in supporting this instrument scholarship initiative please reach out to your school music teacher we are excited to start this next group of students on their musical Journey a path that continues up through 12th grade and Beyond along the way students will develop the skills necessary to succeed in our everchanging society anyone who's ever been part of a healthy music program can tell you that music give students a reason to wake up in the morning a reason to keep their academic grades up a reason to like their school and a reason to like themselves most importantly music is the universal language not because everyone understands it but because music speaks Direct ly to the heart something something sorely needed in this turbulent time of conflict that currently plagues our world what we do in the music dep department does not happen without your help it takes the village and it's thanks to your support on the board and the support of the community behind me that we can continue moving closer to the highquality ability appropriate universally accessible music program that our students all deserve thank you thank you Eli I just have to say I think you need like when you retire you need like to be an announcer on like Wheel Of Fortune or something am I right like it's just right it calling Mr goldber absolutely thank you sorry I just had to say all right thank you that's that's a really hard act to follow um so Cara boiler 90s Summerfield Avenue um I just wanted to um give a thank you to Mr John Longo uh Miss Camila Hinson uh this past weekend we were able to plant 45 trees at Sharp Elementary um so uh I encourage all the community to uh take a drive by we were able to play Street trees on the uh curb strip uh in partnership with the burrow and also additionally another uh I think there's about 15 12 to 15 on the curb and then the balance of that is on the the school grounds thank you thank you very much and a huge thank you to Cara boiler for all her hard work at Sharp uh my name is James K I live at 323rd Avenue I'll clarify that that's in West Cape May New Jersey but I'm here tonight to uh I was a 28-year resident here in Collingswood my children went through the Collingswood school systems and I'm here to speak on behalf of my granddaughter my granddaughter shares classes with the uh student who was involved in the incident on the 19th um I heard from her and you'll excuse me if I get choked up because I've said this a number of times and it still breaks my heart I had to hear her say I don't want to go to school I don't want to die and I'm hoping that Dr mcdal and the board you folks will in light of what's happening in our country of late take this extremely seriously there have been many studies done people think that children bounce back well there have been many studies done to show just the opposite children handle grief much more severely than we adults do they handle trauma much more seriously so my fear is that 101 15 days from now this student will be sitting next to my granddaughter in class and she won't want to come to school now the student I have nothing personal against the student obviously the student needs help and I hope the student gets help I don't want to see anybody have to suffer but I don't also want to sue that student sitting next to my granddaughter in class so I'm confident I hope hearing what you've had to say tonight I've heard it many times we care about every student in our district well my granddaughters a student in this District I hope you care enough for her that she won't be put through any more trauma thank you good evening everyone Ali hegley 405 Cedar Avenue um first Dr mcdal mentioned um in his report the issue with the Chromebooks at the secondary campus so that's what I'm here to address tonight um first all students are general education students our special education students are further protected by law and enti entitled to rights under their IEPs in 504s and I'm advocating on their behalf tonight since the school year started I've heard from several families that their child's learning has been impacted by the new room-based Chromebook cart system building leadership has acknowledged that there was a shortage of devices this summer and that some classes would be waiting on their computers to arrive while general education classes were furnished with their needed Chromebooks special education classes have not had access to computers for the first three weeks of school okay this has been reported in tutorial pull out replacement and self-contained settings where many students with disabilities access their academic content um I'll pause to say I think that's ridiculous but um the Chromebooks aren't the problem as I see it um once you get the 900 whatever donated Chromebooks from the Red Cross um that doesn't fix your problem the Chromebooks that we're talking about right now are just the latest example of the deep systemic issues facing our schools when the supervisor of special education's position is cut and the person with all the institutional knowledge then resigns leaving an entire department with no leadership you have a management problem absent supervision someone with no knowledge of our students need is make needs is making decisions about their access to technology and that impacts their access to their learning when teachers walk into their classrooms and realize they're without their tools they need to tell someone immediately but who should they tell their supervisor is now the building supervisor who has many other responsibilities during the first week of school when teachers urgent requests go unanswered you have a communication problem teachers then reach out to parents for support in advocating for access to Chromebooks so you have an unsupported teacher problem too families then learn about what's going on and they talk to their children about it they learn that their child is often sitting idle unable to even access Google Classroom while their non-disabled peers instruction is largely unaffected you have an equity problem our kids with disabilities are systematically having their opportunities limited and this is just the next example it sends a message that we are not a priority so with breakdowns in management communication support and Equity you are not serving all students thank you too many knobs here all right good evening everybody um so I think the um please your you say your name and address I'm sorry Mike paluchi teacher at the high school resident in town 357 Park um I think the I the discussions around um the fundamental Equity needs of our students compiled with the evidence that they don't have basic things in the classroom is a really good microcosm for the larger failure of the referendum to pass um and I I think that as someone who cares deeply about this issue and who wants us to get facilities and who wants our district to move closer towards Equity I think we need to take some lessons from this and I'm a little bit concerned with the um the amount of C certitude that I'm that I'm hearing from some of the people on the side of the referendum that uh went down in the vote last week I think when you're talking about asking for money a lot of money right because Equity is ultimately about money if you have all the money you need you can do the most with it right and you get as you get closer to equity but when you're asking for a lot of money you're essentially asking to engage in a political campaign to get that money right so when you're engaging in politics you need to build coalitions right that's politics 101 like we can't just we can't just exist in our own Echo you know our own silos of even if those silos are righteous right I I share all of the goals that the board shares I have a social justice background like this is not like something not coming from a place of not wanting our kids to have Equity I served on the equity Council secondary Equity Council here at the high school um I mean check out my bookshelf it probably looks a lot like yours the point though is that that you need to get votes right and you need to commit and convince the people in the town that they can trust you right and when these things are happening when there's when there's so much distance between the governing body and the people that are actually doing the work and there is no trust like and you've heard it over and over again then it's going to be really hard to convince a community to approve something that requires such a giant leap of faith does that make sense everybody all right so like when Kelly had mentioned earlier about going to each individual school and having a discussion about the needs of those schools several people jumped in and said like our goals aren't changing well why does that why would that mean your goals would have to change to talk to those communities and kind of like build a large Coalition like we can do this 90% of the people in this town like share these goals there's no reason why we should have this siloed Waring off you know and like the Facebook superheroes need to chill chill out for a little while too you know what I mean like honestly like we can do this you have a lot of intelligent smart people in this town who share these goals does not mean that they're against Equity they're against you know repairing our facilities my classroom ceiling tiles are falling loose like I I don't need to be convinced okay so like let's do a better job of like like the soft skills that it takes to go out to the community to go into places where we're not necessarily comfortable and build bigger coalitions for the next time because I don't want to see something like this fail again but I want to see a good plan thank you hi my name is Cheryl K and I am related to Mr K at 320 3rd Avenue in West Kate Main New Jersey also a resident for the last 20 some years before that here in Collingswood great School District we loved our kids attending here and I am a retired school nurse from the last uh 18 years of my nursing career at Haden Township School District um I still get the retrospect because I want to keep on top of what's going on up in my old wonderful favorite hometown and a side note I want to thank these music teachers because um and hope you support those programs because if it weren't for the music programs that I went through in my day I would never have met Mr K because we met performing and playing music together so thank you all I have a copy of the retrospect that was from from uh September 20th of this uh this year this is in context of the referendum that was not passed but I was particularly pleased to see two uh quotes in here one was from uh your board president miss Kaden and I won't do the whole quote for time reasons but I liked what she said at the very end we will continue to advocate for and make decisions that benefit all students in our schools and then the other quote would be from Dr mcdal also in the same article very similar as a school Community we must continue to advocate for and make decisions that benefit all students and I was GL glad to hear you say tonight that this is right on your front burner about the incident that just happened and to review all kinds of safety measures and so forth that can be put in place so that other students including my granddaughter can feel safe coming to school again uh as a school nurse I can tell you how many students I used to counsel in my office who had a lot of fears from a lot of different directions that directly impacted their education so this is really important and so when you get to that point where you know specifically what kind of safety measures going to are going to be put into place I encourage you really to communicate those things to the community in detail and perhaps that will then help a lot of the feelings that are going through the community at this time I thank you for all the work that you do each and every one of you here all the teachers in the schools it's wonderful important work and thank you for your time appreciate it hello uh I'm Trey ramsburg I live at 32 East cter Avenue in Collingswood uh I'd like to start just by uh thanking uh Mr Jefferson and all of our administrators at at the secondary level uh for their commitment to Restort of justice that is genuinely good productive School level anti-racist work that's actually getting done I I'd also just briefly like to personally commend the staff members uh who were honored this evening uh they deserve it coming however from this board at this time that condemnation I mean that Commendation Rings a bit Hollow amid labor disputes a amid the very obvious fact that there were plenty of Staff members who would be pretty hot contenders for these Awards who simply aren't here anymore in ways that are not predictable ways that uh are not expectable in a functioning School Community I appreciate the commitment the school board ostensively has towards progressivism but I'll echor my sentiments that I that I gave you last month when I said that even as our goals seem so similar it's odd that the priorities of the board seem so different from mine like up here during the community of the whole session the conversation focused a lot on what what a shame it was that not much is being done now for elementary school reform but not a word was said about what a shame it is that we won't have that big great Stadium the priorities of board there were pretty shockingly different from my own I don't want to to spend tens of millions of other people's dollars on a new pickle ball court for for a high school that's not something I'm going to shed a tear over I think as a school community that cares about progressivism we should number one fix our Labor Relations here at the Schoolboard level and number two commit actively at the school level with actually doing work instead of building and erecting vanity projects in the forms of the best stadium in miles we we probably should have had honest real discussions about Transportation before presenting a plan that would force students in our por communities to cross the the the pike twice daily but somehow a large chunk of of the voting population though not enough to win an election thought that to be God's greatest gift to anti-racism we need a an actual commitment and I'm glad to hear it in words but politicians lie and I like to see actions thank you okay um before we I need a motion to adjourn I just wanted to see if anyone had Mr um Dr McDow or Miss Coleman any last words you would like to say before we motion to adjourn okay uh then I need a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved so moved and a second all in favor I thank you t