States [Music] indice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with ision of the act the courtly board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 11th 2024 posted on the district website at www.fb.com published in the board's designated online media Outlet newspapers the record in the St Ledger filed with the clerk of the bur of fortly and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting Act ows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any Gathering whether tutorial or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all members of the public body how attent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific business specific public business of that body roll call please Mrs buers K here is not here M Cur here Mr Knight here this here Mr Lopez here M Morel here Mr Rino here Mrs RoR here the board will be convening to Executive session to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters the board will reconvene into public session at approximately 7:30 p.m. I have a motion to go into executive session motion second motion Morel second Curry all in favor I any opposed okay to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies that which any business affecting their interest is discuss or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the courtly board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on April 15th 2024 and posted on the district website at www.fb.com published in the boards designated online media Outlet newspaper the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the B Fort Lee and mailed to all persons of any who have requested said notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcast on opal TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines a meeting as any Gathering whether roal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of the public body held of the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business of that body roll call please Mrs Byer Kang here Mrs colbat here miss Curry here Mr Knight here Mrs kotang here Mr Lopez here M Morel here Mr Rabino here Mrs RAR here the board convened executive session at 6:30 p.m. to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters Dr kvit Will You Begin by sharing the superintendent report yes thank you good evening everyone thank you for coming out tonight to our Board of Education meeting we are happy to announce that this year both at school number three and school number one we have finalists for the buron county poster contest Evan Lee from school number three and Wanda Ora representing School number one have won this award I also want to mention under the direction of assistant superintendent basa we have begun our ad DSL classes at the high school uh this is a grand funded program for allows parents or guardians of our students to learn English we currently have I believe 63 parents participating a little more than that so thank you for putting that together um as a reminder because we've gotten some questions about our hiring processes I do know notice that they ask how do we hire so one of the things we I just wanted to mention that there are replacement teachers a replacement teacher is a certified teachers looking for full-time uh employment those are people who want a 10year track meaning after four years they will get 10e leave rep placements those are long-term substitutes who hold the certification and in many cases are looking for long-term employment which it's kind of difficult when you think about it so you have a teacher who may be out on leave and then you have a long-term replacement coming in but then as soon as they find something that's in your trct they look to leave and then you have substitutes who are people who hold a substitute license but are do not gain any tenure in that in that position um the other thing I'd like to mention tonight as we we would like to introduce a few of our high school students these are not the student Representatives these students are kyong Park Eugene Quang Andel who are members of the Steam and computer clubs who hosted a science f for the intermediate and middle school students the this event proved to be successful and they would love to share the good news at our meeting tonight so please [Applause] come uh hello my name is trayan Yo the founder and leader of the first ever forly High School science festival which was held on March 27th 2024 it was a collaborative effort made by the officers of both the Steam and computer Club of the for Lake High School there were a total of eight organizers including me who have dedicated their time and energy since the beginning of Summer to bring this plan to fruition the organizers are as follows Eugene Hong and Lisa adid fi David Fang Aaron o Janna Sue Ellie Chong and Kyan Park they have all taken leadership to design construct organize and Lead one of the five activities that were showcased two of our future steam officers have also co-ed two of the activities alongside the organizers and their names are Elijah shin and fionaa our advisor Mr Thomas ainson a new teacher at fortly high school has been a tremendous help to the development of the festival the fortly high school principal Miss Glenn has been very supportive of this endeavor and has been more than happy to take care of the approval process I would like to again thank all of my fellow organizers as the entire Festival was student LED and their name should be recognized we accustom immense interest in the F with an interest form that was sent to the parents and more than 100 students and parents like up unfortunately due to our limited budget and resources we are only able to accommodate around 70 students maximum this was the first time of running up big scale projects so we are focused on minimizing potential mishaps regardless the festival was a huge success and every had an amazing time participating in various activities that were showcased throughout the event the Science Festival showed five activities the chemical reaction lab led by Cho and Joanna Su the strawberry DNA lab by El Chong and me solving basic cyber security problems led by Elijah shin and and Lisa bothi basic games with scrats led by Eugene Juan and fqa and number five typing competition led by arono and David F students from both intermediate and Middle School were allowed to participate in three activities with a Time duration of 15 to 20 minutes all the activities were focused on a specific stem subject from chemistry to biology to Modern Sciences such as computer science we have tried our best to incorporate a variety of stem subjects to enhance the experience for the future generation all of the activities were very unique and had the commonality of teaching new things to students as the whole festival is an educational service every participant including the parents have learned something from the organizers which contributes to the broader goal of empowering future generations of stem oriented students the overarching goal of this Festival has been to provide a free fun educational service to students who are interested in stem but I've never been outwardly exposed the Science Festival was to shed light on the different types of studies that exist in the world of science as we firmly believe that all students should have the chance to be exposed to these it served as a CommunityWide event that encourage students from intermediate and middle school to join and form memories that will hopefully push them to pursue their passions and talents fortunately with new plans new officers and continuous responses of wanting a rerun of the festival we're hoping to fit in the festival again next school year with new activities I want to continuously provide these educational opportunities to the future generation of our society in hopes of aspiring them to do the same later on it has been a Journey but I'm ecstatic with the results of our combined efforts and I believe that all of the organizers deserve to have their names heard and recognized as as it was not an easy Fe thank you thank you again public putting this together thank you you do we have any uh committee reports last Tuesday yeah last Tuesday we had a uh Public Relations Committee meeting where we discussed uh our District's microphones where we discussed um our District's PR initiatives we also discussed a newsletter that's being rolled out and will be mailed to uh every one of the communities that's it I had some updates from the curriculum committee from the last two meetings on uh February 28th and and on April 8th um we discuss new scheduling for 2024 2025 um the Cade is six um what I meet now the wind program that's being piloted in in school one we want to call Miss um Miss Baker for trying um and and bringing this new scheduling to the to the school district um the the essence of the gist of this new scheduling is to have a designated period to provide personalized instruction um I know that when my kids were called out classes they disappointed for missing certain class so this avoids um avoids that and and allow um and still allow for personal wise instruction um the second piece of scheduling change or consideration for the new school year is the 1th 12-way block schedule and that hopefully will alleviate some of the overcrowded this and then allow for more periods to be taught so that's uh that's in the work in 2024 2025 um we also discussed summer program um this year the we the the district um will continue to offer the math advancement program for the sixth and SE sixth and seventh graders um the district will also continue to offer events um events courses to be taken over the summer by high school students and get credit for them um we discussed the possibility of fortly offering our own advancement courses um so hopefully that's something that um that can be considered and provided to our students so they don't need to go elsewhere for that thank you just point of clarification we we are not switching the schedule for the 2425 school year consideration no no we're not we are not implementing 2425 block schedule or not that was the conversation that we be discussing it the okay to CL clear the RF the RFP committee um met uh regarding legal and for banking uh we had um several candidates come in uh that we interviewed and and discussed several issues with um today was the last day for um the legal uh candidates uh we will now meet again to deliberate and uh discuss uh options of of the candidates that did come in um as far as food service we are making a date for that for the candidates to come in for that um for banking we had uh two that came in that we discussed that we saw and discussed with um and so once we make a decision we'll be bringing that to the board um this morning we had a Personnel committee meeting um to discuss various um issues uh we talked about procedures it is very informative and very productive other committees um do we have members who have questions or comments on tonight's agenda or other topics I do um just following up on holl's uh adoc RFP committee meeting um I had asked a while ago I had been urged numerous times to get my committee reports done which I did I actually personally delivered two of them probably a month ago today I went on the truste only section of the website and to dat there is still only the February 13th 2024 RFP committee meeting minutes there are none uh for policy which I did um and and you know dea's assistant I'm I think she probably sent me upwards of half a dozen if not more emails and so if we're going to do the committee meeting minutes and I really wanted to um if everyone doesn't know I have been um trying to get RFP proposal documents initially I asked for the entire proposals was told that they were too voluminous then I identified particular aspects of those uh specific things that our vendors have to submit um I wasn't able to get that um and and so I did want to at least have the benefit of committee you now you're in an interview phase and I haven't been able to get piece of paper number one not one piece of paper has been provided to me relating to any of the proposals for Banking and legal yet you're already uh uh you just said you interviewed two for banking um the last day for legal candidates I guess was today and and I I you know I don't think anyone else um I would assume no one else has been furnished pieces of paper that I haven't been furnished so number one if we're going to do committee reports and you're going to continue to have committee meetings is it at all possible that when some we we prepare committee reports they get put you you have a tab it says committees you click the year it's got a long list of 13 or whatever committees and it says folder is empty um could I get some assurance that within the next 48 hours committee reports that have been submitted will be posted so that we can all have the benefit of them I'm not done that's a that's a question that I would like to finally I raised this a month ago I'm raising it again I'm quite exasperated that I'm not being furnished documents that would enable me to make informed decisions on behalf of the board and I'm not even privy to committing minutes and I've raised it and and I don't think it's right and so I would like an assurance that all all committee minutes that have been submitted be posted within the next 48 hours is that doable and if not why not this is not a lawyer question Mrs colc the board president asked me to respond um so I'm responding in all due respect then let me make a comment do you have anything to do with posting committee minutes to our website Mrs col um I was just responding heard a request president similar to when you were board president and I would respond at your request i' never asked well anyway go ahead um and so to the extent that you're making the request I think it's a fair request um that request is not cified or required by your board bylaw or policy so it's not mandatory to be honored but I'm sure that through the president the administration uh can assist the various committees with posting information that's fine then then then central office should not ask any other chair if the answer to my question is that it is not mandatory for my district to post not publicly we have a private border ofed page where the what not argue with okay so the answer to me is that it's not mandatory and we're not going to do it I didn't say that I'm waiting for you I say not going to do it I just said it wasat I've been waiting for a month so maybe maybe you could just send everyone on the board whether you're willing to post committee you have a you have a page you you put up I'm going to make I'm going to double check some arit TR find out cuz I was under the impression they both posted online so I'm they're not I no I will make sure of it okay that's all but but I understand the lawyer is telling me that our bylaws someone has actually looked to determine that we're not required to do I'm looking at bylaws now soer Taylor did say that um also with respect to per the request of the president um my understanding is that you were given ample opportunities to come into the board office to view the rfps in question um as you are aware pursuant to board bylaw 0155 the board operates in the committee based system there are three members appointed to each committee along with the board president who serves as an ex official member of each committee um and to the extent that those committees are studying reviewing information they are also charged with the ability to make recommendations to the Board of Education um my understanding is that no board member or member of the administration prohibited you from getting copies or viewing documents the issue was the manner in which you wanted them disseminated to you I want to reserve on that publicly I'm particularly given pending op requests Etc but I just want the record to be clear that no one prohibited you from seeing it um you just didn't want to Avail yourself of the opportunities to do so so so in response I've been on the board about 10 years there's one document in 10 years that was a highly sensitive private confidential report that the board had prepared and that we asked people I have never been denied a piece of paper and I actually went to the extent that they didn't want to give us copies that I said I would like on each proposal the following three like the affidavit that's a two-page affidavit and I was denied I don't think I work we all work most of us um full-time jobs we're volunteers we sometimes have to do this type of work at 10:00 11:00 or 7 a.m. and so if I ask for a piece of paper that's two pages so that I can be informed but I can't show up between 9 and 3 on most days I actually you know work 51st in park as everyone knows from the anonymous stuff that gets sent to my firm I think it's unreasonable and we have never done that I think it's wrong and if a board member wants documents they should be furnished we are in 2024 I just made a document production of 40 ,000 pages on a confidential basis in a lawsuit and you hit a key and the documents go and it's not a big deal to scan to to put documents and send them on secure bases these days and if we don't have the capability and we're preparing our students for the future we need to learn how to do it okay so I want to um understand legal and banking is at an interview stage um when when on on the banking well let let's start with legal the RF did did the committee discuss specifications for I'm looking at the let me just be open here I'm looking at the RFP committee notes from February 13 2024 and it says under legal determine specs on 222 at their next meeting and then they wanted to bring to the Boe by April 28th a a a recommended vendor did the committee determine specs on or about 222 or sometime thereafter so Mrs KAC all I'm going to say is that you have an Oprah request that you submitted you pass this isn't about the oppr request you're wearing two hats wearing a hat as a board member you're wearing no I'm asking about the some minutes that were actually posted did the committee make decisions concerning specs you weren't at the committee meeting you can't I say I was I'm just responding that to the extent you have a pending op request for I don't have any pending op request anymore you receive the response um to the you're not satisfi with that response you are free to file a challenge with the government reford Council or the superior court of New Jersey regarding that response that doesn't me committee chair gave a report about I got all your legal cases I got your letter that as a board member I am no longer going to get any piece of paper I want that's clear I'm not asking tonight for anyone to give me a piece of paper okay you want to make you want to force a lawyer to go to court you better be careful what you're asking for I'm asking I am asking whether the RFP committee made a determination about specs relating to the legal RFP yes or no I vote I gave my report okay um under the Food Service the Food Service RFP as I understand it has already gone out according to the meeting minutes the committee was determining the weight of all the factors and the minutes say all factors must add to 100 but Cost needs to be the highest weight I want to remind everyone that our bylaws do not permit a committee to make any of those determinations committees make recommendations to the full board our B bylaw and uh policy 0155 expressly prohibits a committee from making a decision so I'd like to know why the RFP committee made decisions concerning specs on Legal Services waiting and and related factors on food service is there any response so as I indicated when I cited policy or bylaw 0155 Mrs colth I agree with you no Committee of this board has any power or authority to make decisions that b the board rather they they are fully empowered to make recommendations however to the extent Mr Morel misspoke um Andor Mis wrote and said decisions um there are to be recommendations to the board and a committee has every Power and right pursuing your bylaw to make recommendations to the extent you charge a committee to review and study and investigate a matter whether it be an RFP whether it be Personnel whether it be a contract that committee by your own bylaws pursuing to Robert's Rules has the authority to make a recommendation you as a board member you as a body can accept or reject that recommendation you're not bound by it okay these decisions were made by the committee the RFP was never seen by the board the board did not approve a single RFP here or does not have to approve an AR I understand but but the committee made the waiting and set the criteria without consulting with the board no obligation do that but we can discuss that another time that's not really think appropriate or necessary for right now is anyone in a position to identify the banks and the legal firms that submitted rfps or is that going to remain a mystery to all of us until we get a single recommendation on an agenda I Believe Miss mie brought everything for you at your request that you stated in your email today that you wanted to look at tonight after pay and I would like to expedite and use my time efficiently so if you can identify the law firms and the banks then I can zero in on things I mean do you know who they are say no yes I have I would like the to know should no secret secret total secret no no my response to your email request was that the staff at the office could not spend their time when they have other things to do scanning 500 plus pages from six different law firms or seven different law firms so that it could be digitalized to send to you they're they're not our staff they don't have that time they have other things to do that was my response excuse me um I just want to make a comment because I've been on the board I'm sorry I'm talking I've been on the board for 12 years now and now one time in all the times that I've been on the board and we've done RFP several times especially in the beginning not so much the latter of years now we really haven't done much of anything but in the beginning when I was on the board we had um rfps every year and every year when we had rfps if anybody wanted to see any of them you went up to central office to look at them nobody ever got copies personal copies that they could take home or they could review of any nature well let me commend you all to read the letter that was sent to me and the leading cases it in it is a a case called education Law Center it kind of sets the standard on particular issues with Oprah and in that case the agency had to produce before this one particular document was at issue 900 pages and the case goes on and on about it you know we have always provided copies of discret documents to board members um and you know they're here for your vieing this evening is there anything else so that Mr Knight can ask his questions let I think he wants to weigh in on this but yeah I like to weigh in on this actually so I'm I'm really worried I got to be honest with this is scary this is really scary like this is America that we live in and this is supposed to be we're an open body we're supposed to be doing things in the open and that's not happening here it's not happening at all you know we live in 2024 we literally can send men and women and and animals to to the moon but we can't figure out a way to send a couple of documents to board members so that can read right so here's here's here's the concern you know the employees don't have time to jly scan these documents so that the board members can consider them when they're deliberating that worries me are we supposed to deliberate without reading it you know I actually have like three or four jobs um I'm a volunteer but I I do a bunch of stuff I I am not available ever between the hours of 8 and and 3 o' ever ever I I go pick my kid up because legally I have to you know I do those kinds of things but everything else I don't have a lot of time to spend all day sitting at at central office nor do anyone nor do any of the other members of this board we just don't it would take almost nothing to scan these documents I'd like to make a motion uh that we vote uh to make the documents available digitally within a certain amount of time I'd say within a week I think that the documents should be made available to the board members I can't think of a single reason why any member of the board would would be against that so I'm curious to see who votes against it but again I'd like to make a motion to vote on whether or not we should make these documents available digitally to the members I know you brought the documents with you today and I appreciate that I hope they weren't heavy but unfortunately I have a family to rais and I need to go back home and do homework with the child so I will not be able to review those documents again I'd like to make a motion for vote now thank you I'll second roll please miss is there any discussion this is routine to to when you have a volume of documents like this people don't carry around suitcases anymore of documents you review them online I call roll call please we're waiting for Mr Lopez well then we'll wait for him for his vote but we can take a roll call I have a question does the um District have the capability to to yes everyone has the capability there are Services there is nothing that prohibits let me say this I was informed by the central office that it will be extremely time consuming for these documents I mean they're here you can see them if you want them later they are hundreds upon hundreds of pages there are seven different seven different law firms seven law seven different law firms okay so that means and they're they're all bound like books okay so no one was denied access to the documents they were just asked to come and view them in person rather than a staff member who is being paid to work doing other things during the day who is now being and the motion on the floor is to have all seven books copied correct now the lawyer in on the ability to to readily make things digitally available so that's not a legal issue my understanding is that the past practice of this board uh has not been to deliver copies of rfps to board members homes um that was your request um that was your request um so that my not responded to I never asked for anything to be delivered to my home or and or digitally that the past practice and the past practice was not for documents of rfps or any other committee based document we made available board MERS we're discussing that motion um the chair has a right to the meeting and she's entertaining discussion pursu you're welcome casy um so that being said um your request was to have RS of documents in Bound form uh taken apart digitized sent to my my understanding was simply that not that you were not legally entitled to see a copy of them what my uh what the the response to you was was you can see you can have access to documents just come in as has been the past practice of this board for any member that's on the committee and who are not on the committee to view the documents no one has denied you access as a board member to see the documents um they just said they didn't have the time or the wherewithal to scan and email them to you particularly on immediate access which was also your request that was all no one on this board or this Administration said that any member of this board could not see a copy of the rfps the only condition was that you are not a member of that committee and traditionally the Committees will review the information first and then make the recommendation to the board in accordance with bylaw 055 that is really it that standard protocol for several school districts of the 611 state of New Jersey what is um what is the is there a reason why these documents need to be um need to stay in in not be circulated are there like are there business confidentiality issues that we need to apply by I'm not going to give response to that because there pending um and the over requests that are out there the issue initially was can I have a copy of it sent to me to to a board member um scanned an email and it was I believe corly on a quick turnaround and the administration's response was we can't do it right now we're doing other things but by all means come in and look at it that that was really it there wasn't any uh contention argument Etc it was come on in and look at it as board members historically and routinely that really so from from the you know from this from the um from an Administration perspective it would ENT tell someone standing next to a machine and literally scan that into um into into a computer or into a copier and that would automatically create a a digital file a PDF file that's not searchable because it's an image so nothing is searchable that's my understanding you know from my own machine at work if I want to something I would just scan it run it through it and then um and and and really it's the time that it takes to go through seven documents right I just want to understand what what it tell is that correct Dina did I describe the process correctly yeah okay so employees these days don't stand at machines anymore and scan like I said last week I did a 40,000 page production like that we got to get you're not standing at the the the the copy machine that's not how it's done there's a service it's scaned you get a file you immediately can send it I mean this is we're in 2024 confidentiality everyone here is bound by confidentiality there's and and uh so confidentiality is not a reason to not get something digitized the fact that it's so voluminous is a reason not to do do the old paper way it's get it online so that you can quickly review it our district since M Dr krait's came here has been on a mission to eliminate paper it was one of his goals all parents no longer at the beginning of the year get paper copies of anything to fill out even though it was really difficult for all of them to get the paperwork in but we said we're going paperless and parents needed to navigate figure out how to fill out 20 different forms online and so if you're making parents do it you got to learn to do it to facilitate the input of your board members there is no reason to have paper this High that's not digitized we are going in reverse as a district if that's what we're doing so I call for roll call I'm willing to make that two weeks if that's makes anyone feel more comfortable you know this isn't necessarily a giant rush but I think we should all read this and I I don't think anyone's going to spend 10 hours at central office reading through this I want to spend time really looking at this and and I think we deserve that opportunity so let's take the vote yeah we so I I'm willing to I'm bringing that up just as a topic of conversation if someone's uncomfortable with the one week I'm flexible on that I just think that I think we're entitled to an opportunity to really R this and I don't think it's asking too much my one my one question is do we have a machine that can do don't yeah I'm not we don't do it okay but you keep saying we don't do it so now we need to spend money on a service to do it correct democracy sometimes costs money it's it's minimal actually I understand that but that's what I'm saying when I tag when I tag when I tag like 78 pages that I want when you make me go when I come in with my post it you're going to have to make copies and everyone gets equal access they don't have to show up for 10 hours and sit in central office which honestly you keep talking about let me finish you keep talking about that oh board members have had access meaningful access you requiring me to show up at 231 Main Street between 9 and 3 Monday to Friday is zero access my schedule gets uh I do it weeks in advance for me to go and spend an entire morning tag then they're going to copy then they're going to deliver I mean you you get things online the the the I just today looked at Governor Murphy's budget address and backup it's 513 pages it was all online the New Jersey school boards Association School finance committee provided it to all members it's 5133 Pages we're clicking quick let's go to 26 look at the first line get that's how the world operates right now the fact that this is 100 Pages needs to be scanned needs to be digitized we all need to have equal access without making when I'm there that my my ba is going to sit in the room with me and or some staff member well that's a waste of time to have someone sit with me in a conference room like oh I'm going to take a picture of a a page on a proposal I mean it's it's time we all have equal access we go through it it's voluminous we do a half hour here Saturday afternoon you you look at you know someone else's and we all have to be entirely informed know what's in there when we come to vote and you have to make this available and this is the way that it's done these days and this is the way we need to start to do it so again roll call so which is the motion one week or two weeks two weeks was anyone worried about the one week I mean two weeks is fine with me again I don't want to give undue bur we're amending the motion so fine two weeks let's say two weeks within two weeks we be so there's a motion on the table to make the doc any doc all documents RP just to make sure that they're framing the issue appropriately Mr n is your motion uh to direct the administration to scan and email a copy of all RFP responses or legal services and banking services to the nine members of the Board of Education within two weeks I don't think it should to make it available digitally to any member wishing to view it yes make my home I don't want to sit and wait for Amazon at my doorstep I I want to be able to log to the portal and take a look at it be clear so making the RFP responses for Food Service legal and banking available available digitally for all board members and anyone else who's Bound by confidentiality if they want it if if Diane wants to to review it if she's assisting a committee she too can take we're not limiting it to the board well well you're let me the request the initial motion was for board members that's why I was just trying to restate anyone who's entitled to that information to go into the office and look at it should be have available the same ease of reviewing as we have again I'm not opposed to it I'm just trying to clarify what the motion was M tonight um to make it clear so that when it is voted on and and and if it's approved and when the Administration has to comply with it that there are no questions so just to restate the motion that has been modified make sure two weeks RFP responses for Food Service legal and banking be made available to board members and others entitled to review it digitally you want it digitally what I have here right is a motion to make RFP responsive documents for legal Food Services and begging available to board members and other I guess staff you better any other persons entitled to review it and any other person administra any other you might have consult I don't know so it's going to be to make a motion to make RFP responsive documents for legal Food Services and banking available to board members and any other person who's entitled to review the document digitally within two weeks perfect I'm sorry say that one more time I'm sorry say that one more time say that one more time what so it's um a motion to make RFP responsive documents for legal Banking and food services available to board members and any other person entitled to review the document digitally within two weeks how are we defining entitled tow up to the discretion of the administration Dr grabits meaning Dr graits or theya you know the way I interpret that would be anyone we deem so if it'ser M Mr Taylor would like to review be AV have addition how about in any other person Administration beings entitled to review does that sound okay perfect any other and this is not going to be in violation with any of the vendor that submitted proposals so just want to make sure that we have our base cover like I don't want a line where they said you can share this broadly and we just violated that now the information as Mrs kth indicated uh board members pursuing to the code of ethic ethics uh njsa ETA col 12- 24.1 has the obligation to maintain confidentiality um on that are protected by the attorney client privilege uh contract negotiations pending or anticipa litigation deliberative material Etc uh so the request and the uh uh expectation and acquiescence as assound like Mrs SC said was that board members of course are bound by confidentiality and would not and Orly should not disclose to the public uh similarly members of the administration are bound by the administrator code of ethics 1881 12-24 they similarly would have to keep things confidential the intend and purpose of the motion is not for other vendors to get copies of these documents it's for the board and the administration who may be working with the committee the ad hoc committee for RPS in terms of deliberating and making the decision so are we going to have Safeguard in place so that um it doesn't get forwarded well again um as I indicated everything you receive if it's Personnel if it's legal as attorney client privilege uh you are you take an oath you swear uh to keep it confidential um as I indicated before I'm not the police I I can't force you not to share something if you as a board member you being the nine of you do it you run the risk of subjecting yourself to an ethics complaint um and or you run the risk of exposing this District to needless litigation um attorney fees time expense um violation of individual rights Personnel rights student rights Etc so again if the expectation is that it be maintained in confidence until a decision is made if a board member violates that then they'll have deal in the appropriate form if it want to challenges so if someone anonymously forwards this and puts it out there we're subject to Li I just want to make sure with with hard copy is much to take that hard copy and assimilated but with an electronic copy that's a risk that we it it it's a risk and sometimes when we discuss matters in close session pending litigation you give documents out we ask to take them back for that burds but I can't answer the hypothetical other than to advise and caution board members not to share information that is not subject to public disposure so I just want to make sure I understand the rest there's a list there there would be a control list of who Dena sends the documents to and we all received the residency documentation we receive it on a regular basis that is highly confidential personal stuff about students we receive student information regularly to make private decisions an avend on the other side at some point there at some point soon and according it was supposed to happen by April 28th we're going to have see a resolution and it's going to recommend that we hire someone as a banker as a as a lawyer and as a new food service provider and you're going to have between the that Thursday when you get that agenda to the following Monday night to try to learn everything overnight about the entire process who put in what the terms were we all have to come to that meeting informed and being able to ask the appropriate questions this is this is just um at this point the the we've got to be able to disseminate information to board members so we can make informed decisions so Dina can you please read the motion and call one so the motion is RFP responsive documents for legal Banking and food Services should be available to board members and any other person The District administration deems necessary to review to receive the documents digitally within two weeks okay so the motion was by Casey and it was second by Mrs buers K yes Mrs colb yes Mrs Curry yes Mr Knight yes Mrs kotang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morel no no no okay Mr Rino yes and Mrs rer um Iain oh something else that's okay I appreciate everyone's support it's going to make your life easier when when you get this I just want to say um on six app I just want to thank Tony Tony is always there he's always donating whatever theity yeah so well so um yeah I just wanted to on 6f uh we're getting a donation F it's great to meet and I just wanted to just publicly thank Tony that guy is there every single time anyone needs anything in this community he's always given I just want to say thank you Tony I have a question um on 3B and 4B so if I look at 3B and and I open it up the amended calendar for this year that we're in right now um it shows on the calendar um I know the the that the the vote on the floor is just for that Tuesday so that's not not in question at all the question is when you open up the 2324 calendar school for that for the year that we're in right now it's showing 180 days yes 180 days so next year the calendar that we're going to vote on is extremely late it's I I don't like the ending of the Year being that late and also is there's two more days that are showing both calendars say that the snow days are built in so on the 180 day calendar if you read on the bottom of it it says there are snow days built into this calendar it says that so why are we having to why do the Why is the total different on the 2425 calendar to 182 and says snow days built in so the 2324 calendar we've already used a day simp of days so what we take away so student total number of teaching days is 180 right on both days so we've already used one day so that5 Tu and then Tuesday would be 184 that's now it's going to be 184 so the 186 includes the two snow days and then if we use them it will be 184 so at the end of this at the end of this year we will have 184 right now that we're in right now in 23 2024 we will have 184 school days why are we going to school 18 18 teachers teachers no I'm talking about students I don't want kids to go to school when they don't have to so if we all have to go 180 days like it said last year why next year do the children have to go 182 because the two snow days are built into that so take two away I understand that part if you take two away it's I know it's 180 but my question is why did it last year that it say 182 was there a mistake is the mistake no at the beginning of the year it said 182 as we are changing the days hello hello this thing doesn't like so so in the beginning of the year the calendar would have said 18 so that calendar changes as yeah it's Chang rotating calendar well no because so we're changing we took the two days away okay so last year if we go back to the last year when you when we approved the calendar yes that calendar at the very beginning said 182 just like this one should have yes okay okay okay okay that's good so then my next question is how how can we get the children out of school similar time that they're getting out of school this year because that calendar that we're working on this year the 2324 calendar it seems really loved by by everyone and the new calendar going forward um is not really loved by everyone and Camp is starting for many students especially children under six sixth grade level where they're going to Sleepaway camps uh the buses are leaving on that Sunday so the holiday break this year Falls differently so that's why the change there's an extra day when you look at the during the Christmas break I I I saw that so if you add those two or three days that's where I don't have the exact number right right that's how the days change change but couldn't we go to school after Labor Day couldn't we start school after Labor Day and then we can we can get out of school before the third week in June we can get out of school then we can have yeah so but the teachers contract prevents professional development or unless you get in Mission before that so this is what the teachers contract teachers and I spoke about so they want we chose to start those two days so it was the teacher's decision no it wasn't the teacher decision ultimately it's my decision so in conversation with them and conversation looking at school districts so every District does it differently so that's what we we chose similar to other dist and that seems to work best hate it so so in the past I think I I too would like to have this end earlier we we've got to get kids out of school by like Sunday the 22nd um and for me we're looking at trying to maneuver this for two days um so one way to do it is you know start on 93 and historically we always started school in this District the day after Labor Day and I understand you want to do professional development but you got another like 183 days to figure that out and I think that students should we should be starting school um on September 3rd you when you started on a Thursday we saw last year I think that we had low enrollment in classes because people deem that a week off they'll they'll just start on Monday the 9th um in the past I think we only had a half day for election day and this year you made it a full day can we take that day back and make it a half day and that way we would we would be uh that would account for one day it's a pday PD day it's professional development it's not a full day it's not a school day for students right uh November 5th are we in school on that day no we're not right in the past we have been and and why why it's a presidential election so the the state recommends that you don't open for students on that day so when we have this election issue we our schools are open for every election and and whether it's National or not I don't know I could tell you people you're going to hear it I think people are going to call in so I want to vet these issues ahead of time we've got to try to have school end on June 20th not go into that final week um and and ways to do it is to start school on 93 to have 115 as a half day so it counts um you know and there are other other things too I I don't know I'm I'm not totally in support of the calendar right now so I I believe I shared the calendar in March so if have anyone had any other suggestions that be going have to you know look into it and and try to come up with an adjustment but that's why I Shar this I think we should look we we're we're we're recognizing a lot of new new holiday days is is another Factor um I think if you could start on 93 that solv it and and or do 115 and figure one of the day um I don't think we can start before it's contractual so uh you have to somewhere F in the professional development days um professional development under the last contract totally controlled so you can't the teachers can't start in August for the for the professional development so that those two days third and fourth would have to fit in somewhere where you have new teacher orientation right that that's in the contract it says it starts before the others do not the professional development days don't um is there any way we can find one day and then you can be the Monday is just a half day so that it's not really you don't nobody goes or kids just don't go those last two days I it's just looking at 24 and this year you look and it gets out on 18 it's um it's hard and I I apologize yeah I can review it I apologize probably I do want to apologize because you did share this early you shared you shared this calendar early and I yes yes you did and I and I looked at it and I was like wow this thing is messed up it's got to I'm sure they're going to fix this so I just didn't say anything um but now I now I know so but I apologize for not saying something sooner um and bringing that bringing that up I um I March 13 won that's yes yes I I saw I saw it and I should have said something at that moment I think we were aru so we can we pull in and see whether we could come up with two days thank you thank you so much I think your your parents will be very happy so administratively pulling the 2425 School Calendar let me ask you like not Christmas like the uh spring break wouldn't change dates like on the new calendar would they could be yes we have I know myself as a parent back in the day when you do anal account I try to get that April break done as far as res flight reservations and stuff like that it was always kind of sketchy uh but that I'm fine we have to look at everything so what they see here so any paren out there is planing it and looking at this is not going to be accurate until the next meeting we'll look at it I'll present it to the board hopefully by the end of the week go for another opportunity so we're going to table the well the the 2425 version the yeah yeah thank you so very very much thank you any other board members have questions or comments I just want to congratulate with speed to before we didn't get a chance to to say that um that us uh for their Science Festival uh they did mention that they have limited capacity due to their budget um and uh it sounds like a lot more people a lot more people uh show up this time um and so you know we'd love to throw our support behind it as they grow uh in this Festival I think it's really uh important for our district to continue to uh increase development in uh steam so congrats to them and U we love to hear more about it in the future yeah sorry just there's a student group student group called you Cil portly uh many of the students not all but most are uh attend portly high school and they they they were quite busy this weekend so just wanted to uh congratulate them on some successful events they had the Color Run annual Color Run which they raised tens of thousands of dollars uh for uh Cancer Treatments this year uh but also uh they took place in Earth Day LG and uh but I just wanted to congratulate them on on all their hard work thank you um just a few things at the high school on Saturday at 2 o'clock is the cops versus teachers softball game as the portly police against the portly High School teachers it is a fundraiser for the high school and the PBA uh $10 per adult students and kids are free but an adult must accompany them uh also spring sports are underway in middle school and high school and if you've been to any of the games you've seen some of the improvements to the fields um the town works hard in improving uh F Fleet which hosts our school soccer and girl softball games and also down here at the baseball field we have some Roofing on our dugouts and some improved dugouts thanks to Senator Builders so those are some things um and also it's Administrative Professionals Day so thank you to all of our staff and we hope you had a nice day I know Dr crait was kind to his secretary today so um any Yeah you mentioned um Senator I I I recently heard that we never got the scoreboard at the baseball field that he was going to volunteer I know you had gotten prices is that still moving forward we were just aware of that I do remember having a conversation with Mr Senator as well so I'm going to follow up with him out yesterday okay figure out what's going on with that and then I don't I think everyone was on it but I received numerous emails about busing softball players from the Intermediate School to Van Fleet and I know historically we haven't you know I mean that's still kind they have to go you know to walk there it's like 46 and 80 and Route four and I mean it's a SK you know it's an area that I wouldn't really want you know my fifth grader with air buds in and everything I don't know that it can be worked into this budget but could we at least explore what kind of dollar amount we're talking about because of that I actually have the information so historically I was told that the students would all just walk over there so our own bus drivers can't do it because they have like the routes after school and that's right in there so I actually had Jim call up um First Student Bus Company to try to get some pricing so we could just see what would be so they can't do anything this year for 300 p.m contracts for spring Sports because they're already booked up then we also called one of our other vendors Northern Region ESC they also don't take any submissions after March 3 on1st so again for this year we're out of luck with that they said um for next year we could possibly you know put in like a bid and see if anybody can bid on it it's just a little hard with that time but the average uh cost ranges anywhere from 80 $8 to $100 per average it would have to be um $300 so if you wanted to reserve it you're looking anywhere from 264 to $300 per day and then it's $25 per quarter hour for any of the over time over that three you know so then they start charging you $25 for every quarter hour and 15 minutes after the hour so it's something we can try to look into I'd have to find out from Mike exactly what the schedule is and how many days they're going down there but at least you even have an idea what the daily R request and my thing would be if there's more than one team if I can put them all on one bus so I don't have to do two buses you want to try to minimize like the cost we could quantify it just so to a judgment could be made just so we've at least done our homework right and just to see I think they said soccer too right think it's soccer conation in the fall as well I think it's soccer and if we do it for one could someone get back to that person because I know they've been help many many times so we did multiple times and and one of the things I would recommend for everybody out there if you could contact you know the again I I use the word I know J of command because it just makes it easier for us but but that particular parent you know you know so he went to the coach and the coach said I put in for the bus I actually requested to have a van I think so we got an answer how does the parent like know oh I I need to Leap Frog and and go to the high school it's like the chain of command parents just that that that's a term we all use and and understand it's on every every website almost every website of every school district in the state of New Jersey because they every Super it says after you speak with Todd Church go to m chur it says coach or or teacher and then it will say the next person up would be the Principal right where where is that cuz I would like to direct where on on the website does it say once you speak to Todd Church you should go because this person looked at our website upside down so so three times I email the person and said can you just ask the coach and then the athletic recor and the response was I go right to name the person and name the coach told him that he put in for it and and and and he was like okay but they're not providing it and he said well all I can tell you is I put in for the van so the reason why we have that listed is because sometimes it also helps us identify ks in the system so if someone's making that statement meaning a coach without indicating to a board of education or actually a superintendent or athletic director that's how we figure out why they're saying those things because one of the questions I received was why is the game at 4:15 and I said I don't know the answer to that but I can ask the athletic director or you can ask the athletic director the same way so on the website I've never seen where it's names and it tells you after you go to this person speak to but to to be clear the they do provide bus service to a away games that what we're what we're talking about right now two band Fleet so they do provide transportation to a w correct and that's always been the correct for all it has to do I think there the concern is the practice and to Paul is one I guess we're saying I don't know where man Z Fleet I don't know where it's located but I guess May okay so it's kind of like supposedly and I think that was the whole concern because if they're having the kids from the Middle School in the high school walk down there and I think that is like a concern from what I'm understanding you know so that's why I said at least if I can at least get some pricing exactly and then we kind of go from there and then find out you know exactly which sports it is and then what it could be it's almost like multiple teams like it's boys and girls soccer I don't want to have to do a bus for boys and bus for girls the information you you just got a roll up um for all teams that would be great so that we could sort of figure out for next year yeah because we already like I said we can't do it for the spring now because they already have their you know cut offs and deadlines and as you know transportation is really really hard to get because most of the schools at 3:00 they're transporting children home from school so a lot of times the busing is not available at that time so that's why our own drivers are not available because they're busy doing the routes here so they're not available at that time to take them right thank you I have one more comment um so since one of the major things that we're facing in all over the nation is teacher shortages is it possible um that we could do exit surveys on stuff we do we do and then you could have that data that we could find out and you could get back okay doing that okay thank you um I just want to add to point on the scoreboard the high school softball field does have a scoreboarding there's no at the high school softball field has there ever been a scoreboard or no um any other comments from the board okay I have a motion to open the floor to the public motion motion Kath second Morel and Knight at the same time uh all in favor any opposed or exensions okay we will hear first from any members physically located here in the cafetorium then we will take questions and comments from those participating remotely participants are limited to 3 minutes in which to make their statement from remote public participants please select the rais hand button District Tech coordinator Mr rro will recognize each Community member in order of raise hands everyone please state your name home address for the record and begin your comments limit your comments to 3 minutes go ahead uh thank you Kristen um my name is Keith Goslin 2185 L Avenue just working raise it up how much does this cost how about now yeah okay great so I'm just here tonight to kind of raise awareness about the special education parents Advisory Group um meetings that we have once a month I first from a lot of parents that they didn't know these meetings existed um and that's because they didn't until this year um there was once a year meeting mandated by the state but there was not an organized uh cpeg in this town um and now there is and um we uh I am the loan leader left so I'm the current interim president we'll call it until um we run elections in a few weeks I did send a draft of the cpeg bylaw so that we have um how the cpeg is going to operate within this district and the members of the cpeg which is any parents of a kid with an IEP or special needs in our district um will be able to vote uh on ratifying the bylaws so that we can operate and then go move forward with nominating the leaders um uh laid out in the bylaws so um tell your friends anybody with a kid with an IEP or a special needs parent in this community please show up the next meeting May 15th 7:30 um we're going to do it on Zoom uh Dr kravit doesn't know that yet but I did say that in an email earlier today um and I emailed him Diana Davis as well um the other thing I wanted to say is the the science fair was awesome according to my daughter she um I was fortunate enough to get that email during the day and I was one of the first responses so she got in um it was limited so um it'd be great if we could expand that and one more thing oh uh we ran a fundraiser me my friend Casey and our friend Kathleen uh at Kuba for friends of diverse Learners a little subdivision of PTA School 3 um and uh we raised some money um to get them started with a lot of things they want to do so I want to thank uh everybody um who participated uh some of your board members were there thank you so much and um we're going to do another one soon uh for something else and uh that's it thank you all very much have a good night how many people that uh the seat yeah uh we don't really know that yet U well we the first meeting we had like 35 people show up and it's kind of dwindled down um the the reason why I want to encourage people to do it is um we want to create like a lasting cpag so that when I'm gone and my daughter's had a district in Casey's done with we have something left for the people that are coming at after us and me I don't have really any access to grind as far as the cpag and advocating right now cuz my daughter is doing okay and she's benefiting from where she is but I also want to have an outlet for L parents so it dwindles up and down hopefully the zoom will increase attendance but it's anywhere from like 10 to 30 at each meeting so thank you thank you thank you guys Andrew come 326 Bridge PL north um those of you may not know last week at the uh fley high school was it the talent show there was 13x um I don't know who was there who wasn't there but the students were amazing so I just want to say that my didn't win it but everybody was amazing lot of but the main reason I'm here is to basically to follow up on a issue that been bringing to this board's attention for the last several months so um about the end of January um one the the special education English teacher left the fortly left the fortly school district um Jenson um she left uh because basically be close to home as of today there is no permanent replacement okay I've been speaking about this um I I did follow the chain of command Okay um I did speak with um her the Gans Council about it um he he was very responsive to me even though I did not agree with him he he did get back to me so I can't want say he did not he did I did also miss Glenn um the principal of the high school um she respond to my emails and actually called me so again we don't agree but you know I do appreciate that they did get back to me the problem is the teacher left I believe it was the end of January or February 1st as of today they still do not they're not doing any coursework during the English period students are playing on their phones the students did not get a grade okay they got incomplete for the marking period my understanding is as per do the commucation with the principal at the the high school that a teacher has been hired that approved by Dr kevitz and the teachers starting May 10th okay here we are now person left let's say February 1st okay April 10th the person is starting okay the Mind St is going to be some sort of an assessment I guess maybe I'm using the word incorrectly to see where the kids are okay the kids lost two months worth of work okay you see stting May 10th school ends the the third week in June okay how many how many school days is that about 25 school days if you do the math how can they they get caught up it's impossible just to the math it's not like a major algebraic equation I mean they lost two months of the work now there 22 days one of the things that I I understand I did like I said I did reach out you know to uh to the high school uh principal mlan she was responsive it's okay that we had differ opinions she explained to me about the teacher shortage and I explained to her that's a you problem not not a me problem okay well I work I have St shortage and is my job to fix it if not I would have a job okay so my question is what is being done until May 10th even though May 10th is around the corner how are the students going to get that course work one of the things I did suggest is a to have a tuto um Shing Services maybe after school okay and M CL also explained to me that there are certain things that the substitute teachers can and canot do by contract which I have an issue with because how can you tell me substitute can't teach you pay them to be S to Teacher Key Word teach maybe I'm crazy okay and all the kids are doing is why just hire someone put 10,000 hour the street to babysit because that's all that that sub teacher is doing they're not getting and there's no assignments there's no lesson plans it's like it's free time playing on the phon during that that period And so my question is what is the plan that that students can get that is course one okay cuz these kids are sen Dr is going to address thank you so uh I'm we will get some information for you I'm looking at the schedule and there are some grades in some of the classes from M Jenson so I will be looking into why there's not invol the classes but for my understanding we were paying people to uh submit for to plan for the class and there were people there who were supposed to be teaching it I will reach out to the principal again but I know in some of the other classes from M J's class I'm looking at grades so I don't know who's covering through those I I want to say it's it's two different teachers okay that alternate basically it's not the same old time um you I want to say it's Miss woo maybe maybe I'm not 100% sure the name but you know but they are not getting any any forew and I even have the emails if you want I can p them to you I'd like to see them if you don't want sure not problem and it even says that basically that the teach that subtit are not that by contract that's the word that you used in the email there's certain things they can and cannot do so I'm confused that me to drive a bus that tell you I'm not allowed to drive the bus but D me to a bus driver I mean yeah I you know if you could share share with me those emails and and we'll get you an answer by tomorrow okay I will share share those emails with you by uh by noon tomorrow okay and you can see like I said I don't want to bash M GL right there because she has been responsive I don't want think she has not she has been 100% responsive again it's good you know it's good not it's kind of good to to disagree you know what I'm saying okay but you know but she did but also but then why didn't they get a grade because you I if you want I can you know you and I could talk on side you might do name you see there's no grade and in her email she said that there that kids are going to be getting incomplete and she also was very nice and explain you what incomplete means what incomplete means it's basically a hold doesn't mean it pass or fail okay and once they get this um teacher I believe it's who's coming then they would put in a grade but as of this time there's nothing to grade them on so you know that's what I'm saying you know I mean that's why I suggested maybe the tutoring or some type of of something I mean I know my D my daughter has study hole maybe they can have somebody in study hole teach them English or something like that I this is somebody you send that stuff to Dr privit tomorrow and then he'll reach out to you and have more of a conversation about and again I got to say once again I can't enough I do appreciate the correspondence from Miss Glenn you know people say you know different things but I I on directly I say she did respond to me both both in email and on the phone thank you thank you have a good night thank you okay Mr vro yes Julene sasu you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and add address for the record you have three minutes hi thank you so much Jason hello everyone it's Julene Stu 1156 in Wood Terrace hope everyone's having a great night um oh where do I begin I I'm a little shocked right now because I know Tony Senator had reached out to me last year and um I had brought it to the attention of the board and I was under the impression that this was done I mean baseball season started so I'm I I don't know how quickly we can get one up but these kids um including the high school softball team deserve a scoreboard I mean you know this is embarrassing anyway I hope we can get that done um as far as um what I'm watching I feel like I'm watching like I feel like I'm not watching a board meeting I feel like I'm watching people like I don't know how to say this it's so dysfunctional it's so hard to sit here and watch with the eyes rolling and the and the necks cringing and the fighting and the blatant disrespect for each other it's just not what this board should be for the kids that being said I'm moving on to the real reason I called um the calendar so I completely agree with um everyone who thinks I mean I think that we should be out on the 18th um that's a Wednesday if we start school on Tuesday September 3rd and we have two extra days that brings us to the 20th of June and if we give back election day and make that a half day we're at the 18th so we don't have to and then we have the 19th off because it's juneth so we could theoretically be out on Wednesday the 18th if we started school and I did negotiations and I don't believe I could be wrong that there's anything in the contract that states that teachers have to do professional development on September 3rd and 4th um right before school starts I know there's orientation and I know they're not allowed to start before Labor Day teaching but I don't remember putting a clause in there stating that these were the days they were starting so in my mind you know we're getting out June 14th that's unprecedented it's a 10 and a half week summer I mean these kids got to get back let's get them back to school on the 3D let's get them out on the 18th let's give a half day for election day I also saw that you took away the half day before the February break um which was very helpful because I know a lot of kids like to go away so that 14th um Friday the 14th if you could consider making that a half day you could move professional day over to that too if you wanted to there would be an option um and um you know I'm also you know I'm also upset about the whole bus situation I I know this is a lot but you know the kids are walking with heavy bags I know it's been done um but I think we can do better we have a huge budget and I think we can do better for our kids and the fact that there's no buses now when this was raised last year by soccer parents makes me sad have a wonderful evening that's my three minutes thanks for listening thank you Ben rhods you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Ben roads hi Ben roads 1566 Anderson Avenue as I sit here listening to the complaints about digitizing materials in this case the rfps I have to ask why aren't you requiring the responses to be provided to you in PDF format in the first place doesn't mean you can't require paper versions We all know these documents were created digitally to begin with anyway it would be no extra work for the V Enders if paper waste is what you care about it seems like requiring this would be part of that movement it has the eded benefit of costing nothing to the district and then you have it and it can be provided to whoever needs it I suggest going forward that you include the PDF requirements for all RFP responses and anything else that would save you a step if it were already digitized also I want to com compliment the Science Festival event my daughter had a great time and it was a lot of fun thank you thank you for Lee parent you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hello yes please state your name and address for the record yeah fortly parents six Horizon Road um I'm calling in regards to policy 5756 uh the last meeting we had Emy kotang overturned the can you just say your name for the record please yes Fort Le resident excuse me ma'am just could you please state your name for the record that's a requirement for yeah Sandra last name man can you please St your first last name for the record please there is a standard requ what's the reason for this that is a standard requirement pursuant to the open public meanings act pursu to board policy for all uh members of the public who want to speak during public comment you don't have to be a resident of Fort Lee per se but it is standard protocol to state your name for the record you've already given your address I believe you please State your first and last name okay none of are up okay' you don't want you first last name I would recommend to board President we move on to the next speak thank you Sandra pra I'm sorry you please state that again we could hear you Sandra pra Sandra pra p r yes thank you so much you made thank you okay okay so I am requesting policy 5756 be approved to be overturned for review uh I would like all parents of all the students to be pulled with a letter sent home uh crosschecking legitimacy on whether or not they want this policy to go through or at least remove this policy from all elementary and intermediate schools thank you mahale you've been promoted to panelist please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes uh hi can anyone hear me yes okay so Miel kesu 254 Tom Hunter Road uh so a couple of things since when did we start enforcing the we have to be on record with actual names cuz the last four meetings anyone can just log in and start pouring their ideas on policy 5756 and they were allowed to speak and now all of a sudden you know we cannot be anonymous anymore that's one thing the other thing was uh why didn't we get more notice in regards to this meeting I mean I only got the notification this morning and based on the fact that it's a Wednesday it's looked very off you know so I do try to make myself available and attend bya zoom and kind of like that alone so I found it surprising so I didn't have time to actually read the notes I would appreciate you know if this meetings would be announced a little bit further out and in regards to the scanning issue I mean I work incorporate americ n case we have a big scanner that also scans to email and makes copies you can dump a stack of documents like 500 pages in the feed you hit a you tap your ID and then you know 10 minutes later I get the PDF searchable I'm assuming that maybe the board doesn't have the money to pay for a service say from Kanika uh but I'm letting you know that you know for myself personally yeah home I bought the little brother of this thing so I have a small desk scanner that scans to PD F and it does about 40 pages a minute so I'm urging the board to maybe you know if they don't look towards a service to digitize and making available the documents maybe perhaps you know look at the devices themselves and when you buy a printer next time consider like a digitizer as well thank you this man pres before you move on to the next speaker because there were two members of the public questioning the necessity for stating their name as I indicated previously pursuant of board bylaw 0167 public participation in board meetings uh subsection uh one public participation shall be governed by the following rules a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name place of residence and group affiliation apprpriate thank you k you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes yes uh do you hear me or do you see me both both all right thank you very much uh my name is t chessia I'm at 484 Main Street portly New Jersey um I agree with the previous speaker that we need more of a notice at least 25 hours in advance when is a meeting um today I was in the million in the middle of million things and still I have to participate but we' appreciate it if you give us heads up um I have a question for Mr kravit um I have sent him pictures of public school number one the sidewalks are deplorable they are full of cracks um their concrete is broken and there are branches of trees there are signs in the yard in the school yards leaning almost ping now these are all considered child neglect T title Toc violations of New Jersey criminal code um I can actually read it it's 1 C column 24-4 B is he aware of this question mark the other question and the other thing that I had to say is that I have asked for the rules um and regulations of those that participate in the meetings in person and online I need to know them please email them to me I've asked for them the number the other thing I want to say is please do not come in these meetings um with at all the skin exposed the breast exposed for the ladies there have some courtesy these are called um Act of less and they are also titled to see we're not consenting them we want you guys to have crew neck Toops and we don't want any patterns zigzag patterns that blurry our vision can we have three days off for eight AA which are June um the following weekend but we can have June 17 18 and 19 thank you thank you uh as far as the school number one we'll look into it the last thing I have from you was from January 24th but we will get back to on the school stuff David Lou you been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes David Lou you're muted yes sorry um yeah I just had to use voice over so it takes me a while so my name is David L 2160 Center Avenue I'm a parent I'm also part of cpeg um so I I like to um to just um present to um you know one of the schools my my son's in that they actually um I would like to praise um them for providing more access for special needs kids ESP when they did the Luna New Year celebration they had more uh inclusion for our kids and also um they had an egg hunt for our kids and now they're going to do um some bubble event for them so I'd like to um praise the principal for doing that um but you know I as a specialed parent um I see that General Ed kids they have more opportunities more access so I like to to ask that if the special education be part of the board of Ed's agenda as sometime to provide more access for our kids and also to make it more ADA Compliant thank you Victoria Kim you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have 3 minutes Victoria Kim hello hi um my name is Victoria Kim at Le on 100 Park Avenue for Le um thank you all board members and everyone um for your time and effort um there are five items that I would like to speak about um first of all the regarding the revised calendar um I see that Tuesday May 28th is off to you on news now day is it possible to make Friday off instead of Tuesday um um I I believe forley has a large population of working parents and it would be harder to take Tuesday off instead of Friday usually you know Friday is kind of expected holiday Before Memorial weekend so it would be nice if you consider um second um about the summer school program um many parents um reached out to me and they feel like um they felt that last year's program was very good so they were waiting to register this year um because of last year's program they uh they thought you know it covers some review of their current year and then also prep materials for the upcoming year so it was good for the kids and now um I think last at the last or the previous one um we approved for this imer school for only for the IEP students so um I don't know is it the budget issue or is it is there any way that you can open up um some spaces for uh for um General um or can you charge some fees um because usually some Camp registrations opens from February and all of them are fully booked now by the time like right now so um it would be great if you can consider um more options for summer school and um thirdly um at last Board of Education meeting um I listened to the good presentation explaining about goal setting for our district so um I don't know when that's going to happen but I would like to make a suggestion to include providing multil language options for grade eight uh five through eight um not just Spanish so that our children can try out different language options before high school so they can choose the right ones for the high school um as far as I know I believe one of the successful work that Dr kit has done in the past was providing multilanguage options to early age students so um it would be great if you can consider that um right now Spanish is it being the only option for grade 52 through eight so you know at when they get into high school it's not easy to make other choices because you know High School grades are important for college application and they don't want to take a risk choosing something else that they're not familiar with and um so oh is is my time up I'm not sure I was yes you could finish up your comment um uh I have it two other one two other comments um but I can continue next week for everyone thank you thank you you're welcome thank you for your your your comments so as far as the Friday unfortunately the AP exams all of the makeups in the world history is on Friday so we can't close we can't close on Friday students at the high school will be taking some AP exams as far as the summer school we use op Esser fundings traditionally those funds run out in September we spent a lot of the our funding this year for it during the school year tutoring great success with that so we utilize most of the fun funds um but as in the future we will be looking at other ways to incorporate something for the summer we don't know what that would look like yet and as far as multilangual lingual uh absolutely a fan however as we look at our budgets we recognize you know one of the things that we're trying to do is maximize what we can and what we have uh I know as we talk about our future budgets most of our tax levy increase which is Cap at 2% is being utilized in teacher salary increases so that kind of limits what we can spend on additionally we would love to bring back again more languages in the elementary schools more band programs in the younger grades but with all of those needs we'll have to do this incrementally and we'll look to that so thank you iPhone you have been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes okay hi good evening my name is faten Hass um I live at Kingsland Lane I have some children in the elementary level I initially wanted to just say one thing but after I heard other people I have to talk about a few things um the first thing I've noticed um okay I've noticed you do a lot um for the all different holidays which is beautiful but you do do not do uh really a anything for Eid um if it's a case of getting parents to sign a petition I would would like to know although I'm sure the other people did not have to sign a position to get the other things for those holidays um that's number one if it's a case of getting petition a petition or getting names please let me know um the other thing I wanted to say is in terms of that person that was reluctant to share their name I'm just going to share why I think that some people do not want to do that um they want to stay anonymous because it's intimidating they're is a forly Facebook page and there is intimidation and bullying by some outspoken individuals that get angry if your opinion is different than theirs they actually track down the person who they dislike in the in the fort Le and they try to get that person personal information and um so and they leave it out in the open for anyone to harass which is very upsetting because we're all adults so that's part of it I'm thinking of the anonymous uh person um that's number two which doesn't need an answer this last thing is um uh I've experienced I just want to let this is really for the parents I guess for the for you guys too but really also for the parents to hear me um while I have experienced some wonderful teachers that I love and I adore there are those teachers substitutes and regular teachers maybe a few that are not appropriate they are not qualified for their jobs um especially some subs um they are not supposed to disclose their political views especially especially to Elementary aged children it seems that the teachers need to be reminded to be neutral all the time especially in these sensitive times in the world so again I'm just I just wanted to encourage all teachers to listen um to what I've said about not discussing politics with elementary kids but also to the parents I just want to remind parents please keep in mind that whatever you believe and encourage in terms of just politics is heard by your child and if that's your intention that's fine because they're your children but please remind them that in school especially at the elementary level this shouldn't be talk of what's going on in the news and I'm sure every everyone knows what I'm referring to and that's all I had to say thank you for listening you thank you and as we look at the calendar we look at all the opportunities for all thank you Stephanie katso you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hello hello oh hold on let me put my video pleas state your name and address for the record Stephanie cotan um on Tom Hunter Road I would like to second I don't know what we do regarding the addresses our home has been targeted after speaking out about 5756 and my stance on my belief that parents should know exactly what's going on regarding sexual conversations with teachers in their school our vehicle was targeted our our car had um Nails put in it glass put in it I went to the Fort Lee Police Department um for exactly this reason and videos have been um circulated about me and my family my son who spoke publicly photo was circulated uh Tik toks have been circulated So you you're going to have to do something about that as a school board and people because we live in the day and age we live in I don't think they could should be able to just say fortly resident obviously I'm out there so and we're two people on here because my husband doesn't have another computer but it's very very concerning what I heard tonight about the special ed English teacher I guess Dr Kravitz this mainly falls on you but the fact that you don't you have children with cell phones in the classroom out first of all in special ed the cell phone should be away in a faraday bag these things are very bad for kids with special needs um and there should be a teacher on a giant screen if you have to hire an English teacher to review any wonderful English book that the children can listen to and be engaged with on on a computer if they need to with um someone that sits there in the room but surely they should at least be reading a book if they can read I I don't know how severely um impaired these children are but this is very troubling the other thing that really troubles me is that our sitting superintendent did not vote on getting our our our papers you know seen and uh not superintendent the president of the board and the vice president these are two people on our board that I think would want us to be digitized and have the information readily available to their board members so everyone could participate together and see everything so th those are really important to me and also the calendar I don't know what's wrong with New Jersey in general maybe there's something I don't understand but like New York State the whole state is off together so you know what's going on and C is here so he wants to go hey there can I have three [Music] minutes yeah second person I couldn't get on my computer yeah so should I start yep name and address for the record please it's uh Chris CIS on Tom Hunter Road and uh lot to dissect here but I'm here for one specific purpose to again remind you all of a Cornerstone of our constitutional democracy the 14th Amendment particularly the due process clause and its importance in protecting parental rights the 14th amendment guarantees that no state shall quote deprive any person of life liberty or property without due process of law end quote this fundamental guarantee is vital not only for the protection of individual rights but also for safeguarding the family and the parents rights actually parents rights as settled by the United States Supreme Court are among the quote oldest of the fundamental Liberty interests recognized by the court end quote the court has stated that parents have a constitutional right to quote direct the upbringing and education of children under their control end quote what does this mean for parents well it means that while our children are in school often up to 8 to 10 hours they're under the care of others and while we trust Educators with this responsibility the due process clause of the 14th amendment guarantees that this trust does not come at the expense of our rights as parents knowing what is happening during these hours is not just a matter of curiosity it's our right and responsibility whether it concerns their academic progress their social interactions or changes in the physical and mental well-being parents must be informed and involved this is crucial because ultimately while teachers and administrators are Partners in our children's education they are in reality strangers to our children's individual needs and nuances the parent carries the insight and Instinct about their child's welfare that simply cannot be reproduced in a classroom setting the importance of due process in this context cannot be overstated if a policy like rule 5756 allows for withholding information from parents this not only under finds our rights but potentially places our children's safety and well-being at risk such policies must be carefully scrutinized to guarantee that they do not infringe on the Liberty interests of parents such policies are not just well intentioned but must be justly implemented aligning with the strict scrutiny required by the 14th Amendment so I urge all of you to seriously reflect on the weight of your decisions and the rights they touch upon the school is not there to override the family but to support it not to replace the parent but to partner with them uphold the protections afforded by our Constitution and make sure that your policy strengthen not weaken the bonds of the family thank you thank you there are no more raised hands motion to motion Mor I just got a raised hand if you'd like Dar you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hi I don't want to make this too long I just have two questions and requests if that's possible please state your name and address for the record sorry sorry uh my name is Sharon quali 1589 Cedar Court um portly thank you um is that good yes thank you okay um I just have two questions and I don't know if I could make requests to to the board about this one I know that people have already asked about the summer programs and I just wanted to ask if it's possible to place it in the in the flboe website like what are the programs available of as of now and also if I saw that there was a summer enrichment program RFP for grade eight will that be for 20124 and also if that's the case is there a possibility for summer enrichment program for kindergarten to seventh grade that's my first um question and request the second one um I just wanted to ask this and I know that it's not the school can't do anything about it but parent in Intermediate School there have been many conflicts that have been happening in the recreation center and it involves kids physical fight but it also involves some adults harassing kids and I was wondering what the board can do about it and also so who can we go to to have some form of adult supervision in the area because it's outside the realm of the school and I know the principles are all very helpful but they can't do anything outside of school and when it's kid to get physical violence and when it's a parent harassing kids more than twice now in this school year I think it becomes a serious concern and just wanted to know um get some form of adult supp provision there and if we don't have that right now who can we go to to request that that's it thank you so much thank you rad Rondo you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hi uh Brad Rondo 2298 Le Moy Avenue Vue uh fortly New Jersey um going to try to be as brief as I can tonight uh I I wanted to just listen in tonight because I know that one of the things that is coming up uh on the board agenda is the uh establishment of uh goals for the board for the district and for the administration for the coming year um as well as and I believe if I'm not mistaken that the very next board meeting on May 1st um is when board members are meant to come with proposals for goals as well as uh the board self assessment process that's supposed to occur each year um I really was planning on just listening tonight but I will say from what I've heard both from the board discussion and then also uh what several members of the public have also raised one way or another is it does seem like really at all of those levels for the board for the district for the administration improving communication um needs to be a goal you know one of the things I heard during that board uh discussion obviously there was the question about you know can we get the rfps digitized so we know what's going on um I certainly understand the desire to make sure that all of the Committees are reporting out to the full board the full extent of of what's happening in the Committees and that you know I I could certainly understand the concern but simultaneously I also heard board members who seem to have just seen the proposed calendar for next year after it was provided to them in March so it seems that one of the goals maybe needs to be really strengthening the internal communication within the board both to make sure information is being shared but also to make sure there are norms and expectations about what information board members are coming to the meetings prepared with um again I think that we heard from you know multiple parents not even complaints but moments where parents were unclear on what is the procedure here how do I contact this person I know a couple of folks were apparently unaware of where On The Board website the meetings are uh posted so I again I just urge the board to look at that and really ask how how can we do better across the board um I also want to Echo you know um as a member of the school 3 PTA uh we have a number of parents um who are members of that PTA who are very strong advocates for the needs of special education students and there are diverse students and who definitely want to see Fort Lee making specific improvements in that area and I think that has to come from the board goal setting process uh as well so just two things I would urge the board to consider when beginning that goal setting process uh that as I understand it will be formally kicked off at the next meeting thank you thank you Josh abos Josh abos you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Josh abascal you're muted okay can everyone hear me yes please state your name and address um yes Nancy Hatter Lynwood Avenue okay um so I've brought this up at cpeg meetings um this year we started kindergarten you know I'm navigating Life as a special needs parent now um we tried to enroll our child in after after school program the after care and we were told they do not accept special needs children so um I've received answers saying the Board of Ed the school has nothing to do with this but how could they not have anything to do with this when you hire these companies so whether you hire a company and get extra par professionals whatever the case this just seems very discriminatory and I feel like I'm constantly fighting battles and um yeah that's my main concern right now we're fine but come September when he can no longer have a therapist that we can afford to pay for um what are we going to do in September so that's that's my thing thank you Andis you've been promoted to panelist please Candace you've been promoted to plalist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address to the record you have three minut hi uh this is Candace I'm at U westf place and um I kind of missed the beginning part but I just wanted to chime in because um with the goal setting and everything I always want to make sure that we are um trying to take care of our teachers and making sure um I know with the teacher shortage I hope everybody's doing everything they can there but one of the things I had asked was um one I think maybe a couple months ago I had asked if we could teach in our kids school um for substitute teaching to cover our um when our teachers are out obviously not in our kids' classroom but you know in at least in my zone in the school three um Community there's a lot of teachers and um I'd love to be able to help alleviate anything directly um the other part was also just I don't know not quality of life but if they need more planning time or what have you covering their recess or their lunch um what that looks like and who handles that who I should be talking to and then finally um I think maybe if you saw on the on one of the Facebook forums I had also mentioned the sewage thing I don't know if you previously talked about it but if that is um going to be something in the budget for um for the summer to repair um the pipes to make sure that they're not overflowing so we don't have to evacuate but yeah that's it thanks thank you there are no more raised hands okay now have a motion motion second all in favor any opposed okay uh Dr C is going respond to a few of comments some of that we went through there very quickly so a few comments regarding um first of all about the English class so there was an email sent to the parents of that class on March 2th at 6:09 p.m. that indicated there are English teachers sitting in that classroom and teachers will be assisting with the and monitoring of the classwork and we will make sure that all the students are up to date without any additional stress their already busy schedule once the new teacher begin we work on her to assess the curriculum ensure that all the requirements are met by the end of the school year um students were given incompletes and that way all the assignments will get done when and we will offer assistance to every student in the class that email will sent on March 27th at 6:09 p.m. to the parents of that class that's the first one M uh Mr L comment about more inclusion so yes we you know as a as a district we do offer inclusion classes and we encourage um students in the special needs classes to mix during our specials so that they are included in this much as can as we can in fact what we find in compared to some of the neighboring districts that we have more inclusion time than they do when we're ring all of our students as as far as the summer enrichment I mentioned you know the 8th grade going into 9th grade program there is an RFP for that so that would be the the program we would be looking at for those students and we'll see where where that Falls Recreation Department I would recommend contacting the recreation department at forley Board of educ EXC me at the report Community Center the cpeg as far as um after care so there are students with special needs in WR at school if you want to email me your name I will be more than happy to contact WR at school and see what's going on but there currently are I can get the statistics but I know there are many students who are uh special needs students in our after CARE program as far as teachers being a substitute teacher it State LA requires you to have 60 college credits if you do or if actually you're working towards your college credits it can be 30 provided you are currently enrolled in a program if you contact our human resources department they will help you with that certification and we can get you in the classrooms um and the same thing for recess if you're looking to be a lunchroom Aid you would comp com contact pomptonian Food Service who's our current provider and they in their contract are the ones who Supply the AIDS in the in The Recess lunchroom and as far as the sewage backup so our pipes are actually okay what we're finding is in some of the schools like School 4 had a backup someone stuff burlap in the toilets toilets and jump and uh stuffed up all of the pipes at the uh School number three we've had some feminine products put in the toilets which has caused a backup so as we are going through all of our schools we remind everyone to use the receptacles please do not throw garbage in any of the toilets CU When we do hire someone to come and clean them out we're noticing that it is not just toilet paper the things that are causing these backups in our schools so um we do get them cleaned out SM area I think it's twice a year now that we do get them cleaned out from the district's perspective but we're just seeing more and more stuff being thrown out and we are putting receptical and we will be shifting to hand dryers as opposed to paper towels in the bathroom so that we don't have those in the toilets as well thank you I get a chance to answer those questions as they we ask okay uh we are moving on to resolutions just a reminder 4B has been pulled by Dr priv that's the 2425 calendar and we have two walk-in resolutions I will read them now 6B reads therefore be it resolved the forly Board of Education hereby permits the following non-resident student to continue enrollment at Ply public schools and wage tuition costs for the 2324 school year student ID 8086 71 7504 and 7B therefore be a resolve the portly Board of Education hereby dis enrolls the following non-resident student from portly Public Schools student ID number 2896 8458 01 may I have a motion to approve items 1B through 3B and 5B through 7B motion second motion or second buers Kang roll call please Mrs buers Kang yes Miss colb yes but I staying on 7B I wasn't here for that discussion Mrs cry yes Mr Knight yes Mrs kotang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes Mr Rabino yes Mrs RoR yes we have a motion to approve items one C and two c motion motion morale second buers K roll call please Mrs buers Kang yes Miss colb yes Mrs Curry yes Mr Knight yes Mrs kotang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes Mr Rino yes Mrs R yes may I have a motion to approve items 1 F through 8f motion okay motion Curry second Morel roll call please Mrs bios Kang yes Miss K yes Mrs Curry yes Mr Knight yes Mrs clang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes Mr Rabino yes Mrs rer yes we have a motion to approve 1 p through 10 P Mo motion morale second buers K roll call please Mrs buers Kang yes M colback yes Mrs Curry yes Mr Knight yes Mrs Cen yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes Mr Rino yes Mrs Ricker yes is there any old business any new business I I have two points okay um on the calendar I don't know if any districts do it but listening to everyone with Eed and all of the is there any way to give students like three excused absences that they can use for whatever holidays they want and then we don't have the holidays built in as mandatory days that the district is closed so there are list of holidays New Jersey Department of Education this every year those are excused holidays right um so anyone can use those those days and they they do not count against it that's listed on the New Jersey Department of Education every year all right but instead of closing on on some of the holidays we would be open but people would have three two four whatever it is um so that we could finish early it's just an idea that kind of came as I was listening um to people just something to explore can real quick on that I think just a really big part of this is is the the VNC part of it the what part is the being scen you know it's like I think it's important that that um that we acknowledge acknowledge the holiday and I know that I feel like we're doing a pretty good job me all the conversations I've had uh with the president Dr K have been really positive I think this year it happened to fall on a weekend so we didn't have to worry about it but I think it would be really great if at least put one day of e on the calendar officially just so that we can take we we absolutely you're lucky if all weekend but we absolutely do want to acknowledge it as a district and we did that as we discussed we disc on the 2425 calendar is acknowledge on the okay thank you the second point is um I know that the ad hoc RFP committee decided not to pursue an RFP for after care services that was in there February 13th um 24 meeting um but I think tonight wasn't the only time that we heard issues with the after care with children who have IEPs or neurodiverse and those parents also kind of sometimes need it even more than than others I would just say we ought to be exploring and seeing what's available even if it's to add an element to our current what right at schools or we look to see what else is available if it doesn't work it doesn't work but at least we do our homework and see whether there's something that would meet the needs of more parents great any other new business okay have a motion motion paper and post hey thank you