##VIDEO ID:yb597sXnYZw## of the United States of America and to the stand Nace for all open public meetings blog 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 provisions of the act the fortly board of education has calls notice of this meeting to be published on September 10th 2024 and September 8th 2024 posted on the district website at www.fb.com published in the board's designed online media Outlet newspapers the record in the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the borrow of for Lee 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 mobile TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any Gathering whether Corporal or by means of communic a equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with 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 M Bri K hot shower cold B without the thank you one more time Miss Kat there you go right here miss Curry here Mr Knight here m co Tang here Mr Lopez here M moral Morel [Laughter] Morel Miz Morel yeah Mr Rino here and M rer 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 Mo motion moral second Rino all in favor any opposed okay we are now in executive session okay to of the United States of America and to the for stand Nation God indivisible withy and justice for [Music] all before we continue I would just like to ask everyone to please join in a moment of silence to remember the tragic events that took place one year ago today in Israel all of the victims of that day and all those impacted by ongoing event in that region over this past year thank you the New Jersey open public meetings wall is 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 the provisions of the act the fortly board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on September 8th 2024 and September 10 2024 in the record and the Star Ledger posted on the district website at www.foe.com publish the board's designated online media Outlet newspaper filed with the clerk B Fort Lee 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 allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any Gathering whether Corporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with 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 Miss V Kang here M colbath here M Miss Curry here Mr Knight here miss kotang here Mr Lopez here M Morel here Mr Rino here M RoR here the board can be an executive session at 6:30 p.m. to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters Dr kravit Will You Begin by sharing the superintendent report good evening everyone I would like to thank everyone for being here this evening as well as on Zoom welcome to Michael steinet our new business administrator this evening as we start our school year I would also like to thank Sophie ryers and ke you know from the high school for joining us this evening to give us an update so please do at this moment hello my name is Sophie R and co-president of courney high school student council and I'm K and I'm also the co-president of spy student council on September 20th the high school hosted a p rally where all fall senior athletes B members and po guard members were recognized the event concluded with a class relay race won by the junior class thanks to the teachers who participated but came in last place a vir volleball team won a Tri County tournament Championship the following students have been selected as semi-finalists in the 2 National Merit Scholarship competion Nia an Noah Kim Aaron o and a select group of seniors will te the NJ gpa's regular school day for all students the marching band performs at the senior night the fame on Friday October 4th the band's first competition will be Saturday October 12th at blife Stadium congratulations to all students who took a courses and exams last year and the teachers who taught the courses at our high school as we earned the AP honors R silver distinction the psat/nmsqt will be administered on Wednesday October 23rd to all students in Grace 11 and 10 these students should report at regular time students in Grade 9 and 12 have a delete opening on this day and should report to school no later than 9:45 a.m on October 24th members of the side Club will attend the Symposium of Rebecca Vera Foundation thank you thank you very much okay uh few updates I would like to remind everyone that this is the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month and we wish everyone happy celebrations for that a few updates for the special education parents Advisory Group which is open to all specials parents as well as parents of students with V4 is our first meeting greet or actually our first uh informative session is October 16th at 20 this year the intermediate school at 700 p.m. please come out we are exciting we have uh Nicole freed coming to speak to the parents regarding special needs students and programs so and our new special needs director will be there as well so I welcome everyone to come out to our CPAC meeting of the year please know the agenda uh this evening an appointment for our new social media club that I know the board has spoken about at the high school which in the Public Relations Committee we've discussed we also are proud to announce that we have four semi finalists in The 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition um there was a request from some of the parents on to include their name so just to be fair but I just wanted to mention there were four National semi-finalists um as an update to our teaching you know we we do have all of our staff we are working on some Le Replacements as they come I remind everyone that these are very hard positions to fill as we are competing with other districts for non-permanent positions so a teacher comes in as a lead replacement once they find a 10year track position they immediately try to go to that in essence we have to either guarantee them the position or hope that they would stay also there has been some questions regarding busing and I just want to give you update as we're looking to that information so we run eight buses every day and those are those routes include special needs routes they include routes from one building to another building um the drivers work approximately 7:00 a.m. until 400 p.m. there has been other request for routs and as we're trying to figure out if we can do that and how do we would manage that so understanding that some of our routes ended around 2:45 to 3:15 those drivers who do return early are then dispatched for the high school for our game so as an example for today we had a 315 departure for the varsity junior varsity soccer team to go to Cliffside Park we had a 315 departure for Dumont high school for our volleyball teams for the Freshman junior varsity and varsity going to as I said Dumont high school and then we have the a second group in that same group of students going to do on um Lincoln School so while the bus is going to both places it's dividing up and that's has to those students have to be picked up back at 4:30 we had another bus leaving at 3:15 jury B football going to Carney high school and we had a meet at 1:30 we took a bus going to darington county park for the big North championship for the cross country team so while they're they're still running our buses and all drivers finish at 4:00 unless they're staying exra for those events we did get some quotes to what it would take to um hire another bus company to do that anywhere from $88 per hour to $100 per hour if they had drivers available in that same 3:00 to 4:00 range so that's what we're looking into again and looking at all that data recognizing that we have you know budgets and we're running our payroll to make sure we're we're all in um within our budget range and speaking of you know goals and objectives and education and everything which is great I would like to congratulate School number three for being a national blue R Award winner this is a multi-year process kudos to Jay Burman Sharon bi Williams the teachers the staff parents our assistant superintendent IO and of course the entire forly community and all of you for making that happen we're very proud of the achievement and it's a wonderful thing so congratulations to everyone um have a great month of October and we will see everyone in November thank you thank you do we have any committee reports so I have one the uh policy committee met last Thursday um present Amy Kristen Holly um Diane Dr CV and our Legal C J um the entire Focus was the district's um eligibility policy for enrolling students and residents and non-residents it's policy 5111 and there were some changes last here in the law and the district is in the process of fine-tuning the paperwork and the disclosures that we make um on these issues it will appear I believe probably on the next agenda the U policy changes and obviously the the paperwork will not but um letters forms um that we require when we enroll students of being updated okay thank you any other committee reports okay um just before we go into the board comments I want to mention that we have two walk-on resolutions uh 6B and 7B 6B reads therefore be it resolved the fortly Board of Education hereby dis enrolls the following non-resident student from portly Public Schools student 1582 593 920 and that is grade three in one of our elementary schools and 7B therefore be it resolved forly Board of Education hereby disenroll the following non-resident student from fortly Public Schools student 4 619583 763 and that is high school grade 11 do board members have questions or comments on tonight's agenda or any other topic yes than goe comments regarding uh 5C on the agenda um some time ago the equity committee met and gave updates on um on topic relating to the professional development pertaining to this specific agenda item um but I think there was some confusion as parents um hosted away from this meeting and and and and um and on social media um um and there's a lot of confusion so I just wanted to reiterate and get some context around this item okay um so the professional development on the cultural competency and culturally responsive practices to the school based inrs which is intervention and referral services teams it is a state mandate it was mandated by the states that the district need to take action to remedy um a um disproportionality in in our district so what happens is every year the New Jersey Department of Education comes to our school and measures this proportionality in areas such as discipline and special education and for three years in a row our dist District was flagged to to or has identified this proportionality in our district in specific spefic learning disability um area in that one subgroup is over represented so this proportionality in this in in in this context refers to the occurrence when there is over representation from a particular group who are experiencing a given situation um that we will expect the group to be represented against the general population and so we um we triggered or we triggered this disproportionality threshold for three years in a row and so the district is required to allocate 15% of our individual with Disability Act funding to address the underlying causes of disproportionality and ply must enter into a three-year process to address this in year one um 2023 to 2024 this is prior to my joining the board um under thankfully under the leadership of Miss dier and um Mr Casey who was the chair of the equity committee at the time um we started this this process and the first year um a team of Educators and and and administrators attended a series of um workshops to learn how this threshold is calculated the basic definitions and and and and what biases are um what tier support can we provide to our staff so 2023 and 20 24 was year 1 2020 this year is year number two where we have additional staff from our um from our intervention and referral service team which is the initial you see in in the agenda inrs team um attend the workshop these professional development workshop and the funding with these program for these workshops are funded 100% by our individual with disability at funding so none of it none of this is paid out of our general account it's a grand funding funded um initiative and it's an it's an investment to correct some of this this proportionality in the district we have we have um the district has considered a number of providers and have narrowed down to a current partner in this um professional development he is recommended and um and have been um has been um given this similar workshops to other districts in the state um so that's the context of this agenda item for anyone who is unfamiliar with could I just ask a couple questions on what was just said so so is there some order from the state that when I hear state mandate are we just talking generally or did portly based on bad numbers get some specific direction from the state that it needed to do something so fortly has been recognized that in a specific subgroup which is our Hispanic population 3.8 times the other subgroups in our district the Spanish population is um classified as sld which is specific learning disorder so in comparon to the other subgroups in the district that subgroup gets classified with that classification more than any other as a result of consistency in that area the state has said you must do something the first step in that was to attend which we had to send a group of people to ruter to meet a the person who runs the equity Lab at ruter and listen to the how you understand the data and what to look at that's the first part of it the next part is we have to take action which is create an action plan the action plan consisted of reaching out to people who would be able to follow up with that and which we chose the individual on the agenda this evening Dr Fergus at brers who was also the presenter for the state during these programs not open to just for Le but to everyone in the state Who had who was in the same if they fell into a category that they determined so so the the the program is specifically because our district it's it's the Hispanic population we have in special education who are classified sldd which is specific learning disorder more than 3.8 times more than any other subgroup in our district right but it's limited to that particular population it's not that you know because I've looked at some of the materials and I looked at the gentleman's book and you know it talks about other like populations but he's this is being recommended to address an issue that we have with disproportionality with Hispanics with SLB and IEPs and 504s so almost there let me just changed a little bit the last part of your wording to identify the Hispanic population because this District compared to other subgroups classifies Hispanics with an sld classification okay right so there are multiple class Ohi is another one other health andair this is District SD classification is 3.8 times greater for the Hispanic population than any other subgroup in our district and then I understood that because this this comes with a pretty big um price tag on 43,500 and we've got an issue with the playground at school one and we've got you know our scoreboard that people keep complaining about things that $43,000 could remedy all of those in a week let me just finish because I just heard even though this is a state issue the disproportionality we are mandated by law to use 15% of our Ida money okay which is a federally funded um bucket of money and what how much do we get each year I I know that we don't get the full funding that we should no District does under the idea but what what did we get last year like $300,000 okay so we now that that that money that was being supporting our special education program how many years are we required to use so we we have to spend at least $150,000 right each year just on this this disproportionality Hispanic issue okay and and for how many years um so it's it's a threeyear but so last year WEA funds I mean to address this Hispanic issue so right right now it's a three year the state allows us three years to remedy the disproportionality but each year we need to submit an action plan so the action plan will be submitted was for this year and then in the spring um we'll have to submit another one it is a brand new process this is the first time we've had to submit an action plan um but each year you have to allocate that amount of money to address disproportionality okay and in the action plan is that something that we we approved or no doesn't require board approval okay um and did anyone look at I mean so so the money we have choice so this thing he could have said $100,000 and we have to find ways to spend 15% of the million dollars and solely on this particular issue because it seems like an imbalance there you know um and I understand disproportionality but to require such a a a heavy use of our idea when special education cost like we can't you know we send children out of district and we don't have enough to do the types of things that we really would like to do with them um you're saying uh the program okay is it only PD that we can use the 150 or can classroom supports be part of of the solution so we're using the funds on various Services professional development is one of them but not just professional development in this topic we have our our early Elementary interventionists they were trained in Martin Gillingham they will be delivering Martin Gillingham um instruction to students in need uh we are also training because we found that most of our classifications occur at the elementary level we are focusing there um and we are also training elementary teachers on small group instruction in literacy because most of the challenges that these students are presenting are in literacy so we are alloca as well as resources for the classrooms so we are allocating that funding towards different different um methods of attacking this issue can it go for Staffing can can the money be used for Staffing to put another set of hands in a classroom it can be used for Staffing it can and and do we intend to use any of the 15% allocated to this issue for Staffing not this year we did in the past but I mean you know it what we found is that with the staff member that we were we were allocating the salary to it wasn't mitigating the problem and and has anyone um has anyone met Dr Fergus yes a team of us have met Dr Fergus and did anyone since his book The segregating ourselves which you know is you can read reviews and everything on it um That's the basis of of the training that we're getting I I can you explain to me has first of all did anyone read the book that is going to be the anchor text for the work that he's going to do here and just explain to me how that book and its ideology and and everything addresses the the the very discreet unique problem that we're trying to address because the I don't know the money seems really like huge for me so maybe if you just link together I'm sorry to be clear you you um reference to I'm asking an administrator who went and met with the gentleman no you said you said the whole Workshop is hinge on this book but no what I did was what I said was I read from it okay the the the proposal says that his that desegregating ourselves I use the expression that is the anchored text of okay it's it's cited in the first paragraph So I just want to know they're highlighting it in the first paragraph did anyone read it and how is his ideology how does it marry with what we're trying to accomplish in this very discreet subg group as far as the financial component I'll just answer that so if you the number of people that will be attending all of the inrs teams intervention and referral SCS in intervention and referral um Services Services thank you teams in every building so we have seven teams approximately five people it's it's it's a combination of people in every team so there are about 35 people who will meet a total of six uh how many times are they meeting nine nine session nine sessions right right so if if you divide that number up it's about $800 per person which is a normal training was it 100 per person8 it's 800 an hour 800 an hour over the people so it's it's concise with it's consistent with other trainings for this as far as the session itself I did not attend but I know Diane attended the session why don't you describe the session which is that's what so it goes into the history of disproportionality and it talks about um developing uh culturally responsive practices in your intervention services and how you identify students in need of intervention uh I understand that the contract um is linked to the book um we did not did dive into that entire book in the professional development it was pretty much to give a historical background but if you look at the appendices in the book it speaks to cultural competency and being able to address um gaps perhaps in cultural understanding and so the entire book is not the focus of the professional development actually when I did speak uh with Dr Fergus we we talked about not focusing on the entire book and perhaps just using certain applicable exerpts from the book and presentations but not reading the entire it's not a book that will be read cover to cover he may reference it in his streaming I mean he says that you'll be reading several chapters various we actually had a conversation about that because I was you know concerned about professionals and being assigned readings and things like that that's not going to be a component of the training but he may use excerpts from the book in in presentations such as data and statistics and and information like that and why do we think that this particular um provider is the best to meet our specific needs so he was the one who was recommended by the state for anyone who falls into a disproportionality concern the state is recommending Dr Fergus to go to his sessions Department of Education correct so that's why the district went because they sent us a letter saying they said here here's your you need to go to this and then from there develop an action plan so our thought was well if everyone is going to this individual why not utilize him the presentation from what I was told by the administrators that went there were several principles from the district as well as others they thought it was fantastic to discuss it and to your point to your point about you know sending students out this is the idea of not we don't want to send them out we want to identify what difficulties they're having and making a teacher culturally responsive so it's understanding those differences in cultures so if you're asking as an intervention to go read with your kids and they're unable to what other interventions are you doing recommending so that we don't have that concern anymore that's what we're looking at and do we know of any other bbon County school districts who have had them present and work with them I don't know of Bergen County but I know other Bergen County school districts that have looked into who have provided or looking to provide training and diversity equity and inclusion thank you but not every school district has been cited for disproportionality thank you so much for that information that everyone has given um I'm a little disappointed that this is the first time that I'm hearing about this um I haven't missed any board meetings and I read all the emails that come through and I haven't seen anything on this so when I saw it on the agenda um I I quickly read the the gentleman's book as best I could um and um it sparked some concern I understand more with this conversation but I think if we would have had this conversation before this all happened I think that it would have been a little bit better so I'm not sure when the when the committee met how they met why the update wasn't given so forth and so on made it that way no I did not get there was not we at no meeting that I was at and we'll go back and watch the tapes did it say that we were sided [Music] um what meeting was that cided at I don't know what meeting that was CED I'll look for it but I know in the last two two weeks of updates they were on the updates the last two updates that were sent to every board member I was soring about the committee before oh sorry committee met in we met in July the committee correct we met in February and the update was um was email to all the committee members as well as um as well as that that we were not [Music] in believe it's February or February 28 I just want to be clear that this um this project started before I even got on the board 2023 Mr Knight can speak to it better probably than I can it started while he was the chair yeah I'm not blaming anyone for this happening like the city Bo I'm just saying that when I heard the committee update I think that we all try to give a good update when we give one and I didn't hear it and I'm sorry that I missed that I missed that that we were cited for something very bad and now we have to pay tons of money well it's not really very bad an invest I want to be clear this is an investment in our children and education I do not believe that this is an expense um we had earlier we had a presentation given to us um earlier in the year uh on the graduation proficiency um among our 11th graders and there was a 15 Gap among our Hispanic student compared to our our other groups the need to uplift students and invest in students is Paramount and it's not an expense if Le an investment no but it should never happen in the first place everyone should always be treated equally from the Geto and they're to be AED from the way I was raised it doesn't matter what I don't care what anyone from any demographics any color every shape every form every fashion I was taught to love be kind and to give so that should have never happened in the first place thank you I hope you will support FL see you all tonight so so our district having Equity audit done prior to Dr krait's arrival here the equity audit was done by uh mon Clair State University it's maybe 10 pages in that report which pre predates Dr krait's coming here one of the points that was raised and identified was disproportionality this should I mean it it I got the equity audit we talked about the equity audit what all the money and time that we've been putting into the program the mtss tiered program is as a result of our Equity audit it was one of the things that they suggested so we've known for a while about disproportionality I mean we we secured an audit and and so I mean maybe it was before you came on the board but there was a document written and it identifies and it identifies like 10 different things and and we've been trying to chip away at each of the items um for me it's the cost which we have to spend certain monies it is an expense it's an expense but we're falling into an area that needs attention it's still money and still money that could have gone somewhere else if we didn't find us bced with this the statistic um I just question whether this particular it seems like the Department of Education is highly recommending this particular individual um I'm just not sure you know I'm going to have to rely on your expertise on this that there's nothing better out there for this money that would address our unique particular situation I understand that he's being recommended but like Diane acknowledged she we don't know if there's another District in beron county that has disproportionality with its Hispanic population on the SD so I don't know maybe he's a one siiz fits all um I would think our issue is unique and that we could find someone that has deep experience in in irns or is andr with Hispanic and what's happening in our district he seems to be kind of a you know well-known speaker out of recors who has own ideology and I don't see it connecting you know to to the Hispanic issue that we're uniquely facing so that that's my only concern um just to Tanya to your point the um the committee reports it's February 1st that Amy reported on it it's it's in the uh there's like six copies of the same report I don't know why in there um there's nothing from any years prior on Equity reports so that's the first one I can see in the drive um and then Dr if you Google him Dr Fergus from Ruckers it comes up School of Arts and Sciences it's specifically mentions specific focus on black and Latino academic and social engagement outcomes dis disproportionality and special education and suspens suspensions and school climate conditions so he definitely focuses on the community that you're talking about uh somebody else had a question or comment okay could you share some good news on Athletics sure great thank you so have update on the cross make sure your mic's on so people at home can you hear you I do have an update Dr CR on The Voice across country meet today day W the lead championships we also want to wish new girls varsity tennis team best of luck they uh going into round two of the state tournament for Wayne Hills tomorrow um also want to give a shout out to the Middle School cross country team we don't often talk about their middle school teams um but they have had an outstanding season so far thanks to the dedication and effort from all athletes their most recently eight girls and three boys placed the top 10 overall way to go girls and boys uh out of seven competing schools uh with Zara Kiara and Maria sweeping the podium first second and third so great job the success is Testament to the team's hard work Andy training making this theal successful season yet beyond their athletic accomplishments the team has also showed remarkable sportsmanship supporting their teammates and Runners from other schools and involing the true competition as a former Runner myself that is the way to do it and I congratulate Coach Madison I believe school so way to go training this uh Team I also want to if you give a big round of applause to J Jaylen Bala for leading the state not the county but the state in receiving Ys this year it's a way to go U teams and I we do want to wish L Senator a speedy recovery as well he was injured at the game on Friday uh he was on Pace to break the school record in pass so push speed recovery and um see back thank you thank you for that I just like to let everyone know that the for Le High School Marching Band boosters um are announcing sale of tickets for the medlife stadium performance that our band is going to be uh in this Saturday on the 12 tickets are 37 bucks which pretty good deal uh it's for all day access from 9 to 11 and a portion of the proceeds are going to go to support the band So you you're interested in purchasing tickets you can do so by going support the band boosters gmail.com thank you anyone else okay may I have a motion to open the floor to the public motion motion call back second moral all in favor any opposed or extensions okay we will hear first from members of the public that are physically located in the cafetorium tonight then we will take questions and comments from those participating remotely everyone is limited to three minutes in which to make their statement for remote participants please let the raised hand button Mr rero will recognize each Community member in the order of raised hands please unmute your microphone then state your name and home address for the record and begin your comments please limit your comment to three minutes Mr gosin everybody good evening everybody Keith go uh 2185 L Mo and um I have a few things to bring up I know you brought up the meeting already but Andrew still wants me to do it I thought I was um so we're doing the CAG meeting October 16th um 7M 7M Flyers flyer will be up tomorrow Flyers growing up tomorrow Andrew so you'll be very happy you just took Andrew's question away um and then uh welcome to Monica I believe today was her first so we're looking forward to working with her um couple questions I guess for Dr Kravitz I believe we have two bcbas in town can you tell us how those bcbas like how many we have do we already short and stuff like that so that's one question and um I asked the last time I was here about Bus tracking I was wondering if there was an update on that that it yes yes that's all my question Dr PR before you answer just want to get clarification on the next meeting down so yeah that's our fault it's the 16th but the 17th is like a zombie it's not so October at 7M so so to answer the first question bcpa I don't own the number off the top of my head but I will shoot you an email about a couple hours um as far as the uh tracking so we're still we have the program we just haven't U Gone live with it yet but we are working on it because it's part of it's part of our whole um transfinder program that I mentioned at the last meeting so we're still working on some of the the distances but we should have it hopefully for a sample in the spring and then go from there and be fully fully implemented by U next year but we might sample it the end of this year thank you so just a name and address Catherine Conrad 1565 Anders I just want to give a little shout out to the curriculum of the professional development that you all are arguing over considering we're talking about a disportionate group of students I heard Hispanic problem hus spanic issue that's kind of why we need those sorts of professional development because we don't have a Hispanic problem we don't have a Hispanic issue we have a group of students that need help and so we should invest as Miss K has said in that but I'm really rightfully here because you've all received a new particularly for Mr KN I I am offended and I'm appalled you've all received it EXC me you just address I'm not addressing I'm actually to just read as a public record I'm not addressing anyone but I'm reading a letter to which you all have received is that fine that's not calling out I'm not addressing in one specific dear board members although I initially indicated I only included Dr pravit and the president of the board in my correspondence I believe it is very important to share the following with all of you for the good of our community I am appalled by Mr Knight's recent comments which he carelessly pinned which are now spreading across social media his remarks are the complete opposite of what we expect from anyone in an elected position the fact that he expressed indifference to the Bible being defiled or in his own words pissed on raises serious questions is this the sentiment shared for the rest of you is this the kind of rhetoric you find acceptable for a member of our board if a student have made such comments they would face severe consequences potentially even being expelled due to the nature of hate speech because it is hate speech this double standard is unacceptable and we must hold our elected officials to a higher standard of accountability and respect and I ask each of you to rebuke Mr Knight's commentary please re and please reiterate to him that hate speaks is not tolerated ever under any circumstances thank you we [Music] just members this is public comment you've all been on the board the public can speak they can say things they can comment to or about things board members say or post Etc um nothing was out of the ordinary um there was one word that was used but but in 2024 um that word probably isn't that offensive in some respects um but Madam chair Mr Knight can respond if he wants to so I just want to say um you know this the item that you're referring to um was part is a was a part of a private message um that has been taken completely out of context I would advise anyone who's concerned I'm not responding to her no no no no I'm not cutting you up ma'am um under the open public meetings act you as a up I'm juston ask um whether it was up or not you ConEd it by saying um you don't get a chance to go back and forth um you Ma your comments you ask your questions board members have a right to respond thank you all right so I I just want to once again the item that you're referring to um was a very small part of a private message that was sent to an individual who's upset with me because um I kicked her out of my group for um Asian bias essentially um so that's that's I would welcome anyone who's concerned about this to approach the person uh that gave you this and ask them to share the rest of the conversation with you because the conversation was actually me sticking up for Christians who were offended by the Olympics so once you see once uh if you once you see the entire conversation I I think it'll be clear uh what my sentiments were again I also don't think it's appropriate to share private messages with people when there's the expectation of privacy um but again I think I just like to close by saying if anyone's concerned about this you can absolutely reach out to me uh I will share the conversation with you and if you have a relationship with this other person I would encourage you uh to reach out to her and ask her to share the rest of the conversation instead of a two or three sentence portion of it thank you anyone else in the public have comments okay Mr rerro you're up male 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 Mel uh hi can you guys hear me yes cool so I'm looking at the five C topic and I'm Looking Over The Proposal that that cost $43,000 and I'm looking at anticipated outcomes so it reads participants will develop an equity literacy lens to help them identify and interact practices in at least one area curriculum discipline gifted advanced placement honors or special education academic intervention that leads to unequitable outcomes with this in mind I have a question how would this play out with let's say my case where my kids is special ed and he's in the class that still doesn't have a teacher since the beginning of the school year his class is mixed he has special Hispanic kids he has special Leed black kids he's has special ed Asian kids and so on there's a mix of kids over there so in this class what this gentleman proposes how would that play out would you I don't know would you take the special ed kids that are a certain type and give them extra to toor ring or let's say are you going to kneecap the advanced placement kid so they would be in an unequitable outcome situation compared to the special kids you know just a question so with with that in mind what I'm thinking is I don't think it's fair to parents like me that have kids in the district that still don't have a teacher in the classroom um to not be considered for uh just having like a regular teacher you know it's like and the district is looking to spend the money which almost matches the teacher's salary on classes like this that I'm not certain what they would actually bring for the kids I hope that the district will reconsider and potentially find another source of U uh curriculum that's cheaper and maybe in accordance with the state requirements rather than spending this much money uh as I said I I don't think it's going to help in particular any group of people given the fact that our biggest concern right now is not having teachers thank you thank you for your comment is is as uh mentioned before this is helping us to address the intervention and referral services specifically how we identify students um and looking at it from different lenses when we when looking at their outcomes the curriculum is um you know curriculum is is a guide of what our state what state standards we have to teach but making sure that children when they're referred uh or attempted to referred are recommended with different opportunities instead of just saying this is a one- siiz fit all fit all we are a diverse Community we want to make sure that all of our team members in our inrs procedures you our IRS teams are aware of the diverse Community the div diverse cultures all our children come out of that how you adapt and what you're looking for in helping all of our children succeed thank you jha 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 hey how are you Hi how are you um jha cion Santana 2465 camner um I have two two um questions actually one of them I would think with the program that you guys are speaking about you probably have a grant right that was given to you guys so it's not money that you're spending completely out of budget right I would think that's what's going on it's a grant that was um in order for you guys to to spend this um the other thing that I'm having a hard time um understanding is we really don't there's a teacher convention right how many teachers actually go to get um extra education you know I've worked always in the corporate world where everything has always been you know to make sure that we give people the tools that they need to be successful and anytime anything comes up in this District where we need to give something to a teacher to do better by their kids it is always an issue it's like people feel it's coming out of their pocket teachers need the tools they need to succeed they need to be given education it completely changes a teacher who was a teacher 40 or 50 years ago is not a teacher today with the amount of technology that they use the amount of different um you know situations that they're in whether you know kids you know kids are now you know with technology on their phone it's a different type of student you need to understand I mean even for me my own personal I remember sending a documentation about the alpha generation based on a study that my company did to a teacher that my son was having an issue when he was in sixth grade because I was like you're teaching old school you're not understanding this generation and you I don't understand why we're so against giving teachers the tools they need to be successful so I'll leave that I'm for the program I think that we need to and then I want to address the gentleman that actually spoke before I think it's horrible he doesn't have a teacher it is a very simple solution I set this up when I was at Univision many years ago we have top New Jersey colleges and universities that have education programs where teacher graduate from college why are we not talking to those universities and setting up a program so then you can come and apply and be a school teacher whether they do their internship here you know at Fort Le and they do something in order to get those credits I did that program when I worked in Univision for an entertainment industry and I also did it helped do it at NBC Universal I don't understand it is super easy to put into play you just have to have the conversations with the universities you're getting people who are graduating they're gonna have jobs right and you're getting people who actually are equipped in the sense because they're getting fresh knowledge and education that actually deals with the generation that's coming now corporate does it all the time it is it it is not the first time to do this why aren't we doing this and please don't let any board member that's running take my thing unless it's somebody that I'm supporting because I've been saying this for a long time it's an easy easy fix and I'll leave that at so thank you for your comment as far as the the classroom there is a substitute teacher in that classroom the teacher will be returning um I believe within a month so there is a substitute teacher and there is teaching going on in that particular classroom that's what I'm that's what's being shared with me as far as a teacher we have a in agreement with William Patterson University where our students are getting trained we have 40 students in our teaching Academy as they go through our system that they will gain credits in the teacher program at William Patterson I believe we have two or three student teachers from Fairy Dickinson Who coming online as well uh this year and we do work with Bary Dickinson we do contact with ruter we do contact with William Patterson St Peters we we are absolutely open to all the ideas and working with them reaching out to them there is a huge shortage of teachers if you just read about it everywhere I believe in the state it's over two or three thousand teachers um so we are trying we are highly competitive with our salaries as I mentioned one of the problems that we that currently exist is is when we are looking for leave Replacements so a teacher who's only going to be out for two or 3 months someone would rather get a full-time position somewhere so if they say yes I'll work in Fort Lee and they sign up for September and then let's say Cliffside Park offers them a job permanent they'll jump to that one right away and they only have you know just one month notice and they're done and then we're back at Ground Zero so that's very difficult um as we have more and more Le Replacements which are allowed by law so thank you a Sarah Kesha 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 hear me yes oh yes good evening uh my name is s Chia I'm at 484 Main Street forly New Jersey um a few issues that I wanted to raise is that I heard last time if I'm not sure though the fixing of the playground at public school number one um would take like a year um it should be like a month I need U Mr kravit to intervene not to take more than a month and I need like a an answer what he can do to make that happen number two um before you start the zoom meeting Mr roero if you can just remind us to raise our hands because I was there last time and and I thought I raised my hand and I didn't also I don't know if you can help um the voice comes muffled from the board members but the voice comes very clear from the parents when they talk here so I don't know if you there is something you can do or someone else can do but please try to fix it because it when the board members talk it's kind of muffled um as far as for I heard that Mr Knight someone is saying that he's being divisive um I have know Mr Mr Casey Knight and um as far as I know him he has never made any comments against any Latino Latinos or anyone else he's been nothing but um trying to unify people so I don't know where who is inspiring all of this whis uh Whispering against him now I have heard from parents it's another uh issue some parents um are saying that there are children that do not pertain to Fort Lee but they are going to high school and they're going to other schools we as taxpayers we want the forly children to come first or forly students to come first and we demand to have a five um to one one teacher and five children as far as for the other children we encourage everyone to um study in their districts I also heard that there is one child registered in two three schools so these issues have to be inspected and double check we don't want that to happen anymore another thing that I wanted to mention we do not want the picture day the ID yes we agree for every child to have their ID but then the picture day here and the picture day there we don't want that it's just too much the other thing um agendas and other topics must be given on the screens um on the zoom as well with description of them instead of just email and giving us the link if you could just give us bullet points um and then please highlight them in yellow I thank you very much for your attention and that's all I had to say say and not here Mr Kravitz please allow a moment till I get back to The Queeny so I can hear you thank you one moment and I'll take a pause reset my clock and just answer the question about so the playgrounds we are looking into the playgrounds we met with the PTA uh the school won PTA uh we have several quotes that we have suggested to them back with the principal so we will be determining our budget for the next week or two we were told it's it's about five weeks for delivery um we have to make sure that we are when we are purchasing a playground it is compliant with all of the state requirements for the age groups um so that's one of the things we have to be cognizant of that may be different than going to a Walmart and just buy the playground we have to actually make sure it's installed properly it's checked if there has to be a footing you know laid with with the concrete we're making sure everything is is um safe for our children that's our priority as far as pictures we do take pictures any parent is can have the option of opting out of any pictures um and that's on your Genesis screen when your children are registered or when you go every year we ask you to check those all that off as far as I catch everything residency residency so the board is very active with residency I know we discussed recently with our attorney new policies and procedures and regulations and making sure that the students are here um just for clarify we do have a residency officer who goes out and checks homes and makes sure that people are living there uh and we do the do that regularly for everyone who's registered so we are active if we do find someone that does not live here they come before the board there's a process that we follow and that's it any other concerns I appreciate they calling all the time thanks Earle 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 early hi I'm pearly tan um 332 Lincoln Avenue um I have three items on my list but first of all congratulations to the high school boys varsity team my son was very excited you know and huge accomplishment to them as well as the middle school girls um um cross country team as well so um which leads me to actually my first point because um the I think the f a teacher wanted me to email her about something thing you know with regards to cross country um well my son's um situation and I can't seem to find her email on the district website which I have emailed um I think Mr Kravitz and then the committee the communications Community before so there's no email addresses on the district website it's hard to contact the teachers um there's like no title so it's really hard to find that information so in terms of communication I'm unable to reach out so I I don't know if that's something that can be fixed ASAP I know some parents have also voiced the same concern not being able to find um teachers email addresses or contact information so that's the first thing um second thing is on the agenda I noticed for district translators there are no Chinese and Japanese translators um last school year there is so I'm just wondering what happened um knowing that we have a huge Chinese and Japanese community um in fortly and then the third item on my list is um the update on the uh proximity learning um which is you know that biot teer replacement I'm glad we found sort of a solution for that um so I guess my question is is the teacher are is are are the students going to be having online um classes for the rest of the year because because I also see that we're hiring a biology teacher that will start in December I don't know if that's the case so just wanted to get clarity on that and if they're going to be you know continuing with online I just wish there was some sort of um plan you know to have Equity between students because then you know there are kids that are just doing online and then obviously there are other kids who are lucky enough to have a teacher and they're doing you know in-person instruction so that's just um my comment thank you for your questions so as far as the translators the translators are the position is posted on our website as we get more of our teachers who are involved uh we keep adding them and we should be adding them regularly as far as the email my recommendation until we get our our website uh addressed was if you go on to your child's uh Genesis portal you can see there's an email link on every one of those and that can contact the teacher directly through that as far as proximity learning yes we have on the agenda this evening a teacher uh we hope within 60 days is their contractual obligation but if we can do it sooner or if they are released sooner they would start sooner um the plan is not for the entire year the plan is to bring in that teacher and there will be an overlap to make sure there's a uh Continuum I know that the proximity learning individual is matching the curriculum that we use and there have been constant checkin through from what I'm being told uh I should say check-ins by the principal as well as other administrators to make sure that there's learning and I've seen you know videos and photos and it seems to be that children are very enthralled by it so hopefully you know by the time we get our new teacher as the overlap we're hoping for no blips in the system thank you Andrew 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 Andrew Andrew you're muted I'm sorry about that can you hear me now yes yes okay great so my name is Andrew gin 26 Bridge Plaza North uh here in Fort Lee just want to give a warm welcome to the new director special services Monica um we're really excited to be working with her um as Keith mentioned earlier we have our our a meeting next week so we encourage everyone to please come we have a very very uh heavy agenda for that meeting so we look forward to seeing every everyone uh I have a question um uh The Fortress program which is 18 21 year old program I been seeing it's referred to as school 2 Annex sometimes I just curious why is that because of funding issues or has like ptas and stuff like that any any other questions Mr Gman okay the School Number Two Annex the reason why it is named currently at that is because it is an Annex for the school based on the preschool um so when we offer a preschool because we have to have areas for Disabilities students who are disabled School 2 is the the the most the largest number of preschool students so therefore it falls under a preschool so therefore it's called School number two Annex the 18 to 21 year old program sits in that school which is the annex of school 2 that makes sense so as an example if you're a a child Bound by a wheelchair School number two has in preschool a an elevator elevator accessible for students therefore if a child comes in and says I want to go to preschool who is disabled we can give them the opportunity to need their school too and at the same time we have that uh preschool program in the annex that makes any sense kind of what I'm saying they are the same program and the 18 to 21 program The Fortress the name of the Fortress was actually created by Miss Healey and Mr goldrich who are doing a fantastic job there I want to give him a shout out it's a fantastic program uh we did have an so and and they um they created the name and I believe so students helped and they have T-shirts and it's very cool so uh kudos to them for making it happen and great stuff and really great place yes thank you very much excellent excellent program thank you there are no more raised hands thank you may I have a motion to close the floor to the public motion K second Rino all in favor any opposed or exensions okay moving on to resolutions may I have a motion to approve items one B ask agenda item can I ask that now or is it too late ask yeah is it for one B through um [Music] it's it's okay so we'll talk about it when we get to the F thank you all right so a motion to approve items 1B through walk-in resolutions 6B and 7 motion motion morale second Rino roll call please M marang yes M Kat yes M Curry hand up there going yeah Miss Curry yes Mr n yes Miss kotang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morel yes Mr Rino yes and Miss rer yes I have a motion to approve items 1C through 7c motion second motion Kat second Morel roll call please Miss V Kang yes Miss colbat yes Miss Curry yes Mr Knight yes Miss kotang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morel yes Mr Rino yes but Iain on M rer yes noted thank you okay may I have a motion to approve items onef through 177f and then miss kotang will ask her question wait wait until they motion on second please motion okay motion second Morel question Miss yeah on S F we currently have um three buses that we contract three lines that we contract out to this um to this company and on the contract um it shows that we are renting 354 ceders I understand that we only have less than 10 kids at each of these schools that we're sending kids to um if you can verify that true I've been told that that's the case um why do we need a 54 C I don't have the answer to that I don't know I will get you an answer as soon as we can can we table that for tonight until we have some clarity it was hard to read because the it was sideways so it's very difficult to follow along can I just ask I guess Dr kraits um I looking at 7f the effective period essentially is retroactive to September 1 24 through June 325 so presumptively this service is already in effect correct um tabling it subject to I guess representation based upon your knowledge that it won't interfere with any services to current students that may not be a problem um and then perhaps you can talk to the vendor as to whether there are smaller Vehicles available and if so if the price will guess change accordingly um it appears Northern Region Education Services Commission there likely exempt public bidding and or an approved vendor for the service in someone to table someone get school tomorrow right so I I don't know the answer to the question and that's why we're trying to figure out if that affects our services that's what I leaned over and asked Mr STS right now I don't know the motion is more of a uh motion is more of a ceremonious motion to approve me now um this motion is more of a ceremon motion for the services we will verify if you can consolidate the busing thank you okay I know you just started but why would we have been presented with the contract before we you know jumped in and and committed ourselves to these larger buses well I don't expect you here I do this in the springtime this ceremonious motion and then get the bus in so you wouldn't have the bigger size bus that's what I would try to do great okay look forward to okay so we have a motion to tr a motion from Miss Kath and a second by Miss Morel I believe it was are weing that so I'm trying to get in contact with the the busing uh coordinator right now so again I'll just say I mean presumptively again since this goes back to September by taking no action presumably the administration will continue utilizing the good or the service so there shouldn't be any disruption um just with as long as the board understands that if you see this bus driving up the street tomorrow you don't think that table and get stopped the service that's all if you're okay with that just table it and come back next month so 1f through 6f if it's any objection whoever moved in second are you okay amending the motion to remove seven I'm fine with removing seven app tbling it well remove it you don't have to table it if you want to formally table it then you need a separate motion and roll call whatever so Dr crab you okay with drawing that recommendation for this for tonight that's fine okay so amend the motion so that one removed you'll revisit later on okay so the motion yeah the motion the motion that you uh made was for 1f through 6f and then 8f through 17f okay so roll call please M by K M K yes M Curry yes Mr Knight yes Miss kotang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes Mr robino yes m r yes may I have a motion to approve items 1 p through 19 p okay second motion Morel second Kath roll call please M Bar Kang yes M K yes Miss Curry yes M yes M kotang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morell yes Mr Rino yes M rord yes may I have a motion to approve item one p motion second motion kobat second Morel roll call please m v canning V K I'm sorry I apologize I was trying to rush it m m Kath yes Miss Curry yes Mr Knight yes Miss kotang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morell yes Mr Rino yeah M RoR yes okay um so I know old business we've been beating this dead horse goals I know I sent the email after the last meeting with the ones everyone had sent me I did not hear any responses other than you could see the email that I sent so um does anyone have anything to chime in about that I mean we need to get these going at some point because that's how we evaluate Dr pravit so we need goals at some point um this is our only October meeting are we making a commitment that November meeting is when we are talking about it or I mean have of you are standing and packed up and ready to go so I'm to do it right now okay anyone everyone ready to do it now or do we want to do at the next meeting all right can I just ask I actually did PR two things so there was one page that had board goals and then District goals so that's the stuff that Dr priv handed out the last meeting the email that I sent was no no no that was suggestions I presented I I went back because I know there was some confusion about goals so I presented board goals and District goals of that were actually since 2009 and 18 and I thought that they could be appropriate as well so I said why don't we just use those goals to make them appropriate so okay so that was add that was the original list that I gave you like the menu items that Matt Le has suggested the one that's in your left hand of the 17 is there a reason that we should just have a quick discussion and approve them or you whatever you guys want I know Mr Knight sends separate goals Miss Byers Kang sent separate goals so I just want a conversation about it I don't want to make a unilateral decision go ahead no I mean disproportionality is number two um the long range facilities is number one and Community engagement and leveraging District technology I think that those are like three really solid good timely goals so I don't know what we need to do those board goals the three board goals are successfully negotiate and sign successor agreements with our portly Education Association work collaboratively with the District administration to develop a comprehensive fiveyear strategic plan for the district with Milestones identified at 1 three and 5year intervals and plan and participate in a board retreat to strengthen board skills and processes so I mean if it takes a motion I'm happy to make a motion that we approve these I also do think that we should add P some Communication in there I also ironic stand um I think we should also we should uh add Communication in there as as one of our our goals as well it's District it's important to come up but how do you like what kind of more specific on communication exactly so that's what I highlighted here on the that was sent it was it just says communication point I think we should flush out more more thoughtful conversation around this so that we can all feel comfortable on what thats like okay all right so we can work on communication and we can work on specifying that members of the administration because I know I know Amy had suggested also that among board um like a kind of like a buddy or a mentor for new board members when they come on because some people are completely you know don't find anything in the drive or anything like that when they come on so that could even fall under communication um so do you want okay so we'll add communication to the list get more specific in that and for the November meeting have them set and I'll distribute all of that to all of you I okay anyone else I would suggest maybe instead of the board retreat um replacing that with just a more of a focus towards getting our M scores up I think that's I'd like to come up with a plan to make that happen to me that that would be more important to me than a board retreat is I think suggesting a board goal and that could be added as a district go correct so really we're going to kick to another meeting well I mean unless you want to come up with wording on communication right now communication between and among Boe members and the administration okay including is that what you mean Doug establishing a new member bu program okay in my mind it's also the the building principal communication to parents so more than just us and the public and us and um and and and the district admin but also at the level with the building could be administrat the district how quickly are we going to respond I think that you know those are things that we should be putting out there so that U parents understand what the expectation is so just I mean generally speaking governance 101 um for school board members you are I'll say the what so to speak in the administrations to have and so to the extent that you want to establish a goal which to a board goal to enhance communication buying between yourselves as board members from a governance standpoint buying between you and the administration again governance and then and by extension with the broader Community um that level becomes more of a district and superintendent goal to kind of flush out so I think it's valid to do but just managing expectations you wouldn't be doing it for um that would fall within the responsibility of Dr krabit and his team but could a district goal be right now number three is leverage District technology and other appropriate resources to increase Community engagement couldn't we expand that to increase Community comma parent comma principal Etc engagement so that that's a district goal that we expect that the administration is going to increase I heard Mr n think a stakeholder so strike principle and put stakeholder I think you got a get a home run there right and and actually one of things that was on the agenda this evening was a social media club which we talked about in the Public Relations Committee that's part of that so each each building will be working with some students to work on their websites and and getting the message out using multiple platforms to to focus on that communication okay is everyone okay with everything you sure okay I just have one last comment to respond to um Mr C um your suggestion ofing genis to contact teachers So within Genesis I I couldn't find it had to show me how to find it it's under grade book and under grade book you have the email of the teacher so in in my kid's case um all the teachers that they have in in the Middle School however your child's teacher is not on this list for example they in an after school club um which is why I had to look up the contact initially um there's no way to get that contact and yes I can call the school to get it but we have many parents in our district who do not speak English so to have access for them readily available on a website is Paramount can't you change the language on the website so yes you can change the language on the website I know I'm talk email just email you know for them to email the kids so there are some pictures it has to be cleaned up and as we're working at all of that that's why in each building we're trying to create the social media Club um to help assist with that it's a lot of for for a districtwide initiative to make sure that everything's being operated why did it break I don't know don't know I don't have an answer for that can we fix it within the next week or so because this is when we talking about communication we can't parents can't even email their teachers without going into Genesis or calling a building it is a priority I believe right on we had these information available were taken off and and replaced with nothing so we I will will make it a priority tomorrow to to act on this the request yeah I think we always have the email addresses on on the website I thought they were always there yeah take there when a parent said to me I didn't respond you know it's enough email is enough but then then I realized when I went for email went there okay is there any new business besides that I'd like so um we keep talking about the teacher shortage and I think um can you just talk into the mic so people at home can hear you we teacher and I think one of the parents had a really great idea about developing relationships and reports with some of the teaching colleges and stuff we do that in my business when we're replacing teachers elsewhere that's a great idea um also wanted to mention you know the there is a grow your own program that the teacher assciation I believe has where they identify children at a very young age like five fifth or sixth grade they identify children that could potentially be uh good leaders and good potential teachers in the future and they put them in clubs and they send them and this is all like a a structured thing that we can subscribe to uh but you know the send them out to uh to teach younger kids there's a lot of programs that teach them about teaching about the benefits of teaching and about just community service in general and then as these kids get older I think it would be possible for us to transition them into um maybe teaching roles you know maybe we could um you know even help Finance their education in some way but I think this could be a a good way of addressing the teacher shortage so I just wanted to bring that up as something that we can potentially talk about we do have the future teachers of America we do have future teachers of America who go to the individual class the the buildings and like I said before we have about 40 students in our teacher prep program with William Patterson so we do already have we have 40 teachers 40 students in that teachers program that we help fin successful got teachers from well no this this is year two year two or three I think where we're at I started when I got here um so the dean actually was was here for those of you who remember the dean of of the uh of the college came William patteron University was very active and and happy that this was their first Venture into that program um so it has grown from I think 10 to now 40 they're in their sophomore junior year they get college credit that we're paying for so they will graduate from for Fort me high school with approximately 30 to 50 credits somewhere depending on how we figured that out and then they can go right in to William Patterson they will work with us for acceptance and what our biggest which we were looking forward to is once they leave here they can actually be substitutes so if they're commuter students to William Patterson they can actually just stay here commute and if they get lucky enough to have one or two days of school and the rest we'd like to hire them I have a motion to adjourn motion motion Rabino second kth all in favor any opposed want to stay longer okay thank you for coming