##VIDEO ID:H_aWTQHt238## for being a few minutes late um I want to begin with a short board president's report uh tomorrow marks the 23rd anniversary of the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center bomb at this time I'd like to ask for a moment of silence for the victims of uh these horrific attacks okay thank you um I'd also um like to thank the board of education for signing up for our back to school nights I just want to let you know that I will be sending you a reminder a few days before you are supposed to uh be at the schools and there will be a board table set up at each location so I just wanted you all to know that um and lastly I was hoping with the beginning of school um that the board would agree to addressing school colors for our regular meeting this month is that okay with everyone we show we'll show our smartan spirit so um please wear the red or blue to the regular meeting and that concludes my board president's report we will now move on to the superintendence report okay thank you Paramus good evening everyone in the audience and online it's uh it's ni to see everyone we have had a wonderful opening to school this year we uh I can't tell you how wonderful the first two days were with staff it was so wonderful to see them back working so hard we had a number of orientation programs and professional development and it was a an energized environment in all of our schools so it was great and then of course on Thursday the fth we welcomed our students back and um to see the students with their excitement and of course a little bit of fear uh I helped a number of students open up their lockers at Tois and that was pure joy for me just so happened to h i just so happened to be there during home room and uh was happy to pitch in and teach the right left right rhythm of opening up a locker and uh so it was it was great and I just want to thank all of our staff from every Department who worked so hard to get our schools ready and our buses ready and our routes ready and our teachers who decorated their classrooms and and administrators and all the things that went into making students feel so welcome when they came into our schools on Thursday it really was wonderful to see and I just want everyone to know how thankful I am to have the team that we have um I want parents to be reminded that our back to school nights are starting as Mrs pal pois just mentioned one amasa will be having their open house tomorrow evening followed by otes on Thursday night next week Wayside will'll have two open houses both on the 16th and then again on the 17th uh the 16th is preschool through grade one and the 17th is grades 2 through four and the high school will have theirs on uh the 19th at 6:30 p.m. and then there are two more after that but they're after the next meeting so I'll remind everybody at that meeting the dates of the of the ones that are left okay so we encourage you to please come out to back to school night and our open houses there are so many resources available to families and connections we will help you with any struggles you may be having with schedules or Genesis Parent Portal or signing up on the lunch forms any support you need our staff is here to help you and it's a wonderful way to begin the partnership with families and school to make sure this is a wonderful year for our students so I highly encourage families to come out to those nights okay and I have one final item I'd like to address this evening after the football game on Friday night I was informed that a photograph circulated on social media which showed a presidential election Banner displaying the words Trump 2024 hung on our bleachers in front of our student section principal kazuba and I were made aware of this over the weekend and began working on it right away in addition to sending a letter to the school Community which I'm sure you have seen by now Mrs kazuba also made a special announcement to the student body yesterday morning after that the OTS Administration met with specific students and spoke with a number of parents who had contacted us to voice their concerns through all of this we consulted with our school board attorney Mr Taylor students were informed they cannot affix political banners to school property although students are entitled to their first amendment rights a public public school districts such as ours must remain neutral students were cautioned to be thoughtful in the way they exercise their freedom of speech in school in the school environment students are held to the student code of conduct any events that violate the student code of conduct or could be construed as harassment intimidation and bullying will need to be investigated as such so I encourage students to although you have the right to express your first amendment right do so carefully and thoughtfully as we move forward I ask that our Stu I ask our students to demonstrate the characteristics we expect of our Spartans I ask the entire Community to remember that although we may have opposing viewpoints We Are All One Spartan Community I ask the entire School Community to use civility when speaking with each other to students and on social media I ask the school Community to join us in educating our students on how to engage in political discourse so they may grow into informed citizens I ask you to help us as we teach them how to do so respectfully and finally I ask as always that you partner with us to make this a positive and productive school year for our SPS thank you this concludes my report thank you madam president if I may just add on to superintendent welden's uh comments I want to thank her and her Administration for uh working diligently over the past several days um to uh review research and respond to this issue um I just want to make it very clear to the board and the public that the board does have existing policies that are in accordance with state and federal law regarding freedom of speech uh students staff Etc May wear buttons and articles of clothing and things of that nature expressing certain viewpoints uh so long as they don't disrupt the orderly operation of the schools um however public property has been interpreted as a limited public form um and so students staff members of the public do not have the right to AIX or post uh items and material and Banners To public property so just want to make that very clear with respect to this board of educations respect um and compliance with state and federal law but also its right and obligation uh to uh have certain limits and controls on certain uh uh Speech whether it's verbal and or symbolic thank you right thank you both very much um May I just um I just in my memory from I feel like four years ago was probably the last time we faced this I believe I believed then that staff was not allowed to wear that we had a policy against staff wearing you just said staff can wear buttons or shirts or you know is that what I heard or is it not what I heard I speak in a very general context so like for instance staff can wear Union buttons um so that's what that's speech as well so that's been interpreted um staff cannot engage in electioneering and politics on school ground I just wanted to make that thank you for May I just mention one other thing Caitlyn is on just so you're aware in case and Jeff you're aware um Miss is on thank you for letting me know I thank you Miss Welden for your report and I thank you Mr Taylor for being here my pleasure um to give us some legal advice thank you U okay with that we will go on to the school business administrator's report Mr Hastings thank you madam president um I guess I'll take the opportunity to Echo the president's and the superintendent's comments about a great opening for the school year uh I want to thank the custodial maintenance grounds it and security staff for all the hard work they put in to make the buildings ready to receive our staff and students um I Heard as late as this morning from from the principal who was talking about how excited the students were uh to go out and run on one of our new playgrounds that were installed over the summer so that was very encouraging as well transportation is also off to a good start um we're transporting students in the district from uh three and four year olds all the way up to 12th graders uh we also have out of District runs and Vocational runs that take our students to uh places outside of Ocean Township uh we've been looking at ways of making our transportation department more efficient uh based on working with the arrival times the dismissal times of the various schools uh that we pick up and drop off to both within the district and outside of the district uh so that's been a bit of a challenge uh parting of that evaluation uh includes looking at our stops and where the buses are stopping along their routes uh there's been a effort to move to more quter stops than necessarily door to-door stops um that again helps us with the timing of the buses and moving the buses uh off their routes and back to other buildings for new pickups um that has however created some calls from concerned parents uh who uh may not have been aware that their stop has moved from in front of their homes uh to a corner that's that's nearby uh we're working with each of those uh concerned parents uh to talk about their situations and to see if adjustments are necess necessary um to the stops that currently are are in place and looking at balancing those requests against the impact on changing those routes so uh again overall I think it's been a very positive opening for us including Transportation there's been a few hiccups along the way and we'll continue to address those as as they come and get those resolved great thank you for your update as well Mr Hastings um at this time we will take public comment on agenda items only is there anyone in the room okay Miss Conway can you hear me yes Madam President we have a commenter um named Shannon but she must State her full name um before commenting okay you want to give her we'll give her a minute please go ahead hi my name is Shannon abello hi hi Mrs abello M um I I'm a parent to um two kids in the district I live in in uh in mamasa and um one of my children was part of um the photographs that were circulating around um one was taken privately and shared privately um it got around I guess you know that's how social media is I understand that um what's just upsetting though is that those particular photos that she had were shared in a um private chat group that were uh PTA parents um and incidentally the next day those were the same exact photos that were shared semi publicly um on a Facebook page all has been taken down I've spoken to miss kazuba about it um I respect the policies I respect people's privacy um I just want to make you aware that these are people that are in charge and I'm not naming any names I want to keep this as peaceful as possible because I think that that is the goal for everybody um but through out this discovery process um over the last couple of days with people sharing things to me um I've sort of uncovered some disturbing things that um I feel are inappropriate in terms of some of what some of the teachers are doing um one of them I heard from a student in the Middle School um and again I'm not going to name any names but there is a teacher at least one that is showing um one political party's poster and when I asked do they have the other one no and they said you know like that's not okay originally they thought that it was okay because of the nature of the class that it was in but I said I think that shows favoritism and I don't believe that that's okay and I don't believe that that is um according to the policy from what I uncovered um with my discussion with um Miss kazuba yesterday and in addition to that um which really is more alarming is that there are um a couple of teachers and I think staff members I'm not sure exactly who is who but they are within the school system they're not parents I believe that they do work for the um Board of Ed in some capacity and it seems I do have proof again I'm not naming any names I can provide these to miss Welden because I do believe that it should be addressed and I'm not trying to incite anything I just want to make parents aware that this is happening but they're trying to um sign kids who were approaching 18 or are 18 um to sign up to vote within school time and that's something that they do when like when you get your license you register to vote then and you can assign your political party and what's even most alarming is that when I did my own research of where like the the signs that were shared amongst these um individuals um it's a very one-sided party that is apparently being shown to the children and again I just don't think it's something that is appropriate for school I think it's also against school policy and I'm here more to speak to parents who are not aware that this might be going on to speak to their children and ask their children if they've been approached so that they can have those conversations with their children because we love our teachers we're so happy that we have them in such a great Community but it's not really the teachers rights to influence our children one way or another it is the parents right to influence them in or or guide them I should say um in that respect so thank you all for your service and allowing me the opportunity to speak thank you Miss Abella for your comments um I do appreciate them and I do encourage you to reach out to your principal as well as um superintendent Welden is there may I just say one more thing and I forgot I I did leave out um I when I did speak to miss kazuba because the the original um reason why I was speaking to her and this all got started was because of those photos and I felt that there was some aspect of cyber bullying she encouraged me because it wasn't a student and my daughter was safe within the school system it was um Outsider completely from the school I don't even believe she's in the district um but she encouraged me to go to the police department which I did and they encouraged me to alert you to this because they didn't feel that it was right as well and it unlawful I guess because of where they're coming from so I just wanted to sort of include that so that you understood exactly where I was coming from because again I'm not trying to incite anything I want this to be peaceful but I I believe in what is right and just and um that's why I'm here so again thank you thank you thank you very much Miss Conway is there anyone else no Madame President there are no further comments okay thank you with that we will move on to the action items Mr McCarthy move to approve item 7.1 and 7.2 do I have a second second any discussion on those no okay Mr H says to approve 7.1 and 7.2 Mr Dalton yes Mrs obain Mrs Gilman yes M McCarthy yes Mr mcover yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein uh yes uh Mrs paramas yes motions carried thank you Personnel Miss McGovern yes I'd like to move to approve items 8.1 through 8.11 May I have a second second for all items 8.1 through 8.11 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mr mcgoverin yes del rico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs palamas yes thank you motion C thank you m McGovern we will now move on to financial management and Resource Services Mr Weinstein um thank you madam president um like to move for approval uh items 9.1 9.2 and then we'll have discussion 9.3 to 9.8 second I goes [Music] to is there any discussion on 9.1 or 9.2 that there's none Mr Hastings Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dan yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs McGovern yes Mr Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes M Paramus yes Jeff is there anything you like to tell us about 9.3 to 9.8 anything you want to bring up yes I'd just like to acknowledge the donations listed 96 uh 97 uh we have donations from the turning point and donations from uh Netflix and senator vingo pal civic association of school supplies um and then also the Wayside PTA uh is making a donation as well of $ 6622 to be directed towards playground equipment uh so would just like to acknowledge those folks ask question M mcover um I just wanted to know is there anything that's changed in the Oprah act like is there anything new where it's just renewing the mammoth County shared service right so the mammoth County shared services agreement was a five-year agreement that is up for Renewal this year and it's really a document retention program a scanning program okay that the district uses to um out of paper records and make them digital thank you Mr McCarthy the um allocation of additional state aid um for $100,000 the stipulation that just has to be used for mental health purposes that's that's it that's correct so last year we received additional funding when the state approved their final budget in June uh and this year again we received $100,000 uh and that is directed towards student mental health programs so that's sort of a broad term that um I don't know if the superintendent wants to comment but we talked about those things in the past and continue to support those mental Wellness of the whole child we work with the principles on the best programming to put in place using that money knowing that it's one year a onee use understood uh I know you had your hand up that was my question okay wonderful Mr Taro I just have a question on a statement about the 100,000 this is in addition to the AI um computer programming that we were talking about for Mel Hall that was a yes from the New York yes we received as was saying last year after a year ago we also received funding which we purchased different things that's one of the things that we purchased that you're speaking of right now now this is new funding for additional things has that program been rolled out yet it's in it is being rolled out yes okay and my comment is that I hope that we can address inperson assemblies for the students and you know look at what the increase and the hibs um the complaints the investigations anti-bullying social media uh usage and abuse and the racial tensions all the hip stuff that we were you know talking about in a couple meetings ago thank you okay thank you is there any anyone else okay we will now move on to instruction education and Student Activities Mrs Gilman yes president Paramus move to approve items 10. 1 to 10.4 including our professional development and field trips and our affiliation with Kane University can we have a second is there a second second was there a and maybe this was mentioned when I was uh not president of executive session because I came late but was there an attachment for the school field trips or is that am I missing is it just online that it's not yeah it's there it's there okay not on mine they're on there yeah if you want to look at mine welome um in the meantime I'll take m t Rico I just have a question about the school field trips um what would the kids be doing at the shop rate for 32 visits I can answer that's a good question so in some cases they are purchasing uh supplies for their course program in their life skills program in the classroom different groups go so I'm not looking at the sheet right in front of me right now other students go there to learn job skills as well so so it's not the same kids every week no it is it is are there two two events on there or just one it's the MD class there's like class is 11 and 12 I guess it's each week for go shopping they they run a store that sells uh breakfast items coffee to the staff and shop every week and prepare budget go shopping you know it's part of their learning that's why they go every week so they have fresh ingredients for the different program projects that they do thank you you're welcome anyone else have any more questions okay this is items 101 through 104 Mr doton yes Mrs Dam yes M Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mr mcgoverin yes Mr Tarico yes Mr wein um yes to all except for 10.3 I'll recuse myself do my affiliation with mouth University thank you and M pus yes items carry thank you m Gilman negotiations M McGovern yes so I just wanted to update now we can um speak freely about negotiations um so as as of our last update that we had an executive session a couple of weeks ago um where you know that we have we had settled on agreement with the TOA in June the end of June but the TOA was going to wait till they got back into session with their staff to speak to them to roll out the contract what had what had changed to their staff and so that they could have a vote um we were well I wasn't the district was notified um late Friday or at some point um to let us know that they did ratify this Con this um contract um we weren't sure when the ratification was going to take place so originally this is on for a discussion um my personal opinion is that being that it's on for discussion that we possibly should if we can or I would like to move this if we can if we're comfortable doing that um since it was you know discussed it was ratified it was um they did it so quickly they start you know they had they started their classes um we do have retr checks that will need to go out and stuff like that so um I'm asking to move it or I make a motion to move this item to vote on it tonight um I don't know if I'll have a second or if people want to do that but um I do make a motion to move it second second okay are we in favor is there any discussion around it or anything Mr Hastings or Miss Wen feel they need to add or Mr McCarthy or Miss Dam from being on the committee need to add okay I will just say that I I'm very happy that uh the toea was able to get together so quickly um and ratify and you know I I want to thank the board committee and the TOA for their work coming to to this contract and I too would like to also offer my my thanks to the um TOA as well as our Board of Education who worked on negotiations I know both of you work very hard on this we appreciate the time and effort on both on both sides so thank you both very much and if I can just if I can just say that um I feel like this was a quite a new committee um you know I think perhaps Jeff and I and a couple TOA were the only people that have been through a negotiation in that that respect at that table um in the past so there was some learning um Michael Gross really helped us a lot our attorney um and I do feel like um we have learned and I think taken notes on both sides maybe about some strategies to make it a little bit not that nothing was bad but just you know make it more efficient and stuff for um going forward the next um time so I do thank the TOA and and their your entire um team as well and just think that you know our staff are you know thank you and that's it all right so I guess okay we have a motion to move item 11.1 uh Mr Dalton yes Mr D yes Gilman ruz mcarthy yes movern yes Mr T Rico yes Mr Weinstein I recuse myself pus yes motion carries thank you very much okay we will now move on to policy Mrs gilin yes Madam president um 12.1 introduces the first reading of revised new or abolished policies uh if board members would take a look or read them carefully we will vote at our next meeting um some having been abolished like 2480 and others revised by Strauss Esme and if I could just add that this is part of the review that the board has asked us to do of policies that were perhaps at one point uh not completely updated uh some of them our version was from 1990 and Strauss smme put out a version in 1992 and we as a district may not have updated it at that point so so we are now looking at those 1992 versions and implementing them but these are not new alerts from St sesme this is part of the board's initiative to review policies that were not reviewed before anyone have any questions in regards to these policies no questions okay we will move on to public relations Mr Weinstein um yes let's uh have a discussion around the sponsorship program Jeff thanks for putting all this together Mr I'm sorry I can't take any credit for that was folks in the business office uh Miss Boomer and others that uh put this together and put in the Yen's effort to send out MERS and feelers and and follow up on responses and and get these responses back we're very happy that we have these um uh businesses in in the township uh who are looking to support uh our staff and our students uh in our district and um uh again we'll continue to try and move this program forward look at ways of growing the program uh and uh make it even more successful I just want to ask one question is how how does this compare to where we were last year uh it's about the same so I think we had one drop off and we've had uh um one come on anyone else okay um at this time I'd like to ask the board if there is any old business McGovern um I just wanted to say I'm sorry I haven't sent it out yet I will be sending an email about school boards um just to see who would like to we would like to do a a team dinner um for anyone that can do it on Tuesday night um I will send an email out so I can make a reservation this week before all that okay thank you anyone else have any old business Mr Weinstein I'm just wondering how the um cell phone policy was going in the high school for the first couple of days want to jinx it so far so good it's going so far so good it actually is going well but you don't don't tell teenagers are doing well at some they come back at you so I mean we you know a few days of school so far everyone has been wonderful in all schools intermediate school as well um there's a noticeable difference in the way students are behaving and it's wonderful to see great super great to hear okay is there oh sorry I didn't realize there was another question is there another question okay Mr okay Miss tarica I just want to know how the bathroom situation is in the high school has that gotten any better with the cell phones not not being able I have not heard of a complaint in this the start of this school year so is my understanding that I believe towards the end of last year that had already gotten better but I have not heard any information this year in the first few days of school about any bathroom issues did you want to say I did I just wanted to make a point if if I may to the Board of Education uh that voter registration is an initiative by the New Jersey Department of Education and I want you to know that they put out a broadc broadcast app manually to all school districts asking us to encourage students aging up to 18 to become to to exercise their civic duty and register to vote so just just for clarification that is an initiative uh that we do participate in um we partner with the League of Women Voters to assist us but the New Jersey Department of Education asks all school districts to help their soon to be 18-year-old uh students register to vote okay thank you for that clarification Mr how does that manifest itself is it like in the history classes or is it any class and we bring the students that are of that age together to an assem you know to a to a gathering space cafeteria I believe or Auditorium they do it I would have to go over with Mrs kazuba exactly the way she's implementing it at this moment in time uh because I'm not present for it however we we do it and the New Jersey Department of Ed asks us to do it and we've been doing it for years nothing it's nothing new great and just put a record is done in a nonpartisan manner correct sorry thank you thank you for that all right um is there any new business from the board all right being that there is no new business I'd like to ask if there's anyone in the room that has any public comment hi good evening Alex Hayes o curst I actually had comment earlier after the first person spoke but you didn't see me stand up so I'm sorry apologize for that that's all right that's the beauty of public comment is that we can actually respond to what other people are saying too is I had a comment to somebody else's comment um I do want to just start off by saying um congratulations to the teachers union I've long said that we don't pay our staff enough so it's happy to see 3.5 3.6 3.7 whatever it is um teacher Union contract increase and um very happy to see the starting salary go up because ours was in my opinion a little embarrassingly low for some new grads to teach here so awesome job I know you guys want to get out before the debate tonight then again this Schoolboard doesn't meet past 9:00 pm hardly ever um I wanted to follow up a little bit about the school buses um I know Mr Hastings talked about a few hiccups a few lateness a couple of years ago we did have you know some school buses that came home two hours in advance uh normal hiccups seem fine I thought yesterday I saw one from wayside it was like an hour late so I was just wondering if if there's any been anything of concern like you know like super lateness because it was a prek class um bus um thank you Miss wden for bringing out the get out the vote initiative um perhaps parents in the high school don't know this but thank you for clarifying that and I'm super proud that our high school contributes and is a part of soon to be 18y old signing up to vote Mr Hastings last U meeting you talked about the scanner ID machines um at every High School I mean every school so it would be nice to know um if those are up and running and you know parents will probably need to know some of them are used to running into the school without their driver's license but from what I understand we're now going to need our driver's licenses to you know go into the school um so I'm wondering if those machines are up find it fascinating that nflix donated something so when you say school supplies I don't know if it's crayons and pens but I'd love to know what Netflix donated um and then my final comment and perhaps um the Schoolboard attorney wants to speak on it but um to my knowledge there is no expectation of privacy when you attend a high school football game with ballpark 200 800 people whatever it is um when I attended on Friday I fully expect to be in someone's picture my kids to be in someone's picture I took photos I posted photos myself of like the crowd and the football team so um if if he wants to clarify if any parents can have an expectation of privacy of their kids going to an outdoor High School football game I didn't think there was I think process that we should not respond because it's not our policy as a board I was I was say I can't give you legal advice um but I'll just note just for everyone's knowledge and edification whatever you put online is just just as a point of process we we've taken a policy as a board that we're not going to respond to questions from the public and that needs to be nonpartisan so it's my recommendation to the board that we do not respond to that question we can address as we have with everything else unless we're unless I'm to advised otherwise the board overturns that but just as a point of process I'd like to bring that up okay thank you sorry no problem um is there any other comments I tonight but I saw it on the agenda Alison Connelly president Township evotion Education Association I would love to just say I second Amy um because it's usually the easiest thing to say she says everything so perfectly and eloquently um and really was um amazing during this whole process but I do have a statement so bear with me um I was once told that negotiating a contract is an object lesson in compromise and I can safely say that that is true this Mo MOA represents a great deal of give and take on both sides and while there will always be more work to do I think we produced a document that we can all be proud of the membership of the TOA confirmed that last week with their resounding decision to ratify and the board affirmed it tonight with their vote I appreciate everyone who trust us to craft this document and who voted in support of it I would like to thank the board negotiations team Miss McGovern miss danam Mr MC as well as superint superintendent welen Mr Hastings and Mr Cass uh for their commitment to a respectful and collegial process while we definitely had our spicy moments uh there was one thing that we could always agree on and that's how to say stien uh I am most grul sorry I had to get it in there um I am most grateful however for my own team and especially for my co-chair these seven individuals worked with me for almost a year starting in July of 2023 and remain steadfast in their dedication to this process and to the needs of this Association until the mo MOA was signed I very happy to be starting the school year on such a positive note which was obviously reinforced here tonight by all of the great things that are happening all over and I hope we can maintain this energy in the weeks and months ahead so thank you all very very much thank you thank you for your comments uh Miss Conway is there anyone in the queue no Madame President there are no commenters all right thank you so much I'd like to ask the board to make a motion toour the meeting please have a second all right meeting is adjourned we'll see you in two week