##VIDEO ID:R7cJJ_8g1KE## I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you welcome to the South River Board of Education regular meeting of Thursday September 26 2024 in compliance with the open public meeting act chapter 231 laws of 1975 of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the South River Board of Education was provided in the following manner on January 17th 2024 the notice was delivered to the office of the South River Barrow Clerk and posted at the Board of Education administration building on January 17th 2024 the notice was faxed mailed to the following newspapers home News Tribune The Star Ledger and on January 17th 2024 the notice was posted at the South River burough clerk's office Mr Rosa would you please call the role Mr basac here Mr budson here Mrs Bush here Mrs burn here Mrs La here Mr neelon here Mrs Sadowski here Mrs Young Yao Miss y Yao has been excused Mrs urbanic here please forgive me I don't say your name correctly ISAC Calvin samadi Calvin Calin Calin samadi samii okay Calin sub all right have a call all right thank you uh at this time we do have our first item on the agenda and that would be the minutes and um Mr Rosa on the agenda today we have uh the regular meeting minutes for August 19th board members what is your pleasure on the minutes move the reading of the minutes into record motion by vice president neelson is there a second on that motion second second by m l uh if there any questions seeing none all in favor I thank you the motion passes next on the agenda Mr Rosa we have our use of facilities so on the agenda tonight we have um number 1606 through 1620 board members what is your pleasure on the use of facilities move to use of facilities in accordance with board policies we have a motion by vice president neelon is there a second for that second second by Miss sski uh seeing no questions or comments all in favor I thank you the use of facilities passes we have our financial report by Miss L thank you very much be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby certifies that it is in receipt of the financial report which indicates that no major account has been overexpanded and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year the finance committee recommends that the reports of the board secretary and the treasur of school monies for June 2024 be approved and I so move thank you we have a motion by m l and a second by vice president neelon all in favor thank you the financial report carries at this time we're going to turn the meeting over to our superintendent of schools for her monthly report Dr zercher please thank you Mrs orbanic um I'd like to begin with um the start of school we are off to a great start um at this point we have held all of our back to school nights and our parents have been in our schools um have met um with their children's teachers and really had an idea of what the school year will be like um our ELC is officially open our High School annex is also open our wait room our Middle School Courtyard and throughout the entire District you're going to see many updates for the new school year um so we're very excited to continue to share those with our students and our our families as they visit our schools um we're also uh beginning the school year with some anti-bullying initiatives and assemblies we just had one very successful assembly at the elementary school um and all of our other schools will be following up with um many activities um as well as assemblies but we definitely know that um just uh assembling and seeing presentations is not sufficient and our administrators or teachers are really working to embed several programs um for social emotional learning uh within the instructional program so that students are exposed to these Concepts throughout the school year our High School lunchroom clubs are up and and running um our high school had a club Fair where students had the opportunity to walk by tables with information about those clubs and really um have the opportunity to learn more about how they can get involved in our school a full list of our clubs and their descriptions are available on the high school's website um and we also are off to a good start when it comes to our help and access period this is available to students as needed in order to get support visit with a teacher um have some extra time to complete assignments and work um so we encourage our teachers um to really uh work with our students to make the most of of that time we've started something um new for the primary school and the ELC this year which is called our schoolwide virtual readouts um there's a ton of research that supports the concept of reading to children on a regular basis we know many of our parents do that with children at home um but we also feel it's important to have those opportunities here at school and so therefore at both the primary and the ELC and the elementary school sorry let me add that as well um what our principles are doing is they are doing a schoolwide read out they do so virtually um so students log on from their classroom but they can hear stories and they are read to um and can follow along with stories um all at the same time therefore sharing a story together but also being exposed to to literature and to and to those readouts um so that's exciting for this year as well and our students seem to really enjoy that they've already had several of those read out um throughout the year um so we're excited about those there are also several reports from each of our departments included in my monthly superintendent reports and I want to take the opportunity to remind our community that the superintendent reports and all of those monthly reports from our departments are included and uploaded to our website thank you um right after the board meeting so please be sure um if you can't attend a board meeting or you don't have the opportunity to um to watch the video please uh go to our district website pull up the superintendent reports found on the superintendent page and you'll have some good access to the latest information from all of our departments the second part of my report tonight we are devoting to a presentation um this is the district data presentation we had part one last month this will be part two and it will be presented by our assistant superintendent Dr Joseph Masano this presentation will also be posted after tonight for parents to view um at their convenience welcome hello doesn't so um as Dr Zer mentioned part two in August we did now I come John wait wait didn't he just say he had it all under control right so do I you sing first no yeah that's an easy one all right so anyway um part one you had in August was the NJ GPA AP data and then uh um uh you also had the access data presented by Mrs cologne this is the second part of this is the uh New Jersey student learning assessment data I did combine some things in there because there was some other data analysis that I did um conduct and it is typically uh comprehensive at this point so I'm just going to go through some slides for you um as Dr zercher mentioned this will be loaded onto the district website as of tomorrow so any of the data that is really really really small on that screen you'll be able to see and blow up um on your computer screen for any piece of um um demographic data or U program data so as always I put a um slide on the presentation that outlines what the New Jersey student learning assessments are there are three tests that we evaluate uh one is English language arts one is mathematics one is in science they're given to our students um based on grade level mathematics test is actually based on their um grade three through eight course and then at the high school level it's based on their course not their grade So in theory we do have freshmen to take the geometry exam we have sophomores to take the algebra 2 exam so there are some skewed data here and we don't have you know like 32 sophomores it's just the students that are taking the geometry exam so overall summary by school I like to go through that we'll do English language arts first then we'll do the math and then we'll go through the science um this is the number of students that scored in particular bands and we did it as a level one and two your level three ISO approaching expectations and some of the data that we actually have internally not only has us approaching the expectations but we actually have um lists of students that we call Bubble students and these bubble students are significantly closer to moving to a level four or five so um we are in data teams examining some of those students and some of the uh subdomains that the state provides us but um you'll notice our percentages um and the number of students that test in the elementary in the middle and the high school again we're looking at the levels four and five those are our passing levels the next slide really breaks down show mid is that typical most schools this is typical this is where we've been um I can't speak to other schools I don't evaluate other schools we only compare right well we don't I don't compare other schools each school does their own analysis based on State numbers the state percentages so the state provides us percentages examp yes yes okay so um the next slide in language arts really breaks it down a little bit more by grade as I mentioned the tests are given for um students in grades three through eight then high school the only test that's given in language in language arts I'm sorry the only grade that's assessed in language arts is grade nine on the New Jersey student learning assessment again these are identified by state percentages as compared to District percentages for all five grade bands um some of your percentages and I did have a little caveat on the bottom of this um for those of you who may be adding um it doesn't add up to 100% maybe 99 98 maybe 102 because we round some of some of the numbers in the data and this is what was provided to us excuse me based on um the results so these are your individual great band results the next three slides will be dedicated more so to demographic breakdown program breakdown and breakdown of achievement by um gender there's a lot of data here as there always is and it's really really small so I'm not going to necessarily take a lot of time going through that it is available please ask questions you have questions on that um contact me and I'm happy to go through uh compon from per 2003 2004 it's by and then it breaks it down by demograph demographics by percentages so the first one is by race the second one is by program program meing pre and reduced or4 multilingual Learners special education gen all students by grade band and by your percentages if there are little dashes no student or actually there less than 10 students so we're not allowed to necessarily put in percentage of the numbers because those identifiable characteristics so any number that's on here where there Dash or you have less than 10 denotes data that has less than 10 students and not allowed to that data there possibility students the next slide is Again by gender uh male female and all students um on their achievement level we move on to the next one it is overall summary of New Jersey student learning assessments through mathematics these numbers are a little bit skewed I just want to let you know that um the high sorry the middle school and the high school numbers are skewed slightly you'll see that on a further slide last year the data was reported to us in the Middle School um whereby the middle school students that took Algebra 1 was reported in the high school so the percent and you'll see that will be on a further slide will be significantly different it's not that 22% um dropped from the four and five is where they were reported last year as compared to this year we don't found that out um when the when the data was presented to us so it's not necessarily what it's looking like your out one students from middle school were um now includ this again is by I here with this algebra 1 reporting with 213 students this algebra 1 is a combination of middle school and high school and the geometry represents any freshman that is in a geometry class we do not assess on student learning standards anybody above a freshman as a state does not require us to assess um anybody above a freshman this is your state and yes this the same the same as langage state um grade exam here does not include students in grade to the one as I mentioned that's comb and again percentages may not add up to 100% because we round the next three slides are going to be very comptable to the langage art slides the first one is um description by by race not that's all included by Band the second slide is also by program again for multi Learners special ad all students the same dashes and the same qualifications apply for students for reporting groups that are less than 10 students that are not identifiable so we do not include their data and the final one is by gender as well like I said I'm going to qualify this a few times um tomorrow morning when I report to work I'm going to post this PowerPoint PDF on the website so welcome take a little the third assessment is reported here is your Science assessment now again Science assessment is given to students in grades five 8 and 11 is a slight change from what they historically did it is a comprehensive assessment especially in grade 11 many years ago those of us who may have been in high school or involved in school district may remember it was the um of course biology test the state decided to get rid of the biology test and now put a test that assesses all standards in grade 11 the Science assessment was given and these are reportable results the Science assessment I do want to just qualify is not I School graduation requirement it is an achievement requirement and designed as more of an internal measure to take a look at what we're doing for labs for coursework for achievement and for improvement as we move forward these again the Science assessment is not assessed on five of on five five five categories only four categories so you are Advanced or proficient or limed or minimum breaks it down by race next one breaks it down by program same as all the other ones and the final one does break it down by um gender in the science assessments so each one of these assessments we have the data the data is um pretty straightforward these assessments that we put up here did have a comparison from and um that really is where we've done with the ersey student learning assessments I included the access for Ells I know you got this support from Gabrielle sorry Mrs colog in August but I did include one additional slide want to bring attention to not going to go the backgr for the access fors but the district data was reported by um Mrs in August I didn't includ it here teally but this is your historical data and I thought that this was actually relatively important to actually bring forward and you will notice that the number of students that are tested for the access 2.0 has been significantly increasing since we returned from and we still we still um increase each year as you noted last year the number of students that tested were 473 of yeah actually I did look at thisam assments to are more severe um handicap students they do not um take the New Jersey student learning assessment they'll take your own Dynamic learning learning math assessment um there are four categories here emerging approaching at Target or Advance once again this is a little bit different in terms of the numbers um so that are put that up there um for these for these particular students it's put it as emerging approaching Target at Target and Advance one thing to remember is like I said these students are your more significantly um challenged students so they do grow consistently through we we do find that many of our students do progress through the as they our high school graduation rate is as as follows here last year's class 94.1% not I can't give you the high school gradu I'm sorry the State High School graduation percentage because it hasn't been calculated yet there's still some students being um appealed there's some cases around the state that are still being appealed um so we're always going to be one year behind on the graduation rate last year's graduation rate was in na we were 92.5 the state did recort a 91.1% so we were above the high school graduation rate for 214 right now we're at94 .1 at 193 graduates so we'll continue to monitor this and um provide this information and data for you because I think it's important to show that our our students are graduating from high school grade your comparison data I did put that up there because I did really want to put put out that we have some interesting and this is where I'll I'll really point out the math numbers because you'll see the significant differences from 23 to 24 in this case um for mathematics in midle school you'll note that it was 15% proficient four and five in 23 and 37% it's not that we necessarily grew 22% and then we dropped um significantly at the high school it was where the students were reported when the data was given to us um this is more indicative of what we have because this last year's students who took the algebra 1 exam in Middle School were now recorded as middle school students in the other slide we ended up getting aggregated and we were able to combine all of the students that took a single test and that's why there's a difference in the numbers so it's not that the numbers are different if where they're report so I just wanted to point that out because there is a significant difference in there many of our other numbers are relatively stagnant if you would um but it doesn't mean that we're satisfied with that we that second so moving forward towards Improvement there's a few notes that I have on here um last year we've had a a ific professional development initiative um in guiding reading and our literacy program so we spent a lot of time a lot of resources we had um professional development trainers come in and really work with our teaching staff uh to change or not change but kind of refresh it's almost like a reading 2.0 if you would um our teachers to help them provide some different strategies for students I'm going to put my glass on I can't see anything EXC me what said um we did purchase some Lev literacy materials and I'll get to that in a little bit um a little bit more we did purchase quite a few of guided reading books independent reading books we really looking at pushing the literacy to allow our students to read what they want to read read educationally read for fun read for enjoyment yet read for a purpose and I think this one of the things that we really spend some time doing we spent some professional development we spent sorry time on professional development in personal and and professional areas um we actually trained a number of our staff in Wilson Wilson literacy program and we have a number of Wilson um uh classes currently going on in our elementary and our primary scho actually expanded it to the middle school if I remember correctly we have now a number of these the Wilson program I know Dr Z spech a lot better to I can but the Wilson program really uh works with our media kids to interventions at the level that they truly need one of the other things that's not on here and we are looking into some more professional development rers University well we made revisions to our um ESL program and our ASI program we looked at what was happening and how it was operating last year and how the kids were getting receiving services and we decided to do a full event and we decided to really um have our teachers push into the classrooms and assistance to the classroom teachers while the students are doing their work themselves we found that and we know that as teachers are in the classroom and students are engaged in the classroom more happens there's more live and exciting learning that happens versus taking group of students out of the classroom now there is time where taking the students out of the classroom to buy small group instruction is effective and it is relevant and we do address that but we're really revamping to try to get our teachers into the classro the classroom teacher provide those alter assessments provide the that that device instruction and really work with those students um at a different level so it is a new initiative that we started this year initial feedback from staff really enjoy having another hand in the room so now you're having instead of one teacher addressing um all their groups you have multiple teachers addressing multiple groups multiple times a day and providing intervention not just speaking the on the same topic at the same time is providing targeted instruction and revisions to our students that need academic help or those that need or those who are so those are a few things we've done towards improve so next slide as I always do question I got to change that the state results St say is failing that the St stays the state and based upon test to know compare reive do any board members have any questions no anyone else from the audience perhaps okay Dr zurer okay thank you and with that presentation my report thanks what was that I should thank you Doctor oh didn't hear that okay thank you very much thank you uh Dr trevisano Dr zercher and at this time do any uh is there a motion for the approval of the superintendent's monthly report move the superintendent's report is read motion by vice president neelon and a second by Mr basac any other questions or comments on the superintendent report couple of comments I was at the Early Learning Center last night parents love it they everybody had a smile on their face the kids love it um you know just couldn't there was not a bad thing said about it they they love the the brightness of it the cleanliness of it the staff loves it the kids were showing their parents all the great things that they get to do the big spaces and everything so um it's definitely a great addition to our district District but then again on a bad note uh my wife and I were here for High School back to school night and there were times when we were the only two people in the class so um and Miss L also and I don't know if everybody has seen it there were a couple postings on social media Jean Marie Lang Lucas in the sou Republic schools thing I don't know if any of you follow her but her son is in the middle school and she attended back to school night and she says um all the classrooms were neat decorated the teachers were welcoming warm friendly she's actually sad for her older children that never gave them the opportunity to go to school in town and live and meet people in town that live her other children all attended um parochial school it was one of the things that she had to say um it's just it's it's a great review considering how many people come on to social media and and talk bad about the district and everything in it here's a woman who um her and her husband decided to put their take their son out of parochial school and three years ago and put him into the school system here and how he's flourishing he's doing much better than he did he's doing much better than his siblings did in the other schools and I think it just speaks highly to our staff uh from the top all the way down to our teachers I will attempt to send this to Dr zercher if she doesn't have it or have it and maybe we can send it out to an email so all the other members can uh read what she has to say that'd be great thank you and that's all I have to say for tonight on that matter thank you okay so we have a motion we have a second anything else from any of the other board members all in favor I superintendent report passes at this time we are now going to open up the meeting for the reception of visitors and the public May address agenda items only of course as always there will be a public session toward the end of the meeting uh but if you would like to address any agenda items please come to the podium state your name and address and please keep your comments to a 10minute time limit for agenda items on First Call My Name is Norman shinberg 24 Street I'm not sure if it's gender item that you talked about um that's not what you referring to is not the parent teacher conference was no that's different yes and you mentioned that you're about the only one there this true of all the classrooms or just where you were well just the classrooms that my children the teachers that my children have there were some there were a couple that we my te kids that went here and I believe that the classrooms that we went into a fairly and that's where the teachers I think talked about what they were teaching what they were going to do things like that that's exactly what that was in students desks over there teacher spoke to them yes okay surprised like I said my kids went there to be pretty much I say probably two of the parents were there then only two thank you anyone else from the audience on first call second call third call we will close this public portion and we will move on for our consent resolution Mr Rosa yes the South River Board of Education by means of a consent resolution adopt various resolutions of a routine and non-controversial nature at one time whereas the below listed resolutions are hereby adopted by the said Board of Education and Hall as if the same were individually acted upon it and those are three uh under superintendent of schools 3.2 under Finance 8.1 1 through 8.24 under instruction 9.1 through 9.7 under negotiations 10.1 under policy and legislation 11.1 through 11.3 under human Human Resources 12.1 through uh 12.25 under safety and risk management 13.1 through 13.3 okay thank you uh is there a motion on the consent resolution consent resolution by vice president neelon is there a second on that second second by Miss Sadowski are there any of these items that anyone needs to abstain on or have read separately seeing none Mr Rosa would you please call the role Mr basac yes Mr budson yes Mrs Bush yes Mrs burn yes Mrs Lao yes Mr neelson yes Mrs Sadowski yes Mrs orbanic yes motion pass thank you okay at this time we're going to go into our committee reports starting with our Athletics and extracurricular Mr budson there nothing on the agenda for this month can I U speak to I attend the football games um my my boy plays and we go all throughout the county I have to give props if you will or however they say is James Stewart is our announcer for football games Mr Stewart is enthusiastic he makes sure that every child who's in on the play whether they are from South River or whether from the opposing team is um acknowledged whether they make a tackle whether you know a touchdown I've gone to games and you would you would think that the only team on the field was the team that we were playing that night I've never there are schools that don't say anything about any of the other children Jim runs up and down his sideline his microphone in his hand he makes sure that um he gets a list from the coaches the opposing coaches of all the students and he he's he's a godsent for you know it's it's nice for a parent to sit there and hear their child's name called out and to hear the crowd cheer when one of our guys does something good um and even the other opposing team when they hear their child's name you can hear you know the few people that do come to these games anymore um you can hear them cheer and I said Jim is a great individual I know him outside um football World personally he really takes it to heart of how much these games mean to uh the the people that attend them and I just want to acknowledge Him and what a great job he does that's all I need for tonight M president he's been doing it for long time does pop Warners on Sunday too and he doesn't have any kids playing Pop Warners nope you're absolutely right I've seen him at the games and he just moves up and down that field like it's uh the best thing that he's going to be doing all day uh and I Y almost don't even want to think about getting a uh Press Box because that would just contain him and he wouldn't be able to move around and be watching all the plays as closely as he does he does a wonderful job he really tonight thank you thank you uh buildings and grounds then would you please continue uh you saw you saw Mr bl's report in the monthly report um the uh new multi field turf field is is still under a little bit under construction October 7th we hope to have our first soccer game and to those on social media who of course have nothing good to say yes there will be a back stop on the softball side of the field yes there's going to be a scoreboard that'll be on the Northern side of the field so again I as you see out here in the crowd only Mr shinberg is here tonight uh nobody has a question at a board meeting or they don't call the board office but they feel no problem in going to social media and saying things that they shouldn't but yes there will be extra fencing the field looks great uh you know can't wait to uh go down and watch a couple of games softball soccer and baseball played there that's all I have for tonight thank you uh Finance Miss L thank you Mr banck I'd like to summarize in a couple of sentences um the finance committee report and then uh read our statement so the agenda includes several approval items for the upcoming 2425 school year covering various grants contracts and services key items include the approval of preschool facilities expansions and ibaa Grant applications as well as contracts for dual enrollment alternative education services and professional development additionally there are contracts for yearbook Services graduation products uh furniture for the Elementary media center changes and approvals for ongoing construction projects and financial transfers are also on the agenda reflecting a comprehensive approach to enhancing educational facilities and services um now having said that uh the finance committee after the review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of superintendent recommends approval of the items 8.1 through 8.20 with additional items 8.21 through 8.24 on the agenda as listed including routine items which we covered under consent thank you uh instruction Miss Bush yes I have a couple things I want to speak to Dr Travis sano's monthly report um at the start of the school year we welcomed over 30 new staff members to the South River Family during our August orientation that familiarize them with the school and the district procedures professional development sessions introduce new safety protocols we train staff on the Genesis evaluation platform streamlined lesson plans and administrative functions additionally we expanded our curriculum um implementing intervention programs to meet diverse student needs and revised over 130 courses to be aligned with the New Jersey Department of educational standards um with regards to agenda item items they included several items for discussion and approval relative to the 2425 school year such as professional development and travel expenses uh field trips out of District uh tuition contracts with Walgreens and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for communitybased services and safety programs additionally agenda items addressed inclusion of District observers and interns and most recently our district testing schedule for the school year plus Dr Tano's presentation that he just did for us this evening so I know you said something already Kevin but thank you again that was excellent so with that being said the instruction committee after a review of all the items on this month's agenda and upon the recommendation of the superintendent recommends the approval of items 9.1 through 9.6 with the additional item of 9.7 on the agenda as listed including routine items that's all I have thank you you're welcome uh negotiations we do have one item and that's to approve a sidebar agreement with the srea so the negotiation committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the item 10.1 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including the routine items our next committee is our policy and legislation Miss burn thank you we have three items this evening uh the policy and legislation committee after review of all the items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 11.1 through 11.3 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine items thank you under Human Resources Mr basac thank you Mr orbanic the human resources committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 12.1 through 12.21 with additional items 12.22 through 12.25 on the agenda as listed including routine items and that's all I have thank you our safety and risk management committee Miss Sadowski thank you the safety and risk management committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of items 13.1 through 13.2 with additional item 13.3 on the agenda as listed including routine items thank you thank you and our school Community Relations Committee Miss burn uh there are no items this evening thank you thank you our school board burough Council Lea is on committee vice president neelsen nothing to report tonight Madam president our PTA Lea on committee Miss Sadowski thank you um there's a couple of items I just want to highlight that both the primary and elementary schools they will be celebrating um Hispanic heritage in the month of October um they are also both hosting Book Fairs this month um and both the primary and Elementary School are selling Spirit Weare different types of spirit Weare and Elementary is also selling big Rams blankets they're bring remember the big Rams blankets yeah they're bringing them back it's been a long time wow yeah so the lawn things the you know the big blankets that they had like when I was in high school they were gray I remember they were like heavy that was a long time that was a long time so they're bringing them back thanks the blankets are back they're coming back yes um Primary School uh has their Fall Festival at the end of the month um they are also hosting a stock the lounge um um donations from the the parents so they can stock the teachers lounges with snacks and drinks and they are actually all selling pre-sale yearbooks already yes so if anybody's interested purchasing your yearbook in September uh and membership uh membership is being conducted using memberhub um the links to the individual uh PTA sites are listed in eam as well as on the Facebook page and and I think that's all I have thank you thank you Mr buds in our South River Public Library Lea is on upcoming events is October 15th you're having a Halloween and an at U kids craft at 5:00 pm and at 6 PM you're having adults Halloween craft trunk and treat will be at the library October 26 at 2m in conjunction with the recreation department uh no November 5th to the 7th they're having their annual book sale and that's all I have thank you at this time I'd like to ask our superintendent if she would introduce our new student board representative yes caline is here um joining us and no have stand she's here to join us today does have a report for us this evening um we shared that she's off to a good start this school year and excited to be a cedor um so we look forward to hearing her report um a new club was added this year called bring change to M Club focuses on improving student a couple activities have been planned um for the following School weeks um okay and um today was the last year for float building and many students are preparing for Spirit games tomorrow and the float the float parade awesome that's it thank you and welcome to the board I think you'll find us very welcoming and if you have any questions just see the superintendent thank you Pizza one month to sell away I just bought 10 pies that's where the seniors are at is there any old or new business to come before the board at this time and do we have a report from our attorney no no report tonight okay then we will pay the bills Miss L the finance committee recommends that all bills presented having been certified by the school business administrator board secretary be paid as listed and ISO move we have a motion by Miss l and a second by vice president neelen all in favor I thank you the bills will be paid okay at this time we are going to uh open up the meeting for the reception of visitors and this is the time where the public May address any concern or comment that they have for the board please state your name and address and please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit we'll do uh at the last meeting I ended it I asked uh why did you place onity at the last meeting I asked why did you place onse security dos in the schools and the answer I got was ask the police the experts and if you were about to give me an answer ask the experts so what I did I sent me I know the answer you all know the answer and I sent an email anyway to the police and the email said several years ago your Police Department signed police offic out the schools did this happen because of the request from the school board town counil depart requested he sent a few sentences describing what free offices do but the perent part of it was is this EIC was in response to a request for police presence with the schools by both the parents and students which we all kind know that's why that happened okay so the experts did not request these police officers the police had 100 years to place offices in schools we had schools like this for 100 years they didn't do it why didn't the experts Why didn't Place police offices for 100 years in the school I showed that in the 1990s he actually had more deaths Nationwide School crime is much higher in the 1990s and now and they never did it why not okay I me we know why not because there's no crime in the school there's nothing Poli Sol can do in the school there's no robberies the number of students that are killed is near zero get what goes on in the outside and so anyway so why why was it done it was clearly the irrational fear of parents their children would be shot in school they long security JS of school at significant expense we know that the parents want but parents didn't look at the data they didn't analyze it they didn't look at the uh the various shooting scenarios the narratives and so on they can speak to experts whatever anyway as I pointed out before no student has ever been killed with a gun in New Jersey Cession shoted not but about 500 have been shot and killed unrelated to school just the last 25 years alone in New Jersey the 500 were killed outside of school none in school at the ratio of people that are generally shot to die you expect probably about 2,000 students were shot outside of school in New Jersey and nine in the school fortunately kill there's actually no saf place for children in school by far schools are just incredibly safe when you consider that all the students are in school I mean there's a few at a home school and they spend much of their day in school and no one has been killed in the school yet we're going to be putting 15% of the Municipal Police Force in the school with about 30 policemen we're putting about four or five or so including Direct Security in school where there is no crime and it's a very large expense there's no rational reason to have security off of school we never had it for 100 years and nothing is different now used other than the irrational fear of the parents and sociologists having description to why this is so what's going on I'll get that another time I also previously presented several different types of studies from open the sources that concluded that there is no evidence that an armed security guard prevents Less in fact I now come across two studies IED one two I came across another one that paradoxically came to result that there are more casuals when an armed officer is present and none showed otherwise why should be more casualties with offices of pres wrote these papers have some speculation but none of the speculations in the book unnown one paper said this 2.8 times that's in there what I gave you the hand out 2.8 times more casual the other one said 2.5 I mean you could speculate one thought it's just the office is done another one speculated that maybe those schools are more dangerous but at least it's not reducing Cas the other study shows that it doesn't reduce the number of shootings either you know at one point I was going to clear backpacks by suggesting bulletproof backpacks or bulletproof vest I me was a joke but apparently the New York Times has done it to me I just came across an article the other day this is the craziness maybe some of you guys saw it in the New York Times the other day here it is schol here in Cas ofoo this is the guy putting on and is his and he has bulletproof inserts pencil cases there's other bullet Shields bullet prooof inserts for the backpacks you get students bulletproof backpacks by the way in the end bulletproof backpacks will be a lot cheaper than your officers I me up front of course would be much greater but considering the fact that you'd have to replace the bulletproof Shield after got hit by a bullet and probably one could get hit every few thousand years by a bullet that's the rate of school shootings inside the school you'd only have to replace one every few thousand years so the end of very cheap because it's I'm not seriously saying it what kind of nonsense is this for and the the person who sells them some company says you sold thousands of them to parents the parents are off the wall bulletproof backpacks bulletproof vests and so on in fact it goes on and says that um this is the New York Times They quote a fellow by the name of Dy Cornell and expert in classroom safety of the University of Virginia this the New York Times who has trained red assessment teams in thousands of schools he says that school security measures and soal Target are extraordinarily expensive and so forth there is no scientific evidence of mix sac and this is what I found from expert after expert whether it was the national threat Assessment Center run by the Secret Service whether it's the people who run through the K through2 solution database what's happened is is all this stuff the security guards and the equipment is now a multi-billion dollar industry considering if every school had a security guard how much would cost and how much this pass in fact they're even selling bu improve collapsable safe rooms for students that students can go in and be bullet when I went to school I never thought of my kids being unsafe in school I've asked other friends who sent their kids to school in the 90s in the early 2000s would you worry about the safety of your kids in school the answer was no we never thought about the schools are just extraordinarily safe they're not just safe they're extraordinarily safe they have the safest place in the entire nation for schools and the kids are there and now the CNN did a poll and students are they worried about the safety of their kids in school 40% said yes after the Georgia shooting one person you don't see a man of course told one person said this is another reason not to send your kids to school they're so unsafe and it's up to people like you to convince the people out there that the schools are safe not to convince them that it's unsafe by having clear backpacks and armed dogs but whenever they say to you why don't you do more you say show us the evidence that there's anything that needs to be done no one has died in the New Jersey school this is just crazy eventually this moral Panic will die down and go away but I don't know how long the last generation or more okay the other thing I want to mention is perhaps the uh 400b Elephant Room the recently wasn't want say something did recently 4 elep in the room there was recently that school shooting in Barrow Georgia where the SRO supposedly were the heroes of the day and stopped the shooting and saved all those children I at that detail there were interviews with the sheriff that presented a detail timeline and other sources and you think about it those by the way in other inst I'm going to back up a bit there are a number of other institutes where there have been SRO there has been one in Coline it was one in Parkland the park one went on trial it was one in two minutes there was one in Oxford Michigan and there's civil suits there the body C showing doing nothing during his school shooting to the police came we know about new and so on every major school shooting like that the sro's have done nothing in most school shootings they can do nothing just they over in a second or two they're one-on-one shootings they're shootings that take place in the uh when the student walks into school or Ambush shootings driveby shootings in fact last year half the shootings took placed in the parking lot escalation of violence mostly rural areas the kids probably got into an argument so when he went to their car and P out gun and shopping bang bang it's over but even those Sho that I mentioned they did nothing so how about the one with Barrow County uh the sheriff according to the sheriff the um the whole shooting lasted about 52 seconds and we do know that 13 people were shoted so obviously what they had there their alarm systems the SRO didn't prevent students from getting shot did it reduce the number of students that are being shot or remember those SRO didn't fire a single shot now imagine the sro's come up on a shooter who has gun who's putting students in danger you think they're going to ask him well do you want to surrender I think you should put the gun down they're going to immediately shoot it so obviously when they came upon him either they couldn't shoot him or he was no longer shooting he has a gun in his hand he could turn that gun it's a rifle it's an assault rifle at these officers in the second and shoot them so their life is in danger so if they could have shot him they would have shot him so he was just no longer shooting or they could not shoot him the answer is they really couldn't shoot him the sheriff say they apprach 200 ft away 200 ft away is the long end of that Hall up to where the entrance of the school is probably beyond that go when you leave today and look down the long entrance of the hall and think of somebody with a handgun you're a police officer shooting somebody from 200 to 220 ft away I mean chance of hitting him are slim to n but he has a rifle and if those said they were running towards it if they ran towards him it would take about 7 seconds for them to approach within about 100 and during that seven seconds he can easily aim that assault rifle goes off take him out like that a bullet between the eyes and that's 10 minutes okay so obviously they didn't stop anything he simply stopped shooting so it's another case when nothing was done they are certainly Heroes being very brave and running somebody has an assault right not knowing what happened I don't want to anything away they didn't stop I just want to mention next time ask this ask me this whether I'm going to come up with some recommendations eventually I will come up with recommendations you probably thought of but I'm hoping with all the data and information giv you that someday you might Implement other recommendations it's nothing really re reation thank you is there anyone else from the audience wishing to speak please give us your name your address and please keep your comments to 10 minutes evening my name is Malcolm I live in West Boulevard in New Jersey and to bring a simp requests uh for members of the board about students playing uh two sports or not or less um the reason I bring this up one of a few of my volleball players that I should say uh do play two sports uh as well one of those Sports of course is volleyball and the other sport is Cheer um a lot of times these young ladies are stressed about playing two sports now I know it's a school policy and school rule that they are allowed to play uh cheerleading and do another as well um about two weeks ago one of my players was so stressed that she couldn't make a decision on whether to save for volleyball or to go to cheerleading um she starts on our JB team and she's on varsity team for cheerlead um you know she made the decisions to stay to play uh volleyball but at the end of the day she was crying so much she hyperventilated uh she was stressed out that she have been kicked off with the cheerlead parts of the and she's not the only all the other cheerleaders on the volleyball team is the exact same thing that they go to day in and day out especially for the girls that are in the varsity volleyball team they're also in the varsity's Cher Squad and time in time they have a conflict of schedule with the cheerleading conflictive schedule with Games and Things and such and as I said I know it's a school policy that they are allowed to play cheerleading and another sport um but I'm asking if there's a possibility and a way going forward future that could be something that can be changeed because I do care about all my girls these are my girls they're like my kids and to see them cry and stress out about getting kicked off of one team or the other you know it hurts me especially two weeks ago when that young lady was crying so hard um you know I end up going and talking to coach um Jamie about it and you know we kind of have a plan of you know what day they have practice and things and such but as I looked at my schedule we had a lot of games in those days that coach Jamie and I said a stress on the young ladies and as I said you know I look at them as my kids and I'm going speak as a father it hurts me to see that they need to make a decision do I stay playing varsity cheerleading or do I stay playing volleyball and as I said you know I know it's a school rule school policy but if there's something in the future that we can change to say you know we're only allowing students to play one sport because I know with the climate and culture you know environment that we have the mental health of the students are on work and you you know if they're stressed about playing two sports that's that's not good for them at all and as I said me seeing my student My Girl My Player cry it hurt me you know but I understood that she loved both Sports and understood that she wanted to do both and as I said you know I know it's a new policy but I'm just asking if in future times if top can come up again that will we allow them only to play one sport so that's what thank you thank you for your Fe back I would recommend if you have a concern um that that you definitely want to follow that proper chain of command and go see your principal discuss that concern with your principal discuss that concern with the athletic director um and and really make your points um at their level so that they can address and respond to your concern I did at one year a few years ago did bring it up to the athletic director and we of course said the policy is that they are allowed to impend support I haven't ever brought it up to new principles so that's that is right you're right I should know better as a marine CH I said I did speak to uh car about it few years ago but after seeing my young lady cry and the girl stress I I kind of you know as a father as I said I just I have to speak up so I just want to but I will ma' I will be speak thank you thank you Malcolm anyone else in the public wishing to speak on first call second call third call this portion of the public session is closed and having no executive session do we have a motion to adjourn neelson motion by vice president neelson second by m l all in favor I this meeting is adjourned thank you