##VIDEO ID:qdjwuzKditI## [Music] the August 15 2024 meeting of the wber sship Board of Education will please come to order roll call Mr secretary M bouran here Mr deletro here Mr Muhammad here M Perez here Mr treaser here Mr Le here and Mr Harris here Mr secretary as required by the Sunshine Law please read the notice of meetings thank you Mr President the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted as follows on January 2 5 2024 emailed to the home News Tribune The Star Ledger and the municipal clerk's office posted in Ross Street School number 11 and the Board of Education administration building also published on the school district website thank you Mr Walman Miss ban please read the Clos session statement please thank you Mr President in compliance with the Sunshine Law the board must go into close session in order to discuss subjects Exempted from the public portion of our meeting the discussions to be held in close session will be regarding Personnel matters and the board will receive attorney any client advice any information regarding the closed session discussion will be released to the public when the reasons for discussing these matters in closed session no longer exist thank you Miss Bordan I have a motion by Miss Bordan do I have a second second okay I have a motion by Miss Bordan seconded by Mr tree bler all in favor I I any opposed carried all right the board will retire to close session we'll be out as soon as possible thank you please rise for the salute to the flag and a moment of silence please FL flag States America stand okay do I have a motion to reconvene so motion second do I have a second second I have a motion uh excuse me I have a motion by Mr stre waser second by Mr Dela picher all in favor I any opposed carried roll call Mr secretary miss bouran here Mr deletro here Mr Mohammad here Miss Perez here Mr tree waser here Mr valz here Mr Harris here will someone please make a motion to approve the minutes of the previous meetings motion okay second okay there any additions or Corrections say none I have a motion by Mr Tree waser seconded by Mr valz all in favor I any opposed say none carried Mr secretary please stay for the record any notices of bids or proposals received by the board Mr President the following were open for the 2024 2025 school year on August 6 2024 RFP 25-7 for high impact tutoring for grades 3- 12 August 6 2024 RFP 25-8 elementary math consultants and August 7th 2024 RFP 2509 professional learning full-time consultant Middle School mathematics excellent thank you Mr wolferman Dr mamino please State for the record the superintendent reports for the month of July 2024 Mr Harris I present the reports of the attendance officers thank you Dr mmana the wber Township Board of Education welcomes and encourages active productive and respectful participation by members of the public and seeks to protect the First Amendment rights of those who engage in the exercise of free speech at this Board of Education meeting members of the public are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of those whose legal rights may be impacted the public is now invited to speak regarding the agendas being presented this evening when you come to the microphone please provide your name and the section of the Township in which you reside along with the specific agenda and item number you wish to discuss as per regulation 1100d comments must be limited to no more than 5 minutes no response will be given until you have completed your opportunity to speak anybody wishing to speak on any of the agenda items please come to the microphone okay seeing none at this moment superintendent's agenda Dr mamino do you have any recommendations for us yes Mr President I have nine items to present to the board this evening okay thank you Dr mamino I have a motion by Dr mamino so a second I make a motion to move the superintendent's agenda thank you do I have a second second okay I have a motion by Mr Cher seconded by Miss Mr valz are there any comments or questions from the board seeing none roll call Mr secretary Miss bouran yes Mr deletro yes Mr Mohammad uh Mr President I abstain on item number nine in terms of in the name of ruers and yes on all other items Miss Perez Mr President and I also will be abstaining on item number nine in the name of Ruckers yes to all other items Mr treaser yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes very much uh communication policy and planning agenda Mr Muhammad Mr President the communication policy and planning committee on recommendation of the superintendent of schools presents the following eight items I move for the adoption of the forging okay thank you I have a motion by Mr Muhammad do I have a second second okay I have a motion by Mr Muhammad seconded by Miss Perez are there any comments or questions from the board seeing none roll call Mr secretary Miss bouran yes Mr deletro yes Mr Mohamed yes M Perez yes Mr treer yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes curriculum extracurricular activities and Technology agenda Miss bouran thank you Mr President the curriculum extra curricular activities and Technology committee on recommendation recommendation of the superintendent of schools and the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction presents the following 15 items I move for the adoption of the forgoing thank you Miss Miss bouran I have a motion by Miss Boran do I have a second second okay a motion by Miss ban seconded by Mr delico any comments or questions from the board saying none roll call Mr secretary M bouran yes Mr deletro yes Mr Mohammad yes m yes Mr tree waser yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes I did want to just say I see we have a lot of new guests this evening if you haven't already had a chance uh back by the wall there we have a copy of this agenda before us if in the event you wanted to follow along just want to make sure no one was lost as as to see many new faces and thank you for joining us as well all right we move on to the next agenda finance and insurance agenda Mr tree waser thank you Mr President the finance and insurance committee on Rec ation of the superintendent of schools and the business administrative board secretary presents the following 11 items I move for the adoption of the foregoing thank you we have a motion by Mr CH waser do we have a second second okay motion by Mr CH waser seconded by Mr deletro any comments or questions from the board none roll call Mr secretary Miss bouran yes Mr deletro yes Mr Mohammad yes M Perez yes Mr treaser yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes buildings and grounds agenda Miss Perez thank you Mr President the buildings and grounds committee on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary presents the following two items I move for the adoption of the forgoing okay I have a motion by Miss Perez do do we have a second second okay we have a motion by Miss PR seconded by Mr Muhammad any comments or questions from the board I did want to just add one under the uh the agenda buildings and ground want to thank the administration uh your entire team as well as whoers Township yesterday many of my colleagues joined me at the groundbreaking for the new or I keep saying that it's not the new school 4 and 5 is is significantly renovated but will feel like new school 4 and5 located in Avan now I was part of the successful 2020 referendum as well as last year's uh very quick uh uh referendum question construction has begun it'll take about 2 years uh and Dr M and I spoke that Miss panko the principal will be communicating some uh some changes and logistical items pertinent to uh the flow of traffic and uh you know the student presence uh on the school grounds very shortly uh in in the coming weeks so please stay tuned for that and uh please follow along with the construction us taxpayers are are paying for this project we're really excited about it and uh please once again to have the support of the public to modernize our school facilities roll call uh did we already do our roll call no all right roll call thank you m bouran yes Mr deletro yes Mr Mohammad yes Miss Perez yes Mr Tre Blaser yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes dining and transportation agenda Miss Perez thank you Mr President the dining and transportation committee on recommendation of the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary presents the following three items I move for the adoption of the foregoing excellent thank you we have a motion by Miss Perez do we have a second second okay motion by Miss Perez seconded by Mr delap pitro any comments re questions from the board saying none roll call Mr secretary M Bordan yes Mr delro yes Mr Mohammad yes M perz yes Mr treaser yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes Personnel agenda Mr Del Peacher thank you Mr President the Personnel committee and recommendation of the superintendent of schools and the assistant superintendent for for human resources presents the following 31 items I move for the adoption of the foregoing thank you Mr deletro we have a motion by Mr deler do we have a second second okay motion by Mr Del pacher seconded by Miss Perez any comments or questions from the board seeing none roll call Mr secretary Miss Bordan yes Mr deletro yes Mr Mohammad yes Miss Perez yes Mr treer yes Mr valz yes Mr Harris yes we have uh Mr sylvestro here any uh legal updates for us uh nothing for tonight Mr President thank you very much is there any old business that should be brought before the attention of the board about any new business no I I did want to just this is a newer last month we passed a resolution to change the October board meeting typically it's held on a third Thursday of uh of each month the meeting will be moving one day earlier to Wednesday October 16 it's no longer Thursday October 17 it's now Wednesday October 16 that'll be updated in my my uh board president column in in the Woodbridge Corner newspaper and it's also been legally advertised uh thanks to miss Lan again thank you very much all right no no other new business seeing none all right we're moving on uh this is the open public portion here we will now open the meeting for public comment if you wish to say something please come to the the microphone provide your name and the section of the Township in which you reside for the record again members of the public are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of those who Le whose legal rights may be impacted please limit your comments to no more than 5 minutes in accordance with regulation 1100d no response will be given until you have fully completed your comments so as not to interrupt your five minute opportunity to speak so we have many guests today please come to the microphone anybody yes come on down just your your name in the section of town you've resided oh come all the way up to the microphone welcome thanks for bring here welcome uh Neil Patel Edison oh all right from all right welcome all right uh my name is Neil Patel and I'm a freshman at JP Stevens High School in Edison I'm the co-founder of the learning circle a 501c3 certified nonprofit organization that promotes peer-to-peer learning we are dedicated to helping students from low-income families and those in need of extra academic support my other co-founder Ria Patel is a rising Junior at Woodbridge Academy magnet school she could not be here today as she has a final exam at middle sex College over the past two years we've successfully run programs like the homework Hub a summer math program and an AP biology program these initiatives have made a real difference in the lives of many students by providing them with the tools and the guidance they need to succeed this summer we had the privilege of running our AP Bio enrichment program in the Edison school district with the full support of superintendent Dr Eddie alderi and academic director Mr Richard Cohan the graciously provided us with classrooms and the program was a great success if you would like you can check with them for a reference on how our program has positively impacted students as we start with the new year school year I'm I'm here to ask for your support in launching a similar math enrichment program for students from low-income families and those in need within this District we believe that by focusing on elementary and middle school students we can build a strong foundation in math that will set them up for future success to make this program possible we need your help in spreading the word we're asking for your support in marketing this program across the district especially in elementary and middle schools by working together we can reach students who need this program the most and ensure that they have the opportunity to thrive academically we have many learning circle volunteers who will be running this program I'm accompanied by a few of them and I would like to introduce them here today hi good evening I am an incoming Junior in jnf Kennedy Memorial High School in Woodbridge and um yeah that's about it hi my name is aan Kumar I'm I'm a freshman at JP Stevens High School High School I used to teach at my local elementary school for math club and I'm a proud member of the learning circle hi my name is Adi Gala I'm a rising freshman in JP Stevens High School in Edison and I was introduced to this program by my friend Neil I've always been a fan of peer-to-peer learning and especially through math as I've been a part of math club for two years representing the school in various different competitions I found a passion in math and teaching my friends peer-to-peer as I find that this helps them so much more and alongside to learning from teachers peer-to-peer learning is a very friendly environment and it students feel safe sharing things with their peers that they might not be comfortable telling their teachers so I feel like learning circle has a big impact on students and it's very beneficial for them and I'm excited to run this um and help on this program thank you thank you thank you for your time and consideration I'm excited about the potential impact we can make together I'd like to ask Dr mashino for a meeting next week so we can provide the details about the enrichment program thank you thank you doc you want to take the first bite or well I'm the one meeting with him so yes well I mean I mean to respond well I I first well let me jump in I I've already taken it back uh first of all thank you for what you do you're that's the what was it five of you for you thank you very much for for what you do and what you've done in Edison and uh I we can't make any decisions up here as as individual board members but what we'll do we'll have you uh if Dr maso is interested take a meeting if nothing else we certainly want your contact information if you could leave that with Nicole we have to talk about these kind of things at the committee level uh you know it's it's a different proposal I don't think I've I've heard in my 12 years so let's let's take your information and and we'll go from there DC thanks for letting me talk now Mr Harris you're welcome so if you'd like to meet with Mr Harris you got a little preview as to how often you'll get to jump in there um if you can leave your contact information I'm happy to set up a meeting um I'd love to talk to you about it I would like to also include my colleague just so I can do an introduction before we meet Mr Pino he's the assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction so he would be um the other administrator I'd like to invite um if you leave your information I'll touch Spas with you on Monday if that's okay yeah and we can set something up during the week okay does that work yeah thank you very good thank you I have to tell you this though I've been doing this a long time um and I worked in a high school before I I got into Administration kudos to all of you um I think it takes a lot of courage to come up you're from JP Stevens this is an outside School District uh you don't know your way around and I don't know that you could have presented any better you present yourself like a a very impressive young group of of Scholars and uh the the presentation and of itself um has my attention so thank you for coming out today and I look forward to talking to you next week yep thank you thank you [Applause] thank yeah that's right anybody else wishing to speak the same time okay you know I'm going to mention my grandfather the war belongs to young people that's right uh we also be proud people are there to stand up a lot of people have choice to even express that because even they're hungry they would't speak up but very impressive it that's what it's all about one is couple Reon I'm over here today uh which I'm really proud I I I kind of lived in evanel about school four and five it's going to be redone uh which is great I always say the school should be with our little people young kids are small kids are there should be bus should be cl to the houses as close as possible but again uh my question would be I know it's going to be more classrooms more everything else how long before it become kind of over clouded again I mean do how can we expect in the future again even more and more I think school should be built because this is growing city wood b i it's not a confined it's going this iset it could grow it's take it more property going to go higher so we going to have more people so I think all the school should be built for future not just for next 5 years 10 years you know that's that's my of course School Center will be school 10 in in hopan how many years we get out there before it's okay we have to build another School uh uh but again most important would be I the hope is a problem because there's a lot of properties we take aanl it's a houses around and I know we take you can take the property eminent domain and I would encourage in the future if any of those properties would be for sale especially in nanel the school board would kind of try to acquire them not the force of people but of course you don't want to sell it and of course you you know in future they could be utilized for the for the expansion uh great job thank you but again uh you know some of those people I know some of those people we know we got a uh security schools uh old the schools and my question would be is there any any security so called Law Department or any Military Department or I okay National Guard or something and I understand some of those most of those people are kind of retired uh because they're retired and they work of of they're not employed as a matter whether they with do state troop as the police or whatever it is do they have any training for every year like police does the federal government does even CIA when you know what do those people have training for every year because you're not just dealing with the kids you're dealing with a young man today today their students in two months become soldiers what do the soldiers do so s to those high school kids you know as kids we call them kids or students but tomorrow we a young man we we should be proud that look at those boys over here they do men's work so we we got to have a people not okay it's a side job it's a think those people should be up to physically uh whatever training they need like a professionals to do their job and at what point if there's a forgot I hope it's not big big complet what point can they call for additional help if they can handle it who do they call do we have a Communications open to them like with any because it's important kids are important so if there any kind of a thing that they can handle it they should be know any obstacles that they could not get with the the wood Police Department or state department or State Police or something like that like I said we got to think for tomorrow not just for today so that's all I want to say today and that's that was my that's my questions thank you Mr barar Dr manino this is really his expertise if you could speak to our security officers so I'll answer your first question Mr vatar uh obviously the the avanel school four and five is from a referendum that precedes my superintendency um I will say I I think the board has done an excellent job in terms of trying to forecast the future whether it's you know looking at demographic studies or um population studies to to ensure that the money that is being spent on schools is is being spent on schools that's going to have kids in it um four and five is I mean I don't know if you driven P or been it's I think the oldest school yeah um that we currently have so I think a lot of it is upgrades um the additional space is obviously always you know like I tell everybody you don't have to have a pack school but you'll use every inch of the school if if it's feasible and it's done right so I think as a board and as an Administration we are in constant dialogue in terms of of what the schools look like we we look at the numbers all the time you know we have principles there that we talk about class size um we have a whole human resource resource department so those are things that we look at on an on a daily basis a weekly basis a monthly basis to see what it looks like obviously class size is something that we try to keep an eye on Staffing um so to your point yes it is something that we pay close attention to um and try to follow the trends so that we can predict them right we want the schools ready for when we have an influx um unfortunately you know we we don't have a crystal ball um so we can go off the data that we have and and we do the best we can with it with regard to the security officers when we wrote the job description the uh one thing in there that we we all agreed on was you had to have graduated from a PTC and that's a police training commission um they're Statewide that is what you have to go through to become a police officer so our feeling was if you had gone through the training to be a police officer and you're retired you you don't forget that train if I retire 6 months later I didn't lose that training I still had that training I had those um accreditations you know the CPR training understanding 2C law um we put a lot of other things in there as well but the the PTC was the big part if you didn't graduate from a PTC you were not eligible to become one of our um school security officers they were given uniforms um there's regulations with regard to their um ASL holsters which is a type of holster that that keeps the weapon secure um like I said they're in uniform that clearly says Woodbridge Township on the front Security on the back they are all given radios they all have devices so that you know if they need to look things up um and have access to the the cameras they can so we equipped them with everything we could so that their ability to be security officers met the need right we want them to able to respond quickly we want them to be able to reach out to the principal on the radio or um you know our our security coordinator the ring patrols that we have we gave them full access to everything so that in the event of you know know any kind of an emergency God forbid they were prepared to act accordingly with with the resources needed to do so thank you thank you anybody else wishing to speak Mr L Mr lond Hope Lawn feels like it's been a long time I had time to grow a beard in the interim couple things I just want to see if the I I guess this would probably be a lawyer or legal question but uh in 2021 six parents filed uh PPR complaints it's it protects uh Public School parents and children uh it's the pupil rights amendment a protection of pupil rights amendment uh they filed complaints with the US Department of Education challenging uh Cedar Grove School District's failure to provide prior notice and obtain parental consent before administering intrusive surveys and I've spoken to a couple parents who've gotten surveys in this school district I think that was pretty common practice for a while these surveys included questions about same-sex unions religious affiliation gender identity race ethnicity asking whether a school is a safe place for students race or ethnic group whether adults in your school are fair in dealing with your particular racial or ethnic group and whether adults in your school are are fair in dealing with people not in your racial or ethnic group 3 years later the department of educ ucation with some prodding from a law firm uh finally made a ruling on this and it uh it says here secured an important victory for the parents of Cedar Grove um they decided Cedar Grove not only violated it but when they were probing into the the personal lives of parents they didn't provide enough um uh an opportunity to opt out of the survey and enough background uh verbage so they know that they weren't compelled in any way to fulfill the survey I'll also mention that in addition to the the sex Behavior attitudes and political affiliations they also address social emotional learning activities which says that covering any method of obtaining information including a group activity not directly related to academic instruction that's designed to elicit information about attitudes habits traits opinions beliefs or feelings and any activity involved the plan systematic use of methods or techniques are not related to academic instruction as designed to affect behavioral emotional or attitudinal characteristics of an individual or group so this was struck down uh and and deemed um improper for Cedar Grove will that have any effect has that already been on your um agenda to discuss and to see if you have to adjust what you do concerning surveys question number one okay we'll let you continue okay and uh a familiar theme that that I brought up on numerous occasions um Europe is abandoning the gender affirmation model they did not find that the benefits outweighed the danger of puberty blocking of of stunting the the uh physiological development um blocking the endocrine system from its normal function did damage to Bone development brain development and that they did not see any real benefits in the gender affirming model a German study recently concluded that 60% of of children uh abandon in 5 years their their um feelings of not being comfortable you know I'm I'm not like the other boys I'm not like the other girls and they abandon those feelings so why why put them in Jeopardy physical permanent medicalization uh Oldbridge just recently turned uh and rescinded policy 5756 more and more districts now that they know that that policy is indeed uh not mandatory and this was uh brought out by the assistant Deputy or the deputy Attorney General of uh of um New Jersey why are you holding to that policy and it is a policy that also does uh make it child centered where they can socially transition in school uh basically have teachers uh lie and keep that a secret from parents why would you hold on to that policy that's question number two and I think I'll stand on that for now thank you okay uh your first question concerning surveying and the the doe uh ruling I will first uh talk to yeah Doug do do you have a were you familiar with this ruling here yeah the Cedar Grove ruling uh basically what that found the Department of Education when they issued that is that this law about uh surveys and rights and the steps that school districts have to take to comply with these rules um they they haven't changed what the finding was in the Cedar Grove case was that Cedar Grove was not abiding by that I I have found uh over my career with working with school districts across the state is that not every school district is aware um uh to the uh Mr L's question about whether that'll change practices I mean we could certainly talk with the administration if we' never had any complaints that I in the 17 years I've been working with you guys about improper surveys here uh but if there's any questions from the administration certainly will work with them uh but the rules haven't changed this law has been in place for quite a long time uh it sets forth uh if the school district is going to do a student survey about a Litany of topics uh that has to be opt in rather than opt out the survey has to be available for parent review before it is issued to kids there's a whole process to it um that does not apply to literally every survey there's a list of topics of which if it touches upon them uh in any way shape or form it has to follow these rules so the issue in Cedar Grove was after these parents filed the complaint um the department found that Cedar Grove did not comply with that with uh at least one if not a number of of surveys so um the the rules haven't changed uh my understanding is the district is currently compliant with those rules but if there's a question about any particular survey um we all have my number okay great great and uh I I'll just say as board president Dr Mato I know we do student surveys and parental surveys so if uh in the event you guys ever have any questions you know you know we have a a of legal representation here and you seem to be attuned to what's going on so do school districts often ask you for advice when when doing uh surveys uh yeah we do get occasionally I mean generally speaking the surveys that school districts are doing in terms of climate aren aren't looking at the type of things that is covered by the statute however there are you know look um not everyone if everyone was aware of every single law and regulation that governs school districts I think your heads would explode so there are times where some people might overstep I've had that issue here in woodbrige school district uh the kinds of questionnaires you've been putting out are not the things that are covered by that specific statute sure okay great great and then uh Mr Len you had asked about uh policy 5756 which uh this board has has held on to if you will and yeah I I will speak on behalf of myself uh uh I've been chair of policy and planning committee before we there there has not been been a push by any member to resend it and that's current policy uh do or or Mr sylvestro apologize okay can you can you speak to uh any of the Statewide movement on this or or any current practice or or guidance from the Attorney General's office or doe relative to polic policy 5756 certainly as Mr lond uh correctly noted it is not uh legally mandated I know there was some confusion when a lot of districts started adopting that policy that you know some of the policy companies that districts work with had labeled it mandated it is not mandated it is recommended by the Department of Education and the reason why it is recommended is that um while state law does not get into the level of detail that the policy does about how uh students who identify as transgender or transitioning or any of those kind of topics how to deal with them on a day-to-day basis which is what your policy does state law does protect through the New Jersey law against discrimination um you cannot discriminate against uh students based on their gender identity or expression that is protected by state law what the purpose of the policy is to do is to give guidance to not just families and kids but mostly your staff in if there is a transgender student issue in schools how do we respond to that in compliance with the law against discrimination the policy is based off of guidance issued by the Attorney General's office and the Department of Education to ensure that your uh actions are compliant with the state's interpretation of its a law against discrimination um so there are districts that are currently in litigation with the state about whether the recommendations from from the the Attorney General's office comply with the lad or if they can modify the the the policy you are not required to have it um the reason again why its recommendation is even without the policy it doesn't make students who identify as transgender go away you're still going to have questions about how you handle those student situations so without the policy I think the only person that makes out is my office because you'll be calling me a lot more thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr ly there any other comments or questions from the public seeing none the motion excuse me the chair will entertain a motion toj motion okay do I have a second I have a motion by Mr CH bler seconded by Mr Del picho all in favor any opposed carried meeting is adjourned [Music]