Mrs. Fano, do we lose her? Here. Oh, yes. Mr. Palma here. Mr. Petraino here. Mr. Rapaort. Mrs. Smith here. Miss Zuckerman here. Mr. Dorri here.
Dr. Modrack here. Okay. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for
all. Open public records act, please. The New Jersey Open Public Meeting Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In
accordance with the provision of the act, the Montville Township Board of Education provided a public notice of the meeting which included time, date, and location that was posted at the Montville Township Municipal Building, all Montville public schools, the Montville public library, the Montville Township Board of Education
Administrative Office Building, the district website, and advertised in the daily record, and the Montfield tap into the board's official newspapers on August 13, 2025. Okay. Thank you. Uh there are no student reports, so let's just jump in with superintendent report.
All right. Um so we've had a very busy summer. Uh the buildings are almost completed and ready to go. We have construction going on a couple of them. Uh William Mason, Woodmont uh will be done by mid uh October. And the high
school probably the same thing. Those are with the security vestibules that we're adding on to those schools. uh we have run into a slight uh issue with a contractor and then we'll we'll be uh talking about that later on with an addendum tonight u at Hilldale. So um uh
so that prop pro project will be taking a little bit longer to complete. Um on the positive news we had we offered this year uh summer enrichment program through Medlick for theater program. We had about 25 plus students participate.
That was mostly middle school and high school students. They produced uh a great show of Frozen and uh and it was just great. Friday night of the performance last week uh it was almost a standing room only. We had to get extra chairs and bring them in. So we had a
lot of support from the community and the parents and everything. So we were very excited about that. That was our first time offering that. We know this is going to continue to grow and in the future um you know we'll make some adjustments on things we learned but very excited to be offering that the
administrators for the past two days yesterday and today uh went on their annual uh retreat and so we go there and we work on a lot of different things from all the administrative things planning out the school year goals we bring in professional development speakers and we go to the exotic
location of the high school media center right here. So, that's the retreat. We just changed the seating around a little bit and uh and we bring in some food. Um we just got some good news uh just today actually
on um let's see, it was from the the rankings of the best high schools. US News and World Report uh put Montville Township High School in the top 7%. And there was another ranking. I think it was either tapped into or I don't know where they got the information, but
they ranked us in the top 15% for New Jersey. Uh with that said, if you take out the schools that are magnet schools or or things like that, uh we're definitely in the top 10% when you compare like schools. So, that's just great news for starting off the school
year. And the other good news is the federal government decided to unfreeze our title one through four money. So that that became very controversial at the beginning of the summer and uh they unfroze that money. So now we are set to
receive $177,000 and that goes to all types of programs for our students. Um so we're very happy that that money was reinstated that we receive every single year. So that that was good news. All right, the last thing is Mario, you ready? You want to skew
that up? So each year, uh, I have to read the summary report for the, uh, for this one is the 2425 school year. Uh, can you just make that a little bit bigger, Mario, if you can? Uh, and just to
quickly summarize, this is for the HIV harassment, and bullying reports. And how what they do is we have a committee of teachers, administrators and a parent. They sit in this committee and then they have this it's I don't know how many pages multiple pages long and
they look at this information and they try to see where could we do better. Do we need more professional development? Do we need more this? Do we need you know all these different things and they rate themselves. So these numbers change a little bit each year but I'm just going to quickly summarize. This is a
selfassessment scoring. So Lazar gave themselves one point higher in core element of number one which is our HIV programs and approaches as well as William Mason. Lazar then um went down one point on the training of board of ed
HIV policies. So that's something they feel they didn't do as much as they should have done last year and they will try to work on that this year. But then they decided in core element three other staff instruction and training programs they went up plus two. So um so that was
great to see. Moving over to number six, the school level HIV incident reporting procedure. Lazar gave themselves one point higher and unfortunately though they downgraded themselves two points in the core element number seven which is the investigation procedure and we've
had a lot of talks and trainings about that. So those things do adjust over the school years. And the last uh column is Hilldale went down one point for HIV reporting. So pretty consistent. It's good to see you see a little bit of
movement between the schools and the different categories. It does show you that they are taking these things seriously and uh and and looking over each one of the questions each year. So uh that's my report.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um business administrator any um just I wanted to summarize um a project that we had been working on. uh in terms of transportation. So two years ago the we came to the board and
requested the opportunity to purchase um a vehicle in order to begin to pull different uh routes that were being run throughout the district for different students back under our control. Uh currently the way that we transport the
students in Montville is that we use outside providers particularly for our special ed community. We felt that we could provide better service and we asked to do that. The board granted us that opportunity. We added an additional vehicle and this year we were a little
more ambitious in that we um requested three new vehicles. So we are at a fleet of five small vehicles. Four being 24 passengers, one being a nine passenger vehicle. And the idea here was that we
felt we could provide the services better, but we also knew that we could make savings off of the taking these these particular routes back in. Um, at this point, we have geared up for the 25 26th year and all of our drivers
schedules have now been set. We have pulled back a number of different routes. Everything from special ed to midday routes going up to County College of Mars and to uh different voc programs that are offered. And if I take the
amount that we are saving by not offering those contracts outside of the district against the cost of the drivers um and the maintenance of the vehicles, we are netting a $240,000 profit or savings as a result of pulling
those particular routes back inhouse. Additionally, we get the benefit of it being our drivers. Um there are cameras that are on order to be installed and um GPS tracking systems to be installed on
those vehicles as part of this program. And this is some of the ways that we are attempting to try to look at the programs that we have and see if we can offer them to the students at least at the same level of quality if not better
quality for less. And you are doing the training for the drivers. All the drivers are being trained. Um, which is actually a state requirement. Um, one of those trainings is to the the walking of the buses, the reviewing of
the buses, what they do when they do the drop offs, what they do when they do come back to the depot, all of that. And I just want to thank the business office and the transportation office really looking into this. uh this has been in the works for the past year and we're finally able to see significant
savings and the savings will be each year going forward. So, it's very exciting. We have more potential moving forward uh with this and this is just one of the ways that we're continuing trying to find ways to save the taxpayers the money to try and get creative with the budgets getting
tighter and tighter each year and uh we're very excited about this uh new initiative. Okay. Then uh if there are no questions, we'll move on to the uh committee reports. Karen, facilities finance. Uh thank you, David.
Um between Dr. Gorman and Miss Slunt, um that was the bulk of my report. Um good news with the buses for sure. Um good news with the title money being unfrozen and good news with the security
vestibules moving along. So, uh, I thank you as well. The community does too for your efforts in trying to secure revenue for our schools. Thank you. Uh, Michelle Curriculum. Yeah, I've been in touch with Mrs.
Woodring and we're um trying to we're going to be setting a meeting for the beginning of September. So, uh, it should be before the next the September board meeting. Okay. John, policy policy met yesterday. just microphone
policy met yesterday. Uh it was a actionpacked agenda. Uh we discussed many of the standard Strauss estimate updates to our policies to be in line with New Jersey code and statute. Uh we
also discussed cell phone usage which uh we'll talk about more in old business uh in in the high school. We discussed noise makers uh being used at the graduation ceremonies in which the
policy committee was in favor of of banning these noise makers due to, you know, just the obnoxious sound and and and pain to the ears of the people sitting in front of the people blowing those noise makers. uh especially during
the inside portions when when it was raining this year. Uh we had some complaints from the public as well on that. Um we discussed uh virtual attendance to meetings and I don't know if now is a good time to have a further discussion.
Maybe we'll talk about that in new business. And I have a lot of notes here, but mostly um of the a new policy that was mandated by the state regarding sun protection.
Uh we we have decided to move forward with, you know, just allowing students to bring their own suntan lotion in and and applying it themselves in a reasonable manner. Sunscreen. Sun sunscreen. What did I say? Santan lotion. Suntan lotion. Thank you, Karen. Some of
us Italians like suntan lotion. Yeah, you're doing a good job of that. Was in Wildwood this past week. Good thing I'm not there this week. Um, but anyway, back to the report. Uh, resignation and and removal. Some of the
the again up updates were just to be in line with the statute changes, budget preparation and that's all. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh see Joe communication no report. Okay Christine
safety you there? No report Dave. Okay. Um Karen, uh New Jersey school boards, uh during the summer, it's been, you know, pretty pretty quiet. Um however
there is some news in that the uh elected vice president of legislation who was elected in May uh has resigned the vice presidency position uh which creates a vacancy for uh VP of
legislation. The nominating committee uh has reconvened. It's the same nominating committee as the one uh that set the agenda for the May delegate assembly. Uh and so we are
encourage people if they're interested to apply. Uh the interviews will be on September 20th. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mike is not here. Joe, uh Morris County Educational Services. uh they had a meeting uh last
Wednesday uh just the same uh executive um session business just talking about uh the cost for transportation increases and demand uh sorry to decrease enrollment at the Central Park school. Okay. And then drug awareness. Uh they they don't meet again in September.
In Sep until September. Okay. John, uh athletic boosters, anything? No. And I will get you an update on when the next meeting is. It should be coming up shortly. Okay, then back to Karen. Oh, actually we'll just skip all the schools. Unless
someone has something important to say. Okay, so this is the first public participation section. If you have any comments about items on the agenda. Okay, so this would be items on the agenda. Uh we will be talking about cell
phones and uh other things in old business and new business. So if your comments are then you can come up there. Okay. So seeing none, let's move on to consent resolution items I through N.
Motion please. Moved. Second. Thank you. Any questions on the minutes? Section I, section J, section K. We have an addendum. And would you like to discuss it?
Got two agenda. Uh Okay. Yes. So the addendum in section K uh is a termination of a contract. We uh the work at Hilldale has not been uh satisfactory. So we are terminating the
contact contract with that uh provider and uh we'll be looking for a new construction company to finish that project relatively soon. So I'm asking the board to take uh um action on this and uh so we could begin the process. Any questions on that?
Okay. Uh questions on section L personnel. You have a there. Yes. So we have one retiree and just want to quickly read into it. Uh after 23 years of inspiring students with the
beauty of Spanish and Italian, Miss Diap uh Appaloo is leaving behind a legacy of language, culture, and connection. Just as meaningful is the way she has supported her colleagues, supervisors with her wisdom, kindness, and collaboration, leaving an indelible mark
on the entire Lazar school community. We wish her well in retirement. And there were also a couple other corrections to item L3. Um, correct. So, I'm just going to read them
into the the minutes here. Uh for L3 number 15, the salary is going to be changed to $390.73. Line 27, the correction for the effective date is $82525. Line 38, the correction for the salary
is 9,2818. The effective date for that the same line is January 28th, 26. Line 39 has a salary of $6,965.89 with an effective date of $82725
and a termination date of January 27th, 26. And line 56 will be struck from the uh from the uh from the minutes. And line 57, the termination date will be January 12th, 26.
The reason for all these corrections is just that there's so many things going on with hirings, people coming in and out and moving parts. Uh this is not typical to have so many corrections, but uh we wanted to get them right before we started the school year, start paying people.
Well, you've had so few in the other meetings that you had to catch up, I suppose. Okay, questions on section M curriculum? None. Uh question nothing on section N. The policies that were discussed yesterday will be first read uh I guess
next meeting. So about a vote roll call vote please. Miss Zuckerman. Yes. Mr. Dorree. Yes. Abstain on section K. Dr. Cordelino. Yes.
Mrs. Fano. Yes. Mr. Palama. Yes. Mr. Petraino. Yes. Dr. Modric. Yes. No, sorry. Mrs. Smith. Yes. And then Dr. Modrech. Yes.
Okay. Uh, let's move on to old business. Uh, this is where we can discuss cell phones. So, John, you want to Sure. I'll kick it off. Um, you know, we we brought up this a couple times now. You know, banning cell phones use in the high school. Is it appropriate? What the
best way to do it is? uh we we discussed two things really I we'll bifurcate this issue in in one what to do this year in this upcoming year and there was discussion uh really relate falling into three bucks either do nothing continue
with our policy as is to doing a ban um a complete ban just but with no real uh you know not those wanderer pouches that we discussed just banning them you know at the administration and uh teachers
policing or three just banning them in the classroom and allowing them to to use them, you know, during periods in between periods and during lunchtime. That was just for this upcoming year or or as soon as we could legally adopt a
policy, you know, for this coming year, which wouldn't which would be maybe a couple weeks or a month into the start of the school year. Um that was one issue and the other issue was going forward uh best way to get a committee together to to look at using these
wanderer pouches and doing a more permanent um ban on on cell phones. So with that, I'd like to open it up to the board, I guess, on issue one first. Well, first of all, um the what is the policy at the elementary schools in
Lazar? It's so the Well, the policy is basically recite it for you. No, it's basically there's no cell phone usage at the elementaryaries and Lazar. If you're caught with a cell phone, uh I guess they take it away from you and
either return it second off events, I think they take it away, make your parents come get it, something like that. Um and this would so the idea would be one of the suggestions was to have a Lazar type policy at the high school, right? Yes.
So that's that would be banning the cell phones but not using a wander pouch, a yonder pouch, I should say. I I just want to clarify cell phones, you're using that word generically. That means smartwatches and any other type of similar type of device. Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, I have comments, but I have a quick question first because one thing John said is keeping our policy as is at the high school. Is there a specific policy at the high school or is it just that it's allow Oh. Oh, just right. I'm sorry. I know what that is, but like
maybe clarify for everybody here what the specific policy is at the high school. Just summarize it. So, so just in a nutshell, uh, cell phones are at teacher discretion. So, some teachers have, we'll call them cell phone pouches. You come in the
classroom, they they require the kids to put them in the pouch and they're not to be touched during the class. Other teachers say they put their cell phone right there on the desk and they have to be out at all times. Some teachers say put them in their backpacks. So, it it does vary. A lot of teachers do allow them in the to be used in class what for
instructional purposes. Uh so, it does vary and right now it's it's up teacher discretion. the students are allowed to use them throughout the rest of the day. So, if they're at lunch, they're allowed to use them as well. Okay. So, um I I do want to make a couple of comments. I have some
thoughts. I completely understand where this discussion is coming from. I have believed for a long time that our generation was not prepared for our kids coming up the way they have with technology. and we're just now starting
to catch up and understand um doctors, psychologists, administrators, parents trying to figure out how to navigate it. Honestly, we're trying to figure out how to navigate it ourselves. Um I am not at this moment in favor of doing a ban at
the high school for several reasons, but I think the discussion has to proceed. Um I think it's a good discussion to have. I think that first of all I really would want I know that Mr. Sanford proactively had inter done a survey of
the staff and my understanding and tell me if I'm c categorizing this wrong is that the staff is frustrated because there's not some type of consistent policy. So, one teacher lets them be on the desk, another one collects them, and if they don't feel, I think, that they
have a consistent policy where they're this kind of police and don't know what's right or wrong, what they're supposed to do. I think that we have to help support the teachers to have a more consistent policy than what we have now. So, I definitely agree that we need to go there.
As someone who has two kids in college, I see at college that it's, you know, completely at their discretion, you know, free teach. Some teachers and professors in class will have different policies the way they have here. I don't think we're preparing students for the
reality of the world that we're bringing them to. If we just have a total ban on cell phones in high school, the fact is this is how we live today. And I want to be a responsible cell phone user. I want my kids to learn to be responsible cell phone users. Um, and I I don't think a
total ban is preparing them from high school to real life to college to jobs. I also think there's a reality that there are kids with it is how we communicate today. I recognize they have Chromebooks and there's a lot that they can do on their Chromebooks even in the classroom environment. But, you know,
checking in at lunch with a friend, a grandparent, a parent who's sick, um, I'm working after school. I might get a message from my my my job. That's a reality of how we manage life today. And so I I think there's a responsible way
to have a policy about cell phone use without banning it. And I you know you know what years ago I don't even know what happened to it. We had homework free nights. Maybe there's certain cell phone cell phone free days at lunch. try it once a month or something like that where people we can give them the
experience of understanding that level of communication that I am deeply sorry is missing you know well my kids went to college and the doors are all closed and the way we used to have everything open and it's a whole different world today but it's our reality it's the world today and I don't think we're preparing
them for real life if we just say that we're banning cell phones so I understand where this discussion is coming from I think a broader discussion has to happen I think our policy is not clear enough and doesn't support our teachers enough. And so I'd like to see policy and administration working
together. And then my other piece of it is that I really uh, you know, there's talk a little bit in the community. I think the community has heard. We're starting to have this discussion. I I know that there's some people who adamantly think that they should be banned and I think there's other people who adamantly think they shouldn't. I'm
not sure what percentage we're talking about. I'm curious, is it a vocal 20% who think it should be banned or a vocal 20% who think it shouldn't because that would help guide me as an elected official also. So, I think some type of survey to the parent community could help us. So, I don't think rushing into
a ban now personally is where I am and and unless I'm convinced otherwise, I don't see how I'd support that right now. Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, okay. I think I'm gonna somewhat the other way. Um,
at the very very least, I'd like to see a total ban in class. And I say that with a small asterisk that there are certain things like digital photography classes and things like that where the phone is an integral part of the
curriculum where you'd have to make a policy. But I think a lot of the teachers are just having a lot of problems with saying, "I can't compete with Instagram. I can't compete with Tik Tok. I'm trying to teach and the kids they're texting somebody, they're
watching a video. Um, there comes a time you say kids don't have to be attached to the cell phone 24 hours a day. Um, now during other periods of the day, I
can see some arguments both ways. I'm leaning toward a more restrictive policy because I also understand Michelle's point that says we want to prepare our kids for, you know, the real world. By the same token, they've got,
you know, from the time they're 18 on to prepare for the real world. Um, there are abuses, there's social abuses, bullying, things like that that go on with the cell phones. And I know a lot of it goes on outside school. there's not much we can do about it. There's
also part of me that says that maybe we want to teach some of our kids to say there's a way to communicate other than texting. Um, nothing drives me up a wall than when I see two kids sitting next to each other texting. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm very interested in hearing people's
perception what upon what goes on with the phone during non-academic parts of the uh day. But I would adamantly I I would definitely support a ban on
use of the cell phone during class time. I think you're detracting from class time when you when kids use a cell phone. It is a distraction and I'm sorry nobody can convince me otherwise. I know kids are out there texting and watching the phone while they should be listening to the teacher.
Thank you, Caitlyn. Um, so my feeling on this is we have the very strict policy at elementary school and Lazar. You get to the high school, you're older, you're
maturing, you take on more responsibilities in a lot of avenues of your life when you get to this age range. I don't believe high schoolers should be kept to the same strict policy as middle schoolers. They're very different
maturity-wise, mentally, and their capabilities. Um, I think the policy needs to adapt to the correct age group. I understand the importance for supporting the teachers and knowing what they need from the district, from us, in
order to feel like they can say that cell phone can't be out in my classroom. Because I get it, you don't want to be the mean teacher that like says, "No phones in my room, but next door everybody has their phones out." So, I understand the need for a stricter policy. I am very against a complete
ban. Um, I think that's treating them like toddlers. I think it's very difficult to look at this if you don't have a child in this age range or if you have older children and they didn't go through high school with this amount of
technology and cell phone use. um because it changes so much from year to year, from month to month, that these kids know more about technology than any of us do. And it's used in such a different way that I feel like it's
irresponsible to lock it up from them. Take it not, we're not talking about locking it up. It's irresponsible for us to put such strict parameters on them as if we don't trust them to learn the appropriate ways to use their phones. I think that's a disservice from all of
us. They need to figure out how to have their phones in their bags and not out distracting them while they're in classrooms. Like so it if there's a way to make the policy so that we can support the teachers to say not in my
room without having to go to the extreme. I think that's the middle ground that we need to find. Um I I don't believe telling them they can't have it at lunch is the way to go. I know there are children who have you talk about the mental health issues with
cell phones and how cell phones create anxiety and depression if they're, you know, just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Well, there's a lot of mental health issues and anxiety caused by the person who's sitting by themselves in the lunchroom because they don't know how to interact or are so stressed out
from their classes that they just want to put their AirPods in and listen to their music and decompress for 20 minutes before going on with the rest of their day. If you take that piece away from some of these kids, that will cause more issues and more harm to them. So, you have to look at both sides of the
coin. You have to see that there's pros and cons of both sides and find that middle ground. Okay. Anybody else? Um, I agree with uh my two colleagues. Um, I would not be
in favor of a total ban. Um, I did read the information that Dr. Gorman provided to us, the student cell phone use, uh, Montville Township High School teacher perspectives. And, um,
my sense was that, well, first let me say there were teachers there are teachers who allow it and teachers who don't. Um, but what I heard over and over again in this re this report was a need for a policy that gives the
teachers the ability to enforce whatever whatever they decide. Um, that's what I heard the strongest. In fact, when if you look at the some of the percentages here, the frequency of allowed use, even for classrooms that
are allowing usage, it's only 25% of the class time. Um, I would definitely be interested in hearing what the parents have to say. Um, I think we had mentioned maybe a
parent survey at at our last meeting. Um, and what I find a real interesting dilemma is what do we do with smartwatches and what do we do with upand cominging eyewear that has the
same technology as our watches and our cell phones? So, how do we how do we resolve that? Uh, I agree with the concept of being parents that are attempting to teach our
children responsible use of their cell phones. Um, when we have dinner around the table, which is unfortunately not that often, but it does happen. Um, just I insist that they put their phones away
so we can talk. Um, that's, you know, parental prerogative there. Um, so yeah, I I I would I would be in favor in beefing up the policy. I would not be in favor of a complete ban. In fact, I think the classroom is if it's going to
be used, that's exactly the location that we want them to be using them so that uh they can get, you know, whatever assignments have been assigned to them done. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. No, I I agree with my colleagues
here as well. You know, I feel like there should be some sort of policy crafted that should not be a total ban on cell phones, but to find a way to support the teachers, support the administration and give the students the option to if
they need to utilize the cell phones, use them during the free periods. You know, as as Caitlyn said, there's a lot of social anxiety that goes on some of these students. We don't want to cut them completely off. All right, Dave. Yes, ma'am.
Hi. So, I I am not in favor of banning cell phones as well. I think that um Caitlyn brought up an excellent point. um our special needs students, those who
have social anxieties, um those who are on the autistic spectrum. Um they many of them and it's not for all but really do need their phones um to help calm them down whether
it's listening to music um or playing video games and during lunchtime or a time that they have study and they have uh free time. It's it's therapeutic to them. Um secondly, I do think we need a
policy for our teachers for sure to help them. Um, and I also think that students do need that time during lunch or uh other times uh many times when uh you know my
son was in school um mom I forgot a book um he could call me or text me or uh I you know I forgot something for wrestling after practice or I called him to make sure he can make a certain medical appointment. So to have that
connection with your child during the school day, they are young adults. Um they should have that opportunity. Um and parents should have that opportunity. If a child is having a rough day, to be able to call their
parent is um is so important. um especially with with whatever someone is going through mental health or crisis at home,
it's good to have that connection. So for you know all those reasons a a policy is a great thing to think about to help support the the teachers and the staff but remembering that it's the the
students that come first and um and that is really most important. Okay. Thank you. Can I say one more thing? Yeah. Um, I think it's important to also keep in mind like when I say I'm not in
favor of banning, it doesn't mean I think the kids should be sitting there scrolling social media because I think that's what comes to mind first when everyone thinks about kids on their phone is that they're just, you know, on their apps playing games, doing social media, which I'm sure at times in the day that is what they're doing. But by
saying not to ban phones is not me saying I'm okay with that. So, I think that clarification is important because there are ways to use the phones in the classroom academically and not for
social media purposes. Um, so that plays into why I disagree with the ban. Can I just because I want to clarify because what Mike said right after he I spoke. I like I I I don't know if I made it clear that I really do believe a
policy that helps the teachers and enforces something in the classroom. I don't know what that's going to look like yet, but I I believe wholeheartedly that that is needed. Again, echoing what Caitlyn said, too, because they should never be scanning social media in class.
And so I think we need to figure out consequences if that is found out if you know what I mean or maybe it's banning it totally in class. I don't know depending but that is lacking and that is needed and that's I think where the policy discussion should focus. Okay. Thank you.
Yeah. So so I I don't think the crux of at least my reason for wanting a ban has been discussed at all yet which is the mental health of the kids. having an environment where you're not even thinking about your phone because you don't have it, your friend doesn't have
it, and nobody, you know, ideally, you know, I see arguments, you know, you want to you want to talk to your parent. Well, you have a Chromebook. You could email your parent anytime you want. Uh you could email their their their their phone number. It could go to their text. All the kids know how to do it. You
could easily get in touch with it with your parent. I don't think that's a valid, you know, re reason for needing a cell phone. I think just that that I I think that point has been being missed by some of the board members here that having that seven hours uh of
anxietyfree time a day is important for these kids. And you mentioned, you know, life preparation. you know, we we don't allow high school students, you know, unfettered access to many things because they are too young
and and you know, in to to say that, you know, in college they have unfettered access to their cell phones and that's why they need it in high school, that to me doesn't hold weight because that's another step like Mike brought up towards maturity. Uh,
and I think at this stage in these young kids' life where their minds aren't developed fully, having that anxietyfree time, even if it's not the full day because they'll have access to their phone after school is important for their development and I think it'll help
all of them uh more so than than the detriments of the arguments against it that has brought up. The other thing is someone brought up you know other devices. I think Tom you mentioned, you know, the policy would cover all other devices. So whether it's eyeglasses or smartwatches and things like that, they
would be banned as well. And then I I also wanted to remind the board, yes, we we are going to go through with surveys and um for for for both parents, you know, as long as the board president directs it. No, no. As long as the board is in favor
of doing those things. As long as the board is in favor of doing those things, I think it is. But, you know, that's more I I think for the total ban, I I think this discussion was more for I thought this discussion was more for a more immediate action for this year
alone. Um, yeah, that that that's it. That's all I got. So it sounds to me like what the everybody's saying is something needs to be done, but because it is such a hot topic,
I it sounds like nobody's ready to say like yes, either academic ban or full day ban, but more along the lines of rewriting the policy to support the teachers. Yeah. Okay. Uh before we go further, I just want I I had fun the other night um
looking into this and looking at all the different issues that people have been bringing up about this. Um I just like to go through them real quick if I could. Uh so the arguments generally in favor of allowing cell phones in schools would be for instance as an educational
tool. Okay? So you need a stopwatch or or whatever on you use your phone. The counterargument to that is you have a Chromebook and a Chromebook does everything your phone can do except social media. So, I'm not sure that really counts. Uh
the thing about modernization, you know, preparing kids for the workplace with, you know, they have access to their phones in the workplace, but if you get caught scrolling in the workplace, your boss is going to have a real problem with that. There are restrictions in the workplace, in schools, every in courts
even. you get caught with a cell phone in court, what the judge is not happy. So there are restrictions in the real world. We're not talking about doing something which is not real world. Um and but the big one is teaching
self-control. A lot of people have spoken about this. Um there's, you know, I would agree with John having unfettered access to your phone is not good. Um we're only we're not
banning the phone at home where we would be saying you can't use it in school. Six hours six hours a day not using your phone. You have it 16 hours a day at home. You have it all weekend. And if that's not enough time to have a phone,
I'm not sure what is. Uh parental involvement. Parents, in my opinion, should be teaching self-control. I don't, you know, that's not really what the teacher should be teaching. I think the parents should be more involved in that. And and to be perfectly honest, maybe separating from
your device during the day is not a bad learning opportunity. You learn, you can be away from your phone. You don't have to have it with you all the time. Okay. So, I think that's an important teaching opportunity right there. As far as
developmental readiness, they're still kids. They are not yet adults. They even adults have a hard time dealing with cell phones because the cell phone and the social media algorithms are designed to addict you.
They are they are designed to grab your attention and hold it there because that's how they generate revenue. Okay. Um, there is a cognitive burden placed on the students. It takes time to reset. Once you're distracted, it takes
time to reset where you are and get back into the lesson. So, it's a disruption to the classroom. Um, and you know, let's face it, the kids, it's very tempting. Those algorithms are really tempting. So, I think it pulls the kids away from the
important matters, which are paying attention in school. The ones uh the arguments against allowing cell phones would be it's a distraction to learning. I think all the teachers have agreed it's a distraction. Okay. Um it is definitely associated
with poor academic uh performance and I know of no study that says cell phones are linked to better performance. Okay. So if someone has that study, I'd love to see it. Um,
see it limit Oh, it limits real world interactions between people. Okay, when you get out, as I mentioned, your boss is not going to want to see you scrolling. You're going to have to talk to your employ your fellow employees, your co-workers, customers, management,
whoever, especially management who are all boomers and not really into cell phones, right? So those interpersonal skills have to be developed at some point and I think it's important even in high school that they work on those skills.
Um also the phone develops can de uh develop a dependency. I've seen kids with dependencies on their phones that they cannot they physically can't put that phone down. They are so addicted to it. It causes anxiety and it decreases
the cognitive abilities of the students. Um there's cyber bullying, social issues, um cheating. There's also the issue of privacy, people using their cell phones to videotape each other when they should not be. So those are some of the arguments for
and against. Um and I just wanted them mentioned. But now I would like to ask for consensus from the board. It sounds like we need to have um the policy committee draw up some
surveys. First thing we need to do is we need to find out from the polic uh have the policy committee draw up these surveys uh survey our parents, our teachers and even our students. You're welcome. Our students and find out their
beliefs and attitudes towards cell phones and banning or not banning. Oh, and by the way, I would I would submit that half bands don't work. I mean, that's what we have at the high school. I don't think that works. I I think that
we either need to do a full band or not a full band. But, um, first thing we need surveys. Okay. And I think this needs to go back to the policy as well, policy committee to talk about updating the current policy to be a little more restrictive
at least in the short term to give us some options about what might be possibilities that we can vote on and discuss at the next meeting. Do I have a consensus? Before Before you ask for the consensus, I would just suggest that I I know there are some members of the
public here that want to talk on this specific issue and and and not any other issue. Uh m would it make sense for the board to hear them before we I I think we're just going to stick to the schedule. But if they talk after we decide something, what's the purpose of them
being here? What do you think, Mr. I don't know how to turn the button. It was on. So, uh, I might approach this slightly differently if I may make a suggestion. I would not deviate from the schedule.
This is not the time for public participation. I would make the first big cut and ask the board for a consensus differentiating two positions. those people who want a total
ban and those people who want something other than a total ban. It sounds like the answer is going to be that a majority will want something other than a total ban. And if that's the case, then you know what to instruct the policy committee to work on.
Okay. I thought that I had Okay. And I just want to clarify the the policy committee would not be making the survey. I'd be working with my administrators to do that. I could run it by the board and the policy committee, but we would be doing all the work. Yeah, it would be good to have uh the policy
committee input at least on that if not the whole board. So, I would appreciate that. Okay. So, if I could say though, to have to make a decision now as to ban or not a total ban. I feel like I'd be making a decision based upon incomplete
data because there are we have surveys coming out. I want to hear more opinions. I mean, I I I know how I'm leaning right now, but for the purpose of just for the purpose of pointing the policy committee in a direction when they talk, not for the
purpose of making a decision for this coming year. We had discussed that this would be uh something that we would implement this year. we can discuss a you know a total ban or some other more formal policy later I think and that would be a very good thing to
do uh in the spring but I think that right so the clarification that I'm hearing is um you're going to vote right now that we're not we're going to ban or not ban the cell phones come this say October um and continue to look at this
and then probably in six months come up with a more formulated opinion and idea of what we want to do going forward for the following school year. This this wouldn't be voting on any ban or not ban. This would be asking the policy committee to come up with policy
options. We're going to ask the board now to see how many people favor a total ban because if five people favored a total ban, then you'd be giving the policy committee a different direction from if
five people didn't favor a total ban. So, you're not going to really vote so much as you're going to ask people for their point of view. Right. Okay. Um, then I would like to ask for consensus from the board. Would you be in favor of the policy
committee designing a policy in favor of a total ban? If you are in favor of that, raise your hand. Got two. I see two. If you are in favor of the policy committee creating or crafting policy that would be less than
a total ban, but still an an improvement over the current policy, a little bit more direction over the current policy. Raise your hand. So the consensus is that the policy committee should create uh draft some
sample policy to have something more uh descriptive than what we currently have but not be a total ban. And I just want some clarification on that. So am I doing the surveys and and
getting a high school committee together to inform the policy committee which this is going to take a couple of months. So it's not that like the policy committee is going to come up with something in the next Well, they can they can work on their own but but don't they want to wait till we get
a little more input from yes people or I think so I think we need the the data before we can come up with the original thought of of the policy committee was to first come up with something for this year more immediate uh and not wait for the surveys to come in. the the the thought was to wait for
surveys for next year and when we make a more permanent policy. So, I mean I I I feel like we're going in the direction of, you know, now we're going to, you know, it's back to the policy committee by the time next meeting comes. Uh we're going to we
might have surveys in we're going have to wait a couple months. I I don't see the direction. I don't see that the majority of the board thinks we need an immediate total ban action. Like I I'm s I'm hearing that the board thinks we need to do something, but immediately acting for a
ban in the next month is not how we're feeling comfortable moving. So I know that the policy committee discussed that respectfully, but I just don't think that I feel comfortable and the majority of the board feels comfortable doing that so quickly like that. I wholeheartedly agree this has to happen. It just has to happen in the right way
with the right input, the right, you know, um thinking it through and and and defining where that policy is. Also, I don't know if Steve would be the one. I am I know that it was I I wasn't available, but I know that there was a trip to Ramsey High School, which is a school that is doing a total ban, but
I'd like to hear what other high schools who are doing more part partial approaches like are there schools who have made policy that is somewhere in between. So, like I just I think there's more research and more data to do. We need to do something especially because the teachers are struggling with how to deal with in their classrooms that I
don't think anyone disagrees with. And I think we all agree there's bad things about the cell phones and like you know bad things but I I I'm not sure that everybody understands there are reasons why we can't I very much believe we can't do total ban. So I think we need
to find middle ground here. I think it's just saying but this direction we've given to formulate a policy for a less than a total ban I think is such an illdefined direction. I mean, how do we define less
than a total ban? Is a total ban banned for everything but lunch? Is it banned for everything but lunch and the time between periods? I mean, I don't really We're trying to tell the administration come up with a policy when I don't even
think we really know what we want. Okay. I'm going to say that my my request of the policy committee is not that you create one policy, but you create your options. What are the policy options? Create a couple of them that
can that you feel span the width of the comments that you've heard tonight. And I would ask that the superintendent uh start with preparing the surveys and that you at least run those surveys by the policy committee before sending them out. But I would like to get them out um
sooner than later. You know, early in September would be best um if possible. Um although probably later in September. Yeah. I mean, we have to think about this because if I'm going to form a a policy committee at the high school and get input for what questions we're going
to be asking, things like that, I mean, October is more realistic that I'd be able to get something out to the public or to start talking about this. Okay. Then then if it that's reasonable, then that's what we have to go with. But I think in the meantime, John, you need to start talking to the policy committee
members and start formulating some policy options for us. and then we'll just discuss those at the next meeting. Just to be clear, for the surveys of the parents and the teachers and the students,
is that going to be limited to only a partial ban or are we going to ask them if No, it's it's about u their attitudes and beliefs around cell phones. It's not about it. It can be questions about do you support a ban, but it should also be
questions about how do you use cell phones, how much do you use cell phones, how do they affect your work, how do they affect your, you know, mental status, how do they, you know, how do you feel about interacting with people? There are those types of questions and those are in the survey questions. Um, and that's what's going to be discussed
amongst the committee that he forms. Dave, may I ask a question? who I believe this survey if it's only affecting the high school students and teachers I would only ask that the survey goes to those folks because when
I speak to elementary middle school they're they love they really want a ban but they already kind of have one it's the older students I think that should be focused on um and their families I
you may have said it but maybe I didn't here. Well, yeah. Um, as Steve pointed out, eventually all those parents will be high school student parents. Um, I I think maybe if you want to include um some demographic information that we can
split out the high school parents from the middle school and elementary school parents. I think that would be a reasonable thing to do and that's easy enough to do once you have that demographic information. You can parse your data easily that way. So we can take a look at that and see what if there's a difference between the high
school, middle school, and elementary. Yeah. Because they have different experience and they they're living through it. So yes, as we all live through the document that was given to us by Dr. Gorman, the student cell phone use, um what the teachers are asking for is not
a district-wide policy. The teachers are asking specifically for a schoolwide policy, which is the high school. So there's, you know, that that should be clear from the get-go. Okay, John. Understood.
Yeah, because that was my understanding. Okay, wonderful. Thank you for that productive old business. Let's move on to new business. Uh, Zoom callins. Hi Christine. Um, so there was a discussion about
calling in to the meetings. Uh currently our policy does not forbid it. It does not specifically say anything about Zoom call-ins. Um and so during the policy meeting, we had discussed whether or not to have Zoom
call-ins. So John, you want to Yep. That that that came up. Um I'm still not exactly sure what the the the reason for that was, but it did did come up. and this is the first virtual call-in we've had in in my two and a
half years on the board. Uh thanks Christine for breaking the mold. Um I think it's an excellent resource. I don't think we should really change the policy at all because it's not something that's being abused or taken advantage of in any way. I like the flexibility of
being able to call in virtually personally even though I haven't used that. uh and and you know I I could understand from some of the policy committee discussion that maybe we should put something in place so it doesn't get abused in the future. Um
with that said, I think there was some discussion on maybe making a cap for, you know, how many virtual colons you're allowed per year. Uh but you know, my my opinion is we don't need to change anything. Let's find out real quick from Steve.
What is the law? Here's what the current state of the law in New Jersey is. There is no requirement to allow remote participation. There is no prohibition against allowing remote participation
with one exception. You may not have remote participation for closed session. So this is purely a discussion about what happens in open session. The rules have been the same for decades. A
person, unless the board chooses to ban it, a person may participate remotely if they make arrangements in advance. And the arrangements are such that the person participating remotely can hear
everybody and everybody can hear the person participating remotely. It does not need to be Zoom. It has traditionally been a telephone. So it can be any kind of electronic communication device. Uh it is common in districts
that do have written policies to as John said uh limit or I think it was John might have been somebody else limit the number of meetings a person can miss and participate in remotely so it doesn't become an every meeting thing. Uh it is
not permitted to have a majority of the board participate remotely. In order to have a lawful quarum, you must have a majority of the board at the meeting. Other than that, you can do pretty much whatever you want. And what about committee meetings? So
policy curriculum meetings. Committee meetings are not public meetings. You can do whatever you want. Okay. Well, close session isn't public, but closed session isn't a committee meeting. I know, but we you can't have a call-in for a close. You can't have a call-in for a closed
because there are privacy concerns. If you have a an executive session and you have Christine participating remotely, we although I trust Christine completely, we really can't be sure that there isn't somebody sitting on the
other side of the room or that this transmission isn't being susceptible to being heard by somebody else. That's the reason for the close session. Thank you for the clarification. Okay. Um does anybody have any other
comments about this? I have a question. How did this come about? Why did we start discussing this? Because it came up that there were um there was no policy basically. Uh there had been talk about having Zoom callins or remote call-ins. We've had them in
the past. Not that I recall. I recall having almost 20 years. Really? I I seem to have a recollection of one. I go back longer than 20 years and I can tell you without doubt this board has had remote colons for
participation in meeting. I've set them up. Not that I recall, Steve. No, I did. I I actually um when uh we voted as a board to hire Superintendent
Gorman, I felt it when I was not um there, I felt it was very important for me as a board member to support our new superintendent and to vote for him with my voice.
and um superintendent um our last superintendent used her cell phone so that I could participate and I was able to hear everyone and I was so pleased and and tonight I wanted to be a part of the meeting because I knew you were going to
be talking about cell phones and community members have shared their thoughts with me and as a volunteer as an elected person I felt it was my obligation even though I'm on vacation to be with
all of you and share my thoughts and concerns and um if there was a policy to uh to vote for it. Um but I'm glad I'm here. Okay. Thank you. Uh I'll be honest, I'm
not in favor of calling in. I do believe that we have an obligation to be here. I have changed my travel plans personally to be here so that I could just be here in person. Um I think it's important because again you get facetime you get
to interact with your colleagues in a more direct and personal way. I think it is important to be here as much as possible. I understand that there are times there are causes where you cannot be here at a meeting. Uh
but I think that in general every effort should be made to attend meetings. Every effort should be made to attend them in person. And I'm worried that if we don't have something that sometime in the future someone could abuse it.
Okay. Someone could say, "Oh, I don't want to be at that meeting because that group is coming and they're going to create grief." Right, Mike? But you could get that done though and just be absent. It It's more for you know when you can't make it but you
really want to vote on something that that's when it comes in and and to have that flexibility to take that flexibility away in today's world I think is is Don't you know the calendar ahead of time? Didn't you get a calendar at the beginning of the year when we had our meetings?
If someone if I want to book a trip to Italy a year from now, I'm not I'm not looking at the board agenda calendar. I'm sorry. Well, first and third Tuesdays of the month, count on them. So, I just want to clarify. My understanding is because we don't have a policy, we
follow the law. And the law the law is is that it's allowed just like Christine is allowed to do it tonight. And our discussion is should we write a more specific policy either saying it's not allowed at all or it's allowed unlimited
or it's allowed maybe with some type of limitation like you could do two a year, you know, or three a year. Is that is that am I understanding where we are correctly? Okay. Yes. So um again the directive of the consensus of this board could be to go
to the policy meeting policy committee and define a policy for us. So I mean I I wouldn't be opposed to having a policy I feel like with some limitations. I think that, you know, there could be re,
you know, legitimate reasons. Um, but, you know, maybe a limit to like two a year or something like that would would would feel right just not having really thought or talked about it, you know, too much more. But like I I I I could be in favor of that with I think some
common sense limitations. And can I Steve can I ask you in the districts that have limitations on call-in participation? What are the typical limitations that are put? Exactly what people have been talking about here uh not more than two or three
times a year. Certainly don't want people doing it at every meeting. Um, I've been here uh quite a while now and uh first my my memory is different from Karen's because I've arranged these uh
for this board. But the fact of the matter is that I don't think there's anybody here who could say that board members have even tried to abuse the possibility of participating remotely. This is a board that shows up.
The the other limitation would be uh that we need uh adequate notice. So it can't just be a half hour. Most most board policies provide for either three or five days notice. I've seen some provide for seven days notice. Okay. So
would I would I be wrong in saying that the consensus of the board would be to go back to the policy committee John more work? Sure. And devise a more explicit policy on permission to
have remote callins allowing it with some limitations on the number and the days in advance. Is that the general consensus? Do can I have a show of hands if that's your view? Okay, there we go. So, John, if you
could please give us some options. Okay. Okay. Would this be a time to express our opinion as to what that option should be? Yeah, go ahead. General board comments. Yeah. Um, philosophically,
I fundamentally tend to agree with Dave in the spirit of being trying to be consiliatory. My personal opinion would be that if we're going to allow a remote meeting, the condition should be perhaps no more
than one a year on the condition that you're out of state or some such thing. I don't want anybody saying, well, you know, I get one mulligan a year where I can do a remote board meeting. now feel like getting out of my pajamas. So, I'm just going to do this one board. This is going to be my yearly board meeting
because I can do it. And I know we said our people show up. That's this board. We're not all going to be on the board together at the forever. Yeah. So, um John, I guess think of some we'll come up and Mike, you'll be in
that meeting so we could talk. But think of some contingencies, some options for us to discuss and then we can I just want to say one thing. I understand the out ofstate thing but theoretically you could be sick. Yeah. And in state and like but able to participate. So just think of that too.
So that's you know again that's what you need to think about those contingencies and those things. Yeah. Get creative John. Get creative. Have fun. We have some anxious members of the public. I know. Okay. So are there any other
general board comments? I think we're going to leave the call in the call in participation and cell phones behind and move to any other general board comments. I can't make a last comment. No. Oh, well, I'm going to anyway. I'm sorry. Of course you are. Um, I I think we also need to be mindful
of how many board members can participate at any one time. Now, I know Steve said it can't be a majority, but it also shouldn't be four. Um, and you know, we were elected to show up and so
I view the virtual communication more as a privilege um, than anything else. And I don't think it should be done for convenience. Um, and I don't think it's so terrible that, you know, if if you're sick, you
stay home and you be sick and you're absent from your board meeting. Um it's not the worst thing in the world. Yeah. Okay. Um thank you. And there should also be a couple of narrow circumstances in which uh that
type of communication is allowed. So John got those notes right? Got them all. Okay. Good. Glad you've been taking notes. Awesome. If there are no other comments about other topics from the board. Okay. I see no more. I would like to
open this for public participation on any topic that you would like to address the board on. It can be anything at all. I see people here. Would you like to come up and speak? Please give us your name, your address, and try to limit your comments to five
minutes. Sure. Elena and from Tawako. Um, and I want to talk about the cell phone ban conversation you guys have been talking about. Um, I would challenge you as you kind of explore the options that are on the table. I'd really challenge you to
not allow your emotions to get in the way of what is best for our students. A lot of people uh raise the question of what do parents want, what the teachers want, what the statistics show, and you know the statistics, the science really
is pretty strong in favor of banning cell phones. And to do that for academic improvement, over 6% improvement for reducing classroom distractions, which 72% of teachers claim cell phones cause
to enhancing focus. It takes up to 20 minutes for a child to um regain focus after they've been distracted by a phone. It decreases bullying by as much as 40%. That's a huge number. It is good for their mental health. And um
gentleman over here mentioned, you know, give me a statistic where cell phones help your academic um performance. I would challenge everybody to find a statistic that shows that cell phones at high school um improve a child's mental
health or improve their bullying status or improve any of the other concerns that everybody here has raised. Um, you don't have a modful uh survey, but a national survey shows that 81% of teachers think that cell phone bands
are beneficial, that 74% of adults support cell phone bands across the country. Um, it really is something that is um that I think our students are crying out for but can't verbalize it
and won't verbalize it for the peer pressure, you know, reasons that they're all dealing with. Um, you know, a number of you have mentioned preparing kids for real life. So, as an employer, I can't tell you the number of times I
have um wanted to fire to lower pay um and have reprimmended my employees for using their cell phones at the job. You do not learn how to be a productive member of this society by having your
cell phone off to the side and playing along, which is what kids are doing. So, you know, if the concern is total band, they need to reach their parents, whatever, you can create very, very easy um opportunities for kids to have access to their phone. So, they're going to
have in their backpack, right? Maybe they get in trouble if they show them if it's if they're visible in the hallways, in during lunch, wherever they are during free time. Give them 10, 20 designated areas around the school where they can enter and use their phones as they see fit to talk to their parents to
deal with emergencies to have that moment if the autistic or mentally, you know, any child needs to connect or decompress. Give them spaces where they can use their phones for short periods of times if it's an emergency. But to have it on them all day long, um, you
know, you're giving them a drug that's not good for them. And you know, I'm going to end this as I started. Please, please, please do not allow your emotions get in the way of what best for all of our kids, please. Okay. Thank you very much for your
comment. Does anybody else wish to speak on any topic? Hi. Could you just provide your name, address, and limit it to five minutes, please? My name is Rebecca Portman. My name is Rebecca Courtchman. I live at 20 Nathan Drive. So, as an incoming freshman this
year, I'd like to talk from like the students perspective on the cell phone like topic. So, most of my friends or most of the people I know that are in high school or going into high school would all like love a break from their phones or love that six hours a day where they could have that break and not
have to look at their phone and not cuz like it's really hard when you have your phone around to not like be stressed out about, oh, what's going on on like social media or what's going on on my phone? What if my friend's trying to reach me and I'm not like answering? Are they going to get mad at me? Then if they know that I can't look at my phone,
they're not going to get mad at me and then I'm not going to be stressed. So, um, banning those phones for the full day are a going to make help most kids be less stressed. And while kids will complain because they don't want to look stupid in front of their peers, I think
most kids will be happy. Like I will I would personally be really happy if that was banned. Um, phones are also used as a crutch in awkward situations. So like during lunchtime, people would be sitting on their phones instead of interacting. I've had social parties and situations where people are just on
their phones and it makes it so so so much harder to interact with everyone. And um as someone who doesn't use my phone as much as home, I know that for it's really hard for me to like go somewhere and see people on their phone and I'm thinking they don't want to hang out with me anymore. And I would urge
the board to join thousands of schools nationwide that have banned these phones and many more around the world. Um, and let's make the high school a better place. So, thank you. Thank you very much for coming out. I hope you join the student government when you get there.
Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Please, sir. Name and address and Hi, my name is Scender. I'm from Montville and I'm an addict, right? I'm an addict to this thing. We all are. I heard a lot of things people said about
responsibility, about maturity. The reality is the technology today has far outstripped the maturity of the average child. Forget the average 48-year-old. Yeah, I run my own business. I I'm addicted to this thing and it drives me crazy.
How can we expect children to have the same level of responsibility when if you walk into any restaurant in town, any other place in town, any dinner table in town, despite whatever responsibilities we say we claim on them to not violate
everybody. Every parent checks, every child checks, it becomes the defect de facto babysitter across restaurants, across dinner tables, across every situation. Our society is addicted. And the reality is as an employer,
as somebody who has 20 lives responsible, I'm responsible for 20 lives. Some of the things that I tell them is first thing when you're reading a contract, when you're reading, when you're we're putting something together of high importance, first thing I tell them to do is put this aside, put it on
mute, get it in another room. You cannot concentrate for an extended period of time with that thing buzzing around you. The reason why is we all have FOMO. So we can talk all we want about social media. It doesn't matter social media. It matters about if your friends are
talking, if something is going on, if there is a buzz. It's not just Facebook. It's not just Instagram. It's are your friends talking? So if we're going to have all the kids have a ban, we're going to remove that sense of FOMO so they don't sit there and start thinking what are my friends talking about? And I
understand all the perspectives of those that that may not have as much social capacity or or or whatever it may be. And but I think we're perpetuating it. I think the cell phone and the whole world perpetuates that. My wife is an
educator. So I'm not just talking from a total ignorant perspective. My wife comes home and she tells me about the pitfalls that she sees in education. And a lot of it has to do with bullying that starts in the classrooms with the FOMO that goes on in those classrooms.
We can't talk about responsibility. I mean, she gave a very heartfelt discussion and we're hearing from somebody who's of the prime demographic kind of pleading. My wife is also pleading as an educator. She's not in this district, but she represents
educators from around the area, New Jersey, United States, the world. But yet we're still sitting here saying we should have connectivity to them. There is not one person in my generation and I'm late cycle Gen X, okay, that
couldn't tell you at one point that we don't have fond memories of a time before cell phones. Everybody here, anybody over the age of 35 has a fond memory of times before cell phones because yes, they were supposed to create connectivity, but
actually they went the other way and they disconnected us. And the times before cell phones were some of the most fondest memories we had. And if we can create that for six hours, just six hours for these children, I think we're doing them a much better
service than we are by trying to create all these exceptions. Thank you. Thank you very much. And by the way, for my fellow board members, FOMO is the fear of missing out. And it is a real thing. The fear of
missing out is a real thing amongst kids. Okay. Hello. Hello, Melissa Beno. Changing the subject just a little bit. Okay, Dr. Gorman, it's coming up on social media for like the 70th time. If you could repeat yourself for probably the
71st time, maybe we can cut it at the bud. Um, the reason that the school uh year is starting so early again and I'll put it in an article and maybe it won't have to be repeated the 73rd time. Sure. I mean, it might be better for me
to just uh email you that tomorrow. Um, but just in general, um, because there's like seven or eight different reasons that we've listed over the the months. Uh, right. So, um, you give the top ones because people will Yeah. So, so you know, we have a majority of our high school students
that come back for athletics, for band, and for other activities. They're already they already started this past week. Uh, so they're already here in the school system. Um, we have uh students that are taking the AP exams. If you start the school year a little bit earlier, you're giving them a little bit
uh more or actually you're leveling the playing field with the rest of this the country that our kids are always behind with studying for the AP exams. You're giving a little bit more instructional time for us to be able to have our students perform well on our state assessments as well. Um, so those are
just top three I I give you right there. And I'll I'll give you more in the uh for the article. Okay. Could I just also point out you're not losing vacation time, you're just shifting it to a different time. You still get your entire summer break. Correct. Ex. It's just a shift. And you
know what? You actually benefit from cheaper rates down at the shore in June. You know, if you want to take your vacation a little earlier, but Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on a topic? Okay, we have one more. Hello.
Hi. Is this even working? Do you need it? Is that working? Yes. Um on. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Um my name is Katie Soil. I live at 7 Earl Court uh in Montville. Um and I'm here to talk about um a pretty
serious issue that recently occurred. Um one of the students at the ESY program um was left on a bus for two and a half hours in the parking lot, as I'm sure you are all very aware of. um and uh the parents of students who receive special
services. Um all of us uh many of us I can't speak for all of us but many of us are very concerned about the safety and security of our most vulnerable students. And frankly we are looking for some more accountability um for this major failure of policy that led to two
hours elapsing before anyone even realized that the student was missing. um and calling the parents to notify them that their student wasn't there that day. Um and this lack of a policy in place to account for our most vulnerable students is frankly
unacceptable and it's extremely scary um for a parent. Uh, I have two non-speaking children who cannot communicate, who cannot say a single word, who cannot tell you that they are in duress, they cannot unbuckle themselves from the bus, and they are
the most vulnerable people in this town. Um, and frankly, there has not been much accountability for this issue. Um, it wasn't even disclosed to us immediately. It took, you know, several weeks. Um, and you know, while we understand that there was a criminal investigation, this
is a serious serious lapse of keeping our children safe. And a parent needs to know these things in real time so that we can make the decisions for our children about what is safe or not. I personally was sending my children on the bus for two more weeks after this
occurred. I saw things happening that were a little confusing. my one son's backpack came home with a a a placard on it with his bus information on it all of a sudden randomly out of nowhere things were happening and I know that the board and the school was working to improve
things at that point and we do appreciate that and we appreciate all of your work but the fact is is that we were kept completely out of the loop completely in the dark and this is one of the scariest things that a parent can go through frankly um I personally was crying for weeks thinking about these
children who I personally know as well being the class parent for both of the Lyft preschool classes this past year. Um, and thinking about one of their faces sitting on one of the buses and easily could have been one of my children. Um, so I really do want the board to take this seriously. I don't
even know if the broader Montville community is even aware of this issue that occurred. Um, and frankly, I think that it's important that they do know that this occurred because there are students that are at various academic levels and ages who are not just elementary students who are very much
vulnerable as well because of their abilities and their uh, you know, struggles in life. And, you know, I think that the broader community really needs to know more about this and what the district plans to do to rectify this situation. Um, and while we've had some,
you know, really helpful ideas and and Dr. Gorman, I really appreciate your attention to this matter. I will would really appreciate for the entire board to to really think about this seriously. Um, I feel that it's very important that we implement some nonhuman-based
protections for our children and use technology since we have it. I personally think that using ID badges so that when children can get to the school, they get checked in, they scan their badge, and parents get an immediate notification that they are there or not there. um this would
eliminate so much time in these types of situations where time is very much of the essence. Um and I think that's very important as well as um providing aids on buses for our most vulnerable children. I know a lot of parents have been commenting about this and even
though these things are dealt with on an individual basis a lot of the times in IEP meetings. Uh the fact is is that many parents have expressed me personally included in one of um these issues uh have expressed that my children do need an aid and in the past
I was denied that. Um and this is for three-year-old non-speaking autistic children. Um, so it's scary. Um, just like it would be scary if we sent our child in an Uber with one person alone randomly. It's just not acceptable,
frankly. Um, so I really think that the board should consider that seriously, especially for certain age ranges and making it a standard policy that our children have AIDS on those buses in case of an emergency. Let's say a bus driver has a heart attack on the route or they go into labor. We actually had a bus driver who went into labor one of
the days and the next day. She didn't show up. Thankfully, it didn't happen on the bus. Um, and I do have to say that I personally, we have had AIDS on my buses, but I do know that there are several families who have had uh issues and they have not had AIDS on their buses for similar um age children with
disabilities. So, I really appreciate if you guys would, you know, put some really serious attention on this and and look at creating some really kind of uh error proof um policies that can keep our children, the most vulnerable
children, especially safe. Um, and I really would also appreciate that we never use Jersey kids transportation again. Okay. So, Tom, you want to Thank you. Um, sorry. Are there any other comments from the public about any other topic
that they wish to address to the board? Seeing none, I'll close the public participation. So, yes, just to address that last issue, um it is extremely serious situation. It is our worst nightmare. Uh we treat the children when they come to
our schools like they're our own. Uh we know you give us your most prized possession, your children, and and we take that very seriously. Uh we were very upset. We had a number of staff members that were crying as we we were trying to work the situation. Uh the board of ed was notified immediately.
The police were notified immediately and we worked cooperatively and were able to identify where the child was within 20 minutes once we were notified of that. Um the uh division of child protective services was also notified and they're aware of it and the prosecutor's office
is aware of it. So nothing was swept under the rug there. Since it was an active investigation uh of criminal nature, the um the we did not notify the public right away. Uh uh notice did go
out and I did apologize to the special ed parents that I wish we I I was able to communicate a little sooner. um there was a miscommunication there or or just a missed opportunity to get the information out prior to the media press
release by the prosecutor's office. Uh but immediately the next day after this incident occurred, uh protective measures were put in place so the ch children were not um uh put in danger uh because we were being negligent in any
any way. So the next day we had different procedures put in place. We notify the parents several days later and about those new procedures and uh and they're in place right now. We are looking into new software to better communicate with the parents next summer
and uh we are looking into seeing what the software things can do with the ID system that you just um suggested. Prior to this incident, over the past year, as you heard in the beginning of the evening, we've been looking in getting our own mini fleet, and we've been saving a lot of money going forward next
year with our own mini fleet of buses that we have a lot more control over. We hire these drivers, we train them, and they are going to be dealing with our most vulnerable uh special ed population and other kids that have special needs. So, we're very proud of that and we're going to be bringing that in house and we're going to be retrofitting these
buses with GPS systems and uh some cameras that are internal. So, that was all in place prior to this incident uh notifying the uh the community. The letter did go out to the community as well as uh I think it was picked up by the local uh social media newspapers as
well. So, uh that's where we are. I also held a 30 minute presentation uh last week with the special ed parents. That presentation and question and answer session is on our website for anybody to view if they want. You'll see the presentation, you'll see all the
questions that the parents had, all the answers that we provided and then anything that came up impromptu after that. So, we do take this seriously. we are moving forward with these things I just suggested and maybe some more that were on that website and uh we look for better things to come in in the near
future. The last thing I just want to add is there was procedure there were procedures in place including that it is a law for the driver of a bus to when they come to the school to get out of their seat walk to the b back of the bus clear the bus make sure there's no
students on there and then again when the driver goes back to the bus depot to do that. The law was not followed and unfortunately uh this bus driver is being charged with a seconddegree crime. So it wasn't that things weren't in place. It's just certain things weren't followed and it was extremely
unfortunate. So, we are putting extra measures in place by having our own staff members go on the bus of these special ed runs to make sure uh uh it's a double procedure. So, the bus driver is going to do it and then we're also going to be doing it with our own staff to make sure nobody's being left behind.
So, um and then this is how we're going to be going forward. Thank you. If if I could also add that um I have had an experience in this town or in this district where my daughter got out of school at the end of school when she
should not have and I contacted the building super uh building principal and things were immediately changed when this incident happened. I spoke to Tom that afternoon and immediately he changed the polic he changed his procedures to try to update them to try
to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. Sometimes I hate to say it, you don't know if there's a if something needs to change until something happens. But I commend the administration on the responsiveness. They have always, in my opinion and
experience, been responsive to the safety and security of the students in this district. And so I appreciate the changes that have been made and I think that he's going to increase um those procedures and and the security of the
students in other ways as we go forward. So thank you. Okay. So I guess that is it. I ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting. So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor? All All not in favor? None.