if there are any. Um, yeah. [Music] So, I'm going to call the um meeting to order and ask um um or nominate Mary to be the secretary
for our meeting uh this afternoon. Um is all in favor or I you second it. So, so I'm going to call the um meeting to order and ask um Okay, that was always scary. All right.
Um, so we'll have a roll call. We'll call to order at 5:06 p.m. And I'll have a roll call. Um, Mr. Donnie. Miss Handy here. Miss Malli, I'm here.
Mr. Malmood is absent. President Broen here. Please join me in a flag salute. Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Pursuant to the open public meetings act, advanced notice has been given to the star ledger, the record and the clerk of the village of Rididgewood. In addition, notices were posted in the
office of the board secretary and in all school buildings. Uh we could have public comment if there are any. There's no one here in the audience. We do have some hands raised. Okay.
Um Cynthia, hi good afternoon. Um Cynthia O'Keefe, Rididgewood resident. So um I'm dialing in and you know I have a question two questions actually. One is about the feasibility study. I believe the board
of ed um has finalized that and then passed it over to the uh the parks and wreck group to I guess review. Um, and I think that there's going to be a meeting. It might include BOE. It might include some village um people and uh
the sports organizations. I believe it's going to be organized by Carolyn Holt who's the um member at large. And I wanted to know if the public would be invited to that meeting or if it's an internal meeting. Um, and one of the questions I have um is the turf at
Benjamin Franklin. So, you know, one of the projects would be the expansion of the BF field into more of a sports complex type arrangement. And there were several conflicting statements. One from Dr. Schwarz. I know he's not there tonight, but he did say it was going to
be grass, but then at the fields committee, I heard it was going to either be turf or a combination of turf and grass. So, I was wondering if you could shed some light on that. I also wanted to quickly mention and I don't know if you saw the Ledger Star Ledger
article about um a coach that um was coaching soccer for many years in Ridgewood as part of the Maroons. She was fired over speaking publicly about artificial turf. Um and I guess my question relates to um members of the
board. I know Mary Lou Handy is also a coach for the Maroons. And how does that um is that a conflict of interest with your, you know, your um I guess status on the the board of education in terms of artificial turf, whether it sways
your decision or doesn't sway your decision or you prefer not to say. Um were you asked to sign a contract with the maroons because, you know, apparently that's why this person was fired. Very disappointing uh that it's come to this in our community. Um, but
those are my questions for this evening. Thank you so much. Thank you. Amy, uh, you're on with the board. Hi. Um, Amy McCambridge. Um, again I just want to ask one direct question and
that goes back to where does the board of education stand on installing artificial turf on any more board of education fields? Um, because from what I've witnessed, it's not clarity, it's a collapse. I remember Schwarz speaking
out many, many times saying that they were not going to install any more turf at all at BF anywhere. Um just at the other fields meeting you guys had a representative there who who was like trying to stand his ground and it was pretty awesome uh to see him do that but
he was clearly pressured to back down by the presidents of the boards of these youth sports. The tension was so obvious. So let's like honestly call it what it is. It's intimidation and politics not student safety. And now it looks like the board of education is
folding quietly and conveniently. So again, who here is protecting our kids? It's not just about turf. It's about 180 degree heat on summer days. It's about pee bass, chemicals, microplastics, toxic runoff. It's about ignoring the environmental science and pretending
that the consequences don't exist. And we've asked the hard questions so many times to you guys. Has the soil been tested? Has the water run off been analyzed? Has anyone contact Mount Sinai, Dr. Evans, or any environmental environmental expert? And the answer is
still silence. And I want to be clear, I am the coach who lost her job. I did not lose my job because I was unqualified. And I just want to make it clear. Um Mary Lou is a parent coach. There's a difference between us professional trainers who do this for a living and parent coaches. Um the Maroons made it
very clear to me that um if I didn't align with their values um and I think one of their values is keeping kids safe. So I think they're in direct violation of their own values. um you know, there was going to be some issues and I'm not going to ever be intimidated
by something that when it comes to our safety and our kids. Um and because I said what too many people are afraid to say that this is not safe, it's not ethical. It's not leadership. I've trained female athletes for nearly two decades in this town. I've worked with
environmental health scientists. I protected players long before turf contracts and back room pressure made it politically inconvenient. And now I hear the village manager saying there's 40,000 turf fields in the US. That that's just blatant lies. Like when do we hold anybody accountable in this
town? What's happening here is not strategy. It's surrender. And you guys weren't elected to surrender. You were elected to lead. And if you can't look a parent in the eye and say that we've tested, we've checked, we put your children first, then you've already failed. And I just want to leave you
with this. You still have the chance to do the right thing, to listen, to learn, to lead. But if you choose not to understand this, this is not going away. Because the moment you ignored the science, dismissed the safety, and silenced any voices from telling the truth, you didn't end the conversation.
You guys just ignited it. And now it's not just Ridgwood watching. You've got towns, you've got states watching what's happening here. And and we're coming. We're not going to stop. And the fallout is going to be yours to manage. So, I hope that
you know it's true that you're not going to cave in and you're going to do right by these students. And I could be wrong and if I'm wrong, I apologize. Thank you. Thank you. Being no more public comment, I'll close
the comment period. Um, at this point there is no plan to uh turf BF that I'm aware of. Um, so um and um our member at at large of the is for the
fields committee is Marylu. So I don't see that as conflict. You're a parent, you're a volunteer, right? So um and um yes we will be meeting with um a group of
community members who had we'd met with before um probably what would you say sir Rob maybe a year ago um or a year a little over a year ago maybe yes um with
discussions and that what which um caused us to do the feasibility studies. Um so I not sure where we stand with a feasibility study, but um at the next meeting maybe we can get you that answer. I mean it's complete. I'm just
don't know if it's 100% complete um if all the questions were answered um when uh Dr. Schwarz uh was reviewing it. So um thank you for your comments. I'm going to move to go into um executive
session. I hereby move that the board go into executive session pursuant to NJSA 10 col4-12 to discuss matters pertaining to personnel. The minutes of this closed session will be released when the need
for confidentiality no longer exists. May I have a second? All in favor? Um and uh we will not be back um into public session again and we will be here next Monday for our regular
uh board of education meeting.