BOE Members Clarify Tiny Tots Issue

hi my name is Kesler this iskin y Sil call think for members of the Board of Education of Lakewood um we're here today to discuss the uh meeting and the information and accusations that are going on about the recent HS issue um and we would like to just give a little bit of a Viewpoint and some facts that may have gotten missed or lost in the shuffle the reason why we're here today is because were concerned about all the children of Lakewood I would like to add to that that the reason why we are not only here today but the reason why us four were there last night as well is because we care about all the children of lwood um many of you have been following the story on the scoop and in other places where you know tinyat didn't have the program and they got back the program together with the public school program this has been going on for a number of months now um in the end T has was awarded the contract however the state came to inspect not only did they fail on their facilities they failed on their program they failed on their curriculum and they failed on the proper licenses that teachers were required to have um as such the States's report and I just like to mention that the one who made this report is the one who has full authority to withhold payment of the $4 million in state a clearly stated that payments will be withheld in its totality if we go through with this contract having said that we were basically left without any choice but to bring it back in District at last night's meeting it became apparent that most of the parents of the children currently in Tiny toats have an issue with moving the program onto a Public School site as such a proposal is being floated to move the program onto a different site possibly The Current River Avenue site the only obstacle to this option is the fact that the current River Avenue site is leased by tiny tots and we would require Tiny Tots to subas their lease to like with school district if I could just interject for a second this program which we would like to hold at Bas with G the River Avenue location would mirror the program of Tiny Tots exactly the way it's been in the past there would be about 50 to 60 regular Ed um preschool children uh run by the district there would also be the 48 self-contained children the same ones and there will also be the approximately I believe it is 96 self inclusion Children of the special ed program everything would be in place exactly the way it was in the past it would be run by the same teachers by the same administrators basically um the as they say the um the makeup of the class will be the same um so it would be basically another program the same type of program think the same children the same makeup of a class uh teacher supervisor the same just run by different uh uh entities nothing would change except the fact that it wouldn't be called tiny tons it would have to be called you know Lakewood Board of Education running a public school program in this type of setting and that would be the only difference the reason why the state would be more satisfied with this option would simply be because um right now in such a scenario the Public School portion of it and all the school children that don't want to join in the race with K site would be on a Public School site being runed by the superintendent and their and her staff and that would that would be that would take care of one issue as well as the fact that all the teachers that would have to work for the district would be required to have the proper certification so it would be um done in such a way where the supervisor and coordinators of this program would have the correct certification and everything else would remain intact um that would appease all of the issues in the state report and everybody can be satisfied to their and I would like to just address the issue of um us fighting the state in terms of after they issue the report saying that the the tiny TOS not have certain licenses um this is you know we could we could have an appeal appeal the state decision if there is a question of interpreting the law uh and state has one interpretation we have another in this case there was a black and white uh um uh uh statue that said that Tas or must have licenses to run the preschool program and border is not allowed to contract with them so in this regard we are power where we do have the power is to create the same type of program as mentioned before and we have the resources to do it but to go ahead and fight with the state on something that a person is missing licenses it's like someone is being Dr stopped by by Officer if it doesn't have a driver's license he could he could say that he's been driving for many years used but at the end of the day this is the law so we do have the power to create the resources to create the same type of program but we can't fight the state I would like just to suggest that um there is one obstacle to this plan going through and that is obtaining the leas in the River Avenue site we are looking to see if we can find an alternate site um but other than that everything else should and hopefully will go according to the proposed plan that was proposed last night um I hope everybody understands what we're going through and that we are working tirelessly and overtime to make sure that the children of all segments of this town get the proper education that they deserve in its totality I just want to mention that whoever has the time and the ability if they can try to contact tiny or the CEO of K and whoever is in charge if they could possibly just try to pressure them to be able to suble the location so that we can move on with this program as soon as possible instead of having to look for another location and I would like to just add I just received an email 132 from a parent of time yph Switz he was by the meeting yesterday and um he was talking about we were discussing the proposal which was warmly received by all the parents The Proposal that the board of members proposed to move and create a mirror program at the current location um so I just want to read the email that he sent to me um and he agreed to make it public as a parent of an inclusive child I would like to say that the proposal that the board last night suggested which was to have the board of V step in and oversee the inclusive and self-contained programs within tiny TOS building is a fair compromise for all the parents and will basically be the same as Cent hats run program previously just not exclusively the inclusion program will have regular at children from our community so our children can have regular field classroom like they need to succeed so this is exactly that the board of it's still proposing we're working around the clock we left the meeting yester Michael's house at 3: in the morning because we're trying to find different Alternatives as to different location and we'll continue to do that