Seven community members chose to attend the Livingston Board of Education’s first hybrid meeting since the pandemic closed schools in March, 2020. Twenty chairs were set up, socially distanced, in the conference room of the Board’s offices at 11 Foxcroft Drive.Audience members showed their driver’s licenses and vaccination cards before entering the building.“It’s wonderful to see people here in person,” Board of Education president Samantha Messer said.An additional 33 people attended the meeting via a Zoom webinar.Attendance was limited to 20 attendees, and the Board of Education meetings will continue to be held via webinar and livestreamed.Board member Vineeta Khanna, participating from India by webinar, said. “It’s a delight to be logging in at 3:30 a.m. I so look forward to the next meeting where I can be in person with the public.”Allowing a Negative PCR TestMesser explained that at the last meeting the Board approved a policy requiring those who wish to come to the meeting in person, and visit the schools, required proof of vaccination. “As a result, we were limiting the number of people.”“While we are not close to 20 people in attendance,” Messer said, “we are going to add an option for people to have a negative PCR test within 48 hours of the meeting.”The Board agreed to suspend a bylaw so that the motion could pass in one reading. It then approved the amended bylaw to allow for a negative PCR test within 48 hours instead of a vaccination card.Jorge Rivera of Westmount Drive spoke in favor of the use of a negative test or vaccination, but felt that the resolutions should follow “due process” and allow two cycles of meetings to inform the public and decide on matters.Acknowledging Rivera’s point, Messer said the suspension was done in order to get people back in person as quickly as possible, not to hide anything.Video Access to ClassroomsSchool superintendent Matthew Block clarified the issue of video access to classrooms for quarantined students.While it is not required, the district will provide video access to classrooms within 36 hours for students who need to be quarantined. (Some quarantines turn out to be false alarms, he noted.)This is different, he said, from the plan that the district is required to develop to move to fully remote learning in the event that a school or district has to be closed for three days due to an emergency. That plan is on ...
