it is the longest running festival of its kind in North America and the Mustang band has performed in every year since it began the festival features 19 North Jersey marching bands and it concludes with a mass per band performance of America of America the Beautiful performed all a thousand two hundred Baron members students are available from Mr stefanesky in advance for ten dollars or at the gate for 15.
you have a motion to accept the separation with determination as SES parent professional Michelle Hamlin effective October 21st 2022 and so it is any discussion roll call Carol yes Amy yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes motion carries we're zero um next we have recognition of visitors and comments from the audience this is your opportunity okay just check it I know a good job and with that presentation uh master kiligence okay so this evening and I'm not gonna stand so this evening uh Emily Tracy invited me to the board and wanted us wanted me to talk about student outcomes and one of our student outcomes that we're very excited about even though our scores are not very good is our Irish course and our goal this year is our I read would be 80 and a lot of people say oh 80 that's that's not a hold well I will explain to you why that is a high goal so uh we pulled some data uh two years before covet if you can tell in 2018 kids hit it out of the park really good class State average is 86 percent we were 96 following year uh we do that last pad a lot more at-risk students a lot of IEPs and we had a little bit of a dip the state still stayed at 86. 2020 you know what happened I mean the world shut down we didn't have I I read and welcome come on so 2021 let me think about this for a second those kiddos were in second grade when the world shut down and you notice we had a little bit of a dip and 83 from that a couple years ago they were still above the state average 2022 those were our first graders who missed you know a lot of work and our scores dropped to 70 percent and we knew that going into this year the next coming class has more kids that are at risk they were The Kindergartners you know you can read every article under the sun about the kids missing a lot of their basic things I mean we've been you know pumping them working with them but we figured we had to up our game to help them because we want to get back up to that 80 percent so some of the things that we have put in place luckily we uh have a grant and I always forget the name of student learning recovery Grant thank you Mrs Harmon and we started you got that Grant last year we unbelievably for strategy had five tutors last year that signed up after spring break after school tutoring kiddos and we had uh one tutor for each grade level one through five groups of four and it was amazing and we saw some nice gains well this year she said we still have the money get busy start tutoring so before the end of August we already had six tutors in place this year which is activate but we kind of changed our game plan fifth grade has one group these are kids that are at risk the four kiddos fourth grade is for students that did not pass I read and they have to set forward again this March but we doubled down on third grade second grade and we have two tutors third grade two tutors in second grade and our thought with that was third grade group and the second grade group really really need that intensiveness of funds that's where our kids are really College shortly so that's how we based it and down here what data did we use for a second I read we used our already scores our ID IEP goals and our reading levels now kind of a little twist our tutoring program our students that are not do not have IEPs so you're saying well why did we put that down there well for our IEP students we have two third grade groups that started out I think second we could smooth we identified four class four students in each class and they have four thirty minute intensive language arts getting ready for Irene so out of our third graders we have 16 kids either during the day in Tennessee or after school out of our 37.
the amount is not to exceed 5.815 million this is money that has to be spent on Equipment Technology does fall under that as uh if Miss Howard would scroll down just a little bit to page two for me you can kind of see some of the projects that this will fund these were presented during the hearing in September again you can see the columns to the right are what we're able to fund from this money there are no salaries or benefits in this area this is all equipment related cost or supportive equipment the tax impact for this has been calculated in and is included in the tax rate that was advertised to remain flat from 2021. at a rate of 1.024 cents per hundred dollars and the very last slide kind of shows where that tax rate Falls in relationship to the other school corporations keep going for me Tracy just one more and other school corporations throughout the county and this again is money paid by our property tax owners in the White River Township area we fall right in the middle for the county we do not have the tax rates that Franklin Pleasant have in this area again this has been appropriately advertised it is a hearing and appropriation not only authorizing us to sell these bonds but then to spend the money on the items listed on the slides above that's all the remarks I have at this evening doctor Mr Hubbard looked up thank you this is there probably time for members of the public to make any comments on the 1028 hearing or anybody here that would like to comment on the okay now close this public hearing are there any board members here that like to comment or questions there's no questions and we'll need a motion uh Mr President I moved to approve the resolutions approving the issues of bonds and additional Appropriations for the bonds five seconds thank you very much the motion has been made as seconded all in favor say aye aye anyone opposed motion passes thank you 8.4 Dr arganoff thank you Mr Herbert this evening I'm recommending that the board approved the support staff handbook and again Mr Taylor will share with you some additional information yeah and I've got some help on this one Dr Nelson is going to present on the changes to support staff handbook fantastic yes we're bringing to 2022-2023 support staff handbook not a whole lot of changes this year uh just a few one of them being the implementation of employees wearing their ID badge and specifically the syntax safety badge that would be the addition of that into the staff handbook the other one is the family medical leave policy and guidelines changing that to match the federal guidelines this now means there's an illness injury impairment or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care or continuing treatment by a health care provider and again that does match the federal guidelines funeral leave for support support staff we removed other and now includes relatives and close friends for personal and sick leave we know that the mental health of our staff is very important and so one of the reasons to use a sick day can now be tagged under a mental health day so there's an addition of that to the language in the personal and sick leave our experience incentive the change in that is that our staff can receive that stipend and receive full year of service credit if they are an active employment an inactive employment here in Center Grove a couple changes to the tech certification program requirements for that reimbursement and then the last two we do have a change in where our workman's comp location is located and so that did change in the related injury and illness prevention and then where benefits are available so not many changes most was with federal guidelines or changes that we have within our organization thank you Mr President I move that we approve the supports that can both presented second all in favor say aye aye aye does anyone opposed motion passes 8.5 thank you this evening I'm recommending that the board approved the proposed policy revisions this will be the second reading so we're available for any additional questions but you read these policies last week in the first reading so if there aren't any additional questions all we need is a motion clarification on something that was made during public comment there was no approval at the last board meeting because you don't approve the first reading of the policy and after the first reading of the policies all the proposed changes were posted to the website for everybody to review and I didn't receive any additional comments about policy changes I don't know if any of the other board members did or not I did not no that's that's correct okay then I move that we approve the policy revisions as presented motion has been made and seconded all in favor say aye aye anyone opposed motion passes next on the agenda is announcements yes two announcements November 17th is the next regularly scheduled board meeting which will be at 7 pm here in this boardroom and then also November 17th is an executive session at 6 pm here in this building as well and at this point I think those are the only announcements we have and with that I think it's up to uh board and superintendent comments I don't have anything this evening I don't have anything this evening I have one I know that the Education Foundation is hosting their first Bingo on Wednesday October 26th so I know that Jen Rico has tickets on sale if any anybody would like to attend that event or the Education Foundation okay thank you I do have one thing I'd like to to announce um I'm going to resign my Physicians this integral School Board member effective today I am moving into another home in Greenwood that is outside the current Center Grove School Board District um I do I would like to share that I enjoyed serving this community fellow parents and the students of Center Grove as a school board member Center Grove and our schools were presented with some very unprecedented challenges while I've been on this board and I'm proud of how the school board and Center Grove kept moving things forward during the covid um providing students with their principled and safe learning environment to reach their greatest potential was always my top priority I personally focus on listening and being proactive to parents students and Educators I want to thank the Center Grove Community for giving me the opportunity to represent them I take a lot of pride in giving back to this community where I live I learned uh I learned if it's a service while I was serving my country in the United States Air Force and I've always tried to give back in some way whether it's through my business that helps local veterans here locally donating to the free and reduced lunch program or serving on the school board I'm also extremely proud of the work I've done for Central nine on behalf of Center Grove as their board president as well I look forward to continuing to be involved in Greenwood and Johnson County in the years to come that's it [Applause]
in addition girls cross country won their SEC Championship yesterday uh Championship meets have started for cross country and will continue for All Sports up to mid-november girls and boys soccer volleyball field hockey and girls swimming have currently qualified for League playoffs the girls soccer team is undefeated thus far into their season and I believe they have a 14-0 record as of now the boys cross country team did a trash cleanup and near the bleachers after September 30th home football game to help keep the campus clean in addition the cross-country team and do random acts of kindness Club organized a school-wide fundraiser for those affected by Hurricane Ian yesterday on the 19th boys cross country and the do random acts of kindness Club went around to advisory classrooms during advisory period And in the auditorium to collect a goal of one dollar per student as a school we were able to raise just under 800 to help those in need in Florida all of this money will be donated to the Red Cross for Hurricane Relief the future Business Leaders of America Club has a fall leadership conference coming up on November 1st in addition the club held a spike ball tournament back on October 6th to help raise money for the club and about 200 was raised to help support the club the NHS induction for seniors was held on Wednesday the 19th and the one for juniors will be held next week on the 26th um the superintendent dinner will be held on November 9th and Mr Solon came to Cheshire High School to invite seven students there a financial reality fair was held at the high school which was sponsored by the business department and students from Cheshire and other schools attended to learn about finances coach Rob Schaefer has been elected coach of the year and Alexa Ciccone on the girls cross country and Samir dashnika on the boys soccer team have been nominated for athlete of the week also CCC sorry SCC scholar athletes were selected for the fall season um the Cheshire marching Ram band held its annual Music in Motion last Saturday it was very successful event along with some college bands performing as well including Uconn and the UNH College Band a student Senate collected bottles and cans on September 30th at the Lost home football game and plan to do the same at tomorrow's home football game the last game they collected approximately 500 bottles and cans to recycle the machines at Stop and Shop accepted approximately 347 bottles and cans for 17.35 which went to the student senate for future use also CHS bus took kids to a college fair in New Haven for those who wanted to go on Thursday the 13th and the scope tutoring program has started where students from CHS were paired with those who um who were in a course that's students are struggling in so basically it's like a one-on-one tutoring session on a Google meet with Elementary School students that's all we have for you guys tonight awesome thank you Monica Michael any questions from board members wow hey you guys are off the hook early thank you you're welcome to stay but you don't have to question okay oh sorry I didn't see it well yeah I'm in the peripheral here right um uh Michael did you say that the girls cross country team won a state championship or an SEC SEC Champion oh okay so it's like a division level I just wanted to make I kind of like went faster yeah so the the girls cross country team won the SEC Championship which was yesterday and the state L Championship will be held on October 29th which is next Saturday all right great well congratulations yeah anyone else seen that's it Michael Monica thank you please enjoy your evening and look forward to seeing you at the next business meeting now thank you very much and thank you for having us all right thank you so up next we have a few presentations we're all looking forward to um starting with the first one which is our teacher of the year yeah it's certainly uh an incredible honor to recognize our Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the year uh who will be also recognized at a state uh award dinner later this fall uh and I want to welcome Dr Mary gadd Cheshire High School principal to introduce our teacher of the year good evening all thank you so much and I have to say it is absolutely my honor to introduce our Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the Year Ms Dawn de Mayo Dawn is a rare and special teacher she uses every aspect of her life experience and deep academic knowledge to guide her Innovative and engaging instructional practices Dawn inspires her students at Cheshire High School where she's been an English teacher for the last 24 years from the leadership class she developed to her English classes to her many years directing our drama Productions and school musicals Dawn supports her students to discover their talents and she guides her students to discover their strengths under her wise and compassionate tutelage her students Thrive and go on to support and Inspire their peers Dawn creates the conditions for Student Success her English students demonstrate depth and skill as writers thinkers speakers and listeners in turn they impact our school by performing writing growing and collaborating with each other to create a more accepting and compassionate school and community Don is also a Seeker she wants to know more and she brings what she discovers to her students she has the talent and intellectual capacity to put new learning into practice from a classroom Innovation like routinizing a sense of community and belonging in her classes by shaking every single Student's Hand upon entering her class every single day to taking a large group of students to participate in a neighboring District's diversity day and working to bring those ideas back to our community as a result of her instruction and assignments our students demonstrate Mastery of our school performance standards complex thinking creative thinking collaboration Community contributions and self-directed learning I could go on I really could go on but let me close by saying as teacher of the year and I have to add a Fulbright scholar Dawn's voice should be and will be out in the larger world she has insight and experience that needs to be shared she's more than an English teacher she is more than our drama program director she is more than a club advisor she takes these incredibly important roles in our school and she uses them to move her students to discover their highest selves Don de Mayo is highly motivated herself highly intelligent compassionate and she is a consummate professional so it is again my distinct honor to present Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the year and Cheshire High School teacher Don DeMayo foreign day thank you an architect thank you [Applause] up next we have another wonderful presentation this is for our para educator of the year I think Ms solano's going to give the presentation [Music] foreign this next award goes to our para educator of the year and this is a write-up from the committee who has who had chosen her at the end of last year Cheshire Public Schools is proud to introduce cheshire's para educator of the Year Jody dutchesson Jody is a first grade para educator at Doolittle Elementary School prior to the last two years at Doolittle she was at Darcy school where she was critical to the success of many students Jody exudes positive energy and eagerness and creativity helping her first grade students she definitely celebrated the success of each of her students as they met their benchmarks not only does she make her students love to work with her but she takes the time and effort to make sure her colleagues feel special as well thank you to Jody [Applause] it does not appear that Jody is with us tonight so we'll make sure that we get her that award congratulations Jody and our final presentation also another special one is for the girls cross country coach and I think Mr trafone is going to give the presentation thank you Mr peragini members of the board I'd like to present to you Cheshire high school girls Cross Country Coach Rob Schaefer who's the our cross country team has had quite a year but for Rob this year he earned his 300th uh win as head coach um so again that's just the start of what this season began Rob is in his 34th year as our girls Cross Country Coach and it's amassed a career record of 309 wins overall this year and only 39 losses in that 34 in those 34 years during that stretch there have been multiple undefeated Seasons as well to date his teams have won two state championships four League championships and 14 division championships and just yesterday let's add that fifth League Championship the SEC Championship so congratulations to Rob on that in the past Rob has also served as our boys cross-country coach and and he did that for 12 years in a master record of 115 and only 24 losses during that 12-year period and currently he also serves as our assistant coach for both indoor and outdoor track he taught English at Cheshire high school for 38 years and it's interesting tonight that all of the people we're recognizing our English teachers including our assistant coach in Cross Country Sarah Redford so thank you English Department so coach Schaefer also talked as I said English for 38 years before retiring in 2015.
and last but not least come out and support your undefeated and number one ranked Mustang boys soccer team and they were complete complete complete with their records 23rd passe County Championship versus Kennedy High School this this the game will be played at psti this Saturday October 22nd kickoff is at 3 30 and always remember it's a great day to be a Mustang great job Natasha thank you very much for your report and uh you're free to leave whenever you wish to go thank you we now like to do our student of the month Awards uh so we start with Mr abujabo thanks president Smith freshman Anna Monahan and his favorite subject is history because she finds a study of the past very interesting and enjoys learning how everything's interconnected she had an amazing Hands-On history teacher in sixth grade Miss Virginia he made class both fun and educational in High School Mr nesky has me has been most influential to her and ex I'm sorry expertly teaches the importance of hard work and perseverance Anna finds inspiration from her dad his work ethic motivates her to be her to be my best best self even when she when life gets tough that's really right they share a passion for history and storytelling he encourages Anna to always see all sides of the story he loves to take their family on adventures always finds the best dessert places and as a member of the Mustang Mustang band majorettes and works hard to put on a great show every week she also takes private piano lessons which has been doing since since sixth grade After High School Ann is looking forward to her career in either Dentistry or Dermatology okay Anna come on up and take a picture Danny I'm gonna take a picture okay sweating Mom Dad Family come on up I'll go up congratulations congratulations guys okay thank you so much again congratulations please don't think I'm being anti-social I'm I'm not just not feeling well and um don't want to expose anybody to my germs needlessly although I tested negative for covid twice just say no but congratulations sophomore Daniela Jimenez yapez Daniella's favorite subject is English because she enjoys bringing characters to life and learns how to make how to look at things from a different perspective the teacher has been most influential to Daniella was her freshman year math teacher Miss love Lombardi she has been very influential because she created a space where you could make mistakes be wrong and just not understand something her creating a space like this made me not be as hard on myself when I do things wrong and let myself have a break Danielle is inspired by all women who work day in and day out to provide for their families daniela's tip to high school Success has been making a schedule planning on when to take a break do certain assignments and focus on something else so that everything can be done on time Daniela is currently involved in the CHS Human Services and early childhood Career Academy program and may possibly seek a career in that field foreign parents these pictures will be available on our social media you can go up and grab them congratulations congratulations huh they were right I can't I couldn't wait either all right next up we have Junior Chanel Nunez Acosta with the guidance of her teachers Chanel has learned that through that although assignments and tasks may be difficult nothing is impossible as a student Chanel has found success in CHS ESL program and now works as a member helping new students navigate the hallways of Clifton High School Chanel finds inspiration from her teachers Mrs K miss espinal Mr G and Mr Stewart she is also encouraged by her mother who inspires her and refuses to accept excuses Chanel is considering a possible career as a nurse is your family there no is anybody here with her oh yeah please is Jose here Jose Gonzalez okay we'll make sure Jose gets his certificate congratulations to all our winners um that the public doesn't know it is um an extremely uh difficult task out of all the students in their grades to be chosen as the student of the month so you should be very proud of your accomplishments and the great work that you do and uh on behalf of the Board of Education we're very proud of you and wish you continued success in your educational Endeavor so great job and uh you're all more than welcome to stay for the remainder of the meeting but if you'd like to exit at this time you could do so as well so get out while you can [Laughter] foreign okay we'll go to public recognition online first yeah let me just read the statement first okay this portion of the meeting is open to Residents and non-residents of the Clifton of the city of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent two and or directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District residents and non-residents are requested if in person to sign the register provided for this purpose all speakers are asked to State their names municipality in which they live and subject matter before addressing to the board comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by board members the board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals who are speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible for any uh responsible and libel for any of their comments okay uh we ready all right we'll start with uh virtual calling we're going to Marita they're connecting to audio but it doesn't look like they're connecting that's the only person in the waiting room again okay gotcha we have someone else so I can let that person in and yes if you would please color person calling from the cell phone you're connecting if you want to unmute last four digits caller you're on the you're on the Clifton Board of Education meeting oh [Music] my God hi caller 7218 on a cell phone yes that's me hi you have five minutes to speak to the board am I on now yes you are hello good evening everyone um my name is Tom Kiefer uh 20 Nelson Street Clifton New Jersey excuse me I wish I could be there uh tonight but too much going on with the kids tonight just want to give a big shout out to school five family everyone in school five this year spread some positivity has been awesome and wonderful we've been doing so many things since the school started it's unbelievable mad love to the school five family uh with that being said it's a very important time the Board of Elections uh Board of Education elections coming up and I cannot stress enough for the public to come out and vote whether you agree with my stance or not you should still go out and vote we need more people to vote but if you're going to vote you've got to vote number one Mark brunsiak please I've known this man since I was in kindergarten he's more than the brother to me I love this man to death and he has every interest of our kids best interest in mind please vote for mark berenciak thank you very much okay thank you Mr Keever the person Marita is still trying to connect I [Applause] don't know if we want to all right now we'll move on anyone else that's the only person left okay motion is in order motion it goes motion closed by Mr Abu driver by Mr Paris for the uh virtual yes okay now we'll open up to uh in person anyone wishing to address the board you could please come up to the podium and you have five minutes foreign good evening everyone Mark princeack Holly Street Clifton just want to give quick prayers up to Mr basford hope he gets well soon he was well Dr Robert tozi um just want you guys I want everybody to be healed this journey I started this year in mid-june and I've had opportunities of all the residents of this city to share my life experience to benefit our community I spoke with all types of different groups in the community to ensure that other members have a voice and make an education and administrative decisions as a member you could be a conduit for the concerns and interests of teachers parents and all other stakeholders I'd like to help create stronger ties between the school board and other stakeholders as well I have a personal interest in preserving and improving the quality of our school system I believe in a quality public education for current and future students the school board must be the eyes ears and voice of the community I value government transparency greater accessibility in decision making and fiscal responsibility as of the end of last week I have stopped at over 3 000 residences in this city bringing an informed thoughtful conscientious and respectful approach to the process of decision making Educators and administrators lend their expertise to create the best environment and the opportunities for students parents students and everyone else in the community deserves the best service from these professionals no less should be expected from the board members it's November I urge you to vote for change thank you for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody thank you hi Clifton Chris D'Amato I'm running for city council number 13 on the ballot though Clifton is set up in such a way that there's minimal crossover between the Board of Ed and the city council I thought it was important to show up here and speak from the heart to our parents families teachers administrators staff Board of Ed and most importantly our students about what this upcoming election represents and why it's important to be here for those who don't know me I have a 15-year career in media and communication I'm the only city council candidate with a background in communication and the only city council candidate to dedicate a page on their website to education during my campaign I've had a chance to speak with uh some of our students about their biggest concerns and the two things I hear the most by far I want to feel safe in school and a lot of my friends are on drugs now why might this be the case I have a theory I think there's a feeling beneath the surface for many individuals in all types out there who can recognize this feeling even if they can't quite articulate it it's this idea that whatever you believe politically the last few years of American Life have represented a chaotic unraveling of our social fabric a disassembling of our national unity and an erosion of trust in our institutions leaders and fellow citizens loneliness and feelings of isolation particularly among Youth and elderly are at all-time highs this is embodied in all facets of American life it's there in the little moments when we hold our tongues instead of speaking what we know to be true it's there in the moments when someone chooses to pull out a cell phone and record someone's worst moment in their life to live forever online instead of using that hand to help it's there over holiday meals and cherished family time when we can't even agree on the definition of words or objective reality let alone come to some sort of middle ground or Mutual understanding and it's there in the tragic catastrophic big moments when you have someone who has their whole life ahead of them who can't take the noise the stress and overdoses trying to numb the pain it happens when a young person most often under the age of 21 decides the future of their life is so Bleak and devoid of purpose that the best option is to grab a gun and kill as many of their classmates as possible like many Clifton residents I've been watching these Board of Ed meetings this year with alarm and concern as the conversation becomes a bit more volatile watching slack jawed as we become more content to write each other off with labels instead of listening and understanding I know it is easier to call someone you don't agree with a name groomer bigot than it is to really understand where they're coming from and grapple with it in a meaningful way if elected as a council member I can't interfere with the day-to-day operations of the school system but my call to leadership in this community requires me to speak out there's many reasons I'm running our city has a flooding problem we consider the desires of developers over the needs of residents and working class families and we desperately need to upgrade our communication but I'm running for a bigger philosophical reason I'm tired of standing back and allowing the loudest voices of division in our society to lead the conversation I'm sick of us assuming the worst about each other and demonstrating the worst of ourselves this election needs to be about good decent reasonable majority of Clifton residents standing with me and saying we've had enough hatred we've had enough vitriol and we've had enough division I'm here because we the council and the school board are not separate bodies that exist in hermetically sealed bags we're a community we're a family we are one Clifton to the students and young people watching I hear you you're not alone you are loved you're cherished you have an amazing Community behind you and you have a wonderful future ahead of you you deserve to grow up in a community where the adults are setting the example and I refuse to park my keister on a comfortable leather seat at 900 Clifton Avenue and allow the conversation about your future to be dominated by extremists influences outside of Clifton and National media Outlets who profit off of this chaos which is birthed the biggest Mental Health crisis among children and teenagers in modern recorded history to the reasonable majority of any party I stand with you to our wonderful teachers I stand with you you will not be intimidated or slandered on my watch to our families you will be respected heard and considered always and I pledge to do everything I can to make sure that our kids are not only growing up with a great education but that they grow up in a safe free welcoming transparent and thriving city of Clifton please visit Christopher clifton.com and consider me for one of your seven votes on November 8th get well Keith thank you all thank you is there anyone else wish to address the board good evening members on the board and the City of Clifton thank you everyone for wishing my dad well wishes my name is Samantha bassford and here's another Shameless plug to vote for me 8f this upcoming election we only have one forum for the Board of Ed we're kind of like the stepchild this election so you got to take all the air time we can get last week I had an opportunity to attend a national comp well a regional conference for the Northeast Association for University College housing officers I posted snippets on my Facebook page but our own keynote speaker Dr Stacy Miller hit it out of the park when talking about housing professionals and their transferable skills specifically their leadership and skill set so often many times housing professionals are seen as either the rule monitors or arts and crafts people but there's actually a lot more things that we do behind the scene so it's something that I definitely want to highlight because I was like wow this is great and if you were to interview me this is exactly what I said so skills that I currently possess cultural and Intercultural competency human resource training hiring development supervision Union management evaluation termination restorative practice and Justice advisement programming Community Development conduct and accountability crisis management budget and finance critical thinking and problem solving strategic planning mediation slash conflict negotiation public relations presenting and public speaking facilitation instruction organizational Administration time and prior visitation management effective communication marketing counseling career and life committee task force collaboration how to be a mentor and that's just the skill sets now people often don't think about leadership and skill sets being separate and it actually is so here are some of these skill sets the leaderships that we have cultural and Intercultural humility which means I don't have all the answers when it comes to that and it's okay but I'm going to do my best to figure out how to do that tolerance for ambiguity an autonomy self-confidence empathy compassion moral and ethical Compass being transparent and forthright trustworthy Innovation creativity being well read and well informed teamwork and collaboration risk-taking decision making resilience open and receptive to feedback loyalty honesty authentic relationship building and letting going professional perfectionism which is you know something I'm still working on um so to me those are all check marks when I look at the board and the work that they have done and even you guys as a team because I view you as a team those are all check marks to me and making a good candidate for Board of Ed at this point you've probably only really seen most people on Ballot Box if I've done a roll call for who's been here every week I don't know what the attendance would look like for other candidates but I know I've been here the entire time if you are looking for a candidate who's going to be transparent who's going to be dedicated who's going to be a voice without having pressure from peers I'm your candidate I'm your girl even at times when I could feel discouraged in this campaign with the anti-basford campaign no one could take away my dedication what I've given during this election process and the transparency I've given to voters I've spoken out against hate even when it's not something that is against my identity do all candidates feel that every person with their entire identity deserves to be here we don't know haven't heard from them I'm an ally to all and I say even the things that you may not want to hear my intention in my heart is to give back with the to my community with all my resources my higher education experience being authentic and being dependable my signs may be pink and leopard print my shoes may be super shiny but it doesn't matter how I present myself because my work ethics speaks for itself and will continue to do so I cannot be more transparent for this election so once again if you want someone who's going to work the work talk the talk and do what's got to be done vote 8f Samantha basford for Board of Education okay thank you [Music] anyone else wish to address the board good evening members of the board my name is Stephen Cohen I reside at seven Richland Court in Clifton during halftime of the Clifton Passaic varsity football game on September 30th I was recognized by the board of education for my contribution to Clifton Athletics making that presentation that evening were president Smith commissioner abatrabo Clifton High School principal hamda and also with their that evening was Clifton High School athletic director Tom mullahey I come here tonight to express my gratitude to you for uh for giving me that presentation of that of that plaque it means a lot to me and I want to Simply say thank you uh in just the time remaining just a couple of thoughts struck me uh you know I I I've been to games here in Clifton I travel occasionally to games and one thing I recognize is that I I truly believe that our student athletes are ambassadors they're ambassadors from Clifton there's no government body here in Clifton you know in power to either nominate or to appoint ambassadors and I have a number of examples that I can share with you uh one uh being uh September of last year the football team opened up their season uh playing up in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse I was at that game and uh during the game uh I mentioned the player's name Donovan Swayze easy intercepted a pass two yards deep in Clifton's End Zone and ran it back 102 yards for a touchdown well back at the hotel that evening later that night all the families the players were kind of gathered it was a large open a communal kind of space in the hotel lobby but then there was the restaurant with television sets uh playing you know as you normally see when you go to a sports bar and what was the lead video that evening on the 11 o'clock news was the Clifton High School game and here it was Clifton I don't remember the final score but we won we beat the the team was Cicero North Syracuse and and you know there I also would mention you know when we're talking about ambassadors uh getting us off of the sports I need to include I think that Clifton Mark Mustang marching band um you know truly ambassadors uh you know one runs out of superlatives when trying to describe the band and uh uh you know I remember two years ago uh sitting at home in my living room uh watching the video the live stream of the band performing at the Chinese New Year's uh Day Parade or Chinese New Year's parade over in San Francisco and if that is an example of ambassadorship you know they spent a few days there they represent Clifton and um and so therefore that's one point I want to make just the notion of our our student athletes as being ambassadors the second thing is and I'm probably going to get a lot of heat for this but um you know we have a slogan here is the city that cares and you can't argue with that but I would like to add a little addendum to that and that is that it's also a city the Clifton Clifton is the city that shares and I not only for our athletic teams but we have so such a wealth of uh talent in the schools you know so when we go to see a production uh a musical or a drama or dance or our orchestras uh that's a reason for us to share and so therefore I leave us with that notion of uh you know that we're also not only a caring City but we're also a cheering City so I thank you very much yeah if I could just add to that Mr Cohen um uh commissioner Canova also was there that that evening to present you so that's all right no problem and uh uh well-deserved uh reward for all that you you do for Clifton thank you is there anyone else wish to address the board [Music] Marcia Miller Clifton the new education standards I'm continuing my objection to the unwarranted assault on the innocence of children the New Jersey Comprehensive Health and sex education standards are diminishing real education like math language arts finance and science along with other vital workplace skills necessary for a child's future these standards are objectionable so standard 2.5.1.5 pgd 0.4 explain common human sexual development and the role of hormones romantic and sexual feelings masturbation mood swings and timing of puberty onset I believe that the above section is age inappropriate for these 9 10 and 11 year old children parents not government schools should be the only adults teaching their children about sexuality and sexual health the brain is not fully formed until the mid-20s and Beyond it doesn't matter how smart teens are or how well they score on Sat or act good judgment isn't something they can excel in at least not yet the rational part of a teen's brain is fully developed isn't fully developed and won't be until age 25 or so in fact Recent research has found that adult and teens brains work differently adults think with the pre-frontal cortex and the brain's rational part this is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences teens teens process information with the amygdala this is the emotional part in teens brains the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making Center are still developing and not always at the same time that's why when teens have overwhelming emotional input they can't explain later what they were thinking they weren't thinking as much as they were feeling according to the University of Rochester Medical Center the health encyclopedia there were mutable multiple articles in scientific data showing that brain development continues into adulthood particularly in the areas of risk aversion with the prefrontal cortex so the justification for introducing graphic explicit sexual behavior is not only extreme but intensely harmful so why does the New Jersey New Jersey Department of Education mandate the instruction of masturbation to fifth graders how does an educator teach masturbation what is on a child's mind when performing the ACT what are the emotional and health consequences for your minor child what is the health value what is the academic value of this type of instruction standard 2.1.5 pgd5 identify trusted adults including family members caregivers School staff and Health Care Professionals whom students can talk to about relationships and ask questions about puberty and Adolescent health who is a trusted adult especially in our mind modern day hypersexualized culture the same culture that is influenced and infiltrated our schools through these education mandates the group of people listed in 2.1.5 pgd5 is a diverse unknown and perhaps unqualified group of people a healthcare professional may be an expert in cardiovascular care but woefully lacking in matters related to education especially about the sexual issues would you want your child asking the school custodian or their bus driver about these delicate matters do you know if you can trust your school staff to teach these important life-changing behaviors to your child the Murphy administration's push to sexual exploit New Jersey children is Extreme and a violation of the family whether or not you have children in the government school system as a responsible citizen you must respond and protect future Generations from this harmful exploitation okay thank you good evening my name is Lori lalama and I'm the president of the cea there's a couple things I want to touch upon we have a pride and fast Grant so the teachers and the kids that are listening um the Extravaganza at the high school we could help support next year Trunk or Treats throughout the district we can support so please reach out to Andrea Rock from school 12 and we'll be able to support that I think we have 72 thousand dollars in our fund so please any activities that the schools might think of please reach out to her so we can help um the ceas sent a questionnaire out to all of the candidates that are running for the Board of Ed we received one back that was it so as an association we are not happy that at least more than half should have responded and only one did so we're we are very perturbed and we see it as a smack in the face so for those candidates out there we would like to be able to sit and talk so um and the next thing sex standards do I trust my staff hands down do I trust the Board of Ed hands down do I trust the central Administration hands down I don't know of any teacher that's going to teach masturbation to the kids that's a lot of hogwash I am tired of listening to this and I'm tired of the family the international family watch that is supporting this they need to stop our teachers are the best our Administration is the best and we need to stop this I'm so tired of listening to all this nonsense this this really needs to stop I'm sick of it so please take a look at International family watch Coke brother because one's dead and we need to stop we have the best in the county and the best in the state thank you very much thank you Clifton Miss basford I wish Keith speedy speedy recovery and that you and Samantha stayed strong during this time um what Miss what Lori just said was very good about the candidates I haven't seen any kind of uh debate anywhere I don't have a computer so I don't have access to Facebook or anything but I haven't seen any debates or any discussion whether it's Board of Ed or Council so it's going to be a very strange election I hear something's coming up the 25th but I still haven't gotten any details so that is a sad thing I I also saw an email that there's going to be a zoom meeting on the sex ed standards um which was planned some time ago which might be okay but we've been asking for seven months straight for an open meeting just as you had with the safety um Committee in the auditorium which was very well presented and the open and transparent why we can't have it on this issue is is it's not I don't understand I would I also agree with Lori that you know we shouldn't be coming up here meeting after meeting discussing this because you're not really getting a full understanding and participation and dialogue back and forth where we would if we were able to sit and all open up and discuss it in more detail um Dr robitosi I'm very surprised usually you're very open on issues so I'm very surprised that you haven't tried to organize that I hope you will that's really what we we want this is very difficult and it's you know now the election everybody was told to back off till the elections everybody's quiet after the elections come it's going to be you're going to see it's going to go watch but um so yeah and then as far as what they're saying about trusted adults and sex ed you know it's not any there are organizations out there that are pushing to the right and using this as a political agenda that's true but what the state has given and Clifton adopted pretty much verbatim it is not I mean I know individuals who have moved out Marsha or daughter moved out of town went to a different Community she had two small children they're going to a different school system we're speaking to some Muslim friends they pull their children out of school not everyone but they pulled a couple out that were in in some you know areas that were they felt were dangerous they left the older one in they left and I took the other one out and they're considering the another young one so people are making decisions all over about this issue a lot more people are going to private schools a lot more people are homeschooling um we really don't have any information so until you have an open meeting it's really hard to judge this I mean to give to a a bunch of parents sign this form if you feel you want to opt out I mean on the basics yeah I would say I want to opt out but I really don't have a lot of details listening to Lori it's nothing that's going to be bad but I can't believe that so Dr robitosi I like we like to have an open meeting we can all discuss this in more detail Marcia brings up stuff every meeting Marshall were you ever answered on any of your questions no so yeah but have they answered you you bring up questions every single time do they answer them no so open in reciprocal relationship which you read in your mission statement uh you know and I'm not I'm just saying that we'd like to have open meetings on this and you can continue but I don't think we're going to stop I think after the elections it's going to get you know worse I mean I'm tired of talking about you know whatever so thank you um take care and we wish keep speedy recovery thank you okay thank you anyone else wish to address the board motion is in order so you know a motion to close bye Mr Roberto second second second by Mr Paris let's have the um adoption of the minutes of the regularly scheduled meeting of October no is that one right right really threw me off there um yeah we'll just have to adjust that so be the adoption of the minutes of October 6 2022. motions in order so almost by Mr avidrabo second bye Miss basford discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abedrabo yes Miss basford yes Miss Beltran Mr Canova yes Dr Danny yes Mr Paris yes vice president Daley yes president Smith yes motion carries all right now we'll have our superintendent's report by Dr robitosi thank you Mr President uh my report was very brief tonight because I'll be yielding my time for my presentation later but just two quick things I want to reiterate what our student representative said earlier please CHS open house November 2nd it's open to anybody anybody in the community who wants to know about all of the wonderful things that are available at Clifton High School you don't have to send your child anywhere else if your child has an interest we have it for them at Clifton High School so please come out on November 2nd at 6 pm to see what Clifton High School is all about and second um I just want to address for the board the the reason why most times we have a parent event that's done online because we have found that we get many more much more parental participation when we offer it um remotely having said that I have met with Marsh I'm sorry I forget your last name Miss Miller um Janine and I sat down with her for over an hour ants tried our best to answer our questions I'm happy to do that again at any time never never would decline a meeting with anybody met with Mr Dubois on various issues uh one other time so happy to meet I mean it's not that we don't want to sit around and talk it's that we want parents to come we have much better participation so perhaps what we could do is maybe we could do like a hybrid kind of thing where we have it online and we can have other people you know sitting in the room so you could participate but um and and I appreciate Mr Dubois speaking very highly of our security presentation but in the district of 11 000 students I think we had 12 people come 12.
so we are pushing all day trying to help them get ready so what are your class sizes out there so we have 37 in third grade so if I'd like to do yeah that's about our average our fifth grade is a little larger it's our largest spots if our smallest is first divided into two groups yes and when do they use it roll outs with uh the intensity so that comes out of some of their social studies and I know the social studies people in the room are not going to like that but social studies at that levels a lot of reading and we think that they need to have those skills in order to be successful in social studies later yeah together and then four days four days yeah the tutoring is two days a week so tutoring is two days a week after school so we have tutoring Monday Tuesday and Wednesday and we also actually have some tutoring on Thursday but it's not part of the screen we have Publishers that are that are volunteering like do kids get to switch in and out yeah in our intensive group we have a young lady who's getting ready to graduate out of it because she is getting ready to go up before reading level s because the phonics skills are starting to click and that every day where she sees it she hears it she does it and you know she's seeing these words and she's getting them and it's just so yeah we're hoping so so it is a combination of finance and sight reading yes and knowing the red words you know it's just that whole combination Doe Grant from Lily to focus on um the science of reading um which all of this is based on so this is a Statewide initiative of gold specifically foreign in a matter of three to six months my mom that both of us actually immediately so I I'm glad the other thing uh thank you to Mrs Harmon uh we had all of our k1c teachers and our special ed teachers trained in OG this summer and that is an intense isn't it like five days they approach that we call it that's right and then we also use our my plane or I ready and then the last thing one of our goals we have multiple goals with nics one of our goals is we know that our vocabulary needs to improve so we are embedding that into our plcs on learning how to construct vocabulary which goes hand in all all areas and your tutors are they outside tutors and other teachers they're teachers who are just being paid this day late yes we've got the tutor from 3 30 to 4 30.
that puts him uh these past 45 years he's been part of the treasure High School faculty staff in various roles either teacher as a coach the good news for our current team is that he has no plans on leaving anytime soon I asked him he's going to continue the coach he says why would I not I work with great girls and by the way Rob was named the southern Connecticut conference Coach of the Year this year as well add to his accolades so congratulations to head coach Rob Schaefer and our girls cross country team Rob thank you [Laughter] it's just [Applause] yes absolutely you're very welcome uh at this point I uh invite the audience to make comments to the Board of Education if you do intend to address the board please feel free to come to the microphone and again congratulations to everyone that got the presentations tonight much much deserved [Music] yeah we're gonna move on to committee reports we have quite a bit of reporting due tonight so we're going to start off with oh I'm sorry yes please come to the microphone so I didn't see your hand raised [Music] uh since we have public comment I'm going to read our standard procedure into the record this is bore vet policy 25 persons designed to present the concerns raise questions or make suggestions to the board regarding the schools may do so at board meetings in accordance the following guidelines the public will be the chairperson shall have a latitude of structure public discussion basically we have 15-minute time limit three minutes per speaker no boisterous conduct shall be permitted to any Board of Education meeting persistence in boisterous conduct shall be grounds of some determination but chair of that person's privilege of address if necessary a chairperson may clear the room so the board members can hit the new meeting uh it is recommended that no oral presentation shall include charges or complaints against any employer of the Board of Education regardless of whether or not that employee is identified in presentation by name or by another reference with tense the lead identify individual all charges are complaints against any employee should be submitted to the board education under provision of orbit policy which is usually a general communication to the board sorry about that but we tend to structure but we do have 15 minutes and please go ahead okay my name is Sharon Hauck and I'm a resident of Cheshire and uh I just feel that Cheshire is a wonderful town in which to live the educational system is exceptional and the supporting Sports and activities are first-rate and the environment that we have created have made our town an enviable place to raise our families recently though a concerted efforts across the country to induce what have collectedly become known as awoke agenda has a prompted the board and some of our Educators to inject this corrosive Viewpoint in their curriculum an example of this is a list of books presented to our seventh grade Raiders at Dodd Middle School one ghost boys details the ghost of a black teenager killed by a police officer who then meets the ghost of Emmett Till another black teenager killed by a white mob in 1955 which is a true story about Emmett in light of the recent Ambush killing of two Bristol police officers and many other tragic incidents of this nature across the country books displaying the police as the enemy only served to sow distrust towards those that we rely on for the protection of all our citizens another book yes I have read them boy 22 details the trials of a white boy in a predominantly black high school where the villains of the story is the Irish mob first of all I think that book is inappropriate for this age group because it is a high school area ice High School setting the list goes on stories of transgender teenagers lack of equality Equitable code for divisiveness wrongs by one group or over another etc etc aside from concerns that these books are inappropriate to our young children ages 11 and 12 for seventh graders they Convoy convey a picture of America that does not and should not represent our community Cheshire is becoming increasingly diverse in ethnic backgrounds and this tend a trend will and should continue we live with neighbors of all Races who strive to ensure that their children are raised with an appreciation and inclusion of all I see this especially during Sports in Cheshire books like these mentioned above deal with controversial controversial issues not always pretty but I would Hazard a guess that everyone in this room tonight would never dream of treating another human being the way that these books betray but we are picking at the scabs of these issues requiring our young people to read about them with no countervailing books about the goodness of the Cheshire in American 2022 and Beyond wokeness is about keeping us divided into tribes that are constantly at war with each other we in Cheshire need to reject this effort of division and past wrongs of yesterday and instead Inspire our youth to become good citizens now and in an increasingly diverse future both here in Cheshire and wherever their lives may take I congratulate the addition of two books that are required reading list as an effort to allow our students to celebrate the positive side of life though I haven't read these two new books however in light of the murder of the policemen in Bristol I ask that ghost boys be removed from the required reading list for young people any questions sorry Sharon I'm just taking notes okay this is Ghost boys thanks but we are at the three-minute market yes and there's a lot of different issues about racism and the uh you know negativity of policemen yeah yeah but also I want to thank you for attending the open Forum two weeks ago two years sites were very helpful I believe Dr Solomon probably getting some updates on some matches taken since that meeting as well so if you stick around I think it'll be worthwhile and what if you stick around for the meeting it should be worthwhile for your superintendent report thank you so much anyone else like to dress the board yes please hi I'm Alicia hippie I'm a resident of Cheshire at two children in the public school system I'm sorry I I don't remember your name from the other week I apologize I didn't hear you Alicia Alicia thank you 1761 Tuttle Avenue so I wasn't planning to speak so I don't have anything prepared um I guess I would just say that I appreciate um what the comments that were brought up but I guess I have a somewhat different view of things um I appreciate the life that our children have here in Cheshire but I think of them as citizens of the wider world and I think it's good that they be introduced to topics that are of importance in The Wider World in a situation where they're learning and they're guided um in addition to the guidance that they receive at home so it sounds like there was um an adaptation made to the list to represent some different View and I think that's great I just concerned about I get concerned about balance right and um making sure that when that happens that it's not disruptive to the existing lesson plans and curriculum and things like that and and I don't know how it worked out it could have done fine but I just wanted to make that other view you know Alicia thank you and I I was mistaken actually we're going to get into that sooner during the curriculum report so there'll be some details on what transpired me thank you thank you for speaking up awesome anyone else want to address the board yes please hello I'm Tina ready 168 sloper Lane thank you um I have three boys here and I apologize I just wrote this down I didn't get to prepare something um so the last meeting I attended was fantastic and I appreciate that it just the conversation was excellent and it brought up a lot of points um that I wanted to follow up on one that I was surprised by because I was made aware of something a situation in seventh grade at Dodd where there's a transgender person using the boys locker room during gym class and a couple of things caught me by surprise not that the surprising part was that um there was a comment made that we've been dealing with things of this nature regarding that very sensitive topic for about 10 years now and then a following topic made by the board that says we have no policy regarding that which I would feel after a decade we would have been down that road to figure out some kind of policy or adaptation considering we have sanitary napkins in the boys bathrooms at this point so this is something that's going to continuously come up and I was wondering if there is any policy being written on that for Dad or Cheshire public schools number one number two um will the policy be written by the Board of Ed with help of your lawyers I know that's a tough stretch with time but will it be ridden by you with the assistance of attorneys or will you turn that over to Cabe um how is that going to be handled and do we know if surrounding towns have any policy on transgender persons using a locker room of their current opposite sexual features thank you welcome yes Adam is going to talk about the policy formulation around that so which hopefully soon okay but thank you tonight as the meeting goes on okay okay thank you so much thank you and thank you uh by the way all three speakers were at the meeting open Forum two weeks ago which was awesome and I appreciate your insights yes yes if you're next please coming up thank you um Stephanie kilo 699 Country Wood Court I also have two students um in the Cheshire School System One in seventh grade at dad and then I have a sixth grader at Doolittle I have a son and a daughter my husband is a Cheshire police officer police officer of the year in 2018 so those books definitely hit home for us do not agree upon them my son was very vocal expressed that to the principal expressed it to the teacher she respected it was good about it they did come forward with a couple other books options for my child and other students and opened it up I think to every parent um I didn't come prepared either but I just feel that those books were not books that they should be reading in school those are things that should be discussed at home those are the critical race Theory discrimination um those habits are things that should be left at home at the discretion of the parents to talk to their children about if they choose that's not up to the school system in my opinion transgender is another topic my son is the one who has the girl in the bathroom that's how I found out I have a problem with that I have a daughter going to God next year I expressed my concerns to the principal I was on the phone call and saying Bridget saying should I remove my daughter from the public school system because that makes me uncomfortable having my daughter be exposed to that next year um I don't know like what we're waiting for something to happen to a student some something sexually to happen because it's happened in this country to other students why can't they go to a neutral bathroom go to the nurse's office um as an adult it makes me uncomfortable if I had to go in the bathroom and have a man next to me that is a man but wants to be a woman like and I don't think a teacher would want a student in their bathroom with them that's the opposite sex they're an adult in the opposite sex with them either so why do we have to expose the kids to this I mean Everybody Eats to their own do what you want but like I just don't think it's okay and healthy that these kids have to be exposed to that and a third thing is um and again my son comes home to telling me all this stuff was about the news that they have to watch during social studies it's the CNN 10.
so that's why we do it online for no other reason um thank you I'm going to yield the rest of my time for my calendar presentation later which will prove to be very exciting I'm sure thank you Mr Smith thank you um there are numerous and exciting things happening in our district those that do not know Clifton has their own app that you can download from the App Store so if you have not downloaded that please go and do so because you can get up-to-date information on all that's happening um around Clifton um briefly um this evening we had our groundbreaking of um the construction project at Woodrow Wilson Middle School that will be the um varsity baseball field as well as the girls soccer field and a clubhouse um so you'll see that project starting to take place if you pass by Van Allen Avenue and see Woodrow you'll you'll see that exciting time taking place um also briefly are project up at the high school the Banfield um if you board members if you have not seen it yet the Banfield is completed it looks wonderful and I was informed by Mr stevnesky that they had their first band practice on it the other day and they love it um just really came out great the tennis courts are in their final stages um they also look fantastic so uh yeah we'll have a ribbon cutting on that as well um I was told that there's a section of fence that is um not up yet 10 foot fence area is on back order um so I they won't be able to use the tennis courts obviously until that fencing is in but um the new the the fifth tennis court is not affected by that so they may be able to use the fifth Court um but in any sense um the board saw this Vision uh Clifton High School tennis was never to be able to hold a tournament because you need five courts to do so and uh by this board's vision and The Architects uh Ingenuity we now have five Courts at the high school and a professional um outstanding looking Banfield to add to it so um at some point we'll have a ribbon cutting for that so the public can see it but because of the support from the public and able to do some of these projects um you're going to start seeing a lot of great things happening in Clifton uh the Clifton schools that were part of the referendum that you approved so you may think that it's some things are taking very slow to happen uh some of it is slower than we wish but most of it is right on Target and uh we're very happy with uh the proceedings so I presume the public once they start seeing some of these great things you'll be very happy and pleased with it as well so um a lot of good things coming up um as our student representative said uh some things happening uh this weekend and next weekend um obviously our boys uh football team will play tomorrow night in Union City and uh you know come out and support the um the team the cheerleaders the band they all together uh put on a great performance for you and we're very proud of all of them uh for the great work that they do um and then on Saturday at pcti our soccer team will be playing for the county championship finals uh we wish them all the best and uh know that you'll bring the county Championship back to Clifton once again um and then the following Saturday I had spoken about this at one other one other venue about the robotics team they'll be hosting uh right here at Clifton High School it's really an all-day Affair and if you have not had the opportunity to see how talented our robotics team is please attend that on the 29th so again there's other great things happening um Dr robitosi a scholarship fund has the the Wizards coming back for a um another great basketball game um Miss Alama has her her staff already and practicing to play them um so I believe that's the 20th of November 30th of November uh so you'll see that information on the website under uh peach Char uh and I know that Clifton will come out and support um the scholarship fund because the proceeds from that directly go back to Clifton students so I know uh our community will support that a lot of great things happening in Clifton so please if you haven't downloaded the app please do so and um check the peach tree a peach jar sorry and all the other flyers are on the subsequent pages and parents receive an email or the community received an email as well okay uh we have some more time to to publicize that but um just wanted to make everyone aware of that it was a huge success last year so I I'm hoping that'll be a great success again this year um okay so let's move on uh so we'll go to First reading of policy I don't see anything [Music] uh next will be our presentation um by Dr rubatosi and assistant superintendent uh Janina kusilevich Dr robotos okay thank you who's on first sir which is at the beginning you see this good evening Commissioners ladies and gentlemen it's a pleasure to be here with you again this evening dim the lights and you start this with the soothing voice Janina sorry um this evening's presentation is about our state assessments what we're looking at is the New Jersey SLA we're going to have multiple parts to this presentation first we're looking at the New Jersey students learning Assessments in language arts and math then we'll be looking at science then dlm which are the dynamic learning Maps access for our English language Learners and District actions so we had a little break from NJ SLA during the pandemic but that assessment came back this past spring the njsla in English language arts assesses our students in grades three through nine the mathematics assessment is grades three through ten for all intents and purposes on their end of course Assessments in Algebra 1 for your eighth graders Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 for any students in high school who are enrolled in those courses these assessments are measured on a five-point rubric for language arts and math and a four-point rubric for science what we see here is an overview from our grades three through nine English language arts the 2022 assessment is a new Baseline and we see that the vast majority of our students fall into levels three through five in math we see something similar the vast majority of our students fall in levels three through five except in the area of geometry here we are looking at pre-pandemic years and then leading up to our new Baseline so as you can see across all grades bands we're looking at the same grade but different students so we're comparing apples to oranges but even comparing apples to oranges we see growth over the years with a new Baseline for this school year now here we see the reverse once again setting a new Baseline for the students who are not meeting and partially proficient we see a similar Trend in math when you look at our multiple years pre-pandemic overall across most grade levels even though this is the same grade of different students we still see year-to-year growth and now our new 2022 Baseline and then the reverse for those students who are not meeting or partially meeting and once again the new Baseline for 2022.
um an average tutoring night kind of would follow this schedule they come in they do an OG an intense drill and then they go on to their I ready account and have their staff while they're doing their i-Ready the teachers are enrolling one student at a time to read with them then they'll have a mini lesson and they will do the mini Lesson by that time the hour is up and then they started some things this year recently where they're pushing out more work for them to take home but they're getting a reward when they bring back to the next session so just trying to challenge the support yeah we have all of our teachers and then parents didn't have to pick up oh yeah tutoring that kids that don't go home on the bus are they is that is that a barrier for some you know what so we have 24 kids tutoring I think I had an order to that said you know we just wait this turns down but they never said anything about transportation I think they after school helps some parents are doing that anyway any other questions do you think it's gonna work I don't believe in it yeah no but I I think we can get it um do we would the nice thing about the way they're doing the scores now is that they're combining so if you have to take the spring and then you can take it to Summer they combine behind those for your and I used to not do that from everything I look at the schools so that's nice so you have those kids to take it March you can still work with them for another two months what's the new state average they want it to be to 98.
well if you're going to watch CNN 10 then we can watch facts and we can hear both sides of the story not just one-sided so again now my son will be removed and I have to watch out anymore um so I will say they've been very helpful respectful and um understanding our beliefs at home and not forcing it upon my child so I'm very grateful and thankful for that I just need to express how I feel I just it's bothering me that I'm like two months into the school system and I'm like I wasn't prepared for this already that it was going to be like this I don't know anything any comments questions well we typically don't comment during this stuff oh okay I'm sorry this is really your opportunity and we're all taking notes but all all your comments been taken at heart um you've iterated some of the things that were said at The Forum a couple weeks ago there's a lot of discussion tonight what's been happening in policy curriculum committee so it's outside so hopefully more information will be shed and I'm certainly happy to talk to you after the meeting and our time talk a little bit more about uh transgender policies being worked on the committee is working on that right uh and the title of mine applications that we have to follow but this is uh it's evolving uh just like you a lot of school districts trying to find out the best way to deal with it still abide by the law so stay tuned we're going to address some of that tonight no formal action released you'll hear some of the work being done and for everyone else there's also committee work happening as well which you're going to hear tonight where a lot of this gets resolved so I wish I had better answers for you but I think you'll see where be working on some of these things I mean the principal did tell me how to address it next year with my daughter and stuff but there's no guarantee you know what I'm saying and I mean God forbid something happens you know I just I don't know it's just very unsettling for me that that can understood and you know we've heard from others as well so you're not alone you know I just let's before something happens to somebody or something because my son could be there and the boys are joking around and say something that makes a girl feel uncomfortable well you know what then go when the girls you're still a girl at the end of the day you know like I don't get it and he tells me no she's not changing she just puts her shirt over it then why are we in there like I just don't I don't agree I don't understand and you know each to their own but just go somewhere neutral it makes everybody feel uncomfortable the students the parents I mean me as a parent does anyway so Stephanie thank you I yeah just taking in we'll work out those were my three topics that I wanted to address and you did great by the way thank you all right thank you you're welcome anyone else thank you everyone thank you for speaking I know for um first timers it's a little awkward at first but uh again this is not to belabor this but we welcome the public comment um that's how we learn that's how we get the feedback uh closer to the school district and take some meaningful action to address these issues so thank you for speaking and I hope you do come again and if you're not seeing progress please let us know so what we're going to continue on and there's a lot more information coming so that being said we're going to move on to curriculum which I think is a pretty lengthy report tonight so miss ham it's uh it's up to you and Miss Solano thanks I'm sorry I just wanted to check on something all right so uh yes we met on Monday um and the bulk of the meeting um well I'm gonna the bulk of the meeting was dedicated to the discussion of the Contemporary fiction book club let me go through the other items and then we'll come back to that if I could um just so we don't disrupt the flow of the conversation so um Dr Gad um informed us that they are they've convened a scheduling committee for the high school um it comprises nine teachers seven students uh it will be eight students right eventually um yep um two parents and three administrators and the goal of the committee is to review the current uh schedule 30 minute lunches uh to include which includes 30 minute lunches teacher collaboration time drop-in support those all have to be incorporated in the schedule that they devised identify what the committee is trying to accomplish through the schedule and consider the school Community feedback as they look to develop a schedule for the um 2023-24 school year um we also just heard about a uh the uh APUSH AP U.S history trip to Washington DC May 22nd through 24th um smaller group obviously than the Middle School the 8th graders but it is these are kids who were in eighth grade at the time of covid and lost out on the opportunity to go to DC so this is their chance it's going to be obviously with a smaller group a much more extensive and um probably intellectually rigorous um trip than what they would have had in eighth grade so um going back to the seventh grade contemporary fiction book club we probably spent about 40 minutes of the meeting of a less than an hour-long meeting discussing the club and I I thought it was a really valuable um opportunity to kind of review what happened at the um at the open forum and um weigh the um the parents concerns but also look in depth at how the books were selected the purpose of the course um it's been up for three years what are the objectives the learning objectives we you have in your hands this little packet this is all information um these are documents to support that the that um Kristen Castellano and Kristen Shanley handed out to um explain why they selected the books that they did I would really encourage you all to take a look at the at the discussion that took place I'm not going to do it justice um but these were not these were not randomly selected um some May there are a lot in the community that do object to the content we discussed that all of us including Mike Wood um it was we um but um anyway I I know we won't make everybody in the community happy about it but um these as I said we're not selected there there was a method to the selection process and um the teachers adapted when asked um to change the list and added wink and forget me not um which you know at this stage I've only read the reviews but they seem to be positive and uplifting which is what the parents had requested and um and the teachers willingly obliged so um again I um you know the the criteria are summarized in the notes you've got the summaries of the books you have the learning objectives and um you have awards that the all the books have received so um and the Publishers as well so I open I'm gonna ask Marlene if she wants to add anything to this or um and then open to questions especially so Faith the I unfortunately cannot attend a meeting Monday night we had a competing construction committee uh selection process but this is recorded on school on YouTube uh so it's visible we watch as far as materials with members of the public want to request copies can they get access to it posted awesome we posted all of the Dodd website and uh if folks have follow-up questions can they bring them to the next Kirkland committee meeting which is when sure if they don't want to wait that long they could certainly reach out before that next meeting it's a giving but I I know folks want to study and we'll come back with some questions but I think it's November um sorry I'm sorry I'll get it later but the point being is materials available on the website recording is our school YouTube thank you it is November uh 14th and I'll remind I'll read out at the end of the meeting that's coming up number 14.
when we look at our cohorts this is where we pull out the students who have been in Clifton for multiple years so when we look at our students who start off here in third grade and continue on through eighth grade or start off in 3rd through 9th if you're in our cohorts we see our students growing against themselves in language arts year to year and we see the reverse Trend here but again showing that strength of when you stay in our schools year to year so the elementary and secondary Education Act requires that we disaggregate our data by socioeconomic demographic so here we're looking at the same trends that have been mentioned on previous slides but across our racial and ethnic categories and the same for math and we also need to disaggregate by program students who are in the social economic social economic demographic where they require free or reduced lunch our students who have 504s our English language learners special needs students and the general education population and here we're looking at the same breakdown by program for mathematics again just for the 2022 Baseline year finally we have our new Science assessment the njsla science last year was completely revamped it was given in grades 5 8 and 11.
yeah so the test is in marches and yeah Irene is in March and then I learned start seeing people and it's three mornings I guess okay thank you well welcome to the Middle School cool um we're going to talk a little bit about some uh about what we're doing at the middle school uh we've kind of sat down this year when we started talking about the roles we actually taught about what we're going to talk about tonight before we talked about it in our administrative team meetings and that is just trying to bring some some positivity for our students back to school uh you know we saw it at the elementary level when I was at Van Buren you hear Educators talking about just that you know we were we loved staying home which is a good thing and then kind of that fight to come back and get back into school and get back into a rhythm and and have some motivation and have some desire to that workout they could want to uh have a challenge so that was one of the things we wanted to focus on this year as as we started uh pushing through so in one week we're taking a look at is Happy staff happy students so even before we go into looking at all these other things that we're doing what are some things that we can do to keep our people in this building happy right we're happy we can learn and we don't want to be here it's really hard to to set in that chair and listen to what your teachers have and say so talking with the staff trying to figure out things that we can do the first thing we talked about is our vocabulary and just how we talk and how we address how I send my emails to the staff how we interact with each other so we have about 377 students in the building we have 48 staff members but we talk about one there so we talked about right there's a lot of us there's a lot of you but we truly are in this together and we you'll hear us just the way we interact with each other having that conversation and not just that conversation and let them know that we're here let them know that they're human and would you care what's going on both here at school and outside and really driving home that family component so you know this just a few pictures of some things that we've we've done just a short time that we've been here uh you know greeting the students with some music and Bubbles and uh being super obnoxious but you know I thought it was important that you know you throw in some pictures of the teachers coming in too where it's not just the kids that are smiling when they they see this going on so if you happen to drive by tomorrow morning you'll you'll see this going on we'll be set up on the on the steps out here playing music again just to kind of surprise and Delight students uh in this picture you know we ran in a prompt to assembly on the first day of school I said you know what we've been in class long enough like let's all just go meet in the gym and go do some fun things for a little bit and then I called out all of our new teachers they had no clue what was going on uh as you can tell about the big Sears she's terrified this is not her thing especially when they found out that they involved basketball uh so we started working on I gave the teachers a challenge on what they had to do and they completely failed at it and so we just talked to the kids about that there's going to be times this year that we're going to fail but I think it's it's going to happen and so you just saw the people who are going to be teaching you fail we are not all going to be great at everything and so I gave them uh it was like two minutes to actually come up with a plan for the challenge that they had they still fail just not as bad um so we couldn't talk through that right like we can get better at things it doesn't mean we're still going to be perfect but we just keep trying and keep going back at it so those were kind of the first couple days of school and then it was like who doesn't do donuts so I want donuts for the entire building uh kids came in off the buses they came straight into the gym this was our first Friday here just kind of a surprising Delight I've lost the bet to them during that prep session which is why um so anybody who likes Square Donuts you can order 25 dozen donuts the morning they said anything over 25 dozen they need like a couple hours heads up but they said they can crank them out fast enough that or 25 dozen they can have them done by the time you get in it's a little plus four square Donuts they were on it um so as the kids came in off the bus right we're just creating Smiles creating that environment where where kids want to be where did you get this great evidence from Bloomington okay my daughter used to wear that um this was a first for us uh you've heard Shane talking about you know Debbie usually comes with Grant in the same sentence uh I worked with Daddy and found somebody and we were able to for the first time uh take our kids out to camp so it was it was amazing uh they so these are just some pictures of our sixth graders uh we went down to Happy Hollow we took sixth grade down for two days we took seventh grade down Tuesdays we ticked off the eighth graders for taking them down for one day uh so they were all bombed and I suck edits I know you guys don't get any anything extra so that is why I'm going to let sixth and seventh grade come to your eighth grade yeah they were like actually no it's fine okay one day it's great like we'll keep our formal to us so yeah so this is sixth grade we took them down uh on Monday and Tuesday uh we we tried to take away any barriers right so Happy Hollow for the is a camp down just around the corner from native urine um in the first time I don't know do we stay overnight and I would love to get to a point where we offer that but talking with the team you know our goal was to get every kid there and our fear was the minute we said we were staying overnight we're going to lose some kids so worked with Dennis Mills our director of Transportation um every morning that week kids came in we got a breakfast we got him into the gym we got them on buses and we bust them so we were down at camp like 9 A.M each morning and we were at Camp all day long we packed up at uh just after two we were here at 2 30 inside the federal buses home we did everything rock climbing team building uh archery uh challenge courses and it's it's pictures you know like this one up here in the top right right where these kids are just put into these random groups and again this is sixth grade right so this is the first time these kids have ever been together you know we used to get kids coming from the Intermediate School that have been together for a couple years uh so they're meeting new friends they're right they're getting forced into these groups where they don't know everybody in their group because they're not with their Elementary groups anymore and so you're part of the stations we're just kind of activities to get to know each other um then we have okay so we did zap lining uh so all the groups got to do all the activities um zap Lane what step between zap line and zipline right that's the first question you took OG you would know what's up um no so ziplining is starting from an elevated position and going like through a forest to another platform or something that's elevated um that's zip lighting zap lining is starting on the ground and finishing on the ground so we started on one side of a valley it took off running and then zap lined across and land it on the other side of the back so it wasn't we were not elevated when we started or stopped so we are just going across kind of a Gorge and then little stories from the sixth and seventh graders and it was all like I don't know if I want to go and then right you gotta kind of too cool right you got to kind of set that stage to do the whole response to the building and then they get down there and they turn into like the biggest kids and they're all over the place and it's just a day full of smiles you know we we had some students who were terrified to both that line or Rock fly or the wall climb and just hearing students start to kind of hey just you can do it just go up a little bit and if you have to come down it's fine and convincing students to take risks and take challenges in a safe environment but they knew that it was going to be okay um is what we were wanting to build right in seeing the staff do some of these activities the kids loved every minute of it so then what are we doing you know these are just activities and some things that we wanted to do anyways but what are we going to be intentional about and what we really wanted to do was make sure that every student had a connection that they had some club or something that they could participate in that they can feel connected to so we started off saying you know we want to establish three new clubs this year that are just different than anything we're doing to try to connect more students so this is our current list that we have going on right now so we have uh radio club robotics a-lit club which is a literature club we have spoken word Poetry Club who is presenting tomorrow night at 5 30 over the High School auditorium uh anime club we have people we have eaglet names actually this type of uh we have book club music lab all of these things our newest editions though is a modding Club I'm going to pretend like I know a whole lot about this club but they just got started and it is working uh technology they're working with Mr Phelps he's been getting them some computers that they can use and it's all about modding games so you can do it with Minecraft you can take it and you can start modding it on the back end you're kind of messing with it and making some changes to it it's a whole they love it they're all about it and so it's a whole different group than any of the other groups that we have going on uh we have a small engine Club that's getting ready to start taking off in a juggling Club out there unique and we'll see who are you leading guy or not you know uh Dr bird chair and then the small engine Club is who's doing that one uh Tim Reeves so the Middle School thing our Focus has been so far this year kind of putting smile on people's faces from what we say what we do what we offer and you know we hope that it's carrying over to the kids and when you have conversations with the kids just you know that simple question like how school go or you know are you liking School this year if we can get kids to start saying yes yeah it's absolutely I like I like being in that building then we can start taking care of some of these other pieces it's fighting this covered day you know and some other things that were going on and we just need to get that environment back so that then we can get on contractors questions okay I do have uh just a question about the club so it sounds like teachers again and are we paying this most of these clubs are volunteer uh my friendly Like We the People obviously was up there that's a class um art was up there some of these art classes you know these are by no means you know we don't have National Junior out of society we don't have student care so we don't have Medicals but like all of those schools these are kind of these extra ones that kids don't often think about um and this is we just started creating this you know this document that we'll hang up around the building so there's already changes that we need to make to it and really it's just trying to find a connection whatever and if there's not one there if you have an interest then we get your sponsored in the technology no I'm right I'm done I'll leave our school Insurance what's that and are they going to be like short-term clubs like six weeks or eight weeks or are they intending it's not been going all year so as long as there's an interest ing if folks willing to do it so for those of you who may not know right this manufacturing that we're setting in this is our student-ran business two periods a day before you leave if you want to kind of take a look on this table or some projects and things that they are [Music] worth tennis team you know they do some work for our basketball team um some things that they can do in here this is one of those areas that I can see really taking off yes I love your happy staff happy students what other things are you doing for the staff to make them happy yeah so you know it's that kind of surprising the life thing right right where it's simple things is you know we had a staff meeting this morning so we brought in Panera don't tell them it's about me just maybe put a little smile on their face uh to make it through the day checking in with them having conversations is a big thing uh using our ilt to have those conversations uh getting feedback on things that they want to see done in the building you know there was a desire to get a conference room back in the middle of the school sometimes it's just these little things that we can make happen okay right so we're not coming all the way down to this end of the building to eat blood you should wasting time so you know we were able to do that and so they you know it's it's interesting because what you do for kids puts my it's the teachers are these kids taking kids to can the teachers have as much fun if not more fun uh donut day did you bring the line for that too uh so you know that's that's kind of kind of is when you think about it as one family right it's not necessarily that we're doing it for kids or for adults it's for this building so that we can continue to unify together foreign having someone any discussion um yes Amy yes yes yes question guys for zero next is the action figures and the recommendation to approve the 2022-2023 budget adoption I have a motion to approve ment on the 22-22 budget adoptions okay all right I have a discussion part right now I'm just going to read the headings of all the documents that are related to this first one is the resolution for Appropriations and tax rates we've covered that the last time which facilitates a lot of times this one is a resolution to transfer amounts from the education funds and operation Department that is something that happens on the end of the year basis every year present year budget reduction resolution so that is another question that happens every year on a particular form transfer resolution appropriate balances where the different funds a resolution to adopt the school bus placement plan so we plan to read any resolution to adopt the capital purchase uh yes Amy yes yes definitely yes board recording secretary this is a replacement for Renaissance exception I still made 10 seconds in discussion have fun today we're getting there yes I am beginning with the separation of Hillsborough Elementary School teacher Anna Harris effective October 28 2022 through the transfer of Brown County High School registrar Christine Pruitt to transfer to the brown Pines School of funeral specialist effective October 21st 2022.
yeah we as committee members Ann and I um did offer suggestions um possible questions to ask the students um timing of the course um and the they were very receptive to those suggestions which I found positive um it was not an antagonistic meeting um they and I think they understood where and appreciated where the parents were coming from I'm not sure if if what your thoughts were but it's my reflection I would I would just add very professional art teachers in Cheshire public schools and um the teachers that were at the curriculum committee meeting and and Marlene were there to give us um all of the information that went behind the selection process of those books um to assure us so that when talking to parents we can all of us can be um you know very secure that uh when curriculum is chosen throughout Cheshire Public Schools there's there's a lot behind it um it's not uh it's not information that's just thrown together willy-nilly these are professionals teachers and administrators and um I think we were quite satisfied that the materials are not inappropriate for this age group and um and they came with all their evidence and I think that the the one of the really nice things that came from the curriculum committee meeting was um I think it would I think Faith asked Marlene if we could get that information to the to the parents and um that's what came of you know we can post everything on on the Internet it's out there for everyone to see now um and and that's important to have that transparency in the in the process so thank you Marlene and thank you to the teachers that came to our meeting it was very informative uh one last question for me uh I don't think it was discussed but uh during the open Forum was a idea about possibly having parent representation and the selection process or at least being able to listen in so I could understand it is that something that can be taught about or is planning to talk about in a future meeting people we did not discuss that did not come up um but it's worth exploring okay so we'll have a future agenda okay okay thank you okay any other questions from the board members uh this is going on down the line so Andrew you first um so I think what I heard the other night was that parents didn't have the list of the choices for the students beforehand so they weren't able to see was there any discussion about in the future potentially giving the list of what the books will be so parents could look to see um prior to you know getting at the the Friday and they had the the students had to come in and select the book that Monday um like a lot of what I heard the other night was because of parents didn't know what it was so for the transparency for that then I can just jump in on that it you know there was inconsistency between the various teams about how much time was given you know some teachers had addressed it open house in September and then sent another email out and then others you know we'd one instance where it was as you said that Friday which we recognize is absolutely not enough time to provide the information so um we built that more consistency with better lead time into the equation moving forward because I just know that when my daughter has her summer reading list we get what the book choices are what they are you know who the author is and whatnot so then you could go and look at it before they actually have to make that selection so I think that would be helpful thank you Andrew Sam mine is not a question more so of a comment um you know I being a citizen in this town have raised black Jewish Asian children so I appreciate the high quality and attempt that the school system has done for the last 20 years to ensure um equity and inclusivity in the process it appears that was taken to chose this election I mean just looking at the awards that some of these titles have been given tells me that there was thoughtfulness put into it before presenting it to the teachers and even the teachers involved in making this election so I want to thank the committee for doing so um and I'm sure Mr Hanlon had a hand in this as well too because we moving to this town I understood this is not a diverse town but they recognize that and we continue to add so that our kids are exposed to other cultures and other events within like the woman over there said globally so I want to thank you for continuing that quality selection process Tim thanks Tony yeah um so with regard to the age-appropriateness I'm curious so I don't think this is going to work really well for any group any grade where it is appropriate for 100 of the students just in general do you have a guideline like what sort of percentage of the students do you look for to be appropriate for them not just specific to this but just in general when it becomes age appropriate is what I'm wondering about so there were there were a couple things that we looked at um one of those things was making sure they were high interest books especially for reluctant readers so that's a piece that we look at another piece that we look at is the diversity of the school and we look to make sure that we've got things that will appeal to as many students as possible another thing that we look at is the reading age and that we get from the publisher but in addition to the reading age as in the Lexile as described by the publisher we also use a rubric from achieve the core which we lay over whether it's non-fiction or fiction text and the rubric is in your packet and so we look at how complex that that text is and there are a number of different um criteria so we might look at the text structure the language feature the knowledge demands in particular for this unit in literary text you could have an exceedingly complex meaning you could have a slightly complex text structure so you're looking at the totality of it the other pieces that we have are we know what the reading levels of our students are so we can see in a snapshot where kids reading levels so we have a lot of information on which to to Target large you know a large group and the book clubs both the independent reading that we do throughout the two years and then the two book clubs in seventh grade and two book clubs in eighth grade allow the teachers to select texts that are going to you know address large groups of kids so that's where we're getting both the grade level the reading level the age level I hope that answers your question yeah I think so thank you um when the selection is made is it made by the student or is it made by the student and the parent where like there's some sort of sign off involved or something like that where the parent had a chance to review the material ahead of time so I'm happy to report that there will be information on the website for the dystopian book club coming up later in the seventh grade and also the historical fiction unit coming up in eighth grade so all those materials will be put on the website but as the teacher sent that out there's a Google form that went home that was sent to the parents I I don't couldn't say exactly which team did what and which teachers but as Dr Solon said some of the teachers reviewed this at open house sent the email let's let folks know that students would be making those selections and to my understanding they're doing that via a Google form so kids type in their name they type in their first second and third choice or First Choice that kind of prog process so potentially a student could make a choice without their parents knowledge I would say that's probably probably a high probability or right I mean because the Google form you know a parent may not necessarily see the Google form right and it may or may not be filled out at home or or you know would there be um at what point is there a um a stop built in where the parent is aware of the choice of book that their uh child could be reading uh in the book club because it sounded like some some of the parents at the open house were a little bit surprised by the material right number one um but also as far as the choice being made it sounded like some of the parents were aware of the material being reviewed and some weren't so I was just wondering if there is a a formal process built in where the parent is aware of what's going on because sometimes that's doesn't happen the kid's like oh yeah I got to read this book I gotta fill this thing out that's it yeah I can certainly look into that I also I also know that um so we have a lot of books in all of the classrooms too and we have books in the library and parents don't give the okay for every independent reading book that a child picks in the library either so that sort of makes me think about those the juxtaposition of those two things you know how how how yeah they're they're reading a lot of books that that they're choosing right that they're just making their own choice out of the hundreds that are there and there's not a circle back to Mom and Dad necessarily so that's something I think I can think about but I mean you would agree that these seven now nine books I think oh now seven I'm sorry now seven um they were made different by putting them in a list right so that they could be reviewed so sort of like by definition if they're different then they sort of put in a different level than a a student picking a book out of the library for in classroom reading or for homework assignment or something like that so I'm just I just think that maybe it would be better to have some kind of stop built in to make sure everyone's on the same page say this is what's going on because it sounded to me like there was also a bit at least for this group of parents that maybe there was even a a slight loss of trust or or or a bad communication between themselves and and the teacher there was some kind of breakdown there which could have been avoided with perhaps building in a stop of that kind uh before the the uh segment of teaching where to commence I get I guess I mean I I mean it is we're talking about uh 12 or 13 years old but you know just because of the subject matter is pretty heavy in those books um I think I would I when I when I was at Dodd I wasn't reading that kind of subject materials more like Animal Farm or which way the wicked Wind Blows or you know something like that which is a bit more you know surface level kind of stuff um so I don't know uh I just feels like at least with the with these parents it seemed like they didn't get enough of a heads up and you know we know it's difficult communicating with everyone it's just it seems like if just a one last time something where it were to have gone out or or something where um it was like no this is this is happening in the class and you should just be aware that your students are going to be learning some weighty material stuff that's outside of the nor the norm of what we think our children are learning I guess so I don't know I don't know if that's put correctly but I just want to just make sure we're of course right there we can't have a discussion at curriculum community business here however the next curtain committee meeting I implore all board members to attend if this is going to be a top and bring the ideas to the table I think this is something that might be covered there um but just to move along I just want to uh some good points made here more work being done I know a lot of things came up there and I'm on communication on open foreign communication the only thing I want to point though you know I am a numbers guy uh and I like the metrics so I thought the song did share something with me on the enrollment um in the fish and book club I I'm not sure these numbers are recent or not but since those two books were added um just yeah okay just to um put in perspective uh the one I have I think this was a Friday you know ghost boys now has 50 students enrolled uh the two new books um wink has 24 and forget me not as 26.
those are not the typical years that these assessments have been given we used to have one um elementary middle and high school but the um the breakdown has changed we've moved from fourth grade to fifth grade for this assessment this science-based assessment differs from the old njsla because the old assessment focused on memorizing content the new njsla is about applying skills science skills so here we have the four levels of proficiency our students at grades 5 8 and 11 and how they fall across those levels of proficiency the dynamic learning Maps are an alternative assessment for those students who have the most significant intellectual disabilities and how they perform in English language arts math or science this dlm has also been adjusted and is newly designed to hopefully be a more valid measure of what our students are able to do our students in dlm we had 115 students participating in this assessment and here is how they break down from the emerging level to the advanced level across language arts math and science and finally we get to our access for L's which is the English language proficiency test access for L's is an assessment that is given to all English language Learners whether they are enrolled in an ESL or bilingual program in the district or they have recently exited or they are currently refusing Services we still have to measure their English language growth and we also have students who are in both ESL classes as well as receiving services from the special education department this assessment measures English language Proficiency in the areas of listening speaking reading and writing in 2022 we assessed 873 students that included over 200 students who had either refused the program or were enrolled in Special Needs programs this school year we are on track to test over 1300 English language Learners when you include both those enrolled employee programs and the students who are either in and special needs program or have refused services so how are we moving forward without from our new Baseline well the new Baseline was set post pandemic so from here we have no place to go but up we're going to be leveraging what we see in this data to adjust our local assessments and to provide additional support to students we always look at our data and we make adjustments as needed throughout the school year we have been revising pacing charts throughout the last few years and our quarterly exams have been the local data which we use to drive and adjust our curriculum to meet our student needs so that our students can get everything that they need to attain the standards we are expanding Clifton teacher provided tutoring both before and after school you already see tonight names on the agenda for teachers who are willing to work in our tutoring programs and we will continue to add more teachers throughout the school year we're extending the use of the online tutoring support programs such as tutor.com to grades 4 through 12.
this is a replacement for Renee ccat also okay discussion foreign but also happy for them so it's been a great week back um I just want to thank Shane and Gavin for being able to come and present tonight on some of our priorities at broadbanding schools um between student outcomes and happy staff and happy kids um and another piece that we've been able to put in and speak across kindergarten through eighth grade is our vehicle and world of work training and if you remember that that's training to allow kids to have that career exploration so it's one of those founding pieces that that we were able to get through a grant that helps us get that exploration engagement experience across the entire page 12 Continuum so um you know when we we talked last summer about happy staff and happy kids there's a little bit of pushback that our admin Retreats about that term happy and um you know it it's what are we striving for kids to be skipping down the hallway with smiles on their face doing what they want when they want how they want and um that you know kids and staff are going to have to face challenges and frustrations and they're not always going to be happy per se um but I think we've really evolved into What happiness um truly is defined and um that's being able to give people purpose and what they do every day whether you're an adult whether you're a kiddo and that purpose helps gives confidence and truly determines the difference between engaged just going through the motions and actively disengaged so um this week was a really cool week to see all of this kind of evolve together and um it's been something very dear to my heart for quite some time so excited about that Journey I want to thank Dennis Mills our transportation director last night we were able to do the opening of the bids for the contracts the new contracts for the transportation department and everybody came out and had smiles and the process just went really well and I want to thank our contractors that the common support sponsor Dennis for walking through that process with all of us um and then I want to thank um Debbie Harmon Christy reisman tonight they they let our second broad-based curriculum meeting um that is a meeting where we have stakeholders between parents and teachers and administrators uh all around the table to to do just that review curriculum and we have math and we have social studies that's up for review this year and I'm just grateful for the process that you're able to take everybody through so thank you and then finally Renee I thank you for sitting beside me for a year and what three months and um teaching me everything there is to know about this process and um wish you the absolute best thank you that's all I have um do you have a motion to accept the claims as a percentage I think the discussion Carol yes yes thank you so very much
so it's more than just a few parents that showed up but they'll conform it goes to speak that there is more diversity and topics in community and I think that enrollment reflects that so thank you for adding those two books um so I'm going to stop my my uh comments there is there any other reports out of curriculum okay I just wanted you know these were controversial books in the time um I think we all very much want to make sure that our kids find something interesting to read but we're not feeding a narrative and um I would point out one of the things that we suggested was that the students be asked will this book stand the test of time will your children be reading this book as a classic when they're when it becomes their time and I'd also like to put out if these guys came home with Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo or Jonathan Swift I know I'm um or George Orwell no one would raise a question and yet every one of these guys Jonathan Swift urged eating of babies in an Indecent Proposal uh Charles Dickens um Oliver Twist is a violent cruel book um Les Mis is just tragic and you know a mother gets her teeth pulled out um and Animal Farm is brutal it really is um so my hope though is that we are expanding at the edge at the educator level into other areas of thought and I raised this at The Forum there are um other black intellectuals out there who are pushing back against some of the themes that we're seeing in ghost boys and others and they are prominent and they've got the net they also have places on the national stage I hope are at the adults making these decisions are considering some of their thoughts also um in looking for literature to include and that's all I'm going to say so thank you thank you faith we're gonna move on to finance Mr gripple you have a porn update normally Finance we always think it's boring but it always ends up being exciting so we'll see how it goes um uh so I'll uh hand the uh report over to Mr maciano thank you Mr grippo good evening everyone I I will tell you they have nothing exciting to share tonight the the September report is is kind of boring which I'm happy about um board members know and have a document in their package our budget this year is 80 million 664 420 through September which is the third month of the year you know we have entered the encumbrances for payroll and for transportation our largest accounts we just have some final adjustments to do but we've encumbered or expended about 73.8 percent of the budget very normal at this time of the year we don't have any major variance concerns to report it's no different than last month always a little cautious until we get through the first half of the Year about our expenditures so we still have a 40 percent expenditure cap on our non-payroll expenditures in place and we'll keep that on probably until December the one thing that I did want to point out in this month's report is that we were able in September to lock some of the Commodities that we purchase heating propane we locked at 253 a gallon heating oil number two which is in some of our schools 381 a gallon Transportation fuel diesel for our buses is 366 a gallon and unleaded gasoline is locked in at 2 80 a gallon that's through the rest of the year so at least we know what our budget is going to how it's going to be impacted by those prices which are you know pretty good considering in my opinion electricity as I mentioned last month that's still pending we are working with the vendor to see if it makes any sense but we will not be locking anything long-term electricity prices are just too high on the long term we're waiting for eversource to report out and tell us what their standard rate will be effective in January when our current locked pricing for electricity ends and then natural gas is not mentioned in in the report but we've been on a market based rate for the past three years for natural gas because long term locks for natural gas just not attractive and they haven't been attractive the last few years that's the grant money is still intact and and being used this year good through 2024 that really concludes the finance report um firstly uh congratulations to you and your staff for locking in those um fuel prices those are pretty impressive um I hope I hope I continue considering what's going on yes considering yes are we like exempt from from some of the taxes that are imposed on yes oh okay yes when we well when we lock you know the fuel prices in particular um we do not pay tax in fact that's why the contract that we have with our bus contractor does not include fuel because of the contractor purchased it they would have to pay tax and then pass it on to us that's like two dollars a gallon almost looks like in taxes clearly helps yeah um any questions on this report okay um there was no medical benefits report tonight okay because we don't have it available not because I'm hiding it well we kind of went over it at the last thing you have sort of a double report there was it was it had one extra week you know part of the reason we don't have tonight's report is that the we went through a significant conversion of our financial system over the last weekend and so the finance department is still working through that the conversion went just fine but there's a lot of work that has to be done um to get the conversion complete and everything in order so we'll have it for next month we will forgive them the financial transitions always can be a little tricky so um I guess before I conclude uh we did have a uh Finance uh committee meeting um on when was September 21st uh it was an attempt to um as uh I had mentioned for what was it six months ago I think that we were going to try the finance committee was going to try and meet to try and get a head of uh potential issues that are issues that we can examine before we get into the budget season to sort of have a better handle on things um and so uh in the meeting um Mr Messianic just uh discussed our our uh Esser II and RPS or grant funding and uh how it's being expended um which it he has has discussed in previous reports um let's see uh we uh we're looking at um uh some of us looked like there are some support staff that was being uh funded through some of the grant expenditures and so we were discussing um what would happen after 2024 and what those costs would be um right now it would be uh 80 000 for each for the for each of the two positions um because they are um hired they would be hired as I don't know if they're Consultants right now or if they're they're current full-time positions but right so they would transition to I guess a basically a teaching position at that point um so we'll have to accommodate for those and those are um uh primarily what was it math coach coaching for both at the high school both at the high middle and high school okay and I know there was talk in Washington about some I guess funding about that sort of thing from uh commissioner Cardona so maybe we'll I don't know get a little help in the future I guess um let's see we also we discussed Energy prices and uh let's see uh we discussed the the wish list that we always talk about uh every year um and that um we're trying to be fiscally prudent uh again this year we'll see how that goes um and we also discussed our food service uh meal prices and um you know uh what that what the uh funding that we received from the state um how that's going to how that's affected our budget so far and how uh how long that uh the uh funding may take us through um according to the notes Here we may be able to get through the beginning of January right now because the of the revised participation rate um which is uh great um so that gives us a little more at least gets us through the holidays for the most part for uh lunch costs would kick in again um and that I think that was it right we didn't did not discuss trailers or anything no oh it's so weird yeah yeah you're gonna do that uh so yeah so that's uh that's the report for uh our finance meetings or any questions so may I just add an update you may uh of course uh because we've talked about it in the finance committee and we've talked about it um at the board level we had applied over the summer for a federal stop grants a school security Grant offered through the federal government uh unfortunately we did not receive that grant that was um something I believe the only District in Connecticut to receive money was Bridgeport but um that was if you recall we talked about Mental Health First Aid being to a degree part of that but that actually ultimately got picked up by the town through their Federal grant money and then uh the other significant item we applied for was for a district security manager so you know then may talk more about that as we come out on wish list items perhaps at the next meeting that we have in December just wanted to update everybody on that Grant thank you are you you get this background well we didn't get the stop Grant but that would have been a proposal had the stop Grant come through we would have that's something that the board had actually recommended as part of our operating budget I want to say 2017 ish 18 and um yeah definitely pre-pandemic and uh we thought this might be a vehicle to you know transition into that role but uh unfortunately like I said we we didn't acquire the grant any other questions all right that concludes the finance report uh thank you Mr grippo and again thank you Mr Massena for locking in the fuel uh prices I know it's uh it's uh sounds of it is a bit of a win in today's economy uh that being said speaking of additional items coming up planning committee uh Mr Martelli thank you so uh last evening my colleagues to my left and I uh had a planning committee meeting over at hummerston school um you know we are in the throes of beginning to plan for the state mandate for 2035 whereas All Buses need to be zero emission or need to be alternative fuel and then 2040 for zero emissions for those of you who are watching at home um so we're trying to get out in front of this now and start the discussion there'll be a lot of this as the years progress here but last night um daco who is our bus provider did a really nice job of kind of walking us through um what it means where the kind of the industry is and where where other districts are kind of going with it um he did compliment to us for beginning to start the planning now a lot of districts aren't even thinking about this yet um so we saw a PowerPoint which was entitled transition to electric and alternative fuels again 2035 zero emission and then all electric by 2040.
we are prioritizing reading foundational skills in the classroom for those of you with students in grades K through 3 you might know that as the fundations program um and as we move up the grade levels we're prioritizing independent reading we're focusing on small group Hands-On math activities to maintain student progress and we're leveraging online programs such as imagine math which adapt based on our student needs we're utilizing our Esser funds to increase counselors psychologists social workers and intervention programs and we've of course prioritized mental health Readiness through both pbsis mindfulness and a large expansion of the nurtured heart program to give our teachers the tools to work with our students and assist them with self-regulation and participation in class and that is all I have about assessment but we have another portion of our presentation and that is right there but um a little present okay okay and of course for the first year out of a pandemic we're getting cusacked what is that Cusack is the New Jersey quality single accountability continuum this is the state's monitoring and self-evaluation system for public school districts in the areas that we're going to be assessed we must score 80 percent in fiscal Personnel instructional operational and governance we are a cohort one District meaning we are one of the first districts that were ever cusacked in the first year of 0708 and we have been cusacked every three years since then how does this work we complete a self-evaluation and then after that is submitted we undergo an on-site review by the executive County Superintendent based on that self-evaluation and the on-site review the commissioner of education issues a cusac placement letter some of the components to attain those 80 percent are fully in our hands and others are measured by external factors so we just reviewed those five areas fiscal management Personnel instruction operations and governance fiscal includes things like our financial reports our kafir the district's long-range facilities plan meeting the needs of different grants how the budget is handled how the budget calendar is worked out how we approve purchase orders and and follow purchasing laws and how we manage cash flow among other Financial areas in personnel Cusack comes and looks at the evaluation process at professional development the certification process our staffing practices position control and how we supervise and give feedback including professional development in instruction and program the first eight indicators are completely out of our hands they are entirely based on the state assessment presentation that I just gave the remaining areas up through area 16 are things that we have in our control which is our curriculum our pacing guides our materials and how we ensure that we are delivering instruction appropriately to all of our students the area of operations addresses things like Hib school safety School climate our memorandum of agreement with law enforcement comprehensive Equity plan Health Services home instruction transportation and how we report our data and finally we have governance the governance area assesses how our Board of Education performs it looks at board transparency and board performance so what is the timeline I'm starting this month moving forward through November we have a steering committee which is going to meet and then the subcommittees which are basically our district Personnel fill out the self-assessment in November that steering committee reviews the self-assessment and submits it on November 15th and then between January and March the county superintendent's office verifies that evaluation they come to visit for certain um things like a facilities tour and to look at our classrooms as well as review all of our curriculum and finally we are notified of our placement which we then report to the public so it's going to be another exciting year here in Clifton and with that um do you have any questions thank you thank you I read your performance I'm sorry I went into the back room um with board governess what would be some of the things that would make our numbers go down if we don't meet the criteria what what would how would our performance as a board affect that part of this that section um among the different aspects are things like um completing the superintendent's evaluation in a timely manner um completing your you know ethics training and all of the various trainings that are mandated um generally it's documentation but those are two that stand out okay thank you thank you anyone else questions for you miss goose levage vice president daily thank you Mr President uh Janina thank you for the as your usual excellent job um I just have an overall uh question slash observation I mean obviously we're coming off of the covet issues and uh every everybody's in education understands that didn't didn't help us giving the our students the best education not because of the anybody fell down on on the job but because that that hole where the personal aspect was taken away um we also have a another element and I don't know how we were able to track this but um how many trans and students coming in and out of the district which also you know if we had the student from day one we can do a much better job as they progress through the grades and obviously in every town and City you have the students that come and go in and out of town so I was like just like your gut feeling on how that impacts our numbers of course I don't I don't think at this point in time when we do yours when you have your assessment tests yeah it's going to be skewed because of these other issues that come across so could you give your opinion or feel on on those types of things sure um what I was I was able to show the one set of slides where we're measuring our kids who've been here since let's say third grade and then have valid tests for multiple years we see that upward trajectory of growth for those students compared against themselves but right now because there was a gap due to the pandemic there was a year of no testing then there was a completely different test thrown in that was start strong so it's not even included in this mix that will be a separate presentation um we're really starting from a new Baseline but I'm confident that once we have multiple years from that new Baseline those students who will be with us for a sequence of consistent years we see stronger growth than students who may go in and out of our district would you also think in just according to what you you've told us and I um it would take about another two to three years before we you really get that consistency back and have some numbers that would uh would better reflect how how well we're doing from these State assessments yes we do have our local data so later on this fall I will be presenting our local data and the growth related to our local assessments where we're really looking at kind of what our students did last year from the beginning of the year to the end against themselves how they do in some of the self-modulating programs like imagine math once again against themselves so we do have some data that we can show but if we want to look at State growth to really see a statistical Direction in either direction it will take two or three years um and one one final comment I'd like to or observation um sometimes you hear on the news that all kinds of crazy stuffing you really can't trust the news these days uh but there's a general feeling that that education has felt fell off the table nationally and I I think though some of those comments are really on a drastic side uh could you give your feeling in terms of those issues so I think the pandemic did have an impact on our students social emotional needs I think that although the masking was absolutely necessary for health purposes for things like interpersonal communication skills the ability to read faces even basic reading skills where you're normally enunciating and watching how someone is speaking looking at their non-verbal cues I think that has had an impact on our students learning and we are still focusing on rebuilding our students resilience we're focusing on addressing those still developing or slightly delayed communication and emotional regulation needs that's going to take some more time because if students aren't comfortably interacting with one another and feeling safe emotionally in a classroom they're going to struggle with learning so we are really still looking at the social emotional needs of our students together with their academic needs thank you Janine thank you excellent job Mr Smith thank you um this is this data is all our students right yes this is Clifton is there a comparison Statewide to how we're doing uh there are Trends Statewide this learning loss that we're seeing in this so I think we're kind of on par with districts that are similar of similar demographics to us thank you anyone else have any questions nope thank you again Mr salavich for a great presentation thank you it's okay is it a little icon right down there Janina thank you again for being our outstanding District instructional leader um always very confident when you're presenting and I was very confident that a board member could ask any question you'll have a good answer for them good evening once again Commissioners tonight the short presentation but in May warrant some discussion it's the superintendent's job to present a calendar for the Board of Education to approve but it's not the superintendent's job to create a calendar based on his or her own preferences and what they think it should be I'm my job is to give the board all the information necessary in order to make a good decision and so to that end it has become increasingly more difficult in the past few years to create a district calendar due to the number of holidays new holidays that have been added and meeting the 180 day requirement has taken us later and later in the school year to get some input on this issue I formed a diverse Committee of community members parents staff Administration and teachers to discuss issues related to The District calendar we discussed a variety of things I'm not going to get into everything that we discussed but we discussed the 180 day minimum requirement the number of holidays that we currently are closed for other school closures and the length of the length of the school year the group that I met with which again I believe was representative of the stakeholders in our community overwhelmingly felt that the biggest issue among several issues that the biggest issue was that our year was too long and one of the ideas that came up for shortening the school year was to eliminate any holidays that were not required to close for and because we didn't want it to just be from this committee it was recommended that I pull the entire community specifically on two issues the removal of non-federal holidays and non-federal religious holidays this discussion came up because we have talked about this school year this school year our last day is scheduled for June 24th the way the calendar Falls this year there are more religious holidays this year than we've had in past several years just the way the calendar fell for example next Monday is Diwali now we've been closed on Diwali for several years now but last year Diwali fell on a weekend so it didn't impact our schedule this year it seemed like all of the religious holidays that we've traditionally closed for have fell on a school day so it's extended our year and we looked at if we had been open for all those days we would have gotten out almost two weeks earlier this year and so that was something that was very appealing to the calendar input committee the reason why we have to meet 180 days is very simple if we want Aid we want state aid we have to be open 180 days that's the only reason and the Board of Education knows that we get a tremendous amount of state aid not as much as we deserve but we're almost there one of the things that the calendar and book committee wasn't aware of that religious holidays students are excused we had showed the committee that there are uh There Was An approved list um that the New Jersey Department of Education issues every year and on this list there are over a hundred and thirty different religious holidays not going to go through those but you can see everything from L Ron Hubbard's birthday if you're a Scientologist to um name a religion and it has the holiday and if a student or their parent requests an excuse day of school to attend religious observances it is one of the very few times that a school district must excuse that student to school excuse that student from school many of the the people on our committee weren't aware that you can get a excused absence for religious reasons so the the topic came up well if if we didn't close for religious holidays then we could get out early and students would still be excused and that's maybe something we should consider that is a very very drastic step to remove all religious holidays or non-federal religious holidays from the school calendar and I say non-federal because it's not lost on me that the only federal holiday that's also a religious holiday it's Christmas and it's also not lost on me that two of the major christian holidays Easter and Christmas schools have been traditionally closed for so by removing um non-federal religious holidays we aren't impacting those those holidays so we're just impacting all of the other religions and so my guy can't I can't go with this proposal to our Board of Education Without more information and so we decided to pull the community the poll was distributed on September 19th September 30th and October 1st through our community announcements newsletter it's posted on our website with translation instructions and it was out on all of our social media Facebook Instagram Twitter on at least two occasions September 19th and September 30th it was a pretty simple survey here are the results we had 1934 parents 915 staff members 261 High School students 19 middle school students as this survey was sent to middle school and high school students it was not sent to Elementary students 120 people who identified themselves as community members and 153 respondents who fit multiple categories for a total of 3402 responses to our survey that's a significant number but for the convenience of filling out a three-question survey online it wasn't as many as I would have hoped for question one was very simple the last day of school in this year's calendar is June 23 2022.
so looking at the infrastructure over at our bus spot I'm on sandbank road and what that could mean as we move forward there's a lot of grant money that's out there now and into the future and you know these buses the electric buses are about 375 000 per unit versus a standard bus which is about a hundred thousand dollars but their long-term operating costs and their fuel costs um are a lot less so that PowerPoint will be posted we received it today I think it will be posted so I I'm not going to go through every detail a lot of we spend two hours on discussion last night um I just want the board to know that we as the planning committee are looking into it and we're starting the initial steps to move forward towards that state mandate um so I'm going to leave that at that I'm going to kind of run through what we talked about generally and then we have um potentially some motions to move forward with HVAC projects there is a program for indoor air quality to the state of Connecticut through osc gr for 50 reimbursement so we heard about nine different projects nine nine different projects that we're going to be looking to submit to the state for reimbursement for the district which will be excellent because that money has already been allocated by the Town Council for construction and some of the projects have already been done so I've then get back into that a little bit more detail as we progress here um we put out an RFP request proposal for architectural engineering firms to take a look at our four elementary schools and start planning for trailers for student enrollment um depending on what happens with modernization it's not going to matter because we're going to need them in the short term if the project is approved but then in the long term if the Project's not approved making that into a more permanent solution to deal with increased enrollment um we did not the the meeting ended whereas we are going to have the three of the four firms who submitted come into our next planning committee meeting in November and present to us what their overall plan is for the proposal before we actually move forward and bring a contract to the board um I think that's talked about Field improvements I talked about school Field improvements um for those folks who have noticed over at Doolittle and Highland School the the ball fields have been improved um so we're not going to be hiring an outside contractor to do that work Public Works and the Board of Education have kind of combined efforts where it was being done over actually at dot today I saw um to kind of deal with some of the loss of fields over at bartland Park and we talked a little bit about the um installing solar at some of the schools we still have a little bit more work to do on that and we're going to look to move forward on some of that planning as we continue on so with that that's pretty much you guys want to have anything from the meeting yeah I I just want to thank Mr White over here because his passion I learned a lot last night about buses when I've been in education for quite some time so I appreciate his passion and um then bringing Dak Cohen and now I know what datco stands for um and in the whole history of daco yeah and so I think we're we're definitely like they said we're moving in the right direction we're being Progressive um and Innovative to really plan ahead so I appreciate you really sticking to it Mr White thank you thank you yeah just yeah I I just I it is I personally feel it's very important uh I have asthma um and it's environmental factors that uh often affect uh affect people I don't want I want as few students I want to minimize it as much as possible reduce the number of students who end up you know um breathing in those bad fumes sooner rather than later uh I my takeaway from last night was that electric buses are more theoretical than practical at this point they are on the road but not in massive numbers and making it happen um probably will take some time but it's entirely possible that we could move forward on alternative fuels also complying with the state law in the in the near future I mean I think they kind of jokingly said yeah we could do it tomorrow that's not about to happen but um yeah we could transition in that direction sooner rather than later so yeah thank you Sam thank you Andrew for putting out the agenda all right got a quick question um so the to be all electric by 2035.
previous school years Have Ended as late as June 28th would you be in favor of changes to the school calendar that would allow the district to close by approximately the second week of June as you can see the results are the total results are 2 547 people said yes we'd like to see the school calendar end earlier in June and 855 said no that's kind of what we saw with our smaller committee that's not overwhelming but that's a substantial majority of people want to see the school year end earlier then we get to the second question well how to do that excuse me I'm going to go back I'm missing a slide I have I'm going to need this slide up do you have the old one Sam excuse me one second technical difficulties thank you I apologize the second question of the survey slides just got moved was would you be in favor of a school calendar that eliminates school closures for all non-federal holidays and all non-federal religious holidays in order to end the school earlier and as you can see here although the yeses outweighed the nose 1928 to 1474.
oh okay I'm still on the board then I shouldn't be but that's all right I'm glad we're moving this direction I I so I was gonna say that we know what the cost would be to average taxpayer today that's a little too premature I do realize that the cost will come down as more adoption happens I am concerned about the impact the taxpayer getting there but I know this number of Grants to offset this so looking forward to analysis when we're ready um I know a lot of people are behind this so thank you for working on this hi Andrew so it says here in the minutes that Cheshire could have propane fueled buses very quickly if desired what can you tell me about Propane fuel buses so sounds unsafe to me but what can I tell you about the actual see if you have them I can't really speak to the safety of them but I can say that please tell me that there's not a propane tank that's like hanging off the side that could be bumped and explode into no I would I would think that they would be engineered to provide safety for the actual fuel source but um currently at our bus depot we don't have a propane filling area um so I'm using it though there are some districts that are using it yes um there he actually meant there was a couple districts that are fully propane so that is that is a change that could be made um but we would have to you know and we also talked about at our bus depot there's an additional about acre of land that we're going to be securing so if we want to improve that area for installing a tank or for electric charging stations um as we continue to plan moving forward with that but we don't own the buses for those of you who don't we learned a lot last night we don't own the buses DAC owns the buses we pay a per root fee and then the town pays for the actual fuel so we pay for the diesel for every bus so if you remember when we were going through with kova when the buses weren't running we that was a lot of where our savings was within the district the money that was returned so so they so Deco must have propane fueled buses yes available interesting thank you so the big thing with planning too with this is that um I also learned this last night is that buses kind of have a 10-year shelf life so a useful life so this might seem like it's far out but as these buses start needing to be replaced but then we should look to see you know what we're replacing them with are we going propane are we going to be going electric because we have 17 new buses in the fleet now so those are going to eventually start need to be replaced uh and with regard to uh timing of it I just Googled it quick uh the town of or City of Torrington 2013 was an article I just found on it I know that it was at least a decade ago the Articles dated 2013 when they are using propane buses and I haven't heard of any problems with propane school buses and I think we probably would have heard it about it in the past 10 years I think it's it's totally normal it's just not as well used kind of because it's a legacy system you just keep doing the same thing over and over Adam um you mentioned the ball fields um I know I attended the the last meeting and you know you were looking at the vendors to help with that now it seems like there's been a solution found this wonder if you could speak to kind of what the solution was sure so um the public works department um rented some equipment and went out and re-graded um stripped some of the fields regraded and then um raked installed new bases at both Highland and Doolittle and then today at Dodd they actually with help of Board of Education actually redid that whole field and actually sought it at fair play for next year I think that's good yeah the only thing I'll add is that the um dodgeball field is being resotted by an outside vendor and was splitting the cost of that with the town so we couldn't do everything but certainly what was done at Highland and Doolittle improving the infield um made a huge difference and I think it solved some of the safety concerns at those two fields in the dot softball field will basically be in the same place after this work was done although the dot softball field will now be closed off until the spring so that that sod will root there's also you know obvious concern about the fact that bartlem uh there will be several Fields there offline is they renovate that Park and expand um so I know that there are concerns from some of the Youth Sports League about leagues about and adults actually about having access to athletic fields and so um the town and the board are you know working together to see what we can do to make sure that you know we have plenty of accessible Fields during that renovation or the expansion process as well so will this restoration be sufficient to absorb the the loss of those fields during the construction and this is where you know it's a little bit outside of mine and in Vince wheelhouse because uh it falls really into the park and rec we we maintain our Fields throughout the year that are used for athletics so that's Dodd in the high school we don't get involved with the elementary ball fields the town does that and so we're working together on coming up with Solutions as Andrew mentioned to try to make sure that we can do that but um that's like I said kind of outside of our typical wheelhouse when we're meeting with John Golic and um the folks from the town side uh tomorrow actually I think tomorrow to discuss that so thank you sure Ben do you want to take on the next yes at the energy thanks thank you Andrew what what I have um what I'll do now is explain um prior to I suppose the motion being passed the HVAC grant program that the state just announced um sort of recently the the grant was announced by the governor that there would be funds forthcoming for schools to improve their indoor air quality and specifically all their HVAC equipment and so September 30th the um office of school construction and Grant review released the guidelines gave us a deadline of December 1st to apply for these grants the good news for us here in Cheshire is that we we do have nine projects which I'm going to summarize quickly in a minute we do have nine projects that funds have been appropriated for through the capital budget already that we were not anticipating receiving any grant funding for and so by having this grant funding available it does give us an opportunity to recoup on a reimbursement basis the cost of of these HVAC improvements so it's positive in that the grant funding is available we have to do a little bit of a Mad scramble to get all the pieces done that are required under the particular grant program very similar to the school construction grant that we just filled out for the two new schools we have to follow those same criteria so tonight we'll be asking the Board of Education to approve the educational specifications for these nine projects their all nine and they are in the board's package they're all the same except for the summary of what each project is and the summary is a brief description so just as an example for Highland Elementary which is the first one on the list it's a boiler replacement this project was actually completed and the project summary is that the purpose of the project is to improve the efficiency and quality of the heating provided to our students and staff throughout the school building by replacing the existing boilers with gas-fired condensing boilers the project scope includes replacing two existing dual fuel acquired segmented cast iron boilers and convert both to a gas-fired condensing boiler system a part of this upgrade will be to replace the two domestic hot water holding tanks this change in technology will result in significant significant energy cost savings so that's just an example of what the each of the nine different projects entails as far as the projects Highland Elementary boiler replacement Doolittle Elementary boiler replacement and A Dodd Middle School rooftop unit replacement those are three projects that were completed the way the grant parameters that were released read allows us to include not sure we'll be approved but it allows us to include any HVAC work dating back to March of 2020.