this year the Clifton Education Foundation is thrilled to be celebrating its 25th anniversary today the Clifton Education Foundation has awarded a quarter of a million dollars in Grants and initiatives as well as ten thousand dollars in student scholarships for the Clifton Public Schools including fully funding the steam Makerspace in every Elementary School as part of our 25th anniversary celebration we are creating a print and online ad Journal acknowledging our anniversary where the Board of Education departments within the district former Grant recipients and staff members home and school associations retired Educators former alumni parents and businesses can show their support by purchasing a quarter half full or gold page ad we hope we can count on you for your support and encourage others to show theirs don't know what to say our Dynamic communications director Kim can compose an ad for you all donations will receive a shout out on our Instagram page as well as a mention in our biannual newsletter if you don't already please follow us at cliftoneducation foundation on Instagram where we highlight the wonderful results of our grants and the hard work of our recipients on Wednesday October 11th from 5 to 9 pm we will host our fundraiser Clifton's Got Talent at the Uno Pizzeria and Grill at 426 New Jersey 3 West in Clifton we are seeking singers musicians comedians poets and spoken word artists to perform so if you or anyone you know may be interested please visit our website cliftoneducationfoundation.org to download a forum we hope you'll join us that evening Uno is graciously donating 25 percent of all proceeds from patrons who tell their server that they are there to support the Clifton Education Foundation we hope to see many of you there thank you for your time good evening everyone a very beautiful ceremony I enjoyed every minute of it especially we were talking about the power professionals please state your name Paula schools Ave and Clifton um I just wanted to talk about the school budget about the four percent increase if I understand correctly um the 18 power professionals that are currently in the district they are going to become full-time with benefits and I do understand that this past year we we lost 21 paraprofessionals so my question to the board is what can we do can you help us and guarantee what steps are we going to take to avoid more power professionals leaving because they do a lot for special education department and I know that some of our kids in our special education are suffering so if you could please explain to me what we can do if I can help um just please let me know thank you uh Tom Keefer 20 Nelson Street uh Clifton I'm just here to I picked a good night with all these other teachers getting all the awards and all the good things for them that's awesome but at school five tomorrow's going to be my son's last day there and school five family the All-Star family it's a real thing the time at school five has been nothing less than amazing it hasn't been perfect but it's pretty damn close uh any issues that we've had have been handled very well especially by Mr Anderson he's uh I can't even uh I could probably fill up the whole five minutes about how great he is a lot of uh lots of amazing guy so many teachers that my son has had that really made a huge impact even uh Miss mouth in kindergarten uh she she taught my uh daughter this year she's amazing Miss leishman she's long gone but she made an impact on my son to he's in fifth grade still thinking about her uh Miss Baka Miss Bosh uh Mr cap or uh I think without her teachings my son would not have uh gotten you know half of half as far as he got she was huge in really helping him academically Mr Mom Mr Silva Mr Silva's so awesome he's one of the best dudes everybody loves Mr Silva you know Mr Quinn he got an award tonight those are all the teachers that I've uh personally dealt with um and lastly uh not to say that nothing none of the other teachers are amazing because they all are but uh Mrs Harris uh is uh huge to our family and my daughter she doesn't have her she's only kindergarten but she greets her at the drop off every day uh the car it's just such a wholesome experience and it's awesome leaving my daughter seeing that happen she's uh my son still he's in fifth grade and he still talks about her like that's his teacher and he still gets so excited and uh School five really are All-Stars and you definitely every teacher I've dealt with there is an All-Star and I hope I didn't forget anyone and if I did I'm sorry Miss pinello Miss Louis uh the band with my son my son was in The Old City band just so many awesome memories from school five and I just uh thank them so much those teachers are huge and I really want to shout from the topic our Mountain at school five is awesome and I really love all those teachers very much and so does my family and I'm looking forward to another five years there of my daughter and I hope that it only gets better thank you very much [Applause] thank you hello good evening everyone I feel a little under pressure because it's my first time speaking in public and I'm gonna excuse myself for my little funny English because I was not born here so I will try my best my name is Dharma Hamdi I live in 217 spear Ave my son attends your school district in the special education program on June 8th my husband witnessed a staff member lifting my son from his hands all the way up in the air from the floor with his feet not touching the ground going towards his class on June 9th another person that has been helping me with my son's IEP meetings witnessed a staff member tagging on my son's arms going towards his classroom if this is happening to my son I am sure this is happening to other innocent special needs students the way the district is treating my son is totally unaccepted and can almost be considered in the line of child abuse my son does not have the verbal ability to defend himself I have been in several meetings since the beginning of February to resolve this issue to prevent this from happening on June 8th unfortunately no one is listening to me my son has now attended school since June 9th I'm hoping for someone to help me with this issue matter very soon thank you so much thank you Mrs hamzi Ms somebody would just give Dr Robert tells you'll give you an answer for you that gentleman right there Mr gengaro has been trying to meet with you and your Advocate and has been having a difficult time setting that up can you please speak to him he's sitting in the front row area that gentleman right there and he will set up a meeting with you he's been trying and he will meet with you immediately to help out okay um have I heard from you guys because I haven't I'm not sure if I received any phone call or you left any voice message specifics but you have an advocate okay he's been reaching out on your behalf and that gentleman has been trying to set up a meeting okay so if we could do that before you leave tonight great I think you'll be very pleased and I think that we'll be able to help you perfect do I have a timeline or I'm open to that gentleman right there and he's going to set up a meeting with you when when it's convenient for you perfect thank you so much anyone else wish to address the board okay who stole the pen Keith bastard Clifton New Jersey you know I was listening to this woman here about uh us Iron Lady I don't want to lose my minutes here I was listening to this woman about her child the special needs and everything and I'm a type of person always says the way it is and how it is I say I've been advocating for children maybe over 15 years in this District a lot of children are advocated for they moved on with their life College have kids everything and the funny part is I never had a problem sitting down with the special right team and everything they were very Cooperative we always worked together we always try things what would work for the child and everything because [Music] basically were all there for the child not for ourselves for a child in that stuff I was hoping the woman would have stayed here and that stuff and listened to what I had to say you know with advocacy sometimes it's the way an advocate approaches the situation you know you can't go in there with blazing guns and that and promise people things in that because sometimes it don't work out that way and plus if you're going to call yourself an advocate and advocate for children you better know the laws you better know what you're doing just don't call yourself an advocate in that I've learned many years from doing it I learned for one of the best teachers my wife being an advocate and you know the funny part is and my wife and me have advocated for kids from all the way from South Jersey to North Jersey and we have advocated for children in different schools different settings superintendents involved principles teachers and I got to tell you something not because I know is and because I'm here fernius because you know how I am I tell you the way it is Clifton is the best special ed District around dealing with the special ed people them sitting down and helping you work things out and everything I had a case maybe a month ago with a child I sat down it had to be at least nine people in the room and this child had a lot of problems bully me a lot of problems in that but we sat down and we spoke and the parents spoke and we came up with a game plan and we crossed our fingers and said okay hope it works in that well I've been hearing from the parents how the child's doing he's doing great now he is moving on getting help okay getting help within the school system and getting help on the outside so I don't know what the problem is what happened here but like I said I wish the woman would have stayed because I would have loved to hear what the problem is thank you I wrote your name down Donna test the CHS I've never spoken at a board meeting before and I really would rather not be here in fact I don't know if I'm shaking because it's so cold in here or because I'm a little bit nervous cold or dying up here are you kidding me all right so um I understand that I am in the minority however I would just like to share my thoughts on the possible lowering of the grading policy from passing from 70 to 65 as it pertains to the high school uh I think it's in the wrong direction we also shouldn't be considering this because other schools have done it Clifton is one of the largest high schools in New Jersey why are we poised to follow instead of lead about 20 years ago the rationale for a new policy of awarding students no less than 50 for the first two marking periods should they fail with averages less than that was presented to the faculty we were told then that it was to help students adjust to the high school the curriculum the pace the environment two marking periods is five months that's half the year I believe that that was the start of the steady decline in effort attention attendance and grades to the point where we find ourselves now potentially lowering the overall passing grade to 65 and keeping the 50s no less the 50s well-intentioned yes but it's been manipulated and abused to a gross degree for example a struggling student once told me that he couldn't do my work and play football on the school team at the same time so he was going to take the 50 for the first marking period and make it up later the same thing happened in the winter different student basketball student basketball season we have students now who essentially take the first two marking periods off with minimal effort being made until marking period three that's February with few exceptions they end up failing not only the remaining marking periods but the year as well these students make up a large number of failures and respectfully I think we enable it that wasn't the purpose of the 50s but you can see how students have taken advantage of what was meant as a supportive measure we should not reward that behavior by lowering standards because they will definitely meet them lowering the passing grade to 65 is also a supportive measure but I think it will give students who only want to do the bare minimum license to do even less CHS has a multi-layered population hundreds of students attend academic ceremonies honoring their hard-earned achievements hundreds of others give solid steadfast efforts all year long the 65 isn't for them the case has surely been made to you that doing this will help the students in academic distress due to overwhelming personal challenges they face I don't dispute the good intentions behind that they should get assistance but I don't think lowering the failing grade for everyone is the way to go because that is just one of the layers what cannot be ignored is the pervasive shift in student priorities resulting in increasing failures each year at the top of their list is whatever entertains them on their cell phones which is at addiction levels next are their socials and extracurriculars academics is at the bottom proven by the quality of the work submitted that clearly shows their disdain for that which interrupted their enjoyment of the previous three we know those priorities are screwed I'm sorry skewed we should push back reverse it because we are the educators we know better it's why this nation always looks to its teachers to fix his problems other districts may have capitulated to this down or a train Trend but Clifton should not we don't pass students along from one grade to another here nor do we graduate students just to fulfill a quota there is a lot of learning that happens at CHS that goes beyond grades our students are preparing for life outside of its walls in just a few short years modern society needs its people to rise to challenges while it may give the appearance of a successful marking period or Academic School year 65 is really just above half I don't think any employer patient or client whatever except slightly above 50 percent of a job and call it successfully done let us not do our students as this service in thinking so otherwise in a few years whoever is in those seats you occupy now might find themselves asked to vote on lowering the passing grade once again I'm not just a teacher here I've lived in this town my whole life sent my daughter to at schools both of us members of the Mustang band and both graduates of CHS I am Clifton and I wouldn't want to see it diminished please don't lower the passing's grade thank you [Applause] yeah I got money so you ready beautiful yes sir good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Mr John lesler I'm a teacher here at CHS and my address is on record in the Personnel Department I am also here to to discuss the proposed change of grade policy and take no pleasure in speaking about this this initiative is to reduce the current passing grade from a 70 to the proposed passing grade of a 65. earlier this year this initiative was put to a survey at CHS the majority of Faculty members who completed the survey did agree to the reduction but there are two major components that seem to be ignored when people discuss and promote the results of this survey the first component is that the survey was very specific and did not allow for any open discussion the second component is that somewhere around 30 percent of the faculty did not even complete the survey that second component is never ever ever brought up the results of the survey misguide people because a good portion of the staff was so disheartened that they did not even complete the survey we have been told that this initiative is for Equity reasons that the surrounding towns have a passing grade of 65 makes it seem like our students are at a disadvantage but comparing us to other districts is wrong many of those districts have uniforms metal detectors bag searches more stringent attendance and discipline policies yet the only issue that we were told in comparison to those districts in reference to equity is about the grading policy is this a ploy to lowering our standards according to the U.S news and World Report and the New Jersey Department of Education our district continues to decline in State ranking as we are in the bottom half and also our graduation rate reading proficiency Math and Science scores and upper level classes are below average and again I take no pleasure in saying this if you do basic arithmetic you will be able to see that if you drop the passing grade by Five Points there's going to be a number of students that will automatically pass without putting in any additional work or effort as it is teachers are told not to give a student a 67 68 or a 69 even though that is the grade that the student earned so if we lower the passing grade to 65 it's possible that a passing grade becomes a 62.
this would make the cost of 324 speaker cost a full day kindergarten tuition only two thousand two hundred dollars per student instead of five thousand five hundred dollars if the separate proposal passes if it doesn't pass unnaturally there would be no refund and the 23-24 school year tuition will remain at five thousand five hundred dollars this refund in total based on our historic numbers in kindergarten well they had to average about eight hundred and nineteen thousand dollars total for the district so we have the 1.9 million minus which equals one million eighty one thousand dollars which would go into excess Surplus to address important challenges ahead and I'm going to name a couple of those challenges the first very dire challenge ahead is that our district is facing projecting state aid loss in the 24-25 school year of 602 869 and that's due to the opening August 7th and final year of the seventh straight years you've taken directions due to the S2 while in 24 25 school year is the last year for us too we cannot cover what has already been cut and for the 23-24 school year we only avoid of cutting the educational program by the narrowest of margins based on the state's refusal to share their CD formula and lack of response to the question of why our student has fallen 41 percent with more to come from its peak all our student enrollment has dropped 19 from its people stadium for Eastern Township School District may not prove after the 24-25 school year the second important challenge is capital projects totally over half a million dollars replacing the HVAC system of the dealer cafeteria and in the VanZant cafeteria and Library as well as roof Replacements throughout the district bathroom renovation involving those pool and more for the first time in many years positively the state has made in capital projects frankly called broadbands available for districts to apply for and we apply for many projects including the demacie Jagger and more Elementary rice and Ventana getting to see the fruits these grants they pay for 40 of the cost sounds good but the problem is the state is saying that they have been flooded understandably with applications and they won't have money for all which means our district will be left to make up the shortfall for any application not approved which could mean up to a total of 732 thousand dollars [Music] so any additional money in January through June of 2024 through the approval of the tuition tree for the Kindergarten Center proposal question and more is already desperately and we visit with these additional taxes our annual budget will still be Millions lower than the state average for districts are size again bottom line passing these questions means more help for more kids sooner and exponentially you need to be able to help more kids in more ways moving forward big example pending the approval of a fiscal year 24 estate budget just this week was announced that all public school districts that provide will they kindergarten regardless of their free reduced lunch percentages will be eligible to apply for preschool expansion grants for the 23-24 school year the cashier for us is that our district is the only District in all of South Jersey not eligible for this grant because we still charge tuition for police in the government this year all this information will be shared tomorrow in my update and in communication about the potential program before they kindergarten tuition refund we'll be going out specifically to our families we can come in kindergarten students next week so great news and thank you for that opportunity thank you Dr Smith any other questions or comments regarding anything on the agenda from the board yes she's sitting here in the audience I wanted to say congratulations to Mrs Patty Meeker for taking over that position in our transportation department and since you've served as the assistant well before a bus driver here for many years and then came back to be the assistant transportation coordinator so into that well for you and positive that the department will be in good hands congratulations thank you thank you questions or comments I just wanted to say as well um who's been in a position for 56 years very difficult to replace but I am super confident that behind Patty's leadership and transportation department will go smoothly in the transition so congratulations I'm so glad you're back with us thank you any other questions we'll call them especially Mr Bob yes this is yes I've stayed six one six two and the swings swapped yes Mr Kathy yes Mrs yes this week yes this is Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes Richard Carey thank you moving on to committee reports does any committee chair have a report they wish to share Mr physical I'll just speak very briefly uh just to go off with Dr Smith's comments on the on the ballot questions remember that Finance extensively and I think it will be very important we discussed in particular how poor just get that word out so people understand that even though maybe next year that they also will be impacted by that vote as well so we we discussed that extensively I don't want to go into many more comments about it because I think Dr Smith did a really good job with it but I just want to reiterate that uh that was really helpful to know that information yeah I'm I'm too late to mention that because I you know just thinking like we've got the word from the county and we were talking this through them I was thinking families multiple families that reached out uh for this September who um understanding why we are taking the process the idea that the preschool you know that this is time in preschool as well I think that's really important that we discuss that as we discussed that in life that's also a tour of America as well foreign it as a total tool for the students learn and I want to have evidence of it so we had so many students and family members here and that is by far my favorite part of any board meeting and I just want to thank them for coming out and congratulate them all for their accomplishments just Arts Athletics and academics across the board just wonderful and thank you to the principals for the support as well Miss Miller I'll give a brief overview of our technology meeting that we had this month we meet quarterly so this was an important meeting for us because we get to hear all about the lake and Mr cases long list of summer projects they have this every year and they really need to accomplish so much during the summer and I want to thank both of you and you took your time to explain everything to us so um tonight though we had a long-range technology plan document which is now final and we'll go to the county um that included some information there was a big you heard a lot from the teachers about Network reliability that kind of prohibits some of the usage of technology in the classroom so Frederick will be working on that and then as well as all the projects that go on during the summer with our new sixth graders coming in and they get their own Chromebooks so there is going to be a lot of that and updating Genesis of the Google classroom and let me say well and also curriculum mine this summer for some of the new technology that uh we're updating from the new technology and design thinking curriculum that we incorporated last year so I'm excited to see some of that as well as we move forward and then also a few new PD things going on for technology and I don't remember what they were I apologize professional development provided provide ground the programs that we need thank you Mrs Nolan any other County report have you seen none move on to Old business which we have none of it and but we do have new business and at this point I'd like to make a motion through the special education settlement as discussed in the executives the motion fee is no second it Mr physicara any questions or comments on the board call please Mr Clark yesterday yes this is Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes commission here moving on to public comments if anyone now be open to the public referencing any of their interests however if it questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations superintendent after meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask you a line of your comments of three minutes or person and also that this section is meant for one comment per person is yes please state your name and address um have questions so first thank you for the update we discussed the prorated refunds hey tuition I'm wondering about those families who did not register for full Decay at the tuition rate of 5500 but may now be interested in switching and optimistic anticipation of it passing 5500 might have been Out Of Reach but the possibility that a full year at 2200 could be what's happened it can it be communicated to those families that this might be a benefit for them yeah thank you for being here and listening and your efforts to find uh that question that you just asked wouldn't exist without work that you put in since last spring back so thank you um thank you it talks about providing more for kids so um yes we will be getting information I mean general info tomorrow for my update and then we'll actually have a communication that is just for our incoming kindergartner families and try to make sure that everyone hears that message of an incoming kindergartner for September both our full day because we want our parents they've already signed up for full daytime some of them may have been on the fence they often on the full day and maybe this will you know strengthen their result for that and then for our happy kindergarten families it's additional consideration for them possible consideration um I want to give a minute from as soon as we can and and if they're gonna opt for a full day then hopefully they'll let us know as soon as they can so that we can begin to plan for that change through July okay thank you and [Music] any closing questions or comments are important I would just like to congratulate all the students in every grade especially those who graduated and are moving on out of the district Cherokee or wherever they're going best of luck to welcome them and thank you to all the staff members who meet this year so great and I would like to wish everyone I do in August something else to say meeting address oh sorry motion to adjourn the meeting sorry all those are great emotions all those in favor unanimous [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]
motion by Christy Chavez second by uh first explorer Shelton uh I'll just say thank you so much Mr tariko for the presentation and uh giving us the context as to you know the the you know uh as we shift shift gears in the in the division of Human Resources so what that uh I'll call for a vote I'll call you as I see you Christy Chavez hi uh vice president Herrera loera aye uh trustee Flores Shelton yes and myself building eye item is a preview of four to zero where Quintero uh abstin yes superintendent I just wanted to reiterate that CSE is very pleased with this um I talked to Sharon my one-on-one this morning and she was very happy to see that this was me before I just wanted the board for them thank you uh with that we'll move to item 10.03 or approval and ratification of the tentative agreement between the Alum lot Union Elementary School District and Teamsters Local 150 for the period of July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2026.
any questions all those in favor um great day is to approve TC iron teams and Haynes as a District's risk management broker a record for the 23-24 school year they handle getting our insurance policies such as Arizona emissions or vehicle automobile policies um building Insurance all property insurance all of that can I have a motion in a second motion second any questions this is oriented yes Mr James yes Mrs Mrs Hannah Mr Davis yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right W is to approve Brown and Brown benefit advisors of the district's health insurance broker of record for the 23 24 school year can I have a motion second motion second any questions Mr Jones Mrs Houma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Hannah yes Mrs oriente yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes 13 access to approve the following list of contracted Consultants appointments and these are mostly used by the child study team and I have emotional motion and a second Institution second questions Mrs Soma yes Mr Thomas yes Mr Jones Mr Davis yes Mr Green yes Mr Golden yes 13y is to appoint Megan Stoddard and Charles Kruger as the right to know coordinators because I never mentioned that in a second any questions this is all annual stuff Mr Jones Mrs Elma yes Mrs oriente yes this is Hannah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Reedy yes Mr Golden yes 13z is to a point Charles Pfluger our supervisor of building the grounds as the district asbestos compliance officer for 21 foreign double A is to appoint Megan's daughter as the district public agency compliance officer for 23.24 we have admissions second any questions this is Hannah yes this is oriente yes Mrs Houma yes Mr Jones Mr Davis Mrs Reed yes and Mr Golden yes is to appoint Megan Stoddard and Charles Pfluger as the district Gosha officer is going to have a motion in a second question thank you Mr Jones and then Mr Bolton any questions Mrs oriente yes Mr Jones this is how much yes this is Hannah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Reedy I guess Mr Golden yes 13 AC is to appoint Megan's daughter as the district custodian of records as our Uber requests and things of that nature they come to me oceans any questions Mr Jones Mrs Selma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Hannah yes Mr Dorian yes this is Reid yes Mr Goldman yes 13 a3d is to appoint Charles Bloomer as the district safety coordinator I have a motion in a second any questions all those a favor okay 13 A and E is to appoint Kristen Braidwood as our district homeless liaison can I have a Motionless Mr Jones Mrs yes yes Mr David yes the three yes Mr Golden yes yes um 13 AF is to appoint Megan Stoddard and Miss Mrs Ashley's sermon as the district issuing officers of work working papers however this did just change or just making sure there's no hiccups with the state um that we no longer have to issue working papers everything is going to be done online um I'm going to keep us on here just because I know how this goes and we'll just hope that I don't ever have to do them again um can I have a motion in a second sex any questions Mr James Mrs Elma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Hannah yes Mrs oriente yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes 13 a g is to appoint Charles Kluger as the district IPM coordinators integrative Pest Management can I have a motion in a second any questions Mr salmon yes Mrs oriente yes Mrs Elmont yes Mr Jones Mr Davis yes Mrs Reed yes and Mr Owen yes 13 a h is to approve to designate the following locally circulated newspapers as official Publications for advertising purposes the central record and The Courier Post I have a motion and a second okay 13 13 AIS to approach to resolve at the Berlin Township Board of Education adopt the established policies rules and regulations of the Berlin Township Board of Education can I have a motion in a second motion thank you Mr Jones Mrs Elmont yes Mr Davis yes Mrs oriente yes this is Reed yes and Mr Golden yes 13 AJ is just to approve to allow the school business administrator to maintain a petty cash fund in the amount of 200 These funds are going to be used for tolls associated with field trips as well as unexpected costs amounts of Arts be redeposited in June 20 electrical or whatever any questions yes Mrs Hannah yes yeah this is oriente yes Mr Jones yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes 13 AK is to improve the agreement between Berlin Township School District and the inter-local purchasing system the tips program for the purpose of providing competitive companions to believe in Cooperative purchasing opportunity motion thank you any questions all there's a favor um 13al is to approved the contract of Berlin Township School District at nmw Financial Group to provide continuing disclosure services this has to do with our school bonds um again 500 IRS making sure everything's in compliance this is something that was implemented a few years ago that we have to kind of employees party when we do our budget we have to have the four continuing disclosure Services can I have as much in a second second any questions Mr Jones Mrs Selma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Hannah yes Mrs oriente yes this is Reed yes Mr Golden yes 13 a.m is just to approve um the 2324 school lunch and breakfast prices I think the lunch is going up a quarter and breakfast is going up 10 cents they have to do a um calculation through a spreadsheet through the state to determine whether or not we have to raise it um and we did have to raise based on a whole bunch of factors it's done by producer um who are encouraged to raise it to me I'm trying to think of what it's called as a tool and I'm driving but it is we did need today's funds it's crazy I have a motion a second motion thank you any questions we need an average tool this is kind of yes Mrs oriente yes this is how much yes Mr Jones Mr Davis yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes and 13 a.m is just to approve um virtual Medical Group in the amount of 9180 to um be the professional contract to provide um AR Medical School physician thank you School physician on file Canada any questions the story answer yes Mr Jones Mrs Elma yes Mrs Hannah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes I did that was from Rockstar today I didn't mess up anybody's names I didn't mess up the order my old business I don't think we have anything all business committee updates uh negotiations uh yes we have almost the [Music] it's good news yeah nothing for the bcpsa at this point because we'll negotiate with them next start next January or February um finance committee we didn't have it because I actually had one member that was going to be present so we just said we'll just I always kind of give you all the information in as a whole anyway so I'll just go over it now um I did provide the revenue report we didn't receive our final payment for the state but that's normal they always send us uh if I come through July 5th or 6th we don't have any Financial issues because we're not receiving that we're still in good shape um everything else is on track the tax levy from the township the final payment for that that should be in the mail and we should have that deposited by June 30th as well and we're only missing our final payment I reached out to them and they said they had something they were updating with the system but it's in the mail and that was just because I wanted to close not because we there's any cash issues that just want to close out my gear and make sure I have everything um had a district specialized placements there's no updates at this time um I'll work with Kristen over the summer when we have finance committee in August we'll have an updated form just because there's a lot of things and outs throughout the summer so we'll have some good ideas as far as anyone can be friends out or special Replacements and things of that nature in August uh finding information and concerns not really we're just closing out the year working to get most of the videos processed and cleared out um our parents are all over the accounting software to begin processing our 2324 requisitions uh next week we'll probably open up the 23-24 uh budget here in our accounting system and we'll get started on all those okay so now we're ready to start the school year in September grants asked them at the final 2223 reimbursement request prior to June 30th again probably next week one is Rochelle post the checks in our accounting system um and then if anything is outstanding we have to do another final report in October where they'll release any additional funds as I said before we do have a couple um professional developments that are using brand funds that will not take place until like the end of the summer and we technically have until I think September 30th to spend it is fun so they'll go through on the final report and we'll get reimbursement for them Business Review you guys did that here miscellaneous flooring project with fund 12 Capital Appropriations which are excess Surplus times that we used um actually I said starting next week in my thing but they actually started ripping up the hallway floors at Eisenhower today um so they anticipate having all the hallways completely done by the end of next week which will be nice and this is a really nice floor and hopefully it'll last us fell past the time off here um upgraded EA systems for both schools and the sound system so the gym are also in the works I think the gym sound system that I think they said that they could definitely get that done over the summer so Chuck was working with them we've actually sent vouchers instead of purchase orders at this point as a placeholder for these companies so that way they can start to order the equipment once we've rolled our system we'll send that promise of payment for the purchase order but in the meantime they're able to order anything just on that voucher which is acting as the promise a payment um moving forward on the plan to transport our ccts students to and from school next year we're going to advertise for an additional bus driver in the coming weeks uh the money I saved from paying and services for those ccts students will pay for that bus driver um roll over our transportation software will probably take place in a week or so so I can add the incoming preschool and kindergarten students as well as all those season tests do that the knowledge our system um and I'm hoping to have my bus runs done by the 15th of August so the drivers have time to review and then everything will go back go out the latest [Applause] yeah we should do that just so but yeah right now I can't remember back then we have the vacancy so we can appoint someone in July um [Music] I will make a note of that on the agenda perfect um School Board New Jersey school boards um and Services Commission anything like that um they just have the reorganization meeting and they um elected the new board of director members and I am one of the people right um I know okay um it was basic meeting with the exception of just a few things they did um two things in the beginning of the meeting once that one they went over the new Pine Hill School District strategic plan which I would recommend us doing something similar to this once we have our usual contended in place um everybody can take a look at this if you'd like to get a copy of it a copy for us um the other thing we did was they recognized the 18 to 21 year old program which was kind of nice because it was very it's pretty new over there and they gave out these um so I'll give this to make it also to scanning um so everyone can read it because it does if the kids qualify for it they have one of the kids come and speak and he was a little nervous but he came and spoke into everybody and he did a really good job that you they were explaining that program and how they go out um they worked at Domino's I think at one point right Domino's is one of them but there's one there's a place in Sacramento place in two places but they're same restaurant just two different ones and they go there with them and they help them learn to Progressive day and some of them even grow back so but they're doing a really good job over there they're trying to get more businesses involved be able to achieve things so I thought that was pretty interesting um and then that same night we had um overbrook's SP night for older sports teams so we had quite a few Berlin Township kids get awards that night there's really nice City so I thought I'd share that as well [Music] um we're gonna do board interviews for the board member of vacancy my first I did want to um on behalf of the staff launched lunch today everyone in the district on June 6. that was very much appreciated and your support continues to be appreciated so thank you um are you good um and also just a quick shout out to piece who also provided coffee to all of our staff yesterday they had a couple coffee cups out there which was nice thank you guys um all right at this point I guess I'll turn it over to Mr Golden for the um School Board we have a Stacy Giuliano who I pronounce that correct yeah [Music] uh so we just have a couple of questions for you I believe we typically will then take a break to discuss before we come back and vote on I think that's how it's always working in the past uh so why don't we start with telling us why it is that you want to be a work member yeah so I actually want to say the important member for a few years now um I just haven't I had an eighth grader that just graduated and um you know I've been involved with peace I was the space secretary for two years when he was a little bit younger and I just really enjoy you know being involved with the schools and the community and now I have three younger kids which kind of pushed back my timeline a little bit um to be on the board which is why I didn't apply sooner because I have um I had three kids thanks man so but they're all starting to now get to be school age right so I'm starting to see you know the families faces the teachers and staff and everyone again and it's just really makes me want to get involved you know to give the bridge the gap between the community and the staff and the students and everybody and just kind of you know do that serving member of the community so what do you see as the role of the School Board number so for the school board members we you know create the policies and procedures um and like I said it's a kind of like a sounding board um for the community to bridge that gap between the staff so we just would create the policies and procedures and then it's the superintendent that would force them and are you aware of the time training commitments and ethics law disclosures required for school board membership and then we have just for one final question uh so some of what we do uh there's questions of whether you are conflicted which means whether you or someone within your family or missing anything or relative uh work for a school district any other questions anybody has all right what we'll do is we'll kind of email I'll email email you depending on what they decide and then we'll be able to move forward with paperwork and things of that nature and get all that stuff kind of work out um you wouldn't be able to start or be seated appointed until your fingerprint clearance came back so um that's something will kind of roll with a letter almost immediately um after the board for brings it decides beautiful so thank you thank you very much yes I'll follow up with an email okay all right thank you um all right so we're gonna do a motion in a second now to open the meeting to the public for a discussion of anything motion thank you College a second timer all right so at this point I'm gonna um like Dr Oscar mule and let's go exit if they'd like to order 125 percentage of superintendent search um so we'll just hold tight until they clear and then we'll get um I'm going to call it I found right now to tell him if we're not gonna need to come back [Music] um will take okay just give me a second I want you for sure and you're out again who did you use round bird I went to high school my daughter used to work there yeah she works the nacm or live all right so let's do a motion and a second to appoint Stacy Giuliano to a six-month board member vacancy in fact there's 701 23 through 12 31 23 pending fingerprint approval motion all in favor um all right perfect I'll reach out to her um tomorrow or Monday with all of the paperwork let our little nine yards and um all right 8 57.
and we are still not able to give a student anything less than a 50 in the first and or second marking periods no matter how little work is completed think about this concept when I was a child growing up here in Clifton from immigrant parents and grandparents of Eastern Bloc soviet-controlled countries they chose Clifton because we were better than those same surrounding communities I remember going up to my mom and asking her if I could do some questionable things with my buddies and if there was an ounce of doubt in my mother's mind she would say every single time and I quote if everyone jumped off to George Washington Bridge would you I'm sure many of you heard the same thing while my mother is no longer alive her point is is just because the other schools around us do something does that mean that we have to as well the answer is no our neighboring Town should be looking up to Clifton instead of Clifton looking down towards them the children of this town deserve better any teacher can give you example after example of students who worked hard and busted their hump in order to achieve success and do you know what that does for them that instills responsibility a positive work ethic and perhaps most importantly it instills personal pride in them that they carry with them throughout the rest of their lives if you decide to drop the passing grade from 7065 all you're doing is weakening the students to improve the numbers including the graduation rate and the graduation rate is not just a bunch of numbers it is actually about living breathing cliftonites children who are the future of our city and Country one of my favorite quotes that I teach my students took place at Rice University in September 1962 when President Kenny said in reference to putting a man on the moon and I quote we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard what are the lessons that we are teaching the students by lowering the standard this is a model of mediocrity and it is not what great organizations do great organizations continuously challenge their people and not just use that as a slogan we are clifted and we are better than this or at least we're supposed to be thank you and go bills [Applause] hello my name is Brittany Stiegel Burgess please I've been an employee for the district for seven years now during that time I've applied to many positions I've been on interviews but I was told it's protocol so I don't know if I'm Into You Because I'm a qualified I can't well not qualified but if because I have a fair chance of actually getting the job or if it's just because it's protocol um uh I'm sorry I just want to know why I'm not being I'm not receiving jobs that I'm obviously qualified for if you can help me with that I'd greatly appreciate it thank you good evening my name is Sherry monk I'm from Burgess place that's my daughter right there she's been employed by the district for I believe seven years she just said she's been applying for many positions she has not been chosen for any jobs she's qualified and I need to know why it seems that some nepotism going on here and I want to know why the residents of the city born and raised a product of Clifton High School are not getting a fair shot at any of these jobs what well good evening to everyone I want to say as the proud president of the cea you can see how many wonderful Educators we have here in the school district I'm proud of the governor's Awards I'm proud of the teacher of the year the paraprofessional of the year the Excellence in education and I can say that this district has the best of the best and the reason why is collaboration between Educators and administration which benefits our students because it ensures that the goals and strategies of our schools are effectively communicated and understood by all parties involved when we work together not only in our schools we align our efforts towards a common Vision ensuring that the educational programs policies and initiatives are designed to meet the specific needs of our students this collaboration helps create a cohesive and consistent learning environment that supports our students success moreover this collaboration facilitates the development and implementation of responsive and adaptive educational strategies we can do this through debt analysis assess student progress and identify areas for improvement this allows for any adjustment and interventions to address the involving needs of our students this promotes a culture and of continuous Improvement and enables our district to adapt to changing educational Trends and search based practices through this continued collaboration we prepare our students for a successful future the cea continues to look forward working together to continue to make Clifton an outstanding School District we are very happy that we continue working with Rutgers Labor Management collaborative to benefit our district in designing more projects so we are collaborative in total aspect speaking of collaboration I know that we are in as a high school in Passaic County we have a 70 as a passing grade and I reached out to other presidents of other associations and there's their passing grade is a 65.
motion motion by trustee Chavez I can buy a vice president Herrera loera I'll just uh you know a superintendent Bauer this is a happy item and thank you Teamsters thank you negotiations team for making this happen and thank you all the teamsters for their support okay very well I will open the public comment saying them questions and comments by uh members of the board all right I'll just wrap it up with uh you know uh you know to thank Teamsters Local 150 uh you know uh I look forward to you know continued good riddle working relations in the service of the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District I urge my colleagues to approve uh so uh having a motion in a second I'll vote I'll call you as I see you trusty Chavez aye vice president Gerardo era aye uh trust me for Shelton yes and my self-loading eye item is approved uh four to zero with Quintero absent moving to uh section 11 contracts over 100 000 uh item 11.01 move to approve the entire no no it's not that's the other one nope not yet so one at a time 1101 second okay motion by trustee Chavez second by uh vice president Herrero loera superintendent Bauer I respectfully as the board told through the contract and just remind the board um these are the main you know major contracts that you're going to be seeing to start next year okay all right well I'll open public comment seeing none I'll move to questions and comments by members of the board I just asked like I did at the last meeting that when we um make when we vote on this we just read into the record the vendor and the amount so that it's clear to the public thank you okay yeah so Maxim Healthcare Staffing is that the one we're on yes okay in a for a contract not to exceed 200 000.
now this is an advantage disadvantage to our children here in Clifton we surveyed as a district collaborative team we surveyed the high school staff and 85 percent were in favor of this change most people voted to lower to a 60 but they decided on a 65. so we're going to a 65 not to lower standards but to have equity for our students within this state a very small handful of schools are at a 70. let me let me say the difference between equality and Equity equality as we all have a pair of shoes Equity is that you have the shoes that fit your feet and this is what we need to understand our students need to go to a 65 so there is equity in our educational system thank you very much good evening everybody Ahmad hemd I'm the principal of Clifton High School I also live in Clifton and I attended Clifton Public Schools as a child I wanted to come up here today and speak a little bit about the lowering of the passing grade to a 65.
for medical needs such as diabetes management as well as District nurses assisting District nurses okay uh very well uh so with that having a motion in the second I'll call for a vote I'll call you Sac Tracy Chavez aye vice president myself running I item is approved moving to item 11.02 superintendent power as the board to approve the contract with Imagine Learning um for the 23-24 school year and the extended year program this will provide our TK second grade students with licenses in language literacy and math as well as professional development for teachers uh for the amount of 477 000 motion to approve second okay motion by a vice president for however a second by uh trustee Chavez uh I'll open public comment seeing none I'll open the questions and comments by members of the board being then I'll move forward I'll call you I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye uh vice president yes and myself foreign [Music] do we need to read the amount oh well I I was oh yeah well I had to read it but you can second okay second by vice president Hora superintendent Bauer uh thank you I will ask the board to approve the contract with curriculum Associates for the 23-24 school year this contract will provide an El program management English learning program management platform that organizes all student data supports critical meeting and monitoring processes enables accurate reporting and supports instructional planning for multilingual students as well as professional development for the amount of 122 thousand dollars 288 and 60 cents dollars sorry okay I'm losing my voice guys I'm sorry okay so let's open the public comment saying none I will move the comments and questions and members of the board seeing none I'll call for vote I'm calling us I see you Christy Chavez aye vice president foreign yes and myself morning eye item passes uh four to zero with Quintero absent uh I am 11.04 superintendent vowels I asked the board to approve the contract with the chief Kee kids for the 23-24 school year this contract will provide individualized instruction and Behavior Support Services to Autistic or severe behaviorally disorder students for the amount of 103 932.
I'd like everybody to know that I make no decision lightly and I make every decision with the lens of what's best for our kids I don't make any decision alone this is something that I worked with District administration on building Administration on neighboring towns and our own staff I surveyed our entire staff to see how they felt to see if the conversation should even be had and that's how I framed it and I sent out the survey and 85 percent of the people that surveyed that took the survey said that they were in favor of lowering the passing grade that's my staff so I said okay let me do a little bit of research on this and we did a lot of work to see what was happening around the state now what's interesting is that the state of New Jersey develops the same learning standards for every child develops the same NJ SLA test to see whether or not a student should graduate high school but then the stadium New Jersey doesn't say what the passing grade should be and districts are left to make that decision and now our students our students here in Clifton are asked to reach a certain bar which is absolutely fine and this is not about lowering the standards my expectation as the building principle is that every student should do their best I would love to see every student being a student I would love to see that but we need to make sure that we're all playing on the same field for our neighbors in Wayne to have a passing grade of 60.
okay motion by trustee Chavez second by vice president foreign I'll open the public comment staying then questions and comments by members of the board saying none I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you Christy Chavez aye vice president Shelton yes and myself voting eye item passes four to zero with for Tara absent uh section 12 contract extensions over one hundred thousand dollars item 12.01 superintendent power I asked the board to approve the contract extension with Delta Flex Travelers for that for this school year 22 23 it will provide a speech therapies to our students with speech related services and ACC assessments and this is for special ed the original contract was uh for 151 200 the requested increase of thirty five thousand dollars for a total contract amount of 186 200 motion Christy Chavez second by uh first before Shelton I'll open the public comment say none further questions and comments by members of the board saying no no I'll call you as I see you trust me Chavez aye vice president Herrera Christopher Shelton yes and myself loading guy item password zero with Quintero absent move to item 12.02 superintendent Bauer uh uh we're asking the board to approve the contract extension with rip core for the 22 23 23 24 24 25 school years this three-year contract is to digitize and an additional 2 million District documents and this is for in uh the original uh contract was for an amount of 162 050 and the requested increases for 255 600 for a total contract amount of 470 I'm sorry 417 650 dollars okay motion by vice president second second right trusting Chavez I'll open the public comment seeing none questions and comments by members of the board paying then I'll move to a vote I'll call you I see you trusty chavins aye vice president Herrera lawera aye trustee Fuller Shelton yes and myself voting eye item passes for the zero with uh Quintero absent item 12.03 superintendent Bower please approve the contract extension with things together for the school year to 22-23 school year extended year program this contract request is to extend the term of one additional month from June 30th 2023 through July 31st 2023 in order to provide additional support for the summer school program uh the original requested increases zero dollars I like that with the original uh contract amount of 2 million 463 thousand sixty five dollars okay motion by trusty Shopper second by vice president I'll open the public comments seeing them questions and comments by members of the board absent moving to item 12.04 superintendent power please approve the contract extension with KV Educational Services for the 2223 extended year program this contract will provide CTE arts media and entertainment academic Enrichment Services at two sites Ryan and painter for grades third through fifth and sixth through eight and the original approved contract amount for sixty one thousand dollars another requested increase of sixty one thousand dollars for a con a total contract amount of 122 thousand dollars motion most of my trustee Chavez I'll open the public comment seeing none now open to questions and comments and members of the board seeing none I'll move to a vote I'll call you and say see you trustee Chavez aye nice president Herrera loera aye first before showing yes and my self-loading eye item is approved four to zero what Montero absent move to item 12.05 superintendent power please approve the contract extension with YMCA of Silicon Valley for the 2223 extended year program this contract will provide summer enrichment programs for up to 160 students at two School sites Lucha and Adelante II the Original approved contact amount of 161 600 and the requested increase of 141 400 for a total contract amount of three hundred and three thousand dollars motion motion by Christy Chavez second by vice president Ferrero loera I'll open the public comment saying man questions and comments my members of the board saying none I'll move to a voter College I see you trusty Chavez aye president Herrera hi uh uh trustee Flores Shelton yes and myself voting eye item is approved uh four to zero what quinterra absent item 12.06 superintendent Valor please approve the contract extension with Kai heating and air conditioning for the 22-23 school year this contract will provide preventive maintenance and repairs to Airedale HVAC units district-wide the original approved contract was for 80 88 thousand dollars and the requested increases of 40 000 for a total contract amount of 128 thousand dollars okay motion by uh vice president forever second second by trustee Chavez uh open public comments uh let's see here questions and comments I'm Evelyn as a board uh let's see here well I just just uh question the colvera so the air the Airedales are the mobile units right there is the the airedale's yeah what's your question well because the contract is to preventative maintenance and repairs that Airedale HVAC units district-wide or they use the the the mobile the window units no the outside of the columns oh we have some well I'm sorry yeah the the airedale's uh I believe the the most importables um but they're the actual HVAC system and so those required you know regular maintenance um we did have a highly unusual number of breakdowns this year so yeah um that's why the additional request oh okay I thought though those were our mobile you know window and normally I'm sorry you know because I think air conditioning right so many Brands okay oh I'm always happy for you know uh maintenance of AC I know the AC you know uh you know this is you know uh Children's Health and well-being here so uh I'm all in favor so with that signal for a question then comments by members of the board I'll move to a vote I'll call you say see you uh trustee Chavez aye uh vice president Shelton yes and myself owning eye item passes four to zero with uh Montero absent so we moved to section 13 consent calendar moved to approve the whole consent calendar of 1301 through 1308.
a passing grade of 60 in a neighboring town of Wayne these are not just towns that we're talking about that have low income that have lower passing rates no these are these are towns that have high incomes Wayne Catalan all of these towns have a passing grade of 60. other neighbors around us have 65 in fact we're the only we're the only High School in the in Passaic County that has a passing grade of 70. so when people are talking about lowering the standards I'd like to frame the conversation properly and make sure that everybody here understands what we're trying to do we're not trying to lower standards we are leveling the playing field this is about Equity making sure that our students our students have the same opportunities to be successful as everybody else and that's truly what Equity is and that's my job as building principle to make sure that my students have the same opportunity as everybody else to be successful and if I'm not doing that then I'm not doing my job thank you anyone else wish to address the board going once twice motion the calls please second by Mr Santiago okay uh because we have some uh uh employee appointments uh I'm gonna alter the agenda a little bit here um so if the board doesn't mind if we would um Mr Brunswick did you want uh ea2 separate did you want to read that you want to do it now you want to put it as a group yeah that's fine group is fine okay Mr President anyone else I can't remember somebody asked me to EA one I did did you want that separate yes please okay can I make a suggestion that we move Personnel up first because we have a lot of memories yeah well I thought if there was no separation if we can do these we can just go right through them but if you're going to have separate then we'll come back yes all right so we'll come back to those then so let me do personnel all right so we have quite a few Personnel today we have P1 we have P1 through p49 with uh p for executive session Personnel matter um eight and nine which items with Smith eight nine and ten amendment of administrative leave and administrative leave on Personnel yes I I have no problem with that all right so eight nine and ten uh moved for executive personnel moved the rest of the group by Miss basford who was it second Mr Paris discussion seeing none real cold please yes Mr Brunswick yes 42.
okay second okay so motion by trustee Chavez who approve items 13.01 through 08 and second by uh trusty uh Flora Shelton uh superintendent Bauer anything okay okay I'll open the public comment saying none questions and comments by members of the board saying none I'll move forward I'll call you as I see you uh fine uh vice president Gerardo loera aye uh trustee Boris Shelton yes and my cell phone and I uh the Ida the entire balance of the consent calendar from items 13.0108 are approved four to zero with corporate uh absent so with that uh section 14 future board agenda robust requests from the Board of Trustees and or from the public request shall be submitted in writing to the superintendent or designee with supporting documents and information if any at least one week with more to schedule meeting date items submitted less than a week before the scheduled meeting day maybe postponed to a later meeting in order to allow sufficient time for consideration and research of the issue so with that item 15 adjournment I will adjourn this meeting at 9 45 PM our next meeting is July 20th thank you very much have a good evening good night everybody thank you um current Square messages [Music] yes yes
Mr Santiago yes abstain on p-4142 president Smith yes doc do you want anyone to come up and say anything okay congratulations to uh all those newly appointed uh uh that were in the personnel and that are here tonight Dr robitosi who though we have two members in Conflict we only have four other members that are voting oh right did we get approval from anyone else prior to them cheer back to me everything in P pass except there were only four yes votes foreign passes Dr robitosi if you like thank you Mr Smith um upon my recommendation tonight the board has appointed uh two new um administrators and I'd like to ask I think both of them want to thank the board so Maggie Melissa whichever order you guys can want to come up I'll make this short and sweet I know it's been a long evening so um I would like to thank the Clifton Board of Education along with the superintendent Dr Robert tozzi and assistant superintendent Mr gingero for providing me the opportunity to work in such a wonderful School District accepting the assistant principal position is not something that I take lightly as it has been a goal I've worked very hard to achieve and a passion I've always had being part of an administrative team felt like the next natural step in my educational career and I'm extremely excited to embark on this new Journey as a new member of the school district I look forward to cultivating strong relationships with all stakeholders I also look forward to infusing my educational philosophies with the strong philosophies the Clifton school district has already established again thank you so much for this privilege and opportunity thank you congratulations Melissa I think the board will remember Maggie Maggie had an opportunity earlier in the year to complete a leave replacement as a vice principal at Christopher Columbus Middle School that's right and she she passed the test so we're gonna we're gonna keep her thank you good evening everyone my name is Maggie votillo president Smith Commissioners Dr Robert ozie and Central Administration thank you for letting me speak today Dr Robert tozi thank you for your recommendation I appreciate it I've been an employee of Clifton public schools for the past 16 years I was a student teacher in Clifton I was a kindergarten aide for a very brief amount of time then I was in Elementary classroom for 14 years for the last two years I was an elementary math coach and I also served a brief term as an interim VP at Woodrow Wilson Middle School as a former ell student I can tell you that I had quite a busy and wonderful Journey and it all took place here in Clifton I love working here in Clifton as much as I love living here in Clifton with my husband and two sons I have always seen Clifton as a school district that provides opportunities opportunities for the staff to learn grow and showcase their leadership skills and most importantly as a place that provides a multitude of learning opportunities for our students because they deserve them they're the best we are such a diverse district and our kids deserve only the best and like we saw today we had so many amazing educators I'm honored humbled and I look forward to becoming an assistant principal or being an assistant principal and making a positive contribution to Clifton's leadership team I'm also looking forward to collaborating with my buildings principles Ms Lucas and Dr capizzi as well as school 2 and school 13 families and all involved stakeholders in providing our staff and students with much needed additional support today's children are tomorrow's future and it's always a great day to be a junior Mustang thank you for your time [Applause] foreign Mr Maldonado did you want to come up and say any um so good morning everybody my name is Eddie Maldonado and I am a resident at Dima Avenue I just want to thank everybody especially Miss Conti and the commissioner for giving me the opportunity to work at school number eight and be the security guard over there and I just wanted to tell you guys I'll be given my full effort at keeping those children safe thank you guys [Applause] if not somebody's going to be after you congratulations and welcome to all our new employees we welcome you to Clifton okay um we're going to go back to uh more of the numbers again okay p41 and p42 Mr abadrovo had asked um if he could vote for this virtually our policy allows for that so um if you could just uh Mark Mr abadrabo present for the meeting for this vote he is on the phone my phone's dying so let's do this quick Mr abajava if you could just say you're here okay all right so p yeah I'm going to do that was it p-41 and p42 41 is approval of the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and p42 is approval of assistant superintendent of schools both their contracts motion motion Bible second by um Mr brunsiak okay is there any discussion seeing none roll code please Mr abadrabo yes Miss basper yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris I'm staying Mr Santiago we're doing 41 42 correct yeah president Smith yes foreign okay so our assistant superintendents are back and our business business administrator is back congratulations welcome back thank you Mr Smith thank you for making sure that that vote happened tonight absolutely very much appreciate that okay let's go back to uh we're gonna go back to uh where are we we're gonna go back to education Administration we have um so ea1 on a separate vote do I have a motion in a second motion okay Melissa robertrabo Excuse Me Miss bassford motion Mr abajabo second uh this is on pride month Miss basford would you like to read that please thank you a pride month whereas it is the right of every child regardless of gender identity gender expression or sexual orientation to access a free public K-8 education and the district welcomes and supports all students and whereas the district recognizes that there are employees and educators of the highest caliber who are lgbtq plus and that all employees are valued members of the school Community regardless of their gender identity gender expression or sexual orientation and whereas New Jersey Law prohibits discrimination including discrimination based on transgender identity gender expression and sexual orientation and whereas the district is committed to maintain safe healthy and welcoming learning environments for all members of our community including the lgbtq plus community or those who may have perceived as such and whereas lgbtq plus youth who find their schools to be affirming reported lower rates of suicidal thoughts and whereas the month of June is an opportunity to celebrate the identities and contributions of the lgbtq plus community and whereas the first gay pride March was held in June 1969 to commemorate The Stonewall riots and whereas the celebration of pride month is rooted in the history of resistance and struggle for equal rights as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and whereas by recognizing pride month we affirm that supportive School environments substantially improve the mental health of the school environment engagement of the LBG TQ plus students and whereas by recognizing pride month we supports policies practices and curriculum that honor and respect lgbtq plus students staff families and whereas by recognizing pride month we affirm our commitment to a supportive environment that promotes trust growth and achievement for all students now there be it resolved at the Clifton Public Schools now there be a result that the Clifton Public School Public Schools Board of Education proclaimed the month of June 2023 as pride month roll call please Mr abajabo Mr Robbo yes Miss basford Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes president Smith yes motion carries all right next we have ea2 men's health month Mr Brunswick thank you Mr President did we ask first let's get a motion in a second motion by Mr Paris second second by Mr Santiago Mr Brunswick now would you please whereas 2023 marks the 29th year of national men's health month and whereas this month serves to help educate men and their families about the importance of positive Health attitudes and preventative health practices whereas despite advances in medical technology and research men continued to live an average of more than five years less than women and American Indian Alaskan native and African-American men have the lowest life expectancy and whereas educating the public and health care providers about the importance of a healthier lifestyle and early detection of male health problems will result in reducing rates of mortality from disease and whereas men who are educated about the value of preventative health practices will be more likely to participate in health screenings and whereas New Jersey men's health month focuses on a broad range of men's health issues including heart disease diabetes and prostate testicular and colon cancer and whereas by recognizing men's health month the students staff and residents of the district are encouraged to increase the importance of a healthier lifestyle regularly regularly exercise and medical checkups now therefore it be resolved that the Clifton Public Schools Board of Education proclaims the month of June 2023 as men's health month okay roll call please Mr abadrabo Miss basford yes Mr Brooklyn yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes president Smith yes motion carries foreign I'm so confused did we do the rest of it did we do the rest of it already we didn't okay so let's do ea3 oh yeah six and on correct yeah so ea6 through ea23 motion please motion by Mr abadrabo second by Mr Mejia discussion seeing on roll call please Mr abujrabo yes Miss basford yes and I'm proud specially Elite um the second reading on ea8 for the therapy dog this is a brand new program for Clifton uh welcome Chewie Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes president Smith yes smoking carries okay let's go down okay let's go down to finance facilities we have f 1 through f29 motion please motion by Mr Paris second second by Mr Mejia discussion seeing non-roll code please Mr abadrabo yeah so stay on f30 Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes I just want to correct something sorry ea21 active stain in the last notcher and president Smith yes motions carry okie dokie going back up Mr Smith I yeah you're going back up I am I I just been to a superintendency report nope we didn't do I just had one committee reports and announcements yep you got it DOC Europe thank you Mr President I just want to take a moment to update everyone on the status of our high school commencement tomorrow we anticipate graduating almost 700 Clifton High School seniors on the field at Clifton Stadium at 3 P.M as of this moment the latest weather report that I saw is we're looking good so it looks like there's going to be a window tomorrow afternoon where it doesn't even according to the current report doesn't even look like it's raining but here's the here's the here's the real deal if it is raining rain's not going to stop us from having the ceremony at three o'clock what would prevent us or what what might cause us to change the time would of course be lightning or any type of severe weather severe rain wind and some anything that you know we would deem dangerous as of right now it looks like we're on for tomorrow three o'clock in the event A change is going to be made and if a change is made that would mean either going up as the earliest the ceremony could be would be 2 p.m and the latest would probably be 7 P.M if a change is going to be made to the time we will let the community know as soon as practical it won't be five minutes before the ceremony it would be you know tomorrow morning if the change is going to be made it would be tomorrow morning but again as of right now the ceremony is on looking forward to it Commissioners you'll be meeting at Columbus for some of you it's your first one we meet at Christopher Columbus Middle School and that's where we we assemble and March out of so you can be there as early as I I'd get there early to avoid the the crowd and you have a parking pass to display there will be reserved parking for you and it'll be uh we're gonna have a nice ceremony I'm very feeling very good about the weather thank God thank you Mr Smith okay uh I'm gonna give up that let's do the adoption of the minutes of the May 25th meeting please motion by Mr abadrabo second by Mr Paris any discussion seeing non-roll call please Mr Robert yes Miss bassford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia abstain Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes president Smith yes motion carries okay uh we don't have any of that we don't have any of that so we'll go to uh board committee reports board members if you could condense these reports down a little bit give us the main facts that would be wonderful uh so we'll start with residency and security Mr Santiago thank you president Smith The Residency and security committee meeting took place on Thursday June 1st 5 30 present were Mr gengaro Mr doctor Mrs Nola Mr Constantino president from the board where myself Miss bastard Mr brunsiak and president Smith Mr doctor briefed the committee on current residency cases including plans for the summer for residency staff president Smith requested the sharing of monthly residency investigation numbers including number of non-residents found in monetary savings to the district this will commence at September's meeting for the new school year Mr Constantino explained that the security drill for the month of May was conducted by schools throughout the district flawlessly Mr gigara discussed various security upgrades and changes which we will be which will be taking place in the next few months he also reference the lockdown situations which occurred at Christopher Columbus Middle School and at the high school and Mrs anole explained that New Jersey Department of education's office of school preparedness and emergency planning will be hosting a training event in Clifton public schools in July the meeting was adjourned at 6 58 pm thank you Mr Santiago any questions Mr Santiago okay hearing then we'll move on to facilities on June 19th the facilities committee met in attendance where myself Mr Santiago and president Smith on Administration side we had Dr Robert tozi Mr gengaro Mr Uchi Mr shihada Mr Maldonado and Mr marcione and for guests we had Mr Costello uh Mr Oviedo and Mr Rivera we started at 3 35 we ended at p.m we ended at 5 P.M we had a referendum uh update uh from uh the Epic rep um we had a discussion about doing Joe Wilson baseball field electric is still in process due to PSEG there needs to be some permits to go over Van Houten Ave because it's a County Road that's likely to be completed in into August at this point and bathrooms will be operable at the stadium for graduation for building a grounds updates Administration gave an update of projects that are taking place throughout the district the mid administration building sewer line is being replaced due to a collapse in the line and we're looking to put through insurance for those damage charges we discussed the lease for from for New York City Church a yearly lease agreement in CHS on Sundays we discussed a request to rent some parking spaces in the CHS parking lot um we also discussed building rates changing the building rates to better reflect current costs and um a resolution on HVAC and boilers well the resolution was discussed and it will be on uh it's already on we already voted I believe for Cooperative pricing um discussion ensued about the tennis court and adding bleachers for uh for spectators and uh lastly a permit request to uh film at Clifton Stadium um was uh also granted um outside bathroom at CHS was discussed as well as looking into um Band Room Renovations for the future any questions okay uh Mr Brunswick could you read the the finance minutes please thank you commissioner Paris finance committee meeting occurred on June 19th myself was president Mr Paris was president president Smith was present Dr robertozu was president Mr Jaguar was president Mr Uchi Mr shahada was present meeting start time was 5 p.m end time was 5 45 PM lists of discussion was where the designation of the end of year deposits fitness equipment refuse collection the request for the proposal to maintenance vehicle for for new hires that were approved in the upcoming budget and food balances which we had discussed in a previous meeting and the issues that the business office is trying to uh collect on these monies does anyone have any questions thank you thank you Mr brunsiak uh Miss basford would you please read the policy minutes sure the policy committee met on June 20th at 5 32 present where president Smith uh commissioner abajabo commissioner Mejia myself Administration Mark gingero Luis Ross and the board attorney delis Gutierrez we um in an effort to continue we're looking at the following policies all were adopted to prior to 2015.
they'll list it I'm not going to list them they'll be released to the public as soon as we approve them today I want to focus on dress code policy I informed the board that we had an HSA meeting with our HSA committee and Dr robotazi announced that we will be forming a district stakeholder committee to review the threshold code policy to provide recommendations for the superintendent and the board so it is a move point for the policy committee to keep working until we get recommendations from that committee the committee discussed the possibility of amending a facility the use policy to address instances of groups that may wish to rent parking lots and of one of our facilities the administration will develop and recommend language to address the next request at our next meeting the meeting adjourned at 6 pm and Mr Ross wrote the minutes for us any questions thank you Miss bassford I'll read the education and special education committee minutes I'm president or myself Miss basford from Administration uh miss kusilevich Mr gengaro Mr hamda Mr mountain and Miss Rotolo we discuss social media and Chromebooks and the use of social media on on Chromebooks action at this point was informational we discussed summer Work summer workshops Ms kusilevich gave us a overview of the workshops that are happening uh summer here of 2023 we had a discussion on grade regulations with Mr Hondo leading the discussion uh we had a special education update with Mr Rotolo and we adjourned the meeting at 6 30 pm any questions yeah I have a question commissioner Paris the the grading regulations does does the Board of Education Commissioners do they have any authority to to have a say in this policy at all or no uh I built Mr that's a great question so the policy is very general the regulation is where the actual grade is so the answer to your question is technically I could just change it but I would absolutely not do that on my own without uh support of the I would I would want a a super majority of the board on a decision like that so shorter answer is I could do it on my own but I wouldn't without board support thank you uh Miss Pastor could you read the Personnel committee oh Mr I'm sorry Mr Smith is back now I I relinquish to chair to you personnel good job Mr Paris okay so the Personnel uh committee meet met on June 15th at 5 15 via Google meets um president were um from the from the Board of Education president Smith a mark commissioner brunsiak myself from Administration Dr Danny robitussi Mark chingaro Janina kuchalevich and Luis Ross Dr robitussi provided the committee with information on anticipated movements and reorganizations Mr gingero shared an update on hiring process that he's working on Miss Mrs kuchalevich provided the committee with information on two jobs descriptions to address ell population that which has doubled since last year Mr Ross and Miss kuchaleva shared additional job descriptions which are being renamed to be approved the committee spoke about the status of completing Dr robitussi's evaluation and the meeting adjourned at 5 50 PM the minister will respectively Sim committed by Luis Ross any questions thank you education and special education Mr Paris we've concluded that concludes our committee reports Mr Smith okay let's move on to uh unfinished business we have any all right any new business am I at that yeah any new business all right let's go to board member comments who is next so Lucy's not here Mr abujabo you're next are you there these are your comments so hold on let me get the microphone on okay go ahead congratulations to all the graduates who are graduating this year um it is a feat and a success for you to graduate through high school and move on to your either trades or college or your armed services and Clinton has been very proud and will continue to be proud of all the uh students that we have in our district who will go on to represent our great town and our great district and uh congratulations thank you okay uh next is uh Miss bastard yes uh good evening I would like to thank all the speakers that um came and spoke tonight I'd like to thank the um the administration and the staff at school eight school 11 School five and so school 16.
I had the pleasure of being out there moving up ceremonies I was very impressed by the number of special ed children that were involved in the program and how they were included in the program it was very refreshing and just very thrilling to see that there was inclusion and it works in our district I was pleased to attend the Clifton Education Association dinner last night and watched the Excellence in education distributed by all um exhibited by all the people that were attended last night I like to thank the reward award recipients for 25 years of service and for the retirees the paraprofessionals and the teacher of the year um recip congratulations I also would like to talk a little bit about the graduating class of 2023 remember your roots remember where you come from remember who gave you your start make us proud as you go out into this world and congratulations and call an Uber if you need to very important and remember what you've learned from the drunk driving reenactment it was very powerful this year we had a lot of good support and I'd like to thank Casa for doing that these are my reviews and my personal opinions I don't speak for the board but I'd like to thank Casa for putting that on a lot of dedication it was a it was a great program so thank you everyone for helping with that remember where you come from remember your roots congratulations be safe and go on to this world to make us proud good night okay Mr Brunswick thank you Mr President my message to the graduates family members and staff it's going to be an honor to be part of this celebration tomorrow the 2023 CHS graduation ceremony it will be a pleasure to share the intensity of emotions filling Clifton Stadium as as you who are graduating close this chapter of your life story parents you're probably wondering where the years have gone as you Marvel at your sons and daughters accomplishments it doesn't seem that long ago when these young adults we honor today tomorrow we're titling off to start kindergarten of course living through those years between kindergarten and graduation may have seemed like an eternity for the student and for some parents as well you are the class of 2023.
you graduate at a time in history when our country is dealing with enormous challenges but at a time when the opportunities created those challenges have never been greater your technology natives born educated in a technological world that was only found in science fiction stories when many of us were in were in this room were in school maybe you go on Twitter read books online and your electronic social networking has shrunk the unknown world you are the generation that will make the technology of today to new and dizzying dimensions you are the ones who will bring solutions to fiscal crises Wars conservation of natural resources and development of alternative energy sources and who knows there may come a time that some of you live on a space station circling the earth some among you may find the cure for cancer or other debilitating afflictions so tomorrow you are poised to start a new chapter of your life story armed with the skills and knowledge you've attained I could tell you are able to tackle the next phase whatever it might be for some college or technical schools will be your next stop some are heading straight to the workforce some have chosen military service whatever Direction you take I guarantee the world will change as you leave high school and as a result of whatever it is you choose to do our world will change as a result of your contributions contributions that will be determined by how you follow your dreams and imaginations are we celebrate your past academic accomplishments and activities tomorrow I want to challenge you to continue your quest for knowledge and to discover your own unique ways to contribute to our society can you imagine JK Rowling the creator of the Harry Potter books was addressing the 2008 graduating class at Harvard when she said some failure in life is inevitable it is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all in which case you fail by default can you imagine a life lived so cautiously that you have failed by life that you have failed in life by default I can't imagine any of you that will be seated there tomorrow before before all of us choosing to live life that cautiously with all the opportunities that lay before you so take risks set goals take the detours that inevitably pop up and learn from them so I want to challenge you to take the enthusiasm that surrounds you tomorrow out of the world with you and use it to obtain your goals as you go forward don't forget the friends you have made and those you will make along the way true friendship is a treasure continue to care about continue to care about yourself your family your friends and your world and wherever the next next chapters in your life story may take you make sure the journey includes joy and laughter in closing I want to thank the family members and faculty and other staff to other staff who help them Reach This Milestone lastly congratulations to all you fine young adults graduating from Clifton High School tomorrow thank you for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody all right um who is next here Richie you're up next thank you president Smith so I first like to congratulate all the Educators who were recognized today you guys did an amazing job all year long and some of you have been doing this job for 25 years so congratulations on such an accomplished Journey congratulations to all the people who recently hired um today and were hired before I hope you guys can contribute contribute immensely to our district I also want to mention to our graduating class many for many of you you're going to be the first in your family to graduate from high school for many of you you're probably going to be the fifth sixth seven maybe even 10 generation that's graduating no matter what I always emphasize the students that this is a big moment for you guys many students never had the opportunity to gradually let alone even make it to high school so it's a big accomplishment to even finish High School in general many of you are going to attend higher education some of you are going to go straight to the workforce some you to military some of you are going to go to technical schools but no matter what each person has their own path takes time to develop the types of skills you want to develop and at the end of the day you all come from Clifton I know we prepared you enough to go out into the real world to do things that our society thinks we're too young to do so congratulations to all the classes moving up fifth graders going up to Middle School the eighth graders going up to the high school and so those students who are in our CCMS and Woodrow Wilson who choose to go to other schools you know congratulations to you guys as well if no matter where you choose to go to you always be a part of the Clinton family thank you and have a great night thank you commissioner Mejia I called you Richie I'm sorry Mr Paris thank you Mr Smith congratulations to our award winners it's a phenomenal team we have here in Clifton and tonight was a great testimony to that thank you to the Clifton Education Association and all their support of our teachers in town and in support of our Awards this year and to graduates congratulations it takes a really a triage of people uh to graduate certainly the student themselves is really important certainly their team of teachers for their guidance and not least of which is is their family's support um go forth Follow Your Passion don't forget your roots and make the world a better place for us thank you Mr Santiago thank you president Smith um congratulations again to all the teachers from both of the events who won years of service Awards I think there was the highest was like 40 years or something like that which was amazing or 41 something like that um so congratulations to all the teachers and and the teacher View and the power professional of the Year congratulations and thank you all for everything you do we don't you may not hear that enough but thank you thank you very much for all your efforts and your care for for our district um I was happy to see that we also recognized the video staff including the students who participate thank you guys very much I mean to say that every time I come out and I haven't but I really am glad that you guys are recognized you do great work um uh Happy Pride I attended the city's pride flag raising there were parents and students there it was a good turnout men's health awareness this month guys please frequent checkups it's very important I attended a security conference this earlier this month director of security Mrs Enola was also there from the NJ school boards Association a lot of great information there a lot of great speakers and to to our graduates I'm looking forward to tomorrow I've been praying hard for no rain and looks like hopefully we're going to be able to get it in um you know I I attended School 11's moving up ceremony and there's only so many we can get to and we try to rotate those and I promised if I didn't get to you I'll get to you next time but uh some it was it was a great event principal Shelby was here um Mrs Rhodes who got a couple of awards rightfully so um well done the students did so well but something in the middle of that happened and that made me think about that as it relates to graduating and going a tip for our grads so the kids were singing and in the middle of that doing great um the mic the music actually went off the stopped the music stopped and the entire uh class of kids continued right on singing acapella and did amazing um and it was just kind of an example of you're going to have to adjust at times you're going to have to Pivot at times you're going to have to re um be able to figure it out stick with it and this is very important being resilient we learned that during covid I think that was the most important skill that was shown during covet is being able to be resilient and get through it so so you know our students you may be going off to as mentioned Career School whatever it is um you know you a lot of people they go down that road and they think they know what they want to do and then when they actually try it it's not what they thought it was going to be and that's totally okay too that probably happens to most people so um you know just be able to uh adapt pivot and it's okay not to know have a plan be prepared have a plan um but it's okay if you can figure it out along the way the last thing I would say um is don't don't be a know-it-all but be a learn at all so um you know be a lifelong learner as I've heard probably a bunch of people say it makes life more interesting it makes life fun and certainly your career you want to stay on top of the changes in your career so be a lifelong learner I'm looking so forward to it if anything I hope you learned that hard work pays off and stick with it and it pays off congratulations to you and to your family and everybody else involved good night foreign well as I said often and you're the last to go everyone's kind of said everything um but it truly truly is an honor to represent the district [Music] that is such an outstanding District a wonderful performing District as Mr llama said and I would agree with her we have the best of the best and we continue to strive for excellence our kids in Clifton receive a top-notch education because of all the people that were here tonight and many others that we're not here because of their dedication their devotion their love for the job their love for kids we could make all the policies in the world but if we don't have good administrators good teachers it doesn't matter what policies we make our kids receive a great education when they are in Clifton schools our seniors leaving High School are well prepared for the world in whatever Endeavor they are going into because they received an education here in Clifton and I think I said to miss lalama last night and thank you so much for the wonderful dinner with the wonderful people it was so enjoyable thank you for inviting us and I think I said to her last night I said I think morale is pretty good and the slogan of one Clifton is really being lived in our district we all work together collaboratively to make this District great it's not an easy task hey Clifton waited and waited until five years ago when we got a great superintendent to come in and set us on the right path put us above other districts so there's no following other districts they follow Clifton when they come and see that sign and I saw so many people coming into our gymnasium and looked up at the sign and said home of the Mustangs they said wow this is this is where the Mustangs come from this is where the Mustangs play and then I heard another guy come in and said yeah I'm a Mustang I graduated in a certain year they're proud to say that they were educated in Clifton schools but that doesn't happen unless you have good leadership from the top down and this board tonight voted to bring new people into the district that we feel are going to do a great job in their positions to help our district continue to be great why we love all of our employees to stay we had a group of employees that have retired and I think at the dinner last night the longest one was Mr natari with 41 years so we wish all our retirees the best we thank you for your commitment to Clifton children to the Clifton District and we wish you all the best of health and happiness in your retirement but we have to replace our retirees an Administration will continue to do that Administration works very hard as you can imagine when there are job openings in Clifton we get many applications and through an administrative team of interviews they choose the best candidates to fit those positions I fully trust our Administration in that process of hiring I know they are always Fair they give everybody an opportunity but as I said many people want to work in Clifton and not everybody fits a certain criteria or there were just many applicants and others fit the criteria better but I think our Administration does a wonderful job and it's not just one person that does the hiring even though it's Dr robitosi's recommendation he has a team that he puts together and they collaboratively decide what employees should be employed Mr gengaro's not here but I believe for one of the positions there was over a hundred and some odd interviews for maybe 16 positions a hundred and some odd people applied while this board gave Administration some help in applying we didn't give them a hundred and some odd positions but in no way do I feel this District is unfair is showing nepotism I fully trust and support the recommendations of our administrators and if we don't we ask the question to them we asked the superintendent we asked the team how did you come up with this how many people applied but they're the ones that hire employees in the district the board just approves what the recommendation of the superintendent is but we hire him to make those decisions and at any time that we would feel that he was not doing that in a proper way the board would address it and that's not the case but there were many people that want to come to Clifton to work and I don't blame them it's a great place to work it's a great town it's a great District so great that recently you may have read that a company website did a survey I think they're called livability.com and they did a [Music] ranking they observed 100 places to live and Clifton ranked 12th with a quality of life score 831 no that can't be right 831 out of 100 no I have a thousand Maybe I would just go with me we did good we did very good they looked at so they they looked at a hundred places to live and then they ranked them and the categories that they ranked them on was economy housing cost of living amenities Transportation environment safety health and education Clifton on their survey Clifton for education out of that 100 places to live Clifton for education came number three we don't know who number one and two is but they're they're going to be disregarded Clifton will move up but number three from their evaluation we know we're number one but their evaluation number three of a hundred places not that not too bad I never like using quotes but it says in the uh in the article in cbs2 also came in did a report on it Clifton with an extremely high graduation rate somewhere else before I just heard our graduation rate wasn't High but an outside entity came and is telling us we have a tremendously High graduation rate Clifton is considered the third best school system of the list of the top 100.
yeah clap that's a great news that's fantastic news so when people talk about this survey and Clifton ranked 12 the best place to live yeah well look at what they ranked it on and look where we came out on top so something good must be happening in Clifton schools we know it surrounding towns know it and now livability who ranked a hundred other places knows Clifton education is Top Notch with a high graduation rate very proud of all the recipients tonight very proud of their accomplishments very proud of their hard work their dedication and just how happy they seem to be working in Clifton not everyone's happy with their job so how do you better be happy with your job but not everyone's happy in their jobs but these people tonight you could see on their faces you could see the smiles you can see in the classroom when we we go and see them and hear about the great things they do When Miss burgosa puts up those wonderful videos those kids aren't told what to say they say it from their heart their colleagues say it from their heart I couldn't sit here on this day as in good faith and say that we don't have the best because we do and we continue to strive to make it better working together collaboratively as one Clifton that is how we will continue to succeed that is how we will continue to be a strong town a strong educational town and tomorrow we will be so proud to send another class off into the world the class of 2023 wishing them all the best of success and to remind them that they are always a Mustang just now they're going to be alumni Mustang so very proud of Clifton and again um proud of all of our employees tomorrow being the last day a sad day for many kids who have spent the whole year with their teacher have enjoyed their teacher have learned so much and they're moving on could be a very sad day but we want it to be an enjoyable day a day where they're not leaving they're just going away for a little while they're not leaving before they know it they'll be back in their class for a new year so we wish everyone a great summer all of our staff a great year enjoy your summer be safe and we'll see those people in the fall the board will meet one meeting in July and one meeting in August so we're not going anywhere we hope to be back in our Administrative Building for our July meeting we will be back for our July meeting back at the administration building we thank Mr Honda and the staff of Clifton High School for allowing us to come back today while uh the finishing touches are being on the on the repairs to school six and um be safe everyone for the summer and if anyone is watching still tomorrow at three o'clock I'd say from two o'clock on if you don't have to be on the roads of Clifton don't be on the road not only for your sake but it allows our graduates and their parents to be able to get to the stadium on time so if you have to go to the grocery or the drugstore or whatever if you could do it in the morning and keep keep our Clifton streets open for our graduates that'd be a great wonderful thing and uh we'll see everybody tomorrow for a great weather graduation day thank you all okay uh I asked for new business already so we're past that uh we have um the three items that the personnel for executive um and we have um we have the superintendent's evaluation um of which just two or three just the three no I mean people that are exempt just those two right just this Mr Santiago Mr Paris Okay so what we could do is um meet for those uh those three items come back and vote on them and you then we could do his evaluation you guys could go home and we'll just close is that good for everybody excuse me Mr President I have two things um that I'd like to discuss in executive session besides that um I want to ask a question about we had two speakers that come up with particular issues one was about a special ed issue and also there was one about a job issue I know Mr brunsiak wrote something down that was going on I don't know if you were concerned about that but I have a question for the superintendent so I like to speak about that in executive session too Mr Brunswick wants to speak about that one as well for this public one's personnel and one's about a student issue okay okay he says oh I also have another question about a legal issue too I have three sorry it's it has to be discussed with the whole board okay okay so what we'll do yeah so we'll meet on these Personnel issues come back and vote on the ones that we pulled then go back to Executive for the evaluation and you guys can go home okay uh we're gonna go into executive session so we're going to um to ask the public to vacate the room why we go into an executive yep yeah yeah uh we expect to um be in this first part 15-20 minutes we'll come back and vote on those resolutions and then go back into executive sessions so the public can be invited back in after our first part and then you'll have to vacate again uh after that if you're going home for the night just wave goodbye and we won't have to worry about that okay so I need a motion to go into executive session for these uh three items that we had in the items Miss password has for uh motion to Executive session motion by Paris second by Mr Santiago Rocco please Miss basford to go into exactly okay yes Mr bunziak yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes president yes motion carries still good just give us a test make sure yes test one two test ing testing one two three four test s okay I know somebody had those old ringtones still okay I don't know if I have to get um the board uh an executive session to discuss uh various Personnel matters okay the board uh we are withdrawing uh so what is that P what which one are we enjoying okay so let's have a motion on um p8 9 and 10 withdrawing uh a b three o two two or a53 oh 53022 okay so 8 9 10 and on ten we're removing a53022 motion motion minus password second by Mr Paris discussion seeing none roll call please miss bessford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mickey here yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes president Smith yes motions carry okay uh the board's going to meet an executive session again um to discuss the uh superintendency evaluation um I expect us to be about 45 minutes uh to an hour uh the board will uh adjourn from executive session because no action will be taken and Mr Paris and Mr Santiago have to excuse themselves from this part of the meeting so guys we'll go back into uh executive all right motion to go in executive please motion by Mr mejia's second Mr Santiago any objection okay all said yes all right so we're going to go into executive position again the action actually
Let's uh get started here this evening for the June 22nd 2023 regular board meeting um I apologize for starting a couple minutes late we recessed our executive session and we'll ring to mean that after the good for the Grove this evening so um just a reminder the board members we've got to go back to where we work send Mr wrestlers yes and um thank you for that reminder Mr Russell is not with us today he's not a little under the weather not feeling well so um speedy speedy recovery to Mr Russell all right first order business the Pledge of Allegiance and am I it's on me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right next order of business is to adopt the agenda do I have a motion Mr President I move that we adopt the agenda five second thank you we have a motion by Mr Daniels in a second by Mr Robinson all those in favor of segment five was saying aye all those opposed motion passes four zero thank you Peter Pan yeah yeah all right next up is public comments uh Mr poor wanted to speak about action item 7.1 would you come to the podium sir and oh there is a hearing yeah okay next up is reports employee retention final report Dr Nelson I'm honored to bring to you our final report for the 20 to 23 Center Grove teacher recruitment retention and recognition task force um I'm honored to share the conversations and some problem solving the task force collaborated with over the course of the school year so if you remember from our mid-year report over the summer of 2022 employee exit surveys were sent to All certified staff members who resigned during the 21-22 school year based on the exit interview or survey results areas of need to retain teachers were strengthening collegial working conditions developing teacher leadership roles enhancing recruitment efforts and opportunities teacher mentoring and restructuring pay and benefits based on this data a task force was created that included 27 certified teachers and two District administrators this group had six meetings over the course of the school year to discuss retention concerns and then the group as we started discussing quickly added Recruitment and recognition to our discussions during this time we also had parallel work taking place with our collective bargaining and benefits committee pay in benefits was ranked number five on the list of areas we would like to problem solve and these discussions were held exclusively to the collective bargaining teams the goal of the task force was to develop present and future action items to recruit hire and retain teachers administrators and staff within Center Grove schools we did this by examining reviewing and outlining strategies for each area our pipelines for improvement included recruitment of homegrown candidates marketing CG and student teachers retention of our amazing staff with the help with substitute teachers a new teacher Mentor program and then looking at workload time management and the last pipeline was recognition and that is year-long programming and morale boosters I'm very proud of the work and action plans that the task force put in place so that we have a robust system to recruit retain and recognize our colleagues we're going to start with recruitment our first action plan was to create pipelines to grow new and high quality teaching candidates and the task force developed three actions they were to implement A Center Grove future teacher signing ceremony which we already put in place in May of 2023 we were looking at creating a career pathway for education and discussions began this spring about a dual credit education program at Center Grove High School that would lead to a future teacher Camp as we begin showing our third through eighth grade students about what it means to be a teacher and to build their skills for a career in education We are continuing to develop Partnerships with universities to provide classroom and instructional time for field experiences within our pre-k through 12th grade classrooms and I'm so excited we have three Pre-K field experiences that will be happening within our schools starting next year our second recruitment Improvement strategy was to look at marketing a better understanding of what Center Grove offers new hires with school and Community benefits this work began in the fall of 22 with our Communications Department developing a series of videos that showcase our teachers and marketing Center Grove roles to teacher candidates in local universities and programs the third area of focus was on student teachers our wish is to grow our student teaching group and create a faster and steam steam line streamlined process for those that we have served within the district we started this process during the fall of 2022 with student teacher onboarding welcoming observing and interviewing student teachers throughout their time in Center Grove we are also encouraging student teachers to receive their sub license for employment after student teaching hours are met so that we can get them back into our classrooms our next Focus area was retention a retention Improvement that was brought to us from the task force was about substitute teachers and to better our Recruitment and Retention of Subs Which Intel will be better for students and staff when teachers are out of the building the actions for the Improvement our area began in October and again another shout out to Michelle shealy she said a wonderful job you know maintaining our sub base and putting together some great plans since then in October we have celebrated sub appreciation day we've increased communication with our subs with a monthly newsletter and we've also have a very robust webpage to recruit right now we have a 147 active Subs within Center Grove the second retention Improvement was to look at teacher onboarding process which includes an instructional we can go on to the next one for me real quick was to include and include an instructional coach calendar and a mentoring program for year one and two teachers new to the profession or new to Center Grove our instructional coaches worked this year to align their coaching calendar to the CG new teacher Academy monthly topics we have started discussions about designing a Center Grove Mentor program to support new teachers not only in year one but also in year two with possible implementation during the 24-25 school year our hope is to continue the level of support that we have for teachers but then to make the support more personal for new teachers to the field or new teachers to our Corporation and the third retention Improvement area was to look at workload time management to gain more time and schedules for collaboration and planning our actions are to continue the HRS survey that our teaching and learning Department give and analyze that data for level one which is the safe and collaborative atmosphere this will invoke more meaningful conversations about district and school culture and how we operate as a professional learning community we also are continuing discussions with our administrative team on how to lessen non-instructional duties during the day to allow more time for prep and team collaboration I think the biggest thing is we want to thank our teaching and learning Department who has given release time to work on new curriculum and also the special education department who has guidelines for our sped teachers to work on IEPs and progress monitoring all of this is paid time for our teaching staff and we'd like to improve maybe scheduling awareness when school activities interact valuable prep time the fourth retention Improvement area is special programming before we even discuss building our new health facility we've talked about health initiatives for staff and this came up and if so as soon as we heard that a Wellness Center was being built I can tell you there was lots of cheers and excitement for that for our staff and that Wellness Center we're hoping will open in summer of 2024 and that will be to provide physical and mental supports for all of us we will continue to monitor class sizes and look at that and I know Dr Taylor does a wonderful job of that to make sure that they are balanced throughout our school corporation we are also going to be working with our APD PLC at a transition model for students moving on to the next grade level or building the Special Education team is looking at addition and better utilization of reset rooms throughout our schools so that students can take a break if they're feeling overwhelmed and that is the connection with the student Behavior in recognition are it consisted of two areas of improvement the first one is recognizing employees right now our recognition as a district happens at the end of the year we are very fortunate to work with some amazing Educators and colleagues and so we want to make sure that they are feeling valued throughout the school year so beginning the 23-24 school year we are going to expand our recognition programming by giving outstanding service Awards twice a year we're going to be continuing with our Legacy Awards we're going to make some slight changes to our teacher of the year program and then also share the good news to our community in our district about our teachers and their years of service to our students and our and to our community we're also going to be adding a quarterly teacher and support staff Spotlight from each building and department and highlighting an employee who has provided an exceptional educational experience for students staff parents or community members the teacher recruitment retention and recognition task force I'll put to also put together a great list of morale boosters for administrators to use throughout the year that will enhance what our administrators already do to thank our colleagues for a great for the great work they do every day so in conclusion our school corporation we you know like we had mid-year we need effective and diverse teachers but the biggest thing is they need to be feel supported by our community we will continue to grow our own through our pipelines with our student teachers are also seniors and hopefully a dual credit program education pipeline at the high school and last but not least we are doing everything we can to be proactive in retainment efforts and looking to better support our teachers every day in the classroom Dr Nelson you're welcome thank you Dr Nelson any any questions or comments the the signing day we did I Mr Robinson and I were able to make it it was really cool great idea and a great concept and I hope that's something we do for the next 50 years yeah yeah their comments questions thank you all right the next item of business is the consent agenda do I have a motion Mr President I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented thank you Mr Daniels do I have a second thank you Mrs counts we have a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion passes four zero Mr Alexander at tonight upon approval of the Personnel report we approve Dr Brent Kinsey to replace uh Chris Catherine Brennan as our connected learning coordinator and he's here this evening with his wife she come on up just introduce yourself real quick and share who you're with he comes to us from Shenandoah schools so a little bit of drive to school very much 27 years in Shenandoah School Corporation up in Henry County and couldn't be more excited about joining the team in Center Grove a wonderful reputation here in the state of Indiana and uh I hope to only help that out so I appreciate the opportunity to be here well welcome this is my wife Amber go ahead and stand there yeah sorry yeah it's the brains of the family right there yeah thank you very much no thank you welcome thank you very much all right next up um 7.1 1028 preliminary determination hearing and resolutions for the cpf maintenance and miscellaneous funds Dr arkanov I'll go first we've got our script right in there so this evening is the hearing prior to selling bonds for financing of the cpf maintenance and miscellaneous and I will turn it over to Mr Alexander to run this hearing thank you Dr arkanov I now open this public hearing I would like to turn it over to Dr Taylor to present the project the financing of the project and actions we are taking this evening Dr Taylor thank you Mr Alexander this is something we typically have done in the past with our budget adoption there's some new legislation that has changed the timeline on that and we were concerned that if we didn't have these funds in time to adopt the budget we might have to adopt a budget that was slightly different so what this is this is a reoccurring bond that we sell each school year we've done this since 2009 when there were some changes in the funding structure from the state as you'll recall when we approved the budget last year we needed about 24 million dollars in our operations fund to fund all of the projects and equipment that we need and we get about 12 million dollars in tax revenue so this is one way that we supplement that loss of Revenue and we sell these bonds off and pay them back into over a two-year period so that we can keep that interest rate as low as possible and again this is just a way to Garner some more operating Revenue when we're short from our other sources it does include and we've listed just some of the projects that are included typically minor lower smaller maintenance projects and by smaller I mean entire Roof Systems UV light systems those types of things but not typically construction of new facilities and this is also where we fund our technology equipment and so this will be a vital component as textbook rental changes come into play and we have to fund student one-to-one device costs this will be another Avenue in which we're able to do that so all that's included in here along with some miscellaneous things that if we we can get done we will and I work with Dr long on this and the two departments spend this money on the equipment and parts that they need to do the work that they do every day I believe that's all I've shared all the details thank you Dr Taylor thank you Dr Taylor this is the appropriate time for members of the public to comment on any of the projects and information presented this evening are there any members of the public must report yes can you come to the podium please hi my name is Keith poor I'm a citizen here Center Grove School District and uh I came in here and I met briefly with Mr Taylor to express what this Bond or 1028 hearing was about I saw it in the paper in the legal notices and that we were going to do this uh he said here just in his statement that this would be paid off in two years and in the paper it says that this will be paid off January 1st of 28.
accommodation Awards we've just won this evening the 2022-23 Crown Point High School Latin club for winning first place in the Helen Wampler Spirit contest the delegate Spirit contest the Dennis M Bartlow publicity contest the local Publications contest the traditional scrapbook contest and placing third for the overall sweepstakes award for large chapters and placing first in this certiman novice and intermediate divisions at the Indiana junior classical League State Convention sort of the recommendation of the administration we have a motion so moved motion by Mr Smith second by Mr babjek any questions all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries 5-0 we'll now bring the Crown Point Latin club and their coaches and sponsors in and present those Awards uh present each individual their own award and bear with me because I didn't study any Latin so if there's any words there I promise you I will probably not saying correctly resolution accommodation the Crown Point Board of school trustees is honored to commend the 2022-23 Crown Point High School Latin club for meritorious achievement be it hereby resolve at the board of school Trustees for the Crown Point Community School Corporation which is to express Express sincere congratulations to the 2223 Crown Point height School Latin club for winning first place in the Helen Wampler Spirit contest the delegate Spirit contest the Dennis M Bartlow publicity contest the local Publications contest the traditional scrapbook contest and placing third for the overall sweepstakes award for large chapters and for placing first in the certiman novice and intermediate divisions at the Indiana junior classical League State Convention the board of school trustees publicly recognizes this achievement and rendered it permanently to its minutes to be preserved for public posterity to this 26th day of June 2023.