Brill has them but they're not pretty none of its pretty I mean let's be real I mean it's a it's an issue we all have in it all I'm trying to say is again I agree you didn't have the money nobody has the money but he just can't produce it we got it we got it then dig into the general fund which we've worked so hard to get up to a certain point and reach these achievements we can't afford to go backwards in this process and we took the town side down the downside was a lot less increased in this the school side I know percentage-wise and week the town took a beating too during the process to get the numbers down we've built the ten-year model that shows us the same ability of how to go forward you know and get the school and and everything else that the taxpayer showed them their increase on the households and now we got these numbers again that we got to work there's gonna be paying somewhere along the way I mean that's the reality others gonna be paying on our site we just gave up money that we had right now pretty easily without too much of an issue that was excess that we could give and I would help out in all fairness we voted to give it you know I just say we offer the differences that's not here right one of the other questions I had I'm sorry is I'm the ECS money are you calculating in the formula you get more money as you know let's speak to them yes a cost piece right is that calculated into your shortfall but are you counting on the additional one hundred eighty two thousand in your calculations school right so important to look page and we did not because we knew your excess cost yeah I'm talking about ECM not the economic cost share same alphabet so state changes so I think it might be a good exercise for this sheet for Ken to kind of walk through how the formula works specific to Brookfield with a hypothetical student as a sample page correct 11 in the PowerPoint it's up on the screen down right so for anybody who's not familiar with it completely we take a out play student or even an in-house student if they have enough cost but in this case it's an out play student with tuition of a hundred thousand dollars transportation of forty thousand you have a total cost of one hundred $40,000 for that student the state sets a threshold of 4.5 times our prior years per pupil cost so in our case it would be 4.5 times 15,000 634 76 which makes our threshold 70,000 356 so our eligible costs is $140,000 total cost minus 70,000 356 which is 69 thousand six hundred forty-four dollars in recent years the reimbursement rate has averaged about 75 percent so if we assume 75 percent again this year on that 69 644 we would receive fifty two thousand two hundred thirty three dollars back from the state and if we take that off of one hundred and forty thousand dollars our net cost for that student is eighty-seven thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven dollars now we budget the excess cost grant in as a revenue item and if you look at the next slide the net additions of the students will not have a significant impact on their excess cost reimbursement and I'll let you know why first of all none of the six students that either return to district for services or left Brookfield qualified for reimbursement and only three of the twelve new out placed students qualify for excess cost reimbursement and they were included in our initial data filing on December 1st 2019 also we had three existing students in our program that were that used to be serviced one on one by an outside provider that was costly enough with an addition with to insert internal services to qualify starting this year we changed that program around and we have seven students being serviced by those three expensive providers for an average cost of 37 thousand dollars per student so even when you had in some other related services that they get here they do not qualify for excess cost anymore so we had three new ones qualified and three that we had expected do not qualify anymore so the net effect will be so the expenses for your students listed here yep is that that's gross expense not met a excess correct okay so when I see a formula like this prior your step leaves room for something Brookfield goodness you guys are great it seems to me like other towns or cities would gain that system and put in a bunch of kids that I needed a thousand dollars worth of service lower your your net cost per pupil right by law of averages and then your reimbursement rate would go your reimbursement threshold would go down that's that actually the average cost per student for the whole district and their reporting mechanism has to go into the state we've gone through that with the auditors every year and so as and you know it's interesting to me is we know profiles on the low end of the cost per student in the state there's a lot of towns that have a much higher with 21,000 dollars per year for students are getting significantly more access costs than we are because so they get less this is very important thanks for asking an on state approved facility in the state of Connecticut that they have not they they the state does not hold them accountable for anything so there are students that go to these private institutions that we cannot get access costs for they go to a non-state approver sees a state-approved a really two situations one is a student comes to us already in that facility and now has new residents in Brookfield ok so then that would take time perhaps to work with a family over time to get them into an approved state facility or service here in district with us then you want to talk about the other with the universal placement a little bit excuse me you knurled the unilateral give a sample of how that could work and that's it's in rare instances but right so another situation there isn't there could be an opportunity where a parent unilaterally places their student their child in a facility and then we go to due process or mediation and a settlement agreement and they haven't ready unilaterally place them there so they would do that if it was a kid ory yes and then we go to due process or mediation just decide whether or not we the parent the parent eh if you wanted yes ah mark mark but it's important nuance and the Connecticut state law is the burden of proof is on the district not on the parent so there are situations where parents place their child's send the bill to this town it's it's put the onus on the town or the district to actually challenge it in court and and you're basically dependent on arbitrators mediators in course right and sometimes you don't win those right that's the that's when that happens and just so you know administrative actions once again and trying to work with our elected officials this has been taken up caps the Connecticut Association of public school superintendents which I'm a member we have worked in put legislation forward I believe Connecticut I may be wrong is one of only two states that has this burden of proof issue and so legal expenses in the like become very very expensive and you start looking at the cost of tuition versus the legal battle that you might have to face not that's gonna help for next it's not gonna help for next year but the ECS the calculation is changing not in our favor I think for next year is that excess cost you me nervous oh maybe yes all right you see that excess constants yes yeah those are the names of those kill him yeah yes I'll mark to answer the question that worth investing there's three of that situation so so can you filed already for the for the for the excess cost you know Gina we filed for that Santos said match what we have in the budget or is it slightly low or slightly higher we should fill it in okay I'm not sure if you guys got that it's with the filing in December slightly lower than what was in the budget but we expect we should be able to fill that in with the second file anyone else I just want to circle real quick I know that you said that when I brought up the Triple A rating and what Stephen said that that's our priority in it it's just we are all here at this table because we want what's best for this town the children the rating you know the bonds the new school everything so it's just when we're just trying to figure out how x y&z work out we don't we're just trying to get answers so yes the children are so important and obviously things that we go through on our border super important but I just wanted to know I mean we're all here because we want what's best for this town that we we live it and we love so I'm just you know wanted to stress that it wasn't just about the rating it's just all these things go through our heads when we are little bars you you have a very difficult position we all do every single morning on them and I think it's in Breanna to your point it's really important with the with the ratings ken and I sit down with Steve and his team and we had were part of those meetings and that's really important too and that shows that collaboration which contributes to those ratings that's a really big piece is the teamwork why we're all here for that yeah thank you but dipping to be cleared that's very important and they did mention that you guys collaborated that would help to keep it up but they also have told us if we dip into the general fund or we deviate far from our capital plan that Steve put together with everybody's input but that can affect can and will affect our credit rating we could be talking about millions of dollars in financing fees you know in the long term especially with building into the school the other instructors in Tallinn I don't want anybody think we're cold-hearted we know what you guys are going through what just trying not to be make sure you're aware what we go through to John being on both ends of this discussion over the last 16 years we're in a position where there isn't money and there are things that need to be done and the bottom line is you have to figure it out we we've done that in the past and we'll do it now it'll be figured out we had a negative 1/2 percent decrease in a school budget and people said well we're not gonna be able to what we figured it out is it gonna hurt a little bit it is and I'm both sides but it will be figured out but it's it's everybody understands that no cuts very few cuts are easy to do and obviously we have a threshold that we really don't want to go into the general fund so we're gonna have make concessions to just figure it out but it'll get figured out and it's gonna be painful but that's that's reality and no one's mentioned a special appropriation I mean there's other outside the socks thinking's nobody wants to do that tighter but that may be something else we that could be looking when we get a total like you the next child and we should we should have that in about within a month Gina yeah yeah we should be there in terms of that process we talked about well we're gonna five students we should be five students and maybe even this these three students we're talking about so we can come with a more solid solid you could say the same thing then so is there anyone that wants to walk through the implications for next year's budget or do you not want to touch that yet so to you it's a lot of numbers we just threw at you first people one slide 1 slide basic on this so yeah it's just one slide um so no I had all right so you're looking at our current our current you know we're just talking about special special education and tube placement tuition for the known 32 students and the potential 5 totaling 37 our current budget for that at the beginning of the year was 1.7 that was for the twenty at that time the 26 students full year looking back at what we know we will have to spend we're looking at two point almost four million that's for all of our out plays students and some that have come on since then in terms of a partial year tuition when you look to next year we had back in October originally budgeted for 32 students since October we've had which was really we budgeted for 27 students with a contingency of five we've since then just since October I've had two over that contingency amount bringing our total to 34 students so our budget for next year as of right now is the 2.4 is the 2.4 number that looks like a really huge jump when you look at it from what we budgeted at the beginning of this year to what we will budget for next year but again if you look sort of at the full view and you take into consideration that 2.3 number this one down here the 2.4 number to compare this to the 2.5 that it will ultimately cost we're really looking at a 10 percent jump which again is significant but looking at all the numbers at once might be a little and I'll just add just so we get ahead of that curve most of the growth here 2 years is the fact that these kids are being placed in this year this year and they have a full year next year right that's 250 K of a 250 K increase otherwise it's relatively flat so that's the challenge we'll have as we look at the projects do we have to assume that none are gonna move out in this this assumes that the 37 goes to the 32 and that would sell it out because if I ever graduated well it was it was 7 out in the 2 m is what was in there we actually went much like we did the sheet before down instead of net up yeah well I mean said nicely reflecting on what dr.
Birol said I mean really our numbers have been hovering around 30 I mean yeah we get some leave but then more come in we may be looking at some that that may graduate but they may not so it really it's it's a number that's very hard to track but if they do if you do get me years some kids move out of district will you come to us and announce to us that you have a savings of the money that we've actually that's the part of the root of why we get money back last year yeah right so that's exactly what we do we do not want to go spend that on other stuff yeah I think this it's a marks point this would be something because it's so volatile and can be so expensive and so disruptive in monthly reports if you keep us apprised of where today we that's what I mean I think that's you know something because no one likes to be surprised huh and it seems like we're getting support you are and we are yep you know I think we do surprise I would make a motion that we appropriate $208,000 for special education costs okay okay you guys have that first we can have the discussion first for this purpose for the Board of Ed and for this request on to the Board of Finance for review and discussion to have a second a second Perry seconds discussion I agree I agree with the 208 because I think the Bob's point you're gonna have to freeze anyway so as nice as it would be to our means point to you know not freeze as much right away it's all those in favor can I have my parents I'm sorry did you just appropriately 208 Oh 8 1 I wasn't listening yes yes I'm sorry - Oh a goalie all right from our side off be honest which I'd rather I'd want to we'll talk about this at our next meeting we're missing two members of our six members here tonight they don't even know what we were proposing I just got these numbers today from Steve I don't think it'd be fair for the four of us to not talk with Dan and Shawn considering that they've been on the board the longest as well so I personally don't see an issue with what we propose and Steve's proposal but I think it would not be the right thing to do for us as a Board of Finance at this time for free is it going to harm you if you don't get the appropriation from us until our next regular meeting which is if you'd like Glen if you would like me to present this again at your meeting I don't like I need to present I need to back up data I need exactly that deep dive let's see the numbers you know give us two extra these that right there is been like we could we could intercept the two guessing numbers and take them through the charts up you know so they got you know we could have them come over select we can officially submit the request on I don't think it's supposed to be grass it's the savings the backup date and how we're coming to this number of the appropriate and dollar I don't question the cost only any of us question the support of the special that students are all students it's a question of you have extra costs I was sure of what we're achieving on the savings side and we double up to see if there's more savings and do a deep dive so because again there's only so much that we can give without affecting the town side either between Steve in a bad spot and everybody's bad spot we just want to see the deep dive numbers the details behind how do we get that a 189 on the teacher's salary what is that gonna grow from 189 to 220 if you hold off in a position for another month I don't know your house numbers but for us to make it and I don't want to get into your house number to tell you to manage your house it's a matter of what is the dollars we're really looking at and how we can help out with the dollars Glen what date are we looking at to make sure we have this come back for you 12 so there's plenty of time I mean I would hope February 12th yeah and we may have more information to share as well by that time with what Jeanne is working on with the five other students as well so we might have a more full picture for you you could do that job loss and if there are changes you know the Board of Finance the reason we did our appropriation tonight and I agree with clayman have more discussions have more detail they can't act on anything unless we appropriate it and it's really not being appropriate for them to discuss in any great detail unless there's a motion before them so if you get that information I'm sure the board is the Lachman if we need to make a change would be more than willing to get together and reveal it thank you very much our side any questions for so having no more comments I'll make a motion that the Board of Selectmen adjourn a second second all in favor all right I'll make a motion Board of Finance adjourn all those in favor aye then without objection meeting adjourned [Music]
what's happening [Music] i know [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] i know thank you [Music] [Applause] is now bye [Music] huh [Music] all right [Music] [ __ ] [Music] oh foreign all right [Music] oh now again now i can't yes okay there's always a comedian do you want to read the mission statement okay yeah because he's okay thank goodness are we we're in like flames i just had to pick on you because call to order the january 16 2020 regular board meeting please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the relevant for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call of board members mr obama miss passport president miss beltran mr canova here mr daley here mr casper mr vicente miss danick here mission statement community partnership is provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners so responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society and an average indian world next order business reading of the open public meeting statement the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or pac acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place their post at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv and the local press on the district's website and mail to presence of parent-teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy 0168 next order of business is recognition and award presentations can i have a motion for the clifton high school january students of the month motioned by mr casper second by mr canova um roll call mr everdrabo miss password yes miss beltran mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes miss danny yes mr casper freshman hey uh freshman and janae roberts congratulations to janae roberts on being chosen as the freshman student of the month janae has always really enjoyed her english classes she likes that she is in control of her work and that she can be creative in class janae thinks all of her teachers have influenced her in different ways and they and they make her want to come to school every day she has been involved with track since middle school and is currently a sprinter for our track team janae is looking forward to taking advantage of the different academic programs chs offers so she can get a head start with her college aspirations here we go sophomore student of the month is harsh congratulations to harsh project party on being chosen as a sophomore student of the month harsha's favorite subject in school is statistics with mr orr he really enjoys that class because he loves learning more about the stock market harsh says his family inspires him to try his hardest at school and he appreciates their support harsh is on our cross-country and track and field team as well as a member of the student council he hopes in the future to take advantage of our ap science courses and our academic programs our school has to offer to help them prepare for college thank you [Applause] junior student of the month yes junior uh klayla cadence mag buhos congratulations to kayla kadence magbuhos on being chosen as the junior student of the month klayla really enjoys her science classes because it gives her opportunity to ask lots of questions her most influential teacher was mrs graziano because she felt like she was challenged and learned many things during her biology class she also credits her mom for inspiring her to do well in school klayla really enjoys a variety of clubs and activities she is currently the member of the gsa anime club pre-med club mural club and stage crew klayla has inspirations to ascend to attend suny college of environmental stop science and forestry congratulations claire [Applause] okay [Applause] senior student of the month all right uh congratulations on being chosen as a senior student of the month sadie's favorite subject is history because she enjoys learning about events that have happened in the past she says she had many amazing teachers so lis miss fuentes mr mecca mr rick and mr mack as her most influential teachers sadie credits her grandmother for inspiring to work hard but she is such a strong independent woman who always takes the tacticalism she's currently the president of anime club and she's also a member of the state crew in our honors society the biggest hero she has faced was transferring to chs for a junior [Applause] thank you congratulations and congratulations group picture with the superintendent miss danny if that's okay one good picture guys yes [Applause] um before i go to the next order of business if um you want to leave at this point you made those that got their petition okay you're welcome to stay but if you want okay next order of business is the adoption of minutes can i get in a motion to adopt the minutes of the regular meeting of december 12 2019 and the executive meeting of december 12th 2019.
today is January 21st 2020 it is the 92nd PS well this is wbh it is I am Logan I'm absent today for lunch there will be we can sell shrimp Bradley's piece sliced red peppers pineapple chunks and milk tomorrow breakfast grill meat cinnamon toast puff apple sauce orange juice and this event we have some friends so ring birthdays Brady and Brianna G in this super plan please go to the office to pick up your birthday boy yesterday's my pet question was what famous activist deliver his speech ten of I have a dream in 1966 to promote crazy following in the United States the answer is Martin Luther King Joker the winner is Julie three merits who come to the office to pick out your price dance move that question is if you mix yellow and red together what do you get remember to write your answer and announcements the wonder of the picnic table drawn for this week are Julia Jelani Jelani to Smith every two Smith's right into axelsson they're great and about the merits Shawn to the boyfriend William a clue in in fourth grade Carson for woods Natalie for Collette Oh Scott Taylor we have a mother at once are you looking for something for something funded you have to school on a Friday but Friday night out is the place to come please join us for an afternoon of games snacks and friends on Friday January 30th 31st from 3:30 to 5:00 permission sets will be coming soon so Bianca this is not something you're gonna wanna miss out now we will never agree criticise your policeman activities every day please hi 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 Betty will loosen the big pillow pledge I pledge to me mph I pledge to be a bhr whether I'm at school or travel apart while there is school or travel far I pledge to be safe in every way I obliged to be safe in every way take responsibility during work and play take responsibility - during work and play I will be respectful than all I do I will be regretful and all I do and be a star the whole day through and PS star the whole day through have a terrific Tuesday remember if you work really hard all the way through without glitching okay so it all depends on how many people are on the Internet please don't be on it's still on what Oh what it would be
so moved motioned by mr drago second by mr canova um roll call mr abby drabo yes basford yes mr beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes miss danny yes next order of business is communication announcements of which there are none next order business there is no reading of first policy next order of business is presentation of reports from administration advisory committees and special committees we do have a presentation uh hib update by mr mark gingarrow hello see i'm not the only one with the yellow tie on today yes i'm trying to set up the presentation so bear with me one moment please i'll send you the bill the dolphins are in no better shape right now one second please as our projector turns on it warms up okay as it's coming on i'd like to just begin by letting our commissioners know that in front of you everybody's received the packet with the same presentation for your viewing privileges at a later date uh again i'd like to introduce myself my name is mark gingaro i'm our district administrator of climate and security that is an umbrella title for a whole host of responsibilities that i do hold in the district this evening i will be presenting to you in the capacity of our district's anti-bullying coordinator information and data specific to violence vandalism substance abuse which are also known as vvsas and harassment intimidation and bullying also known as hibs specific to what we call report period number one according to new jersey state law twice per year the chief school administrator shall present to the district board of education a summary of the incidents that accounts of violence vandalism substance abuse and harassment intimidation bullying within the clifton school district its purpose is to ensure that accurate information on both hib and vvsa incidents are submitted to the new jersey department of education through a platform known as the student safety data system the incidents are publicly reported to the district board of education and that all incidents of vvsa and hib are shared with all stakeholders within the clifton learning community you can see in the bottom of the screen are the dates the range of dates that constitute report period number one you can see there's a slight discrepancy between the start dates of the training and programs versus the incidents report period number one for incidents does start september 1st through december 31st and report period number two starts in january 1st and ends on june 30th the rationale behind the earlier start date for trainings and programs is it affords staff members and administrators the opportunity to attend trainings and programs over the summer that would count towards our school data specific to hibs and vvsa as shared in a presentation earlier this year these are examples of the categories that constitute incidents of vvsa ranging from arson and assault to weapon defenses trespassing and threats our next two slides will share the data in a two-year comparison for each individual school within report period number one again september 1 through december 31st during the 1819 and the 1920s school year as i go through this information i would like to pay close attention to our total numbers our district total that can be found in the bottom left-hand side of the screen and we can see that we are generally in the ballpark figure is where we were last year you can see there's been a decrease in incidents involving weapons but i am most pleased to present a significant decrease in our substance abuse which we would like to believe is accredited to a very strong smoking and vaping policy recently adopted by our board of education which will help us combat our smoking and vaping epidemic that policy really focuses on a less punitive approach and a more educational and rehabilitative approach in working with our students who are in violation of our substance abuse policy moving forward to harassment intimidation bullying it's important for us to all understand what does constitute a hip in order for something or an incident to constitute a harassment intimidation bullying case two things must exist the first is the distinguishable characteristic and those are such examples or any of the protected categories as seen in front of you such as race and color religion ancestry national origin gender sexual orientation gender identity and mental physical or sensory disabilities other distinguishable characteristics that could count in an incident of hib include things like students home circumstances personal preferences just similar to the types of foods they eat for example students will practice vegetarianism and an incident of hip would occur based upon that that would constitute account for a distinguishable characteristic in addition to the characteristics a substantial disruption must exist for an incident to constitute hib a substantial disruption is something that severely impacts or impedes a student's academic performance such as a student who's refusing to come to school or cutting class a student who demonstrates a tremendous decline in academic performance when a victim changes a routine to avoid an offender or offenders even as far as disruptions that may exist at home such as students loss of appetite or students who may develop irregular sleeping patterns our next two slides will once again show a comparison of report period number one for the 1819 to the 1920 school years broken down by building and again in the bottom of the second page here as i give everybody a moment to look through the numbers you will see once again a decline in the amount of confirmed incidents and even the amount of alleged incidents that existed this year during report period number one again that our our philosophy and belief and it's a direct accreditation to the trainings and programs that are implemented throughout the district trainings provided on our head policy that are specific to consequences interventions prevention and remediation they are generally held in the form of meetings such as administrative meetings where the anti-bullying coordinator gets to meet with our entire administrative team during the summer and august at what we call administrative retreat and then again throughout the year monthly where the abc can discuss what's considered to be best practice in preventing hib strategies the theory behind that is for the abc to train our administrators to then turn key that information to our staff at staff meetings and with our students at student assemblies each school is mandated to also have a school safety and a school climate team which the sole purpose is not solely to keep our school safe but also to identify patterns of hib and to also make recommendations to the anti-bullying coordinator and chief school administrator on ways that we can promote a more positive learning community other examples of training are for the for the 12 schools that are currently enrolled in our positive behavior support in schools with the universal intervention team trainings and our secondary tier trainings programs are events or activities that promote anti-bullying awareness i really like to take this opportunity to thank what i'd like to refer to as the good boys in blue for a strong working relationship between the clifton police department and the clifton board of education who take the time to teach our youth through programs like their anti-bullying assembly and most recently a cyber bullying assembly to help promote students and their awareness of incidents of hip in the month of october all schools practice the week of respect violence awareness week and red red ribbon week this year our school counselors were sent to a workshop specific to transgender transgender lgbtq and their mental health workshop our secretarial staff attended a suicide prevention workshop related to him and other programs such as run dmc where this gentleman serves as a motivational speaker to promote positivity within that program and then the yojo anti-bullying assembly where the presenters come and perform skits to help students recognize how to better be an upstander versus being a bystander and of course selfishly and biasedly my personal favorite program pbsis positive behavior in schools which is a multi-tiered framework of interventions that's broken down to three tiers a universal tier a secondary tier and a tertiary tier the purpose of this program is to increase instructional time for students and staff to increase support for students engaging in repeated and habitual problem behaviors to decrease office conduct referrals also known as our ocr data and to decrease out-of-school suspensions more specifically to tonight's presentation to decrease incidents of harassment intimidation bullying in front of you are the list of the 12 schools that are currently enrolled in the pbsis cohort or uh program during cohorts five through nine you can see that ccms woodrow wilson middle school school 17 and the chs mustang academy have all been trained and are in full implementation of the program three of those four programs have been recognized at the new jersey pbsis leadership forum with christopher columbus middle school being the only school in the state to have ever been recognized three times for that honor i like that and i'll give a little shout out to ccms right there cohort number 11 is in our first year of full implementation of the universal latier that includes schools number 2 4 13 and 16.
currently going through the training programs and cohort number 12 are schools 9 11 and 14 who plan to roll out this program's universal tier in september and then waiting on deck schools 1 3 8 12 and 15 who all reported the competitive application process to hopefully be accepted into cohort number 13.
what we're doing here as a district is we're really setting the stage to increase positive behaviors by teaching both students and staff what we consider to be our behavioral expectations behaviors are now taught and modeled in schools through instruction and by example what we're trying to do as a district is we're trying to change the philosophy of students should just know how to behave instead it's about teaching our our staff an understanding of cultural differences we recognize that clifton could be considered a microcosm of the world with over 70 different languages spoken it's important for us to understand that different cultures and norms have different values but within the building these are our building our overarching and building specific expectations part of this program helps to educate what we consider the whole child as we teach them the hidden curriculum as we as we educate them not just academically but morally emotionally and socially specific to this presentation tonight pbsis helps us dive into more challenging difficult behaviors that lead to bullying incidents what we learn to discover is what the root of the problem is not only are we addressing the needs of the victim but this program helps us better understand why a perpetrator is engaging in negative behaviors in the first place for more information specific to new jersey for pbsis feel free to visit the website at www at this time does anybody on the board have any questions ms danny if i may yes um that's uh listen you've been doing a great job district has been a phenomenal job at getting better in these various aspects of um weapons vaping bullying etc my questions aren't more to ask about the aspects but i think it's more to educate the public so if you can just kind of play towards my some of my questions sure um what constitutes as a weapon in the district again that could vary and sometimes what will constitute a weapon we always work in collaboration with clips in the police department so weapons such as guns knives nunchucks ninja stars mace things of that nature would constitute a weapon so there's a guideline yes okay and that can be found in the ssds system on the new jersey department of education okay and the pbsis what's the framework timing for cohorts to go through the process it's really a three-year process let me take a step back there are three tiers so it's a four-year process the first one is a training year to help prepare schools for their universal tier which is our first year a universal tier is global which should really impact about 80 percent of our students for each building during the first rollout year for the universal tier that same team is starting to train for what they call a secondary tier and that provides students with a uh again a model a best example of a secondary tier intervention would be considered a check in and checkout system where we're more frequently monitoring students behaviors where they can earn incentives and be recognized for the positive they're doing during the implementation of the secondarity intervention we begin training for a tertiary tier intervention for extreme behaviors oftentimes that requires us to uh use the assistance of a district behaviorist to help us create behavior modification plans so overall it's a four-year process uh with guidance from njpbsis throughout the course of the way thank you this last question i'm gonna ask because um you know we've discussed in the past vaping sensors are we have we looked at it have we yes there's something that we're definitely looking into um how much can i answer about that so we had talked about several uh i know the topic of conversation has been the possibility of a referendum being passed here in clifton and part of that referendum will be installing uh the vape sensors and not just the sensors which cost approximately 800 to 1200 dollars that expense never seemed to be the issue where the problems came was the expense of running the uh just the power to each of these sensors which require us to put ethernet drops or internet drops within each of the bathrooms to then power each of the vaping sensors the way that we looked at it it's going to require us to install two vaping sensors in each bathroom at this time so it's something that we're going to write into that referendum awesome thank you any other board members mr canola what is the correlation between pbsas and the totals that we see now do we see them declining absolutely and again i could really only speak right now specifically with my heart we'll always be in christopher columbus middle school and it's really the most successful story that we've had so far uh again accreditation to wonderful administration a wonderful staff and a wonderful universal intervention team headed by mr jeff labriola but what happens is we start to identify these patterns of these negative behaviors and that team starts to come up with strategies and interventions to help challenge them i follow those two simple rules of administration and the first one is they call them the golden rules the first one is don't ever forget where you came from and the second one is to be smart enough to know that you don't know everything the best part about this program is it takes the ownership out of the administrator's hands and puts it into the team's hands which includes the uh the administration will be part of that team but we have seen nothing but a steady decline in the amount of ocr data over the years and all of the buildings have successfully implemented this program that's great yes um thank you miss danny uh thank you mr gengaro for your very comprehensive report um we look forward to this moving on and pbsis really getting to every school in the district i know when it was started just in columbus that was one of my wishes to see it trickle down to every school in the district the other night tuesday night there was a vaping program that was done at the high school and uh it wasn't very well attended it was sponsored by clifton again substance abuse the board of the clifton board health department and the clifton high school the representative from the health department runs it it's really a really good product i would hope that this board could find a way to really promote this and get more parents involved because it's the signs that we see it home that we don't really clue into just like anything else when there's a child getting bullied or getting uh victimized or and getting involved in substance so i i would hope that maybe we can have a presentation here from that um health department personnel person so the board can see it so they can see the value of that as well i don't know if you're bringing it in i think you brought it into christopher um and withdrawal i believe both middle schools yes and i i agree commissioner basford i believe that that is a wonderful idea and it's something that we should jump on because i really think that people would be surprised at at what they see and it was really eye-opening to me thank you sir thank you any other questions and just another thing we i'm sorry i noticed an inch in ago um and i forgot what the date was but uh this is more famous the clifton police department is doing a thing about vaping as well as substance abuse upcoming one of the officers was there last night for hsa it was september 21st it was one of the schools it was school one one school one so maybe that's something that we can we can tag on to or help them with but i just wanted to give you a heads up i'm sure you know cause you're always on top of these kind of things but i just wanted to remind you and i believe clifton police department is also visiting woodrow i'm sorry christopher columbus middle school we will be inviting both middle schools the high school and the entire community to attend the not even ones program which again will help us combat our smoking vaping and drug epidemic that's right um for the substantial disciplines how do we intervene to get that student i remember you on this slide you had on the right hand side i said substantial substantial disruptions yes disruptions where you know they're not coming to school they feel sort of ostracized how do we get them back in into school uh there are a whole host of strategies that we use uh we always begin with student counseling we have a wonderful student counseling department from k-8 led by the guidance of mrs jessica tremble at the high school mrs jennifer bergman who was our guidance sorry school counselor supervisor from 9 through 12. uh we begin working with the family and the students to again try to find the cause what's the root cause of this disruption why does a student not want to come helping better helping the aggressor understand how his or her behaviors are negatively impacting others again it's a slow transition every case is unique to its own sense it would be impossible to answer that without a specific example but there are a variety of methods that were used to help transition students back into school who are fallen victim to harassment intonation bullying and the programs that you mentioned up here are those at all schools that they come out and have these programs they are avail they are well yes the week of respect red ribbon week and violence awareness week are throughout the district uh pbsis as we said right now in 12 of the schools uh there are other trainings and programs that that were not necessarily listed there but those programs are available to each and every school should they take the opportunity to take advantage of are they hsa funded or are they funded through the district it could be a little bit of both they could be come from the school budget could come from the hsa so there are a variety of ways that we can make this happen okay thank you thank you anyone else thank you mr thank you very much next order of business committee reports does the student representative have anything to say i do hello everyone and uh i said i'm already come to frank casper uh congratulations to the students of the month their hard work and dedication is reflective of the values of the district uh congratulations to the track and field team for being the big north division division it's always good it gets me every time big north liberated division champions for the fourth time uh the track and field team is full of the best students in clifton high school and they keep raising the bar for themselves uh lastly uh the clifton kicks cancer event will take place on january 24th at 6 30 p.m i encourage everyone to attend school and be obliged and that's all i have to say it's a great day to be a mustang thank you thank you um the education committee there are i have two two yes okay our first meeting uh minutes come from december 2 10 2019.
the education committee meeting began at 5 15 with attendance myself along with mrs basford mr abadrabo and mr kanova administrators included dr robertosi mr teigen mrs kusalevich mr mountain and mrs rotolo number one special education advisory cpac mrs rotolo provided an update of recent special education committee cpag meetings ms rotolo helped meetings with cpag on 6619 812 10-7 and 12 9 19.
discussions were held regarding increasing attendance and participation she will work to expand cpeg membership and will support outreach to families of special needs students upcoming meetings which are advertised by website and social media will will be on uh 210 20 at school four regarding pbsis and a transition resource fair on 328 2020 a survey of parents needs will be conducted to inform the program action is informal i am sorry informational number two preliminary staffing discussions for 2020 2021 miss kusalevich and mr teigen provided a discussion regarding preliminary staffing needs for consideration for the 2020-2021 budget included in the discussion were the need for additional preschool inclusion teachers to create the least restrictive environment for preschool students they need to plan for a minimum of one child fine class for special needs students who turn three during the school year sufficient power professionals for preschool and special education an additional art teacher and music teacher to cover elementary special classes an additional art teacher in academy's elective teachers for clifton high school were proposed a high school math coach was also discussed actions were informational number three preliminary instructional technology program 2020 to 2021 mrs kosilevich and mr mountain discussed plans to maximize the use of the one-to-one implementation of chromebooks in grades 6 through 12 and increasing chromebooks at the elementary schools several adaptive online math programs are being piloted to support online math remediation instruction and enrichment existing programs such as world book accelerated reader star reading and my on reader among others were also discussed it was shared that use of chromebooks in google classroom is embedded in curriculum across all content areas action was informational the meeting was adjourned at 6 35 respectfully submitted by mrs kusalevich any questions on that one okay minutes from this past tuesday january 14 2020 the education meeting the education committee meeting began at attendees were myself along with mrs basford and mr canova administrators included dr robertosi mr teigen mrs kusalevich and mr mountain number one pbsis federal climate transformation grant update ms kusalevich provided an update on the trainings taking place across the district as schools expand or develop their positive behavioral supports in schools social emotional learning and intervention programs the grant includes positions for a project director to provide support and trainings at each school a job description will follow a social worker included for the grant has already been advertised for to provide tier three support to at-risk students action was informational number two preliminary staffing discussion 2020 2021 continued ms kuzelevich and mr teigen continued the preliminary discussion regarding staffing needs for consideration uh for the 2020 2021 budget which began at the the december 10th committee meeting included in the discussion with a need for an additional nurse in general education behaviors to assist in supporting the increasing health social emotional and behavioral needs of students in preschool through the primary grades as well as the increase in medically fragile students enrolled in the district an additional special education esl teacher was also discussed to meet the increasing needs of students requiring services action informational the meeting was adjourned at 6 30 pm respectfully submitted by mrs kusalevich any questions uh just just one question in in both the minutes uh you had a preliminary staffing discussion and there was different things um mentioned in each of those minutes is is there a date to be combined or or is this a just an update of and the others have dropped off these are to be combined um this was the first part of the conversation began in december and concluded during this last meeting and and how many total positions are we talking at this time we're still working out the exact numbers because the preschool numbers are just coming in registration is just beginning um but we're looking anywhere from i would need to take a look back at it and count it okay just one moment manager and then it has to go back to it has to go to finance yeah all right i understand i'm just just trying to get an order of magnitude thank you we are looking at approximately 10 positions depending on how enrollment goes okay thank you any other questions my commissioners any other questions no okay the next facilities okay um facilities athletics committee uh january 14th 2020 minutes uh board members president with mr canova miss beltran and myself administrative administrators president was dr robert rabitozzi uh mr yusi and mr marcion uh time of the meeting was from 5 pm to 5 45 p.m items of discussion professional service quotes school number 17 building management system and b school fifth school 17 building management system school 15 roof replacement administration fielded two professional service quotes from the architect these two projects are major priorities for the upcoming school year therefore it is recommended that these two projects go out to bid using capital reserve funds instead of adding them to the referendum once the bids are received they will be brought back to the committee for consideration number two school five electrical upgrade change order update the architect of mr marcion revisited the change order with pseg after discussions with the committee a new plan was drawn up for the location of the public service poll which was significantly less than the original proposal the change order is well within the project allowance which is part of the base bid the resolution will be on the january 16th agenda on the and the so the project can be completed as soon as possible number three additional referendum ideas from an administration there will be a special board meeting at clifton high school on tuesday january 21st for the uh for the discussion of the scope of work for the upcoming referendum administration suggested looking into renovation of bathrooms district wise district-wide as part of the referendum number four hvac contract state contract vendor update the hvac vendor the district has been utilizing through the state contract cooperative has been working very well it is recommended that not to exceed resolution be amended from a hundred thousand dollars to 150 000 through june 30th 2020. this is within uh the operating management budget number five boiler state contract vendor update the administration and then the committee reviewed the new boiler contract into invoices the invoices were deemed acceptable administration will sample invoices throughout the year for verification purposes is noted that bills from july 2019 to the president was significantly less than prior years using other vendors number six sinclair rental uh sila dr robertosi stated that the lease agreement with saint claires is up at the end of the year uh of the school year however there is a five-year contract extension provision in the contract is recommended to extend the lease because the district needs the space for our expanding preschool program also administration is going to explore rental renting additional space in the sinclair's parish building okay next the new new business school 15 public service construction it was noted that pseg will have ongoing construction in front of school 15.
i'll be happy to answer any questions one question about school five where are they going to put the poll the poll if you looked at the school was originally going to be to the left in the parking lot in the front that and that required a significant amount of treasury through the parking lot across the back wall and up in the back the committee when we had that meeting said we need to have pseg move the pole closer to where it needs to be so we wouldn't have to spend all that money so they moved it to the right as you face the school facing valley road and that significantly cut down the cost and also won't take up that many parking spots either no i mean it's just the placement of the pole yeah so that's well a little bit though uh it goes through the school now right yes but yeah but the the connection was to be trench the big the major part yet joe is absolutely correct yeah and it goes through the school and it significantly cut down the cost but we moved the connection to the other side of the property any other questions all right see none facilities a finance story finance finance okay yes okay come on like i don't need glasses thanks frank um finance negotiations committee january 14 2020 minutes uh board members president with miss beltran mr canova myself uh administration president was dr robert tosi and mr yusi the meeting was from 5 45 to 6 15 items of the question of discussion number one negotiations update the contract extension through june 2020 for the administrators contract has been ratified and will be up for board approval on january 14th the standard the status of the drivers contract was discussed clifton teachers association's negotiations will be starting within the next month number two transportation garage property the committee authorizes superintendent the the to explore the possibility of purchasing property next to the transportation garage number three food service outstanding balance food service balance and policy was discussed um any questions i'll be happy to entertain them we do have um policy i was told there are hard copies so that will be distributed to the board members so we can go on with policy policy committee met um december 10th 2019 meeting i apologize that nobody has these minutes we're going to get them out to you uh the policy committee meeting began at 705.
attendees were myself frank casper joe canover along with superintendent danny robituzzi assistant superintendent mark teagent and janita kuchalevich a discussion was held on the following policies equity in education a short discussion took place and additional discussion will take place with further details at another meeting no action was taken number two a policy on non-resident clifton school district staff with children who would like to attend the schools a short discussion was taken with no action taken at that time review of transportation and non-district students a short discussion was taken no action was taken at the moment all policies will be reviewed at another meeting and we just turned at 7 20. we started at 705.
it was a very brief meeting we um we wanted to update each other we had some questions and we're going back to administration for some further answers any questions uh seeing that they just got the hard copy i'm just going to allow for a few minutes for just people just to take a look at it just for those that need to look at it and if there are any questions does anyone have any questions i have one question um the number two the policy of non-resident clifton school district staff with children who like to attend school i was wondering is that something that exists in other districts sure miss beltran uh yes there are um many districts including the district that was in previously that allow their teachers children to attend the schools at a discounted tuition rate uh part of the reason for that is um it's a it's a good um it's a word i'm looking for it's good for promoting the district if if your teachers children uh go to the to our schools then you know it must mean that they're pretty good we know our schools are great the other uh the other thing is it also helps with attracting talent attracting good teachers if they know that they have the option to bring their children to our schools at a discounted rate it could it could attract some some staff to come how we left it is that uh we're we're going to survey the staff to see if there's actually any interest and then depending on that interest we would compare that to how much space we actually have and then we'll possibly move forward with a with a policy just to speak on that um my district does have that and it does help with some parents that have students that are in the younger grades and they want to bring their children into district because if they have to travel let's say a half hour or 40 minutes away and child care and everything is an issue like it really helps out a lot so you know again everything that dr rochozi said but also the fact that it helps out that they're in the same district with the same hours and you know that it can help them with child care just a nice finance perspective who who is they the district or the parents no the parents the employee madam chairman okay can i so i'm sorry so i just want to ask a question so yeah so to keep their kids in district people would rather pay out of pocket half what we charge just to bring their kids here when they don't win or a discount or whatever it is rather than having school pay for the district they're actually in yes there are could be depending on where they live yeah right could be depending on the school district where they live they they know the great things we have going on here and they may not be satisfied with their own school district um but it could be more of a convenience thing for parents as miss danny was talking about um you know tuition for roughly tuition for clifton public school students about 12 or 13 000 a year and discounted tuition rate um could be whatever this board decides that could be but if it's 25 of that or 50 of that that's still a lot less than some parents would be paying for private school and child care and aftercare is there any way if we pass this to have some sort of leeway to go after that district for fun since that since the money does follow the student and the parent decided to take him out of district now strictly the parents choice at that point uh we become you know we become a tuition we come become the receiving school and their tuition payer so that's their choice madam chair this is a pulmonary discussion we didn't we didn't push it further we have to pull the staff also has to go to the finance department there's uh the finance committee there's a lot to talk about this but the one thing i did do um after we had the meeting i did discuss it with several of my teacher friends and the one thing the one friend really hit home was the valuable time of commuting back of what to work and the time spent with the child in the car talking about things and having that child close to them where they work not have to worry about going from clifton maybe all the way down to edison or clifton going all the way up to like the upper sussex counties there's a there's a value in that that you can't replace so uh the committee's going to really dig into this we just brought it up for discussion we wanted to put it out there and uh you have any feelings on you want to do your own research now's the time to do it but it was just a preliminary discussion so thank you thank you can i just warn one thing to my colleagues if we're gonna cry we have been we've been we will continue to cry that we're short funds and we're gonna do this discount again i'm not against this we discuss very carefully about how much of a discount this will be then they say well you're discounting xyz you're shorting yourselves why should we give you any further money from the state it's there's a lot to take into fact the first uh we need to do studies on what other districts do it how they do it we have to look at their policy it's going to be a pretty lengthy um discussion research and there's a lot of mechanisms involved here like again it has to go to finance it has to go to facilities it has to go to every basic uh committee on this um on this board um so we have to really start thinking if you know a district that does it you know the up the upside of it you know the downside of it i would like you to send it to us so when we start getting into this we can have all that data before we make a final decision to push it forward and again i understand the process and i'm again i'm not disagreeing with this but when we do match up with other districts that do is we got to go apples for apples size of the district how they do things how many teachers etc because you don't want to you don't want to compare us to short hills or us to manila and us to god knows we're in bergen county where if they're doing it and we're a totally different size we have different population different demographics and again the financial aspects and i understand the processes fastford and i'm not agreeing with you i'm not challenging it i just i'm cautioning just we'd be very careful to the policy committees it's gonna be you guys and other various committees that has to go through just to keep that in mind please um mr mr aberdraba we are we're very diligent up here we have a fiduciary obligation to the citizens the taxpayers the staff and the students and i'm sure we'll have weigh-in from the uh clifton teachers association on this there's many factors so we wanted to bring it up that we wanted to put it on the table we wanted to see where it was going to go but um we we didn't discuss it at this week week's meeting um we have put it on hold because there's a lot of data that we need to get before we can even move it forward i think that as a board we're very proactive and we're always thinking about looking outside of the box so i think this is something good to explore thank you mr abu drabble for your concerns and i am sure you know being that we're a board that really does consider everything and everything that even anyone says one of the commissioners so i do think that we are going to look at that and you're always welcome to you know um put your input as well on the towards the policy committee any issues that might arise you know that you have not already stated and so i think we'll you know definitely look at everything and as ms bassworth said that this is just in the preliminary stage but again i think it's always good you know just to take a look and see what everyone is doing and if it doesn't work for the clinton school district then it doesn't work for us you know but it's just something to propose and and it's still a long way off as mrs bassford said so are there any other commissioners that want to weigh in okay um next technology committee uh technology committee met december 10th 2019. it was myself miss basford mr casper mr robert dr robert tosi mr tj mrs kusulevich and mr mountain time was six to 6 55.
items of discussion number one phone system the switches have been deployed to the largest locations smaller locations will be next first building to building cast test call was successful lots of programming still to do second item website key staff have been have completed multi-day training and found it to be very valuable final designs have been completed and content is now being moved board event television system new complete new system is complete with only one camera that was on back order system working well youtube stream is likely to begin in january number four board docs first meeting was successful larger scoreboard ordered for board event meeting room number five strasses may all policies have been sent to strauss new policy hosting site will be searchable six chromebooks one to one most hardware is on site kde already swapped out order all the equipment with new rules and regulations in the center of sheets being developed on track to begin deployment early in the new year ebay just announced plans for next six years mr mountain and mr uchi will review to begin budget planning number eight plans for chs sport event meeting were discussed this is to be on stage scoreboard and podium will be set up in the pit any questions i actually have one um mr nova for the um and maybe this is to the administration has administration reached out to schools that have gone one to one to see any issues that they had when it comes to roll out and how to roll out and in the classrooms and when we yes yes ms danny we have done extensive research we are very comfortable with the plan that we have and i'm excited to say that this is happening like we're actually going one to one it's not we're not going to talk about it anymore it's happening freshmen will have their devices on january 28th what i'm talking about wow um what is the layout from now to the versus client framewise i know we spoke about that last night so uh the plan right now is to by the end of this month uh clifton high school students will receive their chromebook in september of 2020 we will roll it out to both middle schools and then shortly thereafter we'll trickle down to the elementary schools we don't have a firm timeline on that yet it depends on a number of factors but i can comfortably say that next school year uh it'll be rolled down september to the middle schools thank you one more question if i may i was going to say in addition to that the way that we're rolling it out is the the seniors and the juniors are getting the older model laptops because they're going to be taking them with them as they graduate and they get gifted to them so you're doing the college model yes gotcha um do we have policy in play before we start handing these out we have to work on that we we do have technical policy so any websites that they do see here is the only websites they're allowed to see at home as well so no matter what network they're on but if you're referring to actual policy my actual policy is if would be regulation or policy if something happened to the laptops that would be regulation done okay nothing else next order of business is public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to the citizens of clifton for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda only residents are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to state their names addresses and subject matter comments are limited to three minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response irresponsibly forthcoming if and when appropriate the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful the rights of other individuals in speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments does anyone wish to speak oh um good morning um i just wanted to ask about the chromebooks uh the one to run ratio that's going to the high school um could i just have some clarification on what's going to happen and when we're we're gonna get the chromebooks sure uh what grade are you in um i'm a junior yeah so the rollout will begin with freshmen and sophomores on january 28th it's gonna be a couple days set aside for each uh grade so you will have them in the beginning you'll have yours in the beginning of february you will have that 24 7 that device that device is going to be the board of education property but it's going to be like your textbook um that's correct right junior the dates it may be later february okay by the end of february for sure okay and do the freshmen and sophomores also like keep their chromebooks like the juniors and seniors do or yeah okay 9th through 12th grade you will keep them 24 7.
as mr kanova stated earlier the filter that we have in district will also follow that chromebook so if you are home or if you on are on some other network at mcdonald's on their wi-fi you still will only be able to access websites that you can access in school okay all right thank you you're welcome are you excited about that um yes anyone else wish to speak seeing none motion to close public sec um motion by uh madame second by mr abu drabo next order of business unfinished business we have education and administration can i get a motion to accept ea 1 through 13. so moved second motion by mr casper second by mr canova and mr casper could you read the oh wait oh sorry um roll call mr avadravo yeah miss password yes miss beltram yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes yes mr casper can you read the uh okay 2020 sentences whereas the decennial census occurs every 10 years to enumerate every person residing in the united states and it's fundamental to ensuring that all residents of our great city have access to fair representation essential services and economic development and whereas an accurate count of persons living in clifton passaic county in the 2020 census is vital to determine the representation of individuals families and communities in our local state and federal governments and whereas the 2020 census count of children living in the clifton public school district will be the basis of federal education funding allocated to our schools over the next 10 years specifically the federal programs serving our students living in poverty and students with disabilities and whereas the population data derived in the 2020 census will be used by both government and businesses to determine which neighborhoods and communities in clifton passaic county should receive services and investments like libraries health clinics and grocery and retail stores and whereas the decennial census has historically encountered counted populations in large urban areas such as ours and whereas the population that are prevalent in our urban areas like clifton passaic county are at high risk of being under counted including young children people of color low-income households language minority families foreign-born residents and households with limited internet access according to the u.s census bureau and whereas children are more likely to be missed in the census count if they reside in the complex household that are also common in urban areas such as multi-generational households extended families and multi-family households and whereas during the 2020 census there is a heightened risk of an undercount due to the digital divide language access issues and local community mistrust in the federal government and whereas local and state governments as well as community-based organizations can play a critical role in counteracting the undercount risk reaching hard-to-count populations and ensuring their communities get counted in 2020 and whereas it is paramount for the school board superintendent principals teachers parent organizations and all local leaders in the clifton public school district to communicate the importance of census 2020 to families and community members to ensure everyone is counted therefore let it be resolved that the clifton clifton public school district will develop and adopt a plan of action around ensuring a complex account of all students and their families residing within the district on the 2020 census and be it further resolved the clifton public school district is committed to working in partnership with other local civic business and community leaders the state of new jersey and others to engage educate and count every resident in clifton pacific county in the 2020 census thank you mr casper would anyone just like to read the new jersey school board recognition month okay vice chair um congratulations board recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the clifton board of education is one of 580 local school boards in the state of new jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the clifton board of education embraces the goal of a high quality education for all new jersey public school students and whereas new jersey local school boards helped determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 billion 1.1.2 million children in pre-k through 12th grade and whereas new jersey's 5 000 local school board members who receive no renumeration for their services act as advocates for student public school students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas school boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas board of education provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of school district to the public and they convey to school administrators the public's expectations for schools and whereas new jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best and key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational progress scores and the preparation for college through advancement placement offerings sat assessments now therefore be it resolved that the clifton board of education does hereby recognize the service of local school board members throughout the state and throughout new jersey and we join communities statewide in observing january 2020 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the clifton board of education or urges all citizens all new jersey citizens to work with their local board of education and public school staff towards the advancement of our children's education thank you to everyone on this board [Applause] yes that's what i've been waiting for at um this moment since the board has formally accepted the resignation of commissioner mr montero i would like to read um what we received on january 9th 2020 the letter of resignation dear miss danny i'm resigning from my position as commissioner on the clifton board of education clifton board effective january 5th 2020.
as you are aware i was sworn in as the new borough of bergenfield municipal court judge on sunday january 5th 2020. unfortunately my position as a publicly elected official with the clifton board conflicts with this new appointment it has been an honor and a privilege to take part in the cooperative experience that serving on the clifton board provides the opportunity of working towards improving the school district for our children has been a memorable experience from which i have grown personally and professionally thank you for this great opportunity please accept my apologies for any inconvenience that my resignation may cause the clifton board and or the district and should you need to contact me provided is the telephone and the email address thank you yours truly franklin s montero so we received that letter on january 9 2020 so i just wanted to read that into record and just to say we are happy to congratulate mr montero on his appointment as municipal court judge in bergenfield this is a great honor and we are so proud that one of clifton's own is now a judge this means that mr montero though unfortunately can no longer serve as commissioner on the board of education the ethics rules for judges forbid judges to serve in any elected position mr montero's resignation occurred between board of education meetings there was no board meeting between the time that mr montero resigned and tonight's board meeting tonight the clifton board of education accepted the resignation of mr montero that being the case this is the first time that as board president i could announce the resignation the board will now react will advertise to fill the vacancy left by mr montero on behalf of the board we wish mr montero the very best of luck as a municipal court judge and we reiterate our congratulations next is personnel can i get a motion for p1 through 29.
second motion by mr alvadrabo second bombs bassford questions comments or concerns for roeckl cnn roll call yes mr abu drab miss bassford yes ms beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes miss danny yes finance and facilities can i get a motion for f's numbers 1 through 20. so we moved exactly madam president oh okay uh can i do that and then questions and concerns so much just let me say motion by mr casper and second by mr abu drabo now questions comments and answers i'd like that uh i'd like to have a separate separate out item nine the request for for professional services proposals as a separate vote and discussion okay so can i have can i amend it to exclude number yes or nine nine nine nine to exclude number nine um yeah you're okay that's fine yes there's no objection okay all right um any other comments i said um one comment just for clarification uh to the board secretary president um for number 16 just for clarification for the public that the owner is in fact us the school district we've never seen it words like that so i just want to clarify for them it says the change order number one remaining balance will be credited to the owner oh yes yes we've never referred to ourselves as the owner before so okay maybe that language should be changed just to be clear you're now voting on items one through eight no one through twenty one through eight and ten then ten through well aurora nine yes avadrabo yes miss bassford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes miss danny yes and have a discussion on 9.
does anybody want to make a motion for i make a motion to prove number nine second okay motion um commit uh commissioner um casper and second by commissioner albadrop madam chair i need to abstain on a check i'm sorry okay um thank you check number 197095 and uh i'm voting now on 197 195.
i'll give you my list thank you i'm sorry that's okay so any questions anybody want to speak to number nine yes i have a question what's the rationale for putting uh proposals out for all the professional services there were commissioners that um asked that they wanted to see what was available in terms of um pricing to see that that was the rationale for that there were several commissioners okay well here's the first problem you have architectural engineering we just signed a major agreement with our architect to do all these services for the referendum they're doing all these plans so whether we go forward with uh the referendum or not if if any of those projects go forward whether it's under the referendum or not they're in they're in contractually entitled to those fees so we're listing we have our wish list from a to z so it's kind of just to to have somebody bid on something that there's nothing to bid on that's the first issue i don't necessarily see it as an issue so i i think the reason why these things are well okay yeah go ahead joe i'm sorry the reason why these things are on here is because it's healthy to go out every so often and see what's out there in the marketplace i think that's really the idea as to why these are even here so it may it may come that nothing happens but i think but we're going to get proposals from architects with the understanding that they're going to get services and we can't grant them because we already have a contract signed the contract just recently all the other you know capital reserve work i think that's what we're talking about not necessarily the referendum well we've authorized the architect to do plans on on all kinds of stuff and they're submitting him to the state so they're in a position we're in a position to get them rolling when when the referendum comes around so can i answer the question yeah okay so um and i understand your point mr jelly and i agree with you you sign something you got to stick with it but when you apply for a position for a job that's that's open right and you don't get it what do they do they file it so if something ever happens or opens down the road they have it so in this sense yet we're sticking to these engineers or this architectural firm because we've signed something with them correct but when you go out for a bid and maybe there's a firm that our eye catches other outside the scope of what work we've agreed upon we can file that in a file and the superintendents are in mr uchi's office and you know what when we decide to see another firm we can say you know what remember that time guys went out for a bid we had some of these firms go about and we kind of like these folks why don't we give them another track nobody's saying no they're or going beyond or the the or should i say taking back anything we've signed we're sticking with them and i'm sure the rest of my colleagues agree and i'm nobody i don't like we said before we'd make the right judgment without putting us in financial or legal harm and that by doing so we can't back out of that we understand that but to have that and file it when someone applies for a job sorry bud you didn't get it but we'll keep your fight we'll keep your application on file that's basically what we're doing but but what we've done nobody's agreeing with you no what we've done in the past and and we've we've done this in order you know uh as part of a um effort to say make sure our architect was held their feet to the fire in terms of fees we've went out for a separate uh project we've voted to harvest it even though they architecture record when there was a project that came up i believe last year we put out a we got a quote from another engineering architectural firm to do a small project i believe it was i'm not sure it was for one of those schools so we have the ability to do that so um but you're you're we're basically asking the the new architect to be the art that the firm's bidding to be architect of record that's what you're at no not necessarily because there is no new architect as far as i know and as far as we all know they these all these bids can come in and responses to rfp can come in and we say hey guys we're sticking with what we have so as far as i know we still have the same architect so this architect has gone and we hire a new one but this times architect's not going anywhere because we've signed an agreement with them but it's i think it's very confusing and and doesn't show a lot of professionalism if we have all this work that we've contractually uh agreed upon with this architect and and you're putting out an rfp to do these services but you can it's one last thing i promise wait no no wait before you say do you want the attorney to weigh in on anything i mean is there a legal factus or is there a legal confliction to this no i don't think there's any legal prohibitions i'm sorry i don't know how to work the button no i don't think there's any legal prohibition on uh on going out for this uh you know as everyone's already indicated there may be certain projects that you've already entered into separate contracts for but that doesn't preclude you from doing an rfp for other related services or whatever and then deciding where you want to go okay did you want to add something to that okay i thought you might madam chair okay so first of all i'm looking at the engineer architect the engineering firm was kind of like plopped here we really didn't vote on it till well after the fact um i'm i have to choose my words wisely i really want to see what's out there i'd like to see the competition on every one of these it kind of keeps the current people on their toes and uh it's just it's good business every once in a while to shuffle the deck and see what you got coming at you um it's i just want to i just want to see what's out there what people have to offer and maybe we have the best of the best maybe we don't and that's where we need to look at this madam president my my other concern here is um you know i've i've been here a while and when you go out for an rfp usually the fees are uh especially for attorneys and things are pretty much the same and you're really looking at the quality of of the i'll speak to the attorneys but the other services kind of fall in line as well so um you may get a difference of a few dollars and and if you select somebody you always negotiate the hourly rate which is usually what they charge uh with them before even if you select them as part of your or part of your negotiations and dozing them designating them so i wouldn't expect to see a wide variation i've talked with the administration from what i hear the administration is pleased with the performance so far of of our of our uh of our vendors our professional services so um um so the cost factor is is one thing the quality of the firms is another i mean um i'd like to know if there is board members who are displeased with any of our vendors i have i don't have a problem with that if you're somebody's displeased or has issues with the particular firm we currently have on i'm all for putting out an rfp but um i i don't think it's it really achieves those goals just putting rfp outfits taking putting an rfp out um so i i'm not so in support of this set at this time thank you um ladies always first think the fact that you have been on the board for a long time kind of maybe it like jades you a little bit because you don't want you don't want change to happen but like other members that are new we want to see what else is out there what other firms could possibly bring to the table that we currently don't have you know i don't think it hurts to look at what else is out there as an opportunity you know we're not saying that we're switching anyone we're saying that we want to see what's out out there as a possibility that's good this is beltred i appreciate your comments i will say i'm not jaded i've it's from experience that i've seen many and i've seen a lot of uh turkeys for lack of a better description um both uh that have went through this uh professional services and professionally so um uh i mean if the this board's prerogative i understand that but um i've been through this many times and i adds to my professional career experience particularly with attorneys and architects um who i've had to work with over the years and it's it's it's really if you get a good one you like to hold on to them and you'd like to support that and you have a relation a professional relationship with that uh firm or individuals who who work there so um i've seen it here i think the ones most of the ones we have here uh do a very good job and at a very good cost and provide us with a very good level of service so that's why i'm not jaded about it it's just my experience gone through this i will tell you particularly on the architectural side we've had some great presentations they came in and absolutely fell flat on their faces and i this this group that we now have um i did not promote them they came this was the best group that i've seen out of all the arctics i mean i'd like to see the price a little lower but um i can tell you the ones we had previously were disasters and they made great presentations so um you want to have at it have at it thank you just gonna say my last comment because i kind of find this funny because a couple years ago when i first came on the board i was approached by a couple of commissioners who said why don't we go out for rfp across the board i said yeah why not and i'm saying the same thing tonight just not left side of the fence or the right side of the fence you can imagine who those commissioners are i'm not gonna say whom but again i went along with it because the majority of the board wanted it and they thought it was a good practice and i think it's a good practice tonight so instead of going back and forth can we please put this to a vote call the question about the civil please yes thank you miss danny sorry president danny roll call mr abby drabo yes miss passport yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley no mr casper yes miss danny i just wanted to say um we're a very proactive board and i think it's good to just see what's out there it's a good thing and it doesn't mean that we're changing and the individuals that we have they just might have to make that stronger presentation to hold on what what they want if they believe that that's you know so um as adam smith said competition it's what's good for the economy and it's good for us and yes miss daniel are you running for president sorry i'm at president united states not the board next order of business public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to the citizens of clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the clifton public school district residents are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to state their names addresses and subject matter comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and responsibly forthcoming if and when appropriate the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal legal rights afforded by the laws of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments good evening my name is lori lalama and i'm the president of clifton now the education association um the presentation that mr gingaro did the program examples the activities we would like to participate with those activities because i have the fast grant which means community collaboration so we can actually set up classes at night and i would be able to pay for them so if it's on lgbtq transgender if it's on vaping to bring more attention to the families so once you start um setting that up or planning for next year please let me be on that so i can write it up and help pay for it so that would be a good thing for the community the latino institute is going to be canceled until the spring because there are only 60 families that signed up so i need at least 150 to 200. so we'll do some more marketing and maybe we can put it out and have tables over at botany and hand out the information there so um under facilities i'm very happy to see windows at ccms but if you have any extra money a lovely elevator would be good at ccms so that's that's my wish list for the building is an elevator all right thank you so much hello tova felder twain place happy board appreciation month um thanks for the donuts you're welcome um i suddenly forgot the main reason i was getting up here oh one thing i was hoping to get a little more information about the chromebooks are these things the students are going to be required to carry back and forth to be used in class or is it something that if they don't really need one they can say no thank you to or leave it at school because my son's backpack already needs wheels to move it so i'm just hoping to get a little more information on that i also want to let everybody know that the mustang marching band is having our annual super bowl sunday sub sale we have a website set up and you can also find a link on the clifton news and community site and also my personal facebook page set to public they're only eight dollars each and you can also buy them to donate to local shelters if you don't want to eat one yourself but they're good and the kids make them and they wear gloves so please get your food on help support the band they're going to san francisco next month that is a huge trip and the parents will need a little money for wine once the kids go um that's it thank you thank you does anyone else wish to speak uh hi donna popovich just a couple of comments first you know when you're discussing f09 it doesn't really match up with on the agenda to f9 and so it would be really good if on the agenda it was listed like at least on my phone it's not coming up but you know most of us are reading this on our phones and board docs isn't the greatest thing um they don't seem to have a mobile app and it's loses a lot on the mobile so i don't know if there's any way your tech people can make it more mobile savvy it works great on the chromebooks it works great on your laptop but honestly i don't carry my laptop with me um two i want to just tell you about a great project my daughter did in school um through english class they had them doing community service and all the students went out and they had to do eight to ten hours of community service for one organization they had to write about it they had to make a portfolio that explained why it was important and why it was and how they felt about it this was such a great project it needs to be expanded to the entire high school i i think this was the most important thing my daughter has done in high school this was what we what we should be striving for whether they had a good experience or a bad experience they had to go out they had to interview they had to get their records so that they could work places they had to document what they were doing and they had to produce it was fabulous and it was a fabulous job to everyone involved it was just wonderful and um well congratulations to mr montero but you know you're kind of down to seven it's it's been it's our one-year anniversary since we've had a nine-member board i was kind of thinking there was gonna be a sheet cake today just something to put in your back pocket maybe there could be a temp does anyone else wish to speak cnn closed second um motion by mr obravo's second vibe the pencil yeah okay next order of business board member comments anyone wish to go first i don't know where we was about a month ago i'll go okay i'll go okay first of all i like to wish everybody a happy new year and um and uh wish warm weather would get here a little sooner but we're doing so far so good and no major snowfalls which um which may bring back some more hair on our superintendent so um like to thank the students of the month coming up that's always a great uh feature of our board and to promote the district that's very important again to mr ningarow for his presentation uh also like to remind everybody that kept coming next monday we're celebrating martin luther king day and i think that's a very very important um it's uh because i'm old enough to remember to go back when there was a lot of different controversies uh about the civil rights movement and i was fortunate to get my high school education in paterson which was a great formation that the diversity i experienced there is what we're having now in our city a great city and it's very important but if you're if you go um obviously i think everybody should replay the i had a dream speech it's it's still stunning you know many many decades after he made it but you really get the heart and soul and the genteel and the pacifist edge i mean you can almost look at gandhi and you can look at martin luther king kind of in the mirror image and um i think students and all all citizens should really get into it and and look it's it's it's an opportunity to uh really get yourself informed and if you are reformed just to revitalize that spirit it's a very important part of our country uh and again congratulations to mr montero on being a judge i i'm sure he misses gonna miss here but um we all have different career paths and this was an opportunity for him and we wish him all the best um thank you for the speakers and um we'll see you next month and we're going to be working on the referendum and and also on our contract with our teachers which is a very important for both the district and for the teachers so we're looking forward to getting that done as quickly as possible thank you i'll keep it short this evening since we're getting late here happy happy new year to you all thank you all for coming out this evening thank you for all watching always watching us on tv land i hope you can hear us better now um i'd like to also congratulate mr montero good luck in your new position and thank you for your service to our board i'd like to congratulate our students of the month please continue to work hard and pay it forward i also like i always do like to thank all of our donors to our variety of schools this time around we had donations to see la b the music angels in school 11.
i'm very excited to see now who we have applying for mr montero's position so uh i'll see you soon i hope uh have a good evening everyone thank you mr robert miss danny thank you uh congrats mr montero um every every uh i'm gonna assume most folks in the legal profession their dream is to become a judge and he's that's just a stepping stone for him so hopefully it's the only stepping stone uh last day we had i believe we had a very productive meeting with our hsa um some of the board members are there along with uh with the superintendent and i think we had some great feedback great dialogue great conversation and uh i think it's gonna be first of many i know many other colleagues i've gone to multiple of these and uh last night was actually my first i was able to get to work a little early yesterday and uh i think was very successful uh regarding mlk you know saying happy mlk day really doesn't mean a thing saying yeah we have off doesn't mean a thing saying about the legacy of martin luther king also doesn't say it doesn't mean a thing unless you put into effect and implement what volunteerism is giving to your community loving thy neighbor treating each other well regardless of race religion gender whatever it may be so to our students to our town listen i love this city but we always need to remind each other how to treat each other well otherwise all this doesn't mean a thing all the lives all the time all the history that's passed doesn't mean a thing and i know it has and i want to see it implemented in our students especially in the youth of today in our city so if there's some volunteers volunteerism to go out there you know i work at higher education we're off on monday but yet most of our employees go back we do a symposium on mlk day volunteerism built around community in various areas and organizations throughout the state and especially north jersey um regarding the latino institute i'm curiously i really haven't talked to you about this much about this part but how do you advertise and is it and we can talk about it's off path um and because it's labeled latinos is there a need or people say you know that may not may not be too really geared towards me because this is latino institute so i i'm just curious if that has an issue with it or maybe that might be a way we can make it a little more welcoming like a subheader or something uh and we can yeah we can talk about that um hey chloe i have a new project for you census a lot of folks in the district youth maybe your age or younger don't know what the census really is they don't they don't know that we lost a member of congress 10 years ago because of the population i know i'm looking at you everybody's turning around that's actually a good thing because you can actually get stuff done um and we can talk off off path as well um off you know once this is over to kind of give you what the census full picture really means to our city to our school district to what money means what losing a member of congress what means losing a state legislator what what this all really has a ramification tax is going up it doesn't affect just kids or taxpayers or residents it affects everybody and the only way to rectify this is 10 years later after we know how much we screwed up and really didn't count ourselves so we can talk about that and i'm not putting stress on your shoulders i think that this government is going to be uh take a load of folks to really get this done so this is you know as much as i appreciate what was on the agenda and read by mr casper it's going to take both sides of the city to do this it's going to take every resident in clifton to do this because this is this is the time we're going to have to fix what we did not do right 10 years ago which is everybody was scared what does this mean do i live in a basement i can't get counted do i live in an addict i can't get counted am i a naughty u.s citizen i can't get counted everybody's scared no matter who it is and what it is um and i think we need to make a i'm gonna get rammed for this but a safe zone where people are not gonna be afraid to say hey you know i live here because every single body every single beat every single soul needs to be counted to make sure that the right numbers can reflect what we have here in our population of our city our county and our state because new jersey lost a lot of money last time around so um maybe my conduit to help me you know what i have in my mind fahim not the board member in terms of how we can probably get this done thank you thank you miss beltram um i think it's uh great that we're working towards reducing our hip instances i was a victim of bullying from kindergarten all the way through um middle school i know you guys wouldn't think confident itself now but um yeah back then it was pretty rough go and i'm happy that's no longer just getting swept under the rug and that we're trying to prevent rather than just react because when i was going through school it was all reaction based so i'm happy that now we're doing things in advance of it i would have made things a lot easier for me um we'll work on the elevator bubble uh we'll we're go having a referendum meeting on tuesday so that's something that we could bring up then they're getting pretty innovative with how they're putting elevators into older buildings so maybe we could do something that doesn't cost too much um congrats to the students of the month as usual lots of great accomplishments in club membership i'm wishing for snow for you guys i'm sorry that it's been rather snow drought um not even never getting like a little snow this weekend that doesn't help anybody not even me because people already shop at the supermarket on the weekend i need like a wednesday blowout big store um congrats to franklin montero it's always nice to see a fellow hispanic person leading by example and i think it will be it will be very beneficial to that town and hopefully clifton maybe will one day have our own hispanic judge um but it is nice you know for because they read in spanish now at every single um i don't know if anyone's been to court recently but um unfortunately my bands get tickets so when you're at court they read in spanish and english and i think it would be nice you know if some people were able to see a judge that was hispanic and that's pretty much it hope you guys continue having a good year thank you miss beltram mr canova all right i want to wish everyone a happy new years i hope everyone uh is holding good to their new year's resolution as i know i am not um i do want to congratulate mr montero anytime i had a conversation with him it was always students in mind he was always the clifton guys i'm i'm very glad to see him moving moving forward uh congratulations to the students of the month thank you to all our speakers who came out thank you to miss tova fell there for our delicious donuts in the back room there um elevators as you mentioned we can we can look into the hsa meeting that we attended was uh it was well attended first of all and all schools were represented there which is great to see we got to hear uh the various things that that you know they brought up some things were real and some things were fake news um some policies that have been instated quote unquote inside of our school system so it was great for dr robert tosie to be there and call things out uh board docs mobility i'd like to take that back to the tech committee if possible so we could take a look at that um one to one one to one is a really really big initiative and i do want to say hats off to dr robert tosie when he came in here we gave him this initiative and you're not even here here and we're already there so thank you for that um and that's all i had thank you everyone um madam vice chair password thank you um congratulations to all the students a month condolences to the bidnick family um alexa and i went toe-to-toe a couple times but um when i went to the wake to which is uh wish his family my condolences i had a very lengthy conversation with blanche and she was a lovely lady so um our thoughts and prayers are with your family during this difficult time thank you to um all the donations this month uh on the agenda um i was happy to see the hsa meeting it brought me back to my day at school five as being hsa president um there was a lot of healthy dialogue it was really good people got to voice their opinions and also bring up fake news with uh policies that we don't even have on the record and i was glad i was there to listen to it but it was really good to see a younger generation caring so much about this their children getting so involved that they banded together to make this district better so kudos to dr robitazi kudos to the team of people um we did make a promise to go out in the district so i do have the calendar i'm gonna share it with the whole board if anybody could take a school a meeting it would be helpful to everybody because we all have busy lives um and we're gonna deploy i like joe's word his technology or deploy out into the community to maybe open a dialogue that maybe they're not comfortable with talking to their administration or to the um the head of administrator here but maybe they're more comfortable because we do represent our constituents in a different way so i'm looking forward to that um thank you to all the speakers um um congratulations to franklin montero um our judge franklin montero community services is a big thing in a lot of the high schools throughout the state of new jersey i get to witness it in hudson essex and union counties there are some schools that have to do it there's some schools districts that are required as a part of graduation it does several things it gives you work experience that you can put on your resume to build your resume it gives you responsibility it builds your character uh it starts you realizing how serious it is to do certain things as a rising adult so i would be um very curious or maybe make a recommendation to bring that back to education so we can look at what other districts do maybe um start implementing or or easing it into as part of a requirement and um see what the students union feel uh student union and the student government feel about it and uh get some feedback on that as well because it's from the communities that i go to and the community service that these kids have to go uh one school district has requires a student in high school to do 60 hours before they graduate so it's 15 hours a year and the impact on their resume is really profound so that's what i'm i'm looking at i don't know if it's that you know i'm not don't anybody start yelling at me on facebook and all the social media it's something to explore and to look into and you know there's other things to take into consideration because we do have a lot of athletes and club members that expect spend an extensive amount of time in their dedication to their their joys so we have to take everything into consideration um martin luther king day is is monday and uh it is a day of community service um and i have no problem with doing that and and celebrating the life of martin luther king with giving back to the community um funny thing happened on the way to work yesterday i was looking for something i was looking for pens and i keep a packet of pens in this closet that we just built down in our basement and this nice file this folder came from out whirling at me i don't know where it come from but it's best practices for board vacancies i ran it over to this uh to six i asked dr robitazi to copy every single board member joe and i went to this workshop at school boards during our october workshop and everybody got a copy of it and has really good information on how we start the process i know people out in the community have been reaching out to many of us that are concerned with the process i will tell you this i will make sure and i will the best of my ability that is fair and we are i think on the new business we're going to discuss that so uh happy new year and have a good night thank you um so congratulations to the student of the month miss lama thank you very much for always you know willing to step up and support and help us in any way miss felder thank you very much for the delicious donuts and miss popowicz what you were um discussing that is um actually like an authentic learning experience um it's authentic i put in the learning experience so i think i'll give it an acronym maybe it'll stick a-l-e because we call it alphabet soup and education we have like you know pd's and um you know i thought about that when i said it but i said you know what it's just this only thing i can think of so maybe maybe i'll add something else in there you know um i think it might get the students wake them up though they might go what else what till they realize authentic learning expen experience and then they're like oh okay um but actually i'm i'm learning about that right now and it's it's the fact that um it's taking learning not just in the classroom but it's giving them an audience where they're interviewing people so it makes it very authentic um similar to the workforce um when you go out and you interact and you do things for a reason um yes you might have a job that you do for the love of it but you know sometimes it is um for uh you know from some people do a job just because they have to and they do it for money and when they're doing that job though they're interacting with people and they're getting these experiences and it's an authentic experience that you have whether you love your job or you're doing it for other reasons and so students you know when they're there do they really want to be that student you know and if you're at least given them some sort of authentic experience to interview whether they're putting something together for a museum whether they're creating it uh for something that will be used outside of the classroom it gives them more value and it makes it seem more authentic and in that way they they tend to grow um mr montero congratulations on your appointment um as mr abu drabbo said it's like the pinnacle of the career and so that's really great you will be missed and um martin luther king day on monday uh this is the educator in me speaking so i think that if i don't know if the district is the teachers i'm sure they probably mention it but if they don't to take that moment even if it's five minutes to ask the students why they're off on monday what is the significance and the importance of it and if some students don't know just to tell them i understand that we're so bombarded with things that we have to do for the curriculum but even just to take that five minutes and if not you know the parents um when students are home to ask them you know why is it that you know you're off i mean look at the internet look it up for a second you know tell me so i'm not trying to put it all on educators but you know even out there for family well you know why are you off what does it mean um just like a few five minute conversation maybe that's the only conversation that you'll have you know at that time as teenagers you might have to drag it out of them but um so um and on that note uh that's all i have and um happy new year thank you madam president good evening uh everyone i would also like to send my congratulations to uh mr montero um becoming a judge that is truly a great honor and i won't miss him as a board member he was since i've been here in in july he was absolutely um a model board member who uh cared about kids and and cared about policies that affect kids so it was uh he will be missed and i am confident that this board will find a replacement that will do the same i'd like to mention to the board and to the public at large that we're beginning the process that i'll be leading for developing a new five-year strategic plan for our district and i will put this out on social media there will be emails that go out to everybody but please reserve the date of february 19th at clifton high school um 6 p.m where the entire community will be invited teachers students parents community members board members if you have an interest in the future of this school district it is incumbent upon you to be there you will have a say in the future of this district i expect there to be a lot of people there that night what will happen is uh i'll start the night off with a state of the state kind of address about you know what's going on in our school district today and what i would like to see happen in the future but more importantly from there we'll hear your voice from there people will be divided up into different types of working groups to develop a five-year strategic plan so what is a five-year strategic plan it is a road map that the board and the superintendent will try to follow to get where we want to go it's about looking towards the future what do we want this school district to look like in five years and then working backwards to say well what steps do we have to take to get there so i strongly encourage you to to be there clifton high school 6 p.m on february 19th we will be advertising it again on social media there will be emails um if you don't come you can't complain so please come i'd also like to thank mr gengaro for his extensive presentation tonight it's nice to see that the hard work of so many people is paying off and reduced numbers of vvsas and hiv harassment intimidation and bullying i look forward to with the increase in our pbsis programs i look forward to seeing that continue to be reduced in the future i'd also like to just address ms felder's question about the one-to-one program is it mandatory i would hate to use that word there there will be an opt-out if there is a parent who is adamant that they don't want a device for their child of course we're going to respect those wishes but it is going to become a part of the curriculum where our teachers will be using them on a regular basis and we will still maintain that balance we're not getting rid of textbooks anytime soon but my hope is that in time and over time your son's book bag is going to get a little lighter as we as we move towards more electronic textbooks and and uh things on the on on the web and as as a as a textbook and as a tool for learning students will be required to have them in class have them fully charged like they would have to bring a pencil or a pen to class but again if there is a parent that really feels that they don't want their child to have this device there will be an opt out and our teachers of course will respect that and make accommodations for that child uh mr llanos i was disappointed to see that the latino institute was cancelled we're not postponed we're gonna say postponed um if there's anything that that the district can do to to get the word out i mean i know we we put it out on social media we we sent out emails and if there's anything else that we could do to help please uh let me know because from what i read about it's really going to be an incredible uh thing for our community at no cost to the board or taxpayers thanks to the njea finally i'd like to congratulate chloe popowicz about a month ago maybe longer she asked me to write her a letter of recommendation which i was very happy to do to the aclu institute in washington dc which is a few days is it like a three-day type thing it's a week in the summer where it's top students from throughout the country uh go there's an application process they have to be selected and they learn from some of the top legal scholars in in the country and they learn about human rights and injustice and um listen it wasn't because of my letter it was because of chloe's hard work and her resume that she informed me tonight that she was accepted and she will be going to the aclu congratulations uh congratulations to you chloe and we we want to hear all about it when you get back and then and then finally i i appreciate mr kanova uh thanking me for leading this one-to-one initiative uh because the leader does matter if i'm not pushing it it's not going to happen but any effective leader knows it's about the team around him and uh really um i have to thank our director of technology mr eric mountain and his entire staff and all the people at the high school who are going to help with the roll out of this initiative it's going to be exciting it is exciting and i can't wait i'm looking forward to it so thank you all happy new year looking forward to a great 2020 in the clifton public schools thank you thank you doctor next door of business new business anyone have new business mr abu dravo thank you i uh stand at this podium not as a board member but as a member of lifelong resident of clifton and also a member of the palestine america community center obviously we have a few of our students who are here in the crowd today one is joining me here today at the podium um when i only actually is a member as well of the community center but does a little uh piano or organist at every palestinian community center event you guys have to hear him he's incredible um last week uh the community center filled the the gym in the auditorium sorry the auditorium at the high school uh well over i don't think there are any seats for anybody to sit and you know it was crowd it was packed um clifton has been a a home for many cultures and religions um ever since i can ever remember when i was a kid in kindergarten first grade and it continues to be so and do so and grow even further um the community center is the palestinian american community center is very thankful to the board members who came last week but the board members as a whole even the ones who couldn't make it for undue circumstances and i know everybody here would have been able to be there if they could so from the palestinian community center my community of cultural community to my hometown community we thank you from the community center everybody who's a member of the community center from them to the board member to the board of ed members and i'm gonna let him read this hi my name is mustafa yasi um the palestinian american community center presents outstanding service award to the clifton board of education in appreciation of our commitment to the community january eleventh twenty twenty thank you any other new business i have new business in accordance with our bylaw zero one four three i would like to make a motion to start the implementation of filling of the process of fulfilling the board vacancy i need a clarification on some timing uh the regulations call for 65 days so is it calendar days or is it business days um that's what we need it right uh uh it is calendar days i'm fairly confident of that and um to be to be clear and just to be safe it runs from the date of the vacancy uh i appreciate the board may have accepted the vacancy tonight but i think that uh to be safe i would i would use the date uh i think i had heard tonight that it was january 5th that he became a judge yes so i i think that the safe thing to do is is to work 60 days from january 5th uh 64.
we have 65 days but um the statute calls for 65. maybe 65. but the key is um you know obviously if you don't do it within the 60 bucks with a lot of time it's possible that it could go to the county superintendent to appoint someone so just to be safe i would use the start the time running from january 5th thank you i'll send i have uh still 65 days so i penciled on my my my sheet here that would be march 10th 2020 that we would need to make this final decision by so um i'm going to also ask that our board decide that we should have a special meeting and the one thing that people out in the community wanted to know is how the process was gonna um happen so just as anybody would file a petition for the board of education in an election you have to be 18 years old you have to be a citizen of clifton you have to be able to read and write read and write english and you have to have no convictions of different things that's another clarifica uh qualification um also um i think we as a board should do it in public this discuss how we're going to carry this process out because i i am i have some reservations about the last time we did it and i was not happy with the um the process miss bassford i know that we had spoke about like some of the do you want to present some of the ideas of how you um what we were talking about uh we have to make an announcement to the public that we're going to what we're going to do what the what the what we require of the applicant last time we asked for a letter of intent and a resume and then we had open uh interviews at a special meeting we did a special meeting not a regular meeting because we have too much stuff going on during a regular meeting and that we interviewed them i would like the interview process to change up a little bit like uh we we interviewed one person at a time i think that we rotate them such as like when we have a board um like i don't want to use the debate but you go you start with the perspirant you go down the line then the second question goes to the second person this way it gives the second and third person you know yeah and it also doesn't make it unfair for the first person to answer all questions when they could be sitting there contemplating an appropriate answer i just mocked candidates and i also think it makes the process a little fair and easy on the person that's first out of the box it's just not it's not appropriate so um we also have to you know make sure that we give all the rules and the criteria to everyone um we have to post it on all our social media we have to put out an ad we have to tell them what this sample notice is going to be we have to tell them what the qualifications are residency registered voter um no conflicts with the board or no claims with the board um can't be the mayor or a local governing somebody from a local governing body can hold another elected official and the background check will be done upon acceptance or the vote from the board just like the regular board members have to go through everything like that but i just would like to talk to everybody have open dialogue on what their thoughts are with the processes and just to make your fans of the community ma'am president yes i'm on board with with everything's been said uh i would suggest to the board because um i don't think any of us want to be caught short running out of time or anything uh i would suggest that um applications or resumes or in letters of interest being by the end of this month so we can start february in essence we're going to have the month of february to do this yeah we'd have to do it by march 5th and you know so we we need to be head so i i know it's short but we have statutory limitations that we don't want to hand this over to the county executive to do that this work so um i would suggest to my colleagues that we whatever advertisements we put out that it be returned by february 1 january 31st whatever it is in order so we can move fast i i uh how many more days do we have in january we have um today's the 16th so by the end of january and then and then we have two meetings in february so do we need to keep the two regular meetings in february or can we move that around to make one a special meeting i don't know we can make one the special meeting if we want since we already have the dates and it's good with everyone because such short notice obviously will be difficult for board members so since we already have the dates we make one that will be the um administratively administratively that won't be an issue so maybe can we between say and the first monday february makes the eleven business days first monday february is february third for the application for the application to be in okay deadline so it gives you 11 businesses the 20th of february and from may i this is completely a board member decision but as administratively um because we're having a meeting today i don't think there will be that much yeah so i'd rather keep the 20 20 our regular meeting and the sixth for especially we're doing a special meeting for interviews but if i may if you're asking about a february 3rd deadline and february 6th i mean it's three days with everybody on here to receive them look at them prepare their questions i think the six is a quick turnaround if we can bump the 20th to the sixth whatever's on the agenda administrative wise if we can and keep the 20th for this way it gives everybody some time um to come collect or digital whatever however we're going to do it we're going to go board docs on this and give everybody some time all seven of us six of us sorry uh take a look at this and our seven of us i can't count uh and figure out you know to read understand we may have 25 people are going to come 12 people we don't know we do a march 5th board meeting so if we have that march unless you don't need you know like if we have that february 6 and then we do have one the fifth i mean the administration will make it work for whatever is convenient for the board yeah i think we also need to be mindful that if mother nature intervenes we would yeah we we have to be prepared to be a little flexible here i mean the snowman could be the next board member though is it i mean just february 13th that's the following week if you wanted a special we can cancel the sixth and make thirteen uh i'm willing to do a saturday too for me i don't know how the other book would if it's necessary i'm fine with the saturday i just need an advanced notice yeah but we all need advanced televised too if i may miss danny um if we we would advertise this as early as tomorrow tomorrow's january 17th if we would january 31st not be enough time to have the resumes in or letters of interest in and then five days to review would that be enough yeah i think so i think that's yeah i really think so would there be a way to to upload them to board docs as they come in and then that'll give us time to review them we can develop a method to get them to you as they come in it could we could do with the email i'm sure we could do it emails i think we can pick it up on our board because anybody whoever applies it's just like making your um your um application for your petition it's got to be public knowledge somebody can open that so we can put on board docs i just had a thought um which is dangerous couldn't we do it in apple track apple track is the is the program that we use for job applications but you also have to accommodate people that are not computer savvy as well here's the reason because ada everything else we have to be we have to accommodate everybody across the board just letters of interest letters of interest and resume yeah so madam president uh i think we need to have a resolution that says the dates that the resume has to be in and the anticipated date for for um interviews you all have a sample notice um it's on this whatever the date is i'm not suggesting but yeah this will go up and be done but i think i think as a point we formally need to adopt those dates tonight it seems that the request is simply to have a resolution of the board to to post and advertise for the submission of letters of interest and resumes by january 31st yes yes no no just changing january by january 31st with the intent for the board to consider and to handle interviews and possible appointment of a new board member on february 6th yes that makes sense that sounds fine well i'll point them on the sixth holster it could be you could be worried all right you don't have to you you you could do the interviews that night and appoint them at another night i'm just saying possibly if yes so we'll i will second it would you rather go for um uh february 8th and we'll do it on a saturday you you're okay with the night jim i'm okay with saturday you know i just to be flexible i mean you know because week week week nights time to get busy and no i get it but i i i i'll make it at any time so let's think about this uh we we need to have a date for interviews and a secondary date for snow day just in case something happens how about the sixth and the snow date the eighth is the six not good this is not good for me i have a conflict oh i'm sorry the is the religious community we'll be able in problem to apply right oh absolutely yeah i i think we keep during the week you know so why not cancel a six inch to us move that meeting to the tenth how about the 12th that was a wednesday because there's no we always knew there was no conflicts on wednesdays the 12th class okay five classes tenth and i said the temples i can't do the 11 because i have a class yeah see how many how many are available on the 10th let's let's weed it out yeah everyone i will change my conflict trust me i'm good wait so the 10th is the cpeg meeting also yeah so i think the snow date would be the test yeah okay can you change like if it's worth it i don't teach it i know i know no i know but will it be it will it be an issue thing for okay all right let's let's do um uh just a poll is six good for everyone yes anyone that it's not good for raise your hand okay so sixth is good because that was the date we originally had okay snow date it's like a really difficult class we could change committees on the 11th and do interviews that night i won't be there yeah i will be there i can't make the 11.