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Massey on the first highlight up top is a reduction in transportation with the unfortunate cancellation of extended year services for special education that will allow us to save about thirty thousand dollars in our transportation line the next highlight below that that you see is somewhat related but also related to negotiation of locking in our diesel rate at a lower than expected amount that's been one of the silver linings I guess in the Coe bid situation is that gas prices have come down significantly so we identified 10,000 there so I just went through that 80,000 we added up top and the personnel line to cover that teaching position plus benefits and the 80,000 that we deducted that stayed away from the classroom they are well reasoned and won't impact our students is if we were to pull from some of the other lines so you know I think this is a strong alternative to what was presented last night I don't know if there are any questions mr. gribble well yeah I'll certainly begin thank you for for you and your team for going back through to find that 80,000 - if a someone please correct me if I'm if I'm off base but to restore the the English teacher or at least the position of the position at the Cheshire high school level that we all felt was was important not that the positions at Dadar aren't equally as important but it you had made the case that perhaps those were more manageable as far as reductions that we needed to make so I commend you on that I also wanted to just kind of comment there there was a lot of passionate discussion about the the 42,000 for the the project manager I guess the shared costs incurred between the town and the board you know we didn't have a lot of information about that and I was wondering if you could speak to it actually we only kind of find out about it last night and I was wondering if you could speak to when exactly that decision was made if it was possible for us to know sooner about that or not or or if you explained the timeline as to how that cost came about because as my understanding at least historically that we have had a lot of projects not really run all that well in town and this was a solution to sort of ensure that going forward that we have an efficiency built in so that the projects are run more smoothly and that can be have a more more of a chance to come in on time and under budget so I definitely support the expenditure I think it's necessary but I just wanted to know kind of the the origin of it so that we could have a better understanding as to why we need to incur it sure I you know first of all I I can't I can't speak to town projects with really any sort of knowledge I think mr.
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laurie lesler chs teacher i would like to spotlight just one of my many colleagues who have gone above and beyond during this difficult time of distance learning megan anderson hand wrote congratulatory letters that she is mailing to seniors who are in her classes last year and as juniors she took the time to find out what colleges they are attending next year or their future plans so she could personalize each and every letter it will be difficult not to be able to say proper goodbyes to our seniors my name is catherine siano and i have a student and i have a student at the high school who will be a senior come september first off let me start by saying how much i love dr robert tosie and want to thank the board for hiring such a great superintendent it's only the first year into his position here here and a challenging one at that and he's doing an outstanding job in my opinion communication has been exemplary clifton has been blessed with dr robertosi i just have a question about the reopening of schools and the guidelines i saw from the cdc i know it's still early and i'm sure dr robert jose is on top of it but i just want and i am just wondering with a school as big as clifton high school how these guidelines can possibly be followed especially since the hallways are so crowded and even at back-to-school night people walking are our people walking are on top of one another and there are many more students switching classes during the day not to mention having to take temperatures of 3 000 students plus staff and faculty every day like i said i know it's still early and i will understand if there if the there is no concrete of information yet thank you beth smith i am a second grade teacher at school number eight and i've been teaching in the district for almost 30 years i am also a graduate of the chs class of 86 never could i ever have imagined that we would be in a situation where we would be teaching and learning remotely i have to say i am so proud of my students and their parents for making this work making this work to the best of their abilities my second graders have really become quite the technology experts and this experience has only made them stronger school eight rocks miss you all rebecca fitzpatrick school 17 first grade firstly i hope you and your families are all safe and well secondly i want to take this time to tell you about my first grade students and their parents i am beyond proud of them together we have learned to effectively use google meets my students and their parents have learned to mute and unmute their microphones and use the chat box during these meets we play jeopardy to review many skills that have been taught the children also learn how to spell write and define new words they read guided reading books that are presented in the meeting and answer comprehension questions both verbally and handwritten in small group meetings tomorrow the children parents and i will be attending our first ever virtual field day for school 17.
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mayor Siana would have a shot but that's probably a little out of his Lane - I would say that the Board of Ed projects you know from everything from the the the drainage and tunnel work at Cheshire High School the windows and sidewalks around the districts and things like that have seemed to run fairly well under our management but I do know that you know that is the work load increases both our side of the street across the street the demand has grown so then you know I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about that and the timeline of when we were discussing this sure good evening everyone the the I mean the basement timeline is after the board Super recommendation of the budget to the board and after the Board of Ed approved the budget and it was transmitted to the town manager you know which that occurred back in January you know the town doesn't prepare its budget and present it to the council until sometime in March so was it sometime in in March or early April that Shaun Kimball asked if we would support splitting the cost of adding a project manager position and the logic of splitting the cost is into the projects that are assigned to the public Building Commission that are managed through the town staff most in some years of the projects are school projects and in other years it's not mostly school projects but there's always quite a few school projects to manage the process itself of you know taking a project from appropriation to completion you know requires bidding we're prior to bidding you have to design hire an architect bid it evaluate those bids so there's a lot of work to be done on each of those each of those projects and the amount of projects has increased over the last couple of years although it is dropping in next year's capital budget that's been requested but there's no doubt it's put a strain on resources the number of projects the process with the public building commission you know requires public building commission approval and then town council approval at different stages so it is somewhat more consuming than the projects that are assigned to the Board of Ed so that's you know some basic background on the timing and the need for the position so the position is estimated to be about an $85,000 per year position you know the board actually myself you know would get involved with the hiring decision I think that you know a person that has the right skill set hired into that position will enable us to do a better job overall of not only you know preparing projects bidding projects and completing projects and the reason for that is it would be one person dedicated full-time to project management right now you know both on the Board of Ed and the town project side the people that are doing the legwork are myself and enriched cleave at the facilities manager on the town side it's George know Antony and and sometimes the town engineer and we have other responsibilities so the logic of this really is to have a focus on project management which we haven't had in in our town and and on the board of that side so you know I do think it is a good idea you know notwithstanding the funding the funding you know certainly a question in light of the budget cuts thank you for the explanation mr.
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thanks to thanks to mr de perry and mr peretta we will have our regularly scheduled but special google meet tomorrow to have fun participate to have fun participating in the stacking cup race the students parents visiting teachers and i enjoy being able to spend time learning and having fun with each other in the safe environment finally thank you to the superintendent assistant superintendent board of education members the whole administrative team my colleagues all the parents and my students for stepping up and navigating through this challenging and unprecedented time i feel we have come out of this experience as stronger individuals and educators in our community my name is angela bien kev vics and i am a kindergarten teacher at school number 12.
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pare Ginny am i controlling discussion or are you I you are okay thank you its chairman Gribble this is honorary frame yes thank you so I believe Katherine you had a comment yes I do again I I was probably there was one of the people that were that objected to absorbing this cost at this time and I remain in that camp I really think it's it's not the right thing to do right this moment because we don't know we really don't know what the Cova impact on our budget for even next year is going to be and again I I don't see that there are I know that there are projects going on all the time and I know that this position is not a frivolous position and I'm not trying to suggest that it is but if we were not already facing a budget cut from what we had submitted to the town council of almost a million dollars I might not feel so strongly about this but we we are dealing with that and and I just do not I cannot approve this kind of an expenditure out of the funds that we need for other I think more important things immediately this coming year and as you know I was not happy that if this was going to be part of what we had to be absorbed by our budgets then I think that the town council might have given us a heads up on that when they were reviewing our budget and deciding how to you know what needed to be cut what amount needed to be cut so that's I just want to get back out there and say again what I pretty much said last night so there you go thank you thank you Kathryn let's see Tim comment yeah thank you Adam so Adam you had mentioned that there was a sort of a long history with some difficulties with this so I'm just gonna put on my old council cap back in the 10 to 20 year range I had a fairly long and public disagreement with the Public Works Department after I left a few years after I left so this is probably going back six to eight years or something the person who I felt really wasn't managing a lot of these projects that well he ended up getting arrested for corruption this is probably about a year ago I certainly hope that the things have proved have improved greatly since then but that is part of the history between that I know between the Board of Ed and the town council particularly related to the Public Works Department so he had left six to eight years ago these other events happen you know in the past year but it really left a bad taste in my mouth and it is part of the history so just wanted to mention that so with regard to the part time not part time the construction project manager I as I said last night so we may have different viewers tonight so I just want to reiterate what I had said last night I'll support this I'm not particularly I'm not fond of the way this is happening and I think then it said we actually staff found out in March or April so it probably could have been conveyed to a sooner [Music] but nonetheless I will and I will support this because as I said last night we've got you know we have our annual operating budget and our annual capital budget which is kind of wrapped wrapped into the operating budget but we have more issues than that on an ongoing basis where we're going to the count going to the council and asking for funding and Jeff you would mention last night that you're going to be requesting the $200,000 from the council that's what we voted on I'm not sure if that okay I'm not sure the point is is there's an it's a collaborative relationship that the board and the council need to have so I completely understand not liking the process but in the end I think that this is it makes sense for a variety of different reasons there is time required for project mannequin struction project management and so I want to support it in some way I don't know if 50 percent is the right number but I'm comfortable supporting this the project manager component that's it for now thank you I guess I'd missed last night about March but first of all let me just say Jeff Marlene and Ben thank you for pulling this together it's to me it looks a lot better than what we were looking at last night and I appreciate the reinstitution of that English teacher at the high school level because it is vitally important especially at the freshmen sophomore level but with regard to that 42,000 I echo the concerns and you know I understand it's going to streamline the process and that's wonderful my I guess I it's it's a rather I knew so with someone Ben if you could explain to me how it was that we were not as a board informed about this number one back in March when it when it came up I'm not sure if we would have had any say in the matter but as the board I think we should known in the other ring is then the other big concern is just the precedent it's setting as I said last night we are autonomous and to have the town say oh you're gonna pick up half salary after we had already established our budget and we were acting in good faith I have a concern with that and Tim you raised the question of collaborate a collaborative relationship I don't see collaboration going on there so you know I again I I because this is such a bit much better budget and we're in a way between a rock and a hard place I'll support it but I really just don't like that and I would like to just be on record saying so Thanks Thank You faith Tony thank you I stopped have an informal discussion with town councilor today and you know I asked about this and they they said it's highly unlikely that they would have you know anistar budget without any of dollars to the increase your Steve yeah hey I like thinking people benefit of the doubt and they work the Town Council past but you know I and I'm not you know trying to be facetious here but I really want to confirm whether or not that amount was added to the budget covered is if it does great you know I feel much better about it kind of have a answer tonight but you know it is a little I that's transpired and I don't know if perhaps fishing dropping our animal in we heard from the town manager and or you know but you know abortion II mean we were made aware of it but you know hopefully some front of town so I can answer that question so I there thank you let's see who's next Katherine couple of things so I just wanted to address that the concept of you know if we if there have been some discussions back in February in March why didn't we you know about it I think we're forgetting that in mid-march Kovan hit and things really kinda tall surprised me that that was not on the top of you know Jeff convinced Liz to bring to our attention however you know and I I think the fact of the code I don't care what the conversation was before we had to shut down all the schools because before we to shut down all the schools you know the world will look like a very different place as soon as that happened though you know this position it becomes really in you know just not where we I think where we should be spending any money and so I'm not actually you know I don't care when people found out I don't care or when we you know we should have known maybe but even if we had that would not have that would not change my view that this kind of this money spent in this way this year is not not right I mean it's just not the right use of the resources I also don't know you know I don't and to Tony's point and I I don't think it matters I mean if they upped or if they listened to the cut that they were going to pass on to us by forty two thousand five hundred so that we could absorb this 42,500 I you know I guess that has some bearing but not a lot I said I'm not convinced that we should be spending any money like this I'm done Thank You Katherine and hi yeah in regards to the 42,500 I absolutely see a reason for this and in theory I agree it's a good idea and would love to be cooperative and support it however I honestly think that we need to delay that expenditure for at least another year because we are dealing with extenuating circumstances with our budget going into next year we don't know all the expenditures that we're going to have related to the closing of our schools and getting schools started back up we don't even know what the situation is going to look like in terms of how many kids are going to be allowed to come to school and what it's going to look like it's going to be different and so for the all those unknown reasons I I won't be able to approve this budget with that expenditure added to it but at a time when we are letting teachers go and we we are going to have expenses that we're going to need to cover and I agree with Miss Hale and this is not a priority in in these tough budget times thank you thank you Andy let's see who is next faith you had a question just real fast it you know I look at how long it took us not to hire the security manager I mean we've been looking for one for at least a year maybe is do they they've just put out the RFP for this position is there a chance that they will not hire this person this year and it will be rolled over do we know that I don't know that okay and can I follow it is there any way we could persuade it convinced have they you know let the Town Council bring them to the light of day that this is probably not the year to be doing this or just I don't know okay I think you faith let's see I'm gonna Tim I'm gonna skip you for a second because the Andrew hasn't spoken yet so Andrew once you go ahead thank you sorry - well since I am a construction project manager I just want and I heard the Planning Committee so there are a lot of projects that we are doing a lot of projects and rich and men have done a great job getting them out to bid and getting things moving but thoughts matter is is that there were projects that were approved last year that still have not gone into the construction phase so there was money that's not being spent and projects are not being done so I do feel that by hiring this individual to help streamline that process I don't necessarily agree with the fact that we didn't know about this during the budget season seeing that we had multiple multiple nights of meetings and we didn't hear about this project but just as an aside if we are able to maintain the level of services for this budget including this forty two thousand five hundred and I would be in support of it thank you Andrew let's see okay Tim you had a question yeah sorry my son was with me just a second ago he's got to be heading off the bed the I apologize it got distracted come back to me in a minute let me grab gathered my thoughts sure if I yeah canonical small point of order I know we're talking about the update for the meeting last night and that's perfectly fine and you could send out more detail but we can certainly get into a much deeper discussion on the details in a motion yeah you know I just think we're heading that way but just that just look just be mindful Matt if that's we want to go we can so you go more definite line items in this particular topic as well thank you well on that note I'll reserve my comment for the actual motion discussion because it looks like and was I guess commenting directly to faith here that what we do do we have to read that into the record or is that just assumed when it shows up on the screen can anyone just does uh I don't know well she's saying not accepting the expenditure I will vote for it but as I said I'm not appreciative of the process but but that's so for the record that's what Anne had told me okay thank you fee all right so we had sent to us earlier I believe today after the revisions are made we had two particular motions I believe that the one that we're discussing the the budget revisions that VIN and Jeff just went through I believe it's the second motion could final order if I marry the motion passed last night is the motion we need to make and put on the table first and yeah I'm sorry he's look a little pointed I'm one of the owners people watch and just so you know and lastly I expanse communing we had a motion that detailed several line items and during that discussion we asked dr.
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i want to thank dr roberto bertozzi first and foremost for connecting clifton's learning community and making sure our students are all safe and healthy during this time i also want to thank miss janina kusalavis mrs valerie kropanak and mrs aaron zumuda for the wonderful job they're doing at school 12 our students and parents stay connected through our daily google classroom sessions and on google meets three times a week excuse me where the teachers can still provide support and guidance for them in our kindergarten classes we are planning to do a virtual craft activity to celebrate their hard work and moving on to first grade we also went on a virtual field trip to a farm to see different animals my name is stella van winkle and i am a second grade teacher at school 15. when at this time when this time of distant learning began in march many of us were worried and unsure of many things mainly how will we teach our students without being with them luckily for teachers in clifton our supervisors answered this question by creating plans and lessons for all clifton students i know that this was not true for many of my friends teaching in nearby towns they had to do everything on their own in addition our supervisors met with us virtually and after every meeting i felt reassured and supported also to superintendent robert tosie your many letters of communication encouragement and support during this time are greatly appreciated finally i want to send a special thanks to you special thank you to my students and their families for all the hard work and effort they put into completing online assignments i know it wasn't easy but i am proud of all they have accomplished many have gone above and beyond what they were asked to do although i am disappointed that we weren't able to do the special things planned for the end of the year our virtual class meetings have been a fun way to connect and do activities together i look forward to the day when we will be back in school and together once again okay karen karana vega school 15 grade 3.
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Solon Benson team to go back and I look at a few other things but consume that we need to pass this tonight for these for contractual obligations with our with our labor to get up some contracts as if we had any changes the procedure is you know you have the original motion tonight and once the original motions on a table and second in it's up for discussion at that point any point in there after a board member can make an amendment to motion on a table and make the amendment to change line-item so in order to move forward on this we need to so let's make the first motion second of it and then we could get into the amendment okay then I will make the first motion okay so the first motion which was passed and I believe I have to read all of the line items all the adjustments is that is that correct yeah okay thank you all right so the the most the motion that was approved last night coming out of the Finance Committee moved that the Cheshire Board of Education approved budget reductions as outlined in the superintendent's correspondence to the to the board of June 3rd 2020 totaling nine hundred eight thousand six hundred twenty eight dollars to reduce to reduce the Board of Education recommended budget for 2020 2021 of seventy five million five hundred two thousand five hundred fifty four dollars so the funding level appropriated by the Cheshire Town Council of seventy four million five hundred ninety three thousand nine hundred twenty six dollars as follows so for certified salaries there is a decrease of five hundred thirty thousand five hundred dollars there is a net a net reduction in non-certified salaries of 159 thousand three hundred dollars a stet etc okay that that is an increase to employee benefits of 98 thousand eight hundred seventy two dollars a decrease to instructional expense of 224 thousand eight hundred seventy five dollars a reduction in support services of ten thousand dollars a reduction in maintenance and operations of eighty two thousand eight hundred twenty-five dollars for a total decrease a total net decrease of nine hundred eight thousand six hundred twenty eight dollars is there a second second Katherine seconds so now we can enter into discussion again somebody's got land if I'm a motion yeah Rick make a motion to amend them again to deception okay go ahead I know you do I need to read everything or just say I make a motion to amend the no it has to be very specific so yeah that second motion that would be be correct your second motion has the change detail items in there so yes at the read the whole thing sorry wow I wasn't taking notes it was sent to us earlier do you so we want the I have the new okay okay okay faith this we haven't done this tender procedure just 4.0 board are we on this one decision quite some time so this guy okay so I move to amend the proposed budget reductions to to include the following reductions four hundred and fifty thousand five hundred dollars from teachers a salary yes yeah $75,000 from the instructional assistant account 15,000 from the pupil services account 30,000 from the pupil transportation account and 10,000 I gotta have a point order a minister correct motion no okay I'm okay no faith it's okay listen we can cause here we got a lot of documentation today it's perfectly fine don't worry I was someone else has a motion up and from can you please make them please thank you Adam you can actually aim linear motion what you're raising first I apologize I would like to amend the original motion or my original motion to adjust the account line items as follows the the ending amount would remain the same but the line items would be adjusted differently for certified salaries it would be a decrease of do I have to it would change from a reduction of five hundred thirty thousand five hundred dollars to a reduction of four hundred fifty thousand five hundred dollars non-certified salaries would change from a reduction of one hundred fifty nine thousand three hundred dollars to a reduction of one hundred eighty four thousand three hundred dollars employee benefits would remain the same instructional expense would change from a reduction of two hundred twenty four thousand eight hundred seventy five dollars to a reduction of 239 thousand eight hundred seventy five dollars Support Services would change from a reduction of $10,000 to a reduction of $50,000 and maintenance and operations would remain the same for a still a combined total reduction of nine hundred eight thousand six hundred twenty eight dollars is there a second second excellent right okay let it discussion begin again or is there any discussion now we we had discussion before but if there's further comment please uh I see Tim's hand and please raise your hand in the comment section again so I can just keep track of everyone Tim go ahead for some reason can anyone hear him now some we can't hear you Tim oh this connector no no nothing yet we see the video but no audio you type in the comments if you want to come back okay all right sir is there any additional comment or is there any further discussion besides seeing mr.
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i am truly honored to be a teacher for the clifton board of education during these times we have shown the importance of coming together as a group of educators for our students and community i want to thank the central administration for their continued support encouragement and encouragement together we are all clifton strong thank you tracy rubin english teacher chs many staff members in the district have demonstrated kindness generosity and thoughtfulness during this current unprecedented circumstances and i have been on the receiving end of one of these acts a fellow colleague and friend jennifer sveck drove to my house twice to deliver pediatric mass for my younger daughter when i was told i was when i told her i was having a hard time finding masks that fit her properly it is acts like these that are reflective of our of the colleagues i am lucky to work with and i thought you should know cheryl pianciac school eight i am a third grade teacher at school eight and i wanted to take a minute to reach out to you to let you know how amazing the supervisor and administrators have been during the most this most extraordinary time i have felt their support each and every day and they have been available to answer questions give suggestions and always and are always letting us know that they are there for us for anything we might need for our students for or for ourselves they have excelled at very difficult jobs in extremely difficult times andrew rosado phys ed teacher school 14.
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white left the meeting there momentarily it's anyone else have further comment I believe in the up day from last night's meeting I'm wrong I think we discussed what some of the changes we'd like to see would entail did we clarify that hasn't been in motion exactly what changed Jeff I'm sorry it was like yeah we talked about exactly what would change a little bit earlier on when bin was showing the highlighted changes just to recap very quickly 80,000 increase in the staff line to cover that position reduction of another ia because of the additions of the special ed staff $30,000 reduction and transportation due to extended school year service can Silesians $10,000 savings in gasoline due to that baktun gasoline price and a $15,000 reduction in our consulting pupil services line again due to those addition of special ed physicians that's the quick recap okay what sort of stretch us out a little bit so Tim gets back in time won't get to a woman and it looks like Ann was just clarifying something about the chat chats as part of the recording so yeah they are YouTube live streaming so it's out there yeah well if I could just make a comment that the I guess the reason we just did that amendment was to preserve that one position at the high school that we all felt was necessary as I said before not that the positions at the middle school are not necessary and I know several of the board members had expressed their hopes that those positions could also be preserved a Jeff could you just explain a little more the shuffle that's going to occurs I know you do bumping and yeah so what is the net result of what we are trying to do here - yeah yeah thanks well we have 400 positions so you know it's kind of often in the state of flux you know if people take positions and other schools retire you know that at this time of year there are there is some shuffling that occurs with these positions that were reducing specifically it died the reduction of that half team in the seventh grade that one of those teachers is a math teacher who will bump into a math opening at daaad the other is a English teacher who will go to treasurer high school and that will leave one one teacher out because we are you know we're down one teacher there should because of seniority okay thank you for that clarification sure mr.
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i would like to recognize the students from school 14 and their amazing effort to put forth each day during a virtual field day week every day this week students have completed two different physical fitness events and they are doing amazing i am so proud this is lori lallama president of the clifton education association i want to thank the administration and the board of education for their commitment during this challenging time and and open communication we continue to have to better our educational community i also want to thank dr robertosi for the letter he sent out to the staff and clifton community regarding another tragic incident in the black and brown community our students are watching this through different lenses and we must be there for them to come combat the divisiveness in this country there they will be ones to make positive changes our students and community have gone through terrible hardships from sandy to govind and now they are trying to find a way to truly support clifton's identity our diversity is our strength this is the beauty of this city which is a collage of mosaics that represent the different customs cultures languages beliefs and education we should not forget this thank you again to the staff for their hard work dedication and caring about each student they have in their class and striving to make their challenging lives better even though many of you have had your own challenges at home as well i appreciate it thank you elise peralta school 12 parent i would like to begin thanking the principal teachers and staff at school 12.
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white you are back did you want to ask question or comment no I think he's waving off there okay yeah well seeing that there is no further comment I'm sorry oh did you want to team you want to type something instead before we go to a vote oh he's like me a few weeks ago yeah well if it's really important you have the time now to talk Catherine go ahead see you're here I just have a question are there any public comments do we correct not on the budget no we don't we don't do public comment on the budget well I made on an agenda item yeah we were typically but there's nothing specific to this there's one other one that I think will read later about executive orders okay when we get could we have another public comment section later so the only reason I asked because we all had gotten email from yes mr.
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they have made the transition to remote learning as smooth as possible and have been a great have been great supporters of the kids during this time i'm sure no one knows about the trials we as a community have faced these past few months this life-altering pandemic has left us all searching for answers and for the next move the new normal our children should be continued to be our priority as a community as a community our our focus should be on providing them with as much normalcy allowable without hindering guidelines in everyone's health i currently have a daughter in fifth grade at school 12. when the school year began in september she was so excited she entered the school year thinking all she had to do to look forward to as a safety patrol as it as a safety patrol the washington dc trip was a huge deal her trip to medieval times because that's where the fifth graders went every year and of course graduating with her friends she has been with since kindergarten getting an awesome teacher also helped as well with governor murphy's recent decision to allow in-person graduations after july 6 parents have begun to question whether or not a ceremony for kids is feasible our children want to feel validation for their achievements they want to feel seen not just through a computer screen the virtual ceremony was an appropriate option when we had no other choice but now we do school 12 has a big enough outdoor space to be able to provide the children with the most minimalist of ceremonies having approximately 100 kids and their families line up outside the school i agree is not an ideal situation by breaking the ceremony up into segments it can minimize the number of individuals on school grounds we can gather students per classroom or even break it up alphabetically these are options that could that should be considered prior to scrapping the idea altogether the ability to see their teachers and receive their certificates would put a smile on our children's faces i understand that teachers are technically not obligated to attend school functions in july but the school 12 teachers i know would happily spend a day of their summer seeing their kids smile giving each other air hugs and being able to just say goodbye and good luck this is a big ask and yes i have considered the fact that the district will want to approach graduation as a as a one for all approach but i i asked you as a proud clinton school parent and one who wants my child to realize at least one of these exciting ventures she so look forward to on the first day of fifth grade please allow school 12 to hold a small ceremony for its graduating class i asked for i asked for all parents talk to parents teachers and administrators i can guarantee you that most will be all for and will volunteer time and do whatever it takes to see their kids smile thank you for your time and all that you have done thus far to keep the district running as smoothly as possible during this difficult time chloe popovich high school student i am asking about summer assignments the math assignment is an online packet so it's no problem ap classes in language arts and history require us to read chapters in a book and or separate novels how will we be receiving these materials donna popovich parent with the covid crisis schools need to plan for september we need to have plans in place in case the state allows clifton schools to reopen in september i'm not sure where clifton is in the planning process but would appreciate an update at tonight's meeting this planning needs to take the concerns of all stakeholders including teachers teachers parents administrators and parents into account i am offering to serve as a parent representation to help reopen the district vito fiori social studies teacher high school good evening to all my name is vito friari and i'm a social studies teacher at the clifton high school i would like to begin by extending my gratitude to the entire social studies department during these challenging circumstances the department has risen together as one of the as one sharing insight experiences resources and materials i would also like to acknowledge teachers brian on suke for always guiding and inspiring me and amy roberto for constantly providing me with a support system and friendship to everyone at chs thank you for welcoming me with open arms this year although my first year teaching is not exactly how i envisioned it at the moment i know that i am exactly where i am supposed to be i am so grateful to be part of the clifton public schools where the teachers are all a family this week i asked my students to reflect on the year as a whole namely what the most important thing they learned in my class was i challenged them to consider how this that particular lesson would impact them in the future in their future lives as engaged and active citizens the students had completed freedom to decide which lesson they chose i expected things like the bill of rights government structure the electoral college et cetera i was shocked with some of the responses and with permission from the anonymous student granted i wanted to share but one of them with you student one wrote after your class you taught after your class you taught me value you can dream as big as you want and touch the stars no matter how far you taught me how to walk with my head high because you lord only knows how little i felt your class made me my bad days brighter something i never thought a teacher could do over time our class grew close you left a mark on everyone's heart students from different backgrounds with different stories you accepted all of it i can truly say that you inspired me you were one of the only teachers i ever i ever had to im impact me in the ways that you have you taught with confidence you taught with heart i was never comfortable with public speaking and that you taught me that it's okay it's it's okay to trip over a word it's it's not about what you say it's about how you impact that person it's about how you deliver the message so many lessons you taught me in such a short amount of time every teacher in chs should learn from you without your class and your teaching i don't think i would be able would be the student i am today you took it upon yourselves to influence a group of kids difficult yes a difficult group of kids some kids are not used to the kindness because all they ever knew was mean and dark you're the light for some of those kids and you had no idea you taught me to go go with your gut you only live once and whether you were right or wrong you took you took a risk when it comes to my future i'm scared of making mistakes i have no idea where i want to go or what i wanted to do i want to give my parents the life they never got to have but always said one day with the lesson of taking risks and holding my head head up i will push myself to be what i always dreamed myself of being although there will be challenges and people will question me i'll believe in me before anyone else thank you for taking a chance on me and all of your student and all of your students don't change you for nothing in the world there are no words to express how much this statement means to me as a teacher this is this is only one example of the impact that teachers have on students of clifton public schools it is thanks to the entire clifton public schools teaching and instructional staff that our students go on to change the world while we their teachers and our and number one fans support them and cheer them on proudly seeing them achieve all that we know that they are capable of clifton public school teachers are impacting the lives of students every day and we are unwavering in their dedication to our students i am honored to be a clinton teacher amongst the most talented dedicated and caring individuals thank you to the cleveland board of education administration for believing in the teachers that believe in the future of clifton to all the students i believe in you we believe in you i am proud of you we know that you are going to change the world and we know and we as your teachers are humbled to be part of your journey and to all my students always remember it's kind of fun to do the impossible my name is gene duncan and i am an lldm special ed teacher at elementary school five i wanted to reach out to the superintendent board of education and administrators to thank them for their support and guidance during the last several months although we are not in the classroom or physical buildings our teachers and parents are doing incredible work at school number five our teaching staff is working together visiting each other's classes on google meets our teachers are excited to introduce themselves to the anticipated students we have for next year our parents have let us know that they are appreciative of being able to identify teachers from school number five that their child may have in september in closing although our lives have been disrupted the children from school five and the city of clifton are working with parents and teachers to maintain their academic foundations we look forward to be being able to continue building their not their knowledge when we get to see them again heather boyco parent i know these are difficult questions and not everyone knows the answers yet as parents we need to start planning for september soon how does the district plan for reopening if it is even possible and safe are you considering alternate days like like cities near us how how would we figure out our busing according to guidance if schools open with after-school care still be allowed in the building thank you for everyone for being so transparent and holding these live board meetings on youtube adriana austin parent i am a parent of two students at school number eight we were recently informed that the school's principal will retire but have received no information about the hiring process for the new principal the only information that i've received is that parents will be excluded from the hiring process in progressive and high performing school districts bloomfield montclair and others parents are included parents are included as a symbol of the importance and partnership between schools and parents in education and as an acknowledgement of their value of parent insight and interest we need to we need public school number a to improve by leaps and bounds remote learning has surfaced incredible gaps in pedagogy and teacher effectiveness during this time where p parent confidence in school leadership is more important than ever i ask you that you consider including parents in the hiring process and providing more information parents should not be excluded nor should we be subject to non-transparent decision making process the to a non-transparent decision-making process that will impact the quality of the children's education at school number eight last but not least miss falco resource teacher at school number 12.
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Bester and I didn't know if that was something that I should okay yeah I was summarized or anything like that yeah I guess you could that's a would be I meant that would typically be made I guess during this yeah I don't see any issues because it's finance related if you want to just bring that up you know that does apply to this yeah okay so if I'll wait till after tim is gonna ask her not his question he okay what we don't want him to be quiet Catherine once you go ahead and read that into the record okay I will summarize this because he didn't ask for it to specifically be read word for word but the general it's a letter to the members of the Board of Education from Jack Bester at 45 truss road and he essentially says that he's deeply troubled that the Town Council which supposedly defers to the BOE in determining where cuts in education are made has imposed an additional forty two thousand five a dollar administrative expense at a time when the BOE has already been asked to grapple with a nine hundred and sixty thousand dollar cut from their budget request in reality that brings the overall Town Council cut to the BOE to over 1 million dollars I understand that this budget may have been more challenging than in the past and that the town council members have worked hard to stay within its desired zero increase mill rate but let's be honest and transparent this 42,500 is earmarked to share costs associated with the anticipated town wide including school building plans a decidedly central office administrative expense and then he goes on to say that because we don't know what is going to be on the budget you know what we'll have on our plate in the fall because of koban 19 this is not the time to incur a $42,500 non-instructional expense essentially I apologize mr.
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i would like to give a shout out to all of the parents who stepped up to thank i'm sorry i would like to give a shout out to all of the parents who stepped up to help their children during this most difficult time of distant learning you guys really shined and should be commended by your hard work and dedication to your child's education the teachers of clifton thank you also thank you to all the administration administrators and supervisors for helping the teachers in setting up the distant learning classes and curriculum you rock that concludes public comment mr lucy you you did a wonderful job you spoke over 50 minutes so was it really that long yes i mean you don't realize how long because you're reading it but you know that yeah it was so you could madam president yes yes that we provide mr yusi with a dr seuss hat for the next meeting i was actually going to make a motion and uh get him a reader or buy him cases of water for the house no i mean what are you drinking yes well you need it and and it's and it was interesting that the one spot where you um you know made a little bit was right when you were reading about the public speaking the student that was talking about the public speaking i thought that was pretty interesting um okay motion to close the public portion exactly what it sounds like all right it's somebody else jim was first i was second that's gonna do credit okay all right mr daily uh motion by mr daily second by mr abhijava next quarter of business is education and administration can i get a motion to move ea one through any questions see none roll call give me one second i'm sorry i have to add dana to the attendance hold on one second i'm sorry yes take your time okay um so it's ea one through six and i called roll call mystery okay mr abby drabo yes miss basford yes miss beltran yes mr canelova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr smith yes miss danny yes next order of business is personnel can i get a motion to move p1 through p16 motion by mr smith second by mr casper questions see none roll call mr abba drabo yep miss bassford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr smith yes miss danny yes mr mr lucy i need to abstain on uh p20 okay next order business finance can i get a motion for f1 through f12 no move motion by the strava drabo second second by mr casper any questions cnn roll call mr abedrabo yes miss basford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr smith yes miss danny yes motions passed next order of business is public recognition there are no public recognitions past what i what i've read okay okay so the next order of business is board member comments and i think mr casper is it start with you this time i went yeah i went the last time okay so then it'll be mr smith thank you um madam president uh tuesday night i had the um privilege to attend the athletic senior awards [Music] it was a it was a very nice program to be able to recognize our senior athletes um usually done in person and presenting them with their awards but it was very nicely done by the entire [Music] athletic staff and the coaches that were present and just like to congratulate all the senior athletes especially our spring athletes this year that just did not have the opportunity to play their sport this year [Music] but we wish all those athletes seniors that are moving on [Music] i know many of them are moving on to colleges and playing sports in college so i wish them all the best and i just like to congratulate our female and male athlete of the year uh our female athlete of the year was brianna rubio and our male athlete of the year was uh jack lauer uh congratulations to both of them and a job well done by the athletic staff um on our uh on our agenda last meeting we have two principals that are retiring this year and i happen to know these two principles uh very well as they were principles when i was on the board previously two tremendous individuals two great people and clifton is truly losing two wonderful educators and those that had the privilege of knowing them and being taught by them and under their leadership truly are better people today because of that so i'd like to just congratulate and thank uh miss nancy lezzone and mr luco puzzo for all the years that they gave to clifton and clifton students you will truly be missed um as dr robertosi has stated um we will uh have a graduation and we are waiting for the final um stipulation and guidelines from the department of education and once we have that i'm sure dr robitosi will share all that information with everybody so that we all know what's taking place with graduation so just please hold on a little bit as we wait for that information from the department of education um like to thank principal healy from school number nine and the bulldogs for a great job tonight and each school day for their pledge of allegiance um i think it's great that each and every day that the students share that responsibility and have a pledge of allegiance and i think it's great that we used uh the kids tonight to do our pledge of allegiance at our meeting and hope that that we could continue that uh going forward for our meetings and uh mr louis and mr lanzarotti uh and the students of the woodrow wilson symphonic orchestra for the great playing of the national anthem through zoom it was just amazing to see that and how well put together that was and what a great job those students did so uh i commend you all for that um special shout out and thanks to uh mr frank giangaro and his team uh those of you that do not know it um i believe june the fourth um our registration department uh started uh online registration uh something that was first here for clifton uh excuse my voice the allergies are terrible um they uh they put together a tremendous program to have online registration the staff was trained and the staff is doing a lot of it from home but i know some of the staff members on their own have gone into the office from time to time but basically uh this is a brand new program for clifton and mr gingaro has put together with dr robitosia a great registration process so i commend you uh uh on this great uh progress that we're making in clifton with online registration um if you know um if you know anything about registrations um i think i said frank gingarrow it's mark gingaro i had such a great relationship with his father frank uh for many years so i apologize was marching garrow but um registrations in the past you could have parents and kids lined out our building waiting in line to come in and get registered registered and uh being able to do this online is a tremendous accomplishment for clifton that we don't have to have that procedure or as often so i commend mark gingaro and his whole team on on the great job they're doing with that and uh last but not least um just gonna say a few few quick words i'd like to thank dr robertosi again for the fantastic letter uh that he sent out to the parents the board the community uh concerning the events of our last week and on the killing and the death of mr floyd in minnesota i think dr robitosi hit hit it right on the nose that all of us in education our main concern is that of the children in our district and we know that the students have heard and have seen things in the news or through their parents or for other people talking uh it is it is a great opportunity to use this as a teaching opportunity for the students and allow them to ask questions to answer their questions and to educate them in what is taking place again as people in education our main concern here is for the students their well-being their safety their education and i commend dr robitozzi on that great letter and i hope that parents and teachers will continue to allow students the opportunity to discuss this um this terrible situation um i also have to commend uh some of our former students of clifton um some of them were involved in putting together participating in a very peaceful and organized rally this past week in clifton it truly shows that they were educated here in clifton because they did a phenomenal job of getting their message across and doing it in a very peaceful way so i commend any of our former students that were involved in that process and with the school year coming to an end uh very shortly again i thank all teachers parents grandparents all those who have pitched in with this terrible situation of covent 19 it was difficult on everybody and i just ask everyone to have a great summer remain safe and we'll be back in september thank you thank you mr smith mr abhijaba uh president danny i'd like to reserve my time before you and ms bastard speak please just give me for now um miss beltram uh sorry i just wanted to apologize for missing the beginning uh with the teachers for the teachers of the year congrats to all those honors very well deserved uh school's almost out we've made it thank god um stay strong and stay safe for what's left and hopefully i'll see you soon at the graduation um congrats to everyone who's gotten an award this year i know it's a little different than yours in the past but hopefully you'll be able to put something together also at graduation for all those who earned additional um credits and honorees um throughout the year that didn't get to have their proper send off thank you miss beltran mr canova good evening everyone um first and foremost i love the idea of showcasing our kids for the pledge of allegiance because i love seeing the kids in action you know that's what we do here we're educating children and it shows what they're here for and um it's a great way to tip our hat to them and show really what they could do so i love that um and i i agree with the commissioner uh smith that it's something we should continue to do more often uh i do want to thank the individuals for writing in uh and mr uchi for reading all those uh while it takes a while to read in you know we did have a great community input so um there's a plus and minus to it but i do love hearing that um going back to what we said earlier with with finances funding is a concern this year uh as we mentioned earlier there's there's a five million dollar shortfall right now based on what they uh what the initial numbers were that they were allocating to us um and as you know every year costs continue to rise and and you know it's a concern for us right now so i'm glad that uh mr abu drabba had set up that meeting and hopefully we can you know talk to our legislators and they can understand our situation here is it um it is a tough time but at the same time if you're going to take money from from one group uh it should be taken evenly it shouldn't just be taken from one school it should be taken from all schools evenly so that's my concern with it you know i'll raise my concerns with them with this meeting but thank you mr abu drabba for setting that up uh someone mentioned the the moving up ceremonies um this is unfortunately one of those things that you know the school operations in in coordination with the lawmakers so i would recommend reach out to your your legislators and you know to speak to governor murphy and his team and talk to them and get some idea on what it is that you know when the dates are going to be when when things happen right now as the law reads i believe it's 25 they're allowed outside and even if they said that graduations are allowed it's only to that number that's allowed at the time of your graduation um so that's a concern because when you're setting up something like a graduation like a stepping up ceremony many people are involved many people are there and you need to know the logistics of it so it's just very difficult right now um there's not much guidance coming out from from anyone and that's really what we need so i would i would advocate that that you i would recommend that you advocate to them to understand what that looks like so that we could get you know that uh that ruling um and then the larger issue at hand is you know i'm really upset to see this this country in this array like this um i'm in support of any american exercising the right to speak out against injustice and justice is because it's wrong and you know we did this not too too long ago with our funding fight for the state in the same way uh and as mr smith said you know here in clifton we do a phenomenal job all the time we really are a class act you know you see these other other towns and other areas where they're just ripping things apart and looking at happening to mr floyd was deserving you see that the face of that office there he looks sinister and i really hope he gets what he deserves and has coming to him um and as for prejudice there's never room for prejudice in this world you know we live in 2020 and that that shouldn't exist so i'm really disheartened to see that in our country it's very unfortunate but this is a teaching moment for our children you know the kids now are looking at social media they're looking at you know all these platforms and they're looking at the media and all these outlets and the concern that i have personally is that they draw their own conclusions if you don't intervene with your children they're going to draw their own conclusions and they're going to come up to conclusions that are incorrect things like police are bad we know that's not the case we know police are aren't bad you're going to have bad people in every single group and every single uh racial group and every single um um area of of people who were even just working americans in in different categories you're always going to have some bad apples um and people abuse power but that's why we have the system in place that we have that's why we have people to prosecute individuals like that so i'm glad to see that that is happening um in areas where it's wrong but you don't want your children to to come to false conclusions you want people to understand that they can go to the police you know when they have a problem you want to know there is no there is no room for racial divide and there shouldn't be people need to stand together you know it was a couple couple weeks ago we were talking about covert and how people are standing together and working with each other helping your neighbor down the block you know helping elders because they're really the ones affected by this we're not even over that and yet here we are fighting you know that's a concern um and the kids don't know any better so you need to you need to sit down with your children and explain to them you need to understand they need to understand that protesting isn't riots protesting is getting out there and getting your word out peacefully you don't smash and grab inside of buildings and you don't create chaos in the world that we don't inflict change like that that that's not change you know that's just a bad representation of of everyone in this country um so we need to come together as americans as people you know it wasn't too long ago that that other groups were getting targeted against i remember a year or two ago there were shootings in florida with people who were lgbtq and you know we had the issue september 11th and then you had muslim individuals getting targeted for for negative connotations on on things that they need they have nothing to do with you know that's a concern and really what the concern it comes down to is a mental concern we had the shootings in vegas right at some kind of country rally the mental concern is really the top priority here we need to figure out what's going on in america we need to understand what what this is and we need to talk to our kids about it you see kids taking their lives into suicide why is that happening those are the things we need to understand we need to understand the mental stability of this of this uh this country um and until we stop that i don't think any of this will ever stop we need to come together and really understand what that is but i really encourage everyone go home and talk to your kids and make sure they understand you know how to act how to act in society make sure you're open with them make sure the lines of communication are open so that if you see something weird if you hear them talking about something odd you know address it address it it's time that we come together as a nation um and that's all i have for you tonight thank you mr canova mr casper no daily mr daily sorry thank you madam chair um again good evening everyone uh i'll be brief it's been a long evening um first of all i would like to again firstly congratulate each and every one of those teachers with their nominations and i thank dr robertosi for doing a great job about presenting them and discussing them and having them actually hear on screen that was very nice but again um and also mr smith mentioned the athletic awards it's another in-person event that didn't happen in in person um that's another great night uh i think i have attended every one unfortunately because of the virus situation we're not able to do that but um those individuals like it and every other section work very very hard to to do an achievement and to give themselves honor and the school honor and a town honor the way they perform and i know when our athletes are out competing um i've always heard positive things from others who uh that have witnessed about our behavior so it's unfortunate that we physically can't uh get together and share this uh event but um uh i do wish you all the best um just a word from a uh from a commissioner point of view about hiring um commissioners do not and i think we may even ethics wise do not participate in any hiring the only uh issue that only way we get involved is the superintendent i know collaborates with his team they hire individuals and he makes a recommendation to the board and we just say yes or no we can't say well we like johnny over sandra or someone that we do not participate so the board has no participation other than affirming or denying the superintendent's recommendation when they hired that is the superintendent's bob the only person we hire is the superintendent and appoint professional services that is it so that's i'll just give you the commissioner's point of view on that uh and i'm sure dr robert tosie will also comment on on the hiring practice how uh how it's done here in clifton and how it's done legally in clifton so um i also uh friday is coming up um our country uh is in turmoil i will not go over all the issue with the coronavirus and mr floyd's passing and all those things uh they are um certainly disturbing and uh and challenging to us uh and we're challenged not only as a group but as individuals to show our true americanism here um i'm one of the uh individuals who was alive and witnessed the riots and disturbances in the civil rights movement of the 60s and 70s so uh some in some aspects of this is deja vu and sometimes i wonder myself um i thought we'd advance a little bit further sometimes we don't advance as well as we should as a nation of exceptions uh exceptionalism i should say um thank you to mitzla zoni and mr puzo for their service um i'm also very familiar with them and i wish them all the best and again fly day is coming up um maybe it's a different day just besides displaying the flag just be a little contemplative of what our nation is really about and what it should be about uh and again thank you mr yusi for uh your marathon there you performed brilliantly thank you so that's it for me for tonight thank you thank you mr daley mr casper okay i'm gonna try to make this as brief as possible um first i'd like to congratulate our teacher of the year uh mrs miss caramucci congratulations on a job well done um it's a well-deserving award for a well-deserved person i'd also like to congratulate all those who had received the clifton and clifton excellence in education award as well as uh thanking all of the teachers staff and paraprofessionals who all made at least 25 years teaching in district as well as all of our retirees thank you so much for your long service to our district um i'd like to thank everybody for their comments this evening mr uchi i give you a lot of credit for reading all those thank you so much these are trying times that we are in and um we as a clifton community are i think are doing quite well and um our school district is also doing quite well and i'd like uh to thank dr robert tozie for sending out such a great letter uh to our community and our staff members um i hope i'm hoping that we can get through these trying times as a community together and that um we can all pull together as one community uh which is our clifton community and we can pull through and help each other as best that we can and um one good part uh for this evening is there are only 11 days left of school so just hang in there everybody i'll see you on the 18th thank you mr casper mr abdrabbo uh thank you uh congratulations not only your colleague but a friend joe canova the alternate delegate well deserved joe i mean since you're on the board before you went on the board um you've always been you know steam heading the esteem ahead forward and cared about the city and about and about the kids in this district um way before your kids got your beautiful girls gone to the district uh as a reminder as mentioned before a legislative meeting with our state legislators um discussion will be about district funding uh if there's any other one for the colleagues those from the board who who are not on the committee if there's any um concerns that you want to bring forward please email me or mr uchi or danny i'm sorry superintendent roberto this way we can move forward and have i can share with them the agenda if there's anything beyond district funding congratulations to the student athletes who were honored last night um virtually of course but your hard work on off the field paid off in your years as a mustang and you all deserve the best congrats to all the teachers tonight the ones i think we did not i don't think i mentioned that but i'll mention our 25 years of service and retirements um 25 years of service god bless you in education i don't know how you did it uh jen algieri had asked me to make an announcement clifton high school graduation signs will be in tomorrow friday june 5th um pick up for the signs will be a chess outside the lower gym please pull up around the circle and let us know or let them know the name the student's name if you purchase their name on the sign below is the timetable i'm just reading video off the off the email student first name beginning with a to l from from 3 pm to 4 pm students first name from mdz from 4 pm to 5 pm and if you order plain sign without a name you can pick yours up from 4 p.m to 5 p.m i'll be there to help out um as you know we should all have all hands on deck at this time if you have any questions feel free to text 973-489-8323 she gave permission give out that number because she put an email when she sent it out so it's out there so uh i've asked to pass before no pun intended everybody knows like saying the word pass for a reason um because i have a statement a statement that i think is needed a statement that i think that um needs to be said and i'm not trying to steal the stage here or anything but you know i i i'm 35 years old live 35 years in clifton and these the following is speaking on my behalf and not at the clifton board of bed or any of my colleagues on the board of course as always i want to thank clifton police department clinton fire department for their work day in and day out my prayers are with the nypd officers who were attacked this morning growing up in clifton i experienced discrimination in 2001 2002 i thought i knew what it meant to be stereotyped although over the past few years months and especially over the past few weeks i've come to understand that i don't know when someone is on the floor being forced to the ground and murdered by someone in law enforcement your faith in the justice system starts to lose its way we as a community should not accept racial injustice which has been responsible for the indefensible murders of george floyd brianna taylor ahmad aubry and others families should not have to worry about the safety of their children because of the color of their skin we as a collective community a melting pot of a community need to stick up for each other for the sake of humanity for the sake of the children of our children the future of russia excuse me this is not a time of being anti-police matter of fact we have great police officers in the city of clifton we are in a position to right the wrong and speak up for our god-given rights that every individual on this planet deserves this is not a time sorry my children will be raised to speak for all voices the oppressed the scared and the underprivileged my children will be raised not to ask about someone by their skin color my children will be raised to love thy neighbor equally and my children will be ready to advocate for and care about all and last i want to leave off with this something i read something i i saw um um at the rally a few days ago which i i i'm proud to to our students who put this together and short so notice short notice um and for the most part it was great um i i understand that i will never understand but i stand with my neighbors my friends and our community members thank you mr abdrabbo madam vice chair basford uh yes thank you um a couple of things um because of my position in the state i get to be on county meetings and we've been meeting twice a month uh and i get to hear from other presidents of other counties and they have the same concerns as we do they have the same concerns about graduation they have the same concerns about letting the students have every kind of um ceremony every kind of event that they can possibly do with the safe guidelines so when you have a chance to um advocate that's when you use it and you use it the proper way so when um this week when we had upper state county school boards association we were with carlos rodriguez and he's the county superintendent and we spoke to him about graduation so and whenever you have a chance those those words go to other people so i'm hopeful that the restrictions will be relieved so it's not 25 people people in the community don't realize that we have 750 graduates that's going to be a lot of graduations that we have to deliver so hopefully by july maybe things will will lighten up but um i just want everybody to be mindful in the community um because i know with the personal conversations that i have had with dr robitazi he is one person that wants to make sure that our students get what they deserve and and i am i am assured myself that if it's going to happen dr roberto will make it happen if we're allowed to do it we have to make sure that we're safe with our students so um i wrote down all the parents that they talk about um in their comments tonight all the folks that um put put comments in and i thank everybody for doing that and thank you mr ushi for um be going through all those comments um however we have to make sure that we're doing it in the safest way possible and um that's all i can keep on saying uh covent 19 is not gone it's kind of been put to the side right now but it's still there and we have to make sure that we keep every one of your students safe and every one of your children safe so um whenever anybody on this boy gets a chance to advocate we will advocate as well so mr abedrabo i would like to put as well as fair funding i would like to put about graduation restrictions and guidelines because that's something we need to get some guidance on from the state as soon as possible because we have to submit a plan to the health department and to the state as well and it just a plan doesn't happen overnight we have we have a lot of work to do so the senior athletic awards dinner i've been going to a lot uh this would probably be in my uh 11th year or 12th year and it was really it was really kind very interesting it was very well done the students were very excited uh miss it in person but it was it was done very well and i have to commend administration uh the high school administration also um the athletic director congratulations to the governors uh educator of the year all the teachers of the year the 25-year um service award winners and also our retirees thank you for your service to our district um thank you to the folks that submitted the comments like i said before um sometimes it's not easy to speak up because people are afraid they're gonna something's gonna happen but it's been such a different year i keep on saying it what a difference a year makes i can't help it and i'm looking at danny down on the screen i don't know where we would have been last year without you i have to tell you that those letters that you send out are just heartfelt and warm and i get such great compliments from people um i can't tell you they they make me emotional because we know that you care about our kids we know you care about the betterment of this this community and i am grateful for that um let me see um i am a firm believer of a voice being heard um and jim you're the oldest and i'm probably the second oldest on the board and i was born in 1960 i don't remember the things in the earlier days but i do remember my brother telling me stories and the last couple weeks my brother's been calling me a lot because he's he's been home because of covet 19 and he's been telling me stuff and and i don't remember it but he's been talking to me about about um my voice being heard and and being safe and and just making sure that we teach our students and our children about getting out there beings being safe by doing what they need to do and to be careful about how they um have to worry about consequences and that's the one thing i want to tell everybody i saw a bunch of our former students in new york city i saw pictures on facebook and they were very safe i just i'm not worried about them because i know they were brought up right and you know they've gone through our system i'm worried about the other people that may do something to them so i'm asking everybody and i'm urging them to be safe um regarding regarding george floyd it was tragic and um i watched his family on cnn i watched his brothers on cnn and it was very hard to sit through that that interview listening to his family and i wish them peace because there's nothing else i can wish them is that somehow they find peace to this um so that goes out to them and i'm i'm pleading with everybody and i'm pledging that i'm going to become a better ally to people and i'm learning a lot about things about myself and about different privileges that i never knew that i have as a human being and privileges that other people don't have as human beings and i it was kind of eye-opening this week that my daughter had to educate me on that concept and i apologize to everybody that i am going to try to be a better ally to people and that i am going to educate myself so i can support other people better and that's what i'm going to ask our group to do is that we need to be mindful of the mental health issues that we're going to have to deal with going back in september our staff is going to need them our parents are going to need it our students going to need it and we as a board also as a collective group are going to need the help and support to each other so uh today was a trying day and we got through it as a group and uh i thank you each for that so be careful out there everybody be safe be mindful of consequences that's all i want to say and i wish you all peace thank you madam vice chair basford um so just to reiterate i do want to say that um you know graduation to add on um to miss bassford is that graduation is obviously over you know 700 students and then you add two parents and then at that point um with right now the guidelines being only 25 people in a gathering it's it's really difficult so i do agree um that mr abu drabbo you know maybe we could you know legislative community say something that either again but even if you increase it to a hundred um and then between having administration there two parents a student um you know i see that like maybe 27 or so probably graduations um and then i know i heard you know fifth grade want graduation so again it's just it makes it very very difficult being that the restrictions are in place and i'm sure that um you know dr robert charles will also reiterate that um with these restrictions it makes it very difficult because guidance is limited um i also want to say that i was there at the athletic awards and that what was really nice to see was that not only do our students excel in their academic ability their athletic ability but also their academic ability and that was really quite impressive to hear students going to harvard and yale and um so it's not just their act their athletic talent but they're also academic talent as well um i'd like to say thank you to all the retirees and those with 25 years of service thank you to all the speakers um and lastly uh danny thank you for all the letters that you do put out to the community um i'm a history teacher and i always you know teach my students about obviously having a voice and expressing yourself that that's important but um we always talk about martin luther king or gandhi and especially you know i always say that quote that gandhi said um be the change be the change you wish to be but non-violently because when you turn violent you negate all that you do and um you know in watching some of the protests sometimes i go down to like the comments and that is what some of the people say that when when you start reading their their comments it's that you know getting violent is not the way because that just negates everything that you're trying to do um so i just want to say that you know peace for the country and that we you know again stand in unity um because that's where the strength is and it's great to see that clifton is so diverse and that we celebrate the diversity and that we can do things you know in a positive way and so let's do something positive and that's all i have for this evening thank you dr arbitazi thank you uh madam president and thanks to all the commissioners for your um very moving words tonight um i would just like to share an excerpt of my letter that several of you spoke about tonight uh regarding our current situation uh every time our society experiences trauma such as this and make no mistake about it our society has been traumatized we say that we must do better yet we find ourselves here today in the same situation we can no longer turn a blind eye to that which divides us children watch us and learn from our responses to crises like this whether it is on the news on social media in school or elsewhere our children see divisiveness we have a responsibility to help eradicate the systemic injustices that do not align with what we stand for as a district and as a community so while i appreciate the um compliments that the commissioners gave me on on this letter and i received a lot of positive feedback about this letter but as i reflect what am i going to do about this now how am i going to back up these words with action what are we going to do differently as a school district to help our society heal and that's a question that has been keeping me up at night what do i have control over as the superintendent well i can certainly share resources like i did with this letter and get them out to parents and get them out to teachers i can make sure our curriculum covers that i can make sure that our teachers are kind and and that we we cover the standards on teaching prejudice reduction and things like that but what else can i do and there is a systemic problem in education and it's not just in clifton it's everywhere typically especially in urban school districts [Music] the teaching population doesn't necessarily reflect the student population in terms of um race and ethnicity that is not a clifton issue that is a national issue the majority of teachers in this country are white predominantly white females there is ample research to indicate that students can learn better from people who they can identify within people who that looks look like them and i think that in my own opinion i don't have any research to back this up but i think that we've created a perpetual cycle of minority candidates not going into teaching because they don't grow up seeing themselves doing that position because they haven't seen other people that look like them in those positions now don't get me wrong i don't care what a teacher looks like or what color they are if you love kids you will be a great teacher but what can we do in clifton to make our teaching force more reflective of our diverse community all we talk about is and all you hear me say is diversity is our strength diversity is our strength but our our teaching staff our professional staff is not as diverse as our community it's it's it's just not and it's not just in clifton it's everywhere so one thing i think that i can do and it'll be a small contribution and hopefully over time it will help but i want to start a a program or an initiative clifton comes first where we start with our own community we start with our own high school students and we start introducing them to options that there are to work in k-12 public schools when they graduate high school everybody knows you can go to college and become a teacher but you can also be a guidance counselor you can be a social worker you can be on the child study team you can be a psychologist you can be many many different things so i'm going to appoint a staff member i'm going to create a working group to come up with some way to introduce our high school students to jobs in k-12 education and then we want to somehow make them some sort of promise of employment when they graduate college so i haven't worked out all the details yet of how we might do this um but i think it's a step in the right direction uh for our community uh and i will have more updates on that to come in the future um but you will be hearing more about this initiative i'm not sure what i'm calling yet clifton comes first or we're gonna come up with a name for this for this movement but if we recruit from our own community we recruit from clifton we encourage kids to go to school and then we bring them back and they work for us it's not a panacea it's not gonna help overnight but in time we'll start to see some changes so among many other things that need to change that's one thing that that i pledge myself to work on uh to to do my best to hire the best candidates but to also do my best to hire um a diverse group of candidates to work with our children um let me touch on on graduation there is no one more than me that wants to have a high school graduation for our kids it's so disappointing to me that our seniors after all these years might miss out on graduation on may 27th we received guidance from the department of education and everybody says well the governor says it's okay now you can have an outdoor graduation that's not necessarily the case the governor's regulations now say you can have a modified in-person graduation ceremony as long as you comply with the applicable requirements for outside gatherings as has been mentioned by a couple of the commissioners tonight the number of people allowed at an outside gathering as of today is 25 people we do expect that number to go up but is it going to go up enough that we can have a graduation with 700 plus uh students plus their parents plus the staff necessary to to work it plus the police department plus the fire department members of uh oem so while i'm nothing's impossible what i'm saying that it is going to be a difficult task to have a graduation unless the governor's restrictions change dramatically in the next two months it's going to be very difficult to have a graduation like we would like to now having said that we are trying to and we're preparing for that just today uh my team met with the chief of police and and his team we met with the chief of the fire department and his team we met with members of office of emergency management from the fire department we met with john beagle our health officer and we discussed this and we all have the same concerns and the concern is unless these restrictions are lifted graduation is not going to happen so what we've been saying is if we're allowed to do it we're going to do it we will absolutely do it for kids um but i just want to bring everybody back to reality a little bit um that there is a chance it might not happen but you have my word if we can do it we're going to do and that applies to you know eighth grade fifth grade it's just not feasible to do at this time we have to worry about health and safety first now having said that we have a nice albeit not what everybody wants we have some nice virtual ceremonies planned on june 19th the fifth graders will have a ceremony at 3 p.m the 8th graders at 4 pm and clifton high school at 5 pm in addition our seniors beginning i believe on the 16th um are going to be getting individual pictures at the field in their cap and gown on stage and they're going to hear their name announced over the speaker they're going to be allowed to bring their parents so they're gonna parents are gonna be able to get a nice they're gonna get a professional picture but parents are also gonna be able to take their own pictures hear their child's name announced over the speaker and have them receive a diploma um and and we heard some parents last meeting talk about kindergarten celebrations every kindergarten in the district now will have a special end of the year google meeting and will receive certificates there is hope but let me also say this there have been these protests and i've heard people say well if we can have a thousand people at a protest we could have a thousand people at a graduation well here's the issue within the next two weeks if the number of coveted 19 cases spikes in this state and it's blamed on the protests the governor could very well bring all these restrictions back on the other hand if we don't see a spike maybe that gives some inkling that we can gather in larger groups and that would be a benefit for us so the answer on high school graduation right now today is it's not looking good but it's not impossible and i'm not sure how clear i can say that um opening up in september we don't know we are planning for multiple scenarios multiple options we are expecting i believe the governor said by june 23rd some more specific guidance many of you received a survey that the department of education sent out we sent that on their behalf surveying parents about reopening schools in september i think the data from that survey is going to help inform some of this decisions that need to be made but please rest assured my team is working on multiple plans uh for for reopening and no matter what they throw at us if we're allowed to open we'll be open we'll get it done and we'll do it to the best of our ability um and as always we'll communicate that information widely as soon as we know more so that concludes my comments tonight miss danny thank you so much thank you dr robertosi next order business is new business do we have any new business uh president dan just to remind it to everybody again i'm going to say one more time if anybody has anything else to add to the agenda please let me know by tomorrow actually so i can send out the agenda to the legislators thank you thank you mr albatro okay so with there being no new business um we are going to convene an executive session for personnel matters miss gutierrez do you do you want to take i i believe there'll be no action taken now no action taken we're going to be discussing personnel matters and labor negotiations okay and we will um close in executive yes there will be no action taken okay can i have a motion to go into executive motion by mr abu drabo second by mr smith uh roll call mr abby drabo uh miss bassford yes miss beltran mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr smith yes miss danny yes hmm you
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Bester for not reading it Thank You Katherine now Tim looks like we now have you on two screens this is a very high-tech now I guess sorry can you on this one yes absolutely go ahead great okay thank you so I noticed if I if I caught it correctly before I got locked out by technology the I don't know if everybody actually knew the right budget that we were working off of right now and so I'm just curious what when did we send that when did we receive the email specifically with this budget about 10:30 this morning imagine in the finance meeting last night that I would send it at 11:00 before 11 o'clock this morning yeah yeah okay so this is alright so 1042 yeah that's what I'm looking at okay thank you all right yeah okay with regard to the with regard to the construction project manager I've mentioned it before I don't know if it was ever actually during like an official meeting but basically we look at the board has five or six rows that we control and within each row you can move money around is that right you have the authority to do that yeah I mean we could move between really any line but there's really limited flexibility with most of the lines you know okay yeah we moved between lines and at the end of the year at the last fiscal meeting fiscal year close we can you know finally move solidify everything to close the budget year all right so what we're doing right now I don't know if there was a motion to eliminate that or anything like dude because I lost there was not eating there was not okay so anyways but my point is is you're getting a sense from people as you know questioning whether we move forward and you still have flexibility it doesn't even necessarily need to happen even if we do vote on this budget tonight is that fair to say do we have to give the town the money if we vote to approve this for that position yes I you know I don't know that we would be cutting them a check tomorrow or anything like that okay I you know somebody had mentioned earlier and I apologize for not recalling who but you know who knows if I think I may have been faith that if this position even gets hired yeah for six months and if that case you know we would be prorating I think that money you know so we're not cutting a check tomorrow yeah but I mean even any position if you get like if you all of a sudden ends up with you know 300 kindergarteners 300 additional unexpected kindergarteners you can move your budget around yeah I would have to mean things things can move and we do though it's oh yeah so that was that was a simple point that I wanted to make so are we were we about to vote on were we about to vote on a budget right now I'm amended on the amended motion which includes the 10:30 10:45 whatever it was budget the the Adam read the amendment to that that was the amended motion the 10:45 version okay so if we vote if we vote on this right now then we're done with our budget for the year correct now tonight correct okay so then I just want to reiterate what I'd said last night that you know I do have some concerns about the budget and I'm planning to support it right now but I do have really strong concerns one one concern is with regard to the retirement incentives we are we are shifting a problem from us to the state budget because that increases and already underfunded state teachers pension and I don't like that but my number one priority is to the cheshire schools right here right now also what we're doing with this budget and correct me if I'm missing something here Jeff but we are using a one-time reserve that you created in relation to kovat this year of one no I don't think so I mean is the town I mean not as a Board of Education we are giving the town 1.2 million dollars we are asking the town to hold 200 thousand in a later motion on our behalf because this budget does not include what we anticipate to be a significant cost related to Coe bid and then 2021 year so when we turn the calendar to the next fiscal year in July there will be costs that we incur that we will need to cover they aren't part of our regular operating budget so that's that's that money I don't know if that question no I understand that with the regard is a bigger number the 11.2 lien basically in savings that you found this year and related relation and transportation and a number of other things one person whatever the point is this a one-time reserve right we're basically creating from my perspective we are creating a hole that we will need to or the the council would need to dig out of further next year I don't care for doing that I can I get support this like I said I can support this motion but it is I do view that as a serious concern for me yeah so I just offered that there is we do still have another possibility on the table to maintain services which is that I as one of seven am open to open to discussion of contracts and you know I look at it and it's I think the number I saw it was in the past two or three months whatever since kovat locked down 42 million people are unemployed a lot of people have taken pay cuts people have gotten no raises they're just not going to get him for the next 12 months and I would be I would be like to have a hear more from particularly the teachers because that's the biggest part of the budget the biggest part of the increase but also from the other unions to about the possibility of you know no call it no raise next year in exchange for no layoffs I don't know if it'll happen but I think we're gonna have an even bigger hole next year and a bigger problem next year's is what I'm thinking too so I just wanted to put that out there so people heard that yeah okay that's it thank you Adam thank you Tim all right oh I was gonna comment but have Conoco first let's see we had an I believe you came up first God so I would just add to what Tim was saying that we have to approve this 908 hundred thousand dollar budget because that's the number that was given to us so what we're discussing tonight somebody can clarify for me if I'm wrong so what we're discussing tonight is how we're going to make up that from our from our budget request it's not about asking the teachers to give up some more of their compensation sure that negotiation can happen and and it would perhaps save us money but I just wanted to reiterate that I just I I don't think that we should be going to the teachers and asking them to renegotiate their raises for next year they're under contract and you know they've given so much in this crisis so much of their time and their skills and being there for it for the students and being there for the for the schools in general so my real objection to this budget cut is simply that one line an added expenditure of 42,000 and that if that stays in any amended version I will not be supporting this this this budget thank you sorry okay Thank You Ann Tony you would comment I Katherine were you ahead of us or my is that older okay thank you sorry so I know for folks watching is a lot of information in just the last 20 or 30 minutes on this topic before we go I just want to add my my my final thoughts on this budget so it's for the record yes we're talking about a net reduction to our increase of nine hundred and eight thousand six hundred twenty eight dollars our total budget going into 2020 2021 is gonna be 474 million five hundred ninety three thousand nine hundred twenty-six dollars so as I put it out there that we are getting an increase granted it's not what we discussed at length back in January and again who knew back then what would happen in a couple months I just want to say I certainly don't fault the town council this is not a not really this is not a situation where you know town councils you know trying to pinch a penny we've seen that happen many many times in the past the past this is different we're we don't like doing this when I say we use the board anytime Council or the time government we want to preserve jobs we don't want to impact services we don't want to impact our education any way shape or form you know these are these are tough things to look at and you know I I would love nothing more if we lost no staff in this budget a fortunate just can't happen there's really no where else to go it is stat tight and as dr.
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Solon lose earlier you know it's we don't also come up with the reopening and code there's many more expenses so you know I don't be negative and not support this you know part of me says yeah this is this is a tough one it definitely is and I can assure all our staples out there that the board especially administration it's going to all they can ensure that we're still going to give a quality education as best you can next year so I will actually support this budget we need to we need to go forward on this and you know as far as you know the other position also reach out to the town council and just you know have a dialogue so that you next time it's less of an issue if at all in some ways is mixed blessing for me I approve the budget I got to tell you early on based on the indicators we've seen you know councils were thought that would be a little little less than this and that truly would have made it quite interesting what we have so the last thought is you know I I don't enjoy reaching out to our cut the bargaining units for help especially during this time it is tough so I I appreciate the fact that they've been keeping over mine on this and please help for our employees that are watching we just want to make sure that we have you here for the next couple of years without fear losing your positions and not on strike fear nobody of course but you know next year I do believe when I say next year 21 22 I think my point visible tougher maroc well we want to write this up together and so just do you know that we're all trying to work together to make this happen in I think think everyone I think Jeff and team for all your work on this it's been a long journey at mega town council for all their involvement so I will support this and that's all I understand this Adam thank you thank you Tony um let's see who was Tim go ahead thanks Adam yeah I just wanted to I didn't say before I forgot to say it I apologize for that but and reminded me in her comments I appreciate the efforts of the teachers and everything that they've done you know the ayase who've been doing work at the DAAD food distribution I appreciate all the efforts that employees have made over the last couple months they have been great at the same time as I was mentioning before a lot of people have taken hits if not unemployment they've taken hits to their to their wages in some fashion and or just no raise people are getting and I think that basically anybody my guess anybody who's fortunate fortunate enough to have a job today after the you know through these past two months everybody maybe not everyone but most people have made huge strides or huge efforts in making stuff happen people I talk to friends I have people I work with I know that that has happened for me personally I pretty much since March I told my boss with my four and five-year-olds at home I don't work at 9 to 5 job anymore I said I'll get my job done you cannot expect me to be working 9:00 to 5:00 and then I work you know 9:00 p.m.
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to 1:00 a.m. is like a typical shift for me and that is that's not a complaint in any way I'm very happy to have my job there's no slight towards of teachers in any way or anybody else it's just a matter of I just feel like this is the reality that we need to deal with and my goal is to maintain services and as Tony said keeping everybody employed that means a lot to me too for people to have a job and I've been saying that for the past couple months in these meetings it really does mean a lot to me so I appreciate what the superintendent has done over the last couple months so I just go back to what I said before and I hope that there is there hope there is some disk further discussion about it Thank You Adam thank you Tim and before I call for a vote I guess I'll I'll have my final comment as many of you know I've been a board of education budget Hawk for many years so I appreciate the reductions that Jeff and team have really put forward here and I recognize that this is really down to the bottom of the barrel where where the the reductions that are in this budget right now that we potentially will be exciting in favor for really gets down to the bottom and and and as I said during the the combined budget meetings between the board of n the Town Council Mike my concern is that you know that we we've used these what essentially is one-time savings to preserve as many staff and services as possible for the the 2021 year ah but my concern wasn't necessarily even for next year is for the for the year after that 21 22 I know that the governor's already stated that we are potentially in a deficit of over four billion dollars and that could potentially mean an additional reduction potentially to our ECS funding or any of the other additional funding that we get as part of our town funding and that could that could potentially mean an additional million dollar reduction to our to our increase or our budget next year and as I think is as we did the calculations if if this if we had since we've used all of our basically our savings this year that could protect that means if we had to do this again that that means positions in 21 22 so I just I just wanted to publicly state that that you know 21 22 is it you know as much sleep as we may have lost this time lamenting over what we have to do this year be much worse next year I hope it's not but just you know know what we do now preserves us for at least one year we know that the you know of the reopen in the fall could you know could be bumpy maybe it won't be maybe it'll be great but at least for me I'll definitely be supporting this this budget amendment with the thought of looking into the future knowing that there's not a not a lot left there so thank you for that indulgence and an you had a response go ahead sure I just want to say in response to what you were just saying Adam that make no mistake a million dollar reduction from what we requested for our budget for next year is hurting our educational system it is hurting our instruction and what we're what we're allowed to be able to do and I do think it is going to get worse but we don't have to year after year take these reductions to our proposed budgets from the Tet the town it's happened every single year that I've been on the board and granted that's only five years but I was attending budget meetings prior to when I got on the board and it seemed like it happens every year it doesn't matter if it's Cove in nineteen it doesn't matter there's always some reason to put our education budget at risk and for that reason I I cannot support an extra expenditure of forty two thousand dollars for an administrative project manager it's it's money that that could and must be spent on on other parts of our budget our operations for next year Thank You Anne is there any other further comment on this motion okay seeing none do I need to read the motion again okay then all in favor of the motion that was read several minutes ago on favorite amended motion by the amended motion motion on the table the amended motion on the table make sure we get all the words correct thank you all in favor Tony did you vote YES or that's five okay five four against two against okay so that's 5 4 2 against thank you to everyone who was who was store who was against and I can't see I don't know I'm just curious let's see mr.
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Peres Jeanne mrs. Hamm mr. Martelli mr. white and myself okay opposed miss Harrigan masala okay mr. Gribble can I just have two seconds go right ahead and I don't want to believe or this but I want to thank you guys you know for your work throughout a lengthy in unprecedented budget process I also just want to take a second to thank VIN and Marlene and our administrators who really I mean this is really unprecedented for us as well so many different things to to consider I'd be remiss if I didn't also you know particularly Tracy Hussey and Mary GAD Mike was I was on the phone with so many different administrators after last last night's meeting it was late it's been we been in Marlene and I met again and met again this morning you know a lot of effort and I just want to single out members of our team that had really really worked hard to try and put this together for our kids and community and for you so I just want to thank them publicly thank you for that indulgence mr.
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grubo no problem okay we're now moving on to a motion number or item number four in the finance section and this was a motion to approve an internal control and operational review just to review on March 12th we had a meeting with the administrators of the I guess the largest Student Activity accounts that would have been for the high school the Dodd middle school and Highland school and then they gave us an overview of their the internal controls that they used to to construct to oversee the expenditures of the student activity funds that are given generously by parents and sometimes students and through some through their fundraising efforts to support all the extracurricular activities that all of our students are involved in every year and normally that amounts to around a million dollars every year in and out that's additional money that's contributed by by the parents normally and their supporters every year that's that's not part of their the taxes that they pay for to the school for example and so this internal control review and operational review is meant to to assure that the internal controls that the school administrators were lack of better turn testifying to we want to make sure that not only are they that they work in practice but that also we we have noticed that on the policy side that the actual policy that controls those or that dictates those internal controls was now updated has not been updated since 1997 and we want to make sure that if we make any revisions to that policy that we are doing them in accordance with current accepted accounting principles and gatsby rules so with that said I would like to make this motion I move that the Treasury Board of Education approve an internal control and operational review of student activity funds including the high school middle school and five elementary schools the turf and educational programs special revenue funds excluding grants adult education and summer school activities and board of education general fund expenditure credits to determine if internal controls are adequate and that activity is being properly reported the review should include identification of all sources of revenue and testing of expenditures focusing on but not limited to larger transactions the determinate of policies and procedures are being adhered to upon completion of formal report should be issued detailing results of the procedures performed do I have a second for the motion I can second I can handle a second Thank You faith so with that second I will enter into discussion on the motion is there discussion on the motion let's see yeah I saw captain I saw your hand first then we'll go to and go ahead Katherine okay okay so you know this motion so I want to clarify something that this motion is there is really no need for this motion this was part of what included in an RFP for the town audit and it's already out there and their RFP is out there this is the language that's in the RFP apparently and I I feel you know I I'm not sure why we need to mmm as a just a matter of procedure vote on a motion that has no effect really so that's one thing secondly I you know I think that this is going to cost money which is not horrible but that's an additional expense that the board is going to have to fund and we don't really know yet I don't think what the cost is because you know the poet's haven't come in or whatever so I it also feels a little bit open-ended in that way finally the formal report that's going to issued shouldn't that be specifically issued to the Board of Ed for you know whatever action we want to take on it or because it just says it will be issued and I don't understand where that means it goes so those are my questions comments concerns I think you've got and I'll let you comment first before I respond go ahead yes so my comments are pretty much in line with some is halon's I'm uncomfortable with with this motion for the same couple of reasons and they are why because the motion is very specific and Mike when this is actually all going to happen might we have a different idea of how to do it and we don't know what it's going to cost and I mean it seems to me that the time to have this is Anna and I would preface everything that I'm saying with I think it's a really good idea to have this audit on those accounts I just don't think now is the right time I think the time is when we know more about what it's going to cost and where we stand at that time and I don't see any reason to bind our hands right now with this motion by passing a motion thank you thank you in um Tim go ahead yeah thank you just on the comment with regard to of being a symbolic vote I mean we did that only earlier it's just earlier tonight with the Darcy principle it was this symbolic code I I mean I don't ever see the need for him but that's it to me it's okay having symbolic votes and yeah that's it thank you thank you Tim Tony Thank You Adam so I want this topic more stuff to get through but is an important one and agree we need this it's just uh you know I don't expect the same thing wrong at all but we want to get our policies in just you know don't some cleanup work there I think it will help a lot I reached out to chairman doors earlier today a council about this and it wasn't quite sure if it was decided be paying for it so you know whatever with what we could recommend we need have a discussion I'm pretty confident that they'll pick up the expense because it might be fairly small but I can write given the discussion what that or the position other things one of the things that you know if folks are uncomfortable voting are missed and you know so this goes one of the things you could do is make a motion to postpone this motion and definitely it was essentially a motion and takes off the table Murray we can bring it up later perhaps a maybe there are June 30th Board of Education finance meeting where hopefully by then we'll have some answers to the question of what will cost and we'll pay for it that's something that's really on people's minds otherwise you know the other thing too is as Kathryn flutter it literally is you know it's a quote fun to come back in yet you know when they come back in you know I'm sure countless on council that the cost again still have even thought of it not do it yeah but some options here nonetheless that pretty sure is going to happen when we and other as part of general kind of white audits like well hope the Town Council picks up but the cost I think stuff in your budget but like you know good first playbook clarity in our budget but there's something consider thank you Tony Andrew go ahead sure symbolic vu or not I just think that there's a lot of money in these accounts to cover all the schools this is my painting by families and students and I don't see why we wouldn't want to make sure that internal controls are being followed and that procedures are in place thank you Andrew let's see Tim go ahead yeah I mean I'd like to know the I'd like to know the payment for this I think I might have a second right here Tony III don't know Robert's Rules that well what I'd like to do is make it offer a motion to table this yeah point of order in that just so you know it choir two-thirds majority vote to have that passed the table it's at five yeah and there's a difference between tabling emotion and tabling indefinitely if we table it indefinitely it's completely off the table and you know it doesn't come back up at later time which is them just say this way to do that that way June thirtieth it is not a motion we bring it up then and Jeff I'm pretty sure it's the procedure yeah okay so okay so then I make a motion some you try to read my mind here I make a motion to table indefinitely and if we want to discuss what we can I make a motion to table this indefinitely there are is that it and screen froze without a hand for a second okay all right so there's a second for a motion to table and definitely the the audit motion that I brought forward earlier so now we will have discussion on the discussion on page indefinitely as it goes right to a vote oh it goes right to a vote there's no discussion okay motion to table indefinitely hmm all in favor I will too all right so we have just moved to two table this motion indefinitely and without further comment yeah and we're bringing hopefully bring it up at a later time yes absolutely yes I think we all we all concur that it's important to do but that there's still a couple of unknowns let's see him before we move on he looks like Katherine you had a comment go ahead yeah yeah and just just you know kind of speak to Andrews comment I I was not suggesting that it wasn't important to you know audit these accounts or you know make sure that everything is copacetic I was more I was arguing about the procedure more than anything so I just you know I just want to clarify that for the record that I was not in any way suggesting that we should just you know never pay attention to these accountants or anything so that's all Thank You Katherine okay and yeah and III agree as well there are a couple of unknowns here as well you know I've been a proponent of this audit but at the same time there are so a couple things that hopefully could be clarified VIN I believe you said that the bids will be open at some point in the next week or so is that correct from memory the day was June 9th June nights so well we will have more clarity before June 30 that's what your is what we could potentially know you know more costs and that sort of thing okay Thank You Finn so what else okay so next we have a very important motion approval of request for a deposit of non lapsing education fund when anyone like to make that motion I'll make the motion yes all right I move that the Board of Education requests the Town Council to deposit $200,000 of unexpended funds from the 2019 2020 operating budget into a non lapsing unexpended education funds account pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes 10-2 for eight a and board of education policy number three one seven one point one non lapsing education fund thank you is there a second and sorry again and seconds it's their discussion on the motion is there any discussion on this motion okay seeing none all in favor of the motion to deposit two hundred thousand looks like well Tim isn't here so I guess what would we oh wait here's Tim hold on Tim we're but I can you hear us Tim this is a little unusual Tim all right so if you see all of our hands up here we are voting - in support of the motion to transfer 200,000 you may see it on your agenda there okay Tim all right so we have a unanimous vote thank you Tim excellent and it is my pleasure to report that this concludes the finance the committee portion of this report and I need a second just get back to the agenda and I'm doing that while I'm talking but first of all I want to again thank the board everyone administration for this process as folks are watching you can see this is not easy a lot of things to consider so thank you at those in the Finance Committee report Andrew you are up next we are on planning committee I'll try to keep this as brief and concise as possible then I might lean to you right before the motions so out of our out of our planning committee meeting on Tuesday evening there'll be two motions I will vote on after I go through our summary here first item that we discussed was JK Energy also known as JK Energy Resources USA they had performed some energy work over I treasure high school last summer which included some work for the steam piping installation as well as Cheshire high school LED lighting replacement after work after they completed that work they did a full assessment of our school buildings and they came up with several projects to include work at all the elementary schools as well as over at middle school which as a result will lead to 99% of all of our lighting within the school there are school buildings being led I'll get into the actual funding of how that will work later on after I go through the other projects after that we heard an update on stadium lighting replacement high school also JK energy so currently there's metal halide lighting at the main football field this project has already been approved what is being awarded to JK an amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars the actual cost to the town is one hundred twenty six thousand three hundred and fourteen dollars after reduction of thirteen thousand dollars in energy savings from ever source there is a 30-foot candle standard required at the football field which we are not meeting now with their current lighting array and so this project will result in us meeting that requirement energy savings for the district will be two thousand eight hundred and seventy three dollars but more importantly thirty five hundred dollars in maintenance costs for those old lights will be saved by the town we heard an update on fifteen different projects which are either under construction or will be under construction in the next year district this range is from underground tank removal at the elementary schools to window replacements over a Cheshire high school flooring replacements paving and other projects all over the board some of these are still in the design phase and then they will be put out to bid and construction will take place it was a rough day on Capitol projects that were delayed which one of which had come before us earlier which was Cheshire High School a DA compliance for the door realignments within the high school I mean our joint board about in town council meeting we heard that that project there was only one bidder that was submitted and so they asked that that project go back out to dead as well as for the security upgrades the people trapped at the elementary school I believe it was at Chapman school as well as Dodd mill school correct me if I'm wrong Vidhan norton and chapman Noren in chat so that work is being delayed as well as the do little boiler project which will be done but there's a tank that needs to be removed and then that will that work will take place the other item that we heard about was performance environmental performance environmental is the private contractor that provides cleaning services to all the district schools performance environmental has been with us since 2014 there is a motion before Smeg to extend their contract for one year for 2022 2021 beginning in July that number there is a 5.5 percent increase from their base contract which will raise it from approximately six hundred eighty two thousand dollars to 719,000 that full contract cost is still below the 2017-2018 budget for cleaning services for the district and they have been from what rich and VIN and others I've heard in the district have said they've been providing us with superior service especially in light of the Cova 19 responds with buffing the cleaning protocols within the schools there will be savings which will be realized which I'll have been talked about a little bit in regards to the fact that our staff has performed a lot of the maintenance and cleaning services early on so there'll be about a hundred and three thousand dollar reduction in their contract so that's the overall update for the planning committee then there are two motions and so now I just kind of like it back into the JK Energy proposal so I had mentioned that JK was going to be doing work district-wide at our elementary and middle school their project in total will be $139,000 includes LED lighting at Dodd Pyland doolittle Chapman Darcy and Norton as well as refrigeration controls at Highland and at Dodd we are realizing savings of through the energy conservation incentive of fifty three thousand nine hundred and twenty one dollars and sixty cents the total cost to the district will be eighty-five thousand one hundred and seventy-five dollars an important that will be paid back in three point seven six years the $85,000 will come by way of a five-year tryst free loan from eversource that correct red that is absolutely correct okay so that's JK energy so I want to stop there because that's the first motion so there's any other questions event if you want to bring up any information if anybody has any questions while you're speaking I could show very quickly the you know the overall summary that we received today which is updated when we met with planning this week the energy incentive that was reported was 32,000 and now there's an enhanced energy saving savings so it went up to over 50,000 dollars just give me one second here so I'm just going to show you the the latest and the greatest document we received so if hopefully you could see my screen over here on the right side as Andrew said the project cost is a hundred thirty-nine thousand eversource contributes fifty three thousand nine twenty one upfront to the contractor after the works done so this 85,000 of the cost of the of the projects the estimated cost savings annually from energy reduction is twenty two thousand six sixty one a year so in five years actually it's been changed to four years and four years when we complete paying the loan back again it's interest-free loan the twenty two thousand six sixty one seventy one is what we will benefit from in terms of energy savings so in a nutshell we're not laying out any cash for this project the five-year interest-free loan plus the energy incentive pay for it and after five years we continue to save twenty two thousand six hundred sixty one dollars per year and the fact that 99 percent of our school buildings will be powered by LEDs is a huge milestone you know I think for our as a school district we are reducing our lighting energy cost with this project by about fifty six and a half percent over where we are currently and we're getting very very good lighting in LED the only other thing I'll add is that I think that board members all now in 2015 we did a fairly extensive energy performance contract with that maresco at that time we upgraded to LED lighting in our classrooms and in our hallways so this particular project we'll go back and retrofit everything that we weren't able to do during that time offices storage rooms auditoriums gyms will all be converted to LED that's the long and short of it I think if must are any questions questions anything oh yeah just a quick one VIN did you say what what was the difference or what popped up the savings from thirty to fifty K yeah have a source improved the incentive you know so you know and what happened is I reached out to JK Energy today just to you know start generating the final paperwork because you know as Andrew will explain this doesn't need council approval because we're borrowing money the board doesn't have that authority so in making that request they informed me that there was just a change made and the paperwork that they sent were flight board of two thousand dollar incentive on $139,000 project which is just terrific so we'll take it yeah thank you then the the only other point that I just want to add is this is what a three and a half year payback or so yeah three point seven all right so let's just say we've moved forward with school modernization build a new building and demo an existing building we're still using that building for next two to three years anyway right I mean we're not getting a new building up and in two years I don't think no though in terms of there's there's I don't feel like there's any money being wasted here I think this is a slam dunk and also there are possibilities for more savings if you are a homeowner and your residential bill you probably know what kilowatt hours are you don't pay for kilowatts but commercial buildings do pay for kilowatts there will be savings associated it could be one penny it could be more than that but there's savings also here that we're not calculating into this $50,000 savings as far as I know it it wasn't valued there a couple days ago so thank you any other questions come on faith yeah hey just just I know when will this project start and how long it takes to complete the goal is to have the work done over the summer this summer yes maybe else offer motion now Chris yes yes please would anybody like to make a motion I'll make the motion I move that the Board of Education approves the recommendation to proceed with the energy improvement project with JK energy and further to seek the required approval from the Cheshire Town Council for approval of the financing agreement second all in favor everybody's seen what's up I think I can't see a half of you guys are just the rail okay everybody having seven nothing if you only count one of the Siamese Tim's yes all right I'm moving on so we're gonna move on to the item number three under planning committee which is the approval of extension of agreement with important with performance environmental for cleaning services district-wide so as I say it earlier the performance environmental has gotten great reviews from the the district they've been cleaning the school facilities since July 1st 2014 their contract was rebid in 2018 2018 bid did realize savings of over forty three forty thousand dollars then do you want to do the actual numbers forming would you be so kind I will I will do that all right thank so a couple of things that that I will highlight you know the first is that during the Cova 19 building closure period we did suspend services with performance environmental you know which they handled very graciously so we did stop paying them from March 27 under their contract through just recently we did have them start doing some cleaning services early on in the pandemic you know they they stepped up and did the disinfecting they had a the Harmison central office building twice because we did have an employee that was kovat positive so they they've been very good during this period the contract extension the the first two years of the contract after we bid it the price was fixed at six hundred eighty two thousand four hundred eighty eight dollars so now that they're entering the third year of the contract if we did go with them one of the things that they explained is that when the minimum wage increase in the state of Connecticut went from 1010 an hour to an $11 per hour on October 1st that negatively impacted them and the minimum wage is going to $12 an hour this coming September 1st you know which will also negatively impact them we're not surprised by that so what we did is we did negotiate and a five and a half percent price increased seemed reasonable and responsible frankly they did not you know raise our contracted rate on October 1st 2019 obviously we were under a contract so the impact of that is that will go from six hundred eighty two thousand four eighty eight to a contract value of seven hundred nineteen thousand 784 assuming this is approved however the fact is that during this building closure period our building maintain errs went in and we're doing the cleaning work for the summer that ordinarily we'd would higher performance environmental to do during the months of July in August so we will not be needing performance environmental you know to do that cleaning over the summer and as we were negotiating with them you know be they are well aware of it and they agreed so the contract reduction is a hundred eight hundred three thousand eight fifteen is what we're estimating so although the contract full contract value is seven hundred nineteen thousand seven eighty four the reality is for twenty Twenty twenty one its we're gonna pay them 615,000 969 Mary note that you know we did talk about it in planning and that I'll share with the board members is that we're not sure what twenty twenty twenty-one will bring in terms of sanitizing disinfecting you know additional cleaning requirements when the students return to school you know we may need to do intraday cleaning of our bathrooms and you know if we cannot have our maintenance staff do it we may high performance environmental staff to do it but regardless of that from a financial point of view based on the recommendation that was put forth and approved by planning I think we have a good contractor you know absolutely support the extension of their contract you know for the one additional year and I think the increase that they requested was negotiated and and works for us so they are a fairly big firm and they have a lot of resources so when we do need any kind of special services or special cleaning you know they are the type of firm that can rise to the occasion you know and help us know that is the yeah I think that that really is all I can add at this point Andrew and the owner has a Chester resident yes and certainly very interested in maintaining the quality of the cleaning that is done in our schools and he takes it very very seriously you know they you know they are very responsive as a firm you know he has a good staff good supervisory staff and it's rare that he's needed to get involved but if he does the problem is resolved and I think that is an important characteristic you know of a firm when when an issue arises if they resolve it and they're responsive that's that's you know very important for us and cleaning our schools is not an easy task and we're in year 7 you know completing year 7 of our contract with them and still very satisfied they've actually gotten even better over the last two years they they did change out one of their supervisors so we're quite satisfied faith did you have a question so okay no that was from the last cut that was the last motion we're good yours that yeah thank you okay is there a motion for an extension for the contract for performance environmental cleaning services do the motion I move that the Board of Education approves the extension of the contract with performance environmental LLC for the 20 20 20 20 21 fiscal year there a second looks like here I second any discussion all in favor all right thank you thank you all right I offer a second running out there's an expression spot but that I couldn't make it in time up next we have a policy committee update and report Thank You mr.
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chairman after that the wonderful report from planning I feel refreshed and ready to go for policy now for a policy it was its reporting on our meeting from leave was on Monday if I recall correctly it was one of our the shortest meetings in recent memory I believe they both of the policies that we discussed were to be up for a third and final reading after a short discussion about policy 91/30 we made a slight non-material tweak arm which sort of loosened up the wording just a touch just in case there was anything that we could not in our great wisdom could not foresee so it allowed the policy to be a little more give administration a little more leeway or actually well give our give ourselves a little more leeway because that's a board of it committee direction there so with that said I would like to make a motion motion that the Cheshire Board of Education give a third and final reading to bylaws 91/30 committees and 9320 one time place notification type of meetings let me read that again a policy number ninety three twenty one time place notification type of meetings that's the title of the policy 19 through 21 and direct the superintendent to put said policies into immediate effect Katherine you second is there any discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor look unanimous thank you motion passes um that's all I have for policy Thank You mr.
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