September 22, 2022 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education Thursday September 22nd 2022. If you'd all now please rise to a salute to our flag and a brief moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call please. Mr. Abidrabo? Here. Mr. Watt? Ms. Baskford? Here. Ms. Beltran? Here. Mr. Canova? Here. Dr. Danny? Here. Mr. Paris? Here. Vice President Daley? Here. President Smith? Here. We have a quorum. Our mission statement this evening by Vice President Daley. Thank you, Mr. President. The mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal community partnership. is to provide all students with a quality

002education to develop the skills necessary to become literate, lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world. The Open Public Meetings Act, the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law, was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date, time, and place thereof posted at the City Clerk's Office, Clifton Public Library, Administration Building, Senior Citizen Nutrition Center, on cable TV, in the local press, and on the district's website, and mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organizations. This meeting will be tape

003recorded in accordance with policy 0168. I did want to let everyone know that our feed to the TV station, Channel 77, is down. So this is not being shown on Channel 77 tonight. It is still being live streamed on our website. So you can go to the live stream and watch the meeting. They will be putting a message up on channel 77 where the planning board is going to take our place and they'll put a little message on there to let everyone know that the meeting will not be televised and they can watch it on our live stream. Again, it's a technological issue that cannot be repaired at this time. So, and we only have one camera working tonight. So, The audience will probably not be on camera tonight. That the one camera is just

004posed on the dais. So if you were looking to get your fame on the TV tonight, I'm sorry. It's not going to happen tonight. So we will move on. Our PBSIS coordinator, Paula Ragosa, is here to make some wonderful presentations to a school who's doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you, President Smith, Vice President Mr. Daly, Dr. Robitose, Central Administration, and Commissioners. I am super thrilled for the start to the new year. The amazing and talented Woodrow Wilson crew. They've been implementing for a while now, and you've heard from them before. In particular, Mr. Bajica last year introduced us to how they instruct students at the beginning of the school year. This year, they followed suit by asking their staff to provide lesson plans around the expectations at Woodrow Wilson

005Middle School, as well as how to earn their PBIS reward points. We've talked about that often. What you're about to see is the culmination of a full year of planning. So they really start planning this particular event along with the lesson plans next week for next year. So it's a full year in the making, but what you're going to see now is the celebratory piece after they've instructed students and staff on the expectations. So I don't want to X you out. No, I was going to. I'm going to tell you why I'm really excited. Recently, we had, in the first time in two years, our PBIS. Pat Brownlee. It was so nice to see all of our students together cheering each other and supporting each other in a positive manner. Something that we have all

006missed for the last two years. It was truly the first time we saw our true heartbeat. Our students excited and enjoying school. I can't wait for the next time we do something like this. The kickoff assembly was phenomenal. My favorite part was seeing students and teachers collaborate together, work together. pretty much have fun together. You could definitely feel the sense of community and collaboration in the room. So great job to the team, great job to the students. Being ambitious, right? That means we have a strong desire to succeed. In order to succeed, we need to be on time to class. We need to ask for help when we need it. We have respectful. I'm sure we all know what this means, right? Let's make sure we are polite, we are kind, and we treat others

007with dignity and empathy. Let's make sure we understand the difference between your feelings and someone else. Let's make sure we accept everybody. We're not making any judgment. We're all here to have a great time. We want to have a great school year. So let's make sure we follow those three pillars. The kickoff is one of my favorite things about our PBSIS program. It could be because I'm a former Clifford Mustang cheerleader and it gives me the chance to use my megaphone again. But in all seriousness, the best part of the kickoff for me is watching the cheer joy on the faces of our staff and our students. And although our PBSIS program has changed and evolved throughout the years, something that hasn't changed is a sense of fun, spirit, camaraderie, and togetherness that the kickoff

008evokes. It really just set the tone for the school year. And although I couldn't be there this year because of this little guy, I could definitely feel those Mustangs are all in chance from home. All right, thank you guys so much. Listen, today we're going to do something. You guys never experienced this and that's crazy to me that you are 8th graders and you never had our pep rally. Mustangs on! So one of my favorite parts of the kickoff assembly was the games we played. Especially the game where the whole team participated. Where we all went all in on the dice game. We rolled the dice, the team leaders would walk down the aisle and whoever got to the end first won. It was a great way to get the teams involved and everyone was

009all in. That's it, that's it, now head, head, head, and you have it. Now the time is out of the way, now you may have a little time, but a three or better should be hit over here. Keep it up, keep it up, you need to have it this night. Yes, yes, take it out. And we have Eddie. A four! A four! A three or higher for the week. It's a four! So do not let all the fun and games fool you. It was chalk filled with palpable energy. When you go in that building and you ask what Mustangs are all in, every single student knows their expectations and can tell you all about it. I praise the Woodrow team, I praise all of our buildings, and I just would like to thank the Woodrow

010team for kicking us off to a great school year. Thank you so much. I would, President Smith, Dr. Robotozzi, if you'd be so kind as to help us present some certificates to the part of the team that is here with us tonight. So the first up is their fearless leader, Mr. Andy Jaeger. Mrs. Voitilo. Mrs. Carr, one of our PBSIS Woodrow coaches. And the voice of Woodrow Wilson, and I have to say it this way because he is the resident DJ, the voice of Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Conklin. Thank you, Ms. Ragosa and Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Jaeger, doing a fantastic job over there. You and your staff put a lot of time and effort to put that in for that little clip that we just showed you. So a tremendous amount of work, and we thank

011your entire team and the wonderful students at Woodrow Wilson for doing a great job. Thank you. Okay, so I can get her name. Where did she go? Lillian here Lillian the student representative thank you thank you for being here do you have a report to give for us or okay go ahead the floor is yours hold up when Mike is not on thank you good evening everyone I'm Lillian Usha and I'm the junior representative I want to start my report with a quick update on sports Clifton is in the fall season with boys soccer having a pretty good season so far. The undefeated Mustangs are number 15 in the state. 13 of their former students and athletes are playing college soccer and one former Mustang, Matt Miazga, is playing professional soccer and representing the United

012States national team. Last weekend, cross country had their meet and the boys placed in third while the girls team placed eighth. The football team is also starting off their season well, including a 21 to 13 win last Friday against Eastside. Boys soccer has a game today at Clifton Stadium that started at 7. Girls tennis has a match tomorrow at 4 against DePaul Catholic. Girls volleyball has a game against Fairlawn at 4.15 tomorrow. Football has a game this Saturday against Del Barton at 1. A couple other events that you should look out for are... Back to school night for the high school will be taking place on Wednesday, September 28th This is going to be hybrid so guardians can choose to go to school or log in online CHS spirit week is also starting on the

013week of October 3rd The homecoming football game is on the 7th. This game is for all of Clifton. It is wait It is a way to bring our community together so I seriously encourage everyone to come out and support Clifton. The following day is the homecoming dance which is on the 8th at the old high school annex. Clifton High School is bringing back the Halloween extravaganza on October 27th. Please make sure to come and bring your families. There will be a CHS open house on November 2nd and we encourage middle schoolers and their guardians to come out and see what Clifton High School has to offer. I also want to mention that the Clifton High School's mock trial team is going to Baltimore this Friday to compete in the Empire competition. We wish them a

014safe and successful trip. Thank you. Lillian, thank you so much on behalf of the board. We appreciate the time that you came here to give your report, and you did a great job. Thank you so much, and we welcome you back anytime. Students, if you wish to exit, you could, and Woodrow Wilson staff also, if you want to exit, you could. But if you want to stay for the fun, you're more than welcome. We'll move into public recognition. This portion of the meeting is open to residents and non-residents of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District. Residents and non-residents are requested, if in person, to sign the register provided for the purpose. All speakers are asked to state

015their names, municipality, and subject matter before speaking. Comments are limited to five minutes per person. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the Board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. Your questions may or may not be answered by board members. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should

016consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Okay, we'll start with, do we have anyone calling in? Okay. Hi, we have Hector Pena. Hector, can you hear us? Hi, Hector. Hi, can you hear us? Hello? Hector Pena can you hear us do you wish to address the Board of Education Mr. Pena can you hear us would you wish to address the Board of Ed no okay we'll move on Rocio Baldwin can you hear us Rocio Baldwin can you hear us last time Rocio Baldwin okay let's move on to the next Shafiq's Galaxy S20+. Shafiq, can you hear us? Shafiq, do you wish to address the Board of Education? Definitely not muted. Last time.

017Shafiq, are you addressing the Board of Education? Okay, let's move on. We have Shannon Tyson. Shannon Tyson, can you hear us? They're still connecting to audio. Anya? Want me to move on? We can come back if they're not connected. Okay, we have Luis. Luis can you hear us Luis Luis do you wish to address the Clifton Board of Education go ahead Luis how are you all right last call Luis okay good night miss Martinez do you wish to address the Board of Education Hello, Ms. Martinez. Do you wish to address the Board of Education? Yes. Okay, hi. Hi, Mrs. Martinez. How are you? I'm a little sick. That's why I stay home. Okay, would you like to address the Board? You have five minutes. Five minutes. I'll put the counter on. Yes. Go ahead. You

018can start. Go ahead, Ms. Martinez. You can address us. I don't want to say anything. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a good one. We have Maximo Raina. I don't see anyone there. I see the chair. Maximo Raina, do you wish to address the Board of Education? Sam, you are the person who sends out the communications. Yes, sir. Could you just explain to the board and for everybody else? you know what the communication says and why we're having this issue it's my understanding that to me what appears to be happening here is people who just want to be watching the live stream have instead joined the meeting but the communication that goes out does differentiate that does it not The communication that goes out to the public does specify that for Zoom

019computer participants who wish to speak publicly may log on with that link and that the live stream is a separate link that would be mailed out or posted five minutes before the meeting. So the communication is clear that this is solely for Zoom or phone-in comments only. So that's about it. Just so we're clear. It looks like there's more, and then we'll wrap this part. Is the email only sent in English? Danny, do you know? Is the email only sent in English? It was translated in the past. There should be another. There's a translate button on our website Okay, I'm just saying because it seems to be a trend that mostly Hispanic parents are calling in so maybe they're just not clear on the email Hi Oscar, you're on the line with the Clifton Board

020of Ed meeting. Would you like to make a comment? Hi Oscar, you're on the Hi, how are you today? Good. How are you? Would you like to make a public comment at the Clifton Board of Ed meeting? Did you wish to make a comment sir? sorry I can't I didn't don't can't listen good mr. Gosa is she still here could you translate you don't know if you should can you hear us a al enlace de YouTube. No, it's on the website. Okay. Disculpame. No, todo bien. Buenas noches para todos. Señor, está en Facebook y en el website. Okay. Gracias. Con mucho gusto. Okay. Alright, that's that. Okay, we'll now move on to those that are present here. If you wish to address the board, please come up to the... We have to motion to close.

021Yeah, motion please to close. Motion. Call in. Motion by Mr. Abadrabo. Second. Second by Mr. Paris. Okay, now anyone who wishes to address the board, please come up to the podium. Sign your name on the ledger provided. If it's there. Can you shut? No, she can't because of the timer. We want to see it. She tells them how much is left. Let me see if I can do this in five minutes. Good evening everybody My name is Connie Rexach and I live at 30 Comfort Place in Clifton and I just wanted to discuss the bus transportation So my daughter was a student at Woodrow Wilson and she did have bus transportation and now I transferred her over to a charter school in Clifton also. And they told me that she did have bus transportation. This

022was the second week of June when I signed her out of Woodrow Wilson. And when I Two days before starting date at the charter school I called up the Transportation Department and they told me that she lives or we live 1.8 miles away from the charter school so she will not be able to have the bus transportation So here it is two days before school, and I'm stuck with no transportation for pickup and drop-off, and I did the whole mile thing with the car. I'm more than 1.8 miles, but that doesn't matter. So I did call transportation and asked them if they can guide me the way that... You know the way that they're saying that it shows as 1.8 So they told me it was a walking distance and the way it was you

023come out of the home go down summer and Walk down summer and then make a left on Pine Street in Passaic, New Jersey once they said that to me I froze because I'm not too sure if anyone here knows Pine Street in Passaic. It's not a safe area. It's a drug-invested area. There's sheets on the wall saying, rest in peace. My daughter's only 12 years old. For her to have to walk this in the morning and for her to have to walk back at 3 o'clock in the afternoon going through this area, me sitting at work, knowing that she's not going to be safe at all, that's impossible. there is a bus that drops off kids two buses that drops off kids at the charter school from clifton there's seven kids on one bus five

024kids on the other bus you guys are paying a bus driver to pick up not even 10 kids i i just don't understand why You can't do the extra one cent of a mile, whatever it is. I mean, it's a 52-minute walk. There's no way that I'm going to be able to know that my daughter is safe. I mean, when is it going to be the time that you guys are going to be able to open your eyes and do the walk that a student will have to walk? I'm not only talking about myself, but I know that there's other parents. I have another friend of mine who... He also goes to Woodrow Wilson and again, it's 1.9 miles. He's a heavy set kid, so his walk has to go down Van Houten and there's

025kids that are teasing him and teasing him about his weight, about his look. And his mom is also sitting at work making sure that her child makes it home safe without being beat up or kicked around or anything like that again i just i'm not saying that every kid should have bus transportation but walk through the ways that it's a a dangerous path and then say okay that child should be bused it's not safe for this child to walk that's all i'm asking thank you thank you um mr rose is there any way of moving the laptop it's like it's found it's secured oh it's secured okay thank you what what do you want it to do it's just black where they can't see that we can't see the person with that that's a little

026better it's okay we'll have to come up with something else it's not going to work i i just it's no idea i understand it just can't be there To President Smith, Vice President Daley, Commissioners, Dr. Obatozi, administration and citizens, good evening. My name is Elias Ragsdale. I'm president of the Clifton Student Union. Just a few things today. First, I'd like to say congratulations and great job to Lillian who gave her student representative report. She was recently elected to the junior student reposition and I serve along on student council with her. So, great job, Lillian. I'd like to say thank you to the board. I'm seeing improvements on the tennis courts and they look absolutely fantastic. The season will be great. I know that to be true. Thank you for approving the mock trial trip. I

027also do serve as co-president of the mock trial team and will be leaving tomorrow morning and coming back on Monday. And we'll do a great job and represent Clifton greatly. Also, I'd like to say thank you for the security guards in high school. They're really great, very interactive with the students, but still ensure that safety is the first priority. The student union is going strong, and I'd like to say thank you to the high school administration for always being so helpful. Have a great night. Thank you. Thank you, Elias. Hi, everyone. Miriam Wegg, Lori Lane. Thank you for letting me take a few minutes of your time. Again, my name is Maryam Weig and I'm running for Clifton Board of Ed. I'd like to take this time to tell you a little bit about myself

028and some of the reasons why I'm running. I was born and raised in New York City and have been a resident of Clifton for eight years. I'm married with four beautiful and incredibly energetic boys with one more on the way. You heard that right, five boys, wish us luck. I was a computer science major in college and worked as a software developer until a couple years ago where I moved into management and was actually just promoted to senior manager last week. I've been tech and finance at corporate institutions my entire career and throughout that time I've learned a lot not only about engineering but also about working within a larger institution and the importance of communication and working with stakeholders to get by it. I've had the formal training as well as on-the-job experience to

029develop these skill sets and I'm known as the person to go to when you need to get something done. I want to take a minute to focus on communication and parent involvement. I understand what it's like as a parent of school-aged children and a parent with a full-time job. I understand the unique challenges we face, such as busing. That just came up before me because I am right there with you. It's difficult to find the time to get involved but so critical to make sure parents are able to advocate for their children's education and well-being. We live in the world which is so easily connected and we can find creative ways to get real-time answers and accommodate busy parents to make sure their voices are heard. My commitment to parents in this room and watching

030virtually is to listen, partner with you to address concerns, and better open the lines of communication to get more parents involved. Thank you again for your time and looking forward to continuing the conversation as election day gets closer. Again, my name is Marianne Webb for Clifton Board of Ed number three on a ballot. Have a great night. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Samantha Basford, Clifton, New Jersey. Class of 2008, number eight on the ballot on November 8th. That's the only thing I'm going to say about me running today. I was really disturbed and bothered by a conversation that was partaking on Facebook. Obviously, we're still talking about the health curriculum. It's not the sex ed curriculum, it's the health curriculum. Let's highlight the other part of it. And it just is unsettling to just continue

031to hear that it's not actually about the context of the curriculum, that people just kind of have a problem. with the LGBTQ plus community and as an ally I do not do performative ally ship I Have plenty of people who I love and care about who are my chosen family in that community And if I felt so bothered by a comment, I can only imagine what it's like to be a student a teacher in that community and You know, there was a comment about this gender expression, sexual exploitation being a philosophy. Being gay isn't a philosophy. It's not a lifestyle. And I really hope that people on the dais, you know, not just... Vote for proclamations and not just show up to events But this is the time to put your ally ship to practice

032and to really speak up against What people in you know the community are saying people in the sub communities are saying Because there's one thing to not agree about the curriculum in its context and Feeling that things may not be age-appropriate. That's a conversation we can have but a conversation about you hating another person and their Existence is not a conversation that should ever be happening And with a comment was made and I'm not gonna pick out the particular group because I don't want it to be coming a Group thing because I think that could be a very dangerous thing to say But it's basically a group is trying to get together to tell people to opt out because of this philosophy I'm hopefully I'm the last one to speak tonight. We're not gonna have

033the challengers come up to speak about this But something hit me this week when I was thinking about when I first went to orientation in 2008 This was something that was read are acted out by the orientation leaders. In 2012, or in 2010, I actually was an orientation leader doing it. And then in 2012 is when I had my students when I was a coordinator. Now, I won't be able to do this as much justice because this takes a group of students to do it. So some parts may not make sense, so I'm going to just take it out of it. I can show anyone the video if they really need to see it. So if my inside were my outside, no one would know in a glance, in a look, what I was, or

034most importantly, who I was. We all know that there's harassment it takes on many forms, in classrooms, in organizations, in residence halls. But if my inside were my outside, we can change this reality. Because you have to forget all the stereotypes. If my inside were my outside, then you couldn't judge me, label me, make mistaken assumptions without first asking me. And you would want to ask me if my inside were my outside, because it's the only way to know. What I think, what I feel, what I love, what I hate, what movies I like to watch, what food I like to eat, what music I like to listen to, what language I speak. If my inside were my outside, then the first thing you wouldn't be. My color, my walk, my heritage, my talk. And

035if my inside were my outside, then you wouldn't be able to make mistaken assumptions. If my inside were my outside, then I wouldn't be afraid to walk alone, to sit with you in the caf, to raise my hand in class, to let you know who I am, to go to parties where I'm outnumbered, to see a teacher after class. to be counted among the masses, to spend all my time trying to fit in, to spend my time trying to match your life instead of investing on my own. And if my inside were my outside, then you really wouldn't know. You'd have to get to know me first. And after you got to know me, you may still find out I'm a jerk, but at least you couldn't just assume it because it'd take a little

036work, and you might find out I'm beautiful. You might find on the end you get something you hadn't counted on. You get yourself a friend. We all know that there's discrimination. It takes on many forms. It happens in the classrooms, in organization, in this boardroom. But if my inside were my outside, we can change this reality because you'd have to forget all the stereotypes and just concentrate on me. Thank you. Al Dubois, Clifton. The first thing I'd like to say is we received a letter. at the end of last year, June, regarding lead in the water. I was just wondering if you can update us about that. I just had some drink over here. It was very good, so I don't know. I mean, maybe it's some other place, but it was good here, so

037if you can... Good water. The calendar. We met about the calendar. We had two meetings. The last one was excellent, and... I learned so much more. I had wrote a letter last year because there was a lot of names taken off the traditional calendar. Washington, Lincoln, Veterans Day. Columbus was up in the air where they were off. They changed Good Friday to Holy Friday. which took away its original meaning. So I wrote a letter asking for some things, mostly just to have the names placed back. A consideration maybe having Veterans Day off, because that was always traditional. And we had two meetings. They were very informative. I mean, that's what we should have been having during the masks. During the sex ed mandates and the health standard mandates a meeting like that even in person

038because I learned so much I learned that you can Take your religious holiday as an exemption. We go back we stay in the school We can leave the school maybe a week or more earlier at the end of the year It really seemed to it was fantastic and so many people had so many different inputs about how the teacher should prepare for those days and it was wonderful, so I hope that that's Followed up the only thing I'm asking for is we can get those names listed I'd like to see you know our two great presidents who are great even though people might like them at least their names put back I Mean in a way you've taken away from the spirit of what what it was well It must be honoring those presidents days

039then they said presidents day now you have all of February week off as presidents Day or week. It's just the meaning is gone. I mean as far as what it originally was so whatever you can do to You know, we have it, so I know you were putting something together, which was excellent. It was fantastic. Yearbook. My son had a friend who, he didn't hand in his yearbook money on time. And he wasn't able to get one, and he's graduating. So they tried calling, they couldn't get any because there's no extras. So I was just wondering if there's something you can do with that. I know many years ago... We messed up on that too. We didn't hand it in and we couldn't get one. So whatever you can do to look at yearbooks, if

040you can have an extra one or maybe have a copy made, these copies that you can purchase the copy so they can have something on record of the yearbook would be nice. I listened to the last meeting, and I think it was Commissioner Daley said, you know, we have three people involved in the education of our children, the parent, the student, and the teacher. And the young lady who spoke earlier said something about parents being involved. Well, what we've been coming up here asking about the sex ed mandates that the state seems to be going loony right now. If you keep reading the news, they seem to be not wanting to punish the schools and do this to the schools. It's obvious something's wrong because the parents are voicing their opinion. and they're sharing what

041they want, and the state's telling them, no, that's not good enough. So where is the cooperation that that's supposed to be if they're getting and they're going to say, you're going to do this our way or there's nothing? I would still love to have a meeting, actually in person. I know you're having a meeting in person on the safety committee. It would be ideal to have a meeting in person. with that and have open discussion and questions because I heard the presentation. The presentation was nice, but it was too simplistic. You know, you're going to get into a classroom and you're going to ask, you're going to be teaching these things that's way beyond maybe what a lot of, I mean, a lot of it I'm learning. I didn't even know a lot of that

042stuff. You know, when you start talking about these different sexual positions and other acrobatic things that they're doing. Kids are going to ask questions and when you ask these questions How are you going to answer it in a classroom? You can't say go back to your parent because if the parent is opposing it We're not involved really they're not going to know how to answer you can't go to a trusted adult So some of these things we'd like to ask administration, you know, like we had with the calendar. There was a lot of things thrown out there and we ironed it out as we went along. And I'm sure a lot of that might be ironed out or explained to us in a different way. I mean, maybe we are, I agree, maybe we are

043getting a lot of negative from a certain party or a certain group of people out there. that are exaggerating some things. Overall, me personally, it's a little too liberal. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. Mr. Dubois, have some water on us. Good evening. My name is Andrea Icaz. I'm a resident of Clifton. And I'm here because I want to mention the opt-out form. they should be like send it to the parents. The vast majority of the parents are not aware that they can sign other kids from the LGBTQ curriculum. And if the, I was surprised and amazed by the publicity and the marketing that it was so effective to tell the parents and teach and reach out the community when you were doing the the referendum for the ACs and updating the buildings. So if you

044can do something similar, especially because it's very difficult for the parents, they have to, and the form says that, and the email says that you have to send an email. And that is a problem from many, many parents because of a language barrier. So if the... IF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, AND I HAVE TO THANK YOU FOR GIVING THE PARENTS THE RESPECT OF OUR RIGHT TO NOT HAVE OUR CHILDREN TO BE TEACHED WHATEVER WE ARE NOT AGREE BECAUSE OF RELIGIONS OF OUR VALUES. SO If you can send a flyer, they can make it simple for the parents who are like Spanish speakers or Arabic speakers because they cannot maybe write an email to the principals. Many of these parents came to me and said, I don't want my kid to be in that, but I

045cannot send an email. Sometimes they don't even manage a computer. So if you can make it simple for the parents, that would be great. Thank you so much. Oh, one more thing. I have time. Yes. I have a question and maybe, you know, I extra work for you over everything that you already doing for the district. I want to know if there is in our district libraries the book Gender Queer. If there is, please remove it. And if it's not there, please not allow it. Thank you so much. Anyone else wish to address the board? Seeing no more, motion to close. Mr. Lama is going to come up. At the buzzard. All right. Good evening to all. I hope everybody's doing well. I'm so excited for the beginning of the school year. So there's a

046couple of things I'm going to highlight tonight. I want people to understand that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. By Nelson Mandela. You have a voice. We are all activists in our own way for our students, their families, and our community. What we need to do is make our voice heard. We have to make changes. We have to be understanding. Now, listening to the curriculum issue, we need to stop this. The staff, the teachers that teach this, they know they're... They know their curriculum, they are respectful, most of them are parents, and I have no concerns about any of this. We have the assistant superintendent of curriculum, which does an excellent job. So, we need to stop worrying about the International Family Watch, which is under the

047Southern Poverty Law Center that says they're a hate group. I'm tired of listening about the hate that's coming from some of the people in this community this is ridiculous so we need to really think about what is important for our students granted some people might have some differences but we have to stop dragging this this curriculum through the mud. It is important and to say that we don't want LGBTQ curriculum here. We're saying that those people are worthless and it's wrong. So I want to make sure people understand that. I have kids in my classes that are in that group. I have best of friends throughout the state that are in the LGBTQ+. I'm an ally through NJEA. And we need to stop this. We all cut ourselves. We all have red blood. There should

048be no difference. And this is really upsetting. So I also want to ask, changing topics because I'm going to lose my stuff, when it comes to the contractors for the referendum. Now, are the subcontractors vetted? That's one of the questions that I received. And if the projects get subcontracted out, that money difference, who stays with that money? Does it get returned back to the district for other projects? So I want to thank you very much. And I really do not want to hear anything else about the curriculum. It's ridiculous. We have the best teachers. We have the best group here in Clifton Public Schools. And I will fight to the end to stop this nonsense. Thank you. Anyone else wish to address the board? Hi, I'm Natasha Rocha in Clifton. This is my first Board

049of Ed meeting and I came to record but listening to some of the things that the people were saying was getting me really upset because you know I'm a student in Clifton High School so I know what goes on behind the scenes. I'm not just a parent, I'm not just a teacher, like I know what goes on. So hearing about the So hearing about the LGBTQ stuff really like that we shouldn't learn it that like it's debated whether we learn it or not really like gets me angry because we have LGBTQ clubs after school some people can't even talk to their parents about what's going on in their life because they don't feel comfortable having a flyer sent out to like to Talk about what we learn when sometimes you can't even talk to people

050about how you feel I feel as though everybody should learn about stuff like this because what if you're not open to letting your peers know like who you are Because like the lady was saying sometimes you get judged in schools Sometimes you get bullied for being who you really are and it's not right. So we should all learn the same stuff So that we can all understand where people are coming from that we don't have to be singled out as a club that we should learn Everything talking about sex positions talking about all those things It's not just about that. It's about learning the safety the precautions that comes with stuff that you do It's not just about I'm gay. No, it's not just about that. Why do we learn about regular sex then? It

051makes no sense to not learn every single form if you're going to put it out there in our curriculum. Thank you. Let's see who can top that. Hi, my name is. Can you sign in please? Yeah, my name is Nick Bassano come from Prospect Street in Clifton There was something brought up this last two weeks and kind of appalled by it But this is what politicians do and this is their game It's going on up in Newton South Jersey and God knows where else. And there's communism and socialism coming into the school for 9 and 10-year-old kids. If this is what you want, so be it. But this is what the Democrats want. I'm not going after different races or different forms, but I'm just saying we all want this in the schools. And they

052said if they don't go along with it, they're not going to fund them. There should be picketing done with that. And I guess that's going to go nowhere because it's all about politics. But that's all I got to say. And I think this is atrocious what they want to do. Because you're fooling around with 10 and 11 year old kids. And that Camille or whatever her name is, she got up during the election and she said, Nora O'Donnell was there from Channel 2, and she said, do you have any fortism for... communism or socialism and she shook her head no but she laughed they got into office and you're going full throttle with it that's about it thank you okay is there anyone else that wishes to address the board seeing none motion closed by

053Mr. Abadrabbo second by Ms. Bassford thank you to all those who spoke tonight okay we're gonna move on to which one we want to go first you're gonna do that first Okay. All right, so we'll just adopt the minutes of the meeting of August 25th. So moved. By Mr. Abadrabo. Second. Second by Mr. Paris. Discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Abadrabo. Yes. Ms. Bassford. Yes. Ms. Beltran. Yes. Mr. Canova. I'm Steve. Dr. Danny. Mr. Paris. Yes. Vice President Daly. Yes. President Smith. Yes. Motion carries. Okay, next we'll move into our superintendents report. Dr. Robitose. Thank you Mr. Smith good evening commissioners members of the community students faculty and staff my report will be brief tonight but during my report I have the opportunity to introduce one of our presentations tonight on our referendum but

054before we do that I just want to seems a little late but this is our first board meeting of the school year so I want to welcome back Everyone, I'm thankful to say that overall we had a really productive opening of school. There's always some issues that we have to deal with in the beginning of the year, transportation issues, bus drivers going through new routes for the first time, students knowing where to go. but overall thanks to our outstanding faculty and staff members who have put in so much time to to make sure we had a good opening for our kids we really had relatively few major issues so thank you to all of our staff for that welcome back to our students I'll be by to visit schools within the next few weeks and

055I look forward to seeing everyone's smiling faces just two things I wasn't planning on talking about but I just feel like I want to mention real quick there was a mention of lead water testing and just so the board knows and so the public knows we are required by law to test the drinking water and any water units that are used for food preparation and so that was done recently I think the results came out in June There were a handful of units that the lead in the water was just over the accepted limit. As soon as those results came through, those units were shut down immediately, and parents and the public were notified where that was. all of those results are on our district website for anyone to see but if you didn't receive

056a notification even if you did there's nothing to worry about all those things have been taken care of so drink away Mr. Dubois go get another couple glasses feel better and I just I'm gonna say one thing It's the health and comprehensive physical education standards. It is not the LGBTQ curriculum. We do not teach sexual positions, but we do teach things that are important for children to learn. I just read an article today on nj.com. about the rate of STDs, sexually transmitted diseases, in our country has exploded. That was the word used in the article, exploded. So I'm all for parents having the ability and the right to direct the education of their children. But it is the responsibility of the schools to teach some things that may not be taught at home. It's also

057the responsibility of the schools to be an open and inclusive environment for every single student so that no student feels uncomfortable in school. That does not mean we are promoting any agenda. It means that we are caring and loving and providing a safe place for all of our students and trying to educate them about things that are important to know. As a parent, if there is a particular subject that you feel your child is not age-appropriate to learn or you feel you want to do it yourself, the law in New Jersey allows you to opt out of certain things. And if that is your choice, we respect that wholeheartedly. But we are too big and too diverse of a community to shut down the health and physical education curriculum for 11,000 students. And that's all

058I'm going to say about that. Except please read. Please read things and understand where the sources of information are you're getting the information from. Please understand the source where you're getting the information. Finally, We have been working I know there's not a lot of visible progress on the referendum projects But we have a few guests here tonight to to update us on what's going on In our referendum as we prepare to send out the final two bids in package three and four Tonight with us is Rodney Watkins from our architect de Cara Rubino Bill Costello from our construction management company, EPIC, and Al Marchione, our director of special projects, who's working closely with them on referendum projects. So, gentlemen, if you would begin your presentation and please be able to answer any questions board members

059might have. And welcome. Good evening, everybody. I'll just give you a brief update on where we're at right now. Currently, we have split up all the referendum projects into six different packages. The first package is the high school. That project was opened. The bid was opened and awarded. And currently, that's in construction right now. If you drive by the high school, you'll see the construction trailer for the construction manager and the contractor. And they've started and they're continuing to work for the next two years. Project that was also awarded and under construction is right here in the board office the boiler room You can just go over there and see it the dune boiler has already been installed The plan is to be complete before the heating season begins October 15th the current project the

060turf at Woodrow Wilson and the field house Also the weight room addition and the toilet renovation at Clifton at Clifton Stadium The project was awarded, but the low bidder failed to acknowledge or to accept the PLA or the union, so we had to throw his bid out and we're going to the next bidder as the board attorneys have approved it. That meeting is going to occur the first week in October? Yes. So we'll get them started. That's a time-sensitive project because we're going against the spring baseball season, so we've got to complete the turf by that time. And also with the weight room addition, we have to start that job after the football season in order to have it done prior to the next football season. Rod, that resolution is on the agenda tonight for

061the board's approval, correct? Okay. As Dr. Robitose says, the third and fourth packages are currently out to bid now. The third package is going to be opened on October 12th. Sorry, the third package. And the fourth package is going to be opened on October 27th. And then we have the last package going to open two weeks after that. We haven't set the exact date and time yet. That's why I don't want to say it. Public right now, but at that point we'll have all our numbers and we'll be able to know where we're at for over budget under budget How much money we have left if we have to make any modifications to the bid packages, but we'll be able to know by Rodney can you just let the public know what those those number

062packages are? With schools are in each package what the package is Okay package three Package 3 is School 1, School 8, School 9, School 15, School 16. Package 4 is School Number 2, School Number 5, School Number 12, 13, 14, and Woodrow Wilson Middle School. I'm sorry, the last package in School Number 3 was Christopher Columbus Middle School. So as I said currently we're working in the high school right now bid package 2 which is out to bid now Is school number 3 school number 4 school number? 11 16 and seal of B where we're just changing the security entrance That entails that's all the HVAC and the vestibules just all everything all the toilets all the Conditioned air for all the classrooms, large group spaces, auditoriums. Three of the schools, both middle schools and

063school number three get a whole auditorium renovation, new seating, new flooring, paint. And of course, the conditioned air or HVAC as well. So just for those members of the community who may watch this meeting and may be new to Clifton and are unsure this board was able to and with the help of the public was able to pass a The largest referendum in the state of New Jersey to provide for all of these things for our district So every school with the exception of those who had newer systems are getting brand new heating ventilation and air conditioning systems Every school that didn't have one already is getting a new security vestibule. And every bathroom in the district, with some exceptions, is getting renovated, complete renovation, and will be made ADA accessible. It's a lot of

064work. It's a lot of time, but it's well worth it. I didn't have gray hair before this. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. But yeah, and also I just want to add the priority is to have all the security vestibules started first and finished by the spring. That's the number one priority. Some are exterior, but the majority of them are interior modifications to existing entrances. So Rodney, one of the questions obviously from the public is when will the air conditioning be done? and Mr. Lama's elevator. But in general, is it going to take two years to get the whole system? Two years, possibly longer, based on it's just the reality today. I mean, it takes... two three times longer bill if I'm correct to get certain components the biggest and most important component is what

065we call the electrical switchgear and it's the component that a lot of majority of schools don't have enough power to provide cooling to all these units so we have to upgrade the electrical service There's a main component that takes the power from the street transformer into the building converts it and it goes throughout the school and to the mechanical units that unit is Lead time now is almost 60 weeks So we'll have the mechanical units put in but you won't be able to turn it cooling until that component comes hopefully next year supply chain and this goes away but reality as we know it today is that so it was the main component that's gonna hold us back so that's what I just want the public to know that we're trying to get it done

066as soon as possible but we have some obstacles to go through to get there but We'll get there eventually. We just want everyone to be a little patient on that. Especially on these hot days, they were all asking when the air conditioning is coming. Is there any other questions from the board members for Rodney? Mr. Abbajab, we'll go around anyone. Rodney, you talk about supply chain. What about supply and demand prices after COVID? Obviously, we've seen wood go up. We've seen other things go up. Do we anticipate any over budgets more than under budget? I know you said you can't talk about that because we don't know until we get there. I'll just speak quite frankly. When we originally sat down and went over these costs, it was before COVID. We got everything approved after

067or during COVID. And since we, and Bill, you can chime in any time, the prices are, you know, they're higher than. What anyone would have assumed them to be and I asked because that's those are things that people are asking about in terms of our wall if we spent you know, we we got the 160 plus referendum money are we gonna see all of it is it all be good to full use or Is there gonna be are we be shorter projects because prices have gone up? Well, we'll know in November. That's it. Thank you We all we can do is try before we i'm sorry i may have cut you off were you done with your presentation i'm sorry yes yeah okay i just wanted to make sure you didn't have anything else to

068present before we went to questions so uh mr abu drabo to what you're saying the money that we were approved to borrow in november and sorry in um in april of 2021 is not worth What it was today however as of this moment We don't in we're not anticipating that we're you know, we're not gonna be able to do anything we intended to do But like Ronnie said we won't know that for sure and then if there is a project or two that We're unable to do through the referendum. Of course those would then become our priority to do either through local funds or cap reserve funds and I also just want to add we had a substantial contingency amount covered within that number so Okay, miss Belichon, did you? We did have one come

069in under budget. I was going to mention that. One positive note. We did have one project come in way under bid. So we saved a little bit of money there that we could move somewhere else if we, God forbid, have to. But it isn't all doom and gloom. And hopefully the commodities markets are calming down a little bit. So the interest rates are worse. So if we did wait, we would have. It would have cost more money. That's a very- So that's another positive. So hopefully we'll be able to get it all done and I look forward to seeing it come to completion. Mr. Canova, anything? Yeah, my only question is about if it does come over budget, how does that process work about deciding on which projects we do? Is that a facilities committee

070or are we going back to a full committee for the referendum? How would we work that? to decide on priority I would say that would have to be a full board decision we'd have to you know prioritize by what projects are left and make that it's not a decision I would want to make by myself that's for sure the board should make it yeah okay but we're not gonna we're not gonna go there we're not gonna worry about that yet we still got a fingers crossed Dr. Danny anything okay Mr. Paris no Ms. Passford Vice President Daley and I'm good thank you very much Rodney for us we appreciate it Rodney one last I'm not gonna hold you to I promise I won't but we still anticipate even with the board passing this resolution tonight

071with the low bidder dropping out we still anticipate the field at Woodrow for April He didn't hesitate. Well, he didn't hesitate. He's got a contract to sign that's telling him that, so he doesn't sign it. I got you. Okay. So, ladies and gentlemen, that means the field itself, not necessarily the field house and everything else. But there's a chance the kids could be playing there this spring. Priority is the field. Bill, do you want to come up and sing a song or say anything? just come up to the mic bill because we're being you're on TV well no you're actually being live-streamed that's okay I think Rodney covered everything very well just to the one question being certified everybody who's employed on this project has to have a certification from the New Jersey School Development

072Authority and for New Jersey Department of Property Management and construction they have to they're certified for their trade to a certain dollar level so the answer is yes they all are bill I think I'm not gonna speak for mr. Lam I think she was talking more about the security aspect of the subcontractors is that where you're talking about yeah you know my like background background checks things like that the people who are doing work in our buildings you know how could we be sure that well I mean some some school boards require background checks and if the board wanted to do that we could edit in the other couple packages that are coming up that requirement How how much does that delay projects we put it into the bid package? There is sometimes a delay

073with getting the people processed because a lot of the especially last summer there was a Delay to that because when teachers move from district to district They have to a lot of have to get recertified their teachers coming in for the first time And yes, there would be an impact to having trades people on the project. So there's a huge backlog Yes, but but I will tell you this for the board members I am very comfortable with how we're doing it now but primarily because this team has been so proactive in the planning with the building principals so just yesterday it was a meeting with all the building principals updating so before any work is done in a school the whole plan is coordinated with the building principal we've had workers in the high school

074you know all summer and now with students there and knock on wood I there hasn't been one even minor issue reported plus we have this guy working there in the back stand up sir is that is that Gary yeah so yeah so I listen if you say that you a requirement that every Bill do they the vendors have to certify anything regarding their employees or who they're hiring is there anything that they have to do no they're they're out of a union hall each one we could speak to the union trades about that to see what their process is if you like I'll make that call yeah so the board does know with the project labor agreement we are utilizing mostly Union people which is a higher level of vetting so to speak but I

075can't sit here tonight and tell you honestly that every person goes through a full background check I mean I would think it's safe to say that people working in the schools weren't on the corner looking for work that morning you know they're you know They're coming from a Union Hall and, you know, they might have been on the corner before they went into the hall. But, you know, that's the extent that we have right now. A lot of districts still do it that way. I would say it's a lesser percentage of districts that actually go through the whole background check process. President Smith? Bill, when they come into our buildings, do they have IDs on them? Is that a requirement? They must have an ID present so that we know who they are? Yes, Al

076has set that up where they enter through the high school. They enter one entrance. They're logged in who they are with. They get a sticker. One thing we're worried we're working on is as we build up and this will be there's even people who would be in the school at night. As we build up the size of the trades force, the trades people, they're steady every day. Perhaps we can get them vetted, get them a regular lanyard with a number and their ID, so every morning they show that and go in rather than fill all the forms out, speed everything up a little bit. When you get 75 to 100, you know. People could be going into high school at one point It's a line and it takes a while lose a lot of time.

077Yeah We're not gonna do anything without your approval though. Yes, mr. Arpjo just know the public understands the PLA who put that in place The board I know that's the whole point I want the what I'm trying to get at is I want the public to know and understand that the board has the best interest of What we do background wise so that's why that first Just correct me if I'm wrong, because as Rodney said it, that's why that first bidder wasn't able to move forward because of the PLA. So the fact that they weren't willing to do so, and this board has the best interest of our district. And putting that in place, I think, speaks a lot of how much this board wants to keep this district safe during this referendum projects that

078we're moving forward on these bid packages. The question I had, that was a comment, is there, let's say if we did put some sort of background check in place, is there some sort of background check portal? sounds silly but or how do we go about let me ask this way how do we go about in vetting our folks do we talk to other districts just I just want to at the end of the day I just want the public to understand what goes behind the scenes of vetting with these type of projects these type of companies it's not just anybody who walks in through the door saying as you said sitting on a corner one day and saying let's go Yeah, I mean, if you go through the full background check process, there's a company.

079They do background checks for everything from purchasing firearms through working in schools. And you have to go there, and you're fingerprinted, and it takes, for a while there, it was taking about three months to get an appointment, and then another couple months to get the okay. Then you're okay for a year. and your school district would have a code and that you're good at that code. Now just say a trades person or a teacher went to another district in three months, they could just reapply and probably be okay. That takes time. There's an expense there too for the contractor. It's going to build that into price. Otherwise, of course, the time is the biggest thing. It's just trying to get people on the site and get going. Like, for example, the field job Rodney spoke

080about, that's got to start, like, right away. I would expect you pass the resolution tonight. We've spoken to the contractor. We've made the contractor aware. You put it through tonight, I'd imagine by tomorrow we start seeing insurance certificates and his permanent application and things like that because he's already been told that we're going to make the time up. He's got to get done on time. I've already said that. You did? Okay, there you go. But yes, the PLA was agreed to be put in place by the board. It is an extra step. It is an extra... extra set of checks and balances that you can get qualified safety trained people in your buildings you know that are going to be a consistent workforce and then just one last thing to superintendent have we thought about

081a contingency plan if we don't hit our benchmarks and timelines so for example if baseball's right around the corner and they don't have a home ball field home ball field to play on have we thought about our contingency plans we're thinking worst case scenarios we have plans in place okay that's all you need to know thank you I think Ms. Lama was really speaking about the subcontractors, and I'm really concerned about that. Because the contractor you hire, and no offense, Alan, Alan is a subcontractor. I can't get enough people, so I just give the work to him, and then he just gets anybody he wants. That's what I think, because if you're hiring ABC Company, and you know their reputation, you've done the background on them. But then I give it to Alan, and Alan

082really doesn't have all the certifications. That's what I think Ms. Malama, because we had a situation a couple years ago where that's what actually happened. And the workers weren't. to the level that we expected them to be so i think that's what i'm worried about to the vetting of those people so are we allowing subcontractors to be in these positions the major trade contractors subcontractors also have the same certifications as the general contractor and it's you do work on your home you hire a general contractor they do everything a job like this the general contractor hires a plumbing contractor hires a mechanical contractor an electrician a painter a tile contractor and the major trades have the same certifications they're still approved by the school development authority and by the by the state I'd say for

083the most part I'm not going to say everyone yeah and let me remind the board that we hire Bill and epic to be your eyes out there so they're protecting the board's interests and it's not just bill builders how many your team well let me put one there so far because I'm trying to be frugal with your money what we appreciate I mean when all the projects are going full tilt you're gonna have there's a team of eight yes there will be there's there's one to be one arriving shortly and probably a third by the third week in the third week of October so you're on site something's not right we're you know We're handling that immediately. Yes. So I think that helps, but I understand your concern. No, my concern is that the subcontractors

084don't have to, do they have to carry insurance as well? Is it a domino effect? Or I could just hire Alan, who's not a certified business. He doesn't have business insurance, and then he does something, no offense, Alan, he does something wrong, and then I'm held responsible, but he really did the slipshod work. I understand. As I said. As I said, most of the major trade contractors, most of the contractors and minimally the major trade contractors are going to have the same certifications. I think the checks and balances, again, I think with the PLA that we're getting union contractors to, these are people that carry insurance. And, you know, it's just it's not just I can remember one of the first jobs I did was a shingle roof replacement in the school. it wasn't like

085that and you know one day you got two vans of roofers showed up and one day ten vans of roofers and just whoever was available that's not the way this is gonna go this can't a project of this size Any other questions for Bill Miss Belchon Not so much a question but maybe we should memorialize in some way that we chose not to background check because like god forbid something happens you know I mean we're making this conscious decision for the speed to not do that step. So I don't know if our legal, because I just, I don't know, I go to worst case scenario all the time in my head, but if something were to go wrong, and then they said, oh, they talked about it on the days, but they decided to go

086without background checks. Bill, you said they're all certified. What does that mean? The contract, the construction companies are, not the individuals. Oh, so the companies. Yeah, when I talked about they're certified by the state, I'm talking about the company itself. Well if you want us to add it into the documents and it is a project requirement we'll do it If I could just chime in for a moment I think that before we make it before you make any decisions I think a very a really good question would be to talk to the general contractor and find out what kind of background checks they do automatically on their employees if they do any because I don't know that unless you have information to the contrary I would not imagine that the general contractor is checking the

087background of every individual on that job. They know their own individual's background, but they're not checking all their subcontractors. Okay. But they're using subcontractors that they rely on. Yes, it's worth a question. I think it's worth an inquiry before any decisions are made Let us know what you need us to Find out and we will and then the other question that I think No one's has asked is are any of these people ever alone in any place where there are kids? Yeah, I think I can answer some of those security questions how it works is What we did like miss Bessford said she's we hire the contractor In the bid spec, that contractor lists all his subcontractors. Now, those subcontractors, the contractor signs the PLA agreement. So all of those subcontractors have to use union

088labor. Now, as far as the union, the people that are going to be bringing in, I can tell you right now with the project that we started at the high school, I'm there every day. I see the contractors. I see the workers. I know them by name. They know me by name. So when somebody new comes in, I speak with Bill or I go to the general contractor. Let's use for the high school, the contractor is Paul Otto. So I go to the superintendent, they have a superintendent on job, who's working today. We got roofers on the roof, we got plumbers in the bathroom, electricians, and I get to know them. I understand what you're saying about who's coming in the building. We're trying to control it as best we can, and I think we're

089doing a pretty good job on it. And then what happens also, too, is I get weekly reports from EPIC. They give me the progress report of what they did that week and what the progress is going to be for the next two weeks. So I can basically know who's going to be there if... I look at the report, I see, okay, October 1st, we're going to have roofers up there. I'll go up on the roof, I'll see them, see how everything's going. So it's controlled as much as it could be. Right now, it's only project one. Once we open up all the other projects, it's going to be busy. It's going to be busy. I'm going to be all over. I'm going to be all over these guys looking for those reports, seeing who's there.

090If we do run into the issue, I'll address it with them. That's the best right now. Any other questions that I can answer? I think Ms. Gutierrez asked the question, are there any projects or at least projects that are going on right now where any of the workers are with students? No. And also that's the other thing too. When we had during the summer, we did a lot of asbestos removal. We did all the gutting of the south wing bathrooms, all three floors. Once school starts, we have doors that are closed off to that bathroom. And we have electricians working in there. We had carpenters working in there doing the doors. There are workers in there, but they're... they know that they have to stay in that area and if they have to go out

091to the truck or get tools they have to wait until the bell rings we gave them the schedule of the period changes so they go in and out i do have um A maintenance guy. Sometimes we use a maintenance guy. Sometimes we use a custodian. And we have him right now. We're working in the south wing. We have him at the south wing door. He sits there all day, signs people in, signs people out. So, again, we check the list. If I see four guys signed in, I want to see what are those four guys doing. So that's basically how it is. Like I said, once we get all these projects going, we'll address it as we go along. And are any projects going to be worked? I'm presuming projects right now are just worked

092on during the normal day. During the day what's going to happen is we've got this schedule for the next two weeks and what we're going to be doing in the boiler room in the in the high school we're going to be I don't know if anybody's been down there but we have the two old boilers that are there we're going to be cutting them up and taking them out They will be working during the day. We're going to try it out. We're going to see how it goes. If it's too much noise, Mr. Hamda will let me know. You don't have anybody working at night. We are in the next two weeks. We're going to have them up on the roof. There's almost, I think, two miles of gas line that has to be run,

093two miles of electric piping that has to be run. They will be on the roof. I don't want to put them on the roof during the day. There will be classrooms underneath. I have a question about that. How is that going to affect the neighbors around the high school? For working at night, excuse me. Yeah, how is that gonna affect the neighbors around the high school with the noise level at night? Yeah It's gonna be quiet. All right, cuz it's just they're gonna be up on the roof. They're gonna be welding pipes and I thank you No, I will get the phone. Yeah, we'll get I have I have something that I would like to add really quickly About what we were talking about in the executive session. I have an idea And it's about

094security. So I don't want to talk to the public about it. Okay? So can we put that on there? Thank you. Okay. Yes. Any other questions? Mr. Marchione, just one more question, just so that we're all clear. The guys that are on the roof at night are the work that's happening at night. When you're saying at night, we're not talking about midnight. No, no, no, no. After school. After school. Yes. And how late do they go? Until what time are they working? They'll probably be there until it gets dark. It can't work when it's dark up there. No, because Ms. Basswood asked a really good question before neighbors started making any complaints. We're not talking about 10 o'clock. Nobody's hammering at 10 o'clock. We might have electricians in the building that late. Yeah, but that's

095not promoting noise. No, and then when we start bringing in univents during the summer. The UN events, we're going to do as much as we could. And then once we get school opened up, we'll be working at night. Bill, so that was really my question. So are any of these projects, let's say the field at Woodrow, are they going to work up until like midnight to get things done? Or they stop at 4 o'clock, the union guys, 4 o'clock, it's Miller time, they're gone, you know? You could see just like we're doing with the band field. It's the same thing. It's gonna lay the same so they basically just daytime. Yeah Yeah, that's yeah, right it's like maybe a Saturday Sunday, but it's the field is gonna be during the day. Yep. Okay Yes. You're

096still putting up another can of worms. On the weekends, what do we talk about security-wise when these people are in the buildings? Not in terms of who they're around, but do we have people roaming around, same thing with eyes, making sure nobody's leaving anything behind, nobody's... Custodians will be in the building. We're not just going to put contractors in the buildings. Yeah, no, I get it. I just wanted to try. Thanks, Al. Any other questions for Mr. Marchion? No. Thank you, Al. Thank you. Everyone's saying, Al, we don't see Al anymore. We don't see Al anymore because he's working on these special projects. So he's around. So thank you guys, all three of you guys, for the great job that you're doing. We appreciate all that you're doing to make this referendum project come through.

097And the public will start seeing things. We know it's been a little slow. but things are going to start happening as Mr. Marchione said things will get very happening very soon so I think the public will be very pleased on seeing the production and get tired of it that's right thank you guys very much thank you next next we have our assistant superintendent of curriculum Miss Janina Kusilevich for her presentation Good evening, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen. It's my pleasure to be here with you today to just share with you the highlights of our summer programs. We had hundreds of children in our summer programs this summer across our schools, and I have our coordinators. from some of those programs here just to say a few words to each of the different programs that we had

098so we're going to be talking about titles one and three programs for elementary school we are going to be looking at our school two summer programs ic middle school esl middle school general education um so it's uh the esy program and the cls program The vast majority of these programs are federally funded. Some have a small amount of local funding. And the IC program is a paid program. But we wanted to share with you some of the highlights so you can see the amazing things that our kids did throughout the month of July and some programs like ESY going into the middle of August. So with that, I'm going to start with the Jump Start Title I and Title III program. And to present that, we have Ms. Fitzpatrick. And Ms. Rodriguez, Ms. Fitzpatrick is

099going to talk to us about Title I. And Ms. Rodriguez about Title III. Hi, everyone. Good evening. Yep, got it. Good evening, President Smith, Vice President Daley, Board Commissioners, Dr. Robert Tozzi, Ms. Kusilevich, Mr. Gingaro, fellow Clifton colleagues and the Clifton community. As Ms. Kusilevich said, my name is Ms. Megan Fitzpatrick and I was the Title I coordinator for our summer program at school 17. And I'm Frances Rodriguez, I served as the coordinator for the Title III ESL bilingual program for the summer program at school 17. And tonight we'll be speaking on behalf of our three programs at school 17 and school 12. Tonight, Principal Warbe and our fellow coordinators, Ms. Fusitola and Ms. Cabarello. Caravaggio, as they have back to school night at the elementary level. So we're going to start with the Jump

100Start program. So it is, as the name says, it is a jump start into kindergarten. In the program, we had about 47 students enrolled where they are getting individualized instruction prior to entering kindergarten in our schools where they are currently enrolled. During this program, they got to participate in social and academic skill building groups with one of our school counselors. They practiced following directions and taking part in classroom routines. They practiced sharing items and getting along with others. They learned how to express themselves and also got to use regular school materials that they may have not had exposure to before. They also learned... gross motor skills, reading books and stories, recognizing letters and numbers, recognizing their names in print, basic color review, and counting from 1 to 10 with corresponding numbers 1 to 10. Our

101Title I and Title III programs also focus on math and literacy curriculum that is separate pacing from our guides that are used during the school year. Both curriculums concentrate on reviewing and reinforcing skills that were taught during the previous year, allowing students the opportunity to focus on mastery that was not attained prior to the summer. This summer, the Title I program was held at School 12 and at School 17. Due to renovations, the School 4 program was also held at School 12. Additionally, our Boys and Girls Club hosted two classes at their location. Title I was held solely at school 17. Title III. Title III, sorry. Got all the referendum on my mind. Our Title I program had about 140 students. 180, I'm sorry. Whereas our Title III program, oh, how did I do that?

102I'm sorry. All the way to the end. Yep, it went all the way to the end. How did I do that? I don't know. I don't know. All right, guys, give me one job. We're getting there. We're getting there. Yep, this is us. I know you want to leave, but we can't skip the whole thing. All right. And then our Title III program had about 102 students. So in our Title I and Title III programs, we had our language literacy curriculum, which was designed to improve and reinforce essential student skills for success in language arts. Using our balanced literacy approach, instruction was divided into two domains, reading and writing with a cross-curricular connection to science and STEM. Grades K through 2 focused on remediating and enriching our New Jersey state learning standards for reading foundations.

103Students worked to solidify high-frequency words. phonemic awareness, comprehension, and fluency. Whereas our third graders focused, third through fifth graders, focused on remediating and enriching the standards for writing, reading, literature, and reading informational text, specifically with science and STEM connections. Students worked on solidifying skills, strategies, comprehension, and fluency. So both Title I and Title III students follow the Mathematic Curriculum that was assigned to remediate and reinforce the essential skills of the previous grade, while also celebrating students to a level of proficiency that will enable them to master the readiness skills needed for success at the next grade level. This summer, grades pre-K through second grade receive instruction aligned with the New Jersey student learning standards in number operations, fluency of basic additions and subtraction facts, place values 200 using base 10 operations and algebraic thinking and

104measurement and data. Well, thank you. Students in grades K-5 in mathematics use hands-to-mind curriculum, which is a hands-on approach to learning. Hands-to-mind has created engaging classroom testing materials that empower students to learn by doing. Their products bring math, literacy, science, and STEM concepts to life through hands-on activities, and this can be seen through the photographs. In mathematics, students in grades three to five also used a new program called Robotify. This program combines robotics, STEM, and coding in order to guide students to produce original ideas. Using Robotify, students have the freedom to grow their capacity for creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills. The program itself is self-paced. So students work through the program at their own pace, providing standard driven guided learning that is practical and fun. This summer we also host a family

105literacy program. In addition to language arts and math curriculum previously discussed in the Title I and Title III, it also included the family literacy program. Under this program, The following topics were addressed, learning greeting, guided readings, daily journals, home, school vocabulary, math centers infused with New Jersey learning standards, language development skills such as name, address, and telephone, essential information at birthday, etc., writing skills, and completing summer reading math assignments. The Minds in Motion program held at school 12. This program aims to assist students in grades 3 to 5 attain skills necessary to meet New Jersey learning standards. Students are provided with an opportunity to explore a wide variety of stream which stands for science, technology, reading, engineering, art and math activities. while infusing character development into all program activities and field trips, as well as

106providing breakfast and lunch. This summer, students involved in this program use creativity, imagination, collaboration, and innovation as they utilize engineering skills to design models of real-world items. My motion also provides field trips every Friday. Every Friday students have the opportunity to enhance what they are learning in the classroom by visiting off-site locations. The Friday field trips were not only exciting and fun, but also provided a way to help enrich and expand the curriculum by immersing them into various sensory activities. Minds in Motion school programs in addition of off-site experiences, students were also to take part in several school visit programs. These multi-sensory, hands-on, and interactive experiences were not only entertaining but extremely educational. The SWAT team visited school 12. They also had a wildlife visit at the school campus. This summer, we used both Title

107I and Title III, hosted multiple theme weeks. July, through the whole summer, you can pass it, Rainbow Week was... from July 11 through the 15 where students every day they chose the color of the rainbow to represent and we had a great turnout even staff members charmed in and at times we had a hundred percent participation at school 17 We also host this for a week. Students were encouraged to bring an item with the letter of their names. Okay, you see some examples. In addition, during Spirit Week, we hosted Superhero Day. This was fun, just because I just remember one of the teachers with a cape in the cafeteria. We had a great turnout. Students were excited to show off and be part of the school culture. Can you try again? Oh, my Siri. No,

108it's okay. Again. staff, students, and even supporting staff like custodians of the park and participating in such activities. We also hosted sports day at school 17. They really loved the sports. There was 100% participation, except me because I'm sports challenged. Sorry, I know Clifton is all sports, but. Finally, we had Disney Day and Summer Day. Disney Day, we had a great turnout as you see. Again, a lot of participation from staff and students. The culture and the participation, you could feel the excitement throughout the building. Summer Day was towards the end of the summer program. We finalized with a summer theme. We did this during our PBSIS award ceremony. Students took part. We took pictures. As you see, the backdrop of the luau, we gave out Hawaiian laces. And then at the end, the whole

109staff took a photograph in front of the building. In turn, we had great feedback from students, parents, and staff alike. The energy throughout the building was felt once you walked in. And then the final week of the program was all about our community. So during this week we had a visit from our police department, our fire department, the therapy dogs, which may or may not have been the highlight of the entire week for everyone. And then a visit from our two assistant superintendents, Mr. Gingaro and Ms. Kuslevich. So the first was our police visit, which was a great experience for the boys and girls to meet our community police officers. They got to ask them questions. They did a wonderful Q&A. It was amazing seeing the difference between the preschoolers, our jumpstart students, and then

110our fifth graders, the questions they asked. They got so into it. They got to sit in the front seat. They were hitting the siren, using the walkie. So it was really cute. And then when the fire department came, they had a fantastic time learning about the equipment that the fire engine uses. They had an opportunity to see how the hose works. They saw how the flare worked. They even got to shoot the hose at the grass at school 17. So the water bill that day should have been a little bit cheaper because they emptied their entire truck on the grass at school 17. But the kids had a great time. They had to test out the equipment. The preschoolers, the hat was bigger than their heads, which was really cute. And then last but not

111least, we had our therapy dogs come visit. The energy on this day was through the roof. We may need to think about putting that in with a referendum. But the children and the staff just absolutely loved it. And the dogs were beautiful, so it was a great turnout and great day for everyone involved. And then last but not least, we incorporated our PBSIS program this summer in our Jump Start Title I and Title III programs. as Ms. Raygoza, who's no longer here, recognized our efforts back during the July Board of Ed meeting. It was a great success for both staff and students involved. The staff got very into it and in turn were also recognized just like the students were. A thank you to Ms. Raygoza and the district for providing us with prizes to

112use and create baskets for the kids and we're very eager to continue this going forward next year. But the program would not be possible without the staff that were involved. First and foremost, our teachers who showed up every day, engaged, involved, dressed up in their Mickey ears and their superhero outfits. But then secondly, also our Pomptonian staff who provided a breakfast on the go every morning for our students, but then served a delicious hot lunch that the staff was watering at the mouth for. Before dismissal so it was a hit and well-loved by all Additional staff for the program. We worked collaboratively collaboratively with the school to accelerate program miss Lucas and mr Stuart I thank you to our school 12 minds emotion coordinator miss Pugliese and then a huge thank you to our wonderful

113counselors miss tunnel mr Castro miss Rivera and miss Heiner who were involved throughout the program supporting our students and their emotional growth And that is- And thank you to you for making all of this possible. Great job, thank you so much. And now we have Mr. Stewart coming to represent the Summer Acceleration Student Support Program that was held at school two. This is one of the ESSER funded, the first two were Title I and Title II. This is ESSER funded program that will continue hopefully as well next year. Mr. Stewart? Thank you, I'm mr. Stewart I was the instructional coordinator at the school to summer accelerated program with miss Lucas who couldn't be here this evening Sorry There we go. All right, so we focus on the math and literacy curriculum as well basically concentrating

114on reviewing and reinforcing skills That were areas of opportunities for our students across the district We also had the opportunity to pilot the robotify program, which was really cool students got to practice coding by using virtual robots and completing different math mathematical tasks We also had mindfulness lessons multiple times a week with our students via our school counselor, Ms. Heiner. We had about 110 students across grade levels K through five. Again, they came from our non-Title I schools. And then just some of our photos of what went on in the class. We had... We had kinetic sand we had modeling clay where students were able to make words in practice their letters with the kindergarteners were able to do that We had different books that the students were reading throughout the summer So it's a

115really really cool program that we had Thank you. Thank you so much. Mr. Stewart Now we're going to have Ms. Pick come and talk about the COVID learning support program. And we have Ms. Bahia Abedrabo here for ESY. So we're going to switch. Okay, we're going to have Ms. Abedrabo and Ms. Pick talk about both programs. So come on up, ladies. Thank you, Mrs. Kusilevich. My name is Bahia Abedrabo, and I was the program coordinator for the COVID learning support program and the extended school year programs. Just forward through. Okay. The COVID learning support program commenced for the third consecutive year this past July. It provided compensatory education for students with special needs. The program was offered to students that required extra learning supports due to academic issues and lack of progression because of the

116COVID-19 interruptions. The program was staffed with, excuse me, sorry, I'm going to backtrack a little bit. I don't know why I'm nervous. I know everybody here in the room this evening. The program ran for four weeks, and it was between July 6th through July 29th, between the hours of 8.30 and 12.30. The program was staffed with... And transportation was provided. The program was staffed with the site coordinator, Richard Rando, who could not be with us this evening due to a graduate level academic obligation. The program was also staffed with support staff such as paraprofessionals and educational specialists and certificated teachers that provided students with supports in English language arts and mathematics as appropriate. Students that were eligible to attend the COVID learning support program were students that are classified and students with special needs. Support

117staff and the teachers provided social learning activities and teachers followed goals and objectives as determined by the students IEPs. This is a glimpse of some of the academic learning activities that took place at school 16. The program did take place at school 16. We also made sure that safety practice drills were implemented for the month of July. So this is one picture and one of the safety practice drills. And similar to the Jumpstart Title I and Title III program, our program culminated with a week of themes. Those themes included Star Wars, Disney characters, Crazy Hair Day, and Beach Day. My colleague Elaine Pick, NSITE coordinator for the extended school year, will give us a brief overview of the program that took place at school 14. Thank you for your attention and time. Thank you very

118much. Hi, my name is Elaine Pick. I was the coordinator for extended school year at school 14. The extended school year program is a federally mandated program based on the student's individualized educational programs and really to prevent regression throughout the summer. This program was located at school 14 and school 16. There were 32 classes at school 14 and four at school 16. It lasted for 30 days. We were one of the ones that went into August. I think the only one that went into August. And those dates were from July 5th through August 15th. We had 358 eligible students with 285 students attending. We had the two site coordinators, myself and Ms. Navadrabo. We had 36 teachers, 64 paraprofessionals, 14 support staff, Pomptonian food service workers. We also offered a snack in the morning and

119we had two custodians. Our program elements included maintenance of skills and that was done by the Applied Behavior Analysis, ABA, as well as discrete trials which were mandated in the IEPs. We also used the English language arts and literacy and math instructional curriculums that we use in Clifton for support. We also had our students as mandated by the IEPs have their related services which were the occupational therapy, their speech therapy, and their physical therapy. And we also had a counselor who was wonderful who did social skills and mindfulness activities. And then we had one-on-one paraprofessional assistance as required by the IEPs. Here's some of our wonderful ESY paraprofessionals. Here's an example of the discrete trial instruction mandated in the IEPs and individualized. Here's Ms. Kovacs' class with mathematics instruction. Here are some of our preschoolers

120using the high school curriculum in one of the areas, learning through play. And here's one of our related services, our occupational therapist working on fine motor. And of course, we also were very concerned about safety and did our two monthly drills each month in July and August. At the close of our ESY program, we did a breakfast for our staff and also included the transportation and bus people. And that's everyone leaving on August 15th. Thank you. Super, great job, thank you. And then we have our IC program, which is our integrated summer enrichment experience that's held at Woodrow Wilson Middle School. And this is our kind of creative arts and STEM program. Ms. Voituo is here to share with us some highlights of that program. And Mr. Louie. Mr. Louie and Mr. Voituo are here

121to join us. Good evening members of the Board of Education, our Clifton administration team, our staff, our students, our families here and at home. Thank you so much for having us here. We're just so excited to talk about it. My name is Justin Louie. I'm the 7th and 8th grade orchestra director at Woodrow Wilson. Maggie is our VP and Tara Saraski who is at school too tonight along with Supervisor Jason Leshwitz to make up your administration and coordinators for the IC program. For those of you who do not know, we run a summer program entitled the Integrated Summer Enrichment Experience. It is very much an experience. We run this program in the month of July, four days a week, Monday through Thursday. And in 16 days, we just accomplished so much. The students, grades one

122through eight, have the opportunity to take up to four courses in the fields of art, coding, math, science, instrumental music, and band and strings, musical theater, and this year we're happy to announce that we had the opportunity for them to study music technology and appreciation. And we would like to show you, oh no, sorry Maggie, go ahead. No, no, no, that's okay, thank you. So like Mr. Louie mentioned, this is a program for incoming first and eighth grader, first through eighth graders from our Clifton community as well as neighboring communities. It is a tuition paid program by the parents. But all of our classes are taught by our own Clifton staff, which we all know is the best. They are creative, they're dedicated, they're hardworking, and they provide IC students with so many learning opportunities.

123This past year we had about 260 students, but IC program has been known in the past to have over 300 plus. We also have student volunteers. which are our ninth to 12th graders. And they have a chance to earn some community service hours. They get to work with younger peers. They show true leadership skills to guide these young learners in music, arts, technology, whatever it may be. Again, we were at Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson Middle School this past year and we're really grateful for the administrative team of Woodrow because they were so supportive of us as well as their custodian team and Pamptonian. And we're going to provide you with some snapshots of IC. However, if you're interested to see more, you can check us out on Instagram at IC Clifton, which can take you

124back for the past two years. That has so many more things to offer. So I'll talk a little briefly about science, and then Mr. Luke will tell you a little bit about the music. So in our science program, students were working on engineering design. They were able to develop models. They were working with forces and motion by building catapults. They were looking into bridges, different forms of design. And this was across all first through eighth grade. So even though our fourth through eighth graders were able to pick science, science was embedded into our first through third grade curriculum as well. We also had mind and body for students this year, which allowed them. to learn new mindfulness techniques such as box breathing and five sense exercises. In our music program, our band directors, Mr. Lanzarote

125and Mr. Perez, and our orchestra director, Ms. Babiak, had the opportunity to work with our grade four through eight students in band and orchestra. Some students learning a brand new instrument for the first time in 16 days. And also, our general music teachers, Ms. Gordon and Ms. Bartolozzi, in our general music and music appreciation and music tech class, spent some time. a little bit in the stem realm, creating instruments from food, which I did not know you could turn a banana into a piano. In regards to coding... We also were offering coding classes to our students. We also utilized Robotify this past year. But in the coding, Ms. Taylor has worked with, her course was one of the most popular ones. She had the largest group sizes. Students were creating programs with different sequences. They

126were working on debugging errors within algorithms, as well as identifying solutions for very simple hardware problems. Things that I have no idea about, but she's a genius at it and the kids loved it. As far as our math curriculum, we had two wonderful teachers, Ms. Dizzo, who's a woodrow teacher, and Ms. Miss, Miss Trivedi, thank you, Miss Trivedi from high school, who are working with our students on ratios and proportions. They were talking about surface areas and 3D models. As you can see in that top right corner, they were building giraffes and safari animals out of boxes, making this a fun and enriching experience. They were also working on fractions as well as building strategic thinking in all of our age groups. In the realm of visual art, our three art teachers, Ms. Warshany, Ms.

127Benarchik, and Ms. Krobach, had the opportunity to take the students on an expedition of colors, two-dimensional art, three-dimensional art, and even 3D printing, where they're creating on computers, on Chromebooks, anything in their imagination, and it comes out printed, which is just so cool. One more. And in musical theater, which is a large component of our program, in 16 days, Mr. Boyz, Ms. Hogel, put together a full musical. This year it was the Lion King kids version, which includes set design, which is a collaboration with the art department as well, and also a choreographed dance with our dance department. And a quick shout out to our AV department, Mr. Horan. Thank you so much for your help in sound and lights. You guys are never mentioned. And last but not least, we want to thank all

128of the commissioners here for their support. And some of you I know I have seen at our final showcase, which. pretty much showcased everything that we just talked about. But especially we wanted to thank all of our dedicated staff and teachers for their creativity, professionalism, content knowledge, and dedication to our students. An IC program puts our students on a stream to success where science, technology, reading, I'm sorry, reading, engineering, arts and math come together and provide them with truly unique learning experiences. So thank you commissioners, thank you central administration, thank you Ms. Kucylevich and the curriculum department. Oh, and one more thing, the secretaries at the curriculum department were phenomenal to work with. So thank you to them. Huge shout out. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Now we're going to move up

129to sixth grade, six through 12. We have our ESL program six through 12, and then we're going to finish up with our middle school academy. Ms. Rogozinski was the coordinator of the ESL program. I'm short so I have to lower it. Thank you. Okay, I would just like to thank you so much for allowing us to continue having this wonderful enrichment program for incoming seventh through twelfth graders. That is correct, high school students come, they walk. They come with their siblings, they come with their cousins, they make new connections, they make new friends. So I couldn't have done anything without the dedication of our staff, which is usually reoccurring. And unfortunately, Mr. Stewart is in an administrative position, but otherwise he was with us for a number of years as well. We- Our tuition-free academic

130enrichment program, and when I was an ESL resource teacher, I took that word resource to heart and so forth. I do the same when I talk about enrichment. I really let the curriculum be guided by the teachers and the students, and the students come from CCMS, which is the magnet school for our English language learners in the district for grades six through eight, as well as our CHS students that are in nine to 12. Majority of the students are middle school students, but we do have a number of high school students that attend as well. The students focus on language learning through academic and social experiences. So we do focus on the WIDA standards, which are the English Language Development Standards, as well as the academic standards of language arts, social studies, science, math, and

131technology. So there's a full schedule, students start in the morning with breakfast with my colleague as well. Both programs entered in the morning to a full breakfast, which Pomptonian was wonderful in staffing and preparing that for us. Then students moved to their classes. They had periods set up, math and language arts, social studies were daily. Science and technology were split every other day, so we had an A and B day schedule. Teachers come from a plethora of experiences. Majority are either world language teachers or teachers who speak another language, whether it be Spanish or otherwise. We have teachers that are ESL teachers, world language teachers, content area teachers who have been trained in the SIOP model and have been coming for refreshers, so are really well versed in working with our diverse populations. We really

132focus on the language domains of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. So there are instructor led activities as well as a lot of group activities as well. So as I mentioned, we also did a hybrid approach. So Chromebooks were used in the classroom as well as hands-on, and we focused on not so much a novel-based curriculum, but for the needs of our learners, since it is a day-to-day and only about a month's time, mostly mini-lessons for students. So about 110 students in the program were enrolled, and why I say it's a flexible program, because we know things come up in families. For example, child care, sports practices. I didn't want students to not be able to attend because they also had soccer practice. So for example, our high school students, so they were able to come

133on different days. Family obligations and students worked. So some had to leave early or may have been tired from working the night before. So we are very flexible with that. Our students cultural groups are Majority of the languages spoken over this past summer were Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Italian, and Bengali. As you can see, we have some mixed grade level, but we kept the proficiency levels. So that's how we have six sections moving into our daily activities. So students had hands-on activities. Mrs. Charlo, who doesn't normally is a special ed teacher, not an ESL teacher, but she used to teach language arts literacy for us. And it's wonderful that she's had experiences in a plethora of subject areas, so she's really on board with hands-on science. So students build models, they work collaboratively, they work individually.

134A lot of materials come to mind from households, and lots of smiles, as you can see. Also painting flower parts and then they did a lot with arts and crafts in addition to science as you'll see in technology as well. And you know they planted plants as well and flowers and brought that home. Then there were competitions and teachers were involved in those competitions if they readily wanted to be. So also students worked in groups, very tactile, discovery learning. And then we do have outside time. So part of our WIDA standards is social and instructional. And so students are welcomed to our schools, that hidden curriculum of school, how do you function within the American school system, and leaving their friends and families behind. Adolescents need that connection. These new connections are made here. We

135have soccer, you know, the joining force, as well as other things that students were able to do, board games. Some brought desserts if it was their birthday. Coloring, adult coloring, they had different things to do. Uno, whatever they wanted. We were able to have some dress down days, so I had funding from that to purchase the things that students wanted to do if they were not going to utilize sports. Cooperative learning was done in language arts literacy. As you can see, students are listening to the teacher instruction. We also have students who have some 504 plans based on handicapped. So we did have paraprofessionals with us. A lot of anchor charts. We know visual aids are helpful. Students made some visual aids. Teachers created some visual aids. There was always work up in the classrooms.

136Math instruction was also hybrid using one-to-one, using tactile, smart board, using various modes of manipulatives as well. And we had two math teachers. Both were special ed certified. One was special ed certified as well as bilingual. Mr. Giblin was our engineering, technology and engineering teacher. While he also focused on coding, students were able to go downstairs to his woodworking lab and create projects there, as well as the Lego engineering modules that students were able to do either together or individually. We also did for our high school students this year, Mr. Sarsano, did social studies through film. So students watched, discussed, analyzed various either international films or American. So McFarland USA was the big one. Okay, and Ms. Rossi also had the younger students, incoming seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. And they had more tactile activities.

137Therefore, you can see the students working there, trying to throw, and then to identify the continent, the countries, and so forth, and share out. So a lot of tactile. I just wanted to also commend my, this was her first year. We worked very collaboratively together. All of, even our last day we planned together. Our drills were planned together. Where students entered, everything was pretty seamless. So I'm looking forward to working with her again next year. Thank you very much. Thank you Eva, and now we have our last part of our program with Yocasta Guillen. I really loved how both Eva and Yocasta worked together to integrate our ESL and our general education programs throughout the summer. I thought that was fantastic. All right, good evening. I'm Yocasta Guillen. I was the program coordinator for the

138middle school at CCMS. Our academy. It was a free and in-person academic enrichment program for current students in the middle school in Clifton. We concentrated on skill awareness in math and language arts while exploring science and technology topics in a fun and interactive way. We were running from July 5th to the 29th. We have about 103 students in grades six through eight attending our summer academy. About 55 were sixth graders, 32 seventh and 16 eighth graders. We have small classes for more personalized instruction. We had a great team of 20 teachers and myself. We had also Over about 30 prizes that we raffle for students on Fridays. Daily transportation provided from withdrawal to CCMS and back. We also had breakfast and lunch provided. Our lessons included necessary tools needed for the upcoming school year. We

139also included STEM, math, Robotify, language arts, infused technology, which we had coding in Robotify, small classes again, as I mentioned earlier, differentiated instruction, fun hands-on activities, a lot of collaboration, indoor and outdoor activities. We did weekly raffles. We collaborated with the PBSIS. And the way that we did it was teachers gave out tickets to, CHAMPS tickets to students who demonstrated any of the PBSIS values, caring, helpful, accountable, motivated, polite, and successful. We had gift cards from Domino's, Target, Roblox, Fortnite, Dunkin' Donuts, etc. We also had board games and other prizes. Students were very, very excited every week and always looked forward on Fridays. We proudly celebrated the completion of our program, which was a Hawaiian-themed fun ice cream sundae celebration. that we both collaborated on and celebrated pretty much every student that was in our

140school at CCMS in the summer participated. I have to mention that I had the greatest group of staff and the great support of the CCMS on the last day, especially who took over the vision that we had, even though I had a family emergency on the last day and they were able to pretty much execute every single thing that. we had planned for that day. So I commend them all and I thank them all for their support. Here are some pictures, some of the raffles that we had. This is from STEM, math, technology, and our last day celebration with the fun ice cream sundae. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Board. These programs would not have been possible without our fabulous custodians, secretaries, transportation, pomp, Tony and teachers, administrators,

141support staff, and thanks to you, Board members. We can't wait to share this with you again next year. Okay. Thanks, Jim. Yes. Yes, any Board members like to make a comment, Dr. Danny? Yes, I'd like to say that It was a very robust presentation and I'd like to thank the presenters and Ms. Kusilevich as always, you get together everybody and it was so great. I also want to thank anybody who was involved in, as Ms. Kucylevich mentioned, and some of you, the secretaries, and just everybody that was involved in putting this together. I think that so many times at these board meetings, we talk about things and we don't showcase our staff and our administration and coordinators and secretaries and all the wonderful things that they're doing. and in helping our students so i think

142that this is really nice to showcase like what we do and what we do for our students so thank you very much it was very robust it was great it was um just wonderful to see all the wonderful things we're doing thank you okay anyone else uh mr abu java thank you president smith i've heard great things about um before tonight how the summer went but my question to you is You know, obviously, hopefully next year, same thing happens. Everything goes successful. How, to Ms. Kusilovich, how, and to your staff, what can we do to better the experience, give you the better tools, the stronger tools? Is it personnel? Is it time? Are there things that your staff had to make, you know, things outside the box that could have been easier if the Board

143of Ed actually applied it to them? We're just grateful for the time, the space, and the ability to run programs that meet the needs of our students. In terms of any specific additional needs, I think that we're pretty well sufficiently staffed and we're very grateful for the support of the board. Next year might be a challenge because of the construction, but we're going to figure that out. Okay, anyone else? Thank you all very much for your presentations tonight. It was well put together, well thought out, and really laid out very well. So we thank you all for the time that you put in and giving up at least most of your summer for this rewarding program for kids. So thank you all very much. Mrs. Smith, I... Agree wholeheartedly with everything you said. Thank you

144to our staff. It was a busy busy summer as you can tell I just want to tell the board I know we've had a lot tonight and I know it's 9 30 and or later thank you for being here that late we just wanted to make sure we got these presentations done tonight we got one more I promise you that Mike Docter might be the fastest presenter in the history of presenters so Mr. Docter has a brief brief presentation and then we could get to the agenda for our meeting We'll try not to do this many presentations in one night in the future, but this was important. Thank you to our staff. Go home and sleep. Dr. Robert Tosi, I'm sorry to say this is a 97-slide presentation, and we'll take the next hour and

14515 minutes. Good evening, everyone. President Smith, Vice President Daley, Commissioners, Dr. Robert Tosi, and Central Administration. I'd like to do my bi-yearly presentation on bullying, violence and vandalism, and the reporting that we have to do for the state. Twice a year, I have to come up here and explain what has gone on in our districts regarding bullying and HIB cases and violence and vandalism and substance abuse. It's broken up into two periods. First period is July through September and second period, I'm sorry, July through December, and then the second period is January through the end of the school year. As I mentioned, VVSA stands for Violence, Vandalism, and Substance Abuse, essentially any of our suspendable offenses. HIBs, or Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying, covers all bullying situations, including the trainings and programs that we have to

146try to combat this issue. As I mentioned, violence, vandalism, and substance abuse are our suspendable offenses, very large offenses, arson, assault, substance abuse, theft, things of that sort. Our comparisons by state statute, we have to compare. previous year to last year. I actually went back two years prior to that before COVID. So you could get an actual understanding of what was occurring in our buildings. So last year's numbers are skewed. We have everyone back in the buildings right off of COVID. Prior to that, some of our buildings were working at 25% in the buildings. So we had a lot of situations where there were zero HIB cases, zero violence and vandalism cases. So we looked back. So for violence and vandalism and substance abuse, we went back to 2018, 2019, prior to COVID. And you

147could see that our numbers at the elementary schools plummeted for violence and vandalism and substance abuse, our large-scale suspensions. Middle school they went up a lot of that is attributed to the epidemic that is going on with vaping and using electronic smoking devices and Then finally the high school stayed pretty much the same as far as their suspensions and VVSA offenses As far as Hibs go, Hibs are categorized based on if there is a situation that there is a distinguishable characteristic that a student has that they're being bullied about and that it causes a substantial disruption. And you can see that for elementary and high school, our numbers dropped tremendously. At Christopher Columbus, they went down slightly. And then at Woodrow Wilson, there was a little uptick. There were some situations, very specific and very

148out of the ordinary with that, that administration, both central administration, building administration, were dealing with throughout the year, and those seem to be situations that we'll resolve as we move forward. We also have to report all of the trainings that we have both for our second period of the school year and for our yearly trainings and programs. These are programs such as PBSIS. Our trainings are the individual meetings that we have to get the information from those programs shared with our staff. Finally, Every year each of the principals from each building have to do a self-assessment and rate themselves for the anti-bullying grades. You can see there are eight elements that are followed and this is yearly that we have to do this for the state and our numbers are reported actually tomorrow because I

149have to present and just after I present I'm able to officially present them to the state and submit them. You could see that for the most part our numbers stayed the same. There were some schools that dropped a little bit with the score. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we were just coming off of COVID. A lot of the presentations that we would normally do weren't really available or weren't conducive to staying three feet apart while still trying to keep the buildings going with kids not getting sick. So we can see that there will be an uptick in some of these numbers next year, and we've already started working towards that. Ways that we can improve, obviously getting out of COVID is going to help. Communication with the principals, I'm

150in constant communication with them about specific situations and in general. bullying and suspension situations that occur to try to remedy those and try to move forward continued professional development we are ramping up our professional development for both administrators and staff in dealing with Hibbs and code of conduct violations district-wide implementation of PBSIS continues and reviewing our code of conduct and our discipline matrix each year any questions mr. president Yes, Ms. Mastrom. Through you, Mr. Doctor. Thank you for your presentation. For the violence, vandalism, substance abuse, is there any way that you could break that down? The violence separated out to substance abuse versus the violence and the vandalism. Absolutely. Can you get that to me? I can share that with Dr. Robert Tozer. That would be useful. And what can we do as a board

151to support to bring these numbers down? Because it's a dramatic tick in that. I could. from some changes that we've been working on as central administration with the administration from not just the elementary schools but also the middle schools and the high school we have plans in place to get those numbers down and we can definitely see that coming for this year if we could that could be shared personally with the board uh privately because we don't want to give out the secrets so i appreciate that thank you very much anyone else Yes, Mr. Canova. How do these numbers compare against other schools like with similar sized schools or even if they have half the students would they have half the Hibs and if we compare ourselves where do we stand with Hibs? Our Hib

152numbers overall are quite low. especially for a district our size. Our staff does a great job with dealing with those situations. As we get older and our students are in high school, a lot of those become conflicts that are dealt with by administration, by our SACs. It's the middle school where we usually have that situation. As my one year in middle school as an administrator and years working with them, it is something that we... we see at that level and we are very comparable to schools of our size and i i can honestly say our a lot of our hip numbers are much lower than uh similar schools are we concentrating more efforts than on middle schools to try and alleviate that issue yes absolutely okay uh mr albert joel thank you chris smith the

153final weapon offense a weapon offense yeah weapon offense is anything that can be used as a weapon to inflict pain on someone We have some situations where, without going into too much detail, I mean, anything can be utilized as a weapon. Your pen can be a weapon. Just because you have it doesn't mean that we're going to discipline you for it, but there are certain parameters that we have to follow when it comes to that. And what's the variance between a HIB alleged and a HIB confirmed? A HIB alleged is essentially a... Someone uses the word bullying. Often we get parents who report bullying. Bullying, as I described earlier, has to have two characteristics. You have to have a distinguishable characteristic of a person that the person is being picked on and then a substantial

154disruption. If one of those parts is missing, even though you and I, from growing up and from just seeing what's going on, we would say that that was bullying. The state does not. Okay, so we deal with it as a code of conduct violation. We deal with it immediately. Usually before the reports are all done and I even get to see it, it's been handled. Parents have been contacted. Everything's been done. A confirmed case is when you have that characteristic and substantial disruption. Okay, anyone else? Mr. Doctor, thank you very much for not only a great presentation but going last. And Nick, thank you for staying here and supporting your dad. Thank you. All right. We have one more presentation. No. I'm going to skip over my announcements. Just look at the... If everyone would

155look at the peach jar flyers on our website, you'll see a bunch of exciting things coming up. Christopher Columbus Music is having a car wash on Saturday. But there's a bunch of other things there if you would just take a look there so I don't take any more time on it. We'll move on to number 11 first reading of policy We have 0 1 6 7 public participation board meetings 2 4 2 5 emergency virtual or remote instruction program 3 2 1 6 dress and grooming and 4 2 1 6 6 dress and grooming Is there any questions, comments on first readings? Yes, Mr. President. Mr. Canova. I saw that in one of the policies, I don't know if I'm in front of you at the second, but in one of the policies it mentioned

156removing the ability for remote. But we never had that discussion here. We've had that discussion like 12 times but we've kept it up so I don't know why it keeps coming back Yeah it just keeps coming back up so I don't know who's bringing it to policy committee to keep coming back up And I thought we're supposed to go to tech committee and discuss first so I'm not sure why that is a first reading Anything in policy? Sorry I'm on my computer Computer's only went blank on the agenda side. Well, it is in it is in policy the discussion of I see here I wasn't at that policy meeting but I was at the previous one and it was it says so I guess when we go to policy Yeah, so we're removing the line

157that says or via remote means by providing the necessary electronic communications. Yeah. Yeah, so So it sounds like we're removing the ability for people to call in. If I remember correctly, all this thing is trying to figure itself out. It's back on the agenda because, as we can tell, like tonight, for example, we had 18, 17 people who called in and not one successful one to serve its purpose. And if I remember correctly, Dr. Arbatozzi, what were the numbers again in terms of successful? usage the last time the committee met one of the things they wanted to the information they wanted to know was how excuse me the last time the committee met before this the committee wanted to know how many people have actually utilized the remote option since the board passed the policy

158and It was nine I see it here in the meeting It should be listed in that minutes I think from the time the board passed the second reading which was January through the date I got this info which was over a month ago now nine total people had utilized virtual And six of the board meetings had zero Thank you So six of the board meetings had zero nine people had utilized it and the committee wanted that information before putting this back on the agenda for a full board vote and please forgive me if I'm wrong did the board ever have vote did it ever get to a vote for the full board to vote yes or no on this particular subject because I don't know if it ever got the second reading yeah no it's

159never gotten to second removing it has never gotten a second reading Mr. President yes just for The discussion at the policy committee level and the committee members who were there, I think, can substantiate this. We looked for the numbers as the superintendent has told us as to what the participation was. The second part is- We think it's extremely embarrassing for this board to go through this at every meeting. Nobody answers or very few answer. And whatever the technology is or not, it doesn't seem to be working. And to continue it, I mean, we can always reinstate it at another time just as well as we could take it off. But we thought it was chiefly because of two reasons. The very, very low participation, number one, and number two, the way it's working is embarrassing,

160very frankly. So then that's why I would say... It needs to go back to technology. We need to discuss a better way to do it. Yes. Right off the top of my head, I would say if we could bring them into a group meeting first and someone could be vetting those people to say, hey, you're on, make sure your audio is whatever. And they're sitting inside a room essentially with each other and then admitting them or just understanding, as Dana was saying, understanding that this link is for if you just want to view, this link is for if you want to be a part of it because they seem to be getting that wrong. To even have nine people in there, I mean, those are nine people that wanted to say something and now could.

161So limiting that, I'm just not necessarily for it, especially since we know we can retool and we can, like any other pilot, like any other thing we roll out initially, you assess it and then you make the proper improvements and then you continue it if it's beneficial. And I think hearing from the public is something that's beneficial. It's the reason why we're here. My particular take on that, I mean, It appears that people, this is what the appearance is. Tonight is very typical. It appears that the people are using the Zoom platform to watch the meeting and not participate. Because certainly if somebody was familiar with Zoom and went on with Zoom, would know how to respond and participate in the meeting. The people who are. Evidently they didn't call in, they just logged on

162for lack of a better description. So if there's another way, I'm fine. But right now, I think it's highly embarrassing for the public. Ms. Baskford? Yes, first of all, it gives access. Even to a handicapped person and if it's on all year long and we only get one person that shows up on Zoom in access, we've done our job to give the public access. And I think that we started it, like Mr. Canova said, it should go back to the technology. committee to do a tweak and with the people that are on there i'm confident that they can come up with something good and let it run let it run its course because it could be that one meeting that that one person that can't get down here can't get in the building needed to

163speak and i i am totally against limiting access to the public so i know Jim, it looks embarrassing, but we need to tweak it on our end, and it should go back to policies. I mean, it should go back to tech to find out how we can fix it. I'm sure we can come up with some really brilliant ideas. Yes, Dr. Ruiz-Jose. Thank you, Mr. Smith. And this is absolutely 100% a Board of Education decision. May I make a recommendation? We had this on the agenda for a Technology Committee meeting that was scheduled a couple days ago for reasons beyond anybody's control It was cancelled at the last minute. My suggestion is we Table this allow it to go to second reading because nothing's happening tonight. There's no vote Before the next board meeting technology

164will meet At the October 6th meeting, this will be on for second reading. And the board can discuss this one last time and have a final vote, and then let's not bring it up again. Does that seem reasonable to do? I think it should go to technology to be tweaked to try it a couple more times to see if tech can fix it. I think technology should have a chance to implement something and fix it before it goes to second reading because what will happen is technology won't have a chance to implement whatever their recommendations are before the second meeting. My concern is the policy committee keeps putting this forward. getting to a final vote. We're not making a decision on it. We keep kicking it down the curb. I believe there needs to be

165a final vote. I don't disagree with you that technology could look at it and have another idea. but that could still be discussed at the october 6th meeting implemented yeah but it's again my my my recommend no but the issue is we won't be able to implement anything if it comes off a policy it would then be up to policy to bring it back in another two readings so we wouldn't have the call-in option to maybe january but but you can vote october 6th the votes no No, I know what I'm saying. We won't be able to, some of the people who are embarrassed, they won't be able to see the alternate option. I think a lot of this has to do with language barrier, because almost everyone who's called it on accident is a

166Spanish speaker. And Joe sent us the email, and the email is very long and misleading. So I think if we tried it one more week after the next meeting, I think we should table until November, in my opinion. I agree that the email is long. Misleading means that has a negative connotation. Well, it doesn't say this is how you call. It doesn't say clearly use this link if you have a concern. It says in a lot of words that I don't even know everyone understands, use this link. It doesn't say very clearly if you have a concern for the school district, use this link to call in. I think it just needs to be very simple like that. That's how I feel like it's like misleading just it's not misleading in a bad way We're

167getting old we're getting too many colors. That's we're misleading the we're misleading in a good way But we needed to be clearer that use this link to call in if you have an issue So let's let technology look at that and see if there's adjustments that need to be made to it The second reading of policy would have would happen before we would hear the report from technology No, technology's going to meet in the meantime. No, I know, but I'm saying on the voting. We haven't heard from the policy committee yet. I think what she's saying is that let's table it. This way you give technology time to tweak it, put it, implement it, put it into play, give it a meeting. And instead of October, we come back and revisit it for a second

168reading in November. that's my correct yeah I think yeah I think that's right just because you know like right now we're talking about policy that we haven't even heard about yet at the end of the day I can say it's not coming from me but at the end of the day I give every board member an opportunity if they want to bring it if they want to bring it to the agenda they want to revisit it so there's some board members who feel that way and I don't want to tell anybody no when it's given appropriate time so that's why we talk about this but if you think that we should table it I'm okay for table and for November reading and give the opportunity for technology to tweak it and put it implemented. Mr.

169President, I have a suggestion for my colleagues. I don't think any of us are really having, it's a question of implementation. So clearly the process as it's working now is embarrassing, it doesn't work. No question about that. If the technology people can do something, fine. I would suggest instead of kicking it around on an official motion that we suspend what we do here in terms of this until the technology we get answers from technology because to keep repeating this while we're examining the technology, if we can improve it and make it actually work, is fine. I have no problem with that. But if we have that hiatus and we continue to go what we went through tonight, it's almost ridiculous. Does anyone have any objection to table first reading? I have no problem tabling it,

170but I suggest that we suspend this until we get some things cleared up on the technology end. In other words, we're not eliminating anything, but we need to fix it. And to just beat the horse every time it comes in here, and again, I hate to keep repeating it, it's embarrassing. If we have a fix, let's have a fix. But to continue to have this poor system that we have now, We shouldn't be having this. I don't say to take the policy off or anything else. I think in a procedural way, we just suspend what we do here in this current system until we get something fixed to it. That's my suggestion. Okay, so does anyone have any objection to tabling this first reading so it can go back to technology? ceasing the call-in procedures

171as it is now until we can get a fix to it yeah I don't think we can cease you don't want to stop this no no because the nine people that called in so what do you mean we were here when they called in no not today I'm talking about the nine people that have called in since we implemented this in January I mean, I don't personally get embarrassed by the fact that we're talking to citizens that wanted to call in and accidentally click the wrong link. That's not embarrassing to me. I see that as part of the process. I mean, I've called the wrong number before. It happens. You know, maybe we have 300 people watching on the Zoom or on the digital link, and we have nine people accidentally click the wrong one.

172To me, I don't feel like that's super embarrassing, and I wouldn't be for suspending it just because of that. But it's up to everybody else. But I know I will vote. Okay, so there was no objection to tabling 0167. So Mr. Daly has a recommendation to cease the operation as it is now until it can be fixed in form of a motion. Is there a second? Second by Dr. Danny. Okay, so a yes vote means that you are agreeing to stop the procedures as it is now, and a no vote is to keep the procedures in place. Can you roll call, please? Okay, so to table 0167. No, that's already done. 0167, there was no objection. Okay. Excuse me, can you just clarify the yes and no again? Yeah, so the yes vote means that

173you would like yes to stop the proceedings as they're happening now or no, that you wish them to continue the way it is now. Yes is stopping the use of online public comment. No Just just the procedure it is now correct temporary. Yes temporarily suspend technically essentially correct that policy of Colin mr. Avedravo No, not the policy just the procedure Understood. So yes, my apologies. No to not correct. I mean violation of our own policy by not offering Because it's in the policy that says you're gonna be able to call in digitally So we're suspending the portion of the portion of the policy And then what would be the What would be the policy to bring it back like how would we bring it back to try it? Do you know anything because we're gonna

174have to bring it how what would be the voting procedure to bring the policy back? To its true form because then we couldn't try it Because we couldn't try the new because we couldn't try the new system Let's say if we find one we couldn't try it without bringing this back in advance. So we're talking But we just have to do it like earlier in the meeting I guess right because we wouldn't be able to send out the link or anything else Let me see. Let me walk this through because I'm thinking yeah, we're this spot, right? Basically the way I was brought up we were gonna do it to Suspend it temporarily and bring it back in November. Well, we already- You just said- Our policy is good the way it is then. You

175don't have to do anything because it says providing the necessary electronics communication technologies available during said meeting. If that next meeting is not here, then you can't use it. But it's still in the policy, we can use it anytime we want. So just leave the policy as is. My resolution isn't to meddle with the policy at all. It's to suspend the operations because of the poor condition of what we're using here. No, but that's not what we're- That's not what I heard. Well, that's what I'm putting forward. Yeah, that's what his motion is. Okay, so tell me, say, can you just repeat the motion? Yes. My motion is to suspend the current call-in method as it stands now until we get a fix for the technology from the technology people. I'm being a little wordy

176there but but but it's basically listen let me just let me let me let me let me recreate that okay so we're leaving the policy 0167 as is no changes correct right it's leaving it's leaving first reading what your your motion is that we stop using the current online public comment yeah until technology comes up with a better a different system when that better system comes up We'll try it. That's correct. And see how that works. Excuse me, but that's not addressing the first reading and second reading. It's still, if we do not vote on this policy tonight, it gets approved for first reading, so the October 6th meeting will be- No, no, no, no, no, no. We pulled it. You pulled it? Yeah. We have to vote to pull it. I just said there,

177I asked, is there any objection? Everyone said no. So we did it by consensus vote? Yeah. Okay. So it is agreed. it's just it's just we just can we settle on one thing let's just do one thing at a time right so can we is there an agreement let's start with that is there an agreement to stop using I'm sorry if I'm taking over right is there an agreement among the board to stop using the current online I'm sorry the current remote public comment until technology has an opportunity to come up with a better mousetrap basically his motion is I see miss Bass for taking her home and also the next meeting I'm watching on TV I want to call in because I want to say something or I read the agenda late last minute

178and not know that this happened there I didn't watch this meeting I think we should just continue with what we're doing may I yeah I'm sorry Mr. Abujamo I think we should continue I agree a little bit with them and the reason being is because I'd like to see a concise clear writing from the email of how we can break it down further and instead of eliminating or suspending it I want to give them a chance to see what the technology comes up with next meeting and tables for November okay is there any other comments on the motion right now a motion was made and seconded we're on discussion you're discussing it any other discussion Seeing none, we'll have a roll call. Again, yes is to remove, no is to keep. Yes is to suspend.

179Don't say remove. Suspend. There's a difference. Roll call, please. Mr. Abadrabo. No. Ms. Baskford. No. Ms. Beltran. No. Mr. Canova. No. Dr. Danny. No. Mr. Paris. No. Vice President Daley. Yes. President Smith. Yes. Motion fails. Okay, right now you're continuing to use the online the remote calling right that you currently use Okay, I'm making a motion to pull a one six seven agenda. We already did it's already been done Consensus was already done We did it prior to the voting. We did it by consensus. I'm asking for a formal vote What I'm asking for a roll call vote, but that's in first before what we just did. No Yeah, no no no this this thing about suspending the operation has only to do with continuing to use online remote The policy before that happens the

180there was agreement and I heard it that There this first reading of the policy is being tabled You don't have to you've all agreed you all agree to it there was no knees when I asked no if I can make a recommendation technology on that yeah I like the idea Joe what you said and that's what called actually caught my attention which is before they come up on the screen but we got to figure out who is going to yeah that's monitor slip who's logistically, who's going to monitor talking to these people before they come on, like in the back room, in the green screen, before they come on to Moria or whatever show you want to talk about, is, you know, are they, do they know what they're coming for? Yeah, so that's why

181I said I know that there's a ton of WebExes that I attend and that's what they do. They put you in a breakout group first. They get you ready, make sure everything's working, and then say, okay, you're going on and you're going to talk about X, Y, Z. I think that might be the missing piece. Two things going on kind of at once. Because, listen, honestly, before tonight I was all for eliminating because of the fact of not about access, but about the fact, you know. lack of attention or lack of attendance or lack of need or want for it which is proven tonight but if we're gonna do a breakout room where we can show not spend 15 20 30 minutes I wasn't here too while I wasn't here to you know to speak

182it'll make the meeting that's 30 minutes less that we have to worry about so I think that break a room would help tremendously yes dr. Ramos thank you miss I just have the administration as you know is going to do what the board wishes I just have an administrative question One you're talking about with that procedure. We need somebody to drive it So if the board tells me to have somebody do it by majority vote, that's what I'll do But you're talking about getting another person to do that on a on a more important note What I need to know is the policy is written generally doesn't talk about our procedure If technology meets next week and wants to try a new procedure for the next meeting, am I authorized to do a different procedure

183than what we're doing now? Yes? Good. Thank you. wait a second I didn't hear that Mr. Gosper no I'm not we're not having that again well it's not really it's not really a motion it's just he's gonna try it out if it's money it costs money it has to come back to the board for approval so so if there's a there's a monetary thing to doing this it's got to come back to the board it may not cost money it may be something simpler but I just want to may change up the procedure and I want to know if that's okay so can I prior to us talking can I ask a question so what would I mean what would it take would take a body right or take a person human being to be

184here to do it up to let me finish ask my question up to how much would that cost and if so let's put a resolution right now for something forward saying up to certain amount of dollars This way it covers you so you don't have to come back and so we don't have to keep toying with this every single month. To Joe, is it going to cost anything about apparatus and how? It's got to go to kick now. And really it's not my place to say. I mean really, Mr. Mountain's going to say his side of whatever it needs. Yeah, but if we're going to try the breakout room, that's not going to cost us anything. No, no it doesn't. No, it's not. It's already built in. Okay, so. So to answer your question, Mr.

185Albuquerque, it may not cost anything. It could be somebody who's already at the meeting for another reason. If it is an additional person that has to be at the meeting solely for that purpose, the max it might cost us for one night, I mean. $50 an hour might be the highest rate somebody would get depending on who they are what their status is so so I mean so then can we put something forward saying not more or up to $200 as if mr. president yeah just I'll direct this to mr. UC our business administrator If we authorize, we don't really need to authorize. If the money doesn't exceed the budget, you have money to spend for a whole host of things here. So unless we're exceeding that or there's a specific contract, there's no need

186because you have an administrative ability to hire or move people as the administration sees fit. Is that correct? True, such as having our AV staff here. Yeah. Putting a not to exceed would only strap it instead of keeping it more open to our staff. I mean if something works, I think we're all going to go for it. I mean even if it costs some more money. But the point is, I think we're over legislating. Let the administration do their job. Right. Yep. Could I make a motion to- implement what the technology if it can be implemented before the next meeting that we implement the process that the technology committee recommends as the trial for the next meeting Right and the Ms. Baskford has asked that a motion be made and Mr. Parris just made a

187motion so is there a second Moving along. What's the motion? The motion is, Mr. Paris' motion, if I understand it correctly, is that Dr. Robert Tozzi will have the technology people see if there's a different way to manage the online remote public comment, and whatever they come up with, they will try it at the next meeting. That's a direction. It really does not need a motion. we've given administration the direction I got that but I there was a concern that there's not a uniform there's not a uniform a majority a formal majority of the board giving the superintendent that direction and so he has that direction automatically I got that and a motion was made so I call the vote please I just when it's 1015 let's go okay discussion See none, roll call. Mr.

188Abadrabbo? Sure. Ms. Basford? Yes. Ms. Beltran? Yes. Mr. Canova? Yes. Dr. Danny? Yes. Mr. Paris? Yes. Vice President Daley? Over legislation, but yes. President Smith? Yes. Motion carries. Hold on, Lucy had her hand over her mouth. So everyone is clear. Can I just say something else and then I'll be done. A motion like that. whether it's made you know a motion like that does not require a recorded roll call vote just so everyone understands that recorded roll call votes are required in very specific circumstances the majority of things that occur on a board are can be voted on simply by a show of hands doesn't it's not wrong it's just over just so you know nothing just for now okay we move on board committee reports Policy, Mr. Alvedrabo. On that note, should I even

189read mine? All right. The policy committee began at 3.10 p.m. on September 12th. Attendees were Board President Jim Smith, Vice President James Daly, and myself, Commissioner Alan Parris, filling in for Lucy Danny. Administrators present were Dr. Danny Robertuzzi, Mark Gingero, Lou Ross, Esquire, and also President Delys Gutierrez from AGL. The following policies are being put forward for adoption as recommended by Strauss-Esme, 2425, emergency virtual or more remote construction program, instruction program. It's not construction, sorry. Mandated, number 2, 3216, 4216, dressing, grooming. The committee recommends. adding item g to both policies to read flip-flops and or other footwear which are open in the back do not provide a supportive closure to the back of the foot the committee then reviewed and discussed by law with zero one six seven public participation in board meetings and is

190recommending that the action pertaining to the public addressing the board via remote means by calling in during public recognition be removed from the policy Data was provided to which revealed that since the second meeting of this policy on January 20, 2022, adding the remote option, there have been nine total participants in the public portion of the board meetings. Six of the board meetings since January 20 have had zero virtual participants. In its continuing review of policies, the committee reviewed the following policies all adopted prior to 2015 and recommend no changes be made to them. These policies will be marked as reviewed with today's board meeting date in our policy book and on the district website where the policies are kept. 1 1522 school leveling school level planning 2 1540 administrators code of ethics number 3

1911570 internal controls number 4 1631 residency requirement for a person holding school district office employment or position number 5 21 10 philosophy of education number 6 2210 curriculum and development number 7 2220 adoption of courses Number 8, 2230, course guides. Number 9, 2240, controversial issues. Number 10, 2310, student groupings. Number 11, 2312, class size. Number 12, 2330, homework. Number 13, 2340, field trips. Number 14, 2360, use of technology. Number 15, 2361, acceptable use of computer networks, computers, and resources. Number 16, 2414. programs and services for students in high poverty in high needs school districts number 17 2416 programs for pregnant students the meeting was adjourned at 3 33 43 pm respectfully submitted Lou Ross Esquire okay any questions discussion yes this is to directed to the superintendent through you how much time is it taking

192Mr. Ross to go through all these policies and how come we're not using a service to do it Are you talking about, Mrs. Bessford, the review of the policies? I would have to ask him, but it's really been the committee itself reviewing it. I don't think it has been too much time, but I could ask him that. I'm just concerned that he's got other jobs to do, and I know that in the past we've used the service, so I was wondering why it's going to our staff instead. I actually think the purpose is not. It's just to be able to say this, when you look at a policy, it may say it was passed in 2012. But it's just to say now that it was reviewed again in 2022. You still do have a service.

193Correct. You still do have a service. We're still using it. I don't want to be overburdening ourselves, especially Mr. Ross, because I know he has a lot of other stuff he has to attend to. And that was my concern. So thank you. all right anyone else seeing none Mr Daley would you do facilities for Mr Awad thank you Mr President some minutes for facilities committee held on September 7th 2022 board members present were Mr Awad myself Mr Beltran and Mr Smith The administration present was Dr. Robitose, Mr. Gingaro, Mr. Yusey, Mr. Shahida, Mr. Maldonado, and Mr. Marchione. The professional service reps attending were Mr. Watkins, Mr. Costello, and Ms. Slack. Those were the representing on the... on the referendum issues meeting started at three o'clock ended at 4 22 items of discussion referendum update update

194was given on total referendum projects from construction manager and architect bid package 2 is set to open on that October 12th bid package three or four are almost cleared from office and state controller they were pending item two school 14 parking lot bid was opened bid opening was for 929 that's coming up next is the Cecilia Spear update. Building is completely operational. Building was painted, furniture was delivered, and all fire sprinkler inspections took place and passed. CO was issued by the city. Number four, maintenance of vehicles. More vehicles are needed to support growing maintenance team. Currently, there are short three vehicles. One vehicle has been ordered from Ford. Number five, bathroom tiles. Administration agreed on the color for the district-wide bathroom tiles, sinks, and partitions. The colors were presented to the committee and they were

195concurred. Number six, tennis court turf. Colors were presented to the committee and to select for tennis court turf color, maroon gray with white lines. Number seven, cafeteria tables in school 11. Stowaway cafeteria tables were purchased at school 11. This is a district wide initiative taking place to give buildings more space and make more cafeteria, gym, auditorium safer and easier to clean. Number eight, CHS soccer field. The administration will be fielding quotes to have the field regraded for the safety of the students and staff. The project was requested to be expedited. New business. Number one, committee requests the administration to create a priority list of projects for the upcoming budget. That concludes my remarks and report. Anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer. I have a question. First of all, how come there's new

196business? Because I wasn't allowed to bring new business up to policy, but I'll let that go for another night. There has been multiple complaints about roads construction around different schools. So this is probably for facilities and municipal alliance that we have to get together with the other side of Clifton Avenue to find out what's going on and how we can. better prepare, because that stuff could have been done in the summer. Especially by school, they blocked all mountainside terrace and people were worried about- No notice to watch. Right, with no notice. And the other thing was the parents, because I was watching this Facebook feed just blow up. They were worried about emergency vehicles being able to get up to the school. during regular school hours in case we needed an ambulance or fire truck,

197they would never have been able to get down the block. I know they can come up the back way, but you need access to the back of the building as well. So if we can have Uni Alliance talk to people on the other side of the street, that we can come up with a better way, because it's not fair to the parents out there that are worrying about getting to see their little Johnny and James. And it was really, it was a hot mess. That's the best thing. So that's the other thing. And whoever on. facilities cleaned up some of the schools before school started thank you they look great especially school five because I passed there every day thank you Mr. Sciata you're welcome to speak you're very knowledgeable there was PSE and G

198and they don't even notify the city most of the time but we we have a contact there now who Allegedly is going to be able to give us a heads up, but there's just so much going on. Maybe the legislative people as well and say this has to stop because don't they talk to PSCG and those folks? It's got to stop. I mean, people were really upset the other day and one lady couldn't get up to the school and I get it. I totally get it. Mr. President? Yes, Mr. Deaton. Yeah, apparently there is some communication because there is multiple police agencies at all these construction sites. State police, sheriff's officer, so somebody's notifying somebody, although it wouldn't be staff. But it's not just up on Valley. It is all over. And personally, when I

199go from point A to point B, I assume that three-quarters of the streets are blocked and I plan my route accordingly. Has Municipal Alliance met recently? I'm drawing a blank if we've heard from them. No, we were organizing a date. Lucy, Dr. Danny had been in contact with me and we were going to shoot for a date in October. Just give us a reason to move that up even maybe for early October. The other issue is they're bleeding a lot of the hydrants up in certain sections of the city. And maybe if the municipal side can notify us as well, because that may affect the water, that lovely tap water that Mr. Aldewa loves so much. So maybe- That's a concern of mine as well because I know up in the Albion section our water

200is black and dirty all the time. We have constant dirty water. But they did the sewers up in the neighborhood, but a couple days later, we have the lovely tint of, it's a light brown now, I think. We have beige towels that used to be white. I'm worried about our quality water for child's bending over into a drinking fountain. We don't know what's in there. And they talked about changing the pipes at the last council meeting, but it's a ten year process. But if there is a problem, does Sake Valley Water Company actually notify the school district that they're flushing the hydrants? That's what I'm concerned about. Thank you. okay any other questions on the minutes of facilities okay moving on thank you we have another one finished business okay number 15 can expression of

201condolence dr. Danny Whereas on August 18, 2022, the community noted the sorrow, with sorrow the passing of Mr. Donald R. Cole. And whereas Mr. Cole had served the city of Clifton as a councilman for 16 years, Mr. Cole was also on the Preakness Hospital Board of Managers and worked for 34 years as the administrator of the Passaic County Board of Social Services in Patterson, New Jersey. Mr. Cole was also the husband of Mary Cole, who served on the Clifton Board of Education. Now, therefore, be it resolved that this resolution be forwarded to his bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great regard in which Mr. Cole served the citizens of Clifton. Be it further resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in their entirety in the official minutes of the Clifton

202Board of Education for future generations to peruse. Having known Donald personally, he always had a smile. And if anybody needed help, he would help you. I mean, he'd give you the shirt off his back. He was just that great of a guy. I mean, he was a great father and a great husband, grandfather, and, you know, truly enjoyed my talks with him. He was a great, great friend, and he will be dearly missed by his family and all of us. thank you okay there's a motion uh by dr danny second second by mr abu drabo any other discussion seeing it on roll call please mr abu drabo yes miss bassford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes dr danny yes mr paris yes vice president daly yes and president smith yes motion carries okay next

203we'll move on to uh administer excuse me education administration we have ea1 through ea13 Motion. Motion by Mr. Abidjabo. Second. Second by Mr. Canova. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call please. Mr. Abidjabo. Yes. Ms. Bassford. Yes. Ms. Beltran. Yes. Mr. Canova. Yes. Dr. Danny. Yes. Mr. Paris. Yes. Vice President Daley. Yes. President Smith. Yes. Motion carries. Okay, next we have personnel. We have P1 through P45. motion motion by Mr. Apadrava second second by Ms. Bassford um excuse me can we pull five for the back room I don't know who it is I would like just to know okay uh p5 administrative leave we'll pull that for executive yes sorry I was reading something else it's the personnel issue we're talking about oh okay all right uh What did I say one through one through 46

204through 45 45 with five going to executive roll call please. Mr. Abujabo. Yes. Miss Bassford. Yes. Miss Beltran. Yes. Mr. Canova. Yes. Dr. Danny. Yes. Mr. Paris. Yes, but abstain on 24 and 41 Vice President Daley. Yes. President Smith. Yes. Motion carries. We have a staff member that we just approved here tonight would you like to come up and say a few words to the board and congratulations and welcome to Clifton You guys haven't been here long enough? Come on. Good evening, Clifton community. I would like to thank Dr. Robert Tozzi, Mrs. Kuchilevitz, Mr. Gingaro, Mrs. Papamarkos, and the commissioners of the Clifton Board of Education for the opportunity to serve as assistant principal of CLS. Sixteen years ago, I began my career in Clifton as a first-grade teacher at school 14. Since then, I

205worked as an administrative intern at school 11 and a third-grade teacher at school 2. I have grown into this position with the help and guidance of my esteemed colleagues, family, friends, and Clifton community members. I'm honored to join the Clifton administrative team and excited to strengthen partnerships among people I call mentors. I'm looking forward to forging strong collaborative relationships with the staff, students, and families of our CELA program. I'm prepared to embrace the challenges and look forward to celebrating the successes that come with being an administrator. I'm grateful for the opportunity to grow as an educational leader and will continue to make a positive impact on the one Clifton community. Thank you again for this opportunity. Congratulations. Welcome to the Clifton administrators. Yeah. It should be C. ABC. The street name is Speer. Oh, that's

206right. Brighton Road, Owe. Yeah, just figure that out. All right, next we move on to finance and facilities. We have F1 through F15 by Mr. Abadrabo. Second. Second by Mr. Canova. Discussion? I have a question on number eight. This is through you to the BA. How does that work with the sale of assets? I'm just curious. It's done through an auction. Okay. We hire a company, a public bidding company, and it's done through a public auction. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, roll call please. Mr. Abidjabo. Yes, but abstaining on bill list two and 14, abstaining on 4773. Ms. Baskford. Yes. Ms. Beltran. yes Mr. Canova yes Dr. Dan yes Mr. Paris yes Vice President Daley yes President Smith yes motion carries all right next we move on to board member comments I have a

207motion in relation to board member comments just because it's 1035 at night that perhaps if we could suspend it I'm not sure if other if any if any other board members would be willing to second I'll second that Okay, there's a motion to suspend board member comments for this meeting by Ms. Beltran, second by Vice President Daley. Excuse me to you, I have an announcement from a special education group that I was going to do during my comments, so how do I do that on the new business? Thank you. Okay, roll call please. Mr. Abidrabo. Yes. Ms. Bessford. No. Ms. Beltran. Yes. Mr. Canova. Yes. Dr. Danny. She took a vote on the motion. Yes. Mr. Paris? Yes. Vice President Daley? Yes. President Smith? No. Motion's carried. All right, new business, just go and say

208everything you wanted to say under new business. I have new business. Yes, Ms. Baffert. I was asked to make an announcement for the Clifton Praise. There is a CPAC meeting September 29th at 7 PM at CLAB. for Brighton Road. The purpose of our group is to provide the opportunity for parents and community members to offer input to the Clifton Public Schools on a system level and challenging in policies, programs, practices, and services that affect students with disabilities and their families. Parents and caregivers are at the heart of the CPAC. All parents and caregivers of students with disabilities are welcome. Whether the student have Students have, hold on, I lost my, have an IEP or a 504. Whether they attend in district or out of district, students of all ages and grades, preschool through high school,

209district staff and administration are welcome too. This was sent to me by the Clifton Praise Group, and they're asking anybody to please make sure they attend. It's a very informative and very, very important meeting for you guys to attend. Thank you. Mrs. Badsford, I didn't hear the time. 7 o'clock. Thank you. president smith yes and the other new business just one last thing mr roberto uh dr roberto the traffic safety over at sela a that was concerned i think that people were mentioning um yesterday all over social media i mentioned to you can you just explain and what yeah there was a parent who um sent me an email um regarding speeding on That all would? It was not all with CLA. All would work by CLA. I had forwarded that to the city manager,

210spoke to Nick Villano, who shared it with the chief of police. The parent was more concerned about not catching a few speeders, but a more long-term solution. So they're going to discuss what they can do to reduce the people speeding there. Can we also add that for the municipal alliance meeting, please? Absolutely. Thank you. Any other new business Mr. Smith I was going to discuss the calendar committee tonight in lieu of the time I'm going to table that till my until the October 6th meeting but real quickly just so the board knows the calendar the committee has met two times a survey went out this week to parents and the community I'll be sharing the results of that at the October 6th meeting with recommendations for next year's calendar not to be voted on October

2116th for discussion thank you okay executive session We have a security issue from Ms. Bassford. We have attorney-client privilege from me. We have two personnel and two legal from the superintendent. We have one student issue, and Ms. Bassford's administrator leave P5 to pull. We will probably be in executive session for a good hour. Action will be taken, so we will come back. Hopefully within an hour. That would leave us at 1140. If it's any later than that, I'll be out to tell everyone it's later. Okay, motion to go to executive. Motion. So moved by Ms. Bassford, second by Mr. Daly. Any objection? Okay, the board is still in executive session. We presume, hopefully we will be out between a half an hour and 45 minutes. So I just wanted to update the community that the

212board is still discussing an executive session. Okay, the board met in executive session. Can we have a roll call back from executive? Mr. Abidrabo. Here. Ms. Basford. Here. Ms. Beltran. Here. Mr. Canova. Here. Dr. Danny. Here. Mr. Paris. Here. Vice President Daley. Here. President Smith. Here. We have a quorum. The board met in executive session. We discussed a student issue, attorney-client privilege, two personnel, two legal, a student issue, and P5. So we need a motion on P5. Motion by Mr. Abadrabo. Second. Second by Ms. Beltran. P5 was an administrative leave. Any discussion? No, roll call please. Mr. Abidjabo. Yes. Ms. Passford. Here. Ms. Beltran. Here. Mr. Canova. Yes. Dr. Danny. Yes. Mr. Paris. Yes. Vice President Daley. Daley. Vice President Daley. President Smith. Yes. Motion carries. Okay, motion to adjourn by Mr. Abidjabo, second by

213Mr. Canova. Adjourned.