001okay i want to welcome everyone to our meeting if we could stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and justice for all mr fano thank you mr roman gino just need to read a quick statement if i may the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice to us and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of these act the cliffside park board of ed has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time in place they
002were posted in the offices of the borough clerk the borough library the borough rec department the office of the board of ed and the offices of schools number three four five six and a high school on august 30th 2021 and notice before to reporters of the record august 30th 2021 this is an official meeting so take a roll qualifying mr roman gina mrs abreu here mr capano here mrs fredo here mr garcigan here dr pantaliano here mr raincourt here mr russo mr shelley here mr tarabakian and mr yanuji okay mr roman gina okay we do have a guest with us tonight but before um we hear from dr severance i'd like to just go over a couple of items uh regarding some of the happenings in our schools uh the week of october 25th through
00329th i want to thank all of our staff and teachers who celebrated red ribbon week across the district november 10th last week uh we had a successful parent workshop for all pre-k and k parents across the district that workshop was presented by julie jewish family services the main topic that night was parenting and um having your child pre-k in kindergarten transitioning to uh school which a lot of them were not at last year the workshop went very well i do want to make mention that on december 13th which is a monday night we're having another parent workshop at 6 30 at the high school uh that's gonna address mental health mental health concerns uh of students um that's going to be open to all parents across the district and we will be uh posting some
004information regarding that workshop on our website in the near future uh also want to make mention that on november 30th and december 1st we're going to have in instant decision day at the high school we have about 20 colleges that are committed as they have in the past come to cliffside park high school uh students will then have the opportunity to um have instant decisions in terms of uh picking a particular college on that day and i'll let the board know at that time how many students actually took advantage of that opportunity i do want to make mention that i spoke to mr pinto our high school principal who gave me some information regarding our ap classes at the high school uh in 2015 we had 35 students at that time taking ap classes uh
005since then we've expanded the number of offerings and for 2020 i'm happy to report we had 136 students who were taking advantage of our ap classes once we get some information on this year 2021 i will share that with uh with the board uh you know students are scored on a basis of five to one and i'm happy to say that last year 85 students uh scored a three or higher which is um a pretty good accomplishment over over the years we didn't have as many students scoring as high but over the last couple of years the staff and mr pinto and the administration at the high school have made a an effort to address that particular area which is ap classes i do want to take a moment to congratulate all of our students
006athletes for the fall sports and our coaches you know that our soccer team went a pretty long way our football team had a successful season uh this was the first year that we were we're in cooperation with ridgefield and we look forward to more successful years and cross country and uh all of the students that participated as they do every year uh did a great job i also want to make mention that this coming saturday november 20th we have a robotics competition normally it's held at the high school this year it's held in the middle school because of the high school construction we're going to have about 20 um schools that are going to come on saturday at different times and participate in the competition uh mr capizzi our middle school teacher science teacher is
007now heading the robotics uh program and uh he's put together a nice program for saturday and again if you have time during the day you might want to stop into the middle school uh they're going to be competing all day long but uh it should be a nice event for our students to take part okay uh any questions at this time from the board uh i believe the robotics starts at 9 00 a.m yeah and it usually runs till around four or five okay so at this time um i'd like to turn the program over to dr severance who's gonna talk a little bit about um a little bit about these achievements in your district i i created a very brief um powerpoint that i'm going to try to open let's see if we can
008do that here and from the beginning can you see that yes sometimes the technology gods smile upon me so uh so we're going to just kind of run down quickly yet comprehensively the strategic planning approach that we will be doing specifically for the cliffside park school district so why do a strategic plan well it's to create a plan that will guide cliffside park school district's efforts to achieve the mission vision and goals of the community and how will we do that well it involves a series of steps that's really based on a comprehensive needs assessment so i will begin by uh working with the superintendent and his designees to identify and analyze data sources um great examples of that would be the ap courses and performance that that was shared just a few moments ago
009so we'll start by taking a look at the student achievement data at growth and whatever data is deemed uh interesting uh relevant and worthy to analyze as part of the strategic planning process then it really gets interesting we're going to host in-person input sessions i think this is really what lies at the heart of the strategic planning process it's to elevate the voices of the members of the school community so of course board of education members have a significant role in sharing their voice sharing their aspirations their intentions for what they want to see happen what they want to see accomplished by the cliffside park school district we're also going to host community forums where caregivers and community members can come we can do this in the day we can do it in the evening
010we can host multiple sessions at the convenience of of the community we may even be able to um have opportunities for people who speak um spanish participate in those if that's deemed uh important or necessary of course we'll also have our faculty and staff engage in these interview um rather input sessions and the students i think this is where um where it really makes a difference when when the process that i use really engages students in a powerful and meaningful way i'll show you more about that in a moment we will also design and conduct a district-wide survey so that we can hear from people across the district we will then aggregate and analyze the feedback the input and the findings and present those results to the board of education in may so for cliffside
011park in particular it's going to require quite a bit of outreach i will be going to school 3 4 5 6 middle school and high school and talking to student representatives from grades 2 or 3 up through 12. the idea here is to listen to the kids and to ask them to provide input on the kind of school where they would learn best so what you see before you is a tool that i created to hear from our younger students the elementary students and i ask them two things i ask them to share the kind of school where everyone feels known valued respected where they are a welcome and essential member of that school community tell me about a school with heart then i asked them to talk about the ways that teachers teach so
012that they learn and what you see here is from a school district that i worked with in the past these are all all of the things that you see here comes from the input of the students so when i met with the elementary kids they were i mean amazing to they are so spot on they're so honest as you see they're filling out their thoughts their insights their input and i have an opportunity for them to talk with each other i collect all of that data and include that in this strategic planning process now everyone knows that you can't use that sheet with middle school and high school kids you gotta cool it up so i do this is from middle school and high school students in another district where i did the strategic planning
013process once again the words of the students are incredibly insightful and powerful and if we want to create schools where students want to come and where they learn it's important to hear what they have to say so this is some of the middle school students who were engaged in that process and of course i work alongside the leadership in each of the schools to make sure it's done in a way that is comfortable that is appropriate to the particular school as i mentioned it's also essential to listen to faculty so this is uh one of the school districts where i did the the input session with the faculty members so they sit in rows each person is asking and answering essential questions about the strengths the areas to improve their aspirations and so forth they
014then kind of if you look at it it looks a lot like speed dating not that i would know personally but each person has a chance to interact with the other person now i want to say i understand this is in a post-covet environment we can certainly do this three feet apart and with masks i am very open and amenable to doing the input sessions in whatever way you deem appropriate for your context here is where the teachers the community members it's run in the same way regardless of the participants where they have a chance to synthesize and then report out on the answers to their questions this process uses complete transparency everyone who is in the room has an opportunity to hear from every voice that's in the room it is dynamic it brings
015a lot of energy and people absolutely love it this is an a picture from another community this is little falls where i believe that we had 80 people come out and share their voices and provide their input into the process so all of this then is synthesized organized into strengths and areas for attention i then offer recommendations for goal setting and action planning where ultimately we seek to develop what's called a three-year plan on a page much of the contemporary thinking is about creating plans that are succinct versatile knowable and actionable not the giant tome or a big dissertation that's kind of done once and then placed on the shelf the idea is to create an actionable plan that's used to guide decision making goal setting and that becomes the driver that helps lead cliffside
016park to the achievement of their goals so that's a very succinct overview of the process it involves a lot of hours on site and behind the scenes and again its intention is to culminate in something that is useful to you that is valuable to valuable to the community and that helps guide your future planning so i'm open to uh to answering any questions if you may have anyone from the board there will be questions that the board will have and any information along the way i'll be sharing with them and hopefully maybe once we get into it you can um come visit before and give them an update as well oh yes the process definitely i will definitely be on site and available i i'm really excited about this i'm really passionate about the work
017and i think that that your community will enjoy both the process and benefit from the outcome okay thank you very much thank you thank you thank you good night everyone thank you good night okay so um at this time what i'd like to do is uh ask any board members if they have any committee reports uh lou if you'd be kind enough to just give us an update i know uh we've had some hiccups with the the high school uh gym uh reha you know upgrades i know public service was a thorn in our side it looks like the poll is up looks like the inspectors because i had made a call they came out and uh inspected the trenches and they looked like they were going to backfill it today uh if you can
018just give us an update so we know where we are and what the possible projections are of completion poll was set uh about a week or so ago as you know joe uh the trench the conduit it was inspected and approved by two inspectors public service and our own borough inspector now they they've got to close it up and uh the based on this there's going to be a new timeline coming out we're meeting next tuesday uh to go through the new timeline but it looks like you know uh plus or minus we're to obviously we're going to lose november and probably the month of december in regard to having the capability of having access to the gym but we'll get more definitive timeline dates when we meet next tuesday that's where we are right
019now budget wise we are we are spot on there's really no uh incremental change orders above and beyond the core bid specs uh which is always good news uh for me but as you know as you alluded to uh public service has been a challenge since the summer we've done our best to engage other folks who who also tried to help us expedite the timeline so to speak with them i think there's finally some good news is like i said they set the poll engaged the trench we're ready to close the trend so we've seen some movement over the last few weeks so based on that movement we'll get an updated timeline which we'll talk about on tuesday and then we will share with the committee obviously and share with the board mr porfido mr
020pinto uh and mr porphido uh had meetings with myself and mr roman gino in regard to what's our plan now that you know we've lost the month of november we lost the month of december uh november there's tryouts this coming monday november 22nd and then there's actually practice november 29th so we actually had to make an opportunity for the basketball program to kind of move forward so we've engaged the middle school and we have a process and a plan in place so we we kind of hit the ground running when the tryouts and the practices start specific to the middle school we took a look at the bible court we took a look at the hoops to make sure they're all working they go up and down we had a vendor come in to do
021some proactive work in regard to making sure the hoops are where they need to be because right now that's really the only space that the high school can kind of like i said conduct their tryouts conduct their practices so we'll have further updates after our meeting with tuesday with uh land associates and smac thank you you're welcome any questions from the board regarding um mr capano's summary of the high school gym okay so uh at this time what i'd like to do is look at the consent agenda um going over to page two as always we are approving uh staff members uh reimbursement for professional development uh you'll notice conquer math uh comes up quite a bit it's a program that we have our staff involved with this year it's back to um in person
022where our staff members uh go for professional development in uh math from actually k all the way up to grade eight so we have a a number of staff members taking advantage of that uh a number of times throughout the year uh i'm also accepting the resignation of frank barber a computer special teacher uh frank will be moving on to another position effective december 31st uh the very bottom of page two we are extending the um unpaid leave of vicky bucko who's a middle school social studies teacher from november 1st and through to january 1st and hopefully vicky will be back with us right after the winter break uh top of page three sarah diane who is a grade six teacher at school number six uh was to return january first uh she asked for
023an unpaid family leave extension through june 30th 2022. uh third one down uh recommendation to appoint vinnie pinuccio as our replacement for frank barber as a computer slash art teacher ba step 15 at 87 940 and you know that i had spoken to the board last week about using uh both local funds and sr and rp are arp funds to offset um mr pannuccio sally he'll be getting with us he'll begin with us on or about january 18th uh once he gives his current district 60 day notice so we're happy to have him on board uh further down the page we have two bus drivers uh who are moving from part-time positions to full-time positions i know mister alfano uh did speak to the transportation committee about the need for that we'll go over to
024page four uh you know that we have as a result of sr2 funds and as a result of arp funding we have something called learning loss money that we use this past summer for part of our salt program and we're continuing to use that money throughout the school year so what i did is i advertised for staff members who are willing to come in before school hours and for the most part some after school hours but for the most part these teachers that are listed uh from schools three four five six in the middle school will be available for uh homework help for students who are in need a few mornings a week and we're going to use our learning loss uh monies to fund that particular program so that should help students in their
025transition coming back to school as they have this year some of them might be in need of homework help or remediation and we will have staff available to assist pages four and five and six um are staff members who waive their um benefits medical benefits uh and in lieu of getting a cash waiver or a cash incentive or a non-cash waiver depending upon the situation you know that that saves the board of education uh and the community quite a bit of money in terms of not having to pay the full benefits for those filters so that's uh through pages four five six and on to page seven and we do that each year uh page eight um as i mentioned i believe it was last week uh we are going to revise our school calendar
026so that we're going to have elementary parent conferences as we have in the past for three days december 7th 8th and 9th pre-k through 5. those will be half day sessions for those students so that parents can come into the building and possibly do it virtually but have the opportunity to meet with classroom teachers regarding student progress so that'll be december 7th 8th 9th a letter has gone home to the parent and it's also posted up on our our website uh page 9 we're approving a bus drill which we do each year um as per mandated by the guidelines from the department of education two drills took place one on the 27th of september one on october uh 12th that's in our policy that we do that each school year uh page 10 we're approving
027um tentatively and again this is just a five-year preschool program plan that the department of ed education is asking most districts to do and uh this is just a resolution that the board is approving the plan for submission and then at some point it will be approved and uh once i submit that plan to the department of that i will um email a plan to the uh board for you to just look through but basically it's similar to the plans we've submitted in the past as far as different guidelines that we're adhering to regarding our pre-k program we're also part of or participating in once again a program called seal of bi-literacy uh that we do each year for our ell students um georgette van vliet oversees that program and we usually have uh a
028a nice participation in terms of the number whose students who take advantage of that buildings and grounds i did highlight the robotic program this this saturday on the program it does say 7 a.m beginning but that's just set up the actual program begins at 9am as i mentioned uh mr founder you have anything on finance do you want to point out a couple items just roman gino we just completed our 2020 online audit like to say was a very successful audit i want to thank the business office the overall staff support from the board and support for mr roman gino it went very well our audit we are now engaged in uh 2223 budget which obviously starts on july 1st 2022 we've had dialogue with the board and staff in regard to potential capital projects
029potential new roofs a new administrative office for the high school so we'll keep everyone posted on that those are bid projects that go out the public bid we're also engaging in some equipment orders potentially again it's based on how the budget shakes out some snow removal equipment and potentially a new 54 passenger bus and we are full go ahead in regard to our winter preparations in regard to doing our due diligence on our blowers our salters and our plows to get ready for mother nature hopefully mother nature cooperates but again you never know and then on in regard to the 2223 budget on page 17 we are approving the budget calendar process and procedures that is a uh njdoe requirement and a qsac requirement that's pretty much it mr roman gino okay very good um
030at this time any before i ask for a motion to accept any questions from the public or the board on the consent agenda i know we're streaming our meeting tonight and the public does have an opportunity to ask questions but we don't have any at this time so if not i'll ask for a motion to accept i'll make a motion is that mr capano yes uh was that mr shelley yes okay thank you both uh i'd like to take a vote if i may mrs abreu yes mr capano yes mrs freda yeah mr garcia yes dr pantaliano yeah mr raincourt yeah mr shelley yes still move mr roman gina okay uh before we adjourn uh just a reminder december 15th we have our work session december 22nd is our board meeting uh before i adjourn
031than any other questions from the community okay i just want to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving yes um a safe thanksgiving uh as we move forward and uh a motion to adjourn mr founder that's mr garcia may i have a second please second that's mr