001like to call the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education for Thursday the Wednesday 21st of uh September 2023 if you all please rise for salute to our flag followed by 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 if you'd all please remember the uh all those affected by the bus crash today in New York and for those that lost their lives we send our condolences to their families okay Rocco please Mr Roberto here Mr Awad miss basford here Mr Brunswick here Mr Mejia okay Mr Paris here Mr Santiago here vice president Danny here president Smith here we have a quorum uh Mr Awad and
002his wife uh just had the birth of a new baby boy so um he will not be here this evening for them because I don't know the name anything no uh mission statement please uh vice president Danny the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community Partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to Democratic Society in an ever-changing world the open public meetings act the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act
003the Clinton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the daytime 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 on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with the board's policy zero one six eight okay we'll move on um Mr Rose are you ready uh public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to the residents and on residents of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the Clinton Public School District residents and non-residents are requested if they're in person to sign the registered provider for this purpose all
004speakers are asked to State their names municipality in which they live in subject matter before they speak 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 responsible be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by board members the board asked the members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when they are 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 held liable for any comments
005by May by made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of illegal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments all right we'll start with virtual please we have a phone um phone number 201 we have you're online with the Clifton Board of Education meeting yeah yeah okay hi you're free to make your comment you have five minutes oh right now I'm live yes okay great excuse me hello everybody um [Music] um oh excuse me with that being said uh back to school night to school five they show those lies I thought it was the most wonderful thing I've ever heard and I'm going to read I'm sure live or all elementary schools
006[Music] this allows us to better support your child's emotionally and academically um and then on top of that uh Mrs Harris School five she uh ended it with a personal little note and it was just so wonderful and she ended it with it it would only help me love you more and uh that meant the world to me and she taught my son a few years ago and now she has my daughter and she's one of the best teachers ever and it was just really a nice thing and I was just wondering if that was the school five things uh Elementary School in fact it's carried over into Woodrow but that exactly and I thought it was really such a wonderful thing and uh that's really it thank you so much [Music] thank you we
007have one remote computer login Viviana this is the Clifton Board of Education meeting would you like to make a public comment hi Viviana you're at the Clifton Board of Education how are you Hi how are you you have five minutes to speak would you like to make a comment hello hi Viviana I believe you've hit mute so if you'd like to make a comment you're more than welcome to speak publicly we're not taking text messages via Zoom if you'd like to unmute yourself and make a public comment you're free to do so do you plan on making a public comment s okay you'll have to unmute yourself so that you can make a public comment Hi how are you Hi how are you you're welcome to speak and make your comment hi Viviana would you
008like to make a public comment yeah no problem okay go ahead you have five minutes I believe you've muted yourself again okay no problem I'm gonna move on yeah we're gonna move on is there anyone else unfortunately I'm going to have to end this call we don't have anyone else in the waiting room okay motion to close executive virtual my uh Miss basford second by Mr abadrabo okay anyone else wish to address the board in the public please come up to the microphone sign the register provided state your name subject matter Miss Valley what you live well good evening my name is Lori lalama and I'm the president of the Clifton Education Association I stand before you today president of our Union to welcome you to another school year filled with promise challenges and opportunities
009as we embark on this journey together I want to share a few thoughts on the collective Vision we hold for our schools and the important role we all play in shaping the future of our students first and foremost our educators are committed to providing the highest quality education for every child in our district our educators are more than instructors they are mentors motivators and lifelong Learners themselves they work tirelessly to inspire curiosity critical thinking and a love of learning for our students but we understand that education is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor each child is unique with their own strengths needs and aspirations our educators are dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment that recognizes and celebrates these differences we will continue to advocate for policies and resources that support diverse learning styles and ensure that no
010child is Left Behind as we look ahead it's important to acknowledge that the fast past few years have presented unprecedented challenges the pandemic disrupted our lives in ways we could never have imagined yet our Educators in collaboration with our Administration and Community adapted and persevered we applaud the resilience of our students the support of our parents and the tireless efforts of our Educators we are grateful for the work of our Administration and Board of Education during this time now we Face a new school year with optimism and determination we will continue to prioritize the health and safety of our students and staff we will remain flexible and responsive to evolving circumstances Guided by the latest science and the expertise of our Educators in the spirit of collaboration we invite the community and the Board of
011Ed to engage with us in a dialogue of continuous Improvement together we can identify areas where our schools Excel and where we can do better let us work together to ensure that every child has access to a world-class education regardless of their background or circumstances in closing I want to express my gratitude to the Educators staff Administration parents and the community members who make our schools vibrant and strong together we will make this school year a success nurturing the growth and development of our future leaders and citizens thank you for your support and let's make the school year one of Excellence growth and inclusivity for all thank you have a good evening thank you good evening everyone my name is Joe Canova I live on 21 Hudson Street and I am running in the board
012of election this November number seven on the ballot some of you may already know me since I served from April of 19 to December of 22. yes lucky me right as coveted began for those who don't know a little background on me I have three daughters age 12 9 and 3 and CCMS School 3 and soon to be kindergarten I'm 42 lifelong Clifton resident I lived in botany Village Lakeview Ave off of Lakeview Ave and in Dutch Hill currently I'm a senior director at Berkeley College and I.T Department reporting to the CIO I've been there for about 19 years now which gives me a perspective on what students need coming into college setting before serving as a board member I helped fund and push a campaign with students community members and staff included included other
013struggling districts like us to ensure our state funding this successful Endeavor has funded our schools close to 100 million dollars since passing legislation in our favor and we'll continue to secure 50 million dollars each year moving forward I'm on the HSA for school three nccms I donate my time to DJ events for both schools as well as fundraising for school three since my wife is the president there I was on the NJ SBA State Board of Directors representing Passaic County as an alternate I'm happy to see our own uh Mr Paris here now carrying that torch I think he's an excellent fit for that role as a past board member I've served on all committees over my tenure the largest accomplishment was selecting our new superintendent when Dr Robert Posey came to Clifton the first
014thing he we did together was to tour every school and make a list of items that need to be fixed you don't go 10 years on their fund and a half a billion underfunded to still have a pristine facilities as as a board we came up with historic referendum that passed almost 70 percent in favor showing our town cares about our schools when covet hit we rolled out a 1-1 device policy and supplied all students with laptops we ensured our community had food to eat by setting up pickup locations for free if needed over those three and a half years we updated bathrooms fixed Fields added new weight room we're getting air conditioning everywhere and we're able to harden our security in school provide a better environment overall for our kids our town was chosen
015as one of the best places to live in 2023 and while other factors play into that you can be sure education played a heavy role with it being in the top category for the ranking so what's up next in my opinion a large Focus has been on facilities I think now we get back to the basics which is education student achieving and well-being should be at the Forefront I want to support new programs so that we could be leading in education and allow our kids to get to be able to get jobs and create a business if they wanted to to right out of school advocating for estate funding to experience expand Pre-K will help our kids get a jump on education fundamentals his exposed early on do better in their academics it will also
016free up finances at home since some pay out of pocket for Pre-K chat GPT and AI is at its infancy but I would love to see our students exposed to this to see what possibilities they have there and how they can leverage this new technology in ways never imagined I want to expose students to a variety of things so they could identify early on what they're passionate about to find their god-given talent early and get a leg up on other kids that they're competing against in this world of remote work teacher support and professional development is another area of Focus Education at its core is a teacher in the students we need to ensure that they have what is needed to work with our kids and have the information and material resonate so our students
017are successful Safety and Security are areas that we need to continue to grow parent engagement is another opportunity for us Clifton is very diverse and many of his parents parents speak different languages allowing us to bridge the gap and make connections to our teachers and to parents ensure we're all rowing in the same direction towards our goals the job of a board commissioner as you know is not easy you're dealing with a large District everyone has opinions on what to do but it's up to the voters of this town to determine which three people out of the Slate of seven candidates will align with the future of Clifton I have three little girls so I have a lot writing on what we do here please consider voting for me Joe Canova to continue working for
018our town again I'm lucky number seven on the value on the ballot thank you and good night [Applause] oh all right good evening um my name is Elias Ragsdale I serve as president of the Clifton student union and this year also president of the student council Association um I think you all know me um I wanted to thank you first of all for the success we've been able to have in communication between the union and the board and of course the administrators at Clifton High School um I was just thinking at the last meeting about when I came here to talk about the tennis courts and I remember Mr Dubois used to do the same thing and now if we ride behind CHS the tennis courts are beautiful so um I think that's evidence of
019the good communication that has been had and I thank you all for being so attentive to our issues and whatever has come up I would like to congratulate our new senior representative student representative Jada who you'll hear from in a bit um she also works at the union and she's a very bold representative so I think there's a lot in store for the future the start of school has been good I believe we have three more security guards in high school which is always great um and also I'd like to talk about the voter registration drive that's going on this week it started on Tuesday I believe the 19th and so far Jay's going to talk about this tomorrow as well we've quadrupled the amount of registers that we've had when it comes to students
020that are 17 and 18. and we've done incredible work I know last year it was a little bit or much slower but you know with coordination between Key Club the Student Union and student council we've been able like I said to quadruple our amount so that's always great um and yeah I just I thank you and I look forward to my last year here being as the student union rep um and I thank you all for the communication [Applause] Joseph siano 102 Trenton Ave good evening everyone my name is Joseph siano and I am running his ballot number four for the Clifton Board of Education because I firmly believe that our children deserve nothing less than the absolute best education if elected I will tirelessly dedicate myself to ensuring that our schools have all the
021necessary resources to provide a truly world-class education to every student this includes fiercely advocating for increased funding for our schools and special education programs and exploring Innovative options for early childhood education programs as a lifelong resident of Clifton a product of Clifton public schools and a dedicated business owner I fully grasp the immense value of strong Partnerships between schools families and local businesses I will Forge close-knit relationships between our schools and The Wider Community creating remarkable opportunities for our students to thrive and Excel in preparation for their future endeavors this community means everything to me and I am relentlessly committed to its progress I actively collaborate with numerous organizations such as the power of one Knights of Columbus and the Early Childhood advisory Council which tirelessly Champions the significance of early childhood education being a
022lifelong Clifton resident and a product of its schools I firmly believe that the most effective way to uplift our community begins with its Cornerstone education as a seasoned business owner I possess unparalleled experience in working with diverse communities fully understanding the profound impact of collaboration and teamwork I am deeply passionate about providing every child with an extraordinary education firmly convinced that we must unite and work together to shape the brightest possible future for our children running with the resounding motto together for excellence I wholeheartedly believe that transformative change in progress demand the collective effort of the entire community thank you very much [Applause] good evening everyone I'd like to introduce myself tonight to the board into the Clifton Community my name is Tanya Suarez a 23 Hall Street Clifton resident for five years and I'm
023a candidate running for the Board of Education this November many have asked me the very valid question why am I running for the Board of Education the short answer is that I'm a mother to a beautiful child who is in the second grade in Clifton School 8 and I would like to contribute to the potentially long-standing policies and practices that will influence his education for years to come and of course there's a long answer as well I have dedicated my career to working with children youth and families for over 20 years and have gained a wealth of knowledge on the experiences kids and their families have in schools from Early Childhood to transitioning into college I understand families who experience food insecurity housing and stability and what that means for their children who attend school
024hungry or look forward to school as a safe haven I have training and diversity and Equity work having facilitated seminars and professional development series for teachers parents and Guardians I have witnessed the frustration parents and Guardians and experience when they encounter policies that prohibit their child from inclusive education or being denied Disability Services I have observed what children experience in the classrooms particularly around their social and emotional well-being through my years as a school social worker when I practice child-centered play therapy ran social skills groups and responded to behavior crises in the classroom when working with parents and Guardians I have seen their worry about finding adequate Child Care before and after school or wondering where they will send their child during summer breaks because they need to go to work therefore I understand the
025importance for schools to provide respite for families Who Cannot drop off and pick up their children during the exact beginning and end of school hours and currently I am a doctoral candidate at Montclair State University and the teacher education and teacher development program this program has given me insight into the ways in which teachers need to be respected and honored as the professionals and experts they are most having a great array of Love creativity and ideas to best serve our students additionally I'm involved in two education research projects at Montclair State University and also I'm working on writing a book chapter about transfer excuse me transformational education I also want to make clear that the center of my objective to be on Clifton's board of education is to be an ambassador for all children every
026time I've worked with Children and Youth I treat them as an extension of my family making sure they get the best care and have access to what they deserve the footprints in my career have always been centered around children youth and their families I have no Personal Agenda to use the Board of Education to climb the political ladder I am a parent an educator not a politician and although public education is political it should not be politicized the well-being and future of Clifton's Children and Youth reside in the policy making that comes for the Board of Education and I am prepared to keep students at the heart with every decision I contribute to I know my career knowledge and perspectives will greatly benefit the Board of Education as well as the students and families of
027Clifton because I have personally seen how policies and practices directly impact students and will make informed decisions based on matters of Education not matters of personal gain please know that I am passionate about the well-being of all children youth and in turn I am passionate about public education because I believe public education is the foundation to an equitable and just Society for all of these reasons I wish to be a part of the Board of Education if anything I said tonight resonated with you I ask for your support to vote for number one come November 7th my bottom line for my why is to do right by all children all students knowing that every decision that I contribute to making will also impact my own son I sincerely thank you for your time [Applause] good
028evening Keith Bassett Clifton New Jersey I have something to say tonight it's not going to be easy but I want to make sure everybody listens to every word I'm saying closely so nothing gets construed the wrong way here Mr Smith social media is a great tool when it's used properly can share wonderful events memories photos that last a long time anything digital in nature will provide a path or what is called a footprint the pets that lead to the footprint eventually will be led to the or agenda of the actual content it's all about forensics something was brought to my attention that I want to discuss publicly I know all too well how certain people including one to individuals from this board can create fake content it happened in 2017 from Ava Pino and just
029two years ago in an Instagram page was create using a member of my family's name that instant not only caused issues for my family members it also caused my spouse a really good position in a replo firm so now I'm bringing to you the information that was given to me refers to a website called kids Messenger on Facebook it is controlled by parents I was a little Disturbed when I saw the image I'm not making any accusations and I'll say accusations again is definitely a picture of a dog looks like Triscuit just making you aware of what I found there was a photo of a dog with the name Triscuit Smith the screen name is Triscuit Smith ironically with the dog's photo is a spinner image of your dog Triscuit then another photo with the
030name Renard on it Triscuit Smith Triscuit Smith photo comes without any wording then another person posts with posts with the cartoon character saying hi back to Triscuit Smith Tristan Smith writes hi blank I am purposely not exposed the name of the child how are you doing I hate being stuck in the house all the time but we uh had to remain safe saying hi blank to protect the person hide blank a second person Smith then posted another photo of two characters hugging each other and a picture of a dog just get Smith I don't know if you're aware of this website Mr Smith but I'm bringing to your attention so you know you're not getting blind side or nothing maybe you have something to add to this well it's kind of bother me and I'm
031going to tell you that I will get to the bottom of this who create the profile and who's behind posting this to children in the name Triscuit Smith I will be foreign all the information appropriate law enforcement agencies that protect the safety and Welfare of children as I done with two other websites that were formed in 2017 two years ago remember the words I said there is a path to Lisa footprint that will lead to their origin I'm just doing this for the safety of children now my next thing is so nobody thinks I'm making things up here okay his pitches of the website uh another picture of the website and what's going on and another thing kids messenger okay so I don't want to get accused of you know making up things it's it's
032a political thing no I just want to know who really did this because you know what I have a problem and I think out of two decades this is the hardest thing I ever had to do up at this mic but you know what I had to think about this a long time and if I didn't do this well I'm not doing right to the children and I'm gonna get to the bombers no question about it I usually do but Mr Smith I like to work with you too if you know anything about this or something I like to work with you too and see how this happened thank you anyone else wish to address the board seeing none motion the clothes by vice president uh Danny seconded by Mr abedravo so we're very happy
033to have for the first time here representing Clifton High School um as our student uh representative and I want to make sure I say your name correctly because last year I really messed it up right Richie Jada right please come forward for your report thank you okay good evening Commissioners and Dr Robert Ozzy I know I have been briefly introduced by you um to you by Tiffany last June and briefly by lies just now but to thank you sir got but you didn't suggested my name but I am Jada I'm jitterwitter and I'll be serving my peers as a student representative a little bit a little bit about me um besides for being the student rep I am also the vice president for Clifton Student Union I play for singles honor Clifton um Varsity tennis
034team and I'm a thrower for the girls track um tennis for the girls varsity tennis team oh my goodness I am a thrower that's all right take your time for the girls track team um I do pride myself on my engagement with numerous clubs that CHS has to offer including Heroes and Cool Kids and I am the vice president for the Clifton Student Union um no let's just dive into what's happening with her school so um first of all our school year came to a very abrupt start with our voter registration um which we have seen great engagement in um as the registration continues students are able to gain more insight on any uncertainties they may have regards to voting not to mention they're getting the chance to recognize the importance of their vote and
035hopefully kick start their civic invasion um as Mr Rose um told me earlier the analyze mentioned we quadrupled the amount of registration we had since last year and um just in case any students are listening um on your 17th birthday you are able to register anytime not just this week and there is one more day for our voting registration um on the 27th we have our annual back to school night which as always will be an exciting way for the parents of CHS to be involved with our school um our fall sports team continued their study Advance within our season and for anyone interested our football team will have their second home game of the season um at Clifton Stadium at 7 pm um lastly I do want to acknowledge the awaited construction that our
036school has seen since returning from our summer break I know that I do not stand alone in regards to my gratitude seeing the work done on the new bathrooms the clocks in the hallways and of course the ACs um in our classrooms which has well we see the progress on it and we do appreciate that um we my classmates and are are very happy to see that our concerns are being met and um the steps are being taken to make our education a little bit more comfortable so thank you um and we're excited to see the steps that are going to follow um so that's it for my report and have a great night thank you thank you Jada thank you [Applause] okay thank you [Applause] Jada great job and uh we're so fortunate to
037have you with us for uh this whole year giving you reports and it's all downhill it's all easy now right it's all done good job thank you so we start a new school year and our uh wonderful pbsis program is off and running and again miss ragosa what a great job you do in this and um I turned the floor over to you for your presentations oh I'm sorry so I'm gonna do that first yeah yep sorry we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna go out we're gonna Walter a little bit all right if I could um we're going to move to uh ea1 state county teacher of the year could I have a motion please second a motion by Mr Roberto second by Miss basford um Dr Robertson you want to read yep thank you
038Mr Smith good evening Commissioners members of the community faculty and staff who came out tonight nice to see everybody and um our honored guest tonight at the Clifton Board of Education meeting is none other than the 2324 Passaic County Teacher of the Year Amanda Rhodes Amanda I'm going to read the resolution the board will vote on it and then I'll say a few more words and we'll recognize you and I I think you're going to say a few words tonight also good we'd love to hear from you resolved at the Clifton Board of Education recognizes the 23-24 Passaic County teacher of the year which honors an outstanding educator in the Clifton Public Schools the selection committee has a named Amanda Rhodes grade 5 teacher at school number 11. Miss Rhodes has been selected for this
039distinction by Passaic County for her dedication to the teaching profession the Clifton Board of Education and superintendent of schools commends her for her dedication to education and strong commitment to the children of Clifton Miss Rhodes has been a fifth grade teacher at school 11 for the past seven years she models leadership in and out of the classroom by serving on several curriculum development development committees and mentoring new teachers Amanda is also the coach of the school's pbsis where she works to support student and teacher success by creating positive and safe learning environments she believes in the importance of creating a classroom Community where her students are celebrated loved and respected and say it any better than that she knows that students who enjoy learning are successful and she works to challenge her students daily with
040experiences that are meaningful engaging and fun congratulations Amanda Rhodes roll call please Mr abidrabo 100 yes Ms basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mrs Santiago heck yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries congratulations and if you'd like to uh come up to the podium you're more than welcome to do so [Applause] good evening and thank you for inviting my family and I here tonight to celebrate my accomplishment of being named Passaic County teacher of the year um this is definitely the highest achievement of my career and I'm just so excited to share it with our Clifton community being named the Paseo County teacher of the year has already provided me with so many amazing opportunities the biggest is getting to know and learn from so many amazing
041teacher Educators and leaders throughout the state my cohort of County teachers of the year has adopted the slogan our year of yes and we want to take advantage of the many ways that we can help grow and improve education in New Jersey now while I'm preparing as this role because it's a little tough for me um I've become very reflective of my career and who I am and when I think of our slogan our year of yes I have to say I'm so fortunate to have been a Clifton public school teacher for seven years and experienced seven years of yes here Clifton has provided me with so many opportunities to develop my skills and to help others develop and grow I'm very thankful for the support of administration that we have our central office administrators
042our supervisors and coaches the principals have had the pleasure to work for I've just always felt supported and I felt cared for so I want to thank you for that they've always said yes to me and they will continue hopefully to say yes to me in the future my colleagues at school 11 are the best around they're always providing the best education for our students their willingness to help one another and collaborate has just made working at school 11 such an amazing experience for me shout out to my school 11 friend I truly appreciate being chosen by them as the governor's teacher of the year because they see me every day they see me walking the hallways they see me attending meetings they see me I'm seeing our school-wide assemblies every month and I just
043appreciate that they see me in the hard work and they can appreciate that my students past and present have given their best efforts and they are make my days just so full of love and learning and there's nothing I'd rather do in my life we know fifth graders aren't always the easiest to convince to say yes and to cooperate but they've done such a great job and I'm so appreciative of them I have been a member of curriculum committees like you said where I've helped to um develop lessons and plans for instruction from my colleagues which has helped me to strengthen my engaging lessons for my students I always say yes to joining committees and I'm so thankful for that our district pbsis initiative has provided me with so many opportunities to impact the culture
044of our school and our town working within our district and with our coaches and our team at school 11 has been such a fulfilling role for me I love celebrating our students and staff and seeing their positive actions make a amazing School identity that reflects our pillars of responsibility attentiveness respect and enthusiasm working with other coaches that we have some here today um has helped me develop friendships and has shown me the dedication of all of our Clifton employees we are so lucky to have so many amazing Educators here in Clifton having the opportunity to Mentor new teachers another is another amazing part of my job I get to help new teachers understand who they are and watch them grow and develop their strengths as they become amazing teachers as well providing the support for
045our new teachers is vital especially now because it is going to help continue to strengthen our education in Clifton that's a job I will always say yes to and now I'm going to try not to cry but I will be remiss if I did not mention my family as they are the ones that have supported me and said yes throughout my entire life and these years as well from attending a school events with me to sharing the new trends on Tick Tock that make me look cool in front of my fifth graders to helping me set up my classroom every summer and to just always offer encouragement support and advice that is so needed every day as a school teacher I'm so appreciative of you all and I thank you for stay for always saying
046yes to me so tonight I want to stand here and I want to thank our Clifton Board of Education and all of the amazing educational leaders that we have here in Clifton for all of the many ways you've said yes for me in Clifton and now as I represent you in Clifton and Paseo County and New Jersey I look forward to representing you in Clifton again and saying yes to so many opportunities in the future [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Amanda on behalf of the entire Board of Education we he's on behalf of the entire Board of Education we want to honor you with a small token of our appreciation this plaque and I'd like to read it for everyone it says in recognition of Excellence presented to Amanda Rhodes 2023-24 Paseo County teacher of the year
047your unwavering dedication to education boundless passion for nurturing young minds and Relentless pursuit of Excellence have illuminated the path to a brighter future for countless students in our community the Clifton Board of Education is proud to honor you for your outstanding contributions to our schools and the profound impact you have had on the lives of our students presented on this day September 21st 2023 by the Clifton Board of Education please [Applause] thank you we got everybody come on Mr Rhodes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mark that's right we have um okay sometimes more three two one more one more for Miss Rhodes phone got it [Applause] um thank you there you go Paris still can't see you it's Junior's on the spot right here for you and I um three two one for good measure one more
048ready boom [Applause] can I just get a picture of you in the Platinum in the back oh yeah no we're good yes while I know um school 11 teachers are really want to stay for the rest of this board meeting we won't hold you back if you would like to leave at this time so we know you have much to do at home and you're more than welcome to stay but if you want to get out this is a good opportunity thank you yes thank you right it was yourself I'm not creative at all right yeah not in a dishwasher though all right um we'll move back to um Miss ragosa um number eight on our agenda um if you'd like to come up please with your presentation well that's a very tough act to
049follow I mean who doesn't love Miss Amanda Rhodes teacher of the year Paseo County teacher of the year and um I know she left what my goal is to always say yes to her I aspire to say yes to her whatever she needs and asks because she is that wonderful of a human being and educator Ford thank you so much for allowing us to present once again and to start off the school year with pbsis it is our goal tonight to Showcase School 15. where amazing things are happening so School 15 it's in is in its third year of its implementation and they've been working hard very hard at making long-lasting positive connections with their students led by their fearless leader Dr Legion the Baton Walker the school 15 pbsis team has developed amazing instructional
050events over the past three years tonight you'll see a little bit of what that looks like and you'll also get to see the special flavor that school 15 has every one of our schools comes with a different knack for how to reach their kids creatively spiritually and enthusiastically so let's take a look at what's going on at 15. [Music] good evening Board of Education members District administration and the Clifton schools Community I am Dr Batten Walker the principal of school 15. tonight we would like to highlight our pbsis expectations and rewards and show you why we have cougar Pride here at school 15. [Music] I is [Music] [Applause] at the beginning of the school year one student ambassador is picked from each grade level students apply to be an ambassador by either writing or drawing
051about what having cougar Pride means throughout the school year our student ambassadors help with weekly and monthly Raffles by passing out prizes to Winners they also help with other events such as our reverse week and teacher Dojo Tuesdays our student ambassadors are a great asset to our pbsis team they exemplify what it means to be positive respectful have integrity be dedicated and empathetic at school 15 we have created lesson expectation videos each lesson is designed to teach students our expectations for each area the expectations are in bullet points as well as videos modeling the correct way and the incorrect way of going upon our expectations at the conclusion of each lesson there is also a quiz or a kahoot game that the students will play to check for understanding these lessons are reviewed at the
052beginning of each school year and then again at the Midway Point as a refresher okay so today we're going to be talking about the mindfulness okay can anybody please tell me why during the day at any point in the day can you start to use mindfulness what can it help you do right what's the matter [Music] because when we walk into a classroom unless it's in absolute emergency and you need help immediately then yes you could have run it but if you look over here this is where our classroom expectations are just to use kind words just await your turn and follow all directions right we know that we don't just run into a classroom and start yelling at the top of our lungs to get the teachers attention right you would walk in and
053sit down and maybe raise your hand and then I wait for me to call on you okay all right thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow [Music] cougar Pride at its best folks I want to take a moment to really a huge shout out for starting off strong for starting us off strong this school year school 15 thank you so much I'll take a moment to grab your certificate and we'll call you one by one and we'll do our thing yes Dr lujendo Batten Walker [Applause] Miss Gloria Davis [Applause] thank you Miss Anna Rosa Pena Duarte [Applause] Miss Aaron saber [Applause] Mr Robert temesco [Applause] Miss Tara Purcell [Applause] Miss Shelly Betsy [Applause] Miss Karina Vega foreign Tunis [Applause] I was so confused yeah we don't respond anymore [Music] all right
054three two one beautiful thank you [Applause] I didn't even have to tell School 15 to leave they're gone [Laughter] presentations all right we'll move to number 13 on our agenda we have a presentation by our assistant superintendent Miss gusilevic you start it just hit slice good evening Commissioners it's a pleasure to be here with you today I actually have a number of people coming up to present so this is our yearly recap of the summer programs that are primarily federally funded and we have multiple programs and this year we had a very exciting um new initiative working together in collaboration with Mr gengaro's aspiring administrator program and given the increased needs that our students were facing in these post-coveted years we were able to marry his program of aspiring administrators with our summer programs across
055the district so there will be more people than usual coming up to speak but these are all aspiring administrators who helped run and coordinate our programs as well as some of our District administration who also was participating with them so it was a really great integration of existing principles supervisors and aspiring administrators so I hope you enjoy what they all have to say oops and I just realized we're not on the first page yeah let's try that again come on and now we'll try the slideshow from slide number one okay here we go so the first program that we're going to hear from is our jumpstart Title One and title III program foreign okay good evening Administration and Commissioners it is my pleasure to be here tonight to talk about our summer programs my name
056is Kimberly fusotola and beside me is Francis Vidal and we were responsible for the jumpstart Title 1 and title III programs this summer as you can see we had many other colleagues with us as coordinators some that could not be here tonight the program we're speaking about covers uh title one which was in school 17 and in school 12 title 3 which was in school 17 and we're briefly going to discuss um Title One at school 12 and the accelerated academic summer support program in school two the Jumpstart program is one of our favorites it is where the students who are just about to be going into kindergarten but are not there yet have a chance to come in and get that individualized attention to work and develop some social academic behavioral skills we had
057about 18 at school 17 for the Jumpstart program and at school 12 we had 19. we found that the home-based schools School 17 and school 12 is where we saw the most students but also Sila a and Sila Bay of course the Jumpstart program it is basically just a way to prepare our students for kindergarten give them the jump start they need before they enter kindergarten learning how to express themselves learning how to follow classroom procedures working with others using materials appropriately and reading books recognizing numbers letters and so on and then we have our Title One and title three programs both of these programs focus on math and literacy both curriculums concentrate on reviewing and reinforce reinforcing the skills that were taught in the previous year Title One program again was held at schools
05812 and 17. typically we also have one held at school four but due to Renovations we just kept everything at 17. um additionally we do have three classes that are held at the boys and girls club and title III program was held solely at school 17. for the language arts curriculum we use a balanced literacy approach and we focus on reading and writing the grades K to two they worked with foundations ready to rise and three to five they were able to experience savvis realize for the first time in the summer program and that program allowed them to gain literacy instruction while also using digital lessons to really engage them Mathematics Curriculum again that really focused on reviewing and reinforcing the previous grade but it also allows them to accelerate their skills for the upcoming
059grade and all of the K-5 mathematic curriculums we use the handsome hand-to-mind curriculum Hands-On lessons students learning by doing and working together and this is our second year where we incorporated the robotify program which deals with coding critical thinking problem solving and the students really find it to be fun just super fun our Title One program had a total of 207 students and again that was for grades kindergarten through five okay good evening sorry uh my name is Miss Vidal I was the coordinator for ESL cater 5 for the summer program for the district title three program is usually the largest program at 17. we had 128 students 13 staff members and a higher enrollment was Kindergarten with 30 students we had two sessions for each class we also offered the family literacy program in
060addition to language arts and math curriculum some other um Services rendering during this program it's got a reading totally Daily Journal reinforcement and vocabulary math centers I just said she put on my reading glasses all right that will help language or language arts development writing skills and completing summer reading and math assignments uh school 12 we also we offer minds and motion program this program um is to assist students in grades three to five to maintain skills to meet the New Jersey learning standards students are provided with opportunity to explore a wide variety of stream which means science Technologies reading engineering art and math activities while infusing character development into the program activity and field trips every Friday they have field trips as well as providing breakfast and lunch the mind's in motion per um
061Futures were held every Friday every Friday students had the opportunity to enhance what they were learning in the classroom by visiting an off-site location the Fri the Friday field trips were not only exciting and fun for the students but also a way to enrich and expand the curriculum by immersing them into various sensory activities we some of the places all the pictures not showing but some of the field trips that they visited with space Farm Liberty Science Center and sign and Sandy Hook mind's emotions program at the school in addition to off-site educational experiences students were also able to take part in several School visit programs these multi-sensory Hands-On and interactive experiences were not only entertaining but extremely educational um that's back at school 17 um every morning we had a student announcement for the
062day each day a new student came was called and they had they were recognized by Miss Harvey who is our building principal for the summer the student was able to select a quote of their choice and make the daily announcement um during school 17 we also had thing week seven every every week we had a different theme uh rainbow week ran from July 10th through the 14th week two we had spirit week from July 17 through the 21st and then our community week our last week July 24th to the end of the program oh we have and beautiful pictures they were really pictures there technology is not cooperating but they were yeah this is a massive presentation and Commissioners I see that you're flipping through your pages what was printed was an older the front
063pages or an older version The Back Pages or the new version so I'm going to share the electronic document hopefully you'll be able to see all the pictures once it loads fully on your computer all right if during spirit week we had a picture of a student on demonstrating a letter of the day students were encouraged to bring an item either and wear or an item to represent the letter their letter um second week we have uh superhero week um we share this uh with the community and staff member alike okay uh the following week was Sports week ah that picture came okay hit or miss yeah did we had this next summer week now so what we see here especially in summer day we try to encourage a community involvement um with our spirit
064themes so students that uh parents also supported are themes we're given pbsi's tickets in order to not only support our pbsi program during the summer but also to strengthen that Community relationship now another area of our theme weeks was our all about the community week and this the students really love we have every day there is a different visit so one day we have the police come and they get to play in the cars um we have our assistant superintendent uh Miss kusilevich come and talk about expectations and different roles and other really useful skills that they can use additionally our pbsis District coach Paula reyosa she also came and talked to them about the pbsis program and did a beautiful program uh with them on another day when the police were there they got
065to go play in the cars and they got to with the fire departments spray the hose and use different um materials and supplies that they had on the trucks I can't tell you how excited they get when they actually get to have the hose it is lights up their day and we brought therapy dogs into uh to visit them as well which if those weren't the fan favorite at that point uh Chewie was not ready to go but um I'm sure they would have loved to seen Chewie as well for sure so that is a lot of what covered the theme weeks and then we went into our pbsis program so this is our second year of implementing pbsis in the summer program we did a form of pbsis to continue the support throughout the
066year and and maintain the pbsis expectations and goals students receive pbsis as a reinforcement in the classroom students will recognize during three weeks student also got pbsis tickets if they support it for they supported the theme week every Friday we did a drawing where multiple students receive were selected from the bins and uh won tickets if you look at the bottom pictures those are donations from our pbsis coordinator Ms Ray goza thank you so much for your contribution and Mr gengaro for supporting the pbsis during the summer now this year Miss Harvey and oops go back uh Miss horben and I implemented a new aspect of pbsis to maintain um attendance during the summer we implemented the golden ticket I had the idea from Willy Wonka's golden ticket movie and so students who have perfect
067weekly perfect attendance will receive a golden ticket and we held the big prices at the end of the city at the end of the program so students will encourage that attend daily attendance I am happy to say we were able to maintain 94 of our attendance and we gave out just in perfect attendance over 239 tickets 19 students received tickets at the end of the program and in addition to that we also had a class competition with attendance where every competed with each other and if they had a hundred percent attendance they would get a point we kept that cumulative and then at the end of the year our first place class got a reward along with the teacher for motivating them so we we did do several projects with attendance um one last thing
068before we close up we had a breakfast and lunch program our students were able to come into school have a breakfast to go bag where they can bring into their classes and then we had right towards the end of the program um about half hour before dismissal we offered a hot served lunch community members were also able to come down and receive lunch in that area we had five different counselors who helped our students and of course we had our security Specialists who really helped us in every possible way so we appreciated everything and it was a great program and just again if we didn't mention it in the very beginning Mrs uh Joanna horbe who was our who was the principal for the entire summer program of all the different things we discussed she
069oversaw everything and really made sure that every year since we've been there it's grown and it's it's become great thank you thank you very much ladies great job foreign and now we have Mr Stewart for the summer accelerated student Support Program good evening my name is Matthew Stewart I served as instructional coordinator at the summer accelerated Support Program uh I worked with Miss Jennifer Lucas this summer uh due to referendum related construction projects our program needed to be virtual this year uh hopefully uh we're back in person next year but um yeah we had a great summer we focused on math and literacy curriculum uh we really try to concentrate on uh what the data told us where students had areas of opportunity as far as mathematics and uh language literacy and we worked on
070that during the summer again we were virtual due to referendum related construction projects each day students had phys Ed we had Mr Burbridge working with us during the summer and he did Fizz ad lessons with um you know stretches exercising uh little activities just to get the kids moving so they weren't in front of the screen uh all morning and we also had social emotional and mindfulness lessons with the school counselor twice a week students had that in addition to reading recovery and their math and literacy uh lessons we served the non-title one schools uh so those were the students who are eligible to attend and we had approximately 50 students who are grades three to five we also piloted a virtual PBIS program this summer so teachers were encouraged to shout out at least
071one student each week who they felt were demonstrating positive online Behavior uh students who were shouted out every Wednesday I personally delivered certificates to their homes uh with the positive feedback from the T from the teacher and those students were also entered into a raffle where each week we had three students who had prizes whether their sports equipment art supplies um you know just you know just to get the kids excited um and to promote positive online learning environments we had one student who was actually shouted out by every single teacher which was really great and the kids were really excited the parents uh really like the program um lots of emails from the parents saying oh we're so grateful for this thank you for doing this so uh for us that was very rewarding
072uh here are some of our students who had um certificates um sent to them um what one of them the mom was really excited she put she framed it for him another another student uh you know they had multiple certificates on their uh refrigerator so it really you know really made us um happy and it showed us to our students were learning and they were excited to learn no matter the um you know circumstances whether they're in person or remote thank you thank you so much Mr Stewart and now we have our team coming up for the covid learning support which is an Esser funded activity um which is one that has really been helping fill that gap between special education and gen Ed good evening everyone my name is Megan Fitzpatrick I was one
073of the coordinators for the CLS program my name is Joseph DeLuca I was the other coordinator for the CLS program and currently a teacher at Clifton High School our program falls under these special services umbrella with through our fearless leader Heather Rotolo and Richard Randall so our seal it uh CLS program was at Sila a this summer for the month of July running from July 6 to July 28th we had 120 students recommended for the program with the two coordinators nine Clifton teachers our custodians secretary and nurse or also all Clifton employees our security specialist and our pomptonian food services during our program we focus on providing compensatory education services to our students meeting the needs determined in their IEP as well as supporting them through our district language arts and math curriculum additionally we
074implemented social emotional learning needs through our pbsis program in math the students were using the hand to Mind program and thank you to miss Aaron zumuda for her wonderful resources for our staff to use during this instruction for our reading studies our teachers utilized the Wilson Reading and fundations programs as well as journey and our novel studies to enforce reinforce the language arts curriculum at the CLS program we also Incorporated theme theme days and spirit weeks this served to not only motivate our students and create an inclusive learning environment but it served to drive the pbsis initiative for the district in our summer program we did a rainbow week where every day got a different color we did we did a Disney day um we did a superhero day and as you can see from
075our pictures which luckily are actually loading um not only not only did our students participate but this was something that um our entire staff including Mr Fitzpatrick and I um participated in to um just to kind of help the kids integrate and to make them feel like they were a part of something bigger we did we did a Wacky Wednesday we did a sports day uh what else did we do we had a sunny day we had a Clifton day where you got to where your your Clifton gear um we also did a multicultural day which gave the students uh an opportunity to celebrate their Heritage and diversity which is something that makes our district so unique and special we ended it with um a tie-dye day and a cool for the summer day where
076we all dressed for what we were hoping to be a good summer program we implemented the pbsis universal tier each Friday we held a Friday raffle we all convened in the hallway of Sela a where we brought the students out ranging from K to 12. we had multiple winners and then our final raffle we had some special guests thank you Miss Ray goza and Mr gengaro for joining us were some behind the scenes videos we wanted to include but we'll say that for another day um but the students are rewarded with bigger prizes on our final raffle and we were able to bring the whole group out for a celebratory picture at the end to cap off a fantastic summer program at CLS thank you very much [Applause] thank you so much and now we're
077going into our traditional extended school year program for our students in our with special needs thank you hi good evening my name is Marissa kasoi and I was one of the coordinators for our extended school year program oh this microphone and goody goody good evening my name is Thomas Hudak I'm a special education teacher at Woodrow Wilson Middle School and I had the privilege this summer also being an esy site coordinator with Marissa Annie Aileen pick we also had two supporting coordinators who you met earlier Joe Deluca and Megan Fitzpatrick big thank you to Heather Rotolo and Bahia bedrabo and Richard Mando our supervisors so esy is the largest and the longest running summer program in the district extended school year is a federal mandate for classified and eligible students to attend in order to
078maintain skills learn throughout the school year and provide maintenance over the extended summer break we were located at Cielo B this summer the program ran from July 5th to August 15th we served 358 students our staff consisted of two supervisors three site coordinators two support coordinators 39 teachers 115 paraprofessionals 14 support staff members including educational Specialists and related service providers we have behaviorists social workers psychologists counselors speech occupational and physical therapists on site Food Services helped him meet all of the students dietary needs throughout the summer and with such a large population or custodians provided a lot of help and support in order to keep the building clean and prepared each day for our students our staff also included three nurses two secretaries and three security specialists um esy also works closely with our transportation
079department as they provided 18 buses to and from school each day okay so to to for the for the students identify we identified students that um would possibly regress over the summer if they were not provided with this program and we identified students that would benefit from maintaining their skills um we wanted we didn't want them to lose any of the skills and knowledge that they gained throughout the school year and we also determined the um the severity of the students disability also to determine placement in the program uh we provided an individualized program of support we had students that received instruction through ABA therapy through discrete trials that stayed through their IEP uh we and we provided instructional support through language arts and math we also had students that received related Services if it
080was in their IEP we provided social and emotional uh skills and mindfulness activities and we also had one-to-one paraprofessional assistance if that was um in the students IAP um as mentioned we had several related Services providers that work with us this Summer that provided students with speech occupational and physical therapy services in individual and in group settings we also asked our staff members to take pictures of students throughout the program so the next few slides are just going to highlight some of the great engaging activities that our teachers were able to plan throughout the summer thank you as our program ran through the months of July and August we conducted one fire drill and one security drill each month and then we also maintain the district's pbsis framework by rewarding students for positive behavior throughout
081the summer we do have students that were recognized at the July Board of Education meeting an important part of esy is providing social opportunities for our special needs population these opportunities are in line with individual needs and educational programs we also aligned our spirit days with CLS our students and staff enjoyed partaking in our themes and they truly showed off a lot of spirit so as you can see I would say this brought many smiles to the faces of our students and our staff um I would say that the favorites were Disney day Hawaiian day and my personal favorite happy summer day and I will say that this was a great way to close out our program and thank you Clifton students parents and staff thank you to everybody that supported us this summer [Applause]
082thank you so much and now we're going to hear from our Middle School summer Academy Miss prizvara good evening everyone my name is Elizabeth prizwara I'm a teacher at CCMS and this year I was the coordinator for our summer Academy so our summer Academy this year did run completely virtually and that was the first year that we've done that so that was a quite interesting challenge but you know I can't say enough about the team of teachers that we were able to put together they pulled the resources that they learned through the pandemic and they really put together an amazing program for our students so our summer Academy is a free enrichment program that we offer to all the middle school students in Clifton and all of our classes met completely virtually this year on
083Google meet we had 130 students that completed the program so we were very happy with the number of students that enrolled they did a wonderful job we're very pleased with how successfully it turned out it ran from July 5th to July 28th and we offered instruction in math language arts as well as stem activities we had 18 teachers total running the program both from CC and Woodrow Wilson we decided to split the grade levels into two teams per grade and we decided to do this because we wanted to provide the students with as much Rapport as they could with their teachers and with their classmates even while being completely virtual so we had smaller class sizes we had cohorts of students that went to all of their activities together and so even though we were
084completely virtual they were still able to build that rapport with each other and have that experience of getting to know each other and doing the activities together and having a good time we did daily instruction in math and language arts through this Avis program as well as enrichment lessons and activities for stem and throughout the program we tried to infuse all of our lessons with technology skills since we were completely virtual building tools for the upcoming school year problem solving creative online activities we did Breakout rooms small group work and the students really did a fantastic job throughout the four weeks so for language arts this was a pilot program through savvis and you know I have to shout out to my language arts teachers they Dove right in they did a training session right
085before we started and they got to know the program really well but they came up with very creative activities to add to the programs that we were doing through Google Classroom you can see here one of the activities they did they had the students design water bottles virtually that expressed characteristics from characters that they were reading about in their novels and I would go to the Google meets and the students would show me their water bottles we would try to guess what character they were talking about it was very cool and other teachers did Virtual Field Trips one teacher had her students to a virtual field trip to the Holocaust Museum had to do with the reading that they were doing in the module and it was very exciting to see the students participating in
086all of those things for math we continued to use savvis realize which is something the students are already familiar with so this was a really excellent way for them to build on the skills that they used throughout the Academic Year as well as preparing them for the following school year and getting them ready for that they were used to the lesson quiz format imagine math but again our teachers went above and beyond and they found things like jamboard where they could have the students show their work quickly on the screen create little colored stickies and show off their work and answer that way so very creative on their part and then finally our stem program of this was my personal favorite you know some of the teachers had the students going outside picking flowers bringing
087things inside they learned to dissect the flowers and they would show their work on the Google meet label the parts of the flowers they built Towers they built paper airplanes they learned how to do coding through code.org they also learned some web and graphic design using canva and they were able to present their work at the end of the program on the last day of our Academy we wanted to have some fun activities for the students so we did some team-wide events and activities and games where the students were able to win some prizes they were able to actually earn some extra credit that they could use for the school year this year they did some virtual scavenger hunts they had we had them running through the house looking for things coming back to the
088Google meet to show what they found and also earning PBIS points in our Champs point system we also had the students recognized for the ones that went above and beyond you know it's hard to get middle schoolers to log on to Google meet as we all experienced during the pandemic so we really wanted to recognize you know the students that were online 8 30 in the morning in their summer logged into the Google meet participating and just contributing so each team nominated some students to recognize that we did recognize them on the last day with certificates that were mailed home to all of them and they also earned Champs points in PBIS rewards that they're now able to use towards Raffles throughout the school year so they're very excited about that um well that's supposed
089to say 30 winners but they really embodied those respect responsibility helpful character traits that we're trying to instill in our middle schoolers so they're very excited about that so it was a great program couldn't say enough good things about our students and our teachers thank you for your time [Applause] and here we have a new addition to our summer program something we've never done before it's a new collaboration with Kane University for project Adelante Ms Guillen foreign good evening and I am a teacher CCMS I have the honor to be the coordinator for our Clifton newborn project Adelante that started last summer and we restarted recently and will carry it to May of next year project Adelante is a pilot program and a partnership we have with King University it is an Innovative pre-college program
090designed to reduce the high school dropout rate among Latino students we immerse experiences and instructional activities designed to help students increase their academic skills and encourage youth to pursue higher education some of our enrollment requirements our student needs to be a Clifton English language learner high school student no more than one year from exit in the ESL program meet our attendance policy good academic record and know disciplinary infractions last summer we had 22 English language Learners uh six of those were 10 graders eight were 11th graders and eight seniors he started in July and he ended in early August we were there from Monday through Thursday 8 30 to 2 30 and we had a 92 percent student attendance uh this fall we currently have 31 students seven of those are 10th graders 13 11th
091graders and 11 seniors we started this September as I mentioned earlier Annie ends in may 2024. we meet every Saturday from 8 30 to 12 30 and as of now we have 85 student attendance some of the cool things that we did in the summer um here are some of the pictures on the left bottom you see actually a presentation our students carry out Clifton the cliftonin pretty highly and they were selected a group of seniors were selected to actually produce the next Adelante video on the right side another group of students from Clifton in collaboration with a student a senior from Belleville Public Schools they were recognized by the Vice President one of the vice presidents Akin for their presentation on healthy um healthy habits um that's their presentation in the back here are
092some other pictures from the summer uh some of the outdoors and indoors activities that the students were involved with and this is our last day um it was in our fun day organized by Keen we had an ice cream truck we had Outdoor Sports and dance I look forward another successful phase of project Adelante and I must say that I am very very proud of our students they enjoy every single activity and they were super early every time we had to meet in the summer and they were sad that we didn't go on Fridays so I wanted to say quickly mucha mucha gracias yes thank you guys thank you so much Miss Kian we're really trying to support our students for both newcomers and and Clifton born through Pre-K All the Way Beyond college and
093now we have our IC program which I think many of our commissioners came to the IC production at the end of the summer good evening everyone um my name is Maggie votillo I was one of the coordinators for the IC program with me is Mr Justin Louis we also had Miss shiratsky as another coordinator and Mr leshowitz the supervisor who was assisting us with communication reaching out to Central Administration and support so our IC program stands for integrated summer enrichment experience and this is for students incoming students in grades first through eighth we offer enrichment classes where students get to choose in grades four to eight get to choose four hours of academic classes of their choice so it is definitely Choice driven it is something that our student students are always looking forward to
094they get to pick from art math science coding as well as Orchestra and musical theater at the end we have a showcase that many of you have seen or visited where students get to Showcase all of their wonderful work that they've been doing through throughout the program our classes are taught by Clifton teachers this year we had 18 teachers working for us along with the three of us as coordinators one supervisor we also had a nurse and one security specialist tuition for the program is paid by the families and this year we were located at Sila s due to referendum work prior to that we were located at Woodrow Wilson Middle School okay again like I've mentioned before it is for incoming first through eighth graders students it is not just for I'm sorry Clifton
095public school students we offer it to all of our neighboring town so this year we had students from Woodrow for systemat from CCMS from all of our elementary schools along with Classical Academy students St Phillips and neighboring towns such as Wayne orange and new Arlington we had about 200 students this year with classes ranging from in first through third grades we had 15 to 22 students and then about average of 35 to 36 students in grades fourth fifth sixth and so on but again students were mixed in depending on their choices class sizes were small we also had student volunteers that were supporting our kids they were able to Showcase their leadership skills the program was only 16 days long and again during that program we were also doing the fire drills as well as
096security drills okay and our first through second grades as well as third grade we had three wonderful teachers who are working with our students very hard they were working on Art reading as well as science and art curriculum all activities were standards based and they were very much Hands-On so students were immersed in many different experiences and math our students again we utilized something this year that was team teaching so we had actually two teachers that were able to support our students depending on what kind of needs they had it was inquiry-based lessons standards driven our students were working on stem activities where one of the activities you could see they were actually trying to build a contraption that would help them take out a cell phone out of a sewage train so we had
097we had many many very interesting activities they work on Geometry fractions decimals so on so forth as far as coding Mr trevetti and Ms Taylor did a wonderful job she talked to students they talked to students about computer safety passwords as well as how to be safe online students learn all about binary code programming Morse code so on so forth things that I'm definitely not familiar with but if you ask any of our kids from Icy they definitely know what they're talking about and as far as science we have two science classes one Mr Malik muskansiki again students we're learning about different concepts such as surface tension buoyancy forces in motion and again all lessons and activities were based on Next Generation science standards so many Hands-On activities many very engaging lessons that our students
098have encountered and I'm Mr Louis on the side of the fine and Performing Arts uh we should probably add another E because I think exploratory learning is one of the main goals uh and as far as art goes visual art Ms benardchik and Ms leshen explored with the students multiple forms of medium including paint clay and watercolors as well as creating tapestry they explored two-dimensional as well as three-dimensional art along with our students our high school volunteers our Tas created all the sets and backdrop pieces that we will be talking about later for the musical for music appreciation our students with MS bartolozzi and Ms Gordon explored the basics and fundamentals of music including singing emotion and dance they also created instruments out of inanimate objects creating closed circuits with any object that you could
099think of including a banana which is kind of weird in bands Mr Perez and Mr lanzarati took our students from day one they knew nothing as third graders and they put on a concert in 16 days along with our middle school students who continued growing in their quest to become excellent musicians in Orchestra Ms Adele with her students did the same taking her students from day one knowing nothing to putting on an a concert with our musical theater which is always one of our biggest classes our cast of about 70 students put on a full production of Annie kids and I would like to thank our our guy Randy from rmt productions for being so willing to come in and help us with all of our Sound and Lighting I also would like to take
100a moment actually to thank our entire team it really does take a village to provide this experience for our high school volunteers please thank you for uh cassia Dominique Haley Ella Jordan Aiden Alicia Mila Dexter Caitlin Emma Cameron Melissa and Kaden our teachers are there they provide the instruction but especially with that class of 70 they needed some help so thank you to our high school volunteers yes and we also want to thank Central Administration especially Mr shahada and his team of Maintenance and custodians who are yes you're getting a shout out yes you are because we took an empty building of Silas who had teeny tiny furniture and we've turned it into a building that was accommodating for first to eighth graders so it was an amazing team and it was a group effort
101again from delivering everything from whatever were our needs thank you so much for all of your support thank you [Applause] thank you so much our IC program is always a hit even my children even participated in that and now we're looking at our ESL program from 6 through 12. I promise we're almost done but everyone is so excited we did have a conversation before the meeting that you have to keep your presentations down no more than two minutes per program but those are kind of Janina two minutes they're they're going like five six and seven but they have so many good things to say so I hope you you can just take another minute or two um for the rest of our program so Mr sarsano rest okay I better keep this under two minutes
102my name is Steven sarcino I'm a teacher at Clifton High School and I was lucky enough to be the coordinator one of the coordinators of the ESL summer enrichment program for age six to twelve along with Eva rogozinski as it says here our program is both virtual and at school 17. every day students logged in virtually and they've received virtual instruction additionally we were able to swing it so they could meet in person two afternoons each week which really meant a lot to them so our program was a tuition-free program we drew students from both Christopher Columbus Middle School at Clifton High School uh we broke excuse me we primarily focused on the domains of psyop and ESL Reading Writing speaking and listening students work both independently and in groups especially when they were in
103person each day they receive bless you each day they received instruction and social studies math and language arts and then each day they either receive technology or science so students recruit by their English language proficiency level also they were grouped into six sections and overall we had about 100 students in the program and it was very flexible so that meant that a lot of students who were just virtually only they were able to log in from other countries which really show their dedication uh also we had about 70 who attended the in-person sessions at school 17 and you see the different languages we had students who spoke Spanish Arabic Russian Turkish Ukrainian and Bengali another good stuff the pictures so you see here we were able to get some donations for some student incentives they
104received these incentives for a perfect attendance and for going above and beyond in their academics over this summer science class was a lot of fun they were doing a lot of Hands-On experiments when they were in person on Virtual days they took Virtual Field Trips including my personal favorite to the San Diego Zoo one of the in-person sessions they built roller coasters they had a lot of fun doing that more things on the online days the instructors did a great job of making it as engaging as possible for the students they did a lot of projects and social studies about their native countries and their cultures of the Native countries they also did a lot of interactive games this board game was really really popular don't quiz me because I don't remember what the top
105right one is uh we also on the in-person data were able to offer a portion where they got to have like a physical education type class where they got to run around the gym play soccer play basketball so they're able to stay active on those two in-person days which is awesome and then we just have some more experiments here they did an experiment electricity it was really really cool paper plate airplane lab one day they love that and uh the technology class they built a lot of cool things so some of the models they were making simple machines my favorite was this app they used online a lot of Architects use it it's like a sketch type app and they were able to sketch out their own emojis cars homes uh some of the Emojis
106came out really really good as you can see and they also created a lot of stuff we used a lot of Hands-On things a lot of kinesthetic learning during the in-person days so I'd just like to thank you for your time and your support and we had a great program we can't wait for next year thank you Mr sarasano and finally um we had our camp right along and um our language arts supervisor and our language arts coaches ran this for Middle School this was for students rising from fifth grade into sixth in order to prepare them for our honors classes we don't just support students with special needs or students who need to reinforce skills we also do programs for acceleration and this was a program specific to our students who were Rising into
107the accelerated classes at the middle school they really also very Hands-On interactive writing fostering their literacy skills and they kind of set up a camp-like atmosphere for our children the children who participated in this week-long Camp there was perfect attendance and that's really really rare and that is all for um our summer programs these summer programs would not have been possible without the support of our board and with these amazing and clearly enthusiastic aspiring administrators who have a such a bright future so were it not for our the support of our board members our Administration and maintenance we're going to shout out Mr shahada again um Transportation food service we really provided an all-round program for so many children so thank you um and now I promise I will be seriously one minute last at
108our last board meeting uh Dr Robert cozy shared with you the wonderful news that we received our cusac placement letter unfortunately we are required by Statute to present that officially so this is our official presentation of our Cusack placement Cusack is the every three-year cohort the Q the New Jersey single accountability quality single accountability Continuum measuring all aspects of our district fiscal Personnel instruction operations and governance um we were very lucky that we um through our hard work every single one of those areas attained over 80 percent 80 percent is passing and we were at a hundred percent in most areas and on the final uh sheet you see some comparisons over the years from different cusac evaluations and I promise that that would be short um so once again thank you so very much
109for your attention and I look forward to speaking to you in the future and great job to our aspiring administrators you know what your enthusiasm was amazing [Applause] we always say that our Clifton staff teachers administrators bus drivers Food Service they don't rest summer is no is a perfect example where Clifton educating kids doesn't take a break and all of you need to be commended for the fantastic job that you did it's because of you people that that Cusack report is what it is and it's because of you people that made Clifton a great town to educate your kids in so thank you all very much and I know you want to get out of here so thank you and uh please take the opportunity to leave if you want to stay please stay I'm
110sorry yeah the students are obviously of course you guys can go at your leisure um thank you again thanks everybody thank you uh Miss kuslovich thank you for all that you do for these programs as well and um I just want the public to to know and I I presume that report's going to be up on our website the Cusack report yes sir um that is the report card of how the district is doing and as you will see we scored 100 percent in every category so that's a tremendous tremendous thank you to our Administration and staff that is not easy to come by and we're very proud of that and if you have an opportunity take a look at that report on our website and that's what makes Clifton the special town that it
111is so again thank you Miss fragoza and and Miss kusilevich for your presentations tonight your continued efforts in your programs thank you okay we'll move on with our agenda okay we'll start with number nine adoption of our minutes of August 24th 2023 so moved by Mr abadrabo second by Mr Paris discussion I think yes um I'm going to be changing my vote before the uh the minutes go into record I want to change my vote on facility usage form 4962 so that my colleagues know why outboard policy 7510 is clear for the non-use of political groups allowing these groups any uh use of facility for the Clifton Board of Education is a violation about board policy also um I've learned that the group that took out this usage form was uh con formed in April
1122023 as a 501c4 for nobody that knows what a 501c4 is it's different it's it's an organization that is allowed to take donations but your donations are not tax-exempt what happens is if we just bring that on a new business this is just the minutes but I'm giving the reason why I'm voting no I know but we're going into more prolonged uh I have a reason no no I I want you to say it no but I want to I want maybe other members may change their mind when they find out why I'm doing this it's really important that this come on record I need it on record I need on record it has nothing to do with anything other because I'm going to be accused of being a racist because I'm going against this
113so I want the community to know the reason absolutely I agree I just okay so I want to finish okay I sent the uh a three-page email to the superintendent I can read it to you all later I'll do it under my preview of my my minutes but the the organization is not a non-profit a 501c a 501c4 is a political organization they can endorse candidates they endorse candidates last year without being formed and they've also um interviewed an endorsed candidates this year okay we we have kept the Clifton public schools and the usage of Clifton Public Schools very pristine with non-political usage if we allow this usage from our last minutes from 4962 we are violating policy number 7510 so I want my vote to be changed to know thank you all right just
114make those notations in the minutes so we're voting on the minutes of the meeting any other discussion roll call please yes with the exception to my no on that one thank you Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yeah president Smith yes motion carries you ready doc yes sir okay superintendent's report Dr robitosi thank you Mr President good evening once again Commissioners um I want to thank all of our presenters that uh spoke tonight about all of our summer programs it looked like our kids had a lot of fun while they were learning this summer and that's that's really what it's all about so thank you for all your hard work I just want to start off with a I got a short two minute video I
115want to give a shout out to principal Lynette park at school three who um made this video and posted it on social media from our new teacher orientation back on August 30th um short two minute video just to show how we welcomed our new staff to the district this year [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] so much [Music] thank you [Music] baby [Music] [Applause] thank you very much [Music] so it really wasn't a two-hour Rock concert there really was a reason for uh for all of that and that that messaging and um I don't know where Mark got that hat from I don't know where that hat came from but that's how we welcomed our new employees to the to the district and I would probably venture to say that might be the most
116unique new teacher orientation um in the state of New Jersey maybe the East Coast greater northeast area um I have some other good news to share with the board and the community um yesterday I received a letter from New Jersey school boards Association that one of our districts program that we call the IMPACT program was uh selected to be a recipient of the New Jersey school boards association annual School leader award for a recognized program um the IMPACT program is a program at Clifton High School for it's designed to assist students with disabilities from age 18 through 21. these are students who are developing the necessary Independent Living skills and employment skills that they need to prepare for a transition into adulthood and our program at Clifton High School simulates a home away from home
117environment it's located on the first floor of the South Wing at Clifton High School there's various stations within the setting that Target the development of specific vocational needs of students and independent living skills including but not limited to personal hygiene and self-care daily maintenance tasks like laundry and cleaning clerical work meal prep daily use of Technology how to apply for a job ordering food they work on social skills workplace safety and the student students really learned to become a self-determined member of our community so it was really nice to hear yesterday that our IMPACT program will be recognized by New Jersey school boards Association we'll be receiving an invitation to be recognized during a county school boards Association event which as board members you are all invited to and and permitted to go each month
118will also receive a plaque to recognize our achievement and we also received a digital badge to put on our website to show that we were recognized for this regard so congratulations to our Administration staff who came up with the idea for this program who developed it and who who organized it and run it every single day really is a fantastic program I also want to take a minute to update the entire one Clifton community on our favorite furry friend our favorite four-legged friend Chewie where is he is he sleeping he's back there should we want to come out and say hello uh Chewie is our District's therapy dog and Chewie has been making his rounds visiting our students and staff during arrival dismissal in the classroom he's been to student assemblies and even at athletic
119events um so far this therapy dog initiative in Clifton has been um to say it's been a success is an understatement and I'm pleased to announce tonight that Chewie now has his own dedicated Facebook page called The Adventures of Chewie and you'll be able to find a link to the webpage Chewie's bio and a link to post Chewie's pictures on our District web page it'll be up and running by next uh by next Friday you'll be able to follow the adventures of Chewie I think he's done for the day he's just tired he's like he said he wants to hear another presentation Chewie we look forward to following Chewie's adventures and like I said that will be up and running by next the end of next week on our from our district website thanks Mark
120he does just bring a calmness doesn't he we're working on it yeah we got it he's still a puppy ladies and gentlemen he's only eight months he's actually eight months old today still a puppy and he's still growing yeah happy birthday happy eight months I mean look at the size of those Paws he's gonna be a beast um I'd also like to um tell the board in the community that school 13 will be celebrating its centennial celebration this upcoming Sunday they will have historical artifacts shared by alumni as well as vendors it's probably going to be the rain date because oh is there do you know Mr Brunswick do you know what the rain date is off the top of your head well so if it rains uh we'll I'll get the rain date and
121I'll announce it out before the end of the night but as of now the um date is October 1st October 1st thank you Mr Brunswick the plan is that vendors crafts activities food bouncy houses and more at school 13 from 10 to 2 on Sunday if it rains and it's certainly looking that way um the rain date is October 1st so please all are welcome to come out and celebrate School 13 as they turn 100 years old [Laughter] I'd also like to um give a public service announcement on behalf of the Clifton Education Foundation who have supported our schools going on 25 years now and the Clifton Education Foundation will be having its 25th anniversary dinner on October 11th from 5 to 9 pm at Uno's Pizzeria and Grill on Route 3. you don't need
122a ticket if you go there on October 11th between 5 and 9 25 of your bill will go to the Clifton Education Foundation and so please if you get a chance go out and support the foundation they do so much to support our teachers and students uh oh and there's a talent show that night at the um at the foundation dinner they've asked me to play guitar but I said if you want people to come you don't want me playing guitar so please if you get a chance to go out I'm definitely going to be there that night and I like pizza a quick update on referendum projects as of today we have 60 of all the gang bathrooms in the district have been completed uh and 70 of the single bathrooms have been completely
123renovated when we said we were going to renovate every bathroom in the district we weren't kidding it and it's been a lot of work but it's made a tremendous difference uh School three's Auditorium is complete and it is absolutely beautiful uh sometime in the next few weeks I'll organize a date with Mr Smith so we can have a ribbon cutting ceremony at school three see their Auditorium it's it's really it's it's so beautiful um next up on the auditorium phase will be both of our middle schools will be getting completely updated renovated auditoriums be fantastic and of course um ongoing work in all of our schools and excuse me not in most of our schools with our new uh HVAC systems um that there's a lot of a lot of work going on in all
124of our schools too to update those so that's my report for tonight Mr President thank you very very much thank you any questions for the superintendent all right seeing none uh we'll move on to 12 which is uh first reading of policy Miss password you want to read those um no just read the we have zero one four five board member resignation and removal zero one five five point one board member participation at media public board meetings public and executive sessions using electronic devices of 7510 use of school facilities okay thank you uh if we move on to board committee reports um we'll start uh with Finance Mr Brunswick thank you Mr President those in attendance were myself commissioner Paris president Smith Dr Robert Posey Mr jingaro Mr shahada Mr doctor Miss bakalos meeting started
125at five p.m meeting ended at 5 32 PM items of discussion were the band trip proposal Mr gengaro went over a proposal forwarded from the CHS band for a trip number two we discussed the rod Grant update all Rod grants were approved by the state number three was the Sylvan Ave property letter of intent was reviewed with the committee the letter will be sent to the attorney today at that time and sent over to the buyer's attorney to continue the sales process number four was the Brighton Asylum update Brighton asylum haunted house explained the process in which parking would be structured at CHS if the board allows the use of the parking lot Mr gengaro and shahada met with Richard associated with the brightness home and discussed the proposal proposal was in the hands of
126the committee members and we ended up uh just sending it to legal to make sure everything looked clean with that does anybody have any questions president Smith I do yes uh just in terms of the rod Grant Mr Brunswick how much did we receive and can you usually look no what we're using that pretty big number a little over 15 mil and what are we using that for in the district the roofs okay thank you yes um I'm going to become the facility usage uh Czar of Clifton is for the uh Asylum is everything in order c-o-a-c-o-i the everything everything in order everything is in order I believe you thank you thank you okay anyone else questions all right we'll move on um Mr Paris would you mind doing the facilities for me please sure
127thank you president Smith uh the facilities committee met on September 11th uh president or commissioner Awad myself uh and president Smith also in attendance for Dr robertozzi Mr gengaro Mr shahada Mr Maldonado Mr doctor Mr marcione guests that were also in attendance were Mr Costello Mr Watkins Mr Vito Ms bakalos and Ms Rotolo we started our meeting at 3 30 we ended at 4 33. the items of discussions were a referendum update the Epic rep gave us an overview of what has taken place so far in the referendum and plans for the next few months we're also waiting on PSEG for final steps for the Woodrow Wilson Field the stadium weight room units are to be delivered by the end of October we're waiting on ventilation for the flooring company to come in and install
128the floor they can't install the floor until ventilations in place uh school one bathroom are on schedule and school 3 Auditorium was completed the building and grounds update Administration gave an update of projects taking place throughout the district cooking kitchens at Woodrow and Columbus are completed many repairs were completed and building prep for the first day of school was the main priority the bright we had a Brighton Asylum update we explained the process was explained in which parking would be structured at CHS if the board allowed it Mr gingero Mr shahada met with Richard from the Asylum that doesn't sound right but and discuss the proposal uh and the proposals in the hands of the committee members we also had a rod Grant update that all our Rod grants were approved by New Jersey um
129School 14 parking lot was completed it was 65 000 returned due to being under budget so the parking lot was 65k under budget we discussed the band room renderings of the band rooms were explained to the committee a discussion is sued about modifications the discussion on property on Route 3 took place which is potential property for Transportation Administration will look into it try to make contact with the owner School 14 trailer treatment was discussed their these trailers are being treated in compliance with IPM and New Jersey dep standards we discussed the impact kitchen at CHS a donor graciously donated up-to-date kitchen equipment to help students with life skills After High School and we just heard about that program and its recognition by the New Jersey school boards Association meeting ended at 4 33. any questions
130thank you uh next we'll do uh policy Miss bassford thank you um policy committee meet met on September 18th the policy committee began at 505 pm and attendance for commissioner abedrabo commissioner Richie Mejia president from Administration was Danny robitussi Mark gingero Ahmed shahida Michael Byrne Luis Ross and president from our board attorney was Margaret Miller and myself the committee reviewed the use of school facility policy 7510 clarification was provided regarding the application process fees charged and regulations the committee asked the administration and the board to review the policy and make recommendations at the committee's next meeting for board consideration in the interim the committee recommends that the policy be amended tonight to amend the following sentence after number eight to read the use of school facilities will not be granted for the advantage of any
131partisan political activities or any private social function regarding this change the committee unanimously recommends that the board moved to suspend by law zero one three one and adopt the revised policy 7510 with one reading the committee then discussed bylaw015 well excuse me zero one four five board member recognition and removal which went through the first reading at the last meeting the committee has placed this bylaw again for first reading tonight with additional amendments as proposed by the board attorney to provide a due process provision and Define meeting in the policy as so as to be better aligned with statute and case law as required as requested at the last meeting the board attorney reviewed by law zero one five five point one board member participate participation at board meetings public and executive session using electronic
132device regarding Commissioners attending board meetings virtually the committee recommends adoption of the policy with the revised punctuation on page four and the addition of the following sentence on page three no more than two board members shall be permitted to participate in a meeting via electronic device the possibility of adopting a light duty assignment policy was also discussed the committee requested that Administration and board attorney provide recommendations to the committee at the next meeting the meeting adjourned at 5 55 pm and Luis Ross submitted the minutes do I have any questions uh I do actually good um Mr President um through you to the attorney so I sit on the policy committee but I was kind of thinking about this when I was reviewing everything again last night um and there's something I caught in the
133in the one of the one of the I'll say 7510 can you tell me the difference between a political organization um upon sorry a partisan political political activity organization and a community political organization and the reason I ask is because and if I may just read the two lines so the use of physical facilities will not be granted for the advantage of any partisan political activity or any private social function but then um it's a little contradicting that number seven or number six I'm sorry where it says the paragraph that we will prioritize people who actually we give um use of facilities form to number six is listed as a community political organization right foreign we will look at that and take that out I would think that is contradictory I didn't notice that either
134I don't think any of us did when we were discussing the policy the other night yeah so we certainly that should come out to be aligned um with the policy my understanding without having the benefit of of actually researching and and and seeing if political um or partisan organization is defined anywhere um I always would interpret that to mean you know political organizations that we we don't hold political debates with you know Republican Democratic parties of that nature that's always been my understanding of what is referred to a partisan political organization and I know we generally try to keep those out of the schools no that's fair and the reason I'm bringing this up as well I was going to bring it up anyway exactly I was talking to shahad and then I thought um
135when I asked him earlier you know can I bring this up under first reading and I'm like I know I can't I don't know why I'm asking and then I remember that this was being read is that the conversation of the I'll take an example was the Latino leadership event that's not Republican or Democratic or green party or whatever but yet it is still a community political organization so that's why I kind of wanted to you know and that's actually a perfect organ perfect example um and that's why I wanted to bring that up because it's a little contradictory where you have your your D's your r's your greens or whatever you want to be and then you have your community political organization so which one is it you know is it it's like you're
136telling no but you guys can't and that's a little discriminatory but you're allowing other political organizations to do so I can certainly look and see if I can find any better definition in case law as to what is you know a partisan versus a community political organization and then it's up to you as a board to decide where you want to draw that line I have a I have a comment on that I would like to take partisan out and leave the word political so no political functions are going on on our properties we've never had this issue it's only recently surfaced I would like to take the word partisan out and just leave political so it covers every basis that's what I'm concerned about School uh Clifton schools have been pristine about not having
137anything political on campus this was discussed many years at our policy meeting myself and um commissioner Dan uh vice president Danny um sat on it because a Community member wanted to hand stuff out during a Tricky Tray or I don't know what was going on in the school it came to the board through the superintendent and we didn't we he didn't allow it so I recommend that we take partisan out and just leave it political and this way we cover ourselves on every basis and it's clean and again if I may I'm not disagreeing with you um I it's just when you read it you're like all right so what are you doing here you know it's are you allowing it you're not allowing it are you being discriminatory against certain people or parties or
138political activities or what whatever nature it may be it's just more to cover us just and I agree with you in terms of taking out partisan you sleep at political activity period because then we just cover ourselves and it's one word thank you number 75-10 number six was that did that policy always exist or no thank you okay Mr Mejia so I did want to mention what we talked about briefly in the policy committee is if and when we actually do get a board member who is 18 19 in college that we can revisit this you know obviously I would like to give them the opportunity if they go to you know a prestigious School of Harvard it's actually attend a meeting whether it's in their dorm or in their apartment or in a closed
139room because personally I feel like we would just leave them out if they're voted by the people I believe we should really have them on this board Miss Mejia I actually did research on that I sent it to the superintendent um I Dr robitussi you were going to share that information that I had got ta write the whole board and it does speak to that I I didn't I did get it for you though the only reason I bring it up because I personally know a few members at my University they're on the board back in their Hometown Staten Island so if they're able to you know be on it I know it's different rules like we were talking about before but I think it would be a great opportunity especially for some of our
140high schoolers who want to get involved who have been involved to actually be at the table making decisions you know since they already know students in there they already know what happened they already know what needs to change so like I said before I hope we can revisit it in the future I I did share that information with the superintendent he's going I I don't send it out to the board I asked him to disseminate it to the board but it was from New Jersey school boards with all and he was going to share with you to weigh in and then we were going to present it to the committee at our next policy meeting so we could actually write a policy to cover it okay any other discussion yeah may I ask one more
141question are we pulling 7510 temporarily or no we're keeping that on there what's your pleasure I mean I don't know if does research still need to occur 7510 was going to there was verbiage going to be pulled so it would regulate for a usage form that's on the agenda tonight that we're we actually have an agreement in well I'm sorry but we can't do that because because that organization can come back and say okay you as a board yes we're not a A drg or whatever you know political party but yet your policy strictly states that that it's a community or Community political organization that's what I'm afraid of and honestly I thought about it last night I was swamped at work today I didn't get a chance to call the superintendent about this today
142and I figured we just discuss it here openly um to be transferred for the public and it's I I don't feel comfortable to be honest because I don't need somebody knocking on our door and saying hey I represent so and so and you're discriminating against us so Mr Badr will make the record make a motion and I was going to do that actually you can do it so we're suspending the bylaw for this other application that we're doing so why can't we add the verbage into it now yeah Miss Miller uh that's what I was just gonna say just just to be aware that's what the the amendment that we made to the policy was to remove the prohibition against non-profits that was in there which we think based on practice in the district was
143left in an error um so that's what the revision was for you can certainly pass it for now and and revisit the issue I mean just because you amend the policy today doesn't stop you from amending it again tomorrow so that if you want to deal with getting it passed tonight so you can have the Assad I found sound funny saying it too the Asylum go forward um I would recommend you do I think that one is probably time time is of the essence and then give me a little time to look in to further the issue between if I can find a new class vacation on what's the difference between a political and partisan political if there is really any difference by law at least or case law on the definition and then you
144can make the determination as the board as to how you want to amend it so it's certainly up to you guys as to how you want to proceed I'm not comfortable leaving it in I'm and I'm not comfortable leaving partisan and either I'd like to strike both of them from the record tonight okay anyone else uh you wish to strike those words now or would you like uh the attorney the opportunity to look into it and get back to us and revisit it yeah yeah any everyone we just got to cover ourselves for tonight I mean and moving forward particularly when comments have been made and and this is going to be passed I mean that that example that was used by Quincy bassford was already passed anyway um but terms the Asylum and while
145we're here and looking at it I think we should pool number six strike number six for a minute and and I'll make that motion I'll second it and also remove the word partisan and keep political activity in all right is your emotion to pull let's give your motion again please so I'd like to I would like to make a motion in 75 10 policy 7510 to remove number six Community political organizations and strike the word out of the freeze partisan political activity and strike the word partisan I second that motion okay motion on the floor seconded by Miss bassford discussion seeing none roll call please Mr Robert yes Ms basford yes Mr Brunswick yes over here Mr Paris yes Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carried right motion carries here thank
146you all right um I believe education is next um Mr Paris thank you Mr Smith um the education is special education committee meeting met on September 14th uh starting at 5 30 p.m president where myself uh vice president Danny uh Dr robertosie Mr gigaro Ms gusilevic and uh Ms Hempel Mr kusilevich gave us a an update and provided an overview of enrollment programs in class sizes across the district many special education sections are reaching capacity in 2021 we started the year with 694 multilingual learners by June of 23 we had increased to 1172. as of today we have 1172 multilingual students in ESL classes K-12 with 230 more receiving follow-up support our preschool P3 and P4 are close to capacity with one additional class about to open at Sela s hiring continues to fill new
147positions as student numbers in ESL and special education continue to increase action there was informational second item concerning Staffing and virtual learning opportunities Ms kusilevich explained the district continues to innovate to provide highly qualified teachers at a tight job market we are piloting temporary virtual and online options to fill emergent needs with certified staff instead of per diem substitute action was informational special education update was provided by Ms Hemphill Miss Hemphill shared the following updates she discussed the large increases in numbers of referrals to special education as well as classroom sizes and enrollment at this time many of the special education sections are almost full additional sections will be needed and space to hold these new classes is difficult to find some repurposing of classrooms and movement of other programs will need to take place
148the department looks forward to hiring more full-time paraprofessionals as the budget permits the bounce out the stigma basketball summer camp was held in July at Sila B we had supervisors teachers CST and other staff volunteers to assist along with about 10 Key Club volunteers it was a huge success and the company has received positive feedback esy and CLS programs ran with almost 400 students attending both locations Sila B and Sela a there will be a presentation about this program at the next Boe meeting which we just experienced special education Medicaid initiative end-of-year status we received four hundred and twenty thousand dollars in comparison to last year's 356 thousand due to logging and services increasing we are working on planning our cpag meetings for the year looking for parent involvement and input please reach out to
149special education at cliftonschools.net for more information we're still looking for staff teachers ldtc psychologist bcba Paris and please apply online via appletrack nurtured heart approach training will be offered again this year as well as parent training for students in the autism program please be on the lookout for upcoming events current special education totals preschool 250. school age K-12 speech only 188. from July 1st 23 through September 15th we have had 26 referrals K-12 which is up 14 from the same time last year and 34 preschool referrals which is down from 63 this time last year all the above is informational concerning action next time was exploration of summer graduation for summer graduates by Mr gingaro and Miss Coos levich a small number of seniors approximately 15 to 20 each year need to complete a summer
150course to graduate in August making them ineligible to walk at the June graduation ceremony in order to acknowledge their efforts the district is exploring the feasibility of a small graduation ceremony for these August graduates highlight Clifton Arts at Board of Ed meetings Ms cluster levich discussed a recommendation that had been made to feature Clifton Arts at board meetings Student Art is visible in the hallways of the administration building the committee recommends that there be board discussion about returning rotating art displays inside the boardroom however in November the district will begin to stream Student Art and performances on screen during the executive session portion of the meeting our meeting was adjourned at 6 30 minutes were respectfully submitted by Ms kusilevic any questions Mr commissioner uh I don't know where to start because I have a
151lot of questions actually um first of all what's our pre p3p4 uh capacity right now Ms Gusto levitch can you help that yeah right now we're getting close to about 1300 students in preschool and how much are we on a waiting list uh the way there I do not know the answer to that but I think we are servicing everybody who um had registered up until we closed registration okay um in terms of special education I'm I'm not a fan of privatizing anything so that's not where I'm going with this but if I'm looking at the numbers correctly where school age K to 12 is 2253. and we're sure ldtcas uh BCAAs and these other specialty areas are we able to give these 2 253 K to 12 special education students the prior are the
152special attention that they need have we and where I'm going with this is you know I'm just putting my my work hat on you know have we looked at going to an RFP for outside BCAAs and ldtc we're already implementing those we have we have agencies we have multiple agencies we are reaching out this is this is a this is a nationwide correct Staffing shortage so we are doing multiple um things to try to stay ahead of it uh wherever possible we are you if we don't have enough local staff we have been using agency the agencies themselves don't always have Staffing to provide for us we've been reaching out to the colleges just yesterday I was at Montclair we are working to turn our current student teachers we put them on as substitutes to
153try to hire them immediately at graduation we have a segment of um December grads that we're looking at right now to put into these positions uh starting in uh at that time at the moment every single classroom has a person in it the vast and we are very and we our goal is to have a highly qualified staff member in every role um but we do and have been reaching out to every possible agency University increased advertising increased job fairs we've done our own job fairs we're attending every job fair that there is and um as other districts are doing um we are also trying to entice staff members from other districts to come to Clifton thank you and then my last question is and maybe I don't know I just feel like maybe Richie
154may have some ideas on this um sorry commissioner Mejia um you know many of us either have or did or you know in some capacity taking winter courses when we're in college right between the fall and the spring to get these students these 15 20 small number of seniors to graduate and walk with their classmates can we structure or do something you know that they graduate on time with their call with their cohort of students in June that we do some sort of winter classes this way we can you know three-week crash course or with along with the weekend we actually do something like that but they're not it's not a winter crash course we do a number of different cohorts of credit recovery uh either after school online using previously using educer now we've
155added something called Edgenuity we all we have also added a end of year during the last few weeks of school last ditch final opportunity for students to be able to reclaim those credits so of our nearly 800 graduates each year frequently it's even less than 15 but there's always a handful that despite all of the different um options throughout the school year that we give them for credit recovery you know inevitably there's a small handful that just can't can't finish that one last class or something we we our high school works very hard to get our kids to be able to make it through and walk with their cohort yeah the truth is 98 of students who make it to senior year will graduate then I'll graduate on time and I'll work with their class
156where we lose kids is earlier on particularly freshman year going into sophomore year when a student repeats freshman year um it gives them a much less chance of graduating high school and so that's why we're doing things like creating after-school alternative type programs for those kids and offering this summer we paid for freshman students who failed regiment two classes or one class correct for all freshmen who failed how many freshmen who fail four classes and the core class we paid for them to get to do a summer school that's not something we've done before but we know that that's the critical year because if we lose them freshman year there's a good chance we they don't ever graduate so that's where our Focus has been if you think about if we're talking about 20 students
157who actually don't walk with their class we're talking about two percent of our seniors and those are kids who the administration I will tell you and the teachers have bent over backwards and have done everything that they could to try to get these students to to graduate and for some reason or another they just just don't do it thank you you're welcome president Smith yes Mr rahiff and then Mr Cynthia good right so thank you so um I actually made this recommendation this suggestion I believe and um whether they uh have taken advantage of and really worked hard uh and utilized all those courses and those Avenues um or didn't this was uh you have a small group of students who are you know one class away from graduating um and they can't right and
158that makes sense but uh they take that one class and a month to six weeks later do graduate in August I mean you know no ceremony though right so they get their diploma but um they didn't walk and there's no kind of ceremony unless you're doing it uh privately so I just made this suggestion look into how many students that is how feasible it is and let's see if we can do something for them even if it's a celebration in our gym or wherever it is because um they should be recognized and I know they'll be happy and I know as a parent um maybe even if your kid it's not that big of a deal to them you're immensely proud and you want to celebrate that moment with your student with your child so
159that's the reason why I made this night and this recommendation I hope that we can work it out thank you commission me so the students at home know you know for knowledge purposes what's the minimum criteria needed in order to pass these classes in the summer there's not much yeah that way they know you know if they're coming they're doing work they have a strong chance of passing those classes I would say I did it I honestly I'm gonna be completely transparent to you I didn't I wasn't the best at college algebra college algebra two I was the worst I went to summer school had to repeat the class did the work showed up and I got credit for that so for the students at home who aren't aware of it you know show up
160do your work and get to grinding all right thank you Mr Smith yes um I have thank you Tony that was a great idea and I would like to see the board really get involved with this moving up a graduation ceremony and make it a smaller of what we do in June if you know weather permitting but you know the high even the auditorium would be nice they could walk across the stage their parents could be in the in the audience they get they get the jacket they get the diploma um I'd like to see maybe a presentation we do pbsis every month maybe something highlighting I don't know if there's a lot of pictures of that program or a video of that program but showing the actual student growth and showing the graduation because
161maybe that will inspire the ones that are going through the crack and we can get them in more motivated you know it's visual Learners we like to see things so I would like to see maybe a presentation one month for something like that and I would I would love to come hopefully we make it where it's you know convenient for all of us to get there they do they get caps and gowns like you know are we going to do this we're going to do it right you know no no shoddy work like let's give them what they deserve it just took them a little longer to get there some of us take longer to get to a certain destination but they did it and they should be given the same opportunity as the ones
162in June that did it as well thank you yeah so um when Mr Elise was superintendent uh we did have a summer school graduation program uh it was a wonderful uh ceremony it was held outdoors in the in the atrium um and it it let these students know that yeah just because they weren't able to walk on the field they had the ceremony there and um um I attended I think uh I think we had it for about seven years so it is something that we can definitely look into in doing uh it had been done here before I don't know where it stopped but um I think we're all in favor of of having something um yeah I don't I don't know the exact answer to your question but I remember um I I
163was so shocked to hear of how many kids uh students fail uh have to go to summer school because they didn't dress for phys ed class and you used to see the kids at summer school walking around the city hall complex around the corner back to the high school um so they had to fulfill their obligation to phys Ed because they didn't dress for phys Ed and failed phys Ed so um it's it's it's something that I I think should be brought back um it was real nice out in the atrium unless you get a real hot uh evening but it was always held in the evening time this way the parents could be there board members could be there and um Administration hopefully can look into that and yeah when I um mentioned it
164to Mr Honda he was fully on board and it's absolutely something we can do but I just you had mentioned something that triggered my memory from earlier we had a parent um who called in virtually Mr Kiefer and he asked about specifically Woodrow Wilson Middle School why the students don't change for Jim anymore it's precisely the reason that you just said um so many students is particularly at the middle school level and then later on in high school would fail phys Ed for not changing and so I'm not sure how many years ago Janina would know better the administrator got together and says well we don't have kids don't have to change why why do we make them go into a locker room especially at that age and and change when they're not comfortable doing
165it anyway um they could just do phys Ed if they're wearing sneakers and so it really reduced the number of students who failed phys ed class right correct we started at the high school pre-pandemic because that was an impediment to graduation and um you know most of the clothing that they wear is perfectly acceptable for Jim they just have to have sneakers on during the pandemic we um stopped changing in middle school and that has continued since then because of the same reasons it did take a little longer for the middle schools because there you know there were multiple reasons and rationale for still encouraging kids to change at that time but the benefits have outweighed any drawbacks I can tell you that it was a big traumatic event in my house with a young
166female getting yeah absolutely it was but there was also another issue my my children used to come home and say that some students in their classrooms didn't have enough clothing to change into so that was I think that was another issue that we were looking at a financial issue and an impact to the families I remember talking about that and I I assume everybody's more comfortable now because they don't have to I know my house would have been happy but yeah it was it was it was rough because there was a lot of changes to a Young Person's Anatomy during that time and it was really quite unbearable the stress that it brought home to the house thank you okay anyone else all right we'll move on um unfinished business anyone have any unfinished business
167all right um number six uh number 16 is a uh expression of condolence um whereas on August 29 2023 the community noted with sorrow the passing of Miss Constance pompocelli and she had served in the district and educated our children of Clifton faithfully and conscientiously as a highly respected educator Miss pompocelli began her career in 1969 as a high school mathematics teacher and then became the supervisor of mathematics and education for students in grades 6 through 12. she served as CHS vice principal from 80 to 85 then moved to the elementary schools becoming principal of school 9 and school five she also served the District of Clifton as committee chair of the mathematics education for grades K-12 Miss pompocelli started a program called family math which was run in the evening and allowed parents and
168their children to work together to do math activities she also in initiated the program of inviting grandparents to school for a day called special persons day after retirement pompocelli worked for Montclair State University mentoring practice teachers for 15 years her greatest joy was her family now therefore be resolved this resolution is forward to a bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great Regard in which Miss pompocelli was held to by the Board of Education Administration Employees and pupils of the Clinton Public Schools and we're further be resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in their entirety to the official minutes of the Clinton board of education for future generations to pursue um I happen to know Miss pompocelli she was a great asset to uh Clifton and um our condolences to
169their family on her law on their laws um number 17 is Hispanic Heritage Month recognition um Mr Santiago thank you president Smith Proclamation Hispanic Heritage Month recognition whereas Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated annually from September 15 to October 15th to recognize and honor the rich cultural contributions history and accomplishments of Hispanic and not next Americans who have played a vital role in shaping the diverse tapestry of our nation and whereas the Clifton Board of Education is committed to promoting diversity inclusion inclusivity and cultural awareness within our school district and acknowledges that our Hispanic and latinx students families and staff members contribute significantly to the educational and social fabric of our community and whereas Hispanic and latinx Americans have made enduring contributions in fields such as education science art politics business Sport and entertainment enriching our
170society and inspiring future generations to reach their fullest fullest potential and whereas through the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month we have the opportunity to educate our students and Community about the cultural heritage traditions and achievements of Hispanic and latinx Americans fostering mutual respect understanding and unity and whereas this observance provides an occasion for all of us to come together as a community appreciate the vibrancy of Hispanic and latinx cultures and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring an inclusive and Equitable educational environment for all our students now therefore be it resolved that the Clifton Board of Education proclaimed September 15 to October 15th as its Hispanic Heritage Month within our district and encourages all students teachers staff and community members to participate in events activities and educational programs that honor the Heritage and contributions of Hispanic and
171latinx Americans and be it further resolved that we urge our Educators to incorporate Hispanic and latinx history culture and achievements into the curriculum promoting a deeper understanding of the contributions made by Hispanic and latinx Americans to our society and be it further resolved that we call upon all residents of Clifton to join us in celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by participating in cultural events engaging in discussions and fostering an environment of respect and appreciation for the Hispanic and latinx members of our community and witness whereof we the Clifton Board of Education do hereby said our hands and cause this proclamation to be affixed on this 21st day of September in the year 2023. thank you thank you okay we'll do the um education Administration uh we'll have ea2 through eh12 motion motion by Ms basford second
172by Mr abadrabo discussion seeing none oh yeah yes right we already moved that yep okay roll call please Mr abujabo Ms basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Miss Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries all right next we have um Personnel we have P1 through p 40 motion by Mr abedravo seconded by Mr Paris discussion a question on number 11 is there anything we need to discuss in executive session administrator believe yes Dr Roberto yes thank you so I um okay so exclude number 11. right rest of the group roll call please Mr Robert yes Miss masford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes abstain on I am 20 please I'm sorry uh 20 20. Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes an
173abstain on p-34 president Smith yes motion carries hey next we have uh finance and Facilities we have um F1 through f19 motion motion by Mr abadravo second by Mr Paris discussion I have some discussion on 17 okay and 18. um how does can you explain to the uh some somebody from Administration explain to the board and also the community how we actually take a usage facility form and and what's the process of doing that so just in In fairness to Mr shahada we are revising the process but if you could explain how it's been done and we're revising the policy actually he buys the whole thing but explain how it's been people in the community have been asking so I just would like to get it out there so people understand that the processes we
174have in place and and these these things do not get rubber stamped yeah so um the organization whatever it may be PTO HSA whatever we got going on they reach out to Mr Burns in our office who handles the facilities requests they fill out our form they get all the the permits needed if something is requiring fire they reach out to the fire department receive a permit for that um it is then placed on the board agenda and then after it is approved we receive prior to that I'm sorry we receive all the documents besides the Certificate of Insurance that is received after the fact after the board has approved it they reach out to their company and add us as a writer on their policy however just for for the boards um knowledge on
175the use of facilities moving forward we're going to put conditionally uh in in the language pending all certifications and documentations needed so nothing is official even after the board passes it until I get the documents personally and I sign off on it also um on the usage form itself we've always we board members know that when there is no dollar amount on that one column on the end that the the board the recommendation is coming from the superintendent to waive it because you have you have looked in and researched what it is and it falls in the criteria I would like to see it you say conditional in there or where you're going to put it but I like to see the word waived I'd actually like to see the word put there so we
176all can glance down when we're perusing the document and see quickly that it's it's waived because you know three weeks of research on this thing and you know when I asked for a certificate of insurance and I noticed that the Certificate of Insurance only covered the ride vendor and not the actual facility itself like you know I I yeah a lot of time went into that and like it was driving me crazy because we nine of us have a fiduciary obligation to the taxpayers to make sure that the money that we're spending or the or anything that comes here for a usage form for a usage form that they're vetted and everything I I really do believe that we need to put some language in that that policy as well about how we honor out
177hsas and give them we don't charge them for any kind of facilities because they're they're actually enhancing the education about students in that particular school and it's always been an honor System that they do that however recently some hsas are taking advantage of that and doing other things while they take the usage form out and I'm not going to go into any further we discussed this in executive session and that's where I'm ending the conversation with that but I want to get the language stronger as a board as we grow when you see a problem you say something like you see something you say something and this is an opportunity to make it is it going to be 100 iron Clan no if the ants want to get into your house they're going to get
178into your house and they're going to find the crack to get in we every time there's an issue we change and then we we vote on it and we grow from there so I would like to see waved in there so coming when I can move down then if something catches my eye you know and I send the email to Dr and he sends it to you because there are there are two usage forms from prior back that I am really looking at and I would like to discuss it with facilities so if I could be uh or I guess Finance maybe or facilities maybe finance and um it's those two vendors that I have questioned on and I've talked to you about it Dr robitussi I want to bring it to them and I
179want to be a guest at their meeting so I could bring it up to them because I'll explain to the board in the back because it's confidential but I want to bring this to your attention because it's bothering me this happened a long time ago with with the vendor and a big mistake was found so I don't want to give anything off the off the cuff with that but when one of your colleagues say there's something wrong with something your curiosity as new board members should peek and say what is she talking about so that's what I'm I'm just that's a little lesson but I would like to see we really got to get back to this because there were so many fumbles I mean we almost didn't get to the touchdown on this one
180because there was too many fumbles and it shouldn't take a board member to do this it should be this should be set in place and I did take a lot of my family time away from my house because I was getting calls from people it's nothing to do with you it was the applicant wasn't giving you what you needed and it was just not coming through so thank you I also I just reached out to Mike burn and sent him an email as you were speaking I told him we are going to add the wave and everything and that that apartment falls on my shoulder so I apologize for that I'll make sure that it's uh it's squared away moving forward and anything that is being waived that is at a grand scale what we
181typically do is we bring it to the facilities committee but anything that's a quick judgment call just based on time it's gonna have it's going to go through Dr robitosi moving forward so he has current information to share with the board I just I'm sorry Mr abajal I just want to get my point so I don't forget um I really like to see a different procedure with the 501c3s or C4s more in place because I was told that and we were all told as a collective group that there was this document and in fact that there was not the document I had to procure it myself I spent hours researching it and I finally found it last night at what time Dr robitussi did I send it to you about 10 30 at night last
182night but you know it just because it was getting to me that I couldn't find this thing and people were asking me is that all the documentation we have to speak to people in the community and I could say unequivocally we do not request the status of any company non-profit for-profit whatever they willingly hand over that information in hopes of receiving some sort of discount the rates or the rates that are set by the board it's in black and white for us and and we do not um move from there so you guys set the policy you guys tell us exactly what you wanted to do and we will carry it out to the fullest extent I'd like to bring that back and it is uh as we mentioned in policy um regarding 7510 we
183talked about the expansive uh they are expanding I'm sorry the facilities the use facilities form I think that whether it's a non-profit for-profit status should be a checklist on there um I do like the idea of seeing waved on there AEF if you share responsibility but yet also for the Clifton rack for the hsas the ptos it also shows that they are not just an organization but they are a family organization of one Clifton um for them to see wave down there for the public sea waves it's more transparent for them and so you know what Clifton Board of actually cares about the PTA pto's hsas Etc um and particular Iraq so I think that's a good thing to do but Mike one question we actually had um which I'm not sure uh for 18
184what is the amendment for the use facilities Amendment so I'll take that one so 18 it was an amendment on um because we did not receive the proper insurance information the insurer wasn't the one on the policy they were ensuring us through a third party so we approved it at the August 24th meeting and miss basford uh pointed it out to Dr robitosian and we looked into it with our Council so we are conditionally amending the the policy or the use of facilities until we receive that update insurance information so they are not allowed to park on premises until we receive that um any day now so the public understands because I just went through this like I said at work but um how much of a rider or coverage should an organization have in
185order to receive permission from the utilities Forum from the Clifton Board of Education uh one million individual 2 million aggregate and by aggregate you talk about by overall Europe I know what the answer is because the public understands overall occurrences or is it a million per occurrence a million power currents okay thank you let me discuss that last time all right I have a question so as of as of what time is it now uh 10 15 on September 21st does number 18 have the proper Insurance in place uh last I checked at seven o'clock when I left my office I did not receive it I checked right now and Mike Byrne has yet to receive it he was going to forward it to me as soon as he got it so this policy or
186this resolution is staying on and it's in effect uh once you guys pass it yes Mr Cynthia um that was communicated to the party yes uh by myself and Mike Byrne and and we had her speak to our Council as well okay and then the other thing just a general comment is 75-10 overall needs work I the policy just needs work overall there are other things I don't even want to question now for the sake of time there are other things it just needs work overall if you pursue you to Mr Santiago if you have suggestions on 7510 please send them to the whole policy committee and we will bring them to the table the policy committee is very intense they all we all work together we do disagree at times but we come to
187an agreement at the end of the meeting it's a very fluid and if anybody would like to guest be a guest speaker or guest you know person go through Mr Smith and we'd be happy to have you to chime in just getting back to Mr abajavo's Question so this event started tonight yes and she was told uh the party was told that the group was told that they are not allowed to park until we receive that information and it was communicated by Council as well but how did we prevent that there are no no measures to prevent that honestly well I mean the board would have the board should consider if they don't have it to protect correct well we can always do the we we serve at the pleasure of the board we can
188have Mr jangaro check the security cameras tomorrow and we can report it to Dr robitosi and then let the board know what took place or what didn't take place and whatever you guys decide to do after that is you know totally within your purview Mr Smith yes to to that end really that goes regardless right absolutely with or without this event this event tomorrow night next week three weeks from now in the middle of the night I don't know who's sitting there and what do we do in that instance we don't monitor the parking lot around the clock so I mean I don't know why we should do anything different now my question is the problem is or we should monitor it around the clock right right to be consistent if you're understanding my point
189but the problem is that there's an event going on there was a usage form submitted the proper paperwork wasn't submitted if something happens on that we are held liable every one of us we could be held personally liable as well if we don't do our due diligence and make the right decision yeah so that's the only that's exactly the only reason I was questioning that is because we issued permission and now we're waiting for something to come so it's not as if somebody just is arbitrarily using our parking lot it's we issued something right which is why I asked if it was communicated that they cannot use this yes and so to me you were told please don't be there correct we we can that becomes controllers exactly I agree with you but are we
190are we covered if well okay I'm I'm sorry I'm just looking for more can I can I just step in really quick because I think it's getting a little out of hand I understand both sides listen school one you can lock the gates right they can't come in all right if I wanted tomorrow to go if my wife decides like you know what you know and I decided to park in CCMS parking lot and sit there all night am I trespassing am I do I need to use the do you know do I need to use Phillies form for that anybody can go what I'm trying to say so if if a parent let's take a real serious if a parent wanted to take cones and teach your kids parking parallel parking in CC mess
191parking lot do they need to use Phillys form let's be honest ly yeah so then what do we do as to what Ms Santiago is saying so that's what I'm trying to go what do you remember what do we do okay so so what do we do to prohibit that and second of all we want to go there I see people parallel parking every single time practice parking at school 16 parking lot not to beat a dead horse there are there are organizations who come and request and we deny them is that true yes yeah we do deny them right and then we say we hope they don't show up but we don't police to see if they come and we probably deny plenty of people I'm just saying there's liability in many different ways
192correct Mr Meehan I just want to bring it up that every day people park there you know to go to the park to just walk around to stroll it's an everyday thing so if we're gonna police it we have to police it for everybody the problem is there's going to be a an exorbitant amount of people parking there and when you have more people come you're going to have more instances of people banging each cars whenever you get sued they sued everybody from if it's a snowstorm it's from the salt manufacturer to the plow on the front of the truck right it goes from A to Z goes to the manufacturer on the truck goes to the person driving it goes to the owner of the company abz it's just I guess if we could
193lock the gate it's not a problem right yeah but that's at one but not at CCMS you could put a chain up you know right I don't know what you want to do with that but then you're locking out people that want to go walk around that the park they park there to go to the to the thing people are missing the point why certain people are not happy about it there was an application that was submitted on the application it's very thorough about what you have to do okay for anyone that doesn't know this I was on the HSA wwms when we had a carnival Karen Perkins drove me almost to the point of pulling my hair out I mean I was down here every day I felt like lived here at one point
194back and forth back and forth to get everything required she would not sign off on that usage form until every dot was dotted and every T was crossed that didn't happen with this application it needed and my oh my other question I'm glad you brought that I just come this is what happens when you have covid and you get the brain you get the Kobe brain okay um with the with the organization people on the organization list is that can anybody else that's not on the organization lift list for the 501c3 or four can they suck can they fill out the application or does it have to be a member on their organization on that 501c three or four I think sorry not having the form in front of me I think it asks for
195an actual representative or agent of the okay so here's my question we need to work on 7510 the applicant is not on the C4 I sent all the documentation to the superintendent last night I think that's what kind of spurred this up there is a different person that's and filled out the whole Timeless so basically if the 501c4 is written out with all these people listed on it and there is an incident those people are held to task the person actually signed the application is not on their agenda or on their list of officers so that's a bigger issue so that's where I was going with my when I wanted to read this before because there were certain things that the paperwork was not in order I caught it because I actually had the 5013c
196a four and that's why I was asking you if you guys actually look at that because you take Miss Smith no no pun intended Mr Smith Mr Smith Mr Jones Mr Apple Mrs orange Mrs banana all are on this list and you have Miss zebra that comes in and writes puts out the application if there's a if there's a liability to this board that person is held homeless they're not even on it but they help but they sign the hold harmless clause and and the application so is that is that on the level is that legal so that's why I wanted to bring this in the back because I wanted to discuss it because I had a bunch of questions but being that we're doing it transparently in public that was my question the thing
197was the insurance the insurance certificate that I asked everything went through the superintendent when I got something I sent it to Dr robitussi because I wanted him to be aware of what I was Finding you know like the the internet's a great thing you can find some I couldn't find the 501c4 I finally found a website and I found it and I printed out the long form I have the incorporation form and I have the 501c4 form and I sent it all to Dr robitussi and there is nowhere on those three forms this person that actually filled out the application and signed the hold harmless document and to me that was a big red flag so that's why I pushed the issue and that's why I changed my vote thank you all right anything else
198on there [Music] all right we're going to um yeah did we do we do a roll call no we we yeah okay roll call please hold on I make a motion to pull 18 uh F18 off because of non-insurance okay there's a motion to um amend the uh original motion to pull 18 out of that group Miss bessford I don't think that works because if you take that off that means the but we originally approved it in the last minutes I'm the only one that changed my vote so what happens the amendment is that it's changed to conditional correct so the amendment cleans up the 824 resolution stating if they do not have the if they do not give me the form of Certificate of Insurance they can't have it they cannot use the facility
199okay so removing it would keep intact what we did on a25 I'm fine but then I then I rescind my motion has anything been communicated to this organization in writing or it was just a phone call two phone calls I I'm gonna make a suggestion and I hope that everybody understands I think you should said something in writing so we see cover our okay backsides also I would like to send a communication over to the city manager because that is city property that's being used that we did do what we did because we were not rece in receipt of the proper documentation that we needed and the form is really easy it's old it needs to be updated and that was part of the committee discussion I mean it's Antiquated so we're going to read
200They're revising it so once you get everything in set can you please send that to the whole board so everybody can peruse this if anybody has an input then they can bring it back to policy and we can really Hammer this thing to where it's closed shut and it's the form itself everything everything on this discussion because I am I think people have concerns on this my colleagues have concerns on this and I really want to make sure that we're all on the same page because I don't want to tell anybody they think any any pot shots on this but it was about an insurance policy God forbid somebody fell God forbid somebody got hurt got hit by a car in our parking lot we would be viable all of us thank you actually a
201better idea instead of sending to the whole board can we get that on the website is this way the public can see it as well uh Mr jangaro Council and myself we are actually revamping that thing adding custodial and security so we will get it to you guys first you guys rubber stamp it and then whatever you guys want us to do we'll do so okay so okay so the question is going to be that I have right now is what's your timeline of of revamping this if somebody wants to take a facilities form tomorrow but you're going to finish it next week they can't take facilities for him out why don't we just put it out online and then this way we can just take it down and put up the new one when
202it comes up it's the same thing yeah there is an existing form it's just where our show okay I don't know if it was on the website yeah also Mr driver you brought this up there's a 35 application fee that we haven't been collecting when did I bring that up you brought it up in policy no that was before I came along you guys are talking about it but but you said that you wanted to keep the 35 application fee no that's not what I said actually what I said is to waive it for non-profits hsas ptos that's what I said I didn't say to keep it so but I I what I says for hsas ptos ptas non-profits ones who we know aren't making money or are part of the one Clifton should not
203be paying the 35 that's their conversation that's going to go when they ever have though they have never but can you put that verbage into that form as well because that was a that was a request of the policy committee to put that certain enlist the organizations that are waived in there oh no or listen to form itself on when we put on the agenda right correct I I think Mike burn is aware of that or he will be at 6am when he sees his email um Mr Mejia I was gonna say Judy it was me who said it um that yeah that we should try to keep it that way we have some sort of Revenue in case we deny them either way you know we get to keep the application fee kind of
204how we do it for colleges we got to keep the application fee but even if you if you get accepted into our prestigious School District yeah discussion go to finance so that has to go to the finance committee that you're recommending that we keep the fee then we're on that can we also send it to facilities to say hey by the way do we want to put something up to block the the roadway you should see it too okay because right now we brought up a lot of some people are some valid concerns right well I don't disagree with all of them um but the Public's probably gonna want some answers on that and rightfully so we should give them the answers so so he's coming back and says you know what no there's a
205walk through to the park we're not doing it I'm okay with that I'm not saying we should because sometimes people drive through to get to Park Slope or to to get through the park or to drop their kids off at Little League Recreation or the softball or whatever it may be right but we owe the public something also I just thought of something is there a time frame for when an applicant puts an application into when they can get it approved because a lot of times we do things post on here for facilities we do it after the fact so shouldn't we put when an applicant comes because when I enroll somebody in the program that I work I have uh eight to ten weeks to get an employee up and running good to go
206so they can get employed for the for their um their provider um maybe you at the business office you guys should give them a time frame it should not be any post uh we've had them Danny but there should not be Danny no no I'm not saying didn't happen I'm saying there should not be because the insurance is not going to cover it correct if I could just say the only things that we do do on um on a retroactive basis are just our our in-district hsas everything else we get away from thank you Mr Paris thank you Mr Smith I believe in the policy already it says 45 days you're supposed to submit those forms at least 45 days in advance of your need yeah but that's written in policy right so just as
207the you know we know that these things have to be tightened up so Administration has their you know they know what they have to do and we'll tighten it up all right any other all right let's go to uh board member Commons we didn't vote on that yet roll call please Mr abadrabo uh yes with abstaining on f-17 Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Media yes Mr Paris yes Miss Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries all right we'll start with board member comments tonight Mark we start with you Mr yeah Brunswick thank you Mr President just want to give a big shout out to my brothers and sisters in the Jewish Community who celebrate Yom Kippur this coming Monday it is the holiest day of of the uh year
208for for them so um happy happy Yom Kippur day of atonement for them I want to give a shout out to everybody who was at the Van Houten Street Fair on on Sunday absolutely wonderful to see many members of the community um the way my wife described it was um political Insanity because there were so many politicians there so um but it was wonderful wonderful to see regular members of the community as well lots of non-profits there as well from the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts to the Mustang band booster club Avenue of flags lots of great organizations within this city that make a difference and also uh thank you to Mr Rose who who recommended our kids stopped by The Cece cea tent over there because they had some books to give away
209and my children were each able to find a book for themselves so shout out to them as well and everybody else whoever helps make this city a better place thank you very much everybody enjoy your evening and God bless America thank you everybody have a good night thank you um Mr Mejia um thank you to Lauren you know for emphasizing the skills and qualities that our staff brings to our school district you know that's very important to know sometimes you know when you're in the public you think we could just hire anybody you know we don't just hire anybody honestly they're skilled and you know they have all their certifications in order to teach in our district um I know before many of you were thinking you know covered this cover that we're still behind
210honestly covet has put us all behind especially our students and it's a reality we have to accept I've seen transcripts and I've seen curriculum from all over the country and I know for a fact that New Jersey especially us we're ahead of the game uh compared to you know States like New York California Florida who are failing tremendously we are ahead of the game that way you know all the parents at home actually know um to all the summer programs that happen you know great job to you guys I like to give a round of applause because managing programs like this are not easy yet at all and I know this from experience um not just pushing our students forward but pushing you know fellow districts like Wayne East Orange Iverton I saw there as
211well pushing them forward actually gives us a step ahead and it shows that us Clifton we're not just secluding just for us but we're actually pushing other districts forward as well um On Assignment I like to give you know a quick shout out for all the people who came out on Sunday for the Mexican national Independence state flag raising that we held at City Hall I had two great student alumni one he was from the band last year John Rivas he did a great job playing the national anthem on his trumpet and the other one Denise Rodriguez thank you so much for coming out and doing this on behalf of your cells and actually putting yourselves in a step that was out of your comfort zone and I hope to see you all tomorrow for
212the big game we have against the barn I know the past it's been huge and you know I don't like to pick size but I think we're gonna you know put them in the ground so I hope to see you all there tomorrow and have a great night Mr Paris thank you president Smith uh thank you to all the public that came out and spoke this evening uh welcome to uh Jada our new student rep here um I think it's amazing when you start I mean we had a very long presentation on summer programs um but it's amazing to see what our school system does All Summer Long uh the number of programs that we have whether they're the title one three programs jumpstart programs summer acceleration covid learning extended school year programs Middle School
213summer academies project Adelante uh isee program the our ESL programs Camp right along it's just amazing it's hundreds and hundreds of students that we're serving uh in a time that a lot of us think nothing's happening in the school system so congratulations to and thank you to everyone who uh participates in supporting and managing those programs uh congratulations to the district on the New Jersey School Board Association award for the IMPACT Program School 13 Centennial just wanted to bring that up again I am School 13 alumni so I'm planning to be there I'm looking forward to maybe seeing some other alumni's uh from from the my school 13 days and condolences to uh uh the pompocelli family she has a great name in Clifton I know for for many many years and uh that's all
214I have for now thank you thank you Mr Santiago thank you president Smith uh I want to First say thank you to all of my colleagues um uh my my brother passed away as everybody knows and uh your words um any thoughts and reaching out to me and my family was very much appreciated and and made a difference thank you very much and everybody else who reached out um I wanted to say congratulations to Mrs Rhodes for Teacher of the Year shout out to school 11. a couple of us went to the moving up ceremony Miss Rhodes was was awesome principal shalaby the ceremony was great so congrats to her um yeah to Echo I mean our district is so awesome Miss kusilevich joked about the length of that presentation but it was all of
215the work and all of the programs and the resources and the and the programs I mean everybody I mean such great great resources we support our students so much I mean that's the summer right that's just the summer and just thank you to all the staff uh the teachers everybody related to that the food service the trans the security Specialists everybody involved just amazing thank you so much happy uh Rosh Hashanah to all my Jewish friends celebrating I wish you a peaceful uh year and the rest of the coming High holy days um happy Hispanic Heritage Month um my parents are both from Puerto Rico um and I'm so grateful that they immigrated here a long long time ago even though you know Puerto Ricans are Americans the Commonwealth of the U.S but they made
216the choice to come here and it was gutsy to to do that and it took vision and I'm just so happy that that they did that and I'm so proud of them my father was uh not only a vet but a Korean War of Venezuela he formed the Korean War for our country and my mom was amazing and so just really proud to celebrate that personally and just encourage everybody to try to go out and learn as much meet your friends read a book listen to a podcast eat some Latin food go dancing whatever um and just celebrate um the yes the football game tomorrow please come out and celebrate um support our team and when you're there give a shout out to our security Specialists who are also always at those games I like
217seeing them and they're always here supporting thank you guys um and um I think that's it for now thank you have a great night thank you Mr abedravo thank you president Smith um to the candidates who came up to this evening and made introductions good luck to you all uh during this election um Jada welcome and good luck it's great to see the voter registration still going on every year uh to introduce you know what the power of voting is to our Young Generation Um just don't lose that that want of what democracy is in this country so hopefully you know uh sticks with you uh Amanda Rhodes uh Miss Rose should I say congratulations we are proud of you um you have a great principal great leader over there at school 11. um there
218are a bunch of great staff over there we have a bunch of good stuff across the district no doubt about it but it's great that uh Miss Rhodes is able to represent Passaic County uh and hopefully even further beyond that school 15 again another great leader Dr baton Walker um and the pb PBS is Squad I love those shirts um uh under the leadership of Miss ragoza awesome job you know every meeting day in day out every time you show what this district is really all about what we're doing to make sure these students are great Civic engagement and great future human beings they can be and what that's great through incentivizing rewarding and great role models in our in our towns in our schools I'm sorry um Yom Kippur for our community who is
219celebrating I hope you have an easy fast and day of atonement and my condolences to pompously family so thank you Miss bessford thank you good evening um thank you um to all the speakers that came out Miss lilama always inspiring congratulations to Miss Amanda Rhodes uh for the Passaic County's um School Board teacher of the year the Passaic County School boards Association will be honoring you at a upcoming meeting in the spring look out for that invitation to my fellow board members who we should be there in full force to honor Amanda Rhodes at that dinner thank you to school 11 and congratulations thank you to the Sea um the Clifton Public School summer program condolences to the pompocelli family um I will not be at the football game tomorrow because condolences to the deal
220Alberto family for the for the death of Dorothy Dorothy was very um near and dear to myself and my family especially my children she was like our honorary grandmother and uh we our deepest condolences to Allison Bob I'm very sorry for the loss of your mom so I will not be at the football game tomorrow night I have to attend the Wake um congratulations to the IMPACT program for receiving the njsba there's so many districts in the state of New Jersey that is a big honor for us this is huge so kudos to them and forgetting the digital um the digital award happy Yom Kippur to my Jewish friends happy Hispanic Heritage Month um I just wanted to speak to you that um the the hope one van rolled into the botany satellite office yesterday
221uh Casas did sponsor lunch for the actual workers of the one hope the state county one hope is a mobile recovery unit intended to reduce substance abuse a substance use disorder and to help individuals with mental illness access appropriate treatment and resources they have a website if anybody needs it I tell you just go in and look at they have a whole bunch of resources and different things they have training they have different things about getting involved it's a great thing so we sponsored our lunch yesterday were very proud of the fact is that we were able to treat those individuals that work really hard with some nourishing food and a nice day um that's about it oh uh and and I have hold on I have 40 million 875 seconds and then I'm going
222to be looking for a coach to teach me how to do the drums that is my date for freedom from concern and getting my life back thank you Danny knows exactly what I'm talking about vice president Danny um good evening so I'd like to say condolences to the pompocelli family I'd like to say congratulations to Jada for being the board member representative um I did push for that initiative it's actually nice to see that New Jersey school boards now requires that every board have a board member representative it's always nice to see students coming up and each year the students that come up they just add so much more to that position and just take it and run with it and make it something even greater so it's really exciting for me to see that
223um congratulations to the Passaic County Teacher of the Year Amanda Rhodes as an educator really congratulations it's just such an honor and you know to hear you say that the Clifton School District helps to grow the Clifton School District help to grow your skills it seems to be a theme that I I hear a lot um from the Clifton's like anybody that talks about the Clifton School District any of the staff any administrators so it's nice to see that the district supports this growth mindset and you can even see that with the presenters that um that part of the administrative Academy and trying to grow their skills and so thank you to all those presenters really great wonderful job that you're doing congratulations to the IMPACT program and to all my Jewish friends happy Yom
224Kippur that's it thank you so first Mr shahada I just like to um say thank you um for the um hard work you've been doing and filling in for Mr UC on his absence you uh you have hit everything right on the money you put your heart and soul into it and we're very fortunate to have you uh part of the Clifton District so thank you for uh for doing that um so so many of our staff I mean it just was so enlightening tonight to see what goes on in our district um and to see what went on during the summer um I know there's many school districts that don't offer any programs during the summer time um but not just a summer school program just to bring kids into a room or into
225a setting um you saw from these presentations it was so much more and our our staff and our Administration has to be complemented on that um that's what makes Clifton great um people like to put down and you know come up with negative things about our district but I think we see that there are so much there are so many more positive things to this District um and it's because of the people in the district and I always say it that you know some people just consider it as a job and I I truly believe that our staff um doesn't have that mentality they truly are dedicated to the district um just Administration alone I know the long hours and long nights and um you know Miss vergosa and Mr Rose they're here at uh
22610 to 11. um you know that's dedication and um I will continue to always complement our staff for the great job that they're doing and it shows in our test scores it shows in our graduation rates um and it shows in our Cusack report and in so many areas that Clifton is excelling um as uh Mr gengaro talked about last meeting um miss gusilevic and miss ragosa were on a Statewide recognition for our programs that people are inviting us to be part of uh discussions and and um podcasts and and webinars and they want to feed off of Clifton and uh that's that's phenomenal um that doesn't happen everywhere else and I and I just you know board members we know this but I just hope the public understands it and knows it um we're
227always trying to improve and we will always continue to improve but to have negative statements about the educational system in Clifton to me is um is totally hazardous and I will continue to fight for our kids I will continue to fight for our staff and give them the resources that they need to continue to make us the great District that we are and um I'm I'm proud of my fellow Commissioners on the work that they do in their committees um they just don't go through the motions um they're very dedicated at uh at their position and I thank you all for the work that you do on your committees um and it shows it shows because um you know we we dug through um procedures and policies that maybe in the past or maybe other
228districts just keep them there and they rubber stamp them and but this District wants to make sure that we do it right and that we correct the things and we correct them in policy and the policy committee is always one of the busiest committees and that's because our role as board members is to create and make policy and so I just want to thank my fellow Commissioners for the for the hard work and dedication that you continue to do in your committees um the awards recipients tonight you know when we when the board had decided to make this boardroom uh bigger um one of the reasons was that we wanted to be able to have the the capacity to be able to recognize students and staff our previous boardroom they'd be out in the hallway
229um people wouldn't be able to hear um so that was the per one of the purposes for upgrading this room was that we can do this and we should do this we should continue to recognize excellence in education um so I I as a board member will continue um to fight for that and to fight for our programs and to fight for our staff so I just wanted to say thank you to all them um while I don't normally um reply to um um innuendos and um um hearsay and uh um I I just will I I was I was just and I know some people talk about you know phones Amadeus and such um my phone blew up tonight I I could not I could not be more um pleased um of the amount
230of text that I received um of support and uh you know this will be um at the end of this year will be the end of uh my 17th year as a board member and hopefully starting my 18th year and um people had reminded me that you know what people are going to be haters people are going to make up garbage people are gonna do what they have to do um my record speaks for itself and if you think you wanna you wanna do something or whatever go for it more power to you okay but I'm so happy and um instead of me addressing it next meeting you'll see people address that uh that trash um doesn't belong in a district doesn't belong here this is for Education um and especially at election time um
231so I was reminded uh you know some people like to uh to shoot off and they have four people that listen to them so everyone has that right to do that and uh continue to to do that but Bring it on Bring it on Bring what you want um I got nothing to hide I am um my record speaks for itself and um you can make up and dig all you want but the facts are the facts and uh I'll leave it at that for now and I'll uh I'll allow these um numerous people that just commented tonight um they'll do a lot of answering I won't have to even do it but Bring It On um we have um we have a new business anyone for new business no okay we have one item
232for um executive session uh Personnel Manor Dr Robert told you did you wanna yes thank you Mr Smith uh Commissioners I know we we pulled P11 an employee I put on administrative leave and we're going to discuss it in executive session in an effort to not make you have to come out here and vote on it um I am very confident that this person is going to remain on administrative leave if you're comfortable in voting on that now you won't have to come out but that's completely at the board's uh discretion if you want to go back and then come out it's up to you does anyone wish we could just do it now anyone objection okay anyone else anyone else have objection to that okay yeah yeah president Smith I'd rather I'd rather I'd
233rather wait until I meet you thank you okay anyone else objection okay so we'll meet in uh executive session for this uh Personnel matter P11 uh the board will come back from executive session to vote on this um we're gonna say probably uh half an hour yeah okay about a half an hour if it's any longer we'll uh we'll update you on that okay motion to go to Executive session I'm Mr Mejia second by Mr abadrabo um no objection okay we'll take a quick five minutes board and let's uh get to Executive session thank you you have to wait for him okay the Boardman executive session uh to discuss a P11 um do I have a motion on P11 second by Mr Mejia uh roll call please yes Mr Roberto yes Miss masford yes Mr
234Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Miss Santiago yes vice president Danny she had to leave president Smith yes motion sorry I didn't take um attendance when we came back so just Mark that uh yes absolutely okay motion to adjourn any objection adjourned