August 24, 2023 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001yeah that's the conference just our names only good job guys I'm 49. it's gonna get crazy at once if we move the whole thing I want you to figure it out tomorrow and then do they work Mr mcconney are we ready to go I like to call the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education for Thursday the 25th of August 2023 to order if you'd all please rise for a 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 invisible liberty and justice for all thank you roll call please Mr Roberto here Mr Awad miss bassford here Mr runziak here Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Santiago

002vice president Danny president Smith here we have a quorum um Mr wad had informed me that he was not feeling good but he may try to make it uh later if he does vice president Danny also informed me that she's not feeling well and she will not be attending um commissioner Santiago had a death in his family his brother passed away so we offer our condolences uh to him into his family so he will not be attending uh the meeting tonight and our business administrator Mr UC was not feeling well and went home so our assistant ba Mr shahada um with one bum foot is going to fill in and do his best so if everyone would be uh to be a patient with him um and things may go a little slower but he's

003uh he's usually pretty much on the money so I think that takes care of our uh attendance uh anybody up want to read mission statement go ahead 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 a Democratic Society in an ever-changing world the open public meetings act the New Jersey Apple open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business is affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clinton board of education has caused notice

004of 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 in accordance with our policy zero one six eight okay uh uh public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to the residents and on residents of the city of Clifton for the purposes of addressing any subject matter pertinent to enter the react directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District residents and non-residents are requested if in person to sign the register provided for this purpose all speakers are asked to State their names municipality in which they live and subject

005matter before speaking comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate the questions may or may not be answered by board members the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when 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 liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments

006in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments okay we'll start with uh virtual okay if you could admit them some questions hello can you hear us you're uh we have an iPhone user in the waiting room you're not in the waiting room anymore you can speak now publicly at the Clifton Board of Education meeting okay do you wish to address the board okay you're just here to watch to listen to the meeting okay last time uh iPhone user are you are you here to address the board okay Sam let's move on okay uh oh okay what if she needs a translator buenas noches is the Clifton Public Schools as you said gracios she just received the

007message that was happening Senora hello Las Publix for the foreign thank you okay there's uh no one else in the virtual okay motion the call is virtual motion by Mr abadrabo second by Mr Paris okay anyone in the audience that wishes to address the board please come up to the podium state your name please sign your name into the book and you'll have five minutes well good evening to everyone my name is Lori lalama and I'm the president of the Clifton Education Association congratulations to those running for the Board of Education I want to remind you the ones that are running now and the ones that will run in the future why you are running what you should not be doing and what your job will be it's important to for all candidates to remember

008your motivation avoid conflicts of interest and focus on ensuring quality education for all of our students Your Role involves making policy decisions allocating resources and representing the community's interests the purpose of running for the Board of Ed is to contribute to the Improvement of the educational system here in Clifton you aim to shape educational policies budget for resources and make decisions that benefit students Educators parents and the community as a whole when I say Educators I mean everybody involved all right it's not just teachers in Paris it's custodians and security and everybody your goal is to ensure quality education equal opportunities and a positive and safe learning environment for all students Board of Education candidates should avoid conflicts of interest such as Financial ties to educational vendors organizations or individuals that could influence their decision

009making you should also refrain from favoring specific schools or groups and prioritize the overall well-being of all students in the educational system inclusive candidates should avoid engaging in personal attacks spreading false information or using inappropriate language on social media you should also steer clear of discussing sensitive topics without a proper understanding as well as refraining from any behavior that might undermine the Dignity of your position or create conflicts within the community moreover candidates should avoid promising jobs or employment opportunities in exchange for support or votes your primary focus should be on advocating for Quality education transparency and Equitable policies rather than making personal offers that could compromise your integrity ensuring quality education for all students involves several key aspects Equitable access providing equal access to educational resources facilities and opportunities regardless of students backgrounds abilities

010or socioeconomic status effective teaching supporting your pro your professional development for educators implementing evidence-based teaching methods and ensuring that Educators have the necessary tools and support to excel in their roles curriculum Excellence which we're known for developing a well-rounded curriculum that covers essential subjects Fosters critical thinking and prepares students for future challenges individualized support recognizing diverse learning needs and providing specialized support for students with disabilities learning differences or unique circumstances safe and inclusive environment creating a safe healthy and inclusive respectful learning environment that promotes diversity equity and positive social interactions resource allocation ensuring Fair distribution of resources including funding facilities and educational materials to prevent disparities among schools and students creating a physically and emotionally safe environment where students can learn and express themselves without fear of harm or discrimination by addressing these aspects Clifton

011Public Schools can work towards providing a high quality education that meets the needs of all students and prepares them for a successful future in order to address these aspects in education you must work collaboratively with your different bargaining units in the district they have the kids best interest at heart and want them to learn in a safe environment and be successful do not forget the students learning environment is the Educators teaching environment why New Jersey has the number one public schools in the United States because we have the strongest unions to pre to protect the students the New Jersey Association of school administrators principals and supervisors and the New Jersey Education Association collaboration between educational stakeholders including Educators in their unions is crucial for creating a conducive environment for learning when educators are empowered and

012their needs are addressed it positively impacts students educational experiences strong Partnerships between unions and educational leadership can lead to effective policies improved working conditions for educators and ultimately better outcomes for our students New Jersey's ranking is a testament to the positive impact of such collaboration on public education and Clifton Public Schools the cea is looking forward to continued collaboration thank you thank you to president Smith superintendent robertosie Administration board member citizens students that may be watching uh good evening my name is Elias Rags don't I've come to give the same message I gave to the council um city council meeting the most recent one I'd like to announce the founding of the Albion civic association um so this is also kind of just a court of residence that may be watching um the ACA is

013a basically it's a neighborhood Guild a neighborhood association made for the citizens in the section of Albion in the city of Clifton um who will probably engage businesses sort of thing hopefully host family fun events um and then of course Advocate and protect the community's interests right now we're working on setting setting up a committee um kind of like a governing board sort of thing we have one more position left that we're trying to fill right now um I think in the past two weeks I've not done over 200 Doors in the area um you know just going up and down by the park the Staples of our community really are School five in Albion Park so that's really where we've been getting real centered um that's also where we will probably have lots of

014our events um if you are interested our Facebook is Albion Civic and our email is Albion civic association Albion c-i-v-i-c-a-s-s-o-c-i Association a s s o c i a t i o n um again Albion Civic is our Facebook and it's really just a community group kind of thing um so if you live in Albion area and you're interested be sure to find us thank you so much okay anyone else wish to address the board see none motion to close bye commissioner Mahia and seconded by commissioner Paris I want to make sure I heard those voices correctly right okay um um Elias I know you you gave um uh representing the civic association you'll you'll be ready for that next next meeting gotcha thank you okay uh we'll move on to number eight um Miss uh

015burgosa um we'll make her presentation on pbsis thank you I'll do thank you president Smith uh vice president Danny Dr robitosi Central Administration and Commissioners thank you thank you tonight um we're going to provide a summary of some wonderful events that happened last year now all along the way we've talked about staff students and our building-wide practices in pbsis and from time to time you get to hear from us directly what we're doing as far as in a district recognition Statewide recognition and National recognition but I'd be remiss if I didn't really put us all on this platform to share with you all the amazing things that are also going on behind the scenes so it's a wrap up of not an individual student or school but or or a staff member but a collaborative

016of what we're doing um so the Cascade of our services and impact are are really impressive we're fully functioning at the universal tier we finished our next cohort of trained schools on secondary tier intervention schools 2 9 14 and high school are ready to Pilot this year and what you'll start to see in these presentations and what you can look forward to our uh highlights on those secondary tier intervention success stories the remaining our last five schools will be trained this coming school year on secondary tier interventions now this is a wonderful time for us this is the biggest push possible because we we're aligning all of our intervention services both the academic and the behavioral making it a true multi-tiered system of support platform for our district so um the next couple of slides

017uh We've we've divided them to talk about what we've been doing on a national platform and how we've been recognized Clifton Public Schools is all over the map and I'm really excited to share this with you um some we've shared before but others we haven't gotten a chance to chat about the first is uh Mr gingera assistant superintendent and I were had the honor of presenting last year in Chicago at the national Center on technical support for PBIS sidebar our stuff is so good we were we were invited to come back out this sept this October so um that was amazing we also just yesterday Mrs kusile Average assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and myself were a part of a pan on the national Center on safe and supportive learning environments and we got

018to share our story on how we're supporting our students staff and community on social emotional behavioral interventions in our district um 2023 also saw Mr gingera and I do a podcast series uh on the Educators blueprint for Missouri school-wide Positive Behavior Support we're super excited to share this with you all because it's because of your support and our central office and more importantly our staff and students that were able to do this as a community together some Statewide recognition just to shout us out a little bit are in New Jersey we have njpbsis right that's our network of schools that we that that have trained us and that um are recognized in partnership with the Department of Education to bring positive behavior support in schools well they highlighted our efforts um particularly in their conference

019in the last spring at the leadership Forum you all saw the posters at one of the meetings at the high school so that was really impressive but what was also cool was that their keynote speaker which was the school climate transformation project out of Rutgers they were the keynote speakers and we did a pretty cool thing last year Dr robitosi signed us up our fearless leader to Pilot the NJ Sky climate surveys for the Department of Education paired with these folks and they identified they asked us to highlight our our rollout district-wide rollout of that climate platform amazing um four one two three five of our schools were presenters those were the postages that you saw we were also recognized every single one of our schools that are implementing the universal tier um were showcased

020and highlighted at this forum because we're implementing at above 70 percent which is the national average now all of our schools are at a minimum eighty percent or higher which is it's amazing um and that's the universal tier so as we talk about these systems further down the line next year I hope to bring you news of how we're implementing our secondary and later on our tertiary tiers of support at this magnitude uh we were also asked to present to our fellow New Jersey school districts at the community of practice forum for njpbsis where once again we were asked to showcase our district-wide implementation efforts next up we have our disc our district accolades I I feel so fortunate and I say this with with truly from the bottom of my heart to be able

021to stand here in front of you every month and yes the meetings are long and sometimes you know I kind of like my blood sugar drops and my eyes kind of start to close closer to 10 pm but I feel so honored to be able to showcase our staff students and what we're doing so thank you for that we hosted other delegations from Garfield School District they wanted to come and see what we were doing at administrator Academy we presented what we're doing as well by the way admin admin Academy is amazing and I can't say enough on how many people outside of our district are asking us how we're doing that how did that get started because it's just it's just pretty cool that we have that available and I saw many of you

022out this past school year at community outreach pieces we joined the bunny bash the tank pull and we partnered with the Clifton Public Library if you know of any event that you think would be great for us to promote what we're doing and promote pbsis and homes to show parents a little bit what that could look like please let us know we'd be more than happy to to attend I want to thank you for your time today and as always for your your dedication and your ongoing support thank you Mr goes I was I happen to be in uh Mr gengaro's office um two days ago when you and Janina were both on that podcast and it's just it's just amazing how we are because of you and and your efforts that we are getting

023recognized nationally and it was just really neat to see that on that that podcast so uh congratulations to you and Miss kusilevich it's great to see Clifton uh people asking Clifton how to do things um so it's a credit to both of you for the great work you do so thank you it was really neat to see that thank you okay I'm just gonna skip to a 14 so Mr doctor could do his uh presentation I'm sorry thank you Dr robertosi members of the central Administration president Smith Commissioners the Board of Education as the anti-bullying coordinator for the school district of Clifton it's my job twice a year come before you and present our figures for at this point period two uh the second half of the 22-23 school year and the yearly totals along

024with some additional information for our ssds reporting we have to report to the state of New Jersey all of our violence of vandalism and substance abuse cases as well as our bullying cases our HIV cases and we have some new portions that we have to report as well so as I said this is going to be for period two which runs from January 1st to June 30th but earlier in the year we also reported the period one which runs from September 1st uh and July 1st for hibs trainings and programs all the way through December 31st as I mentioned these are two parts one is our vvsa violence vandalism and substance abuse and the other is our harassment intimidation and bullying numbers for those of you who may not know vvsa violence vandalism and substance

025abuse deals with pretty much just that uh anything from assaults fights um theft all the way to weapons charges and sexual assault robbery and as you can see our numbers from the previous year have dropped in nearly every section of our district our elementary schools basically went down from 19 in 2122 all the way down to six cases of violence vandalism and substance abuse that's a substantial drop uh from one year to the next and a lot of it has been tied to pbsis work that our counselors and our staff and our Administration has done in each of these buildings uh Christopher Columbus you can also see has had a tremendous drop from 83 cases a year ago down to 47 this past year Woodrow Wilson Middle School has also had a decline and Clifton

026High School has pretty much stayed right where they are and with a building that large that's not not too surprising for hibs as I mentioned harassment intimidation bullying I'm the person in the district that when a parent is unhappy with what the results are from a Hib investigation they call me and one of the things that we explain to parents is that there are two things that determine if something is deemed a Hib by state levels now we might think that picking on someone is bullying which it definitely can be and would be handled by the code of conduct but in order to be deemed bullying by the state of New Jersey and by all of the districts it has to reach two parts of criteria first part is distinguish a distinguishable characteristic there has

027to be some reason why someone is being picked on some examples would be race color religion ethnicity sexual orientation and disability along with several others the other part that has to be met is that there's a substantial disruption you can call somebody something call them a bad name call them a terrible name but if the other person doesn't really care doesn't bother them it doesn't upset them it may be bad it may be something that's disciplinable with the code of conduct however it wouldn't be considered a hip because there's not that substantial disruption some substantial disruptions that we look for is child missing school do they not want to go to class are they changing how they do things are they trying to avoid someone are they becoming withdrawn are they changing their eating and

028sleeping habits things like that would show us that there was a substantial disruption and you can see uh from previous year our confirmed cases from one year to the next have dropped in the elementary school have basically been cut in half our numbers at Christopher Columbus Middle School again are confirmed cases are pretty much about half of our alleged cases and stayed pretty much the same with Christopher Columbus there's a big drop at Woodrow this past year um they went from 24 confirmed cases in 2122 all the way down to eight in 22-23 and the high school had a tiny bit of an uptick but their numbers are usually very very low you could see 2122 there were zero um confirmed cases in seven alleged cases as the former principal of the building I can

029tell you that even though we're such a large building you would imagine that Hib cases would be astronomical at a building like that they really aren't a lot of that is Testament to the students that we have and the situations that occur and how our Administration our staff handles those it also lends itself to the age group they handle things a little bit differently they're a little bit um we're manageable with things and Things become conflicts very easily because it's not one person picking on another it's it's back and forth so we see our numbers a little bit lower at the high school level uh usually two new things that are being reported both to the state and to you as well first would be preliminary determination when a principal or anti-bullying specialist in a

030building gets a case for bullying an alleged case they look at it they review it they look to see if it meets a criteria from just the facts of the case taking everything to account that they have in front of them if they believe that it doesn't reach that point or that it's a code of conduct violation and doesn't meet the state's criteria for harassment intimidation and bullying that can be moved ahead and it's called the preliminary determination we notify the parents of the alleged offender and of the alleged victim that this was brought to us that we are investigating it and that it will be handled possibly with a code of conduct violation but that is does not reach the level of harassment intimidation of bullying this past year was our first year utilizing

031this and it cut our case load by 35 throughout the district in order for that to go through it not only has to be reviewed by the school but I have to review every case and sign off on all of them another aspect that has to be reported in I'm making this report because it's part of the ssds doesn't actually come through my office when uh when we deal with it would be restraint and seclusion a lot of times this is our special needs population and it can also lend itself to physical altercations again this is the first time that we have to officially submit this to the state our incidence of restraint and seclusion at the high school were three Christopher Columbus won Woodrow Wilson Middle School two in elementary and preschool 11. in

032order for our staff and our students to understand and handle cases of harassment intimidation bullying we provide trainings and programs for them some programs would be week of respect pbsis trainings would be everything that leads into those programs and right here is just a report of how many trainings and programs the different schools accomplish in both period two and for the year and our numbers are commensurate with what we usually have for each of the schools the last portion of this is the school self-assessment there is a document put out by the state where each individual school gets to score themselves so you imagine that out of a perfect score every school is getting a perfect score they're not and they know that and they need to look at this very closely and pick apart

033each element and make sure that they are reaching the highest level and you can see that we don't just give ourselves perfect scores the buildings each look at this and score themselves and then I review all of their documentation and make sure that their scores are accurate and for the most part everyone does score themselves accurately and sometimes are even a little too tough on themselves and I may bump up their score a little bit because I know that they've actually done more than they're reporting and you could see that from last year 2122 to 2223 we've had an increase a substantial increase in nearly every school and part of that is because we've been more proactive with giving them the information they need to meet this criteria so they're looking at that from day

034one of school and finally from our areas of improvement we plan to have continued collaboration with the building principles and anti-bullying specialists in each building to identify Trends and coordinate trainings and programs for our students and staff that meet those trends we have focused professional development program that's going to be completed by all staff district-wide influence implementation of pbsis is continuing and then a regular review of the code of conduct and discipline Matrix any questions any board members have any questions nope thank you Mr doctor I appreciate it very thorough report Mr doctor when's the second when you have to do the second one January okay thank you okay let me go back up where I skipped here all right we'll go back to uh number nine adoption of minutes of the June 22nd meeting

035motion second by Mr abadrabo second by Miss basford any discussion seeing none roll call please Mr Roberto um Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes uh president Smith yes I'm sorry and vice president Danny I skipped her yes we'll let you slide adoption number 10 adoption of the minutes for July 27th meeting motion second by Mr abidrabo second by miss basford any discussion seeing non-roll cold Please Mr Roberto yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mia yes Mr Paris yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes [Music] all right next we'll go to number 11 superintendent's report Dr robitosi thank you Mr President good evening board members members of the community students faculty staff and attendance it's great to be here with you tonight it's nice to see you

036I have some good news to share to start off we like good news so every three years in the state of New Jersey school districts are evaluated by the New Jersey Department of Education through a process called Cusack which stands for quality single accountability Continuum basically it's it's the state's report card for each School District so this past year our district was cusacked which is a a verb that I made up and it's there's a lot of work that goes into being evaluated by the state people from the state particularly from the County Office of Education come to our district and visit our schools ask to see certain documents want to see certain reports and verify that we're doing all the things that we say that we are doing um and the district is evaluated

037in five key areas those areas based on Research are areas that are known to um Be an Effective school districts so those areas are instruction and program fiscal Finance governance which is you guys operations and personnel and we were a Cusack months ago we didn't get any results and today out of the blue I received an email from the state of New Jersey addressed to me um informing me that the Clifton public school district has been identified as a high performing School District by the state of New Jersey [Applause] in order to be designated a high performing District you have to score above 80 percent in each of those five categories so I'll review the scores for you without getting into too much details but in fiscal management 100 percent nice um and you'll see

038a resolution on the agenda later on that talks about the district was recognized for the um asbo international certificate of excellence certification which means we do really well with our finances and that's a credit to our ba and our system ba as entire staff and this board who's one of their primary responsibilities is to oversee finances so that's fantastic governance that's your job so the state comes in and they want to see did you evaluate the superintendent yes you did here it is um do you update policies regularly yes you do I mean and there's a whole list of other things I'm proud to say that you scored a hundred percent operations these are things like do we send the proper reports to the state on time do we have the appropriate data files when

039a student goes on home instruction does the home instructor that does it happen within a certain amount of time uh all those things and I'm proud to say in that regard we scored 100 percent personnel we scored 97 percent the area that we lost three points on it was an area which I may choose the dispute because it's doesn't really make much sense but a 97 is a 97 so I may just let it go but basically it dealt with um the amount of time it takes us to enroll a new employee in the um so we have to enroll new teachers in in this program and that's where they get a mentor right they get their their their certificate but what happens is sometimes we will hire a teacher um as a leave replacement

040and then we hire them full time and when it looks to the state life we should have placed them in that program when we hired them as a leave replacement and the which we can't they won't allow you to but now we're getting penalized because then we hire that person as a full-time teacher and it'll look like their start date they should have been enrolled in that program and they weren't so it's kind of a silly kind of thing so I right is that kind of the gist of it um is it worth fighting not really um we'll fix it and then there's instruction and program so this is the one that to be very honest with you we're always afraid of because the primary score is done before the people come into the building

041to see us because it's based on your standardized test scores it's based on student test scores so what we knew and listen there's no uh we're we're not ashamed to say we regularly report our test scores we know there are areas we're doing well we know there are areas where we need Improvement our test scores aren't fabulous um but we're we're getting better and we're improving so before the state even came in we were at 82 percent right so that means just based on our test scores we're at 82 but then they come in and they do all the other checks they check your curriculum make sure that your curriculum is aligned to the standards make sure that the board has approved your curriculum make sure 100 lists of hundred other things and in that

042regard we scored 82 which was the highest we could have gotten based on our test scores so to be designated a high performing district is um is our report card that's a testament to the administration to the board to our outstanding staff and I want to congratulate all of you and especially a big thank you to miss kusilevich who really leads the charge on Cusack for most of it um so thank you Janina for always being outstanding [Applause] I'd like to update the board on summer registration we've registered nearly 1100 students since July 1st that's correct 1100 students since July 1st we currently have around 300 students at some level of the registration process and we still have a week and a half for school starts and some people don't realize that it's like the

043day before school starts and they realize oh we have to go register our kids for school and then um the lines at the door but thankfully Mr Doctor Who is in charge of our student registration has created a a process by which has become very very efficient um Pre-K registration concluded on July 31st as the spots were nearly filled however those who registered prior to July 31st were put on a waiting list in case openings arise Pre-K uh ladies and gentlemen is not guaranteed okay it's based on need and the availability that we have based on the state aid that we get and we do not um correct me if I'm wrong we do not utilize any local monies for pre-k it's all expansion state aid we do not use local money for Pre-K as

044you will hear later in committee minutes are um our domicile investigative staff has been have been very busy this summer these are the people who check residency and you know when we did our budget this year we spent a lot of time talking about how much money we spend how much tuition we sent spend on charter schools and so we get the charter school bills they'll send us a bill and say you owe us this amount of money this is the tuition and it'll give us the list of students I know before I got here that that bill was just paid now we actually look at the list make sure the students ours meaning that they live in Clifton go to the house to make sure they live there and then pay the bill by

045doing that this year we um save the district over 350 000 in tuition not that we didn't pay that we told them we got your bill but your bill is wrong because these students are not ours so Bill Passaic bill Wayne or wherever the students live that's because I have great staff and they care about the taxpayer they care about the money that we spend that's that's not money that you would ever know about if I didn't tell you but it's important that that it's important that you hear that because that is real money finally I'd like to give a referendum update this summer has been a doozy to say the least we have construction going on in almost every building and if you were to walk into any of our buildings mid-july it would

046have looked like they were vandalized it would look like a bombs went off because it was just chaos um but as as anyone who's ever had any kind of remodeling or renovation done in your own home you know that things don't always go as planned you know you take down a wall and there's a pipe there that's not supposed to be there and then the plans have to change and things like that and that causes delays but despite that I'm I'm happy to report tonight then I want to assure the board and the community because I hear things that we are on time with all of our projects we will be opening school on September 6th for in-person instruction contrary to any other rumors you may or may not hear um a good majority of

047our buildings could open next week if we had to but many of our sites are still open construction sites um there was one issue that came to my attention today that it was on social media and I don't like to address social media I think social media will be the end of our civilization but I got so many calls on it that I just want to speak publicly about it because it's not a secret we've actually spoken about it publicly before in June we knew when construction started at the end of June at school one when when the when they were started to renovate the bathrooms and they removed the floors there they found that many of the steel beams in the bathrooms um the structures were not stable enough they were corroded and it

048just needed to be replaced that's one of those things that you don't plan for on a timeline but we knew that at the end of June we talked about that at a facilities committee meeting and we said then that it's very likely that the school year may have to start off with luxury Portable Restrooms outside the building for a few weeks I know that was said at the meeting I know it was said and read publicly at this meeting that is only for school one there are no other schools that will have any Portable Restrooms and it will be a very very temporary solution We Believe at the most the month of September barring any unforeseen circumstance right so don't hold me until September 30th if it's a week later right but we believe it's

049only going to be for the month of September now I will tell you this I'm not joking when I say luxury portable bathrooms you would you would want these in your house they're they're that nice I understand some of the concerns well the kids have to go outside to go to the bathroom yeah guys that's why you have Administration to think of these things and to figure out a plan so we have a plan in place we have we're going to have the area canopied to protect the staff and students from the weather we're going to have a security Personnel assigned outside just to the bathrooms the principal and administrative staff and the teachers will have procedures for when and how to use the bathroom it's instead of going down the hallway to the bathroom

050they're going to go out the door to the bathroom under a canopy and go outside is it the ideal situation no but do we not want to open school for a month so anyway I don't like to if somebody has a question send us an email right what one of us will if you send it to a board member they'll most likely forward it to me and I will get the answer but the Social Media stuff um is just it starts issues that that don't need to um need to be issues like so the you know the biggest thing was the principal of school 13 today had to call me and say they're they're telling me I said who's telling you well Facebook they're telling me I'm gonna have portable bathrooms you're not going to

051Affordable bathrooms Oh no you're wrong because Facebook says it so it must be true so anyway I'm making light of it but social media is is um not the best thing so does anybody have any questions about that by the way um it came to me so I have to yeah I flipped it to you too as well and I asked you and you answer my questions today um I know you're going to have a security guard is it going to be male or female if the security like who's going to be the attendance inside these but I've never seen them so I don't know what they look like inside are they gonna well to be very honest with you miss bassford if it was a regular uh inside bathroom the the students the the

052students will go in by themselves like a teacher obviously can go in there if there's an issue but there's not going to be an adult monitoring inside we don't we wouldn't have that in no no I understand it um I think what I I miss I miss uh spoke will there be a Changing of the Guard like when the guard has to go on lunch break or oh yeah we're gonna have full-time coverage plans in place it will it will be a hundred percent covered and listen you know no no plan is foolproof no we'll adapt and adjust if if things need to to change but I'm confident in the plan we have I'm confident in the administration putting forth that plan and and our teachers are resilient our teachers no matter what you throw

053at our teach issues they figure it out yeah nobody's gonna be happy about it but our teachers will do whatever they got to do to keep their kids safe and to you know to get it done and I have one I think the per you said the end of September the people were worried about that it was going to get delayed and it would be during the colder months that was the other issue I really it's boring I I did put that caveat out there barring anything unforeseen but I'm being conservative when I tell you October we should be good um over the next week and a half we will have cleanup Crews roving the district that's one of the biggest issues is that you know there was so much work done this Summer that

054the the buildings were filthy but again that's why you have Administration to come up with a plan for that and I just happen to have some great people around me who think about things before I even have to worry about them including our director of buildings and grounds Eddie Maldonado and our two supervisors supervisor custodians Sean Smith and supervisor maintenance Mo capacity they've have gone above and beyond in every aspect dealing with this dealing with all the work we have going on and kudos to our assistant VA met shehada who is on everything every single day and is always always number one goal is to make sure the district looks good so thank you Ahmed um that's my report for tonight ladies and gentlemen I'll be happy to answer any other questions but um you

055know anybody tells you school's not opening we're opening and it's going to be beautiful I have a question about Cusack do you know what we scored last year by any chance or the last last session the last time was my first one and we were high performing don't remember the numbers exactly though Judy but we were high performing facilities is in under um oh okay that's that's true that's a good point so yeah it is under fiscal management but facilities falls under that because that falls under the ba as well so that's part of the the 100. so the county office comes out here visits we don't know where they're gonna go they don't visit every building but to come out and we don't know where they're going to go and they come and they

056uh check buildings so that that 100 in fiscal also includes our buildings maintenance and stuff so you you all should be very proud of that as I am Could you um could you get us the um let's say the last three um scores um I know the first I know the first time I'm not going to put her on the spot but I bet you Janina knows it over the top of her head very close and I'll have a question but before beforehand three ago we we were not high performing yeah that's then we were and the last two were high performing right but that was only because there was an that was a very long time we weren't at a hundred percent in the majority of the areas though there was a and I

057had presented about this three times ago we lost the majority of our points in curriculum and instruction because the person who came in to evaluate as at the time had put in there was a misnumbered section in this in a science standard and a misnumbered section in one out of 187 guides in World languages and as a result we lost all of our points in curriculum okay just curious to see um again not to put uh keep giving them a pat on on the back but you know the board brought Dr robitosi in for a reason and that just showed you that um and he can't do it alone his staff is all part of that the board working together is all part of that just so the public knows there's a there are um

058courses that board members have to take to keep themselves current and if the board does not complete those courses that will affect our Cusack so it's extremely important and board members know that that that's their responsibility I have to tell you that I attended at our convention last year and spoke to Other Board presidents they didn't even know that they should be taking these courses they didn't know that they were even required that's happening in other districts in the state of New Jersey it's not happening in Clifton and it's not happening because again going back to our slogan one Clifton none of this can be accomplished by one group it has to be all of us working together and I think under Dr robitussi's leadership we've done a pretty darn good job working together and

059accomplishing those uh those things so Clifton should be proud Clifton should be proud and and we are extremely proud of our staff in our Central Administration for for proving which we already knew so again thank you Dr robitosi to your staff and to um miss the Llama to all the the teaching staff and you know everyone down the line none of this could be accomplished if we weren't all working together so congratulations on a fantastic report and I'm just curious to see uh what the scores were before you king um we'll move on thank you uh we'll move to 13. all right we have first reading of uh policy uh Miss Pastor you just want to read them for the public um oh zero zero one four five board member resignation and removal 1642.01 sick

060leave two four one five point five oh um school for it title School parent and family engagement two four one five point five one school 11 title School um School parent and family engagement two five two four one five point four two school 12 school 13 School 14 School 15 and School 17 School parent and family engagement two five one five point five seven CCMS Title One School parent and family engagement two four one four one nine I'm sorry two four one nine I'm in a lot of pain right now um School threat assessment um I'm sorry do we know could you what why are there not why are all the schools not there because they're not Title One schools are just that okay these are all the title one schools yes I got you

061yep I see it any question well actually that's first reading any questions all right we'll go on to um board committee reports um Mr Paris would you mind uh doing facilities please sure uh the facilities committee met on August 9th uh Independence was myself Mr gengaro uh Mr Maldonado Mr doctor Mr marcione Mr capacci and we had uh guests in attendance Mr Costello Mr Watkins Mr Oviedo and Mr ganchi we started our meeting at 3 30 we ended at 4 50. uh items on discussion where the referendum update uh we got a review from the Epic rep of what's taking place so far in the referendum and what's taking place throughout the rest of the year we discussed the baseball field uh electrical that's still in process uh was it expected to be completed until

062the middle of this month due to PSEG permits I believe we're very close to uh getting some power to the field house there bathrooms will be operable for graduation um building a ground updates Administration gave an update of projects taking place throughout the district donated Mustangs were delivered and installed Paving took place at two schools with new parking patterns cooking kitchens at Woodrow and Columbus are near completion tiles and color scheme will be similar to the CH to CHS for uniformity stucco was removed at school 13 and being replaced making great progress there request to rent the CHS parking lot came from Brighton Asylum they explained uh the parking process that they are looking uh to accomplish at CHS and if the board allows the use of the parking lot uh the management there gave

063an in-depth explanation as to how that process will work um number four Embrace relief a mobile food pantry that now provides fresh produce to families in collaboration with the health department and notifying the families in need we discussed the music suite update an estimate was given by our by our architects of between 1.7 and 2 million and a school 14 parking lot the parking lot is complete repaving an older lot was completed a new traffic pattern will be proposed by building Administration meeting concluded at 4 50. okay any questions yeah I have two I'm sorry the two schools that have new parking traffic patterns which I know when you said 14 but what's the other school Paving taking place at two schools with new parking patterns that was under two a number two are you

064changing the parking pattern no we just uh okay repaid and then repainted the lines okay so it's only one and the other one was um when uh because I know we had talked about the um parking lot a rental for the Brighton Asylum policy this came up are they going to um my question is are they going to have a parking attendant there to make sure that rules are followed and who set the price of the of the rental I could I could answer that um we we set the price to the rental okay uh it's still in negotiation with we haven't presented it to them yet okay um our security the owner there it was open to basically anything we want to do whether they provide their own security or they use ours um

065I think our preference is to use ours if at all possible so they would be somebody for more uh Security Department managing the lot and during the operation time and we also talked in policy about a maintenance maybe a custodial staff member because people come with stuff they drop stuff and that we were concerned about that as well yeah so Mr gengaro is going to update us and okay an executive on that since it's a contract all right thank you he has it all but um we did address that in policy with one of them we do rentals thank you any other questions um it'll come back to me on the first part of what you said um I'll come back to it uh Mr Brunswick would you do Finance please the finance committee met

066on August 9th uh myself commissioner Paris uh Mr gengaro Mr shahada Mr doctor uh Mr D Stefano and Mr shagawa was there as well items of discussion and 27 energy presentation presented different options to the board can that can utilize to save money after the ref after the referendum is complete the committee agreed to have them proceed to the next steps Special Olympics discussion ensued about Special Olympics Logistics committee agreed to waive the fee I'm going to move around over here a little bit Legacy acoustic shells CHS CHS Administration and Man team wanted to purchase the equipment to enhance the sound during the performances the expected life the expect the life expectancy of this is is a is a probably around two decades or three decades so uh the committee agreed to purchase this Band

067Room estimate was given by the art architect of 1.7 to 2 million dollars committee agreed to have the architect proceed to the next steps and finally I want to give a big shout out to our business office as Dr Robert tozzi referenced previously they received the certificate of excellence in financial reporting for fiscal year 2022 annual comprehensive financial report and the business office received the coveted award for the best financial practices and this award represents a significant achievement and reflects their commitment to transparency and high quality financial reporting so this is out of the five out of the last six years the business office has obtained this and I think we should give them a big shout out in a round of applause to the business office for what they have done anybody have any

068questions okay thank you Mr brunsiak um yeah just going back to the um just going back to the facilities report um I just want to make no uh notice of it it's my uh excuse me I just want to make notice of it um a local law firm in town coradina and papa they have been so gracious to donate a very large structure of a Mustang uh the first one was at the high school and uh the other two have been installed at Woodrow and Columbus so they look great and uh we're very thankful to what corydina and Papa for Their donation so I just wanted to mention that in the facilities okay let's move on to um actually we'll do policy first Miss Master sure good evening the policy committee met on August 14th

069we started at 506 PM in attendance was President Smith uh commissioner Fahim abadrabo commissioner Richard Mejia myself from Administration was Dr Danny robotazi Mark gingero Lou Ross and also president was our new board attorney Maggie Miller the committee reviewed the amended changes to propose policy 2419 school threat assessment teams as recommended by strauss's May since our last board meeting the changes are made to incorporate the details of guidance issued by the doe on July 19 2023 the committee recommends the adoption of this policy the committee reviewed a new proposed policy from Strauss Isme 164201 sick leave this is to address and incorporate into our policies the requirements of six leave for School District employees pursuant to a new law which took effect on July 3 2023 the committee recommends the adoption of this policy regarding

070these two policy the committee recommends that the board suspends bylaw 0131 and adopt the revised policy 2419 and new policy 164201 with one reading based on recently approved sick leave legislation that is effective immediately in recent New Jersey Department of Education guidance provided to school districts that is effective on September 1 2023 bylaw 0145 board member resignation and removal was reviewed by the committee in order to clarify when a board member may be removed from missing meetings it is recommended that the sentence after number six be amended to read as follows a board member who fails to attend three consecutive regular board meetings without good cause may be removed from office on the affirmative votes by the majority of the remaining board members providing that um there's a policy that everybody got did everybody get

071it or I want to make sure everybody got the policy the committee discussed the bylaw regarding Commissioners attending meetings virtually board attorney Miss Miller will review the policy and make any recommendations at LMX committee meeting for informational purposes the length of time of a commissioner comments was discussed without any recommendations to change the bylaw the meeting adjourned that 4 5 45 pm and Mr Ross wrote the minutes for us and he submitted them any questions I I just want to add that um Miss Miller did some work to the committee and she sent everybody the um the updated verbiage and we'll discuss that at our next meeting thank you thank you um residency and security um I'll just read this on behalf of Mr Santiago um present at the meeting was assistant superintendent uh gengaro

072um director of operations student services Michael doctor and a director of District Safety and Security uh Miss Megan zanola from the Board of Education Mr Santiago is Chairman Mr brunsiak and myself um The Residency security met on August 17th um Mr doctor started the meeting with an update on registrations he said there's approximately 260 students in the pre-registation process for grades K-12 uh the registrations are in various levels of progress with regular and special needs there are approximately 80 students in our pre-registration programs and the remaining spots for pre-k will be filled by these uh registrants Mr Docker briefed the committee on residency investigations um through July and August they found 16 charter school students who did not reside in Clifton resulting in approximately 268 thousand dollars savings back to The District in addition from

073regular investigations five additional non-residents were found at a savings of about eighty three thousand dollars that is a total savings to The District in the area of 351 000 dollars explaining the emergency drills continue through the summer for all buildings where programs were involving students occurring drills were completed and conducted appropriately he also explained that a meeting was held between the school district Clifton police department and the city to discuss traffic issues at some of the district schools two specific issues were Clifton High School and Sila B uh bus entrance to the high school property will be rerouted this year to keep the large buses from driving through nearby neighborhoods um issues at clb several aspects of the traffic issue are being addressed including ideas on different drop-off routes finding additional parking for staff off

074property and in streets in order to allow more space for parents Mr gingara and Miss Enola briefed the committee on the successful New Jersey Department of Education event that was hosted by Clinton Public Schools on July 25th Security Professionals from all other state gathered at the Clifton High School Media Center to complete and advance Behavioral threat assessment training with speakers from the office of school preparedness and emergency planning the Secret Service and experts in the field of threat assessments briefed the committee on training which the school security specialist will be receiving including General training received by our first group of Specialists last year along with focus training in techniques with dealing with students with special needs in addition she explained the assessments that our security Specialists will have throughout the school year to ascertain their

075strengths and areas of improvement for the staff she also explained uh some new security equipment available for large events and sought approval to receive specific quotes and begin the ordering process for those security items for big events the meeting concluded at 606 PM any questions again to Mr doctor to your uh residency investigators into your entire staff um bringing 315 thousand dollars back to our district money that is our money and without those investigations we wouldn't have it so we appreciate that and all the hard work that you continue to do with the residency and security president Smith yes oh I've seen them since uh chairman and uh Santiago is not here perhaps somebody from the residence committee can can answer this so for the 351 000 that we see coming back to the district

076for these charter schools have we also how are we handling non-charter schools any schools that we fund um not targeting particular schools uh but what are we doing with re-registration there and trying to see if they those students still live in Clifton Mr doctor could probably answer that better do you want to come up and answer it without naming any schools I want of course not uh each year we do a thorough investigation of our new students any regular residency cases that we get uh internally uh returned mail things like that we do it for any school that we send money to without naming any schools any school that we send money to for tuition purposes we also check all students who receive Aid in lieu which is transportation funding if a student is getting

077a family is getting money for uh transporting their child instead of us busting the child we check those as well and if I may continue um so how do we work so when we do re-registration obviously it's hard to do 11 000 students in one shot so do we do for example this year we're doing grades one two and three next you're doing four five six just the public understands this way how does registration work are we registration work or uh registration validation how does that work oh we don't do re-registration or registration validation we haven't done it since I took over uh a little over two years ago what we do is we go out and check all of those students so all the students that go to any Tech schools that we pay

078tuition for any Charter Schools any schools at all we go out on all of those students all 550 that might go to a high school nearby all of the students that go to Charter Schools anywhere we send tuition we go out on each and every one of those our own students we do it based on don't want to go too deep into how we check on addresses but we do have certain techniques that we use to validate um the addresses for our students plus we receive tips from the public sometimes we receive information from schools we receive return mail all things like that are all investigations that we do thank you yes um that includes special ed students as well for tuition students that we pay tuition okay and I and I like your answer

079about not to go into deep and you kept it secret thank you Mr doctor no problem and to reiterate there is no one particular School that we target as he said any school where we send tuition to because there's been some people that think we target certain uh schools and that's not the case not at all it's every school thank you okay we'll move on unfinished business is there any unfinished business before the board seeing none will move on to um education Administration uh we have Mr Smith can I just make a motion to move uh B1 separately to suspend the bylaw um so I would make a motion to suspend by law oh one three one three one and adopt um policy number 2419 and 164201 and one reading and then unsuspend the policy

080itself got that Mr yeah all right everyone okay with that all right so we're going to do um so it'll be um we'll just do a separate on uh ea1 with those provisions okay I have emotions shouldn't buy this password second by Mr robodrabo is there any discussion seen on roll call please Mr arbitravo yes yes so we're complying with statutory rules yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Dr Danny yes uh president Smith yes uh so we'll do the rest that's um ea2 through uh ea16 motion by Mr Roberto second by Dr Danny discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abujabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Dr Danny yes president Smith yes all right moving on to uh Personnel um

081I'm gonna do uh I'm gonna do no um all right so we have uh P1 we got a lot here I got P1 through p 30 excuse me P 54 motion by Mr Roberto second by Mr Paris discussion roll call please Mr Robot yes Miss basford yes and I'm abstaining all my name only on number 48 and number 49. I apologize I had a note here uh p48 my name only sir Mr Brunswick I'm staying on p-48 my name only yes to everything else Mr Mejia I'm saying 48 just my name and yes everything else Mr Paris yes abstain on my name only in 48 and 49. Dr Danny um yes abstain on my name only on 48 and 49 and on 49 to add the Passaic County School Board hybrid meeting I'll be sending

082that to you president Smith uh yes I'm standing on my name only on p48 um just to let the public be aware we normally don't see that too often but resolution where all of us are listed attending a conference um we have to abstain on our name only and approve the we can approve the other ones which is what we did there so I just wanted everyone to be aware of that you usually don't see that too often but that's to uh to attend a conference all right uh we're gonna move on to finance and Facilities um so F 11 and F12 are um pulled for executive session uh first one is a special ed uh actually they're both f11 and f12. all right so excluding f11 and F12 um I'm sorry uh f11 F12

083and there were some questions on f-17 uh contracts so we'll pull that for executive as well motion motion for the rest of the group by Mr abadrabo second second by Miss basford discussion seeing them roll call please Mr arbitravo uh yes with staying on F-18 he said f-17 is pulled right yes okay Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Dr Danny yes president Smith yes Sylvia uh we like to congratulate Sylvia who is here this evening as a a new member of our Clifton team if you'd like to come up and uh say a few words uh congratulations thank you um I'd like to thank Mr Dr ravatosi uh Miss um let me read it Mr gengaro the members of the Board of Education and my fellow supervisors for this

084opportunity I also like to thank the many administrators that have guided and supported me these last 15 years I look forward to supporting and guiding many of the talented and dedicated staff of Clifton and to continue supporting our students as well so again thank you thank you very much thank you okay we're now going to move on to um or someone else here oh back there yep good evening and infamous good evening president Smith vice president Danny Commissioners Dr Robert tozzi MS kusilevich MR chingaro members of central Administration Raquel Lima I am so happy to be here tonight and I would like to extend my gratitude for the opportunity principal at seal Allwood and it's an honor to serve in the Clifton Public School District and I really appreciate and look forward to the opportunity

085going forward thank you so much [Applause] Dr robito's you have to teach your staff they have to sit in the front row uh instead of hiding in the back there okay uh we'll move on to um board member comments see Mr Robert drama went for snacks so Mr Awad is next he's not here so miss basford you're next hi good evening um not much tonight um had a pleasure of meeting with some of my fellow board members we were over at the band dedication for the field uh everything looks wonderful the band looks very good um very very well together I can't see them I can't wait to see them in a couple weeks when they come out in their full uniform and all the and all that Glory so congratulations to the band and

086I'm glad you had a good band camp week week we shot over to the Ukrainian flag raising just to show support um it's a it's a day for them but I wanted to show support I actually saw a former board a former worker across their across the field of course the the lawn of City Hall he texted me and he goes I didn't know you were coming I said I didn't know you were coming so it was nice to see him and he looks good and he said thank you he said to for me to convey my thanks to my fellow board members that made the journey over there to show support because they're going through a lot right now so that meant a lot to the community so thank you um thank you to

087the cleanup crew and everybody else that's working really hard and the construction crew to everyone that's reached out to me and um with with stuff and questions I do flip every question to the superintendent um I I he I send the messages and he gets them uh sometimes he responds I know he's not he's busy but um it's quick his his response is quick which is to me is so different from what I was used to years ago but he does take care of it and you you people see that what I'm trying to tell the parents is when you have a question call the district there's a pecking order call the district call the information number leave a message you'll get a response it's better to call The Source I had a question about

088obtaining a passport I didn't go on social media I didn't ask anybody on social media I called the county clerk's office and I got the answer within seconds of what I needed because I was not sure of the information you have a special education department you have a gen education department call them if you have a question about your IEP if you have a question about your busing call the transportation department please call The Source what happens is it stirs the pot you get the wrong information from the people you're not guided the right way it may take a day or two for you to get an answer back but call The Source leave a message at your local school people are responding they do listen to The Numbers if you're worried about Transportation if

089you're worried about this please call The Source you can email the board I will flip it to the superintendent I have no right to flip it to the department I have to go to him that's that's my role I have to send it to him if it's a board question I will send it to Mr Mr Smith and vice president Danny president Smith and vice president Danny for them to handle it and disseminate it to the board that's how the our roles work okay um I had the pleasure of talking to a new board member from another district and they asked me like how do you do this what's your role is that me am I five minutes up I'm five minutes up okay thank you all right so that being that being said find

090out your role find out where the source is find out the department send an email if you don't know and you have to contact us we will make sure it goes to the superintendent and he will make them disseminate it to the correct department and last but not least um to uh Anthony Santiago my deepest condolences about the loss of your brother um I called you today I left a message I I'm very sorry for your loss thank you thank you Mr brunsiak thank you Mr President good evening everybody I just want to give my son dearest sincerest condolences to commissioner Santiago and his family on the passing of his brother uh devastating news if anybody got that also uh when I was young growing up watched a lot of wrestling when I was growing

091up so I want to express my deepest condolences to uh Terry funk's family as well as uh Bray Wyatt who passed away way too young suddenly earlier today at the young age of 36 so rest in peace and deepest condolences to their family Erwin R scheister and the rest of them as well my message to the students who start this September most of us know that that schools our institutions of learning that that teach students many things schools provide a balanced education which helps in improving the students both physically and mentally grow besides academics there is a wide range of skills learned that Clifton Public Schools including good behavior communication skills responsibility time management Sports band and many other skills schools are among the first place we learn new things it is a place where

092where new friends are made and those friendships sometimes are carried throughout life it is hard to imagine a world without schools and I want to wish all the students enrolling the and starting this upcoming academic the year continued success thank you everybody for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody thank you commissioner Mejia um to Mr Santiago like everyone's saying I wish you my deepest condolences and I'm praying for you and your family and this hard time that you're experiencing today um a huge congratulations to our Montreal team as they'll be attending once again the Yale competition up in Connecticut as you guys probably know I was in Montreal back in high school and I'm a big supporter of them especially now that they're going all the way to Chicago for

093the world championship so that's another great thing that they're doing now congratulations to our band we were there in the new band turf field it was amazing I heard them play and I'm gonna be honest with you they are 100 better than a lot of universities and colleges a lot and I've been to many bands many stadiums many fields and they're impressive and I'm 100 certain they can outperform any school finally um it was a wonderful flag racing today up in city hall with the Ukrainian Community supporting them and everything that they wish to represent here in our city of Clifton thank you and hope you guys have a great night thank you commissioner Paris thank you president Smith uh condolences to the Santiago family on the loss of uh Mr commissioner Santiago's brother um

094I'm going to Echo what my colleagues mentioned about the band we had a ribbon cutting at the field today the the new turf field which is fantastic facility for the band to practice but beyond that I just wanted to make a point of how important uh music and the Arts are in our school district and that's not the case in many school districts around our County and state um our music program has been cited for awards uh three years in a row I believe a national award um and this this happens from fourth grade when they start learning instruments whether they're stringed instruments or or band instruments all the way through the high school and if they so choose even Beyond High School our community supports music we have a community band in town and

095uh many of uh many of us play throughout our entire School careers and our in our lives and I just want to to thank the administration and to thank the school system for keeping music in the Arts strong in our town and I think it helps our students in in so many ways and I just I really think we we need to acknowledge and appreciate that in our town to everyone else having another what seven days or so left of summer so to speak so enjoy your your time off and come back ready to work thank you um vice president Dr Danny oh jeez I do it all the time sorry there commissioner abadrabo thanks president Smith um prayers go out to Tony and Santiago family um yet because um first day morning and hopefully

096I'll give you a call tomorrow but but um prayers go out to you to you and your family uh it's not easy losing anybody in your family let a longer brother uh today was good uh we had as everybody mentioned the band uh ribbon cutting which was um a long time coming they have a beautiful feel that mimics the football field over at Stadium which is great for them and it was great because it was also I believe the end of their camp where the parents got to join in uh with their students next to their students on the field so it was good to see that and of course the Ukrainian flag raise everybody knows I always have the creative flag on my laptop because nobody should be under oppression or aggression in any

097way our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainian Americans and the ukrainians and the ukrainians of course um as commissioner Mejia mentioned a mock trial mock trial Kid myself uh 20 plus years ago um it's great to see to what levels this mock trial team has gone congrats and good luck to you guys Elias and the team congrats to them good luck with them uh hopefully uh nothing but success congrats to the teachers that have attained their masters that's shown on tonight's agenda that's an amazing thing just to show that our teachers our Personnel our staff are not just stopping at a ba or not stopping at a certain degree they're moving forward to better themselves and better our district the more and better the more and better that they improve themselves they bring more

098to the classroom and that's nothing but you know great to see uh there's a lot going on in the district as the superintendent mentioned let's not be keyboard Warriors and Facebook Warriors let's reach out to the administration reach out to the superintendent and email away a call away um let's not believe what certain people are putting out on Facebook and running with it because honestly that could be extremely dangerous extremely dangerous um because that hurts our districts it hurts our students and particularly it demeans who we are as a talent one one Community one Clifton um is definitely the opposite of what of what certain people are putting on Facebook and it does not represent school's two weeks away let's start off strong for our students I urge and I ask you if you don't

099if you have any questions if you're unsure of yourself if you feel out of pocket ask early in the school year this way we can start off strong start off mentally right um and also being in the right place so you can start off a school year strong have have a safe and fruitful year um and I want to end off with NJ Cusack because congrats to the business office congrats to our curriculum congrats to our superintendent if I actually have 10 seconds or 15 seconds the district I work in which went through Cusack and it was my first Cusack and it's random and I'm we're in a small District so for 20 plus buildings that are in Clifton the only way to the only way to prepare for NJ Cusack is to do your

100work day to day it's not like you can gather paperwork or binders or whatever and add a pocket or off a shelf so you have to be ready for that and honestly it's a great feat it's a great thing um so again hats off to you guys um and gals and I appreciate you all and hopefully we can continue moving forward with our awesome District thank you thank you vice president Dr Danny so first of all I'd like to start out saying condolences to Anthony Santiago's family my loss of his brother I I can't even imagine as having a sibling um I'm sorry for being late I'm going to kind of keep it short because I don't feel very well um but so I'm not going to repeat a lot of things already said so

101I just want to add two new things that enjoy like the rest of your summer and you know enjoy Labor Day the last of it you know rest up I hope students and Staff feel rested for the start of the new year and uh Happy Rosh Hashanah as when we come back that holiday will have already passed so that's all thank you thank you I too will be short um I was a negligent in um my duties to start the meeting off I should have done this first um but I'd like to uh welcome our new attorney Miss Maggie Miller representing the wiener group um we very much look forward to a great working relationship and um we thank you uh for being part of our our staff and um I I wanted to introduce

102you to the public um and on that same same note to thank um Miss Delicious Gutierrez um and AGL for the many years that she gave to our district and uh representing us uh well so we thank them and we very much are grateful and thankful to for you did you want to say anything thank you for just put your mic on sorry yeah thank you um thank you for giving us this opportunity we look forward to serving you and the community in the best way we can and moving forward so we're very excited to be here thank you thank you welcome [Applause] um yeah Mr Santiago called me yesterday to um to tell me about the passing of his brother um it just amazes me on the on dedication um and how you know

103board members are very dedicated into to what they do um and Mr Santiago had said to me you know I'm not going to attend I'm not going to be able to attend the meeting because the death of my brother however if you need me because there won't be a quorum I will I will come so I'm very happy that we had a quorum but to be able to offer that dedication and I have to thank my fellow board members um summertime is not a break time for the board the committee is continually meet um board members are continually doing their work and I just want to thank the board for all for all that you do and keeping up with it um the public has to see and it's because of the public um over

104two years ago when you came we came to you and we asked you for um for your support in passing a referendum where we could upgrade our facilities and give our students items that will benefit their buildings benefit themselves and the public joined in and and gave us that uh that affirmative vote to go and do that and now you're really seeing in Clifton the outcome of that vote if you look at any of our schools you see construction taking place and that's because the citizens of Clifton felt it was important to support our schools our teachers our staff our kids to give them something better and we talked about today when we went to the dedication um or the ribbon cutting of the new Banfield and I think back and Mr Paris I I

105know you were part of the band think back on just a few years ago of what that Banfield looked like it wasn't a field there wasn't grass there was dirt lots of dirt lots of mud and our band as I said today and as Mr Mia just said you know they used to be known as the the show band of the Northeast well we're much bigger than the Northeast and our band deserved to have a respectful field and the public agreed to it the board went out and hired an architect to put those plans and we accomplished it the same thing with our tennis courts I could not believe how embarrassing it was that a high school had tennis courts and a tennis team on the courts that we had this board and previous board

106thought it was important and we went out and were able to do that for our tennis team I can't begin to talk about the Woodrow Wilson complex on what a turnaround that complex has become and how many students will benefit from that new field they're already benefiting from almost every day that I passed by there there the kids are on the field they're playing on the field and we're hopeful that our electricity is going to be turned on very soon and that our clubhouse will be functional the scoreboards will be functional and that project will be completed but that's because we care about Clifton kids and Clifton kids deserve to have these things can you imagine some of if not most of our schools the bathrooms were over 100 years old hadn't been updated in

107over a hundred years yes part Scott went but the basics of the bathroom were not changed in over a hundred years I encourage everybody when these buildings are finished and the bathrooms are open and I'm sure we'll have some open house that you go in and see what a difference it's made so there's a lot of great things happening in the district Miss Lama I don't know how how close are they on the elevator [Laughter] so um there's just a lot going on in the district and I hope the citizens see it are proud of it and proud of the report that we heard here tonight that is a tremendous tremendous accomplishment and again as I said before can't be done alone so thank you to all parties for making that Cusack Port report being

108so great lastly I'd just like to wish our students all of our staff all the very best in starting this new school year the 2023-24 year may be filled with great success as I know you will our staff and all will do all that they can work hard forklifting kids because our kids deserve it so I wish you all the best enjoy whatever week you have left and um we'll see you in September um we have uh we have the f11 F12 and F 17 for executive session we have a legal issue for executive session um action will be taken so the board will come back out here in public um and after we're done with the executive session um gonna presume that executive session will probably last about an hour um so uh we'll

109take a five minute break before we go so we're probably talking uh 10 10 or somewhere around there we should be back out from executive session uh if we should be running any longer I will update the public um but it uh we hope that we'll be back in uh about an hour okay so motion to go into executive sessions Mr uh I have one more other thing I forgot to remember if you it's a kind of new business um I need to thank the superintendent for being so diligent about posting something on the website for Clifton against substance abuse uh uh Thursday night 8 8 31 August 31 at eight o'clock on the steps to City Hall is the overdose awareness night third annual everybody's invited please come show support to the families that

110have lost a loved one to a horrendous thing so 8 31 at 8 o'clock on City Hall property and join everyone for Candlelight vigil thank you uh sorry before we go to Executive session um I forgot new business is there any other new business before the board all right seeing none now motion to go into executive second Mr abidrabo second by Miss basford roll call please Mr abujabo yes Ms basford yes Mr Brunson yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes okay yes if um the board could be ready uh around uh around 9 15 so we could start please thank you sure yeah foreign I Gotta Give an update just briefly okay just to update the public the board is still uh an executive session um we estimate

111another 30 to 45 minutes in executive session uh if it'll be any longer than 45 I will come out and update the public at that time thank you [Music] because I did look okay the board met uh an executive session we had um contract matters we had um legal matters uh special ed matters um so roll call back from executive succession Mr Roberto here Ms bassford here Mr Brunswick here Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Dr Danny here president Smith here we're all still here um motion please on um P right peace f f 11 12 and 17. motion by Mr albedravo motion pulled brain Asylum off f-17 thank you oh and double A baseball until a CEO is pending CEO approval hope you got that I got it all right was first who

112was second second Mahia roll call please Mr arbodrabo you guys have seen f17 Ms basford yes I'm abstaining on uh 174961 Clifton Health Department I'm In conflict because I volunteer for them and I also volunteer for praise Mr Brunswick yes Mr Paris uh yes I'm up I'm standing on 4952 through 54 as I'm a volunteer at the community band Dr Danny yes president Smith yes [Music] what was 52-54 oh it was part of facility it was part of 17. it was good community band uh yeah part of 17. okay um motion to adjourn by Mr Roberto aye Say Goodbye Mr Mejia no objection thank you all hey guys